Sai Seminar on Human Values

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram,

 

Today I had the good fortune of attending a seminar on Human Values

organised by the Alapuzha Sathya Sai Med and Sai Neethi. It was

attended by over a hundred people among whom were Lawyers, Doctors,

Police Officers, Paramedical workers. The function was presided by a

prominent Judge, Justice P. Nair.

 

Sai Neethi is run by Sai Seva oragnisation as is the Sai Med, the

former for lawyers and the latter for Doctors and paramedical workers.

They conduct a lot of free camps and follow up surgery cases

discharged from Sathya Sai Hospitals for free.

 

We got to hear heart touching bhajans, keertans, sung by Sri Babu. He

cannot see but he sings from his heart. I almost broke down with joy-

Swami blessed him to sing with so much soul, spirit, feeling and

ananda. We were lucky to hear him for more than an hour. The

accompanying people on the Mridanga and Violin were excellent. On the

whole it was a divine performance. Sri Babu has had the good fortune

of singing in front of Swami. I felt Swami’s presence throughout the

recitals.

 

Mr. Jay Krishnan (Alapuzha Sathya Sai Samiti President) introduced the

speakers, among whom were the Presidents of the Indian Medical

Associations- Alapuzha branch and the Bar Association- Alapuzha

branch, Dr. Anandamohan- the State Coordiantor for Sai Med, Justice P.

Nair, Justice Natarajan, Justice Kunjumoideen, Dr. Madhusudhanan- a

famous homeopath and another Bhakta whose name I fail to recall (he

flew over from Puttaparthi last night. He is in charge of the ongoing

project of setting up a coconut oil extraction plant there, I believe.

 

Sri Nair lit the traditional lamp and spoke how Swami made the

next-to-impossible Sathya Sai Super Specialty hospital at Puttaparthi

an easy possibility. Not only that, Swami got an International airport

built there to get in the necessary materials etc. The building was

built by Larson and Toubro and at the end of it, after the

inauguration on the predestined date (as predestined by Swami) it was

revealed that the complex is the second largest in the world, (next to

only the Buckingham palace).

 

Dr. Anandamohan gave a practical and touching talk on human values

quoting examples as shown by Swami. He started with the story of Sir

Isaac Tigrett ( that was a cover story in the Times) who was

instrumentally responsible for the Super Speciality Hospital. Sir

Isaac had never seen Swami or even heard of him. He was from one of

the migrant families to U.K from the U.S. He had seen Swami’s famous

quote put up somewhere, “LOVE ALL SERVE ALL”.

 

He was so inspired that it became his working principle as well as

motto. He started a restaurant called the Hard Rock café in England

where any one was welcome. This was at a time where there was a lot of

class hierarchy and each hotel maintained their customer class rather

strictly. His employees were specially selected after he spoke to them

about their idea of human values.

 

Love all, Serve all was the motto in his restaurant. There was no

distinction between the workers. The person who was the accountant

this week was the waiter the next week – no specific job designation-

work was shared and the customers were served with love and care. It

is a small wonder that his restaurant become very popular and he soon

started a chain of restaurants world wide always making Love all,

Serve all as his business motto.

 

He finally reached Puttaparthi with a group of devotees. The entire

group was granted an interview. Swami walked over to each of them and

enquired about how their meditation was going, whether they were doing

their japa properly. Sir Isaac was sitting at the end of the row

feeling rather nervous as he did not know about Dhayna, Japa etc.

 

When Swami reached him, he was drawn close to Swami who embraced him

and whispered, Love all, Serve all. He was made in charge of the

running of the hospital despite his reluctance to accept the

responsibility. His method of running his chain of restaurants was

made a thesis project and texts were written on Sir Isaac’s managerial

principles.

 

The doctor then spoke about Swami’s comment on making the impossible

possible- constructing a unique institution- the super speciality

hospital. Swami said that anyone could build a similar institution.

One only had to have so much love in his heart as Swami has in his

heart for everyone. If that happens anyone can do it. Remove the ego

and the self and from that arises sacrifice. From sacrifice comes so

much love as seen from Sir Isaac’s life.

 

The then Indian President wrote a letter to Swami and said that if the

Indian government had to under take such a project, they would take

atleast 9 years- Swami took just over 9 months to get the Super

Specialty Hospital built over hard rocky barren land and get it

functioning on the day of the inauguration itself with a surgery.

