32nd weekly posting on Saudi SAI centers activities

[Guest guest]

Sai-Satsang in 4 centers continued

(week ending 27th Sep, Thursday)

 

Sairam to all Children, Sisters and Sai Brothers

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

Riyadh.

 

We continue with the Thirty second (32) posting of the

activities of all 4 centers.

 

Summary:

1) Total Attendance all over Saudi crosses 120.

2) Narayana seva done in Riyadh and Jeddah

3) Eshwaramma day in Riyadh in coming week

 

Details:

In Dammam the weekly satsangh was held on the evening

of Wednesday 26th Sep at Bro. Prem's residence in

Khobar. The attendance was by about 30 members with

Aarthi taken by Bro. Jayaram. Bro Prem provided the

report. Thank you Prem.

 

Jubail center held the weekly Satsang on Thursday 27th

Sep at 7.30 pm attended by about 20 members at Bro

Sunil's residence. Aarthi was taken by Bro Sunil. 7

members from Dammam participated. Bro Wimal provided

the report. Thank you Wimal.

 

Study Circle was organized by Bro. Muthu Krishnan at

Bro Swamy Mahavdevan’s house on 25th Sep, Tuesday and

attended by 8 members who discussed a chapter on

Dharma.

 

As most of you are aware, Bro Swamy Mahadevan plays an

important background organizational role in running of

" Sai Gramam " orphanage project in Trivandaram in Kerala

(Vradana Sadanam). They installed and inaugurated a 2

MT marble statue of Shirdi SAI Baba this week

coinciding with Shirdi Sai Baba's birthday on 28th Sep.

I learnt that AnandaKumar (who is one of the main office

bearers) is from the erstwhile Royal family of

Travancore. They seem to be doing a wonderful job of

supporting elderly people who have been orphaned by

the children due to modernization of the Indian

society. According to Bro Swamy Mahadevan, Baghvan Sri

Sathya Sai Baba intends to visit this place on his

birthday 23rd Nov in 2011.

 

The Jeddah Sai Samithis members met at Sai brother

Ashok’s Nada compound on Thursday 27/9/2007 with an

attendance of about 21 members, Thought for the day

was read out by him and Aarthi was taken by Brother

Unnikrishnan. Mrs. Usha Unnikrishnan is a good Bhajan

singer and our Bro Nada has brought some of her songs

recorded during recent visit.

 

Jeddah Samiti also distributed more than 100 free

meals as part of Narayana Seva at Mosque in Al Rehab

area near Indian Embassy school. Bro K.P.Rajan & Bro

Ashok provided the report. Thank you both.

 

Riyadh group held a special Ramadan Bhajan on Thursday

evening 27th Sep, from 6.30 pm till 8.00 pm followed

by dinner cooked by volunteers. The Bhajan was

attended by a full capacity satsangh of about 60

members. Bro. Ganesh took the aarthi.

 

The Bhajan was preceded by Narayana seva which began

on Wednesday evening at about 6.30 pm with vegetable

cutting. Then next day, on Thursday morning a

volunteer team did the cooking and over 200 meals were

distributed via a mosque in Harrah area. Some of the

members led by Bro Packy also observed Ramadan fasting

during the day and broke the fast with call of Azan at

about 5.50 pm. Several Bhajans were Sarvadharma genre

(which means they included “Allah” in the verse).

About 20 members are estimated to have participated in

the Narayana seva.

 

While on the subject of Ramadan fasting, if you have

been listening to the English language broadcast of

Saudi Radio, you would have noticed the program on

“Benefits of fasting”. The humorous angle to it is,

mostly the doctors who address this program mention

that the fasting as intended in Koran, is not

practiced widely in this country as most people sleep

off during the day and keep awake in the night,

generously feeding themselves with sweets. Human body

needs between 1,600 calories to 2,000 calories for the

sedentary nature of present day life. Excess calories

leads to weight gain leading to obesity and subsequent

health problems. You can either eat less or do

exercise to burn those unwanted calories or preferably

do both. Dr Patra once mentioned that he was going to

give a small talk on the subject of “Keeping Fit” and

we hope he will do it soon.

 

Next week on 4th Oct Thursday 6 pm, Eshwaramma day

(for children) will be celebrated in Riyadh (in a

private villa- not at the center) with a classical

dance, brief intro to SAI parenting, drama by Bal

Vikas children and musical program. Members from other

centers are cordially invited with their families. In

the meantime volunteers (for cleaning etc) from Riyadh

center are invited to get in touch with Bro Manishekar

to organize the forthcoming Thursday event.

 

For sake of record it may be mentioned that officially

Eshwaramma day is celebrated on 6th May (anniversary

of her merger with Swami in spirit). You can get some

more details including her photo on the web link

http://www.saibaba.ws/articles/easwaramma.htm

 

Pranams