Issue 138 - August 25, 2019 | | During a Satsang held in the divine presence in London, UK, on 2016 when asked how to stay motivated?
Here is what Swami said:
What drives you to do anything? What motivates you to do anything? When you know the value of what you are going to achieve by doing something, you will be motivated by it.
A businessman starts a business. He knows that by running his business in a certain way, he will earn so much profit. He values profit, he values money, so he is motivated to do the business, to work day in and day out, to leave no stone unturned to achieve the profit he is aiming at. When you know the value of what you are going to get at the end, that itself becomes your motivation. If your result at the end is absolute peace, absolute joy, which doesn't change with time or circumstances, that you will constantly be in a state of bliss – that should be good enough for motivation.
You are so motivated by little joys. If you like something to eat, you drive all the way to the restaurant, pay money and even wait in a queue. If you want to watch a movie, you will drive up all the way, stand in a queue and buy tickets, because you are deriving joy out of it. You value the joy which comes out of it. However, it lasts only as long as the food is digested, or until the movie is over. Afterwards, where is the joy? That also disappears; it is temporary. To constantly live in the state of joy should be your motivation to do all good things in life.
You should be able to cross over the cycle of birth and death, which comes with its pleasures and pains in cycles, like day and night, and always remain in a state of peace; always remain in a state of bliss – that should be the motivation. If you value that, you will definitely work towards it. | | The service activities by the youth group are expanding in the City of Buenos Aires, because they added Tuesday as a new day of service. In this way, they have begun serving the homeless twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In Morón, a young family began distributing food one more day in the week. In addition to Sundays, they started serving on Mondays as well. A group of young people from Escobar inaugurated a new activity to teach and raise awareness about the care of soil and plants.
During the month of July, the Argentine youth group served 2,054 people who are in a state of vulnerability in the City of Buenos Aires, Escobar, Morón, La Plata and Iguazú. In the province of Córdoba, a group of young people and adults visited a home for the elderly to spend time providing fun and recreation for them. | | Canadian Newsletter August Edition 2019 | | Homeless Feeding Service in Fremont, California | | On August 18, 2019, a glorious and beautiful Sunday afternoon, several youth gathered at a residence in Fremont, a city Southeast of San Francisco, to prepare sandwiches that would be delivered to homeless shelters to feed the needy. The idea was to make 100 vegetable sandwiches and 15 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches along with bananas and juice boxes to make it a healthy and nutritious meal for the homeless. The week before the Seva day, the youth coordinated the procurement of ingredients such as bread, cucumbers, lettuce, sun-dried tomatoes, cheese spread, mustard, bananas and juice boxes that would be used to make the meal. | | Seva in Oakland, California during Summer Holidays | | This year, the summer holidays were turned into service holidays for many of the high school kids who wanted to do good work for the community, whole heartedly and selflessly. The project was carried out every other Sunday, where a group of kids and their parents met and prepared about 100 bean burritos with much love and excitement! They cooked and packed these bean burritos for three homeless shelters in Oakland, California. They also distributed bananas and juice packs along with the burritos. | | Service at the Local Youth Shelter in Kansas City | | After a long hiatus, Sai youth in Kansas City (KC) were able to get back to serving dinner at the Thursday drop-in at the local youth shelter. This time, though, a few things were different! Two Sai Spiritual Education (SSE) students, were able to join the Sai youth and participate in a wide-ranging discussion before dinner. A local community leader posed some interesting current issues and questions and engaged the whole audience of around 15 youth and shelter workers. | | Huntsville, Alabama Seva for Low-Income Individuals August 15, 2019 | | Today was a very busy day at Manna House. Volunteer turnout was lower than usual, while the line of people in need seemed to be never-ending. Naturally, the gratitude expressed by those who were served overflowed and was overwhelming at times. Summers in Alabama can be hot and humid, so these are the moments when the needs of the impoverished increase.
The Sai youth are aware of how different they are becoming. Qualities like patience, understanding, compassion, flexibility, and endurance are gradually becoming part-and-parcel of their being. | | Imparting HIS Boundless Love and Compassion In Houston, Texas | | On August 18, 2019, the Houston youth gathered for their monthly service activity as an offering of love to the Divinity within each and every person. This month's service activity consisted of preparing and handing out 108 lunch bags to the needy, homeless people in various downtrodden areas of the city. Each bag consisted of Tofurkey sandwiches made with vegetarian tofu slices, mayonnaise, mustard and pickles, a snack and a water bottle. This month the youth felt blessed to have two new volunteers join their group for the first time! | | | | | | | | | |
