Fleeting Moments – Eternal memories What are the fundamental questions that a spiritual aspirant must ask oneself while  treading on the spiritual path…with references and anecdotes of His precious pristine presence Dr Deepak Anand gave an enthralling talk on the final day of Prasanthi Vidwan Mahasabha on 24 October 2012. Dr Deepak Anand holds and MBA and Ph.D. from Bhagawan’s university and is currently a faculty with Dept. of Management Studies at the Prasanthi Nilayam campus. Aum Sri Sai Ram! …With utmost love and humility, I offer myself at the lotus feet of our Beloved Mother Sai.Revered Elders, Dear Sisters and Brothers – Sai Ram to all of you. All said and done, we are all co-travellers on a spiritual journey, on this spiritual sojourn where the goal is right in front of us. But between us and this particular goal, there are certain fundamental questions which we will have to answer sooner or later. You can avoid them for some time, but they will appear before you again and pose themselves to you and say – first give us the answer and then only you can move forward on this spiritual path. What are these fundamental questions? The first big question Swami says is that we must all ask ourselves is ‘Who are you?’ When was the last time did you ask this question to yourself? How sincere and earnest was the quest? It was in the upper portico in the year 1997, one of my first physical interactions with Bhagawan after I joined the MBA course in Sathya Sai University and Bhagawan asked me – ‘Where do you come from?’ I said Swami I come from Sri Aurobindo Institutions, the Mother’s International school and year after year on 23rd November since 1926, we have celebrated this day as victory day because on 23rd of November on your birthday, Bhagawan, when You incarnated on earth, Sri Aurobindo came out after more than a decade of deep meditation and said – ‘Celebrate, because this is the day of victory. The Krishna Consciousness has taken birth in physical form on earth.’ I said, ‘Bhagawan, Sri Aurobindo knew that you are God incarnate.” A few seconds of silence and Swami looked deep into my eyes and smiled and said that I am GOD is only half the story, better half of the story is that you also are GOD. The only difference being that I know it and you don’t have faith in these words of Mine. So always think that you are God, always feel that you are one with Swami. I took it as a spiritual instruction and thereafter I started feeling, trying to pretend to myself that I am Swami inside. But there was a big problem, and what was the problem? As we are all spiritual seekers, these problems come in our path. I wear glasses, how can there be a bi-spectacled Swami? That thought came into my mind. Yes, I can be Swami. But does Swami wear spectacles like this? He does not. So how can there be a bi-spectacled Swami was the question that came into my mind. Fortunately Swami took me that year to Kodaikanal and one day as He came out of His room, we were all sitting outside and I happened to be the first one that day and Swami spoke to the boys for sometime and without any premonition, He just took out my glasses and put them on His eyes, bent forward, raised His eyebrows and looked deep into my eyes as if asking me – ‘Now can there be a bi-spectacled Swami?’ And in those moments of silence, I got my answer- Yes, if these photographs can be embodiments of Bhagawan, if the idol and metals and rocks can manifest God in fullness if we have faith, why can’t the human body which is the highest embodiment of Divine consciousness. Yes, there can be a bi-spectacled Swami also. If you look at these photographs of Bhagawan all over, yes we should fold our hands and pray to them. We should wave the camphor at them and incense sticks at them, but that is not the end. What Swami says is these are not just My photographs for praying and folding of your hands and passage of your time but these are your vision statements. This is what you really are. You are all Sathya Sai Babas in making. This is what the reality is. This is the answer to the first question – Who are you? The second question which follows is – ‘Where are you?’ In my presence, one of the senior devotees asked Bhagawan, ‘Swami, We do so much spiritual sadhana from morning Suprabhatam to night Karacharana Kritamva… and the evening prayers, Sandhya  3 times, nagar sankirtanam, gram seva, all these we do Swami, how do I know where I am? Unless I know where I am, how can I progress towards where I want to go. The second question is, ‘Where are you?’ And Swami gave an immediate reply, ‘He said ask yourself how deep, how selfless, how expansive is your love? That is where you are  because if really we have to encapsulate the entire teachings of Bhagawan, the message of His life in one word and that is LOVE; that alone can be LOVE. I was seated here nearly a decade ago, this used to be the second portico where boys used to sit when I joined the MBA…and one particular day, there was one 1st MSc boy sitting next to me. I was in the MBA course. Swami came taking letters all the way and then came and looked towards us and asking  to the Mathematics boy, ‘How Are you?’ I don’t know what came over him or he had some family problem or he was too much over whelmed with the difficulty of the Calculus, Algebra and Real Analysis of his Mathematics course. He said, ‘Swami I want to merge in you.’ I was taken aback by

All India President’s Address to Balvikas Alumni Addressing the Balvikas Alumni Convention recently held in Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri V Srinivasan, All India President of SSSSO delivered an enlightening speech, inciting the young students to rise to the level of Bhagawan’s expectations, dedicating themselves to the Holy Mission. Om Sri Sai Ram! We have to begin with offerings of gratitude, given with humility to our beloved Divine Master Who has given us life, Who has given us a vision, Who has given us a mission, Who has taken us to Him and selected us from the millions and millions of people. I, on your behalf and on my behalf bow to our Lord, Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and express mine and your heartfelt gratitude for giving us this occasion to come together. Always this is our home and let me add my words of welcome to all of you – Welcome Home! Welcome to Sai! On the 1st of January this year 2013,we had the alumni of the Institute of Higher Learning of Sai University, who gathered here and today we have the alumni and those who are shortly going to become alumni who have come here to this seat of Divinity, of learning and of excellence. The pathway to excellence -dear brothers and sisters – starts and ends at the Lotus Feet of our Beloved Bhagawan. So if you want to go and travel on this pathway-your journey begins at His Feet and your journey will end hopefully at His Feet. So, as I was saying that, we had the alumni of the University and today we have the alumni of our Balvikas. It is perhaps interesting to draw some comparisons. As far as I know, there are about 10,000 alumni of the Institute of Higher Learning and again this is something I should know is that we have over 10 Lacs alumni of the Balvikas. The University students go through a period of 10 to 15 years of study, while you go through the nine