Visits Eluru and Guntur – December 1961 Saturday, December 02, 1961 to  Friday, December 15, 1961 Swami installed the marble idol of Shirdi Sai at Repalle, Guntur District on December 2nd, 1961. Swami created a golden image of Shirdi Sai and placed it underneath the marble image, ostensibly to infuse everlasting Divinity and Chaitanya to that idol carved by men. Swami told the devotees at Repalle that Sai dwells not only in the stony structure but also in human hearts purified by Sadhana (spiritual practice). Swami moved from Repalle to Chebrole and then to Eluru. On 6th December, 1961, Swami installed the marble images of Krishna and Radha at Geeta Bhavanam, Eluru. Baba created Navaratnas (nine precious gems) and Ashtabandhanachakras (auspicious mystical formula) in gold for the installation. The life size idols shone with a unique splendour after Swami touched them. Swami addressed a public meeting and spoke on the Bhagavad Gita in the evening. He explained the inner significance of the Radha-Krishna symbolism. Swami returned to Prashanti Nilayam on 15th December, 1961.

Educated Youth and Strikes: Example of Sri Sathya Sai University On either sides of the women’s campus of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning at Anantapur, there are two prominent educational institutions. Once the students of these two educational institutions went on strike as a part of a national level agitation and persisted that the students at the Anantapur Campus should also join the strike. The students of the Sai Institute Campus courteously but firmly refused to comply with their demand. But the boys demanded that the union leader of the girl students come for discussion. On persistence, one of the girl students (deputed by the Principal of the Campus as spokesperson for this purpose) was sent to talk to them on behalf of the students. The girl student replied that there was neither a union nor a union leader. The girls and the boys stood on either side of the campus main gate. She probed with them the reason for their coming and also the purpose of the agitation. They explained the reason for their arrival but failed to precisely cite the motive and rationale of the strike. Then it was the turn of the girl student to educate them. She questioned them about the purpose of education and the loss they incur by going on strike. She explained that exams would get postponed and later even their further studies would get affected; money would be wasted; and above all they would get a bad name. “After all what benefit are you people going to get?” she asked. She said, “If you can give convincing answers to all the foregoing questions, then we too would join the strike.” She returned, as the leader of the group left the place under compunction. Then the other (outside) students began introspection among themselves. It all got into full swing when a boy immolated himself as a part of a nation-wide student agitation at a demonstration in the national capital during the early 1990s. Actually he started it casually, but it turned out to be serious owing to political compulsions. Whose mistake is that? It is not the mistake of that boy, but that of the social, political and the academic environment prevailing in the country. Social dissensions prevailing in the society should be amicably sorted out through mutual love and harmony. People should not create split in the society and among various groups along various lines out of vested interests. Who will get a bad name because of all this? India will get a bad name at the global level. The educated people always hanker after money and power even though the future of India lies in the hands of educated youth. If the students also go off the track, the country will encounter unpredictable consequences. After all, being the children of this country (India), how can we tolerate this? We should not allow a section of the population of the country or geographical regions to remain at the bottom of the pyramid. It sounds uncomfortable, but owing to pecuniary attractions and certain other favourable consequences; industrial units, geographical areas and sections of certain groups compete to be recognised as sick or backward. The word ‘backward’ presents an appalling picture of India and in addressing ourselves as such; Bharatiyas are belittling our country among the comity of nations. Students should stick to Indian ideals and espouse them by personal example. In every aspect of your life, it is you who have to face the challenges. All the students are on the spiritual path. Students from other institutions may make fun of your beliefs. But you should be able to tell them that God is there for you and He is your eternal shield.

