He who feeds the distressed in hunger really serves Me… Shirdi Sai’s sojourn on Earth was most incomprehensible for the normal ones, His ways being supra-mysterious. Baba, in fact, lived His life teaching His followers at every step, guiding them to higher levels of consciousness, evolution. How Bhagawan sent across the poignant, powerful message of the absolute need to see Madhava in every being? …an interesting story from the illustrious Sai Samartha Satcharita. One evening, Baba was sitting against the wall, leaning His chest against the banisters, engaged in lovable talk, when Lakshmi arrived there. Tatya Patil was nearby and there were others also. Lakshmi made her obeisance to Baba, when Baba said to her: “Lakshmi, I Am hungry.” “Baba, I will go and bring bhakri (a round flat unleavened bread often used in the cuisine, in Maharashtra, India). No sooner than I go that I shall return with it.” Saying this she left immediately. She baked some bhakris and returned without loss of time, along with some vegetables and chutney, and placed this snack before Baba. Baba picked up the plate and put it before the dog as it was. “Baba, what have You done?”, Lakshmi asked promptly. “In spite of my having gone so swiftly and baked the bhakris quickly, You offered them to the dog! What is this novel way of Yours! You said You were hungry. What kind of marvelous hunger is this? You have not even had one small morsel of it! You have unnecessarily troubled me.” Then Baba said to her: “Why do you fret unnecessarily? Satisfying the same hunger of this dog is the same as giving Me appeasement. Bear this in mind. Isn’t this dog a living creature? All beings experience the same hunger. Though it is dumb and I can speak, is there any difference in the hunger that both experience? “He who feeds those distressed by hunger really serves Me with food. Know this and regard it as an axiomatic truth.” II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

I Learnt The Biggest Lesson… Look around optimistically and you will be ‘priced’ with precious life-lessons… Who said a poor street boy  who thrives on a loaf of bread cannot be your ‘teacher’??? Dr Derrick Angelsz writes what he experienced…what he learnt when he landed in India’s own Mumbai… The article is sourced from Sri Sathya Sai Newsletter, Pune…originally from the internet.. academictips.org/blogs/ (the banner image is sourced from the internet and does not bear any link with the story) A few days ago I landed at the Mumbai Airport and took a cab to my scheduled destination in South Mumbai. I was enjoying the busy traffic with people rushing in every possible directon when we got stranded at a very busy intersection. As we waited for the signal to turn green, my eyes saw a poor young boy, about 12 years old. He removed a piece of bread from his pocket and took a bite. As he was about to take his next bite, a stray dog wagged his tail looking at him. Without hesitation, he sat down and put the bread on the road for the dog to eat. The dog sniffed the bread and walked away. The boy waited until he was sure the dog was gone then he picked up the bread and ate it! My heart cried and I wanted to walk up to the boy but before I could open the door the signal turned green and our car drove away. I kept thinking about the boy and later during my evening meal I realised that I was thinking of approaching the boy but I never did, I could have stopped the car and walked up to him which again I never did. All I did was ‘thinking’ and this poor little boy who had only one piece of bread, without any hesitation shared it with the dog, though he himself seemed to be very hungry. I learnt one of the biggest lessons in my life which that boy taught me without a conversation. He taught me to share with love and happiness. I am so blessed to have learnt this beautiful lesson from my ‘little unknown master’. It is my moral duty to share this incident with all my friends across the globe and be blessed with happiness. II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

The Adventure Of Green Hanuman… Having been born here on Earth, growing here, are we ever grateful to Mother Earth?…the mother that grants us everything, wherewithal for our daily living…are we humans ever thinking of the pristine selfless love Mother Earth holds for her children? Humans were not doing so need to change their perceptions and look upon Mother Earth with love, respect and reverence…Worshipping Bhumata…Mother Earth…an interesting article depicting human love and concern for Mother Earth and Mother Nature…an interesting article by Sri Sai Santosh, published on behalf of USA Sai Region 4 Young Adults, on www.sailoveinaction.org, an off-shoot of the official website of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations – Worldwide. “Approach Nature in a humble, prayerful mood; then your future will be safe. Ravana coveted Sita, who represents Prakriti (Nature), and stealthily brought her over, but that selfishness and greed led him to the deepest fall. If only he had coveted the God behind Nature, Rama, he could have earned eternal joy.