View Full Version : Love And Selfless Service as God
Hinduism is probably the most revealing religion about the concept and principle of God. It goes on to speak about God with confidence in all kinds of ways, but in the end, it says God cannot be fully proven or described, and simply says Nethi, Nethi, Nethi, meaning not only this, not only this, not only this for God is much more than what the senses can tell us. It really cannot fully describe God or say what God truly is, but only who represents the God principle, and full faith in that principle for the transformation of the heart.
It follows that man has known for ages that the transformation of the heart comes about by strong beliefs and one pointed faith in any principle that is centered around the welfare of the world, and the principle of God as part of it. Faith moves mountains it is said, and Krishna is reported to have lifted the Goverdhana mountain to save his true devotees.
The power of faith, love and selfless service is what rules the world, and is the driving force behind most true religions, with God as another concept representing the principle of love and selfless service.
What needs to be understood more widely and fully today is the true meaning of God as a principle of change from one fixed or dormant state to another of a dynamic principle of ever expanding and resulting change.
Even when great avataras come in our midst as Rama, Krishna, Jesus, Sai Baba, etc., it is the power of self confidence, love and selfless service that are emphasized most. All other teachings are means to developing the power of love and self confidence for the transformation of the heart.
Most religions speak about faith in God or faith and positive beliefs as self confidence for the transformation of the heart in a variety of ways, including dogmatic beliefs. However in reading carefully, they are mostly speaking about the greater good and welfare of all societies through the power of love and selfless service.
The drive to promote religion as power resulted in competition between them, and perhaps new additions to scriptures. But the transformation of the heart was the focus as well as a benefit for order in society as a controlling force called God, also as another theme. This perhaps led to the exploitation of some segments of society with religious proselytizing as a force and a drive for more control over the masses.
The simple parable about Jesus by M. M. Mangasarian in the link below brings home the point about the creative power of faith as mystery and the leading principle behind the transformation of the heart with the principle of God as a cause.
http://www.infidels.org/library/histori ... jesus.html (http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/m_m_mangasarian/truth_about_jesus.html).
A Parable
I am today twenty-five hundred years old. I have been dead for nearly as many years. My place of birth was Athens; my grave was not far from those of Xenophon and Plato, within view of the white glory of Athens and the shimmering waters of the Aegean sea. After sleeping in my grave for many centuries I awoke suddenly -- I cannot tell how nor why -- and was transported by a force beyond my control to this new day and this new city. I arrived here at daybreak, when the sky was still dull and drowsy. As I approached the city I heard bells ringing, and a little later I found the streets astir with throngs of well dressed people in family groups wending their way hither and thither. Evidently they were not going to work, for they were accompanied by their children in their best clothes, and a pleasant expression was upon their faces.
"This must be a day of festival and worship, devoted to one of their gods," I murmured to myself
Looking about me I saw a gentleman in a neat black dress, smiling, and his hand extended to me with great cordiality. He must have realized I was a stranger and wished to tender his hospitality to me. I accepted it gratefully. I clasped his hand. He pressed mine. We gazed for a moment into each other's eyes. He understood my bewilderment amid my novel surroundings, and offered to enlighten me. He explained to me the ringing of the bells and meaning of the holiday crowds moving in the streets. It was Sunday -- Sunday before Christmas, and the people were going to "the House of God."
"Of course you are going there, too," I said to my friendly guide.
"Yes," he answered, "I conduct the worship. I am a priest."
"A priest of Apollo?" I interrogated.
"No, no," he replied, raising his hand to command silence, "Apollo is not a god; he was only an idol."
"Am idol?" I whispered, taken by surprise.
"I perceive you are a Greek," he said to me, "and the Greeks," he continued, "notwithstanding their distinguished accomplishments, were an idolatrous people. They worshipped gods that did not exist. They built temples to divinities which were merely empty names -- empty names," he repeated. "Apollo and Athene -- and the entire Olympian lot were no more than inventions of the fancy."
