Today, we had an unprecedented situation at the Planetarium. A group of 600+ people who had come as part of a "Parthi Yatra" from the former combined Ananthapuramu district were waiting outside the gate when I reached there around 8:45 am. Many of them would have needed to wait for around an hour or 90 minutes, if we were to rapidly turn around the crowd using 15 minute planetarium shows. Some 100 people who had lined up in an orderly manner near the exit gate could be taken upstairs.
But by the time I came down to organise the rest of the people, some 50 odd women had crowded around the entrance demanding to be let in. Any amount of negotiation, asking them to wait in an orderly manner near the benches, did not work. Sevadal were requested to control the crowd - the handful of gents sevadal who responded could not do anything. Finally, we were forced to cancel shows. Even after announcing that shows are cancelled, they would not move away from the doors, continuing to block the entrance.
By then, I had to use the fire escape doors to announce what had happened to the people who were already in the theatre - this was around 45 minutes after they had been seated there. When they tried to go out, the crowd outside rushed in. One of the women was declaring "Ananthapuram Parthi Yatraki Namaskaram"! in a political sloganeering way, as if it was a "victory" for the "Ananthapuram Parthi Yatra" that they had pushed their way in to the lobby. Around 50 indisciplined people had prevented around 600 people from seeing the Planetarium show. It was purely Your grace that the glass doors did not break, there were no major injuries, and there was not much damage to the exhibits in the lobby.
Even after all this, some 20 people continued to sit and wait outside the entrance, and telling them that the shows were cancelled did not deter them. So I told the sevadal that they could go back, and that when they felt hungry, they would leave. Finally, around 11:30, I told them that they could continue to sit there, I would meet them tomorrow, and that I was leaving. So they followed me out to the gate, complaining that they had come from so far, but could not see the planetarium. I replied that I too felt bad about it.
By Your grace, I did not get overly agitated, and just remembered the innumerable times You were unable to give what You wanted to give - close darshan, prasadam, etc - due to indisciplined behaviour. Your invariable reaction would be - "Amayakulu" - they don't know better, so they're losing out. I also remembered the Narayana seva days in the early 1990s, when lots of crowd control using sticks as makeshift barriers, forming human chains, would be needed and just rational instructions would not work.
Screenshot from this video - Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba | Rathotsavam and Narayana Seva | Nov 18 1990
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