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   —Sathya Sai Baba, 27 Mar 1967 [1] I recently moved to a new apartment right opposite a beautiful park in Knoxville, Tennessee. One day on my nature walk I noticed a lot of trash floating in the waterways and wetlands surrounding the park. Looking at the way the trash had seeped into the soil, I deduced it must have been around for a while. The park is generally well populated with children playing and adults jogging around, and I wondered why the trash had not been cleaned up. Aahhhh . . . just as I was enjoying a nice long Sunday shower, the inner calling became so strong I couldn’t ignore it any longer. Cleaning myself (every day!) while my Mother (Earth) remained polluted felt highly inconsiderate and unloving. Non-action no longer seemed to be an option. As if the Universe were supporting me in my intention, the Sai (God) within shouted, “Hanuman [2] always jumped to Rama’s service without thinking twice!” True! No denying, there! Then memories of an experience at Trayee Brindavan (Sai Baba’s former summer residence near Bangalore, India, at which I had been blessed to work as a service volunteer) came flooding in. It was a warm summer afternoon. Trayee Brindavan was full of devotees gathered for darshan (opportunity to see a holy person). How graced I was feeling at the opportunity of serving Swami at his residence in Bangalore! It was surrounded by a beautiful garden. On that particular afternoon, Sai Baba walked out of darshan and headed to the gardens. He seemed to be feeling for the trees that stood silently bearing the scorching sun. He stopped near the tall ashoka trees. I imagined he was being reminded of the magnificent trees in the demon Ravana’s ashoka gardens in Sri Lanka, which provided comfort and solace to Lord Rama’s grieving wife Sita, while she was held captive there under the vigilant watch of the demons. With his most merciful eyes fixed on the fortunate trees, Swami remarked, referring to humans,  “Mother Sita is the Earth, and we are Ravanas destroying her.” Hanuman earned eternal joy from finding and saving Mother Sita, because it was in serving her that he could serve his Beloved Lord (Rama) – serving God being the only activity capable of conferring everlasting joy. Upon seeing Mother Sita in the gardens – tired, weeping, sad, and unable to see her way out of her plight – Hanuman jumped right into action, consoling her by narrating the glorious tales of Rama and his monkey friends. As these memories infused me with the much-needed love to embark on my task, I got out of the shower and started getting ready to head to the park.So, chanting the name of my superhero – “Hanuman!” – I armed myself with a crispy-clean, white, “Love All, Serve All” T-shirt, gloves, a mask, and some trash bags. To call on this superhero, I didn’t need to eat spinach or wear special wings but just say, “Jai Sai Ram!” (“The Lord is ever victorious!”) I went out into every possible accessible area of the forest and streams for the next couple of hours or so, picking up beer cans, straws, bottles, polystyrene foam, and rubber.  Some of the curious onlookers wondered what I was doing. The “Love All, Serve All” T-shirt must have explained my actions and intentions, for many of them smiled and said thank you.The cans had seeped into the soil, but Green Hanuman gave me the strength to pull them out. He also showed me intuitively where the trash was! To love is to know, I guess. I caught sight of so many cans down the hill in the water stream. Oh, wait! As I stepped, I fell down the hill. Lying in a pool of water and mud, in the middle of nowhere with excruciating pain in my shoulder, I called out, “Rama!” Gently the birds started chirping, “It’s okay . . . you are not alone . . . we are with you.” If Earth is my Mother, then the birds are my siblings! I have only fallen into my Mother’s lap, and my siblings are comforting me. Lying there in the middle of nowhere in a knee-deep ditch filled with muddy water, I understood that the energy I have to serve Her comes from Her. The pain vanished magically, and I resumed picking up the trash. To return, I had to walk a mile uphill through the forest with two tall heavy trash bags, and Green Hanuman was very happy to assist his little brother in performing this tiny act of love. He filled me up with the necessary strength to walk back home. Then all I had to do was sort and recycle the trash (smile). Oh, there is more work to be done, like the huge tire and the shopping cart in the stream, but I know that Green Hanuman is ready to help