years of Balvikas curriculum. The University students receive a Divine degree, you receive a Divine diploma – because both the University and the Balvikas, way back in 1968, both were started by Bhagawan Baba. The University course came a little later but Bhagawan started with the Balvihar and that evolved into the Balvikas. The University students receive Sai Integral Education, you receive Sai Education for life. When we compare that we are 10 lacs, then today the first target we have to set dear brothers and sisters is that at the next alumni meeting there must be at least 10,000 of you to attend this and all 10 lacs of the alumni must attend at least one meeting a year held on a regional basis. While we will have a meeting at Prasanti Nilayam, I know that you are dispersed throughout the world, so you should now resolve that you should come together because Bhagawan always emphasized ‘Satsang’ i.e. collective action. He was not for individual action, he was for individual transformation. As you know the Sai organization today has set for itself a motto – ‘Transforming lives to transform the world’. We are first to transform ourselves before we can make the effort to transform the world. And Bhagawan always believes that transformation started at the individual level. Bhagawan always emphasized that action becomes worthy action if it is done collectively. He always said all the fingers of the hand have to work together to bring about meaningful action. Individual action, when we point with one finger, usually results in unworthy action. So it is important that the Sai alumni should meet regularly- at least once a year at your regional, zonal levels whatever we may wish to call it. Meetings to come together so that the lamp which Bhagawan has lit, as your song was sung, continues to burn with effulgence. That lamp should never be allowed to go off. It is important now, that the Balvikas have a proper database of all it’s membership. Database is so important. It is important that the Balvikas now has it’s own e-newsletter which will reach out to all the 10  lac members. These are all small things, we should not look upon them as an end in themselves, they are ways and instruments to enable us to do a task which Bhagawan wishes us to do. Do you realize that you as Balvikas alumni have two Alma Maters – you have one as the Balvikas and if the Vice Chancellor would not mind – I would like to call this as Balvikas University, and the other is the school or the college where you studied. What have you done for your Alma Maters? How are you supporting the Balvikas movement. Have you ever reflected or is our commitment only oral. Bhagawan always said, ‘Do you do what you say?’ The wonderful words which were sung -’Duniya mein kitana Dukh hai, duniya mein kitana kashta hai, uske baare mein hum kuch kar Rahe hain ya nahin?’ about the difficulties and the problems and the griefs in this world – What are we doing collectively? Individually and collectively? In the other Alma Mater, what steps have you taken to introduce the Balvikas. Yours is to make the effort, the results are in His hands. We should never bother about results, results are in Bhagawan’s hands. But He wants you, He out of His love and His compassion for all of us, whether we are in the Balvikas, whether we are in the Seva Dal, whether we are in the University or whether we are in the hospital – He wants us to make the effort – problems will be there, but Bhagawan is the Master. He is The Lord Who ordains the results. So, as Balvikas alumni, have you taken any steps to introduce the Balvikas in your old school? Bhagawan always emphasized the importance of gratitude and He always stated that ingratitude is

Watch Out! We Are The Pacemakers…The Torch Bearers… Addressing the Balvikas Convention, Dr Rajan Anand, a Balvikas alumnus and currently working as a junior consultant anaesthesiologist at Bhagawan’s Super Speciality Hospital delivered an enlivening speech on 13th January, sharing the story of his journey as a Balvikas student, practising His teachings all along…Dr. Rajan Anand hails from the State of Himachal Pradesh, done his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of  Surgery from IGMC Shimla. Om Sri Sai Ram! My most humble Pranams at the Divine Lotus Feet of our most beloved Bhagawan and my loving SaiRam to one and all. Maa or mother is the first word that every child utters transcending the barrier of language, race and country. When in pain, the first person we think of and call spontaneously is ‘Maa’. Listening to this call of a child – no mother can wait – her heart melts. Setting aside everything else, she rushes to help and shower love. More than 40 years ago, the Divine Mother’s heart melted to the cries of her many children. Yes, Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Whose love is more than that of a million mothers responded to the prayers of Her children. In 1969, Swami launched the Balvikas movement to blossom His children into citizens and leaders of tomorrow. Swami invested something more powerful than money – it was SELFLESS LOVE. It is His love that has blossomed millions of children into youth of character. There are hundreds of teachers known as Balvikas gurus guiding these young aspiring minds to follow the Divine  Teachings and guidance of Bhagawan. I am fortunate to have my mother as my Balvikas guru.  She made sure that each and every moment of my life – I surrender all my thoughts, words and deeds to Him. I always felt the unseen hand of our loving Lord – guiding and guarding me in every step of my life. I am grateful to Swami for blessing me with my physical mother who persistently taught me to do my best and surrender to Him. I was in year 8 when Swami started the Super Speciality hospital in Puttaparthi. One day while returning from Bhajan with my mother – she said – I pray to Bhagawan to bless someone from our family to become a doctor and serve Him in His hospital. At that very moment, I promised myself that I would make every effort to fulfil this wish of hers. As the years rolled by and time finally came, I was unable to qualify the medical entrance examination. I felt lonely and lost. I did not know what to do. To be on the safer side, my father asked me to start preparing for engineering entrance examination as well. I was totally confused and was not able to decide on what to do. My mother understood my plight and she told me to pray sincerely for Divine guidance. Dear brothers and sisters, ice also take sometime to melt, but my Divine Mother’s heart melted in no time to my sincere prayers. In a dream one night, I was crying and poring out my woes to Bhagawan. He hugged and assured me that He would take care of everything. He directed me to start preparing for medical entrance and not for engineering. At the same time He instructed me to keep maths book on my study table just to satisfy my father. On the night of my medical entrance – to silence my sceptical mind – Swami re-assured me in a dream that I would definitely pass this time. With Swami’s blessings, I got sixth rank in the state medical entrance examination. When I joined the medical school in Shimla, I was going to be away from my physical mother for the first time. She was wondering who would help me at the time of despair, who would guide me – what is the correct path? What if I fall into bad company. She prayed to Swami to be with me. Fortunately, the Divine Mother has been my constant guide and companion, nurturing me into a beautiful flower in his Divine garden. While in medical school, Swami gave me some clear cut instructions through His dreams – some of which I would like to share with all the students present here. I quote – ‘Do not engage yourself in unnecessary conversations with your colleagues; Avoid bad company; Don’t go from room to room in the hostel; Constantly chant the Gayatri Mantra;  Watch your Thoughts, Words and Deeds; Do not hurt anyone.’ Swami is a hard task master and whenever I faltered, He would remind me and helped me to implement these instructions in my day to day activities. My sister’s wedding ceremony was fixed when I was in 2nd year MBBS. I was overjoyed but was worried at the same time as my final exams were scheduled immediately after the wedding. With a wedding excitement all over the house, it was impossible for me to prepare for the medical exams. After the wedding with just few days left for the exam, I started revising the text – Knowing very well that I would never be able to complete the syllabus. On a Thursday evening, with just three days for the exams, something prompted me from within, to go for bhajan that evening. My friends who were drenched in books, discouraged me but I knew that only bhajans would help my disturbed mind. I went for bhajan and prayed with all my mind – Dear Lord! I have wasted three precious hours, attending your bhajan – I am neither asking you to write my exam nor dictate the questions and answers to me. Oh dear Creator of this universe, please create a little time so that I may revise my syllabus. When I got back to the hostel, I was amazed to find all my friends playing cricket. they welcomed me with exciting words – Rajan, your Swami has postponed the exams

Are We Walking Swami’s Talk? Addressing the Balvikas Alumni, during the recently held Balvikas Alumni Meet, Ms Anushka Pathak from Assam spoke of her golden memoirs of being a Balvikas child, recollecting some of the priceless lessons learnt from Beloved Mother Sai. Ms Anushka is a Balvikas guru, currently settled in Bangalore working as a technical writer and instructional designer at DELL R & D Division. My humble Pranams at the Lotus Feet of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Pranams to all my elders present here, Sai Ram to everyone, to all my brothers and sisters also present here. As Balvikas alumni, I am sure we are all aware of Chinna Kathas, so a Chinna Katha I start with. Just that this Chinna Katha happened to be, which showed me Swami’s omnipresence. It was during one Shivaratri – 2008 if I am not wrong – that Swami during His discourse mentioned something very strange. I remember Prof Anil Kumar’s voice translating it thus – ‘Among the birds, the bat is a very different kind of bird.’ … And he repeated that twice. The discourse went on, but the bat was not mentioned again. I was a little surprised because the bat reference here seemed a little out of context and so I wondered – why bat? But about one thing I was absolutely sure – Swami would never say anything that is meaningless or purposeless. I did not get any explanation however until the next day. The next day in the morning at around 4.00am,  I went to the Gayatri temple for pradakshina. It was dark still, I started the pradakshina when I suddenly heard a screeching noise. Distracted, I looked towards the wired fence, and I saw something very small hanging over there. the screeching noise was coming from that small thing hanging on the wired fence. I also saw a huge bird hovering around the small thing hanging on the fence. It wanted to swoop down at that small thing but then there were people around, so the huge bird was scared. With a sudden shock I realised that the small thing hanging on the fence was a baby bat and the bigger bird, hovering around it, was the mother bat. The baby bat had obviously fallen down from its mother’s side. So I looked around for some help and a Seva Dal member nearby helped me in lifting up this baby bat to one of the branches of big banyan tree next to the Gayatri Temple. The baby clutched to one of the branches and I was standing there waiting and watching and wondering if the baby bat could climb up the branches of the tree on its own. Suddenly I saw the branches above the baby bat shake a little and  saw something coming down – almost sliding down towards the baby bat. It was the mother bat. The next scene that I saw was perhaps one of the most beautiful scenes that I have ever seen in my life. Upon reaching the baby bat, the mother bat opened her wings, the baby bat clutched on to the mother bat’s chest. The mother bat closed her wings around the little baby bat and started climbing up the tree. It was the baby bat which was enclosed but with love by the mother bat’s wings, but somewhere I felt I was the one who was enclosed with Mother Sai’s Love. I realised that this is the reason why Sai Maa had mentioned the bat in the discourse the previous day so that I become mentally ready for this amazing rescue drama the next day. Nothing that Swami ever says is meaningless or purposeless – nothing ever happens without His Will. This incident most importantly taught me that all of us are always at all times under His surveillance and protection. Another fact which this entire episode taught me is that the entire universe is nothing but a drama. Everything is pre-planned like the way He planned the rescue for the little baby bat. He is the Director and He is the Enactor too. Yes, He is the Enactor present in each and everyone of us. In fact, He is our true identity – the identity that we are constantly searching for in this external world. If you notice, every moment we try to be somebody or somebody’s. I am somebody’s mother, I am somebody’s daughter, I am somebody’s son, I am somebody’s sister, somebody’s father, somebody’s brother or I am trying to be somebody – I am a Vice President of a company or I am an engineer or I am a doctor. We identify ourselves with these roles so much that we think that they are our real identities. What are they? We get lost in all these role playing – we forget that this is all role playing in a huge drama. And in all these roles, who is the real me? That is where Swami came in and that is exactly where Balvikas comes in for me. Balvikas – for me – is an answer to an identity crisis. In fact, the whole goal of Balvikas is to put us on the path of the answer to the question – Who am I? and I feel so lucky that even before I could actually speak properly or even walk properly for that matter, I was attending Balvikas classes – thanks to my mother who herself was a Balvikas guru. In fact, I am so grateful to my mother – it is she who put me on this spiritual path, it is from her that I learnt about Swami even before I knew my own name – rather the label that is my name. While the children all around us were learning to take up identities from the external world – we the Balvikas students were learning to shed identities.  We were being told that Swami’s form mirrored all that we truly are. Sat-Chit-Ananda – Being, Awareness, Bliss.