The Spring Garden – By Shravan Doshi Early Sunday morning when nature seemed to be singing a romantic tune, I had decided to do something for which I would have won the wrath of all the Gods in heaven, for even they crave for a golden opportunity to be student of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Feeling totally out of place and extremely homesick, I wished to tell Swami that I was going back that day to Bombay, my hometown, where I thought was the ultimate happiness. Hardly had I stayed in Brindavan for long. It was the middle of the Summer Course and I was waiting for Swami very eagerly so that I could vent out my feelings of so called ‘sorrow’ to Him. The enchanting Darshan music began at 7:30 am and so too did the – trepidation in my heart. Swami was almost completing His usual round and coming towards the students’ block. With every step that He was now taking my heart was beating faster and faster. But the further events made me feel that my heart had just suddenly stopped beating. Swami came close to me and smiled as if I had done Him the biggest favour anyone ever has. “Where did you come from?” “Swami, Bombay.” “Hey Bombay boy; don’t go back to Bombay. Stay with Me.” Moreover, to this I nodded agreeably as if that was what I always wanted to do. With one smile and one sentence the needful was done. All that hostility for life in Brindavan was gone in a flash and it suddenly seemed to be a spring garden where I wanted to come from so many lives. Rightly it is often quoted: “Man proposes and God disposes.” Though this quote gives a very pessimistic picture of God, God actually does everything only in the best interests of the epitome of His creation. What man fails to understand – is that God is his only true friend and will always wish for his good. Because Swami disposed my proposed ignorance this incident was the prime turning point in my life and was the precursor of my growing faith and devotion to Swami. My faith in Swami was actually planted during the days when I was studying in His primary school. I had been a student for a period of two years. During that period we considered Swami more like a good friend whom we could visit every Thursday and Sunday morning and He would invariably give us sweets and chocolates, our only source of joy in those days. I clearly remember the bright Sunday morning. It was my eleventh birthday and I had desired to get a photo of Swami with His pets Jack and Jill autographed by Him. So with all the paraphernalia I was eagerly waiting for Him to come to my side. Swami however seemed to be too busy giving interviews. Tears welled up in my eyes. What wrong had I done? Why was Swami ignoring me? I was suddenly reminded of a quote written on the blackboard the previous day in the classroom. It read: “Faith can move mountains.” I thought to myself, “I have faith that Swami will sign the photo. Let’s see if my faith can move Him.” Immediately the interview room door opened, Swami walked up straight to me, took the photo, signed it and looking deep into my eye as if seeing every tear of joy in it said, “Your faith can move mountains.” Swami has rekindled my faith and devotion in Him from time to time. As He says, He plants the seed for me to water and nurture so that later it grows into a big tree and provides shade to my entire life. One morning, during my under graduation in Brindavan, I noticed Swami accepting the letters of all foreign devotees sitting in the first line of a particular block. In that very block, in the third line or so was seated a poor Indian peasant in tattered clothes who was trying his best to give his letter too, but Swami totally ignored him. I saw this and thought to myself, “Swami how happy You would have made that poor little farmer if You had accepted his letter.” I had not ever completed the thought and I observed Swami retracing His steps, going back to that block, calling out to the peasant particularly and asking for his letter. I was so satisfied with the course of events that Swami had acknowledged a good thought of mine but He wished to sign off this incident in style. Swami literally hunted for me in the block of students, walked straight up to me, removed a particular brown envelope from the bunch of letters He was holding, and showing me the letter asked, “Happy?” What could I answer to such a loving God who knew me in and out and did things just to please me. Whenever I think as to what mean to Swami I am reminded of the story of the fruit and the flower. On a sunny morning a fruit asks a flower, “Tell me flower, how dear am I to you?” to which the flower in all its humility and innocence replies, “My dear fruit, how do I let you know that you always reside my heart.” That is exactly what Swami is driving home to us. We are His chosen instruments and will always reside in His heart, for we are just little fruits in the spring garden of Love where He is the Divine Gardener. The onus is now upon us to spread this sweetness that He has filled in us to the less fortunate and the needy so that the world becomes His kingdom in the true sense of the word. – Shravan DoshiStudent (2003-2005) Department of Management StudiesSri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prasanthi Nilayam CampusCurrently, Senior Vice President & Engagement Partner at Practus Advisors Inc., Canada

From Shirdi to Puttaparthi – Part 1 You may not know that Anjali Devi (Famous Telugu Film Actress, who directed the famous tele-serial entitled ‘Shirdi Sai-Parthi Sai: Divya Katha’ – The Divine Life Story of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba and Shri Parthi Sai Baba. All references to the ‘film’ in this Discourse are references to this tele-serial) has acted in 570 films. Finally she had only one aspiration. She wanted to produce a film depicting the life of Swami. She wanted to enact the role of the mother of Shirdi Sai Baba – Devagiriamma and she also wanted to play the role of Easwaramma (Swami’s mother) and find fulfillment in her life. She brought the director, the singers and all the people to Swami and I spoke to them and cleared their doubts. In the life of Shirdi Baba, no one knows when and where He was born, who His parents were and how He came to Shirdi. He came to Shirdi in the year 1854. At that time, He was only 16 years old. So he was born in 1838 in the village called Pathri in the district of Ahmednagar in