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| Practice makes perfect |
| 12.27.04 (2:09 am) [edit] |
Practice makes perfect
"Baba, in conversation this year ,said something which is a great secret, for I have never heard him say it before.He told me that that happens physically on the outside, in terms of actions and so on , is not of major importance - that what is important is that which comes from the inside.
It is the inside that changes the outside and not the outside that brings about the change inside. For example, Baba went on to say , 'Take a car. It is driven from the inside.' It seems from that statement that what we must do now is to look inward and then bring it to the outside.
"What is this inside activity that is going to change the outside ? It is love. Love is the most powerful force in creation. Baba says that it is because of love that the universe was created and the whole cosmos is just a dance of love.
So , we should be thinking of God, talking to Him , keeping our mind with Him. In this manner when we affirm , or rather cease to deny that love, which is our true nature , and which can be brought to the forefront and expressed by loving God , then that love , that inside purity will come out and will change the outside circumstances - John Hislop , My Baba and I.
"Many of you have listened to countless discourses and have read alot of books. But, what is the change in you ? None at all. You have remained where you are. If we examine further , many seem to have gone back rather than going forward. Hence, devotees should strive to put into practice at least a fraction of what they have seen and heard ...... There are many here who know a great deal but who practice very little of it. Of what use is all the reading of scriptures and epics ? Very little of it is put into practice. - Sanatan Sarathi August 1995.
Both inspirational quotes were taken from A Compendium of the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba ( see CHANGE ) : Charlene Leslie Chaden
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| Miraculous powers of Shridi Sai Baba |
| 12.27.04 (1:49 am) [edit] |
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Miraculous powers of Shridi Sai Baba
Water jars are kept in mosques for people to wash their feet before
entering the sacred precincts. In the dusk the villagers saw Baba take
water from the jars and pour it into his lamps. Then he lit the lamps
and they burned. They continued to burn, and the watchers realised that
the fakir had turned the water into oil. In consternation they fell at
his feet, and prayed that he would not put a curse on them for the way
they had treated him.
This was the first miracle Sai Baba performed before the public,
and it was the match that lit the fire which became a beacon drawing
thousands of men to him from afar. Many became his devotees. He used his
miraculous powers to cure their ailments, to help them in their
day-to-day problems, to protect them from danger wherever they happened to be,
and to draw them towards a spiritual way of life.
A great many found their sense of values changing. Some surrendered
themselves entirely to the divine will which they saw in Baba, gave up
their worldly lives, and came to live at Shirdi as close disciples. Sai
Baba taught them according to their needs and capacities. Learned
pundits who thought him illiterate found that he could discourse on
spiritual philosophy and interpret the sacred writings of India more profoundly
and clearly than anyone else they had ever known. But always he led his
disciples along the Bhakti marga, the radiant pathway of divine love,
self-surrender and devotion.
Loving care of his devotees was the ruling motif of all Baba's
actions and many of them have stated that in his presence they always felt
a spiritual exaltation. They forgot their pains, their cares and their
anxieties. They felt completely safe and the hours passed unnoticed in
blissful happiness.
One devotee, a Parsi woman, wrote: "Other saints forget their
bodies and surroundings, and then return to them, but Sai Baba was
constantly both in and outside the material world. Others seem to take pains and
make efforts to read the contents of people's minds, or to tell them
their past history, but with Sai Baba no effort was needed. He was always
in the all-knowing state."
Many quaint, amusing and illuminating stories are told about him in
the volumes on his life and teachings. But for our purposes there are
just a few points we might note. One object of the fire he kept burning
always at the mosque was to provide a ready supply of ash. This he
called udhi, and used it for many kinds of miraculous purposes,
particularly for curing ailments. The miracles he performed cover the full range
of siddhis, or supernormal powers, as expressed in such spiritual and
yogic classics as the Srimad Bhagavata and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras.
Many times he proved to his devotees that he knew what they were
thinking and saying and doing when hundreds of miles away from him.
Frequently in crises he appeared wherever he was needed, either in his own
form or apparently in some other body - a beggar, a hermit, a workman, a
dog, a cat or something else. There was plentiful evidence that he
could project himself through space and take any material form he chose.
Those who were in the best position to know, his nearest disciples, had
no doubts whatever on this point.
Baba gave visions to people, as for instance, the visiting high
Brahmin who was dubious about going into the Moslem mosque. From outside
the mosque the Brahmin saw Sai Baba as the God-form he worshipped, Sri
Rama. So convincing was this vision of Rama that he rushed in and fell
at Baba's feet. Other types of miracle include the giving of protection
at a distance - protection against accident, plague, ill-fortune and
imminent death; the granting of issue to those who were childless or
desired to have a son; appearing to people in dreams with advice and help
in their problems.
Like Jesus, Baba was able to cast out evil spirits from those
obsessed and cure the most terrible diseases, such as blindness, palsy and
leprosy. For instance he allowed Bagoji, a man with advanced leprosy, to
come and shampoo his legs. People were afraid that Baba would himself
be infected, but on the contrary Bagoji was completely cured of his
leprosy, only scars and marks remaining.
By the end of last century, in spite of India's primitive
communications at that time, Sai Baba's fame was snowballing rapidly. The high
peak was reached by about 1910 when an endless stream of visitors began
to flow in from Bombay and other places. Pomp and ceremony were thrust
upon the rugged, unsophisticated old saint. Loaded down with jewellery,
seated in a silver chariot with fine horses and elephants, he was taken
in grand and colourful procession through the streets.
Baba, it is said, disliked all this show, but he submitted to it to
please the people. Yet despite the royal treatment and the riches
offered him, he continued to beg his food as of old; perhaps this was to
show that humility is more than ever necessary when wealth and pomp and
power are striving to seduce the soul of man.
Extracts from: The Incredible Sai Baba, by Arthur Osborne. (Rider &
Co., London).
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| The greatest sculpture of Christ ever made |
| 12.27.04 (1:42 am) [edit] |
The greatest sculpture of Christ ever made
Dr. John S. Hislop
USA
Dr. John S.Hislop was an ardent devotee of Bhagavan [Sri Sathya Sai Baba].
He spent considerable time with Bhagavan, when he was alive, experiencing the
Divinity of Bhagavan in varied ways. He authored several books on the
Divinity of Bhagavan. The following experience is extracted from his
book 'My Baba and I', carried in the bimonthly newsletter of Sri
Sathya Sai International Centre, New Delhi for July - August 2004.
'The evening before the Mahasivaratri Day of 1973, we were told to be
ready in the early morning for a trip. Our destination was the
Bandipore Game Sanctuary, several hours away in Mysore State. We
arrived at the forest rest house in the early afternoon. The next
morning, we drove through the hills and chose a place for our
congregation in the evening.
We returned there at dusk. The cars halted at the side of the road
and we started to climb down the bank to the sandy river bottom. I
was beside Baba. As we passed a bush, Swami broke off two twigs,
placed them together and asked me, 'what is this Hislop?'
'Well, Swami, it is a cross,' I answered. Baba then closed His
fingers over the twigs and directed three somewhat slow breaths into
His fist, between thumb and forefinger. Then he opened His hand to
reveal a Christ figure crucified on a cross, and He gave it to me.
He said, 'this shows Christ as he really was at the time he left his
body, not as artists have imagined him or as historians have told
about him. His stomach is pulled in and his ribs are all showing. He
had no food for eight days.'
I looked at the crucifix, but found no words. Then Baba
continued, 'the cross is wood from the actual cross on which Christ
was crucified. To find some of the wood after 2000 years took a
little time! The image is of Christ after he died. It is a dead
face.'
I noticed something odd and asked, 'Swami, what is that hole at the
top of the cross?' Baba replied that the cross had been originally
hung from a standard.
Within a few weeks we were back at our home in Mexico. The cross is
so small that the details on the figure of Christ escape the eye. A
friend, Walter, came down to our home and took some colour
photographs of the crucifix. Walter made some enlargements to bring
out the details. When we saw the enlargements, my wife and I were
astounded. I wrote to Walter and said that if the pictures were seen
around the world, they would create an art sensation. I am sure it is
the greatest sculpture of Christ ever made. In my estimation, it is
the most extraordinary object Sri Sathya Sai has ever created for the
joy of his devotees.'
-- Dr. John S. Hislop.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saidevotees_wor ldnet/" title="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saidevotees_wor ldnet/" target="_blank"http://groups.yahoo.com/group...
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| Eleven Desires must always remain in a man's heart |
| 12.27.04 (1:37 am) [edit] |
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| Renunciation is the. essence of Spirituality. |
| 12.20.04 (8:54 am) [edit] |
Renunciation is the. essence of Spirituality.
Messages of Shirdi Sai Baba to Yogi Spencer on 6th November 1952
Discourse No. (4) Renunciation is the. essence of Spirituality.
Think of the indwelling spirit and not the body which is frail and
subject to decay. It is spirit alone, that is eternal, all else is ephemeral
and transitory. Bodily indulgence is an obstacle to spiritual growth and
progress. Care should be taken of the body, for it is the temple of the
soul, but in no case, bodily enjoyment should be mistaken for
spirituality.
The body, the senses and the mind are to be curbed in order to cut
asunder the inner sheets which cover the soul and make it a prisoner.
Renunciation is the essence of spirituality. Annihilate all desires and
kill the ego in you. Be sturdy and strong like the oak in the jungle and
stand fast against all tempests of temptations. Listen to the Voice of
Conscience for it is your best inward monitor'
Work and worship go together Work is the essence of life, but it should
not be for the purpose of enjoying the fruit of your labour. The labourer
seeks his hire. But the true yogi discards it. He works for the sake of work,
to spread God's love and light and not for selfish gain. He works in the
name of God for the growth of his spirit and not for the satisfaction of his
carnal desires. Work is worship, when it is consecrated and dedicated
to God. Be a Karma Yogi, by keeping the fire of love and devotion for God
burning in you all the time. (6—11—1952)
(Extracts from the article of Pujya Sri C.S.Ramaswamy ‘THOUGHTS OF SRI
SAI BABA AND UPASANA – Page 32 of Ist World Sai Convention Souvenir 1971)
Religion is the soul's nourishment.
Messages of Shirdi Sai Baba to Yogi Spencer on 7th November 1952
Discourse No. (5) Religion is the soul's nourishment.
No man can live without religion. It is the vital part of his life. It
is the living water, which no person can afford to miss. It is the soul's
nourishment. It is the gateway to the higher and better life. It is the
discarded of man's ignorance, for however learned he may be In material
science, if he disowns God and the Hereafter, he is the most to be
pitied for his gross ignorance.
Religion binds the soul to God. It is immaterial in which religion, a
man may be born in- He must have the main sense of religion i.e., he must
know the purpose and goal of life and act according to the Scriptures of the
world. All Scriptures are alike in their teachings on cardinal points.
Remain true to your self and work your way to spiritual heights,
discarding all that is gross and carnal. Make God alone the target and goal of
your life. Ponder on Him alone and none else. He is the alchemy of your
life, the apex of your aspirations. Bank your faith on God. He alone would pull
you from the morass of life and crown you with success. (7—11—1952)
(Extracts from the article of Pujya Sri C.S.Ramaswamy ‘THOUGHTS OF SRI
SAI BABA AND UPASANA – Page 32 of Ist World Sai Convention Souvenir 1971)
Courtesy: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SriSaiBabaofShi rdi/" title="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SriSaiBabaofShi rdi/" target="_blank"http://groups.yahoo.com/group...
