16th Weekly posting on Saudi SAI satsangh-May 25

[Guest guest]

Sai-Satsang in 4 centers continued

(week ending 25th May, Friday)

 

Sairam to all Children, Sisters and Sai Brothers

in all 4 Sai SatSanghs in Dammam, Jubail, Jeddah and

Riyadh.

 

We continue with the sixteenth (16) posting of the

activities of all 4 centers.

 

Summary:

1) Total Attendance all over Saudi over 110.

2) Second Note on Atma (study circle)

3) Higher education for Children of SAI members in

Saudi

 

Details:

 

In Dammam the weekly satsang was held on the evening

of Wednesday 23rd May at Bro. Vinod Chandra’s

residence. The attendance was by about 30 members

starting at 7.30 pm. Aarthi taken by his eldest son

Engr. Prasad who just graduated as Civil Engineer in

India and who is leaving the Kingdom to Bahrain for

employment having been recruited in Campus interview.

Sister Sudha Varadharajan (SAFCO) has been nominated

as Bhajan coordinator.

 

Study circle was held later and attended by about 12

members. The roving Library handled by Vinod Chandra,

study circle coordinator and Bro Jayaraman has about

15 books and 2 have been borrowed. It is important for

members to plan to study Swami’s Vahini series and

other books written on him by well known authors to

help progress their spiritual development and

transformation. Only attending Bhajans are not enough.

Members are also encouraged to donate new books to be

brought from India during their visit on return.

 

 

Jubail center held the weekly Satsang on Thursday 24th

May at 7.30 pm attended by about 18 members at Bro

Naidoo’s residence. Aarthi was taken by Bro Gopal, one

of the 5 members Dammam devotees who attended. Study

circle was held on 22nd May at Bro Swamy Mahadevan’s

residence and attended by 7 members.

 

In Jeddah, Bhajan on Thursday 24th May, started at

7.45 PM (some delays in the Nada compound gate to

gather all members at Mr. Ashokan house # 33). About

14 members attended. Brother Ravi Shanker (Bhajan

Master) from attended he session and he took the

Aarthi. Bro. Ravi has given some tips to improve the

Bhajan sruthi and structuring the session better. Bo

K.P.Rajan informs us that all the SAI members who ever

is coming to Jeddah for official trip or visit can

contact him at Jeddah center to give suggestions on

their activities held on Thursdays and at the same

time not to miss the weekly Bhajan sessions. His

Mobile (0504-387-283).

 

Riyadh group held the weekly Bhajan on Friday 25th May

Morning from 9.00 am till about 12 noon. It was

attended by about 50 members. The aarthi was taken by

Bro Sampath. Bro Ravi (SABIC) read the weekly extracts

from Shirdi Sai SatCharitha. A minute’s silence was

held for remembering SAI Geetha, an inhouse elephant

in Prasanthi Nilayam that merged with Swamy last week.

The following link below can be accessed for the

(long) article:

http://media. radiosai. org/Journals/ Vol_05/01JAN07/

03-coverstory. htm

 

Subsequently a study circle was held coordinated by

Bro Ravi (SABIC). Uncle Shankar (father of Sister

Sujatha Raj Rajagopal) participated actively and

shared several stories as well as tit-bits from

Prasanthi Nilayam where he resides for the past 14

years. He has visited Riyadh Sai center in Nov 2005.

 

When asked abut what changes or comments, he mentioned

that he saw now some new faces and Bhajan sessions are

active. However he felt that the accompaniments are

too loud (by Prasanthi Nilayam standards) and more

discipline is required. He also felt that members

should read more books of and about Swami and progress

towards self-transformation which is the main aim of

SAI organization. He is part of the administrative

section at Prasanthi Nilayam that manages the

production, and distribution of all books and

audio-visual materials (Audio tapes, CDs, VCDs, DVDs)

produced by SAI Organization.

 

It is important for all the centers in Saudi Arabia to

share their limited resources and exchange what they

either as center stocks or by individual members by

making a comprehensive list of Books and CDs-VCds. If

members send me a list of what you have I can make a

database of such material. When we attend some Bhajan

session at individual members they often say “This is

a very good book”, if they finished reading it, others

can borrow it on the basis that it has to be returned.