Maharashtra. It was a very small village. In that village, great devotees and Niyogi Brahmins were there. A couple called Gangabhava and Devagiriamma were living there. Devagiriamma was always thinking of Parvati. Gangabhava would always think of Eshwara. They had wealth, but did not have children. Because of this, they were thinking of God all the time. On the fourteenth day of the bright half of Ashadha month, the moon would rise at 7:30 in the night. At that time, information came that the river Godavari was overflowing. Godavari takes its birth in a place called Nasik in Maharashtra and it was overflowing. Gangabhava had a job of helping people cross the river by boat. On hearing this Gangabhava gathered a few people and ran there so that he could anchor his boat properly. If it was delayed then all the boats would be swept away by the river. He told his wife and went off after 3 0’ clock. Devagiriamma was waiting for her husband to come back. They had a verandah in the house. At 7:30 pm, she heard a knock on the door. Thinking it to be her husband she ran and opened the door. But there was an old man who entered there. He said, “Amma I am very hungry. Can you please give me some food?” Their nature and tradition was to help, respect and serve their guests. She thought she will forgo her food for her husband and offer the remaining food to this person. She gave him a leaf and in that she served the food. The old man ate the food and washed his hands. She told him, “You stay in the corridor; I will close the door of the house.” She closed the door. But after 5 minutes he again knocked on the door. He said, “Amma you have given me food to fill my stomach but I am not able to sleep. Some lady should massage my legs”. Devagiriamma was shocked on hearing this. She thought very intensely if the Goddess was testing her. “What kind of an old man is he that he is demanding a lady to massage his legs and feet”, she thought. She went into the worship room and spoke to the Goddess, “Mother of the Universe, why are You testing me like this? Can You test me like this. It is not right for You to test me. You have to help me pass this test.” There was no other lady present. In that village there were some ladies who would do this kind of work. She offered them a lot of money to come and do this job. She said, “A man has come and he wants someone to massage his legs. Please come and help.” Everybody said that they didn’t have time on that day. She came back home in despair. She didn’t speak to the old man. She went directly to the prayer room, closed the doors and went on praying intensely to Mother Parvati. She prayed with a pure heart. She prayed that the old man should not be disappointed and that her pledge should not be broken. She asked for protection from the Goddess, “You should not disappoint me. I have to fulfill his desire. I also have to protect my oath. I have decided that my duty is to serve only the husband. That oath should not be broken.” When she turned to go, she heard that somebody was knocking on the back door of the house. She opened the back door. There was a lady there. She said, “Amma you called me in the evening but then I didn’t have time. Now I have time. I will do whatever work you ask me to do.” Through this one can know the power of prayer and its rewards. Devagiriamma was very happy that Goddess Parvati had answered her prayers and saved her honour. She opened the front door and sent this lady to serve the old man. The old man and the lady looked at each other. The old man was none other than Lord Eshwara Himself and the lady was Mother Parvati Herself. They understood the situation and knocked on the door again. They manifested in their true form of Eshwara and Parvati. Devagiriamma opened the door and on seeing the Divine couple, could not bear the joy and fell at the feet of Parvati. Goddess Parvati then said, “I am pleased with your devotion. Today I give you the boon of one son who will redeem your lineage and a daughter who you can give to another person in marriage (Kanyadana).” She not only fell at Goddess Parvati’s feet but also at the feet of Lord Eshwara. Lord Eshwara then said, “Amma I came only to test you. Hearing your prayer, Parvati has come

Visits Kerala and Tamil Nadu – December 1958 Sunday, December 14, 1958 to  Wednesday, December 31, 1958 At the request of Sri Burgula Ramakrishana Rao, the then Governor of Kerala, Swami toured Kerala between the 19th  and the 31st of December, 1958. Swami left Puttaparthi on the 14th. The entourage stopped over at several places enroute to Kerala namely Arakkonam, Madras, Bangalore, Mysore, Coimbatore and Aluwaye. Swami and His party reached Raj Bhavan (The Governor’s residence at Thiruvananthapuram) on the 19th evening. On 20th, Swami addressed a large gathering at Thiruvananthapuram. In the Discourse He said: “The Governor, Dr. Ramakrishna Rao, spoke now so feelingly about the urgent need to cultivate spiritual values. When economic progress is made without modifying the spiritual background, then egoism, competition, and greed bring the community to grief. Here in Thiruvananthapuram, there is no forgetting the spiritual background. The temple of Padmanabha dominates the town as well as the daily life of the people, not only of this place but of the entire State. Kerala is itself a holy land, and its holiness has increased by the advent of Shankaracharya and his teachings. The land is very beautiful, as I saw when I came from Coimbatore all the way to this capital city. The scenery formed by the backwaters and the coconut groves stretching from one end of the State to the other was like a vast painting by a great artist on a huge canvas. The Lord enjoys these things as a painter; He appreciates His own handiwork, standing before His own painting or sculpture. To see the Lord’s own loveliness in the lovely scenery around you requires not the outer eye but the inward eye. If you develop that, walking over the land or voyaging over the waters is itself a pilgrimage through holy land, giving you glimpses of God in every speck of cloud or patch of green. But all this Divine Beauty (Sundaram) must lead man to truth (Satyam), and all this truth to goodness (Mangalam). That is the natural path. The beauty of the Lord’s handiwork leads one on to the glory of the Lord; the picture makes you curious about the Painter. The Lord, when His Truth is grasped, confers