Let’s Carry His Message Forward… Addressing the National Balvikas Alumni Meet, Sri Pradeep Duggal from Haryana spoke of his journey through Balvikas, unto Sai…touching upon some of the interesting personal experiences he had during his moulding years…Sri Pradeep is currently employed with Cable & Wireless Worldwide… Humble Pranams at the lotus feet of beloved Sai! We all are blessed that we are here. Today I am really thankful to my Balvikas gurus who made me capable to be here. and I am really thankful to my parents who took this right decision to send me to the Balvikas classes at the right time and at this stage of my life, I can feel that yes, transformation was going on at the time when I was in Balvikas group I, group II and group III. We all are familiar with Balvikas training programme which includes group I, II and III. Nine years, Oh My God! But don’t worry. Let me give you quick calculation about the time what we had spent in Balvikas group I, II and III to learn all teachings of Sai Educare. In a month, it is 4-5 times, 50-52 hours in a year, equal to three days, so it becomes 9 days to clear one group i.e., group I and total of 27 days to clear group I, II and III. What an amazing figure, just 27 days out of 9 years, 27 days out of 3285 days and we are transformed! Hence, we can say that our smart parents are really smart who have taken this decision to send their children to the Balvikas. Why I am calling this Balvikas training programme as a process because it is the only process who has the power in it to transform the child. And if you think in a broader way, you will find that we were getting something extra, yes something extra at that time and that was the thing about human values. Earlier there were dadis and nanis in the house, who were doing this divine job of educating their children. Now-a-days we are finding nuclear families all around. Hence our Balvikas gurus are doing this divine task to educate children in human values. Therefore on behalf of Mother Sai – I call upon all parents to  spare these 27 days out of 3285 days to get them transformed. Moreover, the education what I got in my school and college has taught me how to earn money? How to get status in the society? But the Sai Educare has taught me how to live in this world, how to educate your heart, how to discriminate between good and bad? And I am really thankful to my Balvikas gurus for imbibing these good qualities, to inculcate these good qualities in the children through the process of Balvikas. At last I would like to share some of my experiences with Sai . In my 10th standard, I got less marks in my Board Examination. Then I decided that I will work hard for 11th Board examination and I will top in my school as well as the district. Hence I started doing hard work and was very happy to see that I am done with revision of all subjects which was done seven days prior to the XII Board Examination. But I don’t know what happened to me that day. I got infected with some kind of viral and got hospitalised. I became so weak that i was unable to even move my hand. My parents were also worried that how would I be able to give the XII Board Examination. They even asked me if I was ready to drop that year. Doctors also suggested the same as I was not in a position to exert. But anyhow, I decided that I will attempt my exams and this is what, which only I know that how I had attempted those exams. Being a non-medical student – Physics, Chemistry and Maths were my core subjects and out of 36 sheets what I got, I wrote 2 sheets for Physics, 1 sheet for Chemistry and 1 sheet for Maths again. For Physical education and English – it was the same case. When exams got over I was very well aware that I would fail in all these exams and I will have to clear these exams next year – that I have give my XII Board Examination next year once again. But I really got surprised when National Informatics Centre declared the results and I got first division in XII Board Examination. But at that time who was aware that one day I will work with NIC – National Informatics Centre as the Network Administrator. Yes, Swami blessed me once again at the time of my interview with NIC. Interview was for the position of Network Administrator and the eligibility criteria was 3 plus years and expertise in networking. But I had 1.3 years of experience and little knowledge of networking. Anyway, the panel interviewed all the candidates and gave me feedback as – your technical networking skills are not very good, but your human networking skills are superb. I was confused at that time that what they are saying. And as they were searching a techie, hence I was aware that I will not get selected. But when they announced the result – I again really got surprised that out of many expert candidates, I was selected as a Network Administrator for Karnataka region. That time I was thinking that why have they not selected those other expert candidates who had 4-5 years of experience and expertise in networking.  And what I feel that why I got selected is because of the confidence and because of the positive thinking which I got from Sai Educare. I am really thankful to Swami for giving me this confidence , the stability in the form of truth, righteousness, peace, love and non-violence, and as Swami says – My Life is

Every child born must be blessed with Balvikas… Every child born must be blessed with Balvikas classes, urged a young Santosh from Jharkhand addressing the Balvikas Alumi Meet held last month. Santosh’s speech was from a youth perspective, talking about the tremendous impact the Balvikas brings in a student’s life. Santosh  is currently working in IBM Hyderabad as a UNIX Administrator. Om Sri Sai Ram! My humble pranams at the lotus feet of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Respected elders, dear brothers and sisters, I feel privileged to share my experiences and views regarding Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas classes. I have been associated with Balvikas right from the childhood and it did start from the divine classes of Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas. Truly speaking, I did personally enjoyed a lot going to Balvikas classes. I remember, in fact I cherish those good old childhood days when my mother used to take me to Balvikas classes on a weekend accompanied with a group of friends. We used to do a lot of fun loving activities. Just to put few activities into