How Should Service Be Done?

How Should Service Be Done?

When an elderly devotee prayed to elucidate this point Sathya Sai Baba immediately asked him, “Suppose you were walking in a forest and a thorn pricks your leg what would you do?” The devotee said that he would remove the thorn from his leg. And then Baba asked, "How would you do it?" 
The devotee was rather confused and said "Swami, obviously with my hand." Then Baba said "Why would you do it? The hand removes the thorn instantly from the leg because the moment the thorn pricks the leg, the hand also feels the pain. The legs and the hand are all part of one body and every part of the body feels the pain. So too, the entire world is the body of God and when any part of this world feels pain or suffers, every other part should feel it in the heart and should respond to it, just as the hand responds to the thorn in the leg." 
This is the way service should be done with the feeling of Oneness.

Count Prayers

Galib ne yeh keh kar tod di tasbih - ginkar kyo yad karun unko jo be hisab deta hai? 
He broke the prayer beads saying ...why do I keep count while remembering him , who never keeps account of the endless bounties he bestows upon me.....

Wow !! He continues to give :))

Bhaktasakha Prabhu

This beautiful bhajan,'Karuna nikethana Bhaktasakha Prabhu...' playing at the back of mind!! "Just like that" !!

Sharing the joy !

Feeling blessed...on a blissful Thursday.

Sai Bless

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3v0lj5qFIc 

Music is God

ILAYARAJA On not reaching saturation point even after scoring music for thousands of songs…

“ The reason is simple. It is not my property. It is not my mental concept or presentation or for that matter, my effort. It (music) comes all by itself and I give it to others. Only when I harbor the thought that I have accomplished all this will this question of what will I do next arise. I do not have that thought at all. It comes all by itself and therefore, I give it as I receive it”

Courtesy: TOI, Chennai

God's Form

Many imagine that God will appear before them in response to their worship (Yagnas). These are illusions, merely imagination. What ultimately manifests before you is the nameless, formless Lord. In reality, God does not have any one specific form.

- -  Baba

Avatar Vs SuperHero

Brilliant article by Devdutt Patnaik. He brings out the difference between an avatar and a superhero.

Today, many of us confuse an avatar with a superhero. We wonder why an avatar is not solving all problems around us, poverty, wars, et al.

God "comes down" not to clear the mess we have created, but raise our consciousness.

Of course, 'He may give us what we want, so that soon we ask what He has come to give'.

We are blessed to be born when an Avatar walked on earth, got to know about His Divinity and experience His unconditional (=divine) Love.

bliSSfully!

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/features/corporate-dossier/management-mythos-how-a-superhero-differs-from-an-avatar/articleshow/35507110.cms

SWAMI with us

Chance

How to Get a Job at Google - NYTimes.com

14 % of staff in some of teams, has no big degrees.

Degree is important, but it does not give an automatic advantage, as it happens elsewhere.

What matters is not grades or what we learnt. But 

- general cognitive ability

- leadership

- intellectual Humility

- ownership

- ability to innovate in teams & soft skills

Not a bad idea now to do some introspection/self analysis and may be a Strength-Finder or 360 degree feedback?

It is never too late to work with Google! It is never too late to change ('paribortan'), I am (not just trying), but actually doing it!

Master's Voice: 'Education is for Life, not for Living' is so true here.

Check out the link

How to Get a Job at Google - NYTimes.com

Bhagwan demands good

Let us BE Satwik

Let us worship with pure heart

What to do if someone defames you?

President visits Sai Baba's 'Mahasamadhi' | Business Standard

Prez visits Prashanthi Nilayam, would have been more appropriate?!

The spiritually ignorant (unconditional love to them) would have seen the visit to Maha Samadhi, but hope the hon'ble Prez was able to 'go beyond the physical Maha Samadhi'. 
For Baba is in and all around His MahaSamadhi. If Prez could connect with that Universal Spirit of Baba, of which we all are part of, he is blessed. Wonder, when accompanied by all security and other paraphernalia that goes with such senior dignitaries, can they actually 'switch off' and focus inwards ? Perhaps Pranabda is capable of doing it. 

Hope he had a glimpse of all the wonderful work is happening in the areas of Educare, Medicare & Sociocare. For, a senior statesman of international stature, he can inspire more such projects in India and abroad. 

The report also says, "After landing at Puttapathi, they flew to Anantapur in helicopters. They returned to Hyderabad by the same route." :)

Sai Bless Pranabda. 

President visits Sai Baba's 'Mahasamadhi' | Business Standard

Sangita Kalanidhi Award to Mrs Sudha Ranganathan

Very inspiring article about a great musician, Mrs. Sudha Ranganathan. 

Sudhaji's hard work, dedication, and commitment to the art are well brought out in the article.

