Interview with students

[Guest guest]

Q How did you join the summer course?

 

"I wrote examination held for recruiting students for the course and got selected."

 

Q In Cuttack do you live with your parents or do you live in a hostel?

 

"I stay in a hostel even in Cuttack, in the same I have stayed in the Sathya Sai

Hostel for the summer course. I must say that I find great peace at this hostel

which is totally lacking in the hostel I stay in Cuttack. There is good

discipline in the Sathya Sai Hostel, because every one is actively co-operating

and working for the maintenance of such discipline. I find a happy determination

on the part of all the students here to be always disciplined.

 

In the hostel and college where I study in Cuttack, we students try to have more

fun, for we find studies boring. We gossip a lot, go to pictures and hotels and

read different types of cheap fiction which stirs our passions. On the other

hand, here in the Sathya Sai Hostel at the summer course, we have been engaged

in work from dawn to dusk and we have had hardly any time even to gossip and

our mind has been completely tranquil and pure."

 

Q Why do you think people at the Sathya Sai Hostel are so determined to maintain

the place well and keep to discipline?

 

"Here all the inmates feel that the hostel belongs to us and we have to take

care of it, whereas in Cuttack for instance, we want others to take care of the

hostel for us."

 

Q How have you found the lectures at the summer course?

 

"I have learnt quite a few things. I had many wrong ideas before…for instance, I

did not realise that Indian dharma cut across caste differences and that

Hinduism has a universal message."

 

Q Has the summer course made any difference to your personal style of living?

 

"Ofcourse! I used to get up rather late every day but now I find the whole day

becomes more meaningful when I get up early in the mornings. Then again though

I always used to respect elders and teachers even before, I find I have been

rather formal. I have learnt that respect is something that should come from

within. Previously I used to while away all my leisure time, and now I have

decided to utilise time properly since Swami has convinced me that time wasted

is life wasted…I will also pray to God regularly.

 

In the villages I have cleaned drains and roads and for the first time, I have

talked to villagers. I feel it is wrong to look down on villagers or for that

matter on anyone, since the message of Swami has made a dent on my mind."

 

Q What was that message?

 

"The message that the same God is present in all of us."

 

Q What was so great about the social work you done? Haven't you done any before?

 

"I used to do but then I was doing it as a kind of favour to others and I was

also doing the work with definitely superior airs…But at this summer course I

have learnt to do social work in all humility and mainly as a service to God."

 

Q What is your impression about Sri Sathya Sai Baba?

 

"I had previously seen only some photos of Swami, but after seeing him in

person, I find the photos do not bring out real Swami. Apart from his physical

charm, all of us at the summer course have found in Swami a very simple and

humble person who gives us more than motherly love and fatherly care."

 

Q Don't you think you will go back to your old self once you leave Whitefield?

 

"I have found Swami's message so appealing that even after I go back I will

never forget his message. So even if I err, I will try to correct myself.

Swami's teachings are practical or easy to practice. For instance, Swami has

made me understand that when you are alone and everything around is silent, you

are not really alone, but in the company of God…Now I have been able to

experience at this course the charm of this lonely silence through practice. In

future, I am sure, I will no longer feel bored when I am alone."

 

Q Have you found anything strange or unusual either at the summer course or in

your hostel life at Brindavan?

 

"What I consider very strange or unusual about the hostel life is the total

absence of fights, quarrels, abuses and misunderstandings amongst the

students."

 

Q Didn't you feel the generation gap between Sri Baba and yourself?

 

"Neither I nor my friends at the summer course felt any gap between Swami and

us. On the other hand, my friends and I were convinced that Swami knows all the

problems of youth. He has also a good sense of humour. When I asked him to how

to control anger, he joked "Drink a glass of ice cold water and cool it off".

He then told us that if we cut out desires from the mind, anger will

automatically be cut out. For anger appears only because of unfulfilled or

thwarted desires. When asked how to behave correctly with girls, Swami said"

Think of them as you would of your won sisters and your thoughts will become

brotherly and good."

 

 

 

Source: The Glory of Puttaparthi, V.Balu

 

Jai Sai Ram

Unnikrishnan

Australia