 

 

On the subject, a further discussion took place. Atma

as per our Vedanta which our Swamy elucidates at his

lectures “pervades everything in the universe”. It is

like the sunlight in the day time which is available

to all whether they are human or animals or birds or

fish or even trees. This means it is not something

special in, we, human beings only and thus outlives

our lives. Its true nature is beyond full human

comprehension and it can only be felt and not just

understood or rationalized like another subject.

 

However for our human understanding, we have various

terminologies that try to describe its all pervading

nature in deliberately simple terms for our benefit.

One of this is that there is a piece of Atma in every

one of us and this is called “Jeevatma”. Thus our

Jeevatma communicates with Paramatma which is often

termed as God. However please bear in mind that this

is only an analogy. Atma is not something which can be

split into pieces and one part found in you and

another in me and yet another bigger piece exists

outside as GOD. That is why it is sometimes descried

as “God within”.

 

It is all pervading in the universe and is present in

all matters to activate them to different levels. In

human body (which is just matter before being

activated by Atma) it energies it and even gives a

sense of Ego by creating a sense of self-existence due

to a Vedantic theory called “Maya” / “As it were”

meaning appearing to be “real” while actually it is

“unreal”. Thus we think, we exist, as individuals and

this world exists. It is unreal in the sense that it

is not permanent and in universal time scale (measured

in billions of years) our life of usually 80 years or

so, is a minute speck in terms of whole.

 

As per the basic building block of our Vedanta, which

again Baba mentions often, “One and Only Brahman

exists” and all of us are “his/her/its” various parts,

but imagining ourselves to be different from Brahman

and eventually merging back into Bahaman, after

several recycling. It is just consciousness and again

it is something we can’t just know, but have to

“experience” it after which we have bliss (Ananda).

This path of realization or experience is usually

assisted by following some Gurus and in our case our

Guru and Brahman is Sri Sathya SAI Baba in our

generation.

 

The key to this path is not learning, but unlearning

the false ideas we have grown up with and this path is

generally known as Sadhana towards Moksha. Technically

any one can do it, it is that simple. SAI organization

helps you towards such “self-transformation” and

therefore Pl know it is more than just singing

Bhajans.

 

Now this is the exam results time and I wish to

disseminate some information useful for those Sai

members who are parents and in the process of finding

out the “best options” for their children in higher

education after school. For those parents hose

children are in 12th year of

State board or CBSE, this can indeed be anxious times

because the rules concerning admission to various

colleges, courses, Institutes etc keeps changing as

well as those available to children who have studied

in Saudi or Gulf as well as those completing it in

India. The whole scene is further compounded by

“Reservations” court judgments, rules on nativity etc.

There are also issues like Government college fee and

Private college expenses including capitation charges

etc. There is the option of studying in various

foreign countries also. I mention here some cases as

an example and these are not exhaustive. In case you

have queries and need assistance, you can send mail to

my e-mail (not on risnet or dasnet) and I will

summarize them in future newsletters. The idea is to

share available info within SAI family.

 

This week second son (Rahul) of Bro Vinod in Dammam

got his XIIth std result in CBSE. An exactly similar

case is the second child (Raghav) of Mr. RaviSekar of

Bahrain. The choices available to them in Engineering

courses are: a) Direct admission in NRI quota (usually

5%) in several colleges based on marks in the final

exam under DASA schemes b) All Indian entrance exam

for Regional engineering colleges/ NITs c) IIT/ BITs

entrance exams (more tough) d) Private colleges in

various states under Management quota.

 

Mr. Ravisekar’s first child Ms. Ragita took a

different route studying her 12th in India where she

scored 97% at State board which along with an entrance

exam (cancelled this year) helped her to get into MBBS

in Tanjore, Tamil Nadu (annual fees less than Rs

10,000 for 5.5 years). She could have also got into,

for example, at Manipal Medical college at several

times this cost. She plans to do her Post Graduation

abroad.

 

Sister Jayshree and Bro Sampath’s daughter Ms. Jigna

just completed her PhD at Emory college in USA in

Economics while their second child is doing his final

semester in Electronics and Communication at Georgia

Tech Atlanta. My own second daughter completed her MS

in Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University after doing

her BTech in Cardiff, UK (because I was not so

familiar with several options in India when she

finished her 12th). These are some of the real life

experiences that we as members should share among

ourselves to help the children plan better their

future.

 

Sairam and Pranams to all.

P.B.V.Rajan