perspective – games, chanting slokas, enacting plays, listening to great epic stories which were simply amazing and trust me it did not have space for boredom at all. But there were few questions which always used to strike my mind. I remember these questions asking to lot of my gurus during my Balvikas classes. What is Balvikas all about? What is the aim of Balvikas? What are we expecting out of Balvikas? I am reminded of the answers stated by my gurus. Balvikas in fact is a Sanskrit phrase which means – blossoming of child and its aim is to foster character development and inculcate spiritual transformation and at the same time, it also inculcates self respect in the students like me and the students who are all sitting here – a matter of self-respect so that students like us to become the masters of mind and not the slaves of senses and moreover, we have absolute control over sense organs. ‘Love All Serve All’ was Swami’s one of the prominent teachings throughout His existence in physical form. Let me tell you one of the perpetual memories which I gathered here at Prasanti Nilayam. I was a Balvikas student and belonged to Bihar and Jharkhand Seva Samiti. Every year we used to come during Holi to celebrate the festival with Swami and it was then I was blessed with a chance to portray spiritual drama way back in 2006. The drama went on really well. Swami liked it. As soon as the drama got over, we all assembled near Swami to just take a photograph which we could carry back to our home and keep it as memory for the rest of our lives. Swami came close to us and suddenly all the characters started interacting with Him. There were lot of interactions going on between Swami and the characters. Swami suddenly looked at me and smiled and asked me a very simple question – What is your name? to which I humbly replied – Gopi. Swami smiled again and nodded His head and says in telugu – Chala Baagundi. I was extremely delighted to listen to such wonderful words from Swami. Swami’s graceful love and shower of love made me feel so special. This signifies that individual like me, individuals like you all sitting here look out for love. We expect people to shower love. We expect people to be graceful. We expect people to be polite. Because Swami also says – Love can create miracles. All the learnings that I have gathered in Balvikas classes is in fact became fruitful when I grew old and I had lot of challenges to face – may it be my education career, choosing the right college for my institution, commencement of professional career – I think Swami played a very vital role and helped me take very crucial decisions throughout my lifetime. I passed out my Year 12 in 2006 and let me tell you something more on this… I had two desires in life – I wanted to pursue engineering degree and secondly I also wanted to study in Swami’s institute which was completely impossible because Swami’s Institute does not have engineering courses. But still I made my mind that I would do B.Sc because Swami’s institute had B.Sc courses and only if I get admitted in Swami’s Institute or else I will go for engineering. I came to Puttaparthi and gave my entrance exams but unfortunately I was not selected. I was dejected and was literally crying sitting inside the Mandir that particular evening. That is why I carried a lot of worries when I entered into my engineering course. Worry as to how will I proceed? How will I do? Will I be placed as soon as I pass out of my engineering courses? But I did not lose trust and faith in Swami. That trust and faith did pay me back – I was awarded the gold medal for securing first class honours degree in my engineering. That is what Balvikas can do. As I said – it can create miracles. What better could I have asked from Swami? Talking something about modern education, modern world which is progressing at a very rapid pace. Every individual is aiming high to have a great and a very lucrative career and I would say that is completely ok. We should aim really high in life. But dear brothers and sisters, I would also say that why not have intelligence in combination with spiritual knowledge. Intelligence and spiritual knowledge – the amalgamation – not only helps you to progress at a very faster pace but also helps you to take very crucial decisions in life and become an excellent team member which I am sure everyone sitting here would desire to. To all the youngsters, brothers and sisters,  what do we aspire in life? What do we want to

Arise…Awake and Stop Not… Delivering the final speech of Balvikas Alumni Meet, held last month, Sri Ramesh Srinivasan from Mumbai spoke on the theme ‘The Path Ahead…Mission 2015″ narrating how Bhagawan becomes ‘Be-All and End-All’ in a Balvikas student’s life, who strives to become a worthy instrument. Ramesh Srinivasan holds doctoral degree in Chemical Engineering from California Institute of Technology where he worked in a nobl e prize winning technology. He is an active  Balvikas alumni, active in Sathya Sai Seva Organisations, currently working as a health care consultant in a premier management consulting firm. Aum Sri Sai Ram! I offer my most reverential and loving pranams at the Divine Lotus Feet of our beloved Bhagawan. Dearest Lord, Respected elders, fellow alumni of the Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas, dear brothers and sisters. Loving Sai Rams to all of you. As I stand here today, on this holy ground in the loving presence of my sweetest Lord amidst this assembly, a million of emotions flow my mind but the most overwhelming of them is gratitude. Gratitude to Bhagawan for having brought me to His Lotus Feet in this lifetime, gratitude to my Balvikas gurus for having sowed the seed of love for God in my young heart, gratitude to my parents for having nurtured that seed of love. Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas has provided me and to all of us – the foundation for a lifelong journey to rise in love for God and for all things Godly. Bhagawan in His infinite grace and in His infinite compassion sparks the lamp of love in each of our hearts at the young age. And even if we want to go away from Him, Bhagawan never lets go of us. Bhagawan’s omnipresence, Bhagawan’s omnipotence, Bhagawan’s love carries us across oceans and across continents. A few years ago, when I was in the US, part of the organisation there, we were organising a Sai Spiritual Retreat and as part of that Spiritual Retreat, we had invited the alumni of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning – the so called music boys to come and offer a garland of musical songs to Bhagawan as part of that Spiritual Retreat. And I always had this yearning in my heart that I wanted to be a student of the Sathya Sai Institute. That never came to be and so I took upon myself the task of taking care of all of Swami’s students – hosting them, providing hospitality as if Bhagawan Himself had come. The spiritual retreat went extremely well. On the very last day, the very last programme was an offering of bhajans by Swami’s students and I sat right behind Swami’s students looking at Bhagawan’s picture. Immediately a dam broke inside me and emotions started pouring out – and in my mind as tears profusely steamed down my cheeks – I prayed to Bhagawan that why did I not become Your student? Why did You not accept me as Your student? What wrong have I done either in this lifetime or past lifetimes so that I did not get that opportunity? And the more I dwelt on this, the more tears came. It was almost as if the heart was being wrung like a wet towel. And as these thoughts kept coming, I asked Bhagawan – Is it because I am a step child of yours? All of these students are Your real sons. I am Your step son which is why You have kept me away from You for so long. And at the very end I gave Bhagawan a little bit of an opportunity to make up for His lapse. So in my mind I told Bhagawan – alright probably some great sin of mine has caused me from not being Your student, can You at least not give me a hug? Is that too much to ask for? I went home that day continuing to cry. All of the Sai elders, all of my Sai brothers were very worried and concerned. But how could I share with them the shameful secret that I was accusing the Lord of being a step-father. I went to bed crying that night, never imagined that so many tears could actually flow from human being. The next morning at about 4.00 am, I get awakened by a phone call. It was a Sai brother of mine who had called and said – Ramesh I want to tell you something. Swami came in my dream – you were also in that dream – you and I were sitting with Swami at the dinner table and Swami kept ignoring you and kept talking to me and you kept crying in the entire dream. But you know what happened then? Suddenly, Swami got up and he ran towards you and gave you a big hug. Hearing this, I broke down again – overwhelmed by the love of the Lord. Sitting in America – in my own mind praying to Bhagawan for a hug and here He is giving me a hug. It is said that Swami can listen to a foot fall of an ant, the sneeze of a butterfly, the yearning of every sincere heart. As my brothers pointed out earlier, Bhagawan’s heart melts in no time. Balvikas not only teaches us to rise in love for God, it also teaches us to love all things Godly and that means the responsibility to practise the teachings of Bhagawan. I recall my final year engineering programme in Mumbai and as was the fashion in those days, there was mad rush among all of the students to actually get admission into a foreign university. And so in the final examinations it turned out that many of my fellow students were not shy of borrowing from each other during examinations and so they would encourage me to participate in this activity with them. But Bhagawan has taught us through Balvikas that excellence while the goal of human life has to be

Follow His Footprints… Addressing devotees on the eve of Guru Purnima, Sri Ameya Deshpande, Research Scholar with Dept. Of Mgmt. Studies at SSSIHL gave an inspirational rhetoric sharing many an interesting anecdotes that the students were privileged to learn at His Divine Lotus Feet. Read on full transcription of the speech. It is by Your Divine will that You have taken us under Your protective care. Swami, we pray to You that You never ever break this bond of loving relationship with us because we are You and You are us. Most revered elders, dear brothers and sisters, SaiRam to all of you! Let me take you briefly back to the surreal blue mountains of Kodaikanal. It was a wonderful cold afternoon, Swami was sitting with all His students and all of a sudden Swami popped out a question – What is the rarest phenomenon in this Universe? A quite deep and profound question! One of the students answered – Swami Self- realisation or ‘Mukti’ is the rarest phenomenon in this Universe. A pretty decent answer; but Swami’s reply to that was – Absolutely not! Self realisation is the ultimate destiny of every single life form and therefore it is the inevitable end of every single being. Therefore it cannot be the most rarest. ‘Mukti’ or Self-realisation is not the rarest. And then Swami answered. When all the other boys were looking at Bhagawan’s Face, Swami answered: the rarest phenomenon in this Universe is to be a contemporary of the Living Avatar… And Swami went on to say that even rarer than living with the Avatar is to know the Living Avatar… And even rarer than knowing the Avatar is to love the Lord in human form and even rarer and probably the rarest of everything in this Universe is to get a chance to serve The Lord. It is our Divine fortune, it is the ultimate compassion of our Divine Lord that He has given all of us , the few of us who are over here, that Divine opportunity to serve Him, to know Him, to love Him. So the question now is – how do we serve the Lord? It was in the clarion call that the Avatar made on 20th October 1940, when He said just four words in the beginning of His bhajan -’ Manasa Bhajre Guru Charanam’. Here was the Lord asking all of us to come together, He was not saying all of you chant the name of the Guru. He was saying Manasa Bhajare – O Mind, chant the name of the Guru’s Feet. The second word is ‘Bhajare’ which is contemplation. He is asking every mind seated over here to contemplate on the Guru’s Feet. And what is a Guru?Couple of years back when we had been to Kedarnath, we had the privilege of meeting a Self-realised soul and when some of us asked him this question when we said, we are all very pained that our Guru is not anymore with us in the physical form. How are we supposed to overcome this? When we asked him, his answer was – think about what you are all asking. Ask yourself, Who is the Guru? And then he went on to say – Does not Baba Himself say that Guru is the One Who is Gu – Gunatita and Ru – Roopvarjita. And so, therefore, what is it that is actually the Guru? And he