 

The doctor then spoke about the value of humility in our lives and

gave a great example. He had gone to Puttaparthy for a seminar and had

met the Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Superspeciality

hospital, who did upto 8 surgeries per day, working for upto 20 hours

a week. Dr. Anandamohan said that he later went to the Sai Kulwant

hall. There he saw a familiar person sweeping the floor and cleaning

the floors on the devotees section on a Sunday. No prizes for

guessing- it was the same surgeon, who after working 20 hours a day

spent his spare time on Sundays cleaning the floor for devotees.

 

He then went on to tell about another anecdotal incident where some

devotees approached this very same surgeon and offered him some food

coupons that they had extra as they thought that he was a poor

devotee. They were chagrined when they realized that he was the Head

of Dept. of Cardiothoracic Surgery.

 

 

Dr. Anandamohan then spoke about the 3 H principles on human values as

taught by Swami. This was quoted form the book on leadership, authored

by Stephen Cohen, I believe, which is again a textbook in several

educational institutions. The 3 H are the Head, the Heart and the

Hand. Swami advises us to avoid a heart bypass. Every thought arising

from the head must go to the heart which can rationalize it and then

only should the action be carried out by the hand. Not doing this is

the root cause of all problems. For example if a child is instructed

to beat someone up and the child immediately does that bypassing the

heart, it becomes a wrong action. If instead the though first goes to

the heart the child may realize that such a thing would be wrong and

he will not raise his hand.

 

He said that we should aspire to spread happiness from inside to

outside. Even if the patient is ungrateful after being treated, we

should ignore it and not expect any thing. He said that we are serving

patients because we get joy and satisfaction from it. Swami says that

alone is enough. One need not bother about the patient’s reaction to

our work. If we do not derive any joy form doing Seva to the patient

then we might as well stop doing it. Do it only if we get joy from it,

immaterial of the reaction of the patient to that act of service. How

practical and true.

 

He spoke about Sai Parenting and other activities on improving human

values organized by the Sathya Sai organization worldwide which has

helped guide several families. He spoke about the triangle described

by Stephen in his book. The triangle has rows, the topmost being

occupied with “to be”. Then comes “to see” and the last is “to tell”.

 

Now a days everyone aspires to become something or someone by hook or

crook. Instead Swami advises us to be good and useful to others. The

hands that serve are holier than the lips that pray, Swami says. The

last is “to tell” and unfortunately that is the one most widely

practiced. Everyone talks too much and does too little.

 

Dr. Madhusudhan spoke how Swami gives us small inspirations and gut

feeling that help us shape and improve the lives of our patients in

day to day life. We can radiate positiveness through the love that we

show in our work. He quoted examples how a devotee could change and

reshape the lives of some adolescent boys who ragged their juniors at

a local medical college, thanks to his Sai Intuition. He took the boys

to a cancer institute and they spent a couple of days interacting with

the patients and realized how wrong they were in their behaviors and

they returned, changed from within their hearts and became good human

beings.

 

He quoted another example how a family was reunited thanks to his Sai

gut feeling due to which he intervened in their lives on a neutral

ground- a mother was reunited with her family that had gone astray and

this helped her gain control over her physical illness too.

 

Swami has once said that Homeopathy is Saipathy as here the patient is

treated for the inside problem as well as the outside problem without

any invasive procedure- not even an injection.

 

The others spoke very well too. The concept gained from each talk was

the same. There is one religion- humanity and one language- that of

the heart. Swami’s words could not have been drilled into us in any

better way than through this forum.

 

The seminar was a rejuvenation camp to be honest. I felt so fresh and

energetic at the end of it. There was so much love all around. I felt

the presence of Bhagwan through out the seminar.

 

I suddenly realized one thing- I am at the base of the staircase that

leads us to spirituality, freedom, joy, pure bliss, peace. All these

are at the summit. I can see the endless stairs I need to climb before

I become a part of them. But Swami has held my hand and has raised his

foot to climb up the first step with me. I know he will lead me to the

summit, to the Sat-chit-ananda that He is.

 

There was the vote of thanks after all the speakers had spoken,

followed by the Aarti. Then a sumptious lunch was served- the Kerala

Sadhya with rice, sambar, thoran, avail, papadam, pachadi, pickle and

payasam. Onam has arrived weeks earlier today at the convention.

 

I had the good fortune of chatting with Dr. Anandamohan. He spoke how

Swami makes things possible. He gave a recent example where in they

needed some ophthalmology equipment for the operation theatre in the

Sathya Seva primary health centre, run by him totally free of cost.

They had no funds to invest in the same. A few days later, they got a

call from a leading ophthalmologist who wished to donate some extra

equipments and a theatre that he owned. The total cost of the donated

equipment worked out to almost 25 lakh rupees. Who but Swami can do

that- make the impossible possible?

 

 

 

 

--

laxmi