Sunday Special - 23rd December 2007 from Prashanti Nilayam

[Guest guest]

SUNDAY SPECIAL

- THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING

EARNEST

 

 

 

Loving Sai Ram, and greetings from Prashanti

Nilayam. We are sure at least some of you would have recognised the title

of this week's Sunday Special as being the same as that of a play by Oscar

Wilde, first staged in 1895 in England .

 

Now what on earth made us go back to that title to bring to you a spiritual

message this Sunday? Well, it was a small report about what some doctors

did recently in America . And there begins our reflections this week.

 

As all of you must be aware that often, when a cardiac patient has arterial

block, the first thing that doctors do is to try and fix that block with a

catheterisation process. This calls for inserting a catheter from the groin

region, pushing it up all the way to the region of the heart. The movement

is tracked using x-rays, and when the block region is reached, steps are

taken to dilate the artery, put a stent and all that. This procedure is the

first choice, if the cardiologist thinks it would help; the more advanced

procedure, namely, by- pass surgery, is thereby avoided. By the way, this

procedure is quite routine and indeed thousands have been done in Swami's

two Super Specialty Hospitals for years.

 

Now apparently in some slightly complicated cases, where the patient is

sent to an ICU for recovery, it was found that there were too many

fatalities for comfort - this was the observation in America . Nobody likes

such a situation, least of all the doctors, and many attempts were made to

bring down the number of post-catheterisation fatalities, mostly via

technical advances of various kinds. However, some doctors in the State of

Michigan tried something very different.

 

They simply said, "Let us see if we can tighten up procedural discipline

while doing the procedure." Having decided thus, they then tried very

simple things like carefully washing hands before the procedure and so on.

Now lay people like us might imagine that such things were quite habitual

and were always done. But apparently, so common had the procedure of

catheterisation procedure had become, it was being treated by many as

pretty routine, almost like, say, giving an injection.

 

We are not trying to oversimplify but merely drawing attention to the way

these doctors went back to the basics rather than trying something radical.

The story does not end here. Having clear proof that simple precautions and

common sense practices could do immense good, the next task was to

institutionalise this process on a large scale that this can really work

everywhere, provided the discipline drill is duly followed.

 

The doctor who took the primary initiative suggested that the Chief Nurse

assisting the doctors involved in medical procedure should do the

overseeing. When the matter was put to the nurses to get their reaction,

they said, "Look, be practical; we work for and under the doctors. How can

we boss them?" There were similar reservations on the side of the doctors

too. Finally, there was a serious get together, and a way was found to have

suitable watchdogs and implement the procedure on a state-wide scale. When

the pre-procedure discipline was rigidly followed, sure enough there were

wonderful results.

 

A caveat before we proceed further; we freely admit that here and there we

might have got the details of the above story wrong; but we firmly believe

that the broad picture is very much as we have described. The important

point is that thoroughness and good discipline - always a sign of

professionalism - do yield very good results without the need for expensive

solutions to the problems faced.

 

The point we really wish to make is that in anything we

do, we must really be earnest. What particular

thing do we have in mind and what is it that we want? That is the question

we shall consider next. There cannot be any dispute that there are many,

many things wrong in today's society. We shall not tax you by listing and

describing these problems, some of which are truly horrific.

 

That said, do we realise that everyone of these problems

CAN be solved by a disciplined

application of Swami's teachings? One gets the impression that not many do.

Whenever H2H or Radio Sai has a program advocating active

involvement in society and doing all one can to help with the solution, we

get a lot of mail saying, "Don't bother us with all this; why do you think

Swami is here? He will solve the problem. Leave us alone to enjoy Swami and

experience Bliss."

 

We agree that devotees are free to follow whatever path appeals to them; at

the same time, we wish to point out and also emphasise that Swami loses no

opportunity to stress that we all must become deeply involved in service to

Society in whatever way we can, that sacrifice is far superior to even

chanting the Vedas and so on. The examples of quotes are too

numerous and too familiar to warrant repetition here.

 

In other words, it is time we really become earnest about paying serious

attention to Swami's teachings and doing all we can to follow them.

Bhagavan has said many things to help us improve spiritually and of these,

perhaps the most important one that concerns is service and sacrifice. That

is the point we wish to focus on.

 

These are days when people get turned off the moment the word sacrifice is

mentioned. What is a greater pity is that even devotees, who ought to know

better, are increasingly beginning to ignore the fact that Swami's

entire life is a wonderful saga of sacrifice. Yet when it

comes to really making our lives His Message, we quickly

find alibis for excusing ourselves, preferring to show devotion via other

means. It does not seem to matter that many times, Swami has said in His

Discourses that mere chanting of the Vedas, ritualistic

observances etc., would not open the gates of heaven but only sacrifice

can.

 

We digress for a moment to bring to your attention a heart-warming story,

published recently in the Hyderabad edition of the nationally well-known

newspaper The Hindu. The story concerns a seventy

plus old lady named Seetaravamma of Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh. She

lost her husband when very young and has no children. She belongs to a town

named Raepalli but, on account of age and physical inability, now lives in

an old-age home in a nearby village. She has to pay for her stay, and it

costs her Rs. 600/- per month. She cannot walk, and needs help to move

around.