went on to say that Guru is not the physical form, Guru truly is the word which comes out of the physical form. And imagine the potency of this particular statement. He is saying that the word is the actual Guru….and he went on to say that if you look at the word, it does not have any form and it is truly beyond the three attributes. It is truly Gunatita and Roopvarjita and therefore the true Guru is the message of the Guru. The message of the Lord is the true Guru. And the fourth word – Charanam – what is this Feet of the Lord?Let me again take you back to Paduka Poojas which often used to happen every year in Prasanthi Nilayam. Once, after the Paduka Pooja was over, Swami was sitting with some of His students in the interview room and all the boys had the great opportunity to press Swami’s Feet. And Swami asked this question, what is Paduka Pooja? And one of the boys seated next to Him said, Swami what we are doing is Paduka Pooja. Swami said, No, no… this is not Paduka Pooja. And then someone had a little higher understanding of telling Swami – in fact our tears of gratitude are like ‘Toyam’ and  ‘Patram’ and the Phalam are all our merits and demerits that we offer at Your Lotus Feet. You know He wanted to give a little better understanding of what is Paduka Pooja and Swami said no, no, no that is also not Paduka Pooja. And then Swami went on to say that true Paduka Pooja is when the Lord in human form leaves His Footprints – to walk in His Footprints is truly Paduka Pooja To walk on the Footprints of the Lord, to make our lives His message is truly Paduka Pooja. So now the next question is – How do we do it? Do we have the opportunity to serve the Lord? We have the rarest of the rare opportunities to serve the Lord. We also know what it is to serve the Lord? What is the true Paduka Pooja? What is the Guru Charanam that we are supposed to contemplate on? So now the next question is – Are we really qualified? What is our qualification? And here Swami so beautifully says – The only qualification that you need is to need Me. If you need Me, you deserve Me. And I think each and every one of us seated over here have that qualification because we need Bhagawan, we need Swami in our lives. But there are

Follow The Master! Speaking on the occasion of Guru Purnima in Prasanthi Nilayam, Dr Srikanth Sola, a reputed cardiologist and a spiritual guide, spoke of Bhagawan’s Four Fs, elaborating on the theme ‘Follow The Master’, the first of the 4 Fs…His speech was a testimony to the fact that when one is meticulously following The Master, He Himself takes care of the aspirant’s onward journey, both material and spiritual. Dr Srikanth Sola is currently working as Consultant Cardiologist at SSSIHMS, Whitefield, Bangalore.My Humble Pranams at The Lotus Feet of beloved Guru and Master – Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Respected elders, dear brothers and sisters, my loving SaiRams to each and everyone of you. It is a pleasure to be here on this holy and auspicious occasion of Guru Purnima. As I stand here before you, I am reminded of how I first came to Swami – a humorous incident, when I first came to Swami back in 2008 after having moved from the United States to India. This was around Guru Purnima time, and I had just joined the SSSIHMS as a cardiologist, as Swami’s cardiologist. And so I had come here to Prasanthi Nilayam on my first visit to seek Bhagawan’s blessings as I began this new career, this new phase of my life. Imagine my excitement, as I sat here on the verandah, not too far from where I am standing today, and Bhagawan approached me in His chair and motioned for me to come forward.With my heart palpitating, every limb in my body trembling, I approached Bhagawan, kneeling before Him, engulfed by His smile, His radiance that beautiful Divine fragrance that emanates from Him. And with a heart full of enthusiasm, I burst it out with my hands thrown and I said SAIRAAAM SWAMI!  …And Swami just looked at me with a smile of amusement. I was very naive perhaps at that time, and certainly very simple in my approach to how I understood Swami. Perhaps in the time that has intervened, I have matured a bit, but my  practice of Swami’s teachings is still very simple. And what I would like to share with you this morning, is just one of these simple practices that I follow. Swami has given us the four Fs –Follow the Master; Face the devil; Fight to the end and Finish the Game. These are the four Fs. In my simple minded practice, I actually only follow one of these – Follow the Master. I will tell you what happened to the other three at the end of this talk. Follow the Master – this lesson I learnt actually by watching our students. As Bhagawan sat before us on the dias,  I would observe how Swami’s students would interact and relate with Swami – they were ever attentive, always alert to Swami’s slightest motion. Always focussed with one-pointed attention on everything that Swami did. Whenever Swami gave the slightest instruction, the slightest hint, that he wished something to be done, they would run of immediately performing the task and when the task was completed, they would come back again and watch Swami with one-pointed attention. There are deep lessons in this simple practice for all of us. Just as these students were always observant of Swami, ever ready, always alert and always obedient to the slightest hint of Swami’s wish, His will – we can also do the same. So, on this holy occasion of Guru Purnima, I wish to talk to you about Following The Master. This is the only practice that I really know. FOLLOW THE MASTER. How do we do it? It is not enough just to talk. We can be like Swami’s students but here we have to follow the inner MASTER, the inner SAI. We have to watch Him with that same one- pointed attention, that same extreme focus, looking inside of ourselves, watching always alert, always ready and ever obedient to His DIVINE WILL in our lives. Now, when I share this with devotees from around the world, I find that devotees tend to fall in three different groups :- Children, adults and our youth or young adults. Interestingly, when I share this with children, they understand right away. It is simple for them. I just tell them and they say okay uncle and they practise right away. And so I am delighted to see that students from both of Swami’s Primary Schools are here. Children, you are the ones who have to take this forward. You have to set the example – Follow