Water For The Parched Throats… Water For The Parched ThIf you have known a parched throat, acute dehydration and overwhelming thirst on a blistering summer day, you will understand another’s craving for a few drops of water. Come summer, there are many many wandering ‘souls’ with parched throats, dying for a drop of water. An inspirational piece exhortation, asking fellow devotees to do the least bit for the four legged and winged ones of Beloved Mother Sai… (courtesy: Sri Sathya Sai News Letter – Pune) Temperatures are soaring; the rays of the Sun are getting more scorching and intense, leading to that ordeal of a parched, thirsty feeling that seeks appeasement urgently. And so, come summer, there are many water supply projects at various places to cater to the needs of thirsty travellers, wherein volunteers willingly and lovingly distribute this most precious liquid with a smiling ‘SaiRam’. Water crystals are transformed into Prasadam! However, what about animals and birds…four legged, tailed or winged children of Beloved Mother Sai…who can’t express how thirsty they are…and so, silently face the harsh heat and severe dehydration? Veterinary doctors have sadly expressed how so many birds and animals collapse due to heat strokes. Deeply understanding and keeping in mind their pressing need, we should keep bowls of water for birds, dogs, cattle, etc…a project that should conjoin supply of drinking water for human beings. This loving service would have a wider reach if some of us could keep bowls of water near our homes – in the balcony or in the garden, going a step further to convincingly request shop owners in the vicinity or those that are doing business in areas that are frequented, to do so too. How many more souls would be benefitted! Water bowls can be cemented into the earth and then on all we need to do is refill the bowls with fresh water. “Whosoever extends a hand to quench the thirst of another, especially the craving of those fellow beings that cannot help themselves, immense is the grace and manifold the blessings that descend to envelope such a sensitive soul.” Besides, myriad are the forms Sai Narayana assumes to give us an opportunity to serve Him. Come let us rise to the occasion. Water is the elixir of life…let all forms of life have easy access to this elixir! (We have personally experienced this a few summers ago, when a pair of bulbuls flew into the society compound…into a room that serves as an office. One could clearly make out they were very thirsty…and they seemed very flustered too. Our Vet advised us about ‘heat stroke’ for birds – cool place for rest and some water. They were kept within the enclosure they had flown into…for the night, along with a bowl of water and some seeds of grain. They had perched themselves on a picture of Swami. The room was properly ventilated and secured to keep cats out. Next morning, as we opened the door, much to our relief, they flew away to freedom! As of now, innumerable birds, dogs, cats come along to the bowls kept in our society. It is a pleasure, so refreshing a sight, to see the birds satiate their thirst, play in the water and stay around to chirp melodiously, so too, to silently watch the animals as they sip away and sometimes even sit or take a dip in the water container!) Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

Why Do Seva For Animals? If man believes in the Fatherhood Of God, then he is bound to follow His precept “All Are One…” fulfilling His dictum per word, acting upon it by being “Alike To Everyone…” Quoting Bhagawan’s precious gems on service to the co-inhabiting world of creatures, Late Ms. Mercini Sheratt, a champion animal lover who tirelessly worked for the co-existing world of varied lives, writes about the supreme significance of doing service to this special world of beings. After a glorious earthly sojourn carrying a precious heart filled with Love All Serve All… Help Ever Hurt Never, this Champion Crusader of the muted ones travelled back to The Source last year… merging at Bhagawan’s Divine Lotus Feet. Mercini has ever been our constant inspiration, for this particular section of The Prasanthi Reporter. Honouring SSIO’s crusade for Animal Love, with its SERVE THE PLANET being named after animals under the title – LOVE FOR ANIMALS… we continue with our series from Prasanthi Nilayam, carrying on ‘being’ their voice.  “Foster the tiny seed of Love that clings to ‘me’ and ‘mine’, let it sprout into Love for the group around you, and grow into Love for all mankind, and spread out its branches over animals, birds, and those that creep and crawl, and let the Love enfold all things and all beings in all the worlds.  Proceed from less Love to more Love, narrow Love to expanded Love.” (Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 8, ch. 16) Once, when presented with seva projects for human beings, Bhagawan said: “What about the animals?  They need help too.  My love embraces the animal kingdom as well as the human kingdom and so should yours……….it should not just be limited to human beings.” (source: Dr. Narendranath Reddy,UK medical conference, September 2011).  To another devotee, He has said, “Real Seva is animal seva”. Bhagawan tells us that we can learn many good qualities from our animal friends and below, you can see a remarkable act of kindness by one of them: “Two blind people wanted to drink water at the RagiGudda temple, Bangalore. When they were unable to operate the tap, this mother monkey opened the tap for them, allowed them to drink water, drank some water herself and then closed the tap before leaving the scene.”  (extract from an Indian newspaper) Please note well!  If a monkey can do this act of kindness for human beings, then can’t we humans also do this for our animal brothers and sisters?  Many people do feed stray animals and wild creatures and birds,  while many more never think of it…………..but hey, what a shining example this monkey is to the human beings who don’t ……she is clearly not ‘speciest’ like many humans or prejudiced against members of other species in need. No life can be sustained without water or food.  This applies to all life forms and while humans suffer terribly when they do not have enough water to drink or food to eat, so do our fellow creatures……..especially in extreme weather conditions such as the intense and simmering summer heat of summer or freezing winter. And the love and care that we give towards those in animal form is never wasted for the same atma flows through us all.    As Bhagawan says: “When you love and look after an animal, you help to lift the whole of creation.  If you cannot care for an animal, then at least feed the birds and wild creatures.” (‘Sathya Sai Speaks’ – vol 10/ch 36) While they may not be able to thank us in words, those who have fed and cared for animals, wild or domestic,  have often experienced their loving gratitude in other ways.  Our love attracts their love and helps us to realise the Oneness behind all forms. A small example of this occurred at the time of the passing away of Lawrence Anthony, a highly regarded and remarkable conservationist and environmentalist who could communicate heart to heart with elephants.  He had been particularly successful in taming and ‘normalising’ a herd of wild, traumatised and rogue elephants, ‘delinquents, every one of them’ in Zululand, South Africa.  Although he had not seen the elephants for 15 months as he had had to distance them for their own safety, on the day that he died without warning in March 2012, the whole herd appeared out of nowhere and stood silently outside his house as if to pay homage to the human being who had so loved and understood them.  We know that elephants mourn their loved ones and to them, he had become a beloved family member. Somehow, on their jungle telegraph, they had intuited that he had passed away. A kind and loving soul who has kept a small animal sanctuary for years told me the following story:  Alerted by her dog’s barking one day, she found a wounded baby pigeon beside him which had fallen out of a tree.  She rescued and hand reared it while it lived with her and her other pets for about five weeks……………..then one day, it was ready to leave and join others of its kind. For 4 years it lived freely, often in her garden.  She could tell which pigeon it was because it recognised its name and was not afraid of her dog, with whom it had lived before.  Then one day, it appeared at her patio door, very sick, walked in, greeted her, the dog and the resident crow in turn and then went into its old cage which was still there. It settled down and the next day, quietly passed away.  It had come home to die where it knew it was loved and safe.   A few days before it reappeared, she saw the outline of a pigeon on her window pane………..photo below………..rather like an angel bird……………perhaps an omen of what was to come. An old neighbour of mine used to feed some badgers every night, as indeed many people do……….and I know, because I saw it with my

What We Eat Creates The World Around Us… When one delves deep into His teachings, what our Beloved Bhagawan has professed, what emerges out are pearls of wisdom along with profound revelations galore, asking man to mend and amend. Ms. Mercini Sheratt’s passion and love for His Teachings help us to unearth some of the most relevant facts and truths… especially in the area of vegetarianism and love for animal kingdom. Read on… (Late Ms. Mercini Sheratt from the United Kingdom was a champion animal lover who tirelessly worked for the co-existing world of varied lives, following Bhagawan’s Teachings) True to the famous Biblical saying, … ‘as you sow so shall you reap’ (for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap) and true to the epochal scientific invention of Newton’s Third Law that declares, ‘for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction’, in this vast world of multitudes of beings… in millions, billions and gazillions… and ‘infinitely’ more, man, who is rated intellectually the best,  is bound by karmic pronouncements for every single action he undertakes. He is bound by karmic pronouncements until that day, when a shift of consciousness comes upon him, dawning the wisdom that ‘he is not the doer’, and there is a ‘Higher Self’ That is in action. Living out the most ordinary way, at a time when Age Kali is raging with fierce passion, where does he, man, stand today? Leaving the rest, when talking about ‘him and his’ from the  context of vegetarianism, contrary to what most he has been conditioned to believe, Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba exhorts that: “Animals did not come for the purpose of supplying food for human