Sanathana Sarathi - Down the Years - 2

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In February 1981, Bhagavan concluded the Sathya Sai Vahini with the last article on sociological basis of ancient Indian culture and society. “The four varnas (occupational divisions in society) are the limbs of the Divine body, of the one and only Lord. Caste is the Cosmic Person Himself manifesting as Human Society,” He explained and emphasized, “There is only one caste, the caste of Humanity.” By 1981, it was two decades and three years since Bhagavan had started writing for this holy magazine. But the Divine Hand continued to exert to exorcise the evil tendencies embedded in man for centuries. And so, in March 1981, Sai, the Eternal Educator, started yet another series “Vidya Vahini” – or, the “Stream of Thought Which Illumines”. In the nineteen essays that Swami penned, He candidly enumerated: what is

true learning? What is the purpose of learning? And which is the best procedure to learn? The duties and responsibilities of both – the teacher and the taught too were clearly elucidated. Interestingly, this was the year when Swami inaugurated the Sri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School along with its Primary Wing. Not only that, November 1981, also marked the opening of the grand ‘ Temple of Learning ’ – the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. Many of the articles in this series were partly due to appeals to Swami by educators and academicians for the elucidation of the principles which must guide one while rehabilitating education as an effective instrument for establishing peace and freedom within oneself and in society. “Bhagavan Baba’s Vidya Vahini is the most authentic version of His interpretation of Education for Life and total

Education,” says Prof. S Saraf, the second Vice-Chancellor of Swami’s University, in his book ‘Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba – the Eternal Educator’. He further states, “It (Vidya Vahini) presents the basic philosophy and concept in its multi-dimensional form covering the entire gamut of life-long education in its various facets from childhood to adulthood; containing beautiful elucidation of methods for reaching the goal.” With the opening of the deemed university in Puttaparthi, Swami, the Chancellor, was well-occupied with shaping this edifice, still His role as the ‘Chancellor of the Universe’ and His compassion for mankind propelled Him to continue to communicate the essence of spiritual wisdom, and that is how, in October 1982, Swami put to paper the “Sutra Vahini”. “Sutra” means “that which, through a few words only, reveals vast meanings".

“Brahma Sutras” of ancient India are the multicolored flowers gathered from all Upanishads, and in each syllable it contained a volume of profound philosophical thought. Swami, in His sixteen serial essays, unrivalled these precious spiritual wisdom and placed it in a manner a layman to a litterateur could appreciate and apply them in their daily life. After twenty five years, fifteen series of spiritual volumes and three hundred twelve months of continuous writing, Swami was still not done. As His divine mission was unfolding with the Inauguration of ‘Trayee Brindavan’- the new Temple at Brindavan, Bangalore and launching the Seva Dal conference in ‘Shivam’ – His temple in Hyderabad in April and May 1984, respectively, Swami, to the devotees’ delight, dished out another divine gem – “Leela Kaivalya Vahini”, the name itself was so ethereal to the ear.

True to its name, which meant the “Cosmic Sport of God and Eternal Universal Being”, this series of Swami was meant to purify man’s consciousness in all its facets and fill it with bliss. In March 1984 issue, Swami Himself stated, “From the coming Yugadi (New Year) Festival Day, this series under the name Leela Kaivalya Vahini, will dissolve all such obstacles and fill you with Ananda (bliss). It will lead you to the path of spiritual progress.” Cosmic play... Aiding man's spiritual progress That is what precisely, not