"But the Greeks loved their gods," I protested, my heart clamoring in my breast.
"They were not gods, they were idols, and the difference between a god and an idol is this: an idol is a thing; God is a living being. When you cannot prove the existence of your god, when you have never seen him, nor heard his voice, nor touched him -- when you have nothing provable about him, he is an idol. Have you seen Apollo? Have you heard him? Have you touched him?"
"No," I said, in a low voice.
"Do you know of any one who has?"
I had to admit that I did not. "He was an idol, then, and not a god."
"But many of us Greeks," I said, "have felt Apollo in our hearts and have been inspired by him."
"You imagine you have," returned my guide. "If he were really divine be would be living to this day.
"Is he, then, dead?" I asked.
"He never lived; and for the last two thousand years or more his temple has been a heap of ruins."
I wept to hear that Apollo, the god of light and music, was no more -- that his fair temple had fallen into ruins and the fire upon his altar had been extinguished; then, wiping a tear from my eyes, I said, "Oh, but our gods were fair and beautiful; our religion was rich and picturesque. It made the Greeks a nation of poets, orators, artists, warriors, thinkers. It made Athens a city of light; it created the beautiful, the true, the good -- yes, our religion was divine."
"It had only one fault"' interrupted my guide.
"What was that?" I inquired, without knowing what his answer would be.
"It was not true."
"But I still believe in Apollo," I exclaimed; "he is not dead, I know he is alive."
"Prove it," he said to me; then, pausing for a moment, "if you produce him," he said, "we shall all fall down and worship him. Produce Apollo and be shall be our god."
"Produce him!" I whispered to myself. "What blasphemy!" Then, taking heart, I told my guide how more than once I had felt Apollo's radiant presence in my heart, and told him of the immortal lines of Homer concerning the divine Apollo. "Do you doubt Homer?" I said to him; "Homer, the inspired bard? Homer, whose ink-well was as big as the sea; whose imperishable page was Time? Homer, whose every word was a drop of light?" Then I proceeded to quote from Homer's Iliad, the Greek Bible, worshipped by all the Hellenes as the rarest Manuscript between heaven and earth. I quoted his description of Apollo, than whose lyre nothing is more musical, than whose speech even honey is not sweeter. I recited how his mother went from town to town to select a worthy place to give birth to the young god, son of Zeus, the Supreme Being, and how he was born and cradled amid the ministrations of all the goddesses, who bathed him in the running stream and fed him with nectar and ambrosia from Olympus. Then I recited the lines which picture Apollo bursting his bands, leaping forth from his cradle, and spreading his wings like a swan, soaring sun-ward, declaring that he had come to announce to mortals the will of God. "Is it possible," I asked, "that all this is pure fabrication, a fantasy of the brain, as unsubstantial as the air? No, no, Apollo is not an idol. He is a god, and the son of a god. The whole Greek world will bear me witness that I am telling the truth." Then I looked at my guide to see what impression this outburst of sincere enthusiasm had produced upon him, and I saw a cold smile upon his lips that cut me to the heart. It seemed as if he wished to say to me, "You poor deluded pagan! You are not intelligent enough to know that Homer was only a mortal after all, and that he was writing a play in which he manufactured the gods of whom he sang -- that these gods existed only in his imagination, and that today they are as dead as is their inventer -- the poet."
By this time we stood at the entrance of a large edifice which my guide said was "the House of God." As we walked in I saw innumerable little lights blinking and winking all over the spacious interior. There were, besides, pictures, altars and images all around me. The air was heavy with incense; a number of men in gorgeous vestments were passing to and fro, bowing and kneeling before the various lights and images. The audience was upon its knees enveloped in silence -- a silence so solemn that it awed me. Observing my anxiety to understand the meaning of all this, my guide took me aside and in a whisper told me that the people were celebrating the anniversary of the birthday of their beautiful Savior -- Jesus, the Son of God.
