When God dons the role of a divine teacher, He does not read from the scriptures or intone mere dictums. He rather takes on a human birth and all the ordeals that life on earth entails. He chooses to walk, talk, and live amongst men and women and taste the joys and suffer the pain that is part and parcel of an earthly sojourn. And so it is when He implores “Love all, serve all. Help ever, hurt never”. Time and again He has most deeply involved Himself in serving mankind, providing us with lessons that time awaits for us to emulate. It is His grace that we receive these lessons; it is His blessing that we get an opportunity to put these lessons to action.

One such extremely fortunate group of alumni were those in Barclays India. As part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, Barclays India had opened up to receive ideas for CSR projects from its employees.

Chosen projects were to receive a £500 worth of funding. A golden opportunity that Bhagawan had created for our brothers at Barclays! They got together to come select an idea -needless to say, ideas were plenty in number. If provided with the required resources each one of those ideas would have been carried out to a fitting fruition. The primary objective amongst the group was to create a lasting beneficial impact that would not fade with time. They reasoned thus; “Teach a man how to fish and you have fed him for life”. And so they chose, and wisely, “Project Mirchiwadi”.

In line with Bhagawan’s guidance to seamlessly work in unison with the local Sai centres, the alumni got in touch with devotees of the Ambarnath Sai Samiti. Two gentlemen, one Mr. Ryan and one Mr. Ramani, who were already involved in Sai Seva activities in many villages, played a vital role in helping the alumni decide on the village, Mirchiwadi, which needed the most help and the kind of seva that would best benefit the local inhabitants. There were no roads that led to this little hapless village. The only school there was a rundown shack of crumbling walls. Children were no longer taught here and the place was instead used by miscreants indulging in alcoholism and wanton gambling. The only well in the village was gathering contaminated water. The ill-informed villagers washed and bathed close to the well resulting in the used dirty water to seep back into the only source of water. Adding to its woes, the village was not blessed with the miracle of electricity. Over the years, the local municipality stopped serving the people of the area with water tankers as the sole dirt track that led to this place turned increasing non-pliable. And so Mirchiwadi presented the absolute picture of decadence, a village that was waiting to be rehabilitated; a village that called for a touch of divinity.

Impeccably perfect is the least we can say about the way in which God plans for the pieces of the divine plan to fall into place. For a little-known settlement in rural Maharashtra to need assistance and a group of young and eager alumni looking for villages to adopt to come together, who is to be thanked but our dear Lord Himself? When man questions the presence of God, when there is so much of pain and misery all around, God provides him with a million chances to alleviate the very same sufferings. The group of alumni began with building a proper road to Mirchiwadi, a lifeline that would ensure the more good that was in coming. They then helped clean the waters of the village well. However, in order to keep the waters from getting polluted again, they also constructed new outlets for used water to flow out through. The people of the hamlet could now wash their linen, livestock or take their baths without having to worry about the cleaned water getting contaminated. The next major setback addressed was the lack of proper schooling for the children of the village. The alumni involved themselves in personally rebuilding the dilapidated school and helped in its renovation and painting. But that was only one half of the solution to the problem at hand.

They then had to encourage the children to come to the school, by gifting each child with free uniforms, which they could otherwise never procure. The entire effort involved 150 villagers working for two days every week, for over a month, under the supervision of the village Panchayat (the local administrative body). Alumni from Barclays planned, estimated and arranged for all the activities to happen. As the seva involved villagers who were the direct beneficiaries of the project, the beautiful dream turned reality was better cherished.

Winning Barclays Chairman’s Award

Back at their office in Mumbai, little did the alumni involved realise what lay in store. From across all of Barclays’ offices worldwide , a total of 57,000 projects were undertaken. And of these, 443 projects from over 30 different countries were nominated for a prestigious Barclays Overall Global Chairman’s Award. This exercise has been a tradition assiduously kept alive for the past 12 years at Barclays. On the basis of the long term impact and the largest number of beneficiaries of indigenously structured sustainable development, Project Mirchiwadi, taken up by Sai university alumni was awarded the coveted title as the winner of the year. Over much acclaim the project also won the title of ‘Team Achievement of the Year – Asia Pacific’- “For improving the local infrastructure and bringing new hope to a local community”.

“Rural Mirchiwadi suffered from a lack of education facilities, scarce drinking water and poor transport links. But five Barclays India volunteers have helped transform the village. Abhishek Sharma and his colleagues improved the community’s infrastructure dramatically, cleaning and repairing the village well, building a new road and renovating Mirchiwadi’s only school, with help from more than 150 villagers.”
–Excerpts from Barclays website

But the greatest award that the alumni looked forward to was awaiting them back at home, sweet home, Prashanti Nilayam. The entire team came down to Puttaparthi to offer at the Divine Lotus Feet the award they had won. They prayerfully sent word to Swami, to humbly inform Him of the events. The Master Orchestrator of all that has ever happened, happening and happens knoweth all. That evening as the alumni sat in the darshan lines by the side of the car sheds, with the awards, certificates, photographs and other details of the project, Bhagawan in His sweetest compassion sent word for them to come and sit in the portico. And when Swami finished His darshan round, He made a bee line to the group.

What ensued was a sight coveted, even by the denizens of all heaven. With hearts brimming with joy, love and anticipation the alumni offered everything at Bhagawan’s Lotus Feet. They went through all the project details, flipping through a brochure they had prepared specially for this purpose. There have been numerous occasions when we as His children have feasted on the scene when Swami glows in pride at otherwise seemingly small and inconspicuous accomplishments on our part. We can then well imagine the twinkle of satisfaction and happiness in our beloved Mother’s eyes. Very lovingly Swami enquired about every small detail of the project undertaken and blessed everyone in the group. The Overall Global Chairman’s Award was to be collected in person by two representatives from this group at the Barclays headquarters in London. Swami blessed and urged the representative alumni to go and receive the award.

Is it not the most beautiful and overwhelming shade of our Bhagawan? He gives us the opportunity to undertake seva. He blesses us with His divine strength to accomplish the task at hand. And when we come to Him, He glows with pride as if the whole effort was solely ours.

Following is a brief run through of the conversation between Swami and the alumni.

Swami – Very good, very, very happy. Where have you carried out the work?

Alumni – At Mirchiwadi, Swami – with the help of Sai samitis in Mumbai.

Swami – How many boys were involved?

Alumni – 12 boys in total Swami. A few could not make it to Parthi. Swami – I am happy. Who are the ones going to receive the award, in London?

(The two boys went forward)

Swami – Happy! Go and receive the award.

Alumni – Swami, if You are happy that is more than enough for us. We do not want any awards. You have given us so much and Your happiness is what we value above all.

Swami – I am happy. Go and accept the award. Continue to do good work and involve the others working with you in all these activities.

Swami blessed all alumni in the group, and blessed them with words that gave the greatest joy “ I am very happy”