It starts off with Pt. Jasraj ji's compliment. 

- Mother's dream, and efforts to translate dream to action

- Father's support (non-interference, initially!)

- Guru's Guidance - Sudhaji was blessed to get a guru of MLV's stature. The guru insisted on meeting the groom of Sudhaji and extracted his commitment to support her ward's journey! Gurukul parampara. 

- God's Blessings. The concluding para almost brought tears into my eyes. *

Her musical journey is a beautiful example of the saying, 'mata, pita, guru, daivom' or 'matru devobhava.....'.

You can also argue how 'Nature conspires...' as Paul Coelho would put it. 

"Talent is not God's gift, Talent is God" - I have heard great musicians like U Srinivas ji, Anup Jalota ji and Students of Sri Sathya Sai Baba saying this. 

Beautiful story and inspiring stuff. Thanks to The Hindu. 

* “I have talked about the role of my mother, father and guru. In the final reckoning they are all different manifestations of God, Sai Baba, as I recognise him. It was He who named me Sudha. I sat on His lap as a child and twirled His hair in innocent frolic. He did my aksharabhyasam, my formal initiation into the world of education. The first song that I sang was a Sai Bhajan…”

http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/music/they-made-it-happen/article5410436.ece

Purpose of Life

Supreme Self

have a bliSSful Thursday ! 

Forgiveness

One with Sai @ Brindavan _ October 2013 edition

Uyyala loguma... Sri Sathya Sai.... Ananda Daayi... that was fitting finale to a truly bliSSful evening. 
The song remained with me well into the evening. I got home & googled the song to get few beautiful renditions by others..... *

As I stepped out of Sai Ramesh Hall, I picked up the prasad 'package' - laddu and Swami's Photo. 
- Laddus always most welcome... :)
- Photo... felt blessed, Swami's both Hands raised in 'abhaya-hasta'. 

• I presumed (how often we jump to conclusions) it was 2014 calendar, on the other side. But I was more than pleasantly surprised to find Sai Gayatri and Gayatri Mantra printed on the reverse. It was a gentle reminder from Swami to keep focus on Gayatri-chanting, I have been trying these days. He is guiding..
• Then the quote under the photo really hit me... 'IMMORTALITY IS THE FRUIT OF SACRIFICE' ( all in bold, caps!) That was a response to a query I was carrying during the day, on my professional front. He is guiding... 

Two students of Bhagwan, from Anantpur campus, helped us spent the evening, '(One) with Sai'!

The evening got off to a divine start with veda recitation. Then the group took the stage. 
- They started off with a Ganesh sthuthi and then, a Guru song. 
- Maa by Jagjit Singh was then the next one. A beautiful devotional-song by the ghazal maestro was brilliantly sung by the duo.
- Janani maa is one of the popular bhajans at PSN campus, thanks to some great student-singers. Sri Hariharan, also a ghazal maestro, sang it in front of Bhagwan and the DVD is very popular. 
- The next song's alaap was brilliant, and the song too...
- Madhava Murali and Vittala bhajans got the entire audience to sing along, with wonderful support from the audience
- Mujh ko tera sahara chahiye was a prayer from every one of us. 
- The English song, You are the Lord of my heart and soul was delivered with great finesse. 
- Then, the masterpiece... Uyyala loguma Sri Sathya Sai...

The sisters sang in multiple languages (hindi, bengali or oriya, tamil, telugu, english, etc). It was pure devotional singling. No introduction (or gyaan!), except two sentences during the entire program. ('God is nearest of near, dearest of dear'... Wow!)

The singers, Vidya and Satya, and the group gave the program of highest quality. They were fortunate to be blessed with the opportunity to sing for Bhagwan. We were doubly blessed to listen to a beautiful musical offering... 

At the cost of repetetion, Music is God. 

bliSSfully!

Check out updates on the program @ 
https://www.facebook.com/BrindavanWhitefieldPrograms


* http://www.youtube.com/Uyyala Loguma Sri Sathya Sai

Avtar Declaration Day at Prashanthi Nilayam on 20 Oct 2014

Check out the video recording of Avtar Declaration Day at Prashanthi Nilayam, 20 Oct 2013. 

Must Watch... http://media.radiosai.org/journals/vol_11/01OCT13/Avatar-Declaration-Day-Programme-20-oct-2013-Sri-Sathya-Sai-Baba-at-Prasanthi-Nilayam.htm

A beautiful bouquet of offering, compilation of Swami's video, talks and music. Bhagwan's chosen students taking turns to share stories. 

Even at a young age, Swami displayed 'Ceiling on Desires', brought out in the golden-pin He was gifted. His message... His Life.

Purpose of life? 'To go back to the origin', Says Swami. With a beautiful 'Chinna Katha'