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| Satya Sai Trust to take up potable water works |
| 12.18.04 (11:37 am) [edit] |
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Satya Sai Trust to take up potable water works
Saturday December 18 2004 12:48 IST
ELURU: Satya Sai Trust-funded works to provide potable water in the upland villages of West Godavari district would be taken up from January 15, 2005, said district collector Sanjay Jaju.
Reviewing the Satya Sai potable water project works at the collectorate here on Friday, he said the Trust had chalked out an action plan to implement the potable water project in the district and had allocated Rs 30 crore for the purpose.
He said the project would be implemented in Buttayigudem, Polavaram, Koyyalagudem, Jeelugumilli, Gopalapuram, Nallajarla and Devarapalli mandals. He directed the Satya Sai Trust representative R Kondala Rao to give priority to problem villages in Lingapalem, Kamavarapukota and T Narasapuram mandals. Kondala Rao said the work would be completed within nine months.
RWS SE S Veera Bhadra Sarma and panchayat officers were present.
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEA20041218022726& amp" title="http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEA20041218022726& amp" target="_blank"http://www.newindpress.com/Ne...;Title=Southern+News+%2D+ Andhra+Pradesh&rLink= 0
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| Love in action – Grama Seva 2004 |
| 12.18.04 (12:27 am) [edit] |
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Love in action – Grama Seva 2004
It all started suddenly and most unexpectedly. Swami [Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba] came as usual in his golf cart to the verandah on the afternoon of 15th October, 2004. He stopped His cart on the outer verandah and was engrossed in the Veda chanting. Suddenly He gestured to Prof. Anil Kumar, who went up respectfully and listened to what He had to say. One could see that Prof. Anil Kumar’s natural enthusiasm was growing and he seemed to be fairly bubbling with exuberance as he went up to the mike to make the important announcement that Swami has blessed that the Grama Seva start in 2 days time.
Things began moving rapidly. Soon people realized that much had already been accomplished. God always works silently and most efficiently. Everything was already in place for the Grama Seva to begin and no one was even aware of it. A sufficient quantity of laddus had already been prepared for the initial distribution. All the ingredients for the Prasadam preparation and the clothes for distribution had already been procured and the infrastructure was well in place even before the announcement was made!
The faculty and staff of the Institute quickly organised themselves for the Seva. Steering and planning committees were formed. The boys and the staff from the Puttaparthi and Brindavan College campuses as well as the Puttaparthi High School students were divided into 6 groups with an A and a B section in each group. Thus the A section of all the 6 groups would go for Grama Seva one day, while the B section would go the following day. This not only provided a day of rest, but also the boys staying back ensured that the Mandir activities, like Veda chanting for the Dasara festival, leading the Bhajan singing in Sai Kulwant Hall, and the afternoon programmes went on simultaneously and were not affected at all!
Each group going for the Grama Seva had 4 trucks for transportation along with a tractor for the heavier loads. All the 24 vehicles and 6 tractors were connected through a mobile communication facility with each other and a ‘home base’ that provided updates as well as kept track of the progress of each group. This helped them anticipate and respond well to emergency situations like shortage of clothes or Prasadam and respond to vehicle breakdowns. Each vehicle also had a uniformed policeman to provide security to the convoy, and to have a salutary effect by his presence and prevent any untoward incidents. In addition there were 2 SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles) used by two of the project coordinators, assisted by a couple of students, who visited multiple sites between them to co-ordinate the distribution better. This system of 32 vehicles was the lifeline that helped the Grama Seva move forward smoothly and efficiently.
A daily schedule was drawn up outlining the villages to be visited for the day and allocating each of the 6 groups with the villages to be visited by them based on the population and the number of houses in each village. An estimate of the food to be loaded in each vehicle was thus arrived at from these figures as well as the food for the students doing the distribution. This was rolled up for all the vehicles to arrive at a “master production plan” for the number of packets of Prasadam to be distributed each day. Excess food was also loaded for contingencies and also to distribute to the poor people along the way. A sari and a dhoti for each household in each village to be visited for the day, also had to be planned for and loaded properly in each truck.
The Prasadam that was distributed to each person was a food packet of pulihora or tamarind rice and a laddu, a sweet in the shape of a small ball. The girls of the Anantapur campus had perhaps the more difficult task. They did most of the ‘behind the scenes’ work like the rice packing and the laddu preparation. The girls came up with a schedule so that they could start by early evening working through the night in shifts, so that the food packets were ready for loading into the trucks in the wee morning hours making the vehicle ready for an 8:30 a.m. departure. They not only toiled through the night but also attended both the morning and afternoon Darshan and Bhajans in Sai Kulwant Hall. Theirs was truly a spectacular effort and we salute all of them.
In a day about 12 to 15 villages were covered by the 6 groups and the students knocked at the doors of 5,000 homes to share Swami’s Prasadam and love with the residents. Thus over 20,000 packets of Prasadam were distributed each day. This snippet of statistic is provided just to give an insight to the magnitude of the project, but statistics don’t tell the full story. The Grama Seva is essentially a love story; a story of the compassion of our dear Lord for the inhabitants of the villages, who depend only on Him.
On the morning of the 16th October there was another announcement. Swami said that tee shirts and caps would be distributed to all the students and staff members so that they could wear it and go for distribution the next day, chanting the Sai Gayathri. The packets of tee shirts were brought out and stacked in a pile in front of the verandah and a shirt was first shown to Swami. The white coloured tee shirt had the Institute emblem embossed on the front left side and the words LOVE ALL SERVE ALL on the back of the shirt, in red. After looking at the shirt Swami called a student and asked him to try the shirt on. The student immediately put the tee shirt on, over his regular white shirt. It was a tight fit. Swami asked that a larger size shirt be brought, personally inspected it to make sure it was now the right size and then gave it to the student and asked him to put it on. When the shirt fit correctly, Swami broke into a broad smile of motherly affection and love. He sat on the verandah for a long time that day listening to the Veda chanting and looking lovingly at all the boys who were eager to begin His work the next day.
Generally the daily schedule used to follow a more or less set pattern. After giving Darshan in the morning Swami would come to the verandah and would generally ask a staff member where they were going for the day. The staff members would be well prepared to brief Swami with maps and a list of villages that they intended to visit that day. It was a real sight to see Swami pouring over the maps along with the staff members and asking relevant questions to make sure that nothing had been missed out. Swami would then give His Divine Blessing for the day’s distribution. At that point, two students would bring the food out in buckets to be blessed by Bhagavan and the sanctified food (Prasadam) was now ready for distribution!
Soon the boys scheduled to go that day, either section A or B, would leave Sai Kulwant Hall and rush to put on their shoes and collect their hats etc. and hurry to their designated trucks. The boys remaining in the Mandir would continue with the Veda chanting so that the Mandir activities were not interrupted.
The trucks numbered 1 to 24, the 6 tractors (numbered T1 through T6) and the two special vans, were lined up in a numerical sequence along the main road of the Ashram starting from the Gopuram gate and extending up to and beyond Shanti Bhavan. These trucks had already been loaded by the recently graduated alumni in the wee hours of the morning and were all ready to go. A quick inventory was taken to ensure that the truck had been stocked correctly, a quick headcount and everything was ready to roll.
When everything was accounted for, the coordinator gave the signal and the convoy started to go out slowly. As each truck reached Sai Kulwant Hall a resounding chant of ‘Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Babaji Ki Jai’ rang out, and the long convoy slowly wound out of the Ashram like a long snake. They did not go far though. Only up to the Institute Hostel, where they made a ‘pit’ stop. This is where they collect goodies for the students (usually biscuits, chips or potato patties and a fruit) so thoughtfully provided by Mother Sai, and cans of drinking water. A can of majiga, or spicy buttermilk, one for each truck, is also loaded, and thus equipped, the convoy moves out bringing Swami’s love to the countryside!
The first two days of the Grama Seva was concentrated around Puttaparthi and the adjoining villages. October 17th, the day one of the distribution is centered on Puttaparthi, up to and including the Chitravathi Road. The boys walk up in Nagarsankeertan up to the village, starting around 10:00 a.m., followed by the trucks with the food, after the end of the morning’s programme of the first day of the Saptaha Yagna in Sai Kulwant Hall. Puttaparthi is home for most of the boys so they experience no real problems and the distribution moves fast.
The next day the action moved to the adjoining villages like Brahmanapalli, Kovillaguttapalli, Gokulam and so on. In the morning, around 8 a.m., the coordinators asked permission to leave so that they could start and finish the distribution early. Swami remarks that all the villages are close by so where is the need to hurry? Only then we realise that it being a Monday, Rahukalam was from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. We had forgotten, but He had not! At 9:20 a.m. Swami’s blessing is obtained and the boys hurry out eager to get started and come back in time for Swami’s Dasara Discourse in the afternoon.
At each of these villages the roads have been washed clean and welcome banners strung up. The washed roads are decorated with floral patterns and all the boys are welcomed as if they were welcoming Swami Himself! The boys are touched. The planning and coordination has been fine-tuned after 4 years of Grama Seva so everything proceeds like clockwork without any hiccups. Some of the villages have a sizeable Muslim population. So more often than not the response to our “Sai Ram” is a “Salaam Alaikum”. The Muslims also eagerly accept Swami’s Prasadam coming as it does during the month of Ramazan, the most holy month for the Muslims. Truly, Swami’s love knows no boundaries. After 2-3 hours almost everyone is finished, tired from the unaccustomed labour in the Sun, but elated also at having done His work satisfactorily.
From now onwards the distribution has to move further afield. The trucks have now to take the road less travelled, most of the time over dirt tracks, to reach remote villages and distribute under trying conditions. I decide to hitch-hike a ride on one of the trucks and accompany the boys so I could take some photographs and experience the Seva first hand. Please join me on my journey……
October 19th, I join Group 3 which is distributing to Venkatagaripalli village. It is a big village with a sizeable population, so half the group (i.e. 2 out of the 4 trucks) is assigned to this one single village. My truck is mostly full of Brindavan boys with some Brindavan teachers. We leave a little after 9 a.m., as the village is quite near. We soon take a turn off the main road, on the diversion to the village. The villagers walking along the dirt track all say “Sai Ram” to us as we lurch along. The boys all call back “Sai Ram” in unison. Soon the truck in front of us comes to a stop rather suddenly and we wonder if we have reached the village. We peer out but no huts are seen. A teacher gets down hurriedly from the lead truck and is seen negotiating with a village woman. He buys a basketful of freshly plucked guavas. He must have been a good negotiator for he gets it relatively cheap at Rs 100.00. All the boys are happy at the prospect of eating some garden-fresh guavas.
In a few moments we reach the village to a heartwarming sight. The village is well decorated with buntings and pictures of Bhagavan. The streets have been nicely cleaned. And all the villagers are waiting to welcome us at the village entrance and start singing Sai Bhajans as soon as our buses are sighted. The boys all hop off the bus and join the singing. A couple of teachers in the meantime go ahead to scout the village and plan the distribution strategy. After we sing Bhajans for a few minutes, the villagers do Arathi to Bhagavan’s picture in the front of the bus. And now we are ready to start the distribution.
The village “main road” is rather long and houses and huts are laid out on both sides. The road is quite narrow and the trucks would not be able to negotiate it easily. So the thoughtful villagers provide us with a bullock cart to help us transport the Prasadam packets from the trucks at the village entrance up to the current distribution point. One of the more enterprising boys hops onto the cart and takes charge of the bullock cart loading operation.
