Sai satsangh in Saudi week ending 20th April

[Guest guest]

Sai-Satsang in 3 centers continued

(week ending 20th April, Friday)

 

Sairam to all Children, Sisters and Sai Brothers

in all 3 Sai SatSanghs in Jubail, Dammam and Riyadh.

 

We continue with the eleventh (11) posting of the

activities of all 3 centers.

 

Summary:

1) Mahila Bhajan in Riyadh

2) Total attendance crosses 100 again this week.

3) Brief note on Scientific progress in early

centuries of Hinduism.

Details:

 

In Dammam the weekly satsang was held on the evening

of Wednesday 18th April, at the residence of Bro.

Ganesh (Safco) who also took the Aarthi. The

attendance was by about 30 members starting punctually

at 7.30 pm. The bhajans have accompaniments in

Harmonium from Bro Srikumar and on Tabla by youngsters

Hari & Abishek (Bro Sarathi has been missing for

several sessions). The bhajans were followed by Study

circle where the note posted by Bro Kham (of Riyadh)

from Sai Smaran By Dr. Ghadia on bridging the gap

between ¡°Faith and self confidence¡± was discussed.

Bro Jayaraman (who works in KFUPM) is nominated for

co-coordinating activities regarding starting a

library in Dammam which is a welcome development.

 

Jubail center held the weekly Satsang on Thursday 19th

April at 7.30 pm that was attended by about 21 members

at Bro Naidu¡¯s residence followed by dinner. Aarthi

was taken by Bro Gopal. Study circle coordinated by

Bro Gopalakrishnan was held on 17th April at Bro.

Rathish¡¯s residence from 7 to 8 pm.

 

Riyadh group held the weekly Bhajan on Thursday April

19th from 6.00 pm till about 8.00 pm. It was attended

by about 55 members. All Singers were ladies or

BalVikas children and usually these Mahila Bhajans are

well attended because families come, not just single

men. Aarthi was taken by sister Mythili Sreenivasan.

She takes Balviaks classes at her home on Fridays and

she is teacher as well in Indian Embassy school,

Riyadh. She is also active in the Toastmasters¡¯

circuit and is an accomplished public speaker. Being

from Tirupathi she speaks both Telugu and Tamil.

 

Sister Maheswari Nada continued reading from Shirdi

Sai Charitha which is full of inspiring real

instances. Bro Packy appealed to members to

participate more actively in Vedam classes held every

Thursday.

 

Incidentally today is Akshaya threthai, considered an

auspicious day in Chennai at least. Merchants have

converted this day into Gold buying day. As perhaps

most of you are aware, today Bollywood¡¯s famous actor

Aishwarya Rai is getting married to Amitabh¡¯s son (I

forget his name for the moment although I saw his

movie Dhoom in Chennai in Jan 07)

 

As mentioned in my last week¡¯s posting, at the Swami

Narayan temple in London, http://www.mandir.org/

there is a permanent exhibition on Hinduism. I give

here some extracts from the displays on achievements

of Hindu scientists several centuries earlier.

 

1) 1,500 years back in 500 CE, AryaBhatta, a famous

astronomer stated in his treatise that ¡°Earth

revolves around sun, rotates on its axis and is

suspended in space¡±. In Europe, Copernicus came up

with this theory after 1,000 years and was executed by

Church for heresy.

2) Bhaskaracharya, another astronomer in 500 CE noted

¡±Objects fall down on earth due to attraction of

earth (Gravity). Newton gave Europe this theory after

1,200 years. He also calculated the time taken by

earth to rotate around the earth accurately up to 9th

decimal place.

3) Baudhayana calculated the value of Pi (¢³) which

is 22/7 as 3 and Aryabhatta improved it to 4 decimal

places

4) Indian mathematical system developed zero and

decimal places. So Indian mathematicians could

calculate time up to 1/34,000 of a second and give a

name for it (Krathi). At the same time, they estimated

1 Yuga (time from start of universe to its collapse)

as 4.32 billion years and only now modern scientists

have been able to confirm it.

5) In Anuyogdwar sastra written in 100 BC (2100 years

back), a number of 10 raised to 143 (10©ú where n=143)

was used.

 

More of such scientific inventions in later postings¡¦

 

Finally I want to leave an idea on a Seva project

feasible in Saudi as well, by all 3 centers.

 

In a recent address by Mr. Abdullah Juma, CEO of

Aramco to ASHRM (Arabian society of Human Resource

management), references were mentioned that in 1966,

the income levels of citizen of India, Thailand and

South Korea were almost in similar range (below US$

500). However because of heavy investments by the

later 2 in ¡°education for all¡±, Thailand and South

Korea have now literacy rate of over 90% where as in

India it is still between 50-60%. This is now

reflected in the Gross annual income per head which in

India is still below US$1,000/year, where as in

Thailand, it is US$ 5,000 and in South Korea over US$

10,000. This shows the direct correlation between

literacy and income especially for lower income

people.

 

So may I suggest that our Seva volunteers tutor some

working class Indians in Saudi in all 3 centers, on

regular basis, to become literate at least in English.

The cost is negligible and there cannot be much

objection for an English tutoring session once a week

to a group of 10-20 Indians by other Indians, from any

of the Saudi authorities. This may help these people

to improve their careers in the work place in Saudi or

in India when they return.

 

Sairam and Pranams to all.

P.B.V.Rajan