only this Vahini but every single page in Sanathana Sarathi, has done to thousands world over. “I eagerly await the monthly arrival of Sanathana Sarathi, and read every word of Avatar Vani, and everytime it gives me a new meaning, a new understanding. I must have read most of the Vahinis time and again, in English and in Gujarati, alone and in group. I read the Bhagavad Gita repeatedly but after I had the nectar of His discourses, every time Gita lends me new meaning and deeper understanding,” says Sri Chandrahas Shah from Mumbai. Dr. Joseph Phaneuf, a MD from USA , says, “The Sanathana Sarathi is my living Bible. Reading the words of the Lord who is walking on earth at this time is the greatest opportunity of many life times…Swami's nectarous words are so simple, straightforward and practical, they go straight to my heart. I try to take at least one point and put it into practice. I have so many opportunities to put His teaching into practice in my daily work as a physician. When I am successful at putting His teachings into practice everything just goes smoother and taking care of my patients is much more enjoyable. Swami reminds us time and time again that service to our fellow man is the same as service to God. This awareness brings reverence, humility, love and great joy to my work with my patients.” Even though Swami stopped writing comprehensive articles for the magazine after October 1984, His involvement and interest in the magazine was as spirited as ever. Be it the front cover, the inside photos, His discourses or devotees’ articles, every detail

was Swami’s concern and under His directions, the Sarathi improved and evolved to even sublime heights. For example, after the mid-eighties, Swami wanted a makeover of the front cover of the magazine. It transformed from various shades of blue, green, maroon, etc. in various previous issues to the sublime and sacred orange. “Swami liked the orange very much and directed that this should be maintained for all future issues without any change,” recalls Sri C M Prakash, a former student of Swami’s college, whom Swami had appointed to serve in the press as early as 1979. “Even a slight deviation in the shade of orange would not be acceptable to Swami,” he adds going down memory lane. It was because of His grace and guidance that the

glory of this ‘mouthpiece of the Lord’ only became grandeur every passing day. With the volume of work for the magazine increasing alarmingly, by early 1980s Prof. Kasturi also had help from Sri V K Narsimhan, an esteemed journalist who was the former Editor-in-Chief of Indian Express and winner of the Goenka Award, India 's highest accolade in journalism. Swami appointed him as the Associate Editor of the magazine. The mid-eighties saw sweeping changes in Sarathi’s printing, production and distribution. Swami decided it was time for the magazine to be printed in Puttaparthi itself and so, in a few weeks all the press infrastructure was shifted to the spacious Eswaramma High School where Swami has allotted few rooms to be used for the revived ‘Sri Sathya Sai Press’. This was in June 1986. (For a few months while the machinery was being shifted and installed, the printing job of Sarathi was outsourced to a printer in Chennai). But this time, Swami wanted the press to be run and managed by His students alone. “Is anybody willing to join the press?” Swami asked the selected group of boys He had picked to take with Him to Ooty in 1985. Before anybody could answer, Swami looked deeply at Mahesh Reddy and queried, “Are you ready to go for training?” Swami wanted to send two boys to Cochin to get acquainted with the working and maintenance of the printing machine. Mahesh Reddy was silent and hesitant, not because he was uninterested to work in the press or disinclined to stay back and serve in His mission, he was sad because he will be missing Swami. “It is only for 18 days, after that you will again be with me,” Swami explained with motherly love, and consoled him further saying, “When I go to Brindavan,

you manage, isn’t it? It is because you know I will come back. It is the same here. After a few weeks you will come back to me.” But Mahesh was still not convinced. “After Ooty, Swami wants to send me to Cochin , while He will proceed with all the other boys to Kodaikanal,” this thought was too depressing for him to deal with. But the all-knowing Swami assured him, “I am not going to Kodaikanal. I will return to Brindavan after the Ooty trip.” To get him more interested, Swami said, “Kerala (the state in which Cochin is located) is a beautiful land. You can go for sight-seeing there. I will make all arrangements for your trip. Now be prepared.” That is how Mahesh and another student Swami had picked went to the HMT factory in