The boys break up into sub-groups. About 8-10 boys are assigned to a teacher and the distribution area is well coordinated between the sub-groups so that there is no duplication or overlap. The 8-10 boys in each group all have different tasks. 2 boys carry the crate containing rice Prasadam packets. One or two boys carry the plastic bags of laddus. One boy carries the bundle of dhotis and another boy carries the bundle of saris. The remaining boys and the teachers act as Swami’s messengers to hand over His Prasadam to the villagers.
The modus operandi of the distribution is quite simple. We knock at a house and politely say, “Sai Ram” with folded hands. Then we tell the villagers that Swami from Puttaparthi has sent some Prasadam for them. We ask them for the number of inmates in each house and hand over the requisite food packets and laddus to them. Some of them accept it in their hands. Some nip back in to get a plate and some ladies accept the food in the folds of their sari in the rural fashion. Quite a few of them touch the food to their eyes in a gesture of respect to show their thanks at Swami’s immense grace. The teacher or designated elder then hands over the sari and dhoti to the elder in the house. A small picture of Swami is also given to each household.
When the crates of food or stack of clothes is getting low, the boys act as runners and rush up to the bullock cart which is somewhere along the main road (so as to be equally accessible to all groups) to get replenishments. It is demanding work and the boys are soon sweating from the morning sun, but the distribution is proceeding fairly fast. They get a break when the bullock cart has to go back to the truck to get additional supplies.
Whenever we come to a fork in the road, the lead group decides to take a path and posts a lookout to inform the groups following them as to which areas they are going to cover. A teacher brings up the rear (behind all the groups) to ensure that no house has been left out.
I am busy taking pictures of the village scene and the distribution but soon have a sizeable crowd of small kids following me. I now feel like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, with the kids going wherever I lead. I find out from them that their village school has closed for the day as we were coming down to distribute Prasadam, so the whole village wears a festive look. The kids all clamor for a photograph, so I oblige them. I then ask them to go and wait in their respective houses to receive the Prasadam when we come to their doorstep.
For most of the students this is their first visit to a village. Some of them are surprised at the number of people living in such small houses and under such spartan conditions. But all of them appreciate the villagers’ warmth, their spontaneous simplicity and devotion to Bhagavan.
The village itself is very clean and as is true of all villages in India, is full of domesticated animals that roam freely everywhere. Goats, sheep, pigs, cows, hens, stray dogs that growl menacingly and even monkeys, all are well represented. A goat that has just had a couple day old kids catch the students’ fancy and they cuddle the small little goat kids that can barely stand on their four legs.
In about a couple of hours all the groups that have spread out to distribute the food are almost done and we wend our way back to the main entrance of the village and wait for everyone to join us. After everyone is gathered, the villagers want to do Arathi and thus show their thanks to Swami. We again gather around the truck which has a picture of Swami attached to the windshield and the village elders do Arathi. Slowly we say our good-byes to the villagers and the two trucks move out. About a kilometre from the village we stop in the shade of a large tree as we are famished and we tuck into the refreshments and the buttermilk that has been provided. And of course, the fresh guavas.
On October 20th, I join Group 1, and am assigned to Vehicle number 3 that is headed to Satarlapalli village, a village at a distance of just over 45 kms as the crow flies. But the road winds over really difficult terrain so it is estimated that it could take 2-3 hours to reach.
In the morning the coordinators again ask permission to leave early. Swami says “Yes” and so we leave around 8:45 a.m. Group 1 consists of Vehicles 1 through 4 and the assigned tractor (T1). Right outside the Ashram, near the Kalyana Mantapam, Vehicle 1 develops a puncture. It takes a while to get the puncture fixed, as there was a power failure so we could not get the tire inflated. Finally around 10:00 a.m. we are ready to roll. We finally realised that we need to act according to His will and not hurry up so we could be back in time to listen to the afternoon Discourse.
After about 20 kms, while we are in the rural countryside, we had to wait again as Vehicle 2 had an accelerator cable ruptured right in the middle of nowhere. It takes about a half hour but some of the boys manage to repair it with some makeshift wires that are available. The driver of the truck is amazed at their versatility.
I am in a truck with High school boys and a couple of their teachers. The young boys are beginning to feel tired as it is not exactly pleasant travelling in a pickup truck along bumpy roads. At this one of the teachers suggest we play a game. My ears immediately perk up. Memories of many journeys done in my youth come to mind where we played idle games just to “pass the time”. I wonder what kind of games will be played by the boys from the High School, where God-centered education and character building is given so much premium. I was not to be disappointed. The teacher announces that it is going to be a memory game. He said that I will say, “I love Swami”. The next boy will add to this, “I love Swami and Jesus”. And so on it goes, with each boy adding His favourite name of God or a Holy teacher. The trick is to remember the right sequence of names - if you get the sequence wrong then you are out of the game. What a revelation!! A game consisting of names of the Gods just to pass the time. Soon everyone is engrossed, and it becomes quite complex after 8-10 names are added. And of course, lots of fun. Attention is thus easily diverted from the aching body and before we know it we are at the crossroads that would takes us the last kilometre in to Satarlapalli village.
We wait at the crossroad till all the trucks catch up. It is already 11:30 in the morning so we decide to partake of some of the goodies that Swami has sent. That and the glass of buttermilk refresh everyone and all are now keen to start. While truck 3 goes to Satarlapalli village, the other trucks move on to their assigned villages 3-4 kms further down the road.
We take a diversion and one kilometre of bone-jarring ride on a goat track brings us to this remote, isolated village. We pull up and soon the entire village gathers around the truck. The boys quickly form a line while the group co-ordinator talks to the village head. We go in a Nagarsankeertan from the truck up to the Rama temple in the centre of the village. It has been our experience that no matter how poor and destitute the village is, it still has a neatly maintained temple in the village square. That is why Swami always says that the true Bharatiya culture is to be found only in India’s villages.
All the village kids join us in the Nagarsankeertan and clap wildly to the Bhajans in unrestrained excitement that is the province of the young and truly innocent. The Nagarsankeertan winds its way up to the temple along a very narrow cobbled pathway, avoiding cow and goat droppings and other such items strewn all over the road. At the Rama temple we stop and continue singing Bhajans till it seems all the inhabitants of the village join us. The leader of our group then announces that we have come from Puttaparthi to distribute Swami’s Prasadam and request everyone to wait in their respective homes and that we will come and deliver at their doorstep.
Soon we get organized into 4 small groups and the area of distribution for each group is quickly earmarked after studying the layout of the village. Very soon the distribution is in full swing and the 4 small groups spread quickly in all the 4 directions. I have a difficult time tracking down the next group after finishing taking pictures of one group as they have moved so quickly.
As in the other village I am again surrounded by the kids. These kids are very friendly and take me to the back of the village and proudly show me their village well which is full of water. This is welcome as all the wells in the village which we visited the day before were dry. I take some pictures and the kids are very happy and delighted, just like a tour guide showing off the Taj Mahal to some gawking tourists.
Again another two hours of non-stop distribution and we are done. But we find a number of ladies and gents waiting and clamouring for the Prasadam and clothes right beside our truck. Enquiries reveal that they are residents of hamlets that are close to the villag e. As these people are really poor, we seat them all next to the truck, the 30 odd ladies in front and the 10 or so gents behind. We take a quick inventory and feel that the Prasadam and the clothes would suffice but just barely. We give one sari to each lady and a dhoti to a gentleman, apart from a packet of food and a laddu each. By Swami’s grace, the number of saris is just exactly enough to give to all the women and not one extra sari is left over! Everyone is wreathed in smiles and very happy to have received these tangible gifts of Bhagavan’s love.
We all board the truck and it is time to leave. A pained and embarrassed silence follows, similar to what we experience before the imminent departure of our loved ones at the railway station or an airport. The innocent villagers do not know how to express their thanks to Swami and stand quietly shuffling their legs. The young kids stare at us with their large eyes that say it all. Suddenly on an impulse, I lean out of the truck and extend my hand to the nearest kid and say “Sai Ram”. He immediately takes it and pumps it up and down vigorously yelling “Sai Ram, Sai Ram” at the top of his voice. All the kids now join in and want to shake hands. A little physical touch that enables them to give us a proper send-off. Even the adults hanging shyly in the back, now come forward and jostle each other in their eagerness to shake hands. By now all the students are also hanging out of the truck shaking hands with the villagers. Slowly the truck starts and we leave the village with about 40 kids running behind us shouting “Sai Ram” and waving their hands wildly.
We take the dirt road back and go ahead to join the other trucks in the group that are 3-4 kms down the road. They are still not done with their distribution and we wait for about a half-hour for them to finish. We compare notes and find that they had got all the little children into the village school and had taught them the Sai Gayathri.
Soon it is time to go home. We decide to continue ahead and loop back to Puttaparthi from a small town called Pedapalli, rather than retrace our steps back the same way we had come. The road is bumpy but motorable the drivers assure us. We pass through some 3 kms of forest land that is very tranquil and soon reach the town and are back home at around 3:45 p.m. A quick shower and it is immediately to the Mandir and I am gratified to find that Swami’s Divine Discourse had not started yet.
And the list goes on. Everyday we visit different villages to different experiences and memories that would last a lifetime. Villages like Cherlopalli, Chendrayanipalli, Kottalapalli, Buchaiahgaripalli and Venugopalapuram.
So many memories flood the mind and will remain in the heart for a lifetime. For example, when we were the last bus finishing the distribution in Cherlopalli village and running about 15 minutes behind the others, the villagers ask us to visit their village temple for Arathi. We decide to oblige and trudge back up wearily about half a kilometer to the top of the hill and what did we find - a bigger-than-life size picture of Bhagavan in a temple devoted solely to Swami. Or on the way to Yerrapalli village, when we stop for snacks under a railway bridge and all the students climb up the embankment up to the railway line so I could take their picture. Or the total innocence of the very isolated village of Venugopalapuram where we taught the little school children the Sai Gayathri; or the exquisite scenic beauty of Reddivaripalli, that was situated miles in the interior and surrounded by hills with a deep red soil and thick green vegetation that gave it a surreal look. Above all, the most lasting memory would be of the love and reverence that all the villagers showed us, with no exceptions, as Swami’s emissaries.
On the way back to Parthi, the excess food packets left over were usually distributed to the people working the fields on both sides of the road. The sight of the villagers running up to the road, sometimes as much as half a kilometer, as soon as our truck with its yellow Grama Seva banner is spotted is a sight that has to be experienced. We always stopped for them and gave them a Prasadam packet and laddus and receive their blessings and good wishes in turn.
And soon we are done, many days ahead of schedule. Immaculate planning and the availability of 32 vehicles enable us to finish the distribution in the targeted mandals (sub-districts) of Puttaparthi, Bukkapatnam and Kottacheruvu - about 142 villages in all.
The boys are tired but very, very satisfied. It has been a soul elevating experience for them. Swami always says that service begets humbleness in a man. And humbleness is perhaps the most important prerequisite on our spiritual path back to God.
And the villagers! Would just a meal and clothing make a real difference in their lives? No, but the very thought that the God in Puttaparthi is looking after them and thinking about them gives them so much hope, nourishment, and love and meaning that the entire exercise has become one of the most rewarding lifetime experiences for all. And it is all just because of His love!!
Jai Sai Ram.
Radio Sai E-Journal, December 2004
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| Jagadeesan Speech at Dharmakshetra, Mumbai - 21st December 2001 |
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Jagadeesan Speech at Dharmakshetra, Mumbai - 21st December 2001
Nine Point Code of Conduct
Daily meditation and prayer.
