Issue 261 - January 23, 2022 | | Sairam dear Brothers and Sisters, The only purpose of the Sai mission is to establish every human in his or her pure divine existence, which is beyond form and attributes. Now that we know what the ultimate purpose of our lives should be, we may often ponder upon the question, 'How does bhaktī help in mukti?' Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai says it beautifully, "bhaktī takes away attention from the self and it leads to thinking about the divine. This helps you become desireless. When all desires disappear, then and there, you become God! Only a jñānī becomes desireless. Realising the truth of one's true nature as Brahman is called mokshā (mohā + kshyā) which means destruction of delusion, or sometimes it is called mukti which means freedom from wrong thinking. Then all the dualities vanish; as you live this life you become free – jīvanmukti!"
Sairam Bhuvana Santhanam | | ātmano mokshārtam (Emancipation of one's self) | | How can sanātana dharma be applied practically?
Practical application of sanātana dharma to human societies is nothing but practice of universal love and selfless service. This alone can save today's world, which is torn by selfishness, greed, conflict and violence. Only universal love and compassion can heal the wounds of mankind, inflicted over a long period time, by the practice of wrong ideologies based on the selfishness of men wedded to materialism. Today, the need is an ideology which is rooted in selflessness; that is possible only on the basis of spirituality. Such an ideology will unite the fragmented world into one family with a bond of universal love. This will help fight the common problems of poverty, ignorance, disease and natural calamities. Most importantly, it delivers the world from the fear of war, which will in turn save enormous resources currently being spent on each nation's defence preparedness. These saved resources can be used to put an end to the material poverty of all the people in the world.
In a global family bound by love, selfishness of nation is as despicable as selfishness of an individual. It's time that the narrowminded idea of 'each of nation for itself' is abandoned. All nations should march forward unitedly hand in hand, with each nation being a valued member of world family. That is the message of the vedic sages – 'yatra viśvaṁ bhavati eka ni ̄ḍamSom – Where the whole world become one nest (ṛgvedae 4.10.1).
An excerpt from the book – Spirituality 101, authored by Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai, Pg no. 14. | | sevā during Pandemic By Naveen Shyama Hardware Engineer, San Jose
By Swami's grace, I used to be a regular member of the youth group and participated in the many service activities in California. After the COVID pandemic, I was a little doubtful in participating, given my family at home were also concerned with social distancing guidelines while doing sevā and may put others at risk at home.
Just by listening to a discourse of Swami changed my perspective towards everything. He said that if we are doing His work of selfless service without any expectations then the outcome will always be a success.
With this self-confidence, I stepped out and began to serve with other Sai youth. We went into areas where the homeless were in large numbers and in need of help. Swami's words were proving to be true, as none of the volunteers contracted the virus even after visiting the most difficult places and serving the needy. The service activities moved on smoothly and all were protected by the unseen hands of our Swami.
Many times, even the weather was not too conducive, and we used to wonder whether we will have adequate hands to help in distribution, especially because of the emerging COVID variants. With Swami's grace every time we set out to do a sevā, we used to have enough help, no matter the circumstances. The experience was very fulfilling, and everyone participated felt very happy to be part of it.
I learnt a lesson for life – if we decide to do selfless work and make an effort, we will always meet with positive outcome. These experiences strengthened by belief in this teaching of Swami. | | To help reach Sri Sathya Sai Baba's human values-based education to the world, and to resuscitate the humanness of humanity, the Sri Sathya Sai University for Human Excellence launched a unique, first-of-its-kind Institute of Human Values, to offer tailor-made courses totally free of any charges, curated by experts from around the world. The Vision of the Institute is to make better humans in their personal and professional spheres, by making them more sensitive towards society's needs and exploring ways of their contribution to society in a meaningful and selfless manner, thereby creating a sense of global citizenship and responsibility.
The courses will help an individual balance the inside and outside, while progressively being a better human being, that will ultimately help him or her unravel the true meaning and purpose in life.
Learning from the heart is spiritual awakening, Baba would say. The Institute of Human Values is the first step to help lead the world into the beautiful awareness of its heart – a heart that operates from the universal human values of Sathya, Dharma, Shanti, Prema and Ahimsa.
| | The ancient Indian scriptures define the spirituality as absolute 'fearlessness' and 'selflessness'. Only when some personality expresses himself/herself flamboyantly with these two characteristics, he/she can be truly called as Divine.
Who is God/Divine? It is said that the God is beyond the dualities of this creation. In this case, God has conquered the fear and at the same time, He is beyond it – abhayasya pāre. Fear is when one limits oneself with a form or name. The moment this illusion is shattered, one can experience the highest freedom.
The limited body consciousness bounds the individual with limited thinking and experiences. Merging the limited consciousness into the ultimate supreme Consciousness is the journey, similar to that of a river which loses its identity and becomes the very unlimited ocean at once. In the episode 41, Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai emphasises on this aspect, where fearlessness and selflessness are the two sides of the same coin called spirituality. | | INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE FOR THE WEEK | | "Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe."
– Saint Augustine | | jagat hitāya (Welfare of the World) | | Distribution of Warm Wear
With the winters set in, the homeless were the most vulnerable. In order to comfort them with the warmth of love in the form of winter wear, the Sai youth distributed 50 blankets and 50 hoodies to the ones who didn't have a shelter to protect them from the rough winters. This sevā was planned for the Christmas celebrations, but observing the cold currents and the necessity for warm clothing, the Sai youth came together and co-ordinated the distribution without waiting till Christmas. | | | | | | |