 

Why are we drawing attention to this particular lady, when there must be

hundreds of thousands like her in India with its population of over a

billion? For a good reason. In 1998, this lady sold the house in Raepalli

that belonged to her husband and, spending Rs. 300,000, she bought 1.1

acres of land in a nearby village named Kuchenapudi. She then donated this

land for building a Primary Health Centre in that village. Having done

this, she then moved to old-age home in that same village, sustaining

herself with the balance money.

 

Now there are a few points that must be underscored here. Firstly, she

donated land for building a PHC because the people of this village had no

nearby emergency medical facility and had to go 15 km to Raepalli for even

the most elementary kind of medical assistant. The second point is that the

village to which she had moved, had many rich landlords holding up to 50

acres but not a single one came forward to make any such donation of land.

 

 

The story does not end here. India is notorious for red tape and sure

enough in this case even though the money was there project implementation

simply did not take off for quite a long time. Understandably, this lady

was getting anxious, wondering when her dream would become a reality.

Meanwhile, there was a change of government in the State, which brought in

its own slowing-down effect. Despite the handicaps of old age, the lady was

determined that the PHC shall come up; she now decided to

directly appeal to the Minister in charge of health rather than dealing

with local administrators. She pleaded that the PHC be completed soon so

that she could see it before she died. Her pleas were heard and the PHC was

finally built.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Story of Seetaravamma in The Hindu

 

 

 

 

Just recently the PHC was inaugurated, of course in

the presence of a very pleased Seetaravamma. Feeling enthused, she has now

offered to donate small lot of land in Raepalli town for the construction

of a small building where people could perform the last rites of their dear

ones.

 

She does not have much money left from what she got when she sold her

house, but wants to keep on donating what she has. She has already donated

some money for building small bridges across the local canals, and wants to

give away even more for public good before her end comes.

 

We are not going to use this story to lecture to our readers as to what

they must do. That is beyond our province. However, we do wish to use this

story in a certain way that is quite relevant to our general mission.

 

As you are aware, today's media is saturated with negative news; only

rarely is there time or space for accommodating heart warming stories like

the one we are reporting as well as others where people have succeeded in

holding on to Dharmic principles.

 

For quite some time, we have been making appeals, using both formal as well

as informal channels, for what we call "Dharmic stories". By this we mean a

story describing a person's experience in holding firm to Dharma when

confronted by corrupt and such other forces, often against great odds, and

emerging successful in the end. These are days when people go about freely

declaring that Dharma, Sathya and all that are nice to

give talks on but DO NOT work in real life.

 

Is that really correct? We do not believe so but the problem is that many

are increasingly tending to believe that Dharma would

simply NOT work in this day and age. There is an urgent

need to dispel this dangerous view that is gaining ground. It is

NOT that Dharma does not work. Actually many have

had amazing success in sticking firm to Dharma but unfortunately

these stories do not ever make the news.

 

But here in Swami's Studio, we have all the Media tools available just for

reporting good news. And so we say to each and everyone one of you.

 

Please share with us any Dharmic stories you might have. They may be

stories based on your own personal experience or they may be stories based

on the experience of someone you personally know and for which you can

vouch for, or some little know story published in your corner of the

world.

 

Share them with us so that we can share them with the whole world via Radio

Sai and H2H.

 

[in fact, we have already started such a column in the "Features" section

in the November issue of H2H called "Harnessing the Heart - Living upto the

Challenge of Conscience in Daily Life." Click here

to read the first article and here

for the latest.]

 

The more devotees hear such stories, the more their own

personal conviction in upholding Sathya and Dharma would

become. You know, it is not that the practice of Dharma has

vanished; rather, Dharmic stories are being pushed out of news using the

argument that only scandal, disaster, evil, crime, celebrities are relevant

to news.

 

This is totally wrong. Someone has to tell the world that "

NO, DHARMA IS NOT DEAD AS PEOPLE SEEM TO THINK. IT IS ALIVE AND IS BEING

SINCERELY ADHERED TO MILLIONS. ONLY, SUCH STORIES OF GREAT BRAVERY ARE KEPT

OUT USING THE FALSE ARGUMENT THAT OBSERVANCE OF DHARMA IS NOT NEWS."

 

Swami is SATHYA and DHARMA personified; don't you think

at least we devotees must do to tell the world, "No, Dharma has

not disappeared; it is just that it is being kept out of media services on

false premises. Here are stunning examples that you did not read about or

hear about. Let them assure you that world is not just crime and sleaze as

one might think, if one goes by the regular media."

 

We all in H2H are asking you to help us spread the good word. Remember that

such stories are vital for the young people of today. Just think how much

these stories can help our Bal Vikas programs, Youth programs and so on!

 

 

Yes, it is necessary to be earnest about whatever we do. Yes, we must all

strictly adhere to Sathya and Dharma. But how about

taking a little time to spread Dharmic stories, since they can be a great

tonic? Remember the Chinna Kathas that Swami used to once tell?

What are they but Dharmic stories? So, don't you think if we bring real

stories of Today to the notice of one and all, especially the young, it

would help?

 

All it calls for is a bit of giving your time. Is that discipline too great

or is that sacrifice too much? Think about it!

 

Jai Sai Ram.