Group devotional singing or prayer with family members once a week.
Participation in Sai Spiritual Education by children of the family.
Participation in community service work and other programs of the organization.
Regular attendance at the Center's devotional meetings.
Regular study of Sathya Sai Baba literature.
The use of soft loving speech with everyone.
Not speaking ill of others, especially in their absence.
Practice placing a ceiling on desires - consciously and continuously striving to eliminate the tendency to waste time, money, food, and energy - and utilizing the savings for service to mankind.
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Introductory Address by K B Santhanam, Member of Council of Management, Sri Sathya Sai Trust, Maharashtra
Dassera day, that is, when we complete the nine days of the Navaratri Festival, one of the devotees walked out and said “The year 2001 is a very memorable year.” I did agree with him, and I was wondering why the year 2001 should be a memorable year. Let me recall some of the events, which has taken place in the year 2001.
As part of the divine mother Easwaramma celebrations in Mumbai, the Sathya Sai Trust Maharashtra has established “Easwaramma Foundation” to help girls who are in need of higher education and the needy widows on this ocassion, with the help of Bhagavan. We had the pleasure of welcoming our sister Dr. Geeta Reddy, then came the celebrations of Dharmakshetra Day in Dharmakshetra. We had with us the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh along with his cabinet colleagues. They specifically mentioned that they have to come to Dharmakshetra not as Ministers but as sai sevaks. One of the ministers even said that “ We would like to do some seva at Dharmakshetra , if you can please tell us”.
Then came the movement for which all Sai devotees pray and wait for the divine physical presence for two hours in Dharmakshetra. With the blessings of Bhagavan we had another opportunity of welcoming Prof Anil Kumar in Mumbai. He shared with us his experiences of how he came under the fold of Sai Blessings. One of the memorable events, on that evening was the Youth Bhajans. I think, in the days to come the devotees will not forget that evening. We could feel the divine vibrations in Dharmakshetra on that day.
The Sathya Sai Seva Organisation, Mumbai has relaunched the Youth awareness programme for the college students, the idea being to carry Sai’s mission, message and life for the youth of Mumbai. Today with the blessings of Bhagavan, one of the brothers from Malaysia, an ex-senior civil servant with the Government of Malaysia, said to me a few minutes back : “ I am not idle, I am still very busy. Still I find time to do Sai’s work”.
Presently Jagadeesan is an advisor to the U.N.O and an ardent devotee for more than 25 years, but his age is only 46 years. He wrote in one of his books, I came under Sai Mission in 1976. He calls it as his second birth in this world. He has to his credit six books. He is now authoring a book on Vedas, it is basically meant for those Indians who have settled abroad. He has carried Bhagavan’s mission, message and life to the youth of Malaysia. He has set up a well set youth organization in Malaysia which consists of four Chinese, Malaysian and Indian youths.
Today we have an opportunity to learn from him his experience in setting up the Sai Youth Movement in Malaysia. He is a central coordinator for the World Council for Malaysia. With these few words, I welcome and introduce brother Jagadeesan. Brother Jagadeesan, also has a title from the Government of Malaysia for the services rendered. They call it as “Adaoto”. It is just like knighthood being offered by the imperial British. I request Mr Nimish Pandya to say welcome to him with a bouquet o flower,
A Short Talk by District President Mr Nimish Pandya
Om Sri Sai Ram. Pranaams at the lotus feet of our beloved Bhagavan, our honoured guest for the day, respected elders and my dear brother and sister. Today by the grace of Bhagavan , we the youth of Mumbai are extremely fortunate to have brother Jagadeesan in our midst. As we all know our brother Jagadeesan has played a very crucial role in establishing the youth of Malaysians as the instruments of Bhagavan’s message in that country. Today we request him to share his experiences of that journey with us. Unfortunately today being a working day, many of our youth brothers and sisters are not here and we assure you that the message will get passed on to them, and now I request you to please talk to all of us.
Speech by J Jagadeesan
Sairam! Revered elders, fellow youth, Mr. Indulal Shah , the world chairman and my brother Nash who has come all the way from Los Angeles. My loves to all of you.
I was told that I am going to address the youth of Mumbai. I can see there are lot of youth here, which means for me the definition is youth at heart not necessarily youth by chronology. For example, I think one of the youngest people around, so dynamic and doing so much work is uncle Indulal Shah. Yes, I have not seen him rest for so many years. Brothers and sisters, I would like to start the session by sharing with you one interesting thought. Can you imagine we sitting in this Hall thinking, claiming, accepting the fact that God walks on earth. Now, for the millions of people around the world, this is very funny, for you know and if they were here to hear us they may lock us up and throw the key away.
But, I must tell you that at the age of 32, I was an atheist and agnostic. I did not believe in God, did not believe in religion. I thought my own religion Hinduism was a real joke. You go to the Hindu temple what do you see, an elephant, you see a rat, you see a peacock, you see the whole zoo in there, and I used to think that religion was meant for the weak minded people and strong minded people don’t need religion. Then at the age of 32 years, I heard about Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Of course, in those day I did not call him Bhagavan. I called him very rude names and became a strong anti-Sai Baba. I attacked him viciously. I now would like to share with you this particular part of my life, but before I do that I normally would like to start my session to get God on my side. So I normally like to sing one song, but you have got so many great singers here I dare not sing you know? . I will use my advantage and sing one song in English. Will you join me? Very good.
I will love you more and more each day
I will love you more and more each day
I will sing my Lord
I will serve my Lord
I will call your name everyday
Om namo Ganapati Vinayaka
Buddha Jesus Allah Allah
Gurnanak, Mahavira
Om Shri Bhagavan Sai Natha
I will love you more and more each day
I will love dear Sai forever and a day
In my heart my Lord I will build my land
Prasanthi just for you
I will fill my heart with love my Lord
I will fill my heart with love my Lord
If I love all then you know then you know my heart is true
If I love all then you know then you know my heart is true
I will love you more and more each day
I will love you more and more each day
I will love dear Sai forever and today
I will love dear Sai forever and a day
I will love dear Sai forever and a day
Dear brothers and sisters. In 1976, I was a strong anti Sai-Baba atheist, agnostic. I did not believe in God. The reason is very simple. I was born in a Hindu family. My mother was a devout Hindu, but by the time I graduated from University, we were challenging the existence of God. I used to ask the question “ Did God create man or did man create God?” We used to say that man created God, why? As a crutch for the weak-minded and I used to encourage others to go and pray, you know why? All the weak minded need God. Strong minded people like me do not need God, then at 33, I heard of Bhagavan Baba, and I began to attack him viciously. I said lot of bad words about him. I won’t mention those words now.
They used to say that Baba used to materialize vibhuti by the wave of his hand and I used to say that why he wore long sleeves. They used to say that vibhuti comes from pictures, I used to go to homes of devotees and rub any picture on the wall. If you go to your house and rub any picture on the wall, you will get dust. So I would tell people. Look, don’t clean your house for one week and you will get vibuthi on your pictures. How can you be so naïve as to believe that vibhuti is coming, it is not scientific, I said. That was my opinion.
Then, in June 1976, a gentleman from Sri Lanka came to Malaysia to talk about Baba. There was a very small Baba group in those days and he happened to stay in my Aunty’s house across the street where I was staying, and when he was there my thoughts about Baba began to increase. Why? How to attack him? So I only thought of how to make fun of him - Alibaba and all those names you see. Then came one day. This man I thought had some merit, he knew some palmistry and lucky numbers. So I told my wife, my late wife, let go and get some lucky number from this man.
So at 8 o’clock I went to my Aunty’s house. My Aunty was a baba’s devotee, and as I entered there on the table on my Aunty’s room was a book with Baba’s picture on it. So I looked at the book. You see for those devotees, the whole world was a Maya, everything is in the mind. What the mind see is what becomes real. I looked at the book and in my mind I said “ Uh! Avaatar it seem and I opened the page of the book and inside the book there was a picture of the old man. I asked my Aunty who the old man is? She said “He is Shirdi Sai Baba” Who is that ? "He is a previous incarnation of Sathya Sai Baba". So I said my God! They come in series! - and that started the argument. From 8 o’clock to 10.30 I was attacking Baba.
Nowadays you all sing bhajan for only one hour, repeating Baba’s name. I was repeating Baba’s name 2 1/2 hours attacking him and attacking him. Which mad fellow would attack him for two hours. Anyway to cut a long story short, you can read details of this in the books I have written. At 10.30 I challenged him mentally. I said "Baba if you are who they say you are then show me a sign and then I will believe", and there, my fellow devotees, vibhuti came on the picture at that moment and my entire life changed.
For the first time I realised that there is a power beyond science and this power is not a blind unhearing power. This power can hear me, and this power can respond to me and come into my world in the form of vibhuti. I thought “Oh! my God. This is such a power that exists, what am I wasting my time for.” But the funny thing is, on that day, if someone had called me and shown me the vibhuti, I would have never believed. I would have said that you all have put the vibhuti and are trying to fool me.
Now I was the first one to see the vibhuti coming. So every lady in the house now is accusing me of putting the vibhuti in the picture. So, really Baba caught me. There was no other way to escape. They said “you did it” and I said “I didn’t do it”. That was my day of transformation and after that day miracle after miracle started happening in my life and then June, July, August and September I had to go to Paris for a conference as I was working for the Malaysia Government. I thought I would go for four days to India and drop in to see Baba. My mother who is a very lovely lady was not a devotee at that time. She told me "you are only going for four days in India. You have got a lot of contact with the Indian Multinational companies based in Malaysia. Why don’t you ask one of the companies to fix an appointment to see Baba". I said "good idea".
So I called the Company’s local manager. The company’s man was Kirloskar. I asked them - "Can you fix an appointment with me to see Sai Baba. I am going to India". The man said “No problem sir. We will fix it immediately. I will call my headquarters and fix it” he said. So one week later he called me back and said it is possible for us to fix an appointment with any ministers in India but to fix with Sai Baba it is impossible. But I was happy about it anyhow. Anyway I ended up in Puttaparthi. When I got to Puttaparthi and sat down, I look like any of you, like any other Indian there.
Baba walks in. He comes to me and stands in front of me and he says “ Malaysia?” I got a shock of my life. No one knew, I was a total stranger there. I just said “yes sir”. He said come. I was very fortunate. I was the only one he called for interview. My father passed away when I was only seven years. After 33 years, I found my father again. He treated me like a child and pinched my cheek. He hit my head. He hugged me. What I would do to a little child he did to me and I just stood there. Ffor the first time I realised that love is not an emotion, love is an energy and His love was encompassing me wave after wave and I felt so bad that I had opposed this great Divine Being. I thought I must apologise to Him.
Now how do you apologise to Him and tell him all the bad things I had thought about Him. I dare not say I had opposed him. So I thought, I will put it mildly. I said – “ Bhagavan please believe me that only about 4 months ago I was a disbeliever. I put “disbeliever” and you know what he said – “ Aiy not only disbeliever but strong opposition, strong opposition “ he said. My knees gave away and I collapsed and started crying profusely. Not silent tears but loudly like a baby and Baba said " Shu! Shu! Don’t cry. People outside will hear". He said – "Get up! Get up! I know everything". Therefore, my dear devotees he revealed to me the omniscience of Sai.