Kalamaseri (Ernakulam district of Kerala) to learn the methods and maintenance of printing machines. After their training, before they started on their return journey, they sent a telegram to Swami informing Him of their arrival to Brindavan. And receiving their message, the sweet Lord, who was about to return to Puttaparthi that day, stayed on for one more day in Brindavan to lovingly receive them and fill their hearts with His tender love. The next morning as soon as Swami saw them, He beckoned them and enquired about their welfare. After the morning darshan, Swami called these two boys inside along with other elder devotees for a long private session during which Swami asked literally about every little detail of their stay and training. “Where were you having breakfast?” “Was the food inside the factory good?” “Did the factory canteen provide dinner too?” “How was your health?” “How did you find the training?” “Were the people there cooperative?”...Swami, like a concerned care-taker, wanted to know everything. Later, when Mahesh and his student-brother offered to Swami the balance amount that was unspent from what He had given prior to their journey, Swami like a proud mother looked at the senior devotees there and said, “See, my boys, they use money judiciously and return the remainder amount, had it been outside boys they would have loaned and spent more.” After a couple of days of their arrival to Puttaparthi along with Swami, He blessed the two

on an auspicious day saying, “Join the printing press today.” Swami even visited the press on that day and inspected the equipment and their working environment. Their joy then knew no bounds. After a few months into work, when Mahesh was not completely happy in his heart, Swami sensed this and during one interview He gave to the working staff of the ashram, told him, “I know, you are not happy.” It was not the work that bothered Mahesh but its time-consuming nature. He missed darshans and bhajans on many occasions and this always saddened him. The loving Swami knew the devotee’s pain as well as its panacea. He called him near and said, “See, you are doing such a sacred job, printing the ashram magazine. This goes to so many people all over the country and the world. It is no menial job, its significance is immense. What you are doing is actually

‘Virat Eshwara Seva’, or ‘Serving the All-pervading Cosmic Lord’. So never be unhappy.” That is how Swami took care of each selected staff of the press. His interest and involvement with the magazine in its every operation, right from its inception, never diminished. Even now, Swami approves and at times Himself selects pictures to be placed on the first page of the magazine. From its very first issue, the first copy of the Sarathi from the printing press is always presented to Swami. The Sarathi has always been Sai’s shining light guiding mankind and at no moment did Swami take His caring eyes away from it. In 1987, when Prof. Kasturi shed his mortal coil, Swami appointed Sri V K Narsimhan as the editor. A widely-travelled

journalist who had served in three national newspapers of India for half a century, Sri Narsimhan was the right man for the job at a time when the Sarathi was becoming increasingly international. By the early nineties, there were editions of Sanathana Sarathi in various foreign languages like Japanese, Nepalese, Spanish, Greek, etc. Sri C M Prakash recalls that Sri Narsimhan used to call the magazine a ‘monthly miracle’. It was amazing how with seemingly inadequate infrastructure and limited staff, the thousands of copies could be printed and shipped to various corners of the world. There were rs of the magazine from even countries like Curacao , Estonia and Rodrigues Islands . The way the magazine has sometimes ‘found’ its rs, is also very amazing. “In the summer of 1994, I was visiting India from America,” says Dr. Raghu Nathan, a

radiologist. “At that time, Swami was residing at Brindavan, Bangalore. I had a desire to start subscribing to the Sanathana Sarathi, however, I did not know whom to contact to initiate the subscription. While waiting for Swami's Darshan, I expressed this wish to an elderly and pious gentleman who was standing in line just behind me. And imagine, this person turned out to be the co-ordinator of overseas subscriptions for Sanathana Sarathi! He, then and there, took my address and finished whatever formalities required, and when I returned to America, the current issue of Sanathana Sarathi was waiting for me in my home! This may just be a co-incidence; but, for me, it was a Sai-incidence! Living far away in California , the Sanathana Sarathi is the monthly prasadam from Prasanthi Nilayam I eagerly look forward to.” Vincent Green, another devotee from

Scotland, says, “I had a good dream before I got my first issue of Sanathana magazine. I dreamt I was in a library and Sai gave me sweet oranges to eat - lots of them. I now believe it is the small and sweet pieces of wisdom that I was to receive that Baba was referring to.” The ways of the divine are beyond the kin of human understanding. In fact, it was He in His inscrutable way, who was writing the articles, enlisting rs and running the whole show. Yet at the mundane level, Swami has been ever guiding and directing all who were concerned with the magazine. When the need for a greater space and new infrastructure was felt, Swami directed the press to be moved for the final time to a new location, now inside the ashram compound itself. It is in this spacious location that the Sri

