Guided by Grace: A Lifetime at His Lotus Feet – Amar Vivek
My journey as a student of Sri Sathya Sai began in 1977, when, as a young child, I quietly entered Sri Sai Bal Vikas. I remember only the simplicity of those early lessons – love, truth, service – and the warm, unspoken sense that an unseen hand had already taken mine. Only with the passing of years did I come to understand that my life was being moulded by a Grace far greater than any plan I could make.
The Early Lessons of Surrender
In 1981, I began to serve with the Seva Dal. Those beginnings were humble and unremarkable: visiting villages, stepping into slums, sitting by the beds of patients, teaching hygiene and basic healthcare, and offering value-based lessons to children. We installed smokeless chulhas, constructed latrines, dug soak pits, and conducted medical camps. Each work was done simply, often without applause. Time and again, when we faced obstacles, unexpected help would arrive. When funds seemed insufficient, provisions would appear. Doors opened where there had been no way. In those moments it became clear that our efforts were being carried forward by Divine Providence; it was not our doing alone but His guiding hand protecting and directing every step.
Bhagawan’s grace called me onward in 1986, when I had the blessing to join the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning as a medical student. Those years brought many tests of patience and humility. In wards and lecture halls alike, I learned that knowledge without compassion is hollow. Teachers and patients taught me more than textbooks: how to be present, how to listen, how to let service dissolve the self. I offered what I could; what followed felt always like a blessing received at His Lotus Feet, rather than a credit to personal merit.
Instruments of a Greater Will
By 1989 the urge to serve whole communities deepened. With guidance I never took for myself, a small group and I started Sri Sathya Sai Gramin Jagriti in Dhaba village, Yamuna Nagar. It began with a simple wish – to give children a place to learn, to offer basic healthcare to the poor, to teach skills that could sustain livelihoods. From that humble seed grew a free school up to the 10th class, a clinic, and a vocational centre. The work was never for names or titles; it was for immediate human need. Again and again, the unfolding of events showed that this was not mere human endeavour. Equipment arrived through unexpected donors, volunteers came from far and near, permissions were granted in time – instances that deepened our conviction that Divine Grace was overseeing the course.
In 1996, sustained by that same Grace, the school was expanded into a modern facility, yet its heart remained the same: value-based, free education for children whose hopes had been dim. When Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam later referred to the school in his farewell address; it felt less like personal recognition and more like confirmation that sincere, humble service – when aligned with the Divine – can shine beyond its origins. Since then, hundreds of underprivileged children have been receiving education free of charge; this continuity itself has been a living testament to protection and care from above.
Healthcare accompaniment grew alongside education. The small clinic became a refuge for many, seeing nearly a hundred patients a day at times, and the vocational school became a source of dignity for many women. During the COVID-19 pandemic we were able, by providential means, to set up free hospitals with oxygen facilities – an undertaking that, to us, felt like an answer to desperate prayer. In July 2024, with modest hearts and much gratitude, a free hospital near Chandigarh opened its doors: again, not by our intelligence alone but by timely help and provision that only Grace can explain.
January 2026 brought another quiet miracle: an MOU with the Government of Punjab to establish a free, state-of-the-art skill development centre at Government Polytechnic, Ropar. Within months, more than 400 students from modest backgrounds began to receive training – computer labs, a robotic welding facility, accounting and software instruction – and plans were put in motion for plumbing and electrician workshops. The speed with which resources, trainers, and students came together reinforced what we have seen so often – that when one steps forward in genuine Seva, the Divine arranges the rest.
Service as a Way of Life
For more than thirty-five years I practiced law to support my family. Yet law and service were woven together; pro bono work and public interest litigation became instruments by which relief reached those without means. Through simple petitions and persistent prayer, funds were secured and treatments were made available to heart and kidney patients who would otherwise have been abandoned. These legal acts were never for recognition; they were humble channels for Grace to manifest justice and care. A small, persistent discipline in my life has been donating blood. Since July 30, 1981, I have given blood at regular intervals, and until June 14, 2025, the count reached 178 donations. I share this not to boast but to show how repeated, simple acts – offered without fanfare – become steady rivers of service when surrendered to the Divine.
Together with others who share this humility of purpose, we have offered free, high-quality skill training to rural engineering graduates across nearly forty courses. Thousands of lives have been touched, not by any human glory, but by the steady, unseen current of Grace that moves through sincere hearts.
A Collective Offering at His Lotus Feet
As we look forward, a dream rests quietly in our hearts – a thousand-bedded, well-equipped free hospital where no one will be refused care for want of money. I do not claim credit for this vision; I place it at His Lotus Feet and trust that if it be His will, the same unseen hand will provide every necessity.
There is one appeal I make to the students of Sri Sathya Sai Educational Institutions: join this chain of humble service. Seva done sincerely becomes a link in a living chain through which Grace flows. Let us come together – not to take credit, but to offer a perfect gift at the Divine Lotus Feet on the centenary of Bhagawan’s advent, on 23rd November, 2026. If many hands, hearts, and quiet minds bind together, the offering will be worthy – an expression of collective surrender and love. A few solemn teachings that have guided us: let the ego be silent; let service be the language of the heart; and remember always, “Not my will, but Yours.” When one takes up genuine Seva, protection follows, guidance appears, and what seems impossible becomes possible. This story is not mine. It belongs to the Grace that shaped it, and to all those humble souls who became instruments. If these words inspire even a single student to step forward in small, selfless ways, then they will have contributed to a living offering – our shared gift at the Lotus Feet of Sri Sathya Sai.