beings. They came to work out their own lives in the world. When a human being is dead, the foxes and other animals may eat, but we have not come to provide food for those that eat the dead body; we have not come for that purpose. Similarly, man eats the animal but the animal has not come to provide man with food.” (Conversations With Sathya Sai Baba)­­­­­­ One so often hears that ‘it is only natural’ to eat meat. The habit is so ingrained and so ancient that most people never think to question the fact that animals might actually have another purpose in incarnating other than providing fodder for human beings. Anyone who thinks otherwise is liable to be dismissed as a sentimental fool. The fact that farm animals form lifelong friendships and deep attachments shows us at least one example of other reasons for incarnating, even though one could say they would not be here at all were it not for the fact that they have been bred for the food chain. Another surprising reason is the fate of the animals consumed. – Something that would literally astonish most of us. It is as follows: “Man consumes as food many living beings. These are born as human beings, on account of this act of consumption.  But since they have not had the education which can reveal the God within, they vegetate or stay brutish, without appropriate ticket or passport for rising higher than the human status in which they have been hurriedly placed. Like most men, they roll along from womb to tomb, bond slaves to the senses and the ills that the bondage inevitably brings in its train.” (Sathya Sai Speaks-12) “For the purpose of feeding ourselves, many lives are being sacrificed. Because these various living things are being sacrificed and are merging with human beings, they have also been acquiring human lives in their rebirth.  None of these jivas is getting any chance of rising higher than human lives. The entire life is being spent in making an effort to be reborn after one’s death, thus repeating the cycle of birth and death.” (Summer Showers in Brindavan’ 1974) Whoever would have thought that the souls of creatures whose flesh is eaten by mankind would then be embodied into a human form long before they were ready to behave in a truly human manner! Remember, according to Sri Sathya Sai Baba, a human being should be a truly noble creature. He tells us how hard it is to acquire a human form, what a great opportunity it is, and how even angels would love to have one! Yet, in the case of animals who ‘provide’ food for humans, the whole situation is reversed. And while they achieve a human vehicle far too early in their evolution, they cannot benefit from it, nor apparently, ever attain self-realisation through it. So not only do we deprive them of an conscious evolution and eventual liberation once in a human form, we also sentence them to aeons of lives lived miserably. One could also wonder whether some of the less than noble behaviour demonstrated in this Kali era can be explained thus. Meat-eating not only adversely effects the meat-eater, making it more difficult for him or her to truly rise spiritually, although there are no doubt exceptions to this, it also adversely affects the creature eaten, not just in the sense of the suffering caused at the time, but by interfering with its natural evolutionary progress. When human heart declines to promote righteous action, it results in individual and societal degeneration. From this point of view the profundity of the following  statements demands earnest human attention: “He demeans himself by his evil habits. He kills animals and eats their flesh. When individuals take to evil ways, the entire society degenerates.” (Sathya Sai Speaks-13) And the epochal Indian epic with cosmic profundity  Srimad Bhagavatam of the lore speaks thus: “To be non-violent to human beings and to be a killer or enemy of poor animals is satan’s (devil) philosophy. In this age, there is always enmity against poor animals and therefore the poor creatures are always anxious. The reaction of poor animals is being forced upon human society and therefore there is always the strain of cold or hot war between men, individually, collectively or nationally.” Sadly, it seems nothing has changed, and there

Why Do Seva For Animals? Where man believes in the Fatherhood Of God, he is bound to follow His precept “All Are One…” fulfilling His dictum per word, acting upon it by being “Alike To Everyone…” Quoting Bhagawan’s precious gems on service to the co-inhabiting world of creatures, Late Ms. Mercini Sheratt, a champion animal lover who tirelessly worked for the co-existing world of varied lives, writes about the supreme significance of doing service to this unique world of beings. After a glorious earthly sojourn carrying a precious heart filled with Love All Serve All,  Help Ever Hurt Never, this Champion Crusader of the muted ones traveled back to The Source some time back, merging at Bhagawan’s Divine Lotus Feet. Ms. Mercini has always been our constant inspiration, for this particular section of The Prasanthi Reporter. Honoring SSIO’s crusade for Animal Love under the theme LOVE FOR ANIMALS, we continue with our series from Prasanthi Nilayam, carrying on ‘being’ their voice.  “Foster the tiny seed of Love that clings to ‘me’ and ‘mine’, let it sprout into Love for the group around you, and grow into Love for all mankind, and spread out its branches over animals, birds, and those that creep and crawl, and let the Love enfold all things and all beings in all the worlds.  Proceed from less Love to more Love, narrow Love to expanded Love.” (Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 8, ch. 16) Once, when presented with seva projects for human beings, Bhagawan said: “What about the animals?  They need help too.  My love embraces the animal kingdom as well as the human kingdom and so should yours……….it should not just be limited to human beings.” (source: Dr. Narendranath Reddy,UK medical conference, September 2011).  To another devotee, He has said, “Real Seva is animal seva”. Bhagawan tells us that we can learn many good qualities from our animal friends and below, you can see a remarkable act of kindness by one of them: “Two blind people wanted to drink water at the RagiGudda temple, Bangalore. When they were unable to operate the tap, this mother monkey opened the tap for them, allowed them to drink water, drank some water herself and then closed the tap before leaving the scene.”  (extract from an Indian newspaper) Please note well!  If a monkey can do this act of kindness for human beings, then can’t we humans also do this for our animal brothers and sisters?  Many people do feed stray animals and wild creatures and birds,  while many more never think of it…………..but hey, what a shining example this monkey is to the human beings who don’t ……she is clearly not ‘speciest’ like many humans or prejudiced against members of other species in need. No life can be sustained without water or food.  This applies to all life forms and while humans suffer terribly when they do not have enough water to drink or food to eat, so do our fellow creatures…especially in extreme weather conditions such as the intense and simmering summer heat of summer or freezing winter. And the love and care that we give towards those in animal form is never wasted for the same Atma flows through us all.    As Bhagawan says: “When you love and look after an animal, you help to lift the whole of creation.  If you cannot care for an animal, then at least feed the birds and wild creatures.” (‘Sathya Sai Speaks’ – vol 10/chapter 36) While they may not be able to thank us in words, those who have fed and cared for animals, wild or domestic,  have often experienced their loving gratitude in other ways.  Our love attracts their love and helps us to realise the Oneness behind all forms. A small example of this occurred at the time of the passing away of Lawrence Anthony, a highly regarded and remarkable conservationist and environmentalist who could communicate heart to heart with elephants.  He had been particularly successful in taming and ‘normalising’ a herd of wild, traumatised and rogue elephants, ‘delinquents, every one of them’ in Zululand, South Africa.  Although he had not seen the elephants for 15 months as he had had to distance them for their own safety, on the day that he died without warning in March 2012, the whole herd appeared out of nowhere and stood silently outside his house as if to pay homage to the human being who had so loved and understood them.  We know that elephants mourn their loved ones and to them, he had become a beloved family member. Somehow, on their jungle telegraph, they had intuited that he had passed away. A kind and loving soul who has kept a small animal sanctuary for years told me the following story:  Alerted by her dog’s barking one day, she found a wounded baby pigeon beside him which had fallen out of a tree.  She rescued and hand reared it while it lived with her and her other pets for about five weeks…then one day, it was ready to leave and join others of its kind. For 4 years it lived freely, often in her garden.  She could tell which pigeon it was because it recognised its name and was not afraid of her dog, with whom it had lived before.  Then one day, it appeared at her patio door, very sick, walked in, greeted her, the dog and the resident crow in turn and then went into its old cage which was still there. It settled down and the next day, quietly passed away.  It had come home to die where it knew it was loved and safe.   A few days before it reappeared, she saw the outline of a pigeon on her window pane…photo below…rather like an angel bird…perhaps an omen of what was to come. An old neighbor of mine used to feed some badgers every night, as indeed many people do……….and I know, because I saw it with my own eyes, that these badgers would announce their arrival in