Sathya Sai Press operates today with the latest offset machine and a string of volunteers to help. And just like the previous occasion, Swami again sent two of his students to learn the mechanics and maintenance of this new machine to Kolhapur, in the state of Maharastra. When they returned after two weeks of training, they became invaluable assets to the press, and in extension to the Sai mission. “It has been a great opportunity and privilege to be part of this holy endeavour and I am ever grateful to Swami for the role he has gifted me with, however small it may be, to be part of this glorious mission,” says Saravanan, one of the students who joined the press in 1995. The saga of the Sanathana Sarathi is no different from any other mega service project of Swami; in fact, it is much

grandeur with a glorious fifty year history. It was the one which carried thrilling accounts when Bhagavan announced the setting up of the Super Specialty Hospital in Prasanthi Nilayam, the mega water project for Anantapur, the setting up of the second medical marvel in Bangalore, the opening of the Chaitanya Jyothi Museum, or even the recent water projects in Chennai and the two Godavari districts (East and West) of Andhra Pradesh. And it is these ‘mass miracles’ of Swami that the magazine had as its cover pages in the last five years (departing from the more-than-a-decade-long Orange ) under Swami’s guidance. With the passing away of Sri V K Narsimhan, in May 2000, the magazine had a new editor appointed by Swami, Sri G L Anand, an experienced educationist who has served in the NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) for decades, and an ardent devotee of the Lord. Over the years, editors have changed, the content composition has undergone many alterations, the aesthetics have greatly improved, the subscription has grown exponentially, and the magazine has reached virtually every corner of the globe, but the Master and His mission for this magazine has remained the same. As Prof. Venkataraman says, “Sanathana Sarathi has been the Lighthouse of Sathya, Dharma, Shanti and Prema, in a world that is otherwise spiritually dark.” In the modern times when the media has become a ‘play of money’ with even reputed media groups willing to pass on anything ‘that can sell’ as news, not giving a penny’s worth of thought about its impact on society or its younger generation, and willing to compromise and commercialize

anything and everything with the logic that ‘otherwise it is not going to sustain’, the Sanathana Sarathi stands as a role model, just like all other Swami’s service projects. It is the pristine purity character of the Sarathi which has endeared it to lakhs of devotees and spiritual aspirants world over today. If Arturo Salazar from Venezuela says, “It is the perfect food for my soul,” or if Ravi Rudra from New Zealand joyfully shares, “As I read the articles, I feel the Lord directly communicating with me to inspire and transform me so that I may be like Him,” or for that matter, if Perampalam from Auckland testifies, “I have now greater awareness of my innate divinity and purpose in life, and the need to express this in acts of love, fellow feeling, sacrifice, selfless service, helping ever and hurting never”, it is because the magazine has touched

their lives like no other. Truly, what the Sanathana Sarathi has achieved is perhaps incomparable to any other mega service plan of Swami, purely because its mission, modus operandi and immeasurable impact have been so mind-altering. It has worked on a totally different dimension than other massive projects of Swami in subtly, slowly but surely bringing out the best in each human being, and raising his consciousness to a new realm of peace and bliss. What transformation it has inspired in the minds of its readers, perhaps can be best expressed in a poem that Bhagavan Himself penned for the 59 th Birthday issue of this ‘Divine Carrier’ of His timeless message. Let’s ruminate on this enlightening message and elevate our lives.

“This One is Mine” I do not need any riches; for, why should I? A carefree mind is enough, O Father, That is a Million for me! I shall not yearn for Fortune; for, why should I? A smile-lit face is enough, O Father, That is a Million for me! I shall not pine and want: for, why should I? A glance from Thy Eye is enough, O Father, That is a Million for me! I shall not crave for Wealth; for, why should I? The joy of being Thine is enough, O Father, That is a Million for me! Enough for me these things I have, Whatever Thou hast gifted now; Why think of getting more? I’ll have them when Thou wishest; Enough for me Thy un-diminishing Grace Which falls on all whom Thou hast blessed, With the words: “This one is Mine.” Source - Web Journal Heart to Heart – Heart2Heart Team

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