2007 Oct Autumn Edition
The first Sunday of September was a truly memorable day at Parthi. It marked the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust’s thirty -fifth anniversary. The events made it a day for all alumni to savor and admire the one hundred and fifty-five of our brothers who serve Swami in His institutions. What greater endorsement of their sacrifice can be imagined than Swami’s loving public proclamation that evening that ‘His students’ are the future of the Central Trust? What a glowing and touching appreciation of their love and dedication!
The day’s events began in the Bhajan hall in the morning at 7:55am, when Swami entered the hall. The atmosphere was expectant and every face and eye was shining with joy. Swami enquired as to why everyone was seated inside when the programme was scheduled to be held outside. A teacher responded- “Swami, the programme outside is planned for the evening” and then requested “Swami, please speak to us.” Swami moved towards the centre of the Bhajan hall with a knowing smile and lit the lamp and then cut a cake baked to commemorate the occasion. Then in His inimitable style he asked, “What news?” Swami’s loving interest provided the perfect platform to launch into the morning’s program.
Alumni began by singing some beautiful songs. Before each song, someone approached Swami with a flower and presented the lyrics of the scheduled song. Swami would receive these and go through the lyrics as they were being sung, or at times He would close His eyes, enjoying the full-throated singing. After the songs, Swami asked for an announcement to be made calling for a public meeting at 4 pm in the Sai Kulwant Hall to commemorate the occasion. After the announcement, Swami smiled at the announcer and asked “What happened? Didn’t you have breakfast? Weak voice!” Swami had everyone laughing by this question that we have all heard so often during our student days!
Two alumni teachers, one from the Institute and another from the school spoke briefly. While the theme of one speech was gratitude, the other focused on incidents that made serving Swami’s students such delightful experience.
One of these incidents was about a student who fell sick; and so received a set of instructions from the teacher to take good care of his health. The student agreed to follow all instructions except the one about praying to Swami for a cure. The boy refused on the grounds that Swami would cure him instantly but might Himself take on the illness. Rather than risk causing any discomfort to Swami, the boy thought it better to remain ill! The little boy’s devotion focused his love on Swami, instead of on himself. The speaker stated that such caring thoughts can come to such small children, only because of their love for Swami.
The teacher recounted another incident about a time when he learnt about a schoolboy who had fallen sick. This information reached the teacher just as he was leaving for darshan – and in the rush, he forgot to attend to the boy, Later while sitting for Darshan, he suddenly realized he had forgotten about the sick boy, and was torn between a desire to continue sitting for Darshan and the need to answer the call of duty. Convincing himself that it was the Lord who actually looks after everyone, he prayed to Swami to look after the small student. Upon the teacher’s return from Darshan, the sick boy came up to and thanked him for providing the medicine on time – adding that he was feeling better! The teacher was overwhelmed when he realized Swami had tended to the student in the teacher’s own form! It Is indeed the Lord who is the doer.
After these speeches, Swami reminded the group of two songs that were prepared but had not sung! The hall then reverberated with the evergreen melodies ‘O Maa, O Maa’ and “Why fear when I am here?”
Swami then asked how many alumni were present, and was informed that the number was one hundred and fifty-five.
“Anthe Na?” (Is that all?) – He enquired with a mischievous smile.
Then, a beautiful dialogue ensued between Swami and an alumnus presently working at the Bangalore Super Specialty hospital. Excerpts from the conversation:
Alumnus: Swami, people are not able to believe that we are doing free surgeries in our hospital
Swami: We do not do the free surgeries for people to believe…we do them for our own happiness
Alumnus: Swami, we do complicated operations in our hospital – even big hospitals send their patients to us
Swami: Other hospitals send their patients because we do free operations … not because of any other reason
Alumnus {responding to Swami’s question): We have sixty doctors in our hospital, Swami. Many of them are offered enormous sums to join other hospitals, but they want to serve in Swami’s hospital
Swami: Money has its value, but the people who take it often lose their value
Alumnus: Swami, seeing that the facilities in our hospital are so good, doctors want us to start courses so that they can learn here and go and earn outside
Swami: Money earned like that won’t stay
Alumnus: Swami, all our students are getting a good name outside
Swami: Yes, before it was not like this but now they are good. They all came with their wives and children in an aeroplane. They say that they get peace only here.
Alumnus: Swami, please give us all a message on this occasion.
Swami: Be happy with whatever work you are doing; don’t think that you are doing it for someone else. Only then can you be happy
Everyone expressed their gratitude to Swami for blessing them with the opportunity to serve Him. Swami responded with memorable words “I know that you are all capable of discharging your responsibilities. That is why I gave you this opportunity. Do I give it to everyone?”
In the evening, Swami spoke glowingly about alumni in His discourse:
“Our students have sacred hearts, pure minds, selflessness and innocence. A few of them may commit mistakes but they correct themselves on their own. Students are our Central Trust. They do all the work. In fact, I stood up not to talk to you but to describe the glory of their selflessness. The work done by them is really wonderful and unique. These students are also the future support of the Central Trust. They work day in and day out. You cannot single out any one of them – all work very hard. No one can describe their abilities. So students, you should put the Central Trust on the proper path and show the ideal to the world by being leaders. The Central Trust will progress because of you; the future depends on you.”
Swami then personally gifted each of the one hundred and fifty-five alumni a beautiful wristwatch. It was a beautiful sight to see the Mother blessing her children, unmindful of the time it took. Swami also personally gave prasadam to many of them. Thus ended a beautiful day in the lives of these alumni, and for all of us who can rejoice in the ample blessings they received, as our own!