The trouble with us we never understand and appreciate the omniscience of Sai. All of us are happy if God is relative omniscient. It is a new word I have introduced – relative omniscience and relative omnipresence. We don’t want Baba to know everything we are doing. Only when we are sitting in the Bhajan, he should know or when we are doing some occasional seva, once a month, he should know. Other than that Swami must not know what we are doing. when we lie, when we cheat, when we become angry, when we become jealous, when we be selfish, when we are petty, when we don’t do seva etc. We prefer God is relatively omniscient.
We don’t realise that He knows every little details of our lives. Let me share with you a small incident. All of you had many such experiences, but this is incredible. When I married my wife I used to call her "life" in those days. "Life, come here". "Life do that", like that I used to call her. Ours was a love marriage. My relatives started teasing me. Ah! What a loving husband your are calling your wife "life, life, life" and I used to pretend and joke. "Life" means loving wife i.e life is a short term for a lousy wife depending upon what she is doing so if I called her life she must know loving wife or lousy wife. This was like a joke. But after three months it became very embarrassing for her, everyone started teasing her so I stopped calling her “life” and started calling her by her real name i.e “ Shanti”. Then I forgot all about it.
Now six years later I am was in the first line for Swami. He is asking me – "Oh! Where is wife?" So the trouble is sometimes he asks you a kind of question you think he doesn’t know. So I thought he doesn’t know. So I told Swami – "I am going to Paris for a conference". Swami said - "I know, I know". The he says – "Uh! , nice lady, bit of a temper though, but you know wife is not life. Life is life, wife is wife". I was wondering what He is talking about. I had forgotten all about this, then he looked at me and smiled and suddenly I remembered and I burst into laughter. In the interview room, then he asked me to sing a song . Since I became his devotee Baba’s song started coming to me. More than 950 songs I have done in English and some other Indian languages and he asked me to sing a song in the interview room.
I must tell you an interesting thing now. Later when I met Prof Kasturi, I mentioned about this incident, he said –" Jagadeesh", this is very unusual. Normally, Baba tells all husbands. wife is life. But you were already calling your wife ‘life’. So he turned around to let you know that he knows it. This is the incredible omniscience of Baba. I can go and telling so many stories about the miracles of Baba, but dear brothers and sisters, many years ago, when I started my journey to SAI, when I used to go around the world, I talked about Baba’s miracles. Now I stopped talking about his miracles. You know why? What is so wonderful about the fact that an avatar can do miracles. If vibhuti comes out of the picture, it is so wonderful. If he can materialize thing in it so wonderful. If the avatar cannot do miracles then we would be surprised. So now the message I go and tell around the world is let us now not talk anymore about Baba being the man of miracles.. We must become Baba’s miracles. We must become the vibhuti. Vibhuti means God’s Glory. As devotees we must manifest vibhuti in society. People should not talk of Baba as man of miracles. They should say “Baba’s devotees are His Miracles”.
This is the challenge we must take up. Baba once said that there will come a time when people need not go to Puttaparthi to experience Baba’s love. He says “My Darshan must flow to you and through you to the world”. People around the world must feel the love of Swami through his devotees. Then His mission is fulfilled. Baba’s mission is to encourage us to sing songs. No he has come to transform us and make us into avatars. I would like to share with you how as we go along with the session.
Nowadays I do not talk about Baba’s miracles. I talk about miracles of Sai devotees. The miracles of Sai devotees are the greatest miracles now. Can we create miracles in the society? Can we bring the power of the avatar to us and make impossible things happen? We dare do this. This is the challenge. Dear Brothers and Sisters I have got a presentation that all of you can see this.
Recently in Malaysia we had ‘A National Satya Sai Baba Convention’. There were 150 devotees in a big hall, Chinese as well as Indian and I made this presentation to them and I called it ‘An agenda of Action for the youth.’ In this millennium now what is the challenge that we as devotees must take? Do we keep on saying Baba is an avatar. Baba is an avatar, he can do miracles. No! let me again tell you if an avatar cannot do miracles we should be surprised. Avatar’s nature is miracles. We must become his miracles. So now I will share with you one thing called ‘Sai Agenda For Action‘. This is the presentation I made to the Malaysian National Convention. I think it is relevant everywhere in the world But if it is not relevant to you – drop it.
I am just sharing this with you, so everybody can see what’s here. So you see now the ‘Sai Agenda for Action’ is not for India or any other countries. It is for global action, and this particular statement for me represents us. We devotees must span the globe. I want to share with you first now this particular thing called individual sadhana. Many of you must have heard about individual sadhana. I am going to present it in a new light today. With my apologies to the traditionalist here, my presentation is unusual. I don’t follow the normal style.
Since Uncle Indulal Shah wrote to me that you can present it in your normal unusual style, therefore I am taking the liberty. Now, all of you have heard the nine codes of conduct. How many of you have heard the nine codes of conduct? Come on raise your hands. O.k Very good, thank you. Now I am going to ask you again. If you put your hand. I want you to come up here and repeat the nine codes. There was not a single hand raised. How many of you raised hands then and not now why? If you do not know the nine codes of conduct by heart then how are you going to practice it. "But Jagga, the nine codes are in the book". "Yes, the book will get moksha". But you don’t know, in the heartland of Sai world, in the center and the power of Sai devotion. Not even one fellow could put up the hands for knowing the nine codes of conduct. It is a good lesson for us. Don’t take the nine code of conduct for granted.
But anyway I suddenly realised something very unusual I found out now. The seven of the codes will lead us to heaven. Two of the codes prevent you from going to hell. At least follow the two. We can’t take you to heaven . It is up to you to go to heaven, but I realised that two of the codes will prevent you from going to hell. So whether you want to go to heaven or not it is up to you. Whether you meditate, do seva or not it is up to you. But don’t go to hell unnecessarily.
What are the two codes.
1) Never speak ill of others especially in their absence. This is a direct and straight ticket to hell.
2) Always speak lovingly and softly.
So devotees, this message I found Swami repeating again and again in different formats, different ways. See, if you meditate it is all right, but if you meditate and talk ill of others what’s the use. Today the problem with the world is that everybody wants to find fault, everybody wants to condemn, everybody will talk behind the back. This is the challenge now. Follow these two codes at least. These two codes are easy to remember. Nine codes one may not remember, but at least two codes you must remember, it won’t take you to hell.
Watch now what is the other individual sadhana?. Swami keep on repeating this. You cannot always oblige but you can always speak obligingly. This again is linked to the two codes. This I always follow in my life. If I cannot agree, I speak obligingly. It is very simple how many of you speak obligingly? You may not always agree but do not be disagreeable. All these come from the two codes. See what Swami is doing here repeating the same message in different ways. This is a incredible sadhana that we must follow in life. If you do this then there will be no conflict in Sai Centres. I am sure that in Mumbai there is no conflict anyhow.
Now devotees, Swami has got this beautiful thing. He says " satyam bruyath, preyam bruyath, Na bruyath satyamapreeyam. I have heard in many speeches of Swami. Satyan bruyath- Speak the Trust, preyam bruyath- Speak with Love, Na bruyath satyamapreeyam – Never speak a unloving truth. This particular message came to me when I was reading in America. One day, addressing the sai devotees and I saw this message in Sanathana Sarathi. I think it is a wonderful truth. See for example many people don’t know how to follow this truth. For you the other quote says never speaks ill of others especially behind behind their back. Now I must tell you how people can twist Baba’s words. One fellow came to me – one sai devotee. Jagga! I think Baba’s teaching are fantastic. I asked why? Oh! Baba says never speaks ill of other behind their backs, so I told my colleague straight on the face of what I thought of him (laughter). I said, "Brother I see how you twisted the whole thing". Do you know what the other quote before that, "I asked him". He ask what? I said "Always speak softly and lovingly".
How people misinterpret Swami’s teaching. I don’t like you to tell straight in your face of what I think of you. Baba is satyam bruyath, preyam bruyath, Na bruyath satyamapreeyam. How can I convey this message to the devotees in Malaysia and around the world. So I made it into a song.
"Speak the truth my friends, speak with love, so say Sathya Sai
Never speak a truth that hurts my friend,
Let love be your guiding light"
What I did was in America. When I went last time I made it into a bhajan. I asked them to follow me. (Starts singing the bhajan.)
satyam bruyath, preyam bruyath, (twice)
Na bruyath satyamapreeyam (twice)
Speak the truth my friends,
speak with love, so says Sathya Sai
Never speak a truth that hurts my friend, (twice)
Let love be your guiding light (thrice)
(all together repeat the whole song)
What is so difficult about this. A simple bhajan session is going on, somebody doesn’t sing well. I get a chance to fix him up. Who selected the bhajan for you today? This doesn’t help at all. He will get angry even more. Whenever we speak, please ensure there is more light than heat. Everything can be done, we can correct another person, always correct with love. This is the basic centers on which Sai centres are built. Sai centers are not built on big bricks. Foundation is love, water is love, roof is love.
Dear devotees. Then since the devotees cannot remember the nine code of conduct, Baba in His infinite mercy said, since you cannot remember nine, I give you three. "Daivapreethi, Paapa beethi, sangha neeti". Love God, fear sin, promote morality in society. At least remember this. This one thing about Hinduism. The eastern religions never talk about fearing God. Fearing God is a western concept. God is love, so you never fear God. God is our father, why should we fear him. We should only fear if we do wrong. So love God, fear the wrong we do. Why should we fear the wrong we do not because God is going to punish us. All of us knows that so many wrongs we do, God never punishes us, that is why we continue doing wrong. Why? Fear the karmic consequence of sin. You do something wrong you will be hit someday for sure. Sangha neeti, this is a beautiful explanation. Fear morality in society. Baba brought the meaning of morality in the society to a very high level. He says if we know there are people hungry and we have the ability to feed their hunger and we don’t do it, it is divinely immoral that’s the level of morality is brought us. If we can help someone in need and we can help and we don’t do it that is immoral. At least we can remember this.
What does love God mean, dear devotees? Forgive me for saying love God does not mean ‘Oh! Baba I love you so much Baba . I hate the other fellow but Baba I love you, it cannot be like that, love God doesn’t mean loving Baba’s pictures. I am telling in front of everyone here and also in front of Swami. I will tell this that love God doesn’t mean loving Swami. Swami is in every one of us if we love everybody equally. Automatically God love is with us. But we think we want to love the picture of God and not everybody else. If we love everybody equally then God’s love will be with us, he has no choice but to love us.
So what is it so difficult to love everybody. Do you know it is more difficult to hate someone. If you are angry with someone, are you happy? If you hate someone, are you happy? And yet you become unhappy. We hate people, we become angry with others, we fight with them unnecessarily. Why? Be happy. What is so difficult about being happy.
Revere your parents. This message every youth must understand. Whether you do seva or do nothing, you must love your parents, treat your parents as God. Swami will then automatically love you. This is the message I am going around to give. Never bring tears to your parent eyes. Make your parents happy, happy, happy.
Dear devotees, whatever I say, I do in my life. I had a mother in my house, 83 years old. She broke her leg and every morning after I prayed, I come downstairs, though I had to go to work, I must come down. I would pray with her, I would chant mantra with her, I massaged her feet though I had two servants looking after her, I massaged my mother’s feet everyday. People are surprised. I say that is my birthright. Why should I give up my birthright to my servant lady. Let us get the youth to understand one thing, that with one swipe with one act, we can remove all negative behaviours. How? If we can make every youth to understand never bring tears to your parent eyes. Always make your parents happy. The world will automatically become all right. Only one thing you have to focus on. Never make your parent unhappy.
