Sai Darshan ~ Rathotsavam Chariot Festival 18/11/1996

The glorious week-long birthday celebrations of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba begin every year on November 18th with the festive Rathotsavam festival, in which Venugopala Swami, the village deity of Puttaparthi, is taken in procession from the main Gopuram gate of Prasanthi Nilayam in a magnificent ratha (chariot) to the Pedda Venkappa Raju Kalyana Mandapam, which is what was the old mandir or patha mandir in which Swami stayed in the 1940s before the birth of Prasanthi Nilayam. In the process, Sri Rama, Lak