Love In All Of Creation “Love is present not only in human beings but also in all creatures, birds or beasts.   Nor is that all; it is in fact all-pervasive.  Love pervades everything in Creation. Man’s humanness is vitiated when he fails to recognise this love”, said Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Man, who is considered as the top-ranked creature in the evolutionary ladder is often found lacking, lagging behind in practising ‘LovE’. Today, when he falters, owing to the ‘timely’ influence of the Age Of Kali, he can better learn from the world of mute children of Beloved Mother Sai, of practising LovE. A story from the Shirdi Baba time followed by another one from the collections of late (Ms) Mercini Sherrat of the UK, a champion crusader for the world of Sai’s mute children.  “Once Baba (Shirdi Sai) was sitting in the Masjid (Dwarakamayi at Shirdi).  A devotee sat in front of Him, when a lizard tick- ticked.  Out of curiosity, the devotee asked whether this tick-ticking of the lizard signified anything; was it a good sign or a bad omen?  Baba said that the lizard was overjoyed as her sister from Aurangabad was coming to see her. The devotee sat silent, not making out the meaning of Baba’s words.  Immediately, a gentleman from Aurangabad came on horse-back to see Baba. He wanted to proceed further, but his horse would not go as it was hungry and wanted grams.  He took out a bag from his shoulders to bring grams and dashed it on the ground to remove dirt. A lizard came out therefrom and in the presence of all, climbed up the wall.  Baba asked the questioner devotee to mark her well. She at once went strutting to her sister.  Both sisters met each after a long time, kissed and embraced each other, whirled round and danced with love!” Our Beloved Bhagawan reminds us: “For He makes us aware that the God we adore, the God we love, the God we live by, is in every other being as LOVE.  Thus LOVE expands and encompasses all Creation. I would like to start with Susie Bear, a remarkable big black bear who so loved her human carer that he, Steve Karlin, seemingly an angel of compassion in human form and founder of Wildlife Associates in California, a sanctuary for animals and humans where animals are the teachers, wrote this: “Susie Bear and I would go on walks together, and when we would sit together on the trail, she would put her arm around my shoulder and kiss me on the face. We would talk a lot, and she would fall asleep with her head in my lap. I would fall asleep with my head against her chest. She would hug me. I wasn’t sure if this was a platonic relationship or any other, because she seemed to be teaching me lessons all the time. Even today I wake up sometimes and I thank Susie Bear, because I finally understand something that she taught me. It took me years to finally reach a point where I saw what a lesson it was”. Steve Karlin was so grief-stricken when Susie finally died…she herself gave warning of this the night before… that he could not speak about it for a long, long time.  This is how he describes her last moments: “… The next day, we came with the veterinarian and we gave Susie Bear a shot to relax her a bit. And I put the leash on her and she walked out and lay down. I was not telling her where to go. With both of her paws, she grabbed my hand. She held onto it and looked me in the eyes and told me it was time to go. I tried to pull my hand away and she grabbed it, hard, and held it close to her. Then the doctor gave Susie Bear the shot, and she held on and looked me in the eyes until she left her body, and then her eyes closed. And she still held onto me for maybe twenty minutes, until it loosened up. I was so attached to her; I didn’t know how to let her go at the time. That part of me tore away and went with her. I couldn’t talk about it for years and years. For months and months and months, I was a different person, depressed and something was missing; a hole was there….and yes, I tested Susie Bear’s love. Even at the time of her passing, after 13 years, I still did not believe it. I moved my hand away, and she grabbed it, pulled it back. So even then, I was thinking, our relationship can’t be that strong, loving me so much, she can’t be so conscious and aware that she is dying, she can’t be wanting to hold onto me until her last breath before leaving her body because I was so important to her. I pulled back and said, “Oh my God,” and she pulled me into her embrace.” Thus showing us how deep an animal’s love can be and how they have an innate wisdom and a knowingness that goes far beyond words and man’s own clever intellect.  Sri Ramana Maharshi knew this when he said: “Some animals have so much love for their masters that they bypass human birth and go directly to God. Some Masters take birth as animals to teach humans how to deepen their love life.” II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

