Sai Kingdom (UK) Grama Seva Group 2007 (Sunday 21st October)

[Guest guest]

Sai Kingdom (UK) Grama Seva Group 2007 (21st October) Morning Darshan On this auspicious day of the Dusshera function, Prasanthi Nilayam was reverbrating with extra vigour. Also on this day, Shirdi Sai Baba chose to take Maha Samadhi in 1918. He told one of his close devotees the day before that he would leave his mortal coil on the day of Dusshera. In the Threta yuga, Lord Sri Rama was victorious in his battle with the demon king, Ravana. He then returned to Ayodha where he was crowned king. In the kali yuga our dear Swami, the Veda Purusha himself, came to the poornachandra hall to carry out the poornahuti of the yagna. This ceremony took place at 10am this morning. Swami then watched over the rituals for over 45 minutes. This included the yagna ceremony and he blessed all the priests who were fortunate to take part. The Poornachandra hall was completely

full as everyone was keen to get a glimpse of Swami performing the yagna Himself. The scene before our eyes took our imagination back to the Threta yuga yagnas. For the first time the grama seva was performed for the full 9 days of the navratri function. Usually on dusshera the sisters of the Anantapur campus would do grama seva within the Prasanthi Nilayam ashram. However in addition to this, Swami instructed the students and the UK group to continue with the service activities in the villages. Some of these villages that were fortunate to receive Swami’s prasadam on Vijayadasami day were Tarakarama Nagar, Djp(Deenajanoddhara na) and Cheya. These villages are located behind the ashram. In total over 200 homes received Swami’s prasadam including 58 students in the Deenajanoddharana orphanage. The UK grama seva group expresses their deepest gratitude towards Swami for allowing them to take part in this grand event covering 145 villages in 8 days.

Service of this magnitude is only possible with the Divine blessing. Afternoon Darshan Swami came for darshan at 4.15pm in his chair today, just before the rahulkalam started at 4.30pm. He then spoke to the UK grama sevagroup leader puppet and instructed him to give a talk. Swami then spent over 20 minutes with his students looking fondly at the various models and presentations of dushhera craft works. Sri Sanjay Sahani then introduced the 2 speakers for the evening. These were Ajit Poppat (puppet) and Sri S.V.Giri (previous vice chancellor of the Sri Sathya Sai University ). Sri Ajit Poppat (puppet) spoke in his usual charismatic and energetic manner. He spoke on leading a

Heartificial instead of an artificial life and elaborated on this by quoting the 5 “L’s” given by Swami. These are: - Listening – to “Avatar Vahni” i.e. the teachings of the living master. - Learning – learning to put into practice the above teachings - Lifting – lifting oneself above the physical plane to mental, intellectual, psychic and eventually to the spiritual plane. - Living – live what you have learnt - Loving – to love selflessly. Sri Ajit Poppat spoke of how one of the boy joined the UK Grama Seva group faced with a very difficult choice. Few days before the departure of the group the boy’s Mother who was suffering from Cancer, became very serious. The Father informed the Group leader that the boy will not be able to come. However, the Mother insisted that her son should go for Grama Seva and serve our Lord Sai, despite the fact that she was in a very critical situation. During Grama Seva, the boy

received a phone call from the Father explaining that his Mother’s situation is getting worse and Doctors have given her only couple of days. The father wanted the boy to come back home. The boy wrote a letter with a picture of his Mother and gave to Swami. Swami immediately read the letter on the Veranda. Soon after that the boy received a call from his family who explained that his Mother wanted him to stay with Swami and complete the Grama Seva activities in the villages. She was very proud that her son is serving our Lord Sai at her last moments. The sacrifice made by the mother and son, touched the heart of our dear Lord Sai. Swami, looked at the boy with a motherly smile many times during darshan. Sri Ajit Poppat ended his talk with a prayer to Baba. Sri S.V. Giri then spoke eloquently on his recent experiences during Grama Seva. He narrated an incident in a village where a family shared their prasadam with their pet dog as they

considered it to be an equal member of the household. Sri Giri then compared this to a similar experience in the life of Shirdi Sai Baba. In another village, Sri Giri noticed a marked improvement in the self confidence of the inhabitants as a direct result of the love showered on them during Grama Seva over the years. After Sri Giri had finished his talk, Swami gifted us all wih His divine discourse on this auspicious day of Vijayadasami. To the great delight and joy of the audience, Swami then stood up for the first part of the discourse and spoke whilst standing. Swami started off saying that this auspicious day gives great joy to many people, however this day was also a day of grief to many people in the past as this was the day Shirdi Baba left his physical body and took maha Samadhi. Swami then explained the importance of following Sathya, Truth and Dharma, Righteousness. He then quoted the story of Lakshmi Bhai who was given two gold coins by Shirdi Baba

symbolising Sathya and Dharma and to the amazement of the audience he materialized these two coins. The rest of Swami’s discourse elaborated the principle of Sathya and dharma. Swami said that following the above basic principles is superior to any form of worship or prayer and everything done should be based on truth. Swami concluded saying that all of us are a reflection of “Sathya Sai” and that God is one, whether we call him Rama, Krishna , Jesus or Allah. Swami ended his talk singing the famous song “Bhaja Govindam”. Courtesy: Arvind Tank