Behind the Scenes
“Old boys!” Bhagawan exclaimed with a smile of recognition as His chair passed by in front of alumni. His eyes were beaming love and joy. With those words, spoken so softly and sweetly, the years melted away in a flash and the memories of student life came rushing back. There they sat on August 1, 2007, center stage in Sai Kulwant Hall, surrounded by their group of 60 young adults (YAs) from the North Central region of the United States – about to begin their music program, and Swami had noticed the alumni in the group. Swami’s loving response was the high point of an entire year’s effort for the group.
The idea of forming a group to travel to Prashanti Nilayam for Swami’s Darshan was first proposed by the YAs in July 2006. At the time YAs led by alumni had undertaken an intense and challenging service project doing relief work for victims of Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. There was a tangible sense of momentum along with a need to translate recent experiences into lasting spiritual transformation. The desire to become a group and travel to India was thus motivated by a strong connection YAs felt with Bhagawan. It was a great blessing for alumni to provide leadership and guidance to the YAs in this journey, and deeply inspiring to see their love for Swami.
Over 70 youth from across the region met in Detroit, MI to begin the journey towards becoming ideal Sai Youth. On the advice of alumni, the YAs imposed strict participation criteria for the trip, including mandatory attendance at monthly retreats, Veda chanting, Jyoti meditation, personal sadhana, strict self-discipline and dress code requirements.
A key element of the journey was constant interaction with Swami, both individually and as a group. They wrote letters to Swami every month and also engaged in a group sadhana of chanting twenty-one gayatris at 9:00 pm every night, irrespective of where they were. Conscious of the environment and to inculcate self-discipline, YAs brought their own plates, bowls, utensils and glasses to retreats to avoid using disposable paper products. Each individual was responsible for washing their own dishes. This type of self-reliance and self-discipline was a powerful team building measure that also prepared the youth for living in India and for life at Parthi. This process was often very difficult, requiring youth to make significant personal sacrifices – in some cases this meant traveling through the night to meet the attendance stipulations. Yet the youth were strongly motivated by their love for Swami and overcame such obstacles to become a united group with a sense of purpose.
This rigorous preparation provided the group with the fortitude to withstand the many challenges that would present themselves in India – physically, emotionally and spiritually. In addition, they kept detailed records of each retreat including photographs and written summaries that were later converted into a “Process Book” that was later presented to Swami.
Swami also tested the unity of the group. Thousands of youth from the World Youth Conference were still present at the ashram. Practices for programs that had not been presented to Swami were still being conducted in the evenings. These conflicted with YA group meetings. Stretched too thin between various commitments, most of the members were missing meals and foregoing sleep. Also, despite best efforts to prepare team members for the heat of India and the rigors of the Ashram, many of them had become too sick to leave their rooms. Those members who did ·arrive for practice were late, hungry, and exhausted.
Despite these challenges, the group persevered. YAs went out of their way to help each other, bringing food for those who had missed meals, caring for those who were sick, and providing moral support to those whose spirits were low. In a memorable meeting on the night of July 31, alumni leading the group asked them, “How many of you are at 100%?” A few hands rose half-heartedly into the air. When rephrased as “How many would be at 100% if Swami approved our program tomorrow?”, every hand in the room shot up!
On August 1st, they organized a group excursion to Puttaparthi village, so that the YAs could see some sights from Swami’s childhood. During the excursion, some members decided to purchase a few roses, chunnis for the dance, and other necessities for the music program, on the chance that Swami may perhaps give permission for the group to perform sometime over the next few days.
That afternoon, they learnt that Swami had approved their program for being presented at Darshan time, that very evening!
When Swami emerged from Yajur Mandir that afternoon, He was seated in His chair without the Porte restricting their view. As He approached the group, sighting the three alumni seated in the front row, He smiled in cheerful recognition and exclaimed, “Old Boys!” The three alumni went up to Swami’s chair and offered Him a decorative scroll with the songs printed in calligraphy. One of the Sai Students read the song list to Swami, as He lovingly blessed the scroll. Swami then accepted a rose from another alumnus, then spoke to all the three of them and gave them padanamaskar. Then unexpectedly, He instructed the brothers attending to move Him to the left side of the staircase, directly in front of His “old boys”! Smiling at their obvious joy, He gave permission for the music program to begin.
Throughout the program, Swami displayed His omnipresence and omniscience, not to mention His boundless love, in countless ways. Recalling their struggles with learning and chanting Vedas in the US, Swami chanted the opening prayer of Ganapathi Prarthana with the group. When one singer unknowingly missed a line in a song, Swami subtly signaled to the student to repeat it, thereby fixing the error. At another point, Swami smilingly remarked to the boys’ side that they were lagging behind the sisters’ side in beat.
During a song performed by the sisters, Swami sweetly and playfully asked the brothers, Qawwali?”- all of which struck a chord with the entire group. Everyone in the group instantly recalled an obscure argument many months ago in the US as to whether that particular song was actually a Qawwali, devotional song or something else! All these subtle instances where Swami struck His one to one personal equation with the individuals in the group, made them reflect there was no way any ordinary person, witnessing the program for the first time could have known such mistakes or discussions had occurred. He would have had to be present at every practice, a witness to every discussion argument and joke-which of course Swami was!
For some YAs, this was perhaps the most meaningful physical interaction they had experienced with the Avatar. For many, this was the defining moment of their lives. No matter how each of them saw Bhagawan before the trip, they now see Him, as alumni see Him: a real, accessible participant in every moment of their lives. Of all the blessings Bhagawan bestowed that day, perhaps this was His greatest gift to them.