"So was Apollo the son of God," I replied, thinking perhaps that after all we might find ourselves in agreement with one another.
"Forget Apollo," he said, with a suggestion of severity in his voice. "There is no such person. He was only an idol. If you were to search for Apollo in all the universe you would never find any one answering to his name or description. Jesus," he resumed, "is the Son of God. He came to our earth and was born of a virgin." Again I was tempted to tell my guide that that was how Apollo became incarnate; but I restrained myself.
"Then Jesus grew up to be a man," continued my guide, "performing unheard-of wonders, such as treading the seas, giving sight, hearing and speech to the blind, the deaf and the dumb, converting water into wine, feeding the multitudes miraculously, predicting coming events and resurrecting the dead."
"Of course, of your gods, too," he added, "it is claimed that they performed miracles, and of your oracles that they foretold the future, but there is this difference -- the things related of your gods are a fiction, the things told of Jesus are a fact, and the difference between Paganism and Christianity is the difference between fiction and fact."
Just then I heard a wave of murmur, like the rustling of leaves in a forest, sweep over the bowed audience. I turned about and unconsciously, my Greek curiosity impelling me, I pushed forward toward where the greater candle lights were blazing. I felt that perhaps the commotion in the house was the announcement that the God Jesus was about to make his appearance, and I wanted to see him. I wanted to touch him, or, if the crowd were too large to allow me that privilege, I wanted, at least, to hear his voice. I, who had never seen a god, never touched one, never heard one speak, I who had believed in Apollo without ever having known anything provable about him, I wanted to see the real God, Jesus.
But my guide placed his hand quickly upon my shoulder, and held me back.
"I want to see Jesus," I hastened, turning toward him. I said this reverently and in good faith. "Will he not be here this morning? Will he not speak to his worshippers?" I asked again. "Will he not permit them to touch him, to caress his hand, to clasp his divine feet, to inhale the ambrosial fragrance of his breath, to bask in the golden light of his eyes, to hear the music of his immaculate accents? Let me, too, see Jesus," I pleaded.
"You cannot see him," answered my guide, with a trace of embarrassment in his voice. "He does not show himself any more."
I was too much surprised at this to make any immediate reply.
"For the last two thousand years," my guide continued, "it has not pleased Jesus to show himself to any one; neither has he been heard from for the same number of years."
"For two thousand years no one has either seen or heard Jesus?" I asked, my eyes filled with wonder and my voice quivering with excitement.
"No," he answered.
"Would not that, then," I ventured to ask, impatiently, "make Jesus as much of an idol as Apollo? And are not these people on their knees before a god of whose existence they are as much in the dark as were the Greeks of fair Apollo, and of whose past they have only rumors such as Homer reports of our Olympian gods -- as idolatrous as the Athenians? What would you say," I asked my guide, "if I were to demand that you should produce Jesus and prove him to my eyes and ears as you have asked me to produce and prove Apollo? What is the difference between a ceremony performed in honor of Apollo and one performed in honor of Jesus, since it is as impossible to give oracular demonstration of the existence of the one as of the other? If Jesus is alive and a god, and Apollo is an idol and dead, what is the evidence, since the one is as invisible, as inaccessible, and as unproducible as the other? And, if faith that Jesus is a god proves him a god, why will not faith in Apollo make him a god? But if worshipping Jesus, whom for the best part of the last two thousand years no man has seen, heard or touched; if building temples to him, burning incense upon his altars, bowing at his shrine and calling him "God," is not idolatry, neither is it idolatry to kindle fire upon the luminous altars of the Greek Apollo, -- God of the dawn, master of the enchanted lyre -- he with the bow and arrow tipped with fire! I am not denying," I said, "that Jesus ever lived. He may have been alive two thousand years ago, but if he has not been heard from since, if the same thing that happened to the people living at the time he lived has happened to him, namely -- if he is dead, then you are worshipping the dead, which fact stamps your religion as idolatrous."
