Saturday night we went out to dinner at the Maharani restaurant - about 15 of us, a large enough number that the staff pulled together several tables in a giant "U" shape. They also thoughtfully placed a series of wooden screens between our table and the rest of the room, to offer our table some privacy.

After dinner, someone felt our evening reminded them of a song, and soon our musicians had pulled out their guitars and we were all singing heartily in a full-blown jam session. The other diners were craning their necks to see around the screens, wondering where these Sanskrit and English devotional songs were coming from. The owner came to see what was happening, and smiling to himself, began taking down the screens. Soon the rest of the room was clapping and following along. Some women began to sing other devotional songs and one man even pulled up his chair and began to sing "Aum Jaya Jagidisha Hare" (Indian song praising the Lord). We all clapped and sang with him (which was educational for our group, too - he had sung the traditional Hindu version, not the Sai version).

As we left the restaurant that evening, our dining companions took special efforts to say goodbye to our group. The owner stood waiting for us, and thanked us for a special evening at his restaurant. In my heart, I silently thanked him, for allowing expansion, for letting the joy we were experiencing to spread throughout the room. It was unusual for us to start singing in the middle of a crowd in a public place. He took that occurrence one step further, and instead of asking us to keep it down, chose to let the songs and love be for everyone. When the barriers both literally and figuratively came down that night, it showed me there was very little difference between what lay on either side. What an excellent lesson that was for a budding Sai Young Adult group!