Every youth must learn this. Now what they do, in front of their parents. They behave one way, behind their parent another way. Maybe not in Mumbai but other places. Constant Integrated Awaresness, Swami talks about this. This is like C.I.A of America. How can we make contact with consciousness, you see dear devotees, see this mike here, God or divinity is like this electrical energy. Electric energy is everywhere, but to tap the energy you need a hydro-electric station, after spending billions of rupees on high tension wires, low tension wires, electricity is finally brought to the mike to make sound and light over here. But for all this power existing, If I do not know how to plug this in, it is useless. All this power with all the money spent if you do not know how to plug it, it is useless. Only if I align it after I plug the mike, the power flows. I must know how to make contact. But dear devotees, this electric appliance gives us the beautiful idea. Look at this house. Three holes here, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Three paints here, Satvic, Rajasic, Thamasic gunas. If we align with the socket God is with us. Very simple you know how to get Divinity to flow through us. But can we plug in. How can we remain in God awareness all the time. Forget about you being aware that you are God. Let us be aware that God is around.
Baba once said you know where God is hiding. Once Shiva told Narada that I am fed up with mankind. They are just praying, praying, praying. Nobody is following me. I am going to hide. So Narada asked ‘Swami! Where will you hide?’ I am going into outer space and hide. So Narada said ‘Swami! You cannot hide there’. Swami asked 'why'? 'Mankind will make a rocket and come and find you'. 'Then I will hide in the ocean'. 'Swami you cannot hide there also because they will get a submarine to go inside the ocean and find you there'. Shiva asked ‘ Where can I hide then, Narada?' 'Find one place where they will never look for you’ Where?' ' In the heart'.
Yes, how many times must we pray to plug in to God. The muslims pray five times a day. Sixteen times? Let me ask you a question. What time does your day starts. Six o’clock in the morning. O.k. Baba says your day does not start when you get up. Your day starts when you go to bed. So I am going to share with you now the experiences of plugging in. Sixteen parts of C.I.A, how many times should we pray.
I will give you a very simple way. First, Swami says when we go to bed, say a Shanti Prayer – ‘Om Sai Ram’. ' Thank you God'. This is to please god. 'Why?' He says this, how the nature of your sleep will affect the day. Suppose you don’t sleep well, your whole day is spoilt. So , firstly, Shanti Prayer ‘Om Sai Ram’. You know what I do. I invoke all the gods, chant Gayatri Mantra three times. I tell God I am going to sleep. Look after me. To make sure, to let them know, I am sleeping (laughter). Sometimes, they don’t bother. They are very busy. Secondly, when you awaken, think of God and say ‘Sairam’, say some holy things first. Many people when they get up first they say “Eeaeiah”. Don’t say that. First thing in your mouth should be ‘Sairam’. You plug in immediately, you make sure God is aware.
Thirdly, if you do morning exercise, chant silent mantras. It is a wonderful way to keep your mind alert to him. While bathing chant mantras, try Gayatri Mantra silently in your mind. Fifth time, first formal prayer in front of your altar. This prayer is the only one when you have about four to five minutes others are 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds short ones. Sixth , breakfast prayer of thanks. If you leave the house, pause for a moment in your doorstep. Send a prayer to god to guard your house. I always pray to Swami to look after my house. Then as you sit in your car or go by bus or train, occupy your mind by bhajan or mantra. Don’t look around here or there or listen to gossips. Eight time, at work or in school or college as you sit down, a short prayer for guidance.
Dear devotees, if you have, to make time for prayer in your office. But if you are sitting with lot of your colleagues around you, then no one should know you are praying. After you start working, don’t think of God anymore. Why? Because, you are already plugged in. Now see here, I remove the plug from the mike, my voice is not audible, therefore I worry about the electricity. The moment I plug in my voice is audible. Must I worry about the electricity? No like that, you go to office and you plug in then electricity will do its work. There is a saying that when you pray, pray as if no work will help you. The next- tenth time- at lunch you pray such that no one must know you are praying, only God. Must know, you must not make exhibition of prayer, it is very important.
As you go home say hello to God, dialing God’s number, then exercise in the evening and say your prayer. I go for swimming in the evening. I swim 10 to 12 length. Every length I chant do mantra chanting. First length ganapati mantra, second length Devi mantra, third length Sai mantra, Gayatri mantra by the time I am finished. I have chanted so many mantras that the whole pool has got charged up. Those of you who do exercise, jogging is the wonderful time to chant mantra. Repetition of sport mantra is a wonderful way to change your mind.. Evening bath make it abhishekam. After bath second formal prayer this time with your family prays together. A short prayer of thank-you at dinner time. God thank you for the food and finish that it, then you have last and are back to number one before you go to bed.
You know about how much time it takes in all. About 5-6 minutes depending about how long in the morning you pray. If you want from God twenty-four hours protection, is it so difficult to give six minutes of insurance coverage? You cannot get insurance coverage if you give Rs.10 against an insurance coverage of Rs. 100 crores. Baba says "Part time devotees wants full time grace. If you cannot do all the 16 times prayers then I am quoting Baba – ‘Chanting Gayatri Mantra 3 times in the morning and 3 times in the evening before you go to bed would take care of all your arrears in the form of loan and interest will be cleared off. So at least if you cannot do all, at least when you get up chant Gayatri at least 3 times and before you go to bed at least 3 times or if you need a bit more chant Gayatri when you bathe. Chant this mantra when you eat your food. So Gayatri mantra is a universal mantra. This is individual sadhana.
Baba often talks about self confidence. But the difference self confidence with a small ‘s’ which is confidence in your own ability, skill, knowledge, talent etc. And the self confidence with the big ‘S’ – this is the confidence in the supreme self within you, that you are the spark of the divine. This is also called Atma Viswasam. Actually, for a long time I did not realise this until the recent birthday I heard Baba says “Atma Visvasam”, and I said to myself – Oh my God! Self confidence is not that ability that everybody in the world has got, but confidence that he is there with you alone to do anything. This is atma visvasam. That means you have nothing on your own, you dare, give everything to the divine.
I will share one small story with you. Do you know that there is a difference having faith in God and having confidence in God. I will tell you a small story I read in Chinna Katha. I have a friend of mine. His name is Nimish Pandya. He decided to go to America for holiday in America. He went to this Grand Canyon. He went alone and as he went to the canyon at the edge of the canyon there was a sign saying – ‘Don’t go near the edge. But this fellow was a Baba’s devotee. Why fear when I am here. So he went near the edge. As he stood looking down the earth gave away and he started falling. As he fell about 100 feet he caught hold of a tree and hung on it. Now my friend Nimish Pandya is left holding the branch of the tree looking down about 2900 feet below from where he was and he is alone since he has faith in Baba he started calling for help from Baba with different combination of names. Fifteen minutes of calling Baba nothing happened. Then he thought to himself that this Baba is new. I better go to my old gods – Shiva, Krishna, Saraswati- Devi, Laxmi-Devi.
In Indian mythology, there are 1008 names of God . He went on telling all the names of god. Still nothing happened. Then he realised that he is in America, so how can Indian Gods be effective here. So he started calling Jesus, Mother Mary and soon he kept on calling and calling and finally God got fed up. Who won’t get fed up when you disturb him so much. So the whole heaven opens and God voice thundered through the canyon. “My Son! I hear our voice.” Now God's voice which is sometime deep and thunderous repeats. “My Son! I hear your prayer. My Son. Let go off the hand and I will catch in the palm of my hand.” How many feet below? My friend shouted back. "Hey! Who is playing the fool there. Come on there, throw me a rope, don’t play the fool".
Dear devotees. We had the faith to call but not the confidence that God would answer his call. This is the problem. We have now in many Sai centers and organizations in the world. You see self confidence everybody has , but the Atma visvasan in the context of faith in God is something you need when you want to dare to do the projects that is beyond your normal ability.
I want to give you a few examples. What I call now a miracle of “Sai Devotion.” For me the miracle is not vibhuti coming in the pictures. I share with you one or two real life stories with you of Atma visvasan. How you must dare. Many people around the world sit in the chair. I ask then why you are not doing anything. They say we are waiting for Baba to show us the way. But how will Baba show you the way when you are sitting in the chair? They say "Once I get the money and man power I will do it". If you want all the money and man power before you do it then you don’t need God’s grace. Anyone can do it if he gets the money and man power. A devil also can do. But nothing, no money or man power you only know that something noble you want to do.
We say I am going to do this. I am getting up. I am walking. Swami, you must catch me. If not I will fall. If the cause is noble, if the motive is pure the Avatar must come and help us. He must come. He has no choice. That is the Avatar mission I am telling you. Devotee! Dare! You must dare to have faith. Swami unless you come I will fall. I will give you an example of some of the things we have dared in Malaysia. You tell me whether this is God’s miracle or our miracle. At the conclusion of the story you decide.
Several years ago in Malaysia we decided to launch a human value drama. Nowadays we call it Educare. I wanted the public to be excited about it. You see today the biggest mission of Avatar is human values. Anybody can build a school or a hospital. With money you can do anything. But how can you raise values among the youth of today? It is not something that anybody can do. To bring the values down is easy. To raise the values it is not easy. All of us know this. So I thought to myself nowadays you cannot lecture the youth. You must behave well or you will go to hell and the youth will say the hell is crowded by adults. There is no question of going to hell. You must somehow motivate them to do something good. So I said allright. We in Malaysia Sai Centres got all together and decided to launch a Human Value fever.
For the whole of Asia, eleven countries including India were included. Human Values Drama Festival. So I called the SAI counsel for the meeting. We told countries like Japan, Australia, Philipines, Hongkong, Indonesia. All these countries you have your own drama festival. In your country among not sai devotees but public. How do we get human values in society? Instead of lecturing to the youth let the youth write the whole script. Let them act it out. So every time they act like mantras they repeat the words something will go in the subconscious mind. Only those values which go into the subconscious mind can be grasped.
So of whole of Asia, eleven countries, my counsel were asking me. "Jagga! Why should non-sai people come to Malaysia unless we give them a price of one million dollars. Why should they come?" My counsel was a logical fellow. I am an illogical fellow. I said "Okay, good point" so I said "Here is what I will do. Give each country ten free return tickets to Malaysia and back. Then they will have a competition in their own country for the public and give this as a prize – a free ticket to Malaysia. For ten people in the drama group, a holiday in Malaysia as a reward".
So Sai counsel asked me the next logical question. "Jagga! How are you going to get the money for 110 tickets". I said - "Listen! Don’t ask me all the question. Lets give some work to Swami also". Honestly I told this to them. If Swami does some work for us then what is there. Let see. But I have a plan. See for every mad idea I have a plan. My plan was simply this. I will go to every airline like Quantas, Air India. I will ask airlines like Quantas if they would like to bring some people from their country for the Human Value Drama. Can you give tickets for your own people? You can give ten tickets or four tickets whatever it is. Go to Japan Airline – can you give four tickets to your people to come not to us. Like this we had thought; we would go and ask all airlines then we can buy some tickets and get ten people to come. This was my plan.
First I thought I would go to Malaysian Airlines and ask them can you donate three or four tickets for us. If Malaysian Airlines can donate three or four tickets then I will go to Quantas and tell them Malaysian Airline are giving ticket. Why can’t you give? Logical plan no. Hello? But human logic is one thing. But Baba’s logic is great.