bliss, which is auspiciousness itself. Kerala is ancient repository of spiritual wisdom I found also that the people here are very hardworking and industrious. From one end of the state to the other, people were busy on the roadside, in the shops and fields, in the gardens and canals. Another thing that attracted the attention of all those who were with Me was the stream of children hastening to the schools, with cadjan leaves or slates or bags of books slung on their shoulders, boys as well as girls. The percentage of literacy here is, I know, the highest in India. Besides every family has a number of highly educated men and women. Thiruvananthapuram is the centre of many great educational and cultural institutions. In spite of all the ancient traditions of spiritual victory, all the granary of spiritual lore, all the activity, all the industry, all the passion to get educated, and all the opportunities that are so gladly grasped, I find here a great deal of unrest. No “inner peace” is prevalent here, where one would expect to find it in large measure. Of course, as the saying goes, “An aged tiger still has the stripes.” Let Me tell you that the breath is still there, but strength has gone from this ancient repository of spiritual wisdom, which once taught the secret of equanimity and peace (Shanti) to all.  Gramophone records are all made of the same material. So too are all hearts of the same Supreme Consciousness. The grooves carved in them appear the same in all the plates. The grooves carved upon the hearts by grief and joy are also more or less the same. It is the needle that runs over the groove that produces through the sound box and the amplifier good music or bad. The needle is the mind, the mind that runs over the happiness and misery and translates or exaggerates the response and makes you feel elated or dejected. If the needle is sharp, the music is a pleasure to the ear. If it is blunt or broken, the sound becomes a screeching torture. Education man must first secure The mind is the wind that brings us the smell, foul or fragrant, of the world. When the mind turns to the foul, it makes you disgusted; when it turns toward the fragrant, you are made happy. The wind gathers the clouds from the four quarters; similarly the mind brings into your consciousness the disappointments of many hopes. Again, it is the mind that, like the wind, scatters the clouds that darken it or make it feel lost in the night of doubt. Control the mind and you remain unruffled. That is the secret of peace; that is the education that one must first claim and secure. We find today that, the person who is most highly educated is the very person who is most discontented and unhappy. Then, what is the gain from all the study the person has made of books and of men and things? To gain this equanimity, you have to do not reading but systematic spiritual effort. Then, you can be happy whether you are rich or poor, appreciated or rejected, prosperous or unlucky. That is an armour without which it is foolish to enter the arena of life. If the arena is entered just for getting sensory joy, you are in for all kinds of trouble. It is like sailing in a tiny boat on a storm-tossed sea without a rudder. So, enter upon the path of spiritual discipline now itself. Meditation will teach the Mind to be sharp Each one of you has a great deal of concentration; you know the art, for every task requires it and everyone benefits by it. The

Socially Responsible Products: Sri Sathya Sai Guidelines We have to take care of not only the amount of production, but also the way we can serve the society through proper production in terms of quality and also at affordable prices. But today, we are producing only those goods and services that satisfy our personal needs and justify our ends. We are spending large amounts of money on advertising those products that are either unnecessary or detrimental to society. For instance, in certain countries, the advertisements of items like liquor and cigarettes, figure in radio, TV and the print-media. In this context, we have to appreciate the significance of moral obligation to society in making products detrimental to public health and welfare. Do people consume these products because they are made available by business people or do business people make them because there is great demand for such products? Business people assert that they produce such items because there is great demand for these things. This may not be the complete truth. The truth is also that people do consume these things because companies make them available.  Those companies and their management, who make money-making their sole aim, undertake the production of such items which are harmful to public health. As such, business people have to do some soul-searching and assess whether their products make or break the society. Corporate organisations make decisions from the standpoint of increasing profits and wealth. They might not have so much concern about social or national welfare or the harmful impact of such products on society. However, management students should always assess as to what could be the impact of their organisation’s products on the society. 

LOOK AT ME… HOW YOUNG I LOOK! On Tuesday, the 9th of July 1991, some students prayed to Bhagavan for His advice.  Bhagavan asked, “Will you follow My advice, if I give it to you?” He then continued in His own inimitable way…  “Don’t talk much. Study well, get good grades. You talk too much, which I do not like. If you talk less, then Swami will be happy. When you talk more, you waste a lot of energy. Thinking is also inner talk. Look at Me, I am 65 years old.  Yet how young I look! Look at yourself. You look so old. This is because you waste your energy in unnecessary talk. I manage the Organisation and the whole world. But I do not think at all. I am only a witness, like lights on the stage of a theatre. People cry and laugh. There are births and deaths, but I am unaffected. I am not Brahma. If I were so, it would be Dvaita (Brahma and I). I am I. There is only one – Advaita. What is the difference between good and bad? It is only a difference of time. Fruit (Phalam), which is nice today, will become faeces (Malam) tomorrow that will have to be excreted.  Phalam is good, Malam is bad.  For one day if you do not clean your bowels, you will have a stomach upset. So take in good, reject the bad.”