the inner Master. Follow the inner SAI. Be always alert, be always ready and be always obedient to Swami. But you know Swami is very mischievous and He loves to play. And so make this practice fun. Play the game with Swami…play with Swami…have fun with Swami. Follow the Master. When it comes to adults, I find something different. Adults are often led away, sometimes very far away by the monkey mind. The easiest way to tame this monkey mind, to vanquish this monkey mind is simply to love Swami, to adore Swami. Because when we love our Lord, we become immersed in our Lord; we become immersed in Him, we become absorbed by Him. And then the monkey mind vanishes. The second thing I find in adults is that we have to develop purity. We have to vanquish the six enemies – Pride, lust, anger, greed and so on… Again the simplest way to do this is just through love, just contemplate and meditate on Swami’s pure, sweet, unconditional love. It is this love of Bhagawan that has drawn Him to us and it is the love of Swami that will purify us. Just contemplate on that love and all these six enemies will vanish forever. And then the third thing I find with adults is that sometimes they carry excess baggage. You see when our students are sitting before Bhagawan, and Swami would ask them to do something – they would get up and run

Dr Voleti Choudhary’s Address on SSSIHMS Anniversary… Dr Voleti Choudhary, one of the most successful Cardiac Surgeons in the US state of California, who is currently the Director at SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram spoke about his entry in to the ‘world’ of Sai, and his continuous journey with Sai, for Sai with craziness… on the ocasion of 22nd anniversary of SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram… Read on the transcript of the speech. SaiRam to all of you! I am wrong. I am really wrong. I didn’t think this occasion will overwhelm me. It did. I will find my bearings. The reason I say so is – talking is something I like, specially about Swami; talked about Him all over the world, so I thought what is it – it’s okay. And everybody in the hospital said – Are you nervous Sir? I said, Of course not, I am not nervous.’ Totally wrong; Totally wrong. But in the next thirty minutes or so I will try to make some sense. I was born just 150 miles from here. I was the fifth child in an average farming family. So much so they didn’t even think that it was necessary to record my date of birth. So, when I was ready to go to High School there was a conspiracy between the admitting clerk and my dad and they made up a date so that I am old enough to get into the High School and that is how I ended up getting a date of birth. So I was pushed way ahead of my time and there is a wonderful Telugu expression… it says – Gallilo perigaadu. Basically that is how I grew up. Nobody ever took me serious and then it must be Divine protection from then on. I went on – didn’t do very bad, passed all my exams very well and ended up going for cardiac surgery abroad and lived the American dream and I will come to it in a bit. But all along I had immense faith in God. So, the two ingredients for the success of my life is – immense faith in God and my hard work. So this went on. Now television is there, so everybody knows what an American dream is. You have a six or seven bed room house, five or six cars though you can drive only one at any time. You party every Saturday night. The men are talking about cars, the women are talking about jewellery. And you waste so much food and you have everything taken for granted and that was my life. I was so happy. And then, somewhere in my mind there was always a big hole and that was to do free heart surgery in this country which made me what I was. That is one other thing… I had always never forgot my roots. So when somebody told me that there is a free hospital that does free heart surgery in rural part of South India, I did not believe it. Because having practised cardiac surgery for over three decades, having seen the growth all over and having been involved with a few corporate hospitals in this country, I said this is an oxymoron – there is no free heart surgery. But then they said – No, it is there and you go and see for yourself. And lot of things came together – they had a huge international cardiac surgery conference in Hyderabad for which I was invited and I asked what about Puttaparthi when they said – it is a short flight and you can go. So I ended up to check myself this so called free heart surgery. And sure enough the first thing I did was to go to the hospital. Because it is on the way. So when I went to the hospital one of the young administrators was nice enough and he took me around. First of all when you look at it it doesn’t look like a hospital. At least it didn’t look like one for me. But now a days we call it aptly so – The Temple of Healing. In every aspect it is Temple of Healing. I came from this excess – Everybody wants everything that is ‘The Best’ and when I walked through this hospital – yes in this rural area – poorest of the poor, there was this citadel – a citadel of healthcare that can be built only by Divinity and nobody else. It was absolutely state of the art equipment whether you are talking in the outpatient department or in the operating room or in the intensive care unit. The only department missing was (is) the billing department. So when I looked at it, I said this is the dream – it is not a reality! It was so calm, so cool, no confusion, nothing like any super speciality hospitals that I have ever been or ever will be. So, that was an initial shock. Obviously much bigger shock was to come the next day. I was in this same Kulwant Hall. There was dust, sand. Men used to sit on that side and a series of coincidences which we now start calling them now as Sai incidences. I was sitting in the front row. And then my nephew next to me said – Uncle, uncle pray to your Ishta Devata and Swami will talk to you. I told him, Srinivas, there are ten thousand people, Swami is going to talk to me? He said – No, no… try uncle. I said fine… what is wrong – I am not going to loose anything. So I was praying to Lord Balaji and first time I ever saw Swami glide down. Obviously if you ever see Him gliding down, that is the most beautiful sight we can ever see. We can’t see His Feet, that orange robe flowing in the early morning Sun – the most impressive halo of hair. You will not forget that sight.