So I write a letter to the Malaysian Airlines and I said we would like to have this drama festival. An we have the tickets. So he said fix an appointment and see him. So I went to see him. Fortunately, in Malaysia the Sai Movement have done lot of work. It has done lot of Medical camp, and lot of seva we had done. Our credence is very stong. So first, brief him with what we are doing. He is a Muslim man. He said Sai Movement is doing such good work I said yes. So I aid we are doing this Asian Human Value Drama festival so can we have some few tickets. Hey Jugaa!! What you are doing is very good but many people ask us for free tickets and we cannot give them to everyone but let me talk to my managers I will come back to you. I went back home and waited.
Four days later I get a letter from the manager of the Malaysian Airlines. Please come and meet us we have a lot of questions to ask you about your proposal to our Chairman before we go for a meeting. Some of our Chinese brothers and myself went. This other Malaysian Airlines gentlemen comes in is a very rude fellow. He comes in sits down and says Ok! Tell what’s its all about? I got no time now I am very busy tell me what’s it all about? So I started slowly telling to him about our Sai Movement in Malaysia then slowly coming to the plan he says Okay Listen! I got no time now I must go now Singapore cannot, we have a joint service agreement with them. So I slowly write on a piece of white paper. Singapore cannot. Thailand cannot. I am writing Thailand cannot. In my mind I am telling Swami Swami! What Swami! You put me into such trouble now. Singapore cannot, Thailand cannot.
Then this man says "Rest okay". I said "Rest okay". I asked what do you mean? He says "Rest Okay"! I said "Ninety tickets free?" He said "Yes". Now this man is looking at me and thinking I am a fool. I couldn’t believe it I went there hoping to get 4 tickets and this fellow is telling me ninety tickets, I said "Ninety tickets?" He said "Yeah! Free?" He said "Yeah!" So I am now stunned. I said "AAA! Yeah UMM!" I did not know what to say. I then asked him "Tell me what we should do now". "Okay! Okay! I will tell what you should do you just give the names of all who are coming, and we will ensure the tickets. This is the name of my officer you co-ordinate with him. Thanks you very much" and he went off. I took two hours to come out of this. Five of us got up and walked out of the office completely stunned. We went to a coffee shop and sat down and I asked "Brother did he say ninety tickets" he said "yeah!"
Dear devotee tell me now even if a minister asks they wont get ninety free tickets. For me this is Swami’s miracle that we have done it. Atma Visvasan. Another example I will give you. Do you agree this is Swami’s work and not our work. But see, unless I dare to do it, I won’t have the experience. If I say alright let me ask everybody for money, first they collect all the money and then propose, nothing will happen. We dare! Another one I will tell you. We decided to organize in Malaysia a symposium on spirituality and commerce and morality, so what happened is the committee members suggested Jagga if you really want to get people to support, let us get a Nobel Prize winner to come and speak so I asked how to get a noble prize winner.
Normally the Counsel would say "You try, they would want me to do the thing So watch dear devotees always whenever I do such mad projects. I ask Swami to guide me well. If I am making a mistake, stop me early. If I go far and then collapse the organisation will also fall with me. So always I used to pray like that two things with a noble motive and pure. Then I thought how shall I get the nobel prize winner. So I went to Jumsai and asked him whether he knew any nobel prize winner, he gave a name somewhere in U.K. Just a name no address. I kept it. Very good. Let me go to Norwegian Embassy and ask the Ambassador the names of the nobel prize winners, logical isn’t it.?
So I fix and appointment and went to Norwegian embassy there I sat with the ambassador briefed him for 1 hour what the Sai movement is all about. Then I said Sir! I have come to you because we would like to have list if the noble prize winners. He said wonderful idea you are having. But you know you must go to the Swedish embassy and meet the Norwegian embassy for noble prize winners. I thought Oh! My God. When I came down I thought Swami is putting a block.
Now watch, my dear devotees, how divinity plays again where everything happens on parallel lines. Things happen which are totally independent suddenly converge into a point. Now first I am now looking for a nobel prize winner, second thing happening here I get a letter from a devotee in U.K addressed to me; Dear Jagadeeshan, at that time he had just read my book ‘Journey to God’ so he wrote Thank You for writing this book’ it has changed my life he wrote a nice letter, I get a lot of letters like this. Now my problem was the nobel prize winner so I couldn’t be bothered about this letter.
Now one week later one night I get a telephone call, "Hello Hey Jagga this is Shodia." "Yes?" I said :Who is this?" "You don’t remember me?" "No?" "Where are you calling from?" "London?" "Yeah Yeah! You don’t remember I wrote to you". "To me?" "Yeah! About the book!" :Oh! My god!" The fellow who wrote to me about the book and thanking me is now calling me. I said "Yes! Brother Oh! Brother!" "Thank you very much for writing the book" he told me like this. I said "Its okay!" Then he told me, "Jagadeeshan please make me happy". I asked, "How can I make you happy?" "Tell me what you want from London. I will send it to you". I said, "I don’t want anything". Maybe he thought Malaysia is a poor country. But he wants to help as a brother. I said, " I don’t need anything". "NO! NO! Please help me ask me something". I said "Okay I want something". He asked what it was. I said, "One noble prize winner". In the line there was a pause. He asked, "What did you say?" Then I gave him the name Jumsai had given me and I asked him can you contact him? So he said I will try.
He called me two days later. "Jagadeesh this man has now migrated to America". I said, "I see". "That’s finished-that’s gone too far. How am I to contact him. Then this man is telling shall I follow up for you. I said, "What do you mean?" " I will call America and find out where he is". I said, "Brother don’t do this, so much money it will cost you. He said "NO! NO! Please! Please! I want to do it for you". I asked, “Where are you working by the way?” He said I am working in ‘British Telecom’ (Laughter). This fellow telephones America and find out this man then he calls me. This man he says he is very old , but he gives another name then I tell him to follow up. He followed all this contacts and finally got the noble prize winner from U.K who agreed to speak on the subject of Science and Spirituality. This man was one of the people who founded the Atomic research in U.S.A in D.N.A, Dr. Wilkins then he is asking me “this man wants to know who the SAI BABA Organisation is, are you the monies in another organisation. So we sent to him all the information about Sai Movement what we have done in Malaysia, the message the Prime Minister had given us etc. Then we got the reply. The Noble prize winner agrees to come, he and his wife.
Dear Devotees again how did this happen? Swami’s will you see two or three things happening. I was searching for Noble Prize winner in a embassy of Norwegian. But this man comes in and delivers him. Dear devotees what is the message? We must dare to do, then the miracle happens. One final things, I will tell you, the greatest Vibuti is within Malaysia now. You see, In Malaysia we have done so many human value events, human value drama festivals, song festivals, debates, etc. But yet I was not happy. One day I called a Advisor, I am not a president now, the president is a Chinese devotee. So a very powerful committee - sometime they follow advice sometime they don’t follow.
I asked them are we doing our best. They said, "Yes Jagga! We are doing our best" I said "I don’t think" so they asked, "What do you mean?" In a function, a drama festival the Malaysian King was invited as a Guest of Honor. Next to India, I think Malaysia is the first country where the Head of State came as a Guest of Honor for the SIA function. The Prime Minister has given messages to us. The government has seen the work we are doing and they support us truly. So they say, "Jagga! So many people have given us some support. How can you say we are not doing out best."
I said "No! Best means BEST". Every project we do must create enthusiasm, unless we have enthusiasm among the devotees and the people we are serving so all the projects succeeded, enthusiasm is there. What is ‘S’ I asked them they said "SAI." Don’t bring SAI’S name and spoil everything BABA is there we will keep ‘S’ aside. What is ‘T’. ‘T’ is time. Every project we do must meet a need of the country or the area , for e.g. now for the Gujarat disaster if you offer your help now there is no point. So timing means when the problem is there, we go and help them. It is meaningful after everything is over you take your time and then go and help there is no point. Timing has to be maintained.
What is ‘S’. ‘S’ I found was missing in many many SAI agenda’s around the world and that is sustainability. Now what began to worry me is this. I asked myself this question, all the youth who came and took part in the Human Drama Festival are they going home and practicing values, the song festival, the writing festival, the human values celebration, are they practising the values at home?. Are we doing activities for the sake of activity or are we transforming society. So I took a challenge. So they said we will try. I mentioned the project. Everybody became pale. They said, "Jagga! Why are you choosing such a difficult project chose a easier one". I said, "Listen if the whole floor is black and white no one will know which part made white. But if the whole floor is black then we will know which part we made white".
So what we did was launched a project called ABC - Action for the Betterment of the Community. What did we do? We went to the mayor of Kuala Lumpur, a Muslim man. I asked him, "Mayor! Show me the area in Kuala Lumpur that has a high crime rate. The highest misbehavior among youth. Give us three years we will bring it down". Now which mad man will go and ask him to do all this. The Mayor looked at me and asked, "Jagga! Do you really want to do it? Why?" Listen I said, "Very simple Baba has said one thing we have the power to transform. Youth can transform youth, I want to see if we have the power to transform. I wanted to see whether we can make them feel good". He said it is a very dangerous area. That area was finally chosen. The area is called Sanpang. It is a low cost high rise slum area declared by the police in Malaysia as the black area. High crime, high vandalism, high drug pushing everything.
We went into the area with a multi racial task force. I got Muslims to join me, I got Christian priests, I got Buddhist priests. We went inside with the task force. Dear devotees the area has 9000 people, manly Muslims, 6000 Chinese, 2000 Indians. We were opposed by the Muslim, the Chinese, the Indians. Told my people that anyone who will go inside will go like a slipper. Slippers are foot wear that you throw away after you wear them, don’t expect a pat on the back if you want to serve them serve as slippers. Expect a hit at the head. If you can’t do that don’t volunteer. Then they came.
I needed man power, I went to the corporate sector. I went to Coco-cola, Colgate, Palmolive. Let me take volunteer from here. I briefed Colgate they gave me 10 volunteers. The peons volunteered themselves. I briefed Coco-Cola they gave me 10 volunteers. I briefed New Strait Times-15 volunteers, Malaysian Mining I got 45 volunteers, like this. We went on for three years. This was Malaysia’s 75th birthday gift to Swami. Our birthday gift for Swami was prepared three years before Swami’s 75th birthday. That was my plan and then in August I finally went and told the Mayor now we are pulling out. The mayor said "Jagga! Let me send my people- my own staff into the area to find out what is the result of your work" These people went and compiled a report.
Then the Mayor called us, one side all the Sai devotees and the other side all the Heads of Departments- all muslim except one chinese. We sat there. The Mayors staff gave the report. Crime down by 80%, vandalism down by 90%, drug pushing down by 60%. Lepak totally whipped out. Lepak means hanging around. We formed a strong youth force out of the youth. The Mayor was stunned. The Mayor asked us, "How is it possible that we have so much money, so much manpower and yet we could not do this, how could they do this? Jagga how did you do this?" He asked.
I said, "Firstly it is God’s grace. Secondly Baba has said one thing "No youth is bad, but the energy of the youth must be tapped and channelised somewhere. Show them good way to channel the energy the youth will follow it. but if no one shows them the good way then they will follow the bad way". So we went and became the role models for them. This was no easy task. We had to have young people every second day volunteers, engineers, lawyers, doctors, business fellows every second for three years. Can you imagine the level of dedication to this. Every second day we were on the ground. You can’t do one month and go away. No! you must become their brother, elder brother, role models. We created such a inspiration. We formed a youth club. We took the youth to holiday camps for two days, entertained them. We gave them Swami’s human value messages and we transformed the consciousness.