3 Tales Of Unsurpassed Loyalty and Devotion After the initiation into the rephrased Cosmic MahaMantra, Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu, Prasanthi Nilayam reverberated for a brief period with the Mantra Samastha Jeevah Sukhino Bhavantu, tenderly touching each being individually, thus covering the entire Srushti, Creation. Is not our Beloved Master Supreme all-encompassing, that He represents The Oneness of entire creation. Bhagawan during His sojourn on Earth did love all creatures, explicitly demonstrating for the world around the supreme significance of the Cosmic MahaMantra, Samastha Jeevah Sukhino Bhavantu! An article by avid animal lover, Late Ms Mercini Sheratt from the United Kingdom, penned a few years ago.  “Learn lessons from every living being, everything that you find around you.  Learn faithfulness and gratitude from the dog, patience and fortitude from the donkey, perseverance from the spider, farsightedness from the ant, and monogamy from the owl.”  – Sri Sathya Sai Since the beginning of man’s friendship with dogs, there must have been simply millions of tales of doggy devotion.  Anyone who has loved and cared for a dog will know how much love and adoration a dog can have for his human owner. They live for their human companions and many dogs will even die to protect those they love.  The following stories, although only the tip of the iceberg, demonstrate the depth of this love. In Edinburgh in Scotland, there is a statue of a dog called Greyfriars Bobby. The people of Edinburgh made a statue for Bobby after he died because he was so faithful to his master and lived on his master’s grave for fourteen years after his master’s death until he, too, died. What happened was this: Bobby was a lonely stray dog and because he had nothing to eat, he had to try and find food every day.  Most of the time, people treated him cruelly. One day, an old shepherd befriended him and from that day on, he fed little Bobby. They became best friends and were always together. Finally, his master died and Bobby was heartbroken. For the next fourteen years, he stayed by his master’s grave both day and night, in all weathers, whether it was boiling or freezing, only leaving once a day to beg for some food. Nothing and no one could make Bobby leave his master’s graveside. Even the gravediggers who kicked him and threw stones at him when they dug the grave could not make him stay away. Sometimes children came to play with him but after playing for a little while, he always went back to his master’s last resting place. The local people were so moved by his love, loyalty and devotion that they built a small shelter for him next to the grave. Also, because he touched the hearts of so many people, when he died in 1872, they built a statue for him in Edinburgh with a large drinking fountain for dogs! Today, you can still see Bobby’s collar and dinner bowl in Huntley’s Museum in Edinburgh. How many human beings would be so very loyal?  The following story adapted from ‘Peaceful Kingdom: Random Acts of Kindness by Animals’ by Stephanie Laland shows how a dog will literally risk its own life to protect the ones it loves. On August 29th, 79 AD, an enormous volcano erupted in Pompeii. It happened so suddenly that no one had any warning. Most people died in the eruption and their bodies were not found until almost nineteen centuries later. At that time, archaeologists discovered about 2000 skeletons. One body told a very moving story. It was the body of a dog which was stretched out protectively over the body of a small child. The faithful dog was trying to protect the child from harm even until its own last breath. The archaeologists were even more moved and amazed when they read the inscription on the dog’s collar. The inscription on the collar stated how the dog had saved the child’s father, Severinus, three times, once from drowning, once from thieves and once from a wolf.  Finally, its dying gift was to try and save the child it loved. “For He makes us aware that the God we adore, the God we love, the God we live by, is in every other being as LOVE. Thus Love expands and encompasses all creation.” – Sri Sathya Sai I knew a little dog well once that, because of sad circumstances, had to be given away to another person. Luckily that person and the little dog fell in love with each other at first sight and the little dog had a happy home. In spite of being tiny, she soon became the ruler of the roost, and the roost included some very big dogs indeed… but they knew who was boss… tiny Dolly. Despite being very happy and loved with her new mistress, she still showed the most enormous loyalty to her previous owner. Whenever he came to visit her… when it was time to go, she would leap onto his shoulder as she always had done, as if to say: “Well, come on, let’s go… I’m coming back home with you” but it could never be. That is not all. For several years, at the end of the afternoon, Dolly would go down to the bottom of the drive and wait and wait and wait… it was the time that her previous owner used to come back home from work. After long and patient waiting, when he did not appear, she would finally give up and go back inside with a loud, sad sigh. No matter how disappointed she must have felt, she kept up her patient vigil for a long time. “If you develop love for all beings, in the faith that God resides in all, you may be anywhere else, but your prayers would reach Me and My Grace will reach you.  While in My previous body, I told Nanasahab that I Am in ants, insects and animals, besides all men.  When a