This is the greatest challenge. The basis of the Avatar’s message is What? Transformation of consciousness. If we can bring down crime in a area by 80%. Negative behavior down is Avataric work. Dear friends the choice is ours, whether we want to do little be here little bit there or whether we want to dare to do something so fantastic that God must come and help us.
I will tell you in this process of one interesting miracle which happened. We were together working in the drug pushing. So my volunteers began to come and tell me "Jagga! The drug pushers began to give a message to target our volunteers". My youth leaders asked me what shall we do? We heard the story. "Don’t worry" I said. "Let me pray". Honestly I prayed to Swami. "Swamiji I need guidance". Indubhai can telephone Swami, I can’t telephone so I must pray I must use international connection. "Swami Please! Swami Help Me!" The message came in my mind very clearly. "Don’t worry tell them to do nothing will happen to them". Next day I told my youth, "Go! Swami says nothing will happen to you. Go!" Fearlessly the went in. They cleared! They dared to go. And we won.
Dear devotees one big mistake happened when we when we wanted to make this whole area conscious of the anti-drug problem. We decided to have a largest anti-drug dancing chain. Everybody 5000 in a row of village people joined in huge chain dancing and singing anti-drug songs against drugs. So everybody lined up. There are these houses - next door, huge high rise flats. As we were doing this the Deputy Prime Minister was supposed to come that day for the function. As we were doing it, it started drizzling. Now we know one thing is that the area was about five miles away and people can’t run away. But with the houses next door you can go into the houses. So all my volunteers got together and all were praying. Now this story was told in front of Swami in Prashanti Nilayam.
Our national Youth Vice President said, We prayed, " Please Swami Please Swami don’t let it rain everything will be disturbed". They said the more they prayed the more the rain came and then they saw the miracle. All these hundreds and hundreds of mothers and children, boys, old men came together. The rain poured but they never broke the line they just stood there in the rain. And none of them are Sai devotees. We could not believe it. You know why? You know why they did this? They could have just walked away 10 yards into the houses. But they stood there, the mothers, the children the old men, you know why? Because the love we had given them they knew. They did not want to hurt our love. The love they wanted to reciprocate. And the only way to do was to make this program a success by standing the ground. This is the power of love.
Dear devotees if you want to transform people we cannot just touch and go. Baba says only when a lump of coal is in touch with a burning amber, the lump of coal will also become burning amber. If you want to transform, you must be there by yourself and this sacrifice is a must do. But many business people tell us around the world "Jagga! You have got business to do. How do you get time to do all this". I will tell you a story that Baba told. Baba says:- Have you heard about the story of the coconut tree? This is a coconut tree. In this coconut tree are coconuts and now the sun is shining. Therefore the shadow of the tree is there on the ground. So the shadow coconut tree has shadow coconuts. One day the coconut man decided to pluck the shadow coconut of the shadow coconut tree. Thinking why should I make the effort of climbing the coconut tree when I can take the coconuts from the shadow tree which is on the ground. So he went to the shadow coconut tree to grasp the coconuts and pluck them but as he tried to grasp them he could not. He went on grasping, grasping but not even one coconut came into his hands. Baba says this shadow coconut is the worldly life and the coconuts are the worldly rewards; the real coconut tree is the spiritual life and the real coconuts are the spiritual rewards.
Baba says if you were to only follow worldly life, you can grasp these rewards. What is it you want is the worldly life. Let us see now you work to want money to buy a house a car. Why? You want money or a house or a car you think it will make you happy, but does it really make us happy? Many of the fellows who commit suicide are richest fellows in the world. So we found now that getting material things will not make us happy. I have got one car. I am miserable. How to make myself happy? Let me get two cars, two cars not happy, three cars still not happy. Now Swami says "Spiritual life, what is spiritual life? Spiritual life does not mean sitting down for two hours in a day and chanting mantras. Do god’s work that is spiritual life. Spiritualise your life, make your life an adventure".
Dear devotees, can you imagine avatar of the Kaliyuga has come 100 years from now people will be thinking how lucky we were at that to live with the avatar. See how lucky the gopis were. What gopis? We are already here! We are the gopis. We have got the chance to become the gopis. But what we do is we only drink coffee. My question to you is how many of you have taken the chance in presence of avatar? Your life must become an adventure, the avatar is here. But how many of us have taken the challenge. We are so engrossed in this time, no money. Jagadeeshan is unemployed he can do. Indubhai unemployed, Nimish Pandya unemployed they can do. I am so busy. All of us are busy, all of us have got only 24 hours. What will give you happiness and peace and challenge? What do we do when we work, work , work, we bond, we eat, we sleep, we mate, we beget children, we die. My dog will do the same thing. Bond, eat, sleep, mate, get children and die. What’s the difference between me and my dog? One day I was thinking what’s the difference between me and my dog? The difference is I wear clothes: now in America, dogs are also wearing clothes.
Dear devotee, what is the difference? The dog only cares for the master who feeds him. Doesn’t care for anybody else. I have the capacity to care for the world. That is the difference. Ask yourself what kind of life you are living. So we live this worldly life. Baba says spiritual life. What is spiritual life? Pray for 3 minutes. I am telling you. I tell people in Malaysia please don’t pray for two hours. God is fed up with all the prayers. How many times he listens, enough, enough, enough. Three minutes is enough. Dial the number- "How are you? I am Okay. Thank you". Then go out and do. Baba’s says in the spiritual life as you pluck the spiritual fruits the worldly fruits will automatically come to you. Believe me this Krishna in the Bhagvad Gita called Yogakshema.. Krishna says in the Bhagvad Gita - "Dedicate yourself to me, do my work I will look after your Yogakshema. All of you Indians you don’t know the meaning of 'Yogekshema'. Let me tell you. 'Yogakshema is an incredible word for me it has been guiding my life you know. Yogakshema means whatever you have in life I will protect for you, whatever you need in life I will give you. but everybody, every single human body who forays in the temple, church, mosques, SAI centre is asking for yogakshema - Please god, whatever I got please keep for me. Whatever I need please give me. But everybody forgets the beginning of the formula how to get the yogakshema. Dedicate yourself to me. Do my work, dear devotees. I shall give you simple examples.
There are four children in the house. Amma of the 4 children one day comes to sai center and she gets a sweet, she puts the sweet in her purse and she goes home and sits in the chair and the 4 children come around her and start telling amma you are so beautiful. Amma you are so pretty. Amma you’re so nice Amma. They keep repeating this for 1 hour. One child only one tells Amma I love you. Then gets up and goes around the house, cleaning the house helping in the kitchen, cleaning the pots and pans, sweeping the house, etc. The three of the children sit beside of Amma saying "Amma I love you Amma-I love you Amma- you ar
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| Sai Baba sanctions drinking water project |
| 12.08.04 (4:55 am) [edit] |
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Sai Baba sanctions drinking water project
"newindexpress.com" Southern news - Andhra Pradesh
Wednesday December 8 2004 11:44 IST
KAKINADA: Sri Satyasai Baba of Puttaparthi sanctioned a drinking water project in the agency to benefit Seethanagaram, Devipatnam, Maredumilli and Rampachodavaram mandals.
According to reliable sources, the district officials are getting ready for the green signal from the government for the implementation of the project.
This project envisages construction of lift irrigation projects across Godavari for supply of water to the four mandals.
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| Deshmukh seeks Satya Saibaba's blessings |
| 12.08.04 (4:49 am) [edit] |
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Deshmukh seeks Satya Saibaba's blessings
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| Chennai benefits from Sai Baba's initiative |
| 12.08.04 (4:45 am) [edit] |
Chennai benefits from Sai Baba's initiative
By Our Special Correspondent
CHENNAI, NOV. 30. In January 2002, the Sathya Sai Baba announced that he would launch a project to solve Chennai's water shortage, promising to make available Rs. 200 crores for the project. The spadework to improve the Kandaleru-Poondi Canal carrying Krishna water to Chennai began soon after.
A few months later, the Andhra Pradesh Government gave permission to Sai Baba for carrying out the work independent of any Government involvement except for "supervision here and there." Larsen & Toubro carried out the project, which began in October 2002 and was completed by the end of 2003.
On November 27, when Krishna water reached Tamil Nadu within four days from the date of release (November 23), the benefits of the project became clearly apparent. Chennai was reaping the benefits of the improvement work carried out at Sai Baba's initiative - and not surprisingly, the waterway is called the Sathya Sai Ganga canal.
The realisation today at the Zero Point was about 480 cubic feet per second (cusecs), the highest since the commissioning of the Krishna Water Supply Project in 1996 with the rate of realisation rising substantially.
A senior official of the Tamil Nadu Public Works Department points out that on three occasions - October 2000, January 2001 and October 2002 - the Andhra Pradesh authorities, on a trial basis, released 1,100 cusecs from Kandaleru dam, the terminal storage point in the neighbouring State which feeds the supply to Chennai. Not even 40 per cent of the water released reached the border with Tamil Nadu, lying at the 152-km point of the Kandaleru-Poondi Canal. The receipt was about 440 cusecs.
"This time, the discharge from Kandaleru is 1,000 cusecs and are getting 483 cusecs," the official said, adding that the Sathya Sai Baba's initiative had made a big difference.
"Thanks to Sai Baba, the canal has been lined for a length of 65 km. Other improvements have also been carried out. Today, they have shown wonderful results," says C.H. Vijaya Kumar Reddy, Andhra Pradesh's chief engineer in charge of the Krishna Water Supply Project.
K. Kondal Rao, engineer-expert attached to the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, nodal agency for the project, said that bund strengthening works were done at Kandaleru to increase the storage. Further, "escape structures" were constructed at three places along the canal to ensure the discharge of excess water from the canal. "All these works have ensured quicker realisation and more flow of Krishna water to Chennai. Earlier, it took more than 10 days for the water to reach Tamil Nadu. This time, it was just four days."
From 'The Hindu' News Paper Report
http://www.kingdomofsai.org/modules.php?name=News&" title="http://www.kingdomofsai.org/modules.php?name=News&" target="_blank"http://www.kingdomofsai.org/m...;file=article&sid=251
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| Sai Baba says... |
| 12.02.04 (9:53 am) [edit] |
Sai Baba says...
Go Slow
There was a middle-class household in a small town where the wife was daily pleading with the husband to spend some little time in prayer and reverential worship of God. The husband refused to yield, for, as he said, he had no time to spare for such pastimes which are best taken up during old age, when the process of earning and spending receives a natural setback and there will be ample leisure. The pious lady could not derive any consolation from this reply. She could only wait for some more auspicious opportunity when her advice would fall on receptive ears.
Meanwhile, the husband was affected by a serious illness and he was bedridden for a few weeks. The doctors advised him to take some tablets thrice a day. The wife accepted the task of administering the tablets and kept them with her; however, she did not give him even one.
The husband was put out by her intransigence. He demanded the tablets, but she was firm in her resolve. In reply to his question, “Are you conspiring to kill me?” she said, “Wait, wait, why hurry to take the medicine so soon? Let the illness become more serious. Why all this haste? Go slow, go slow. There is enough time, as you said when I wanted you to pray and do Namasmarana.” The husband realised that his stand was foolish. So, he mended his ways, and cured himself of both types of illness.
- Baba
http://www.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_02/19Nov 01/Pages/02_Spiritual_Blo ssoms/03_Chinna_Katha/Con tentFrame.htm" title="http://www.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_02/19Nov 01/Pages/02_Spiritual_Blo ssoms/03_Chinna_Katha/Con tentFrame.htm" target="_blank"http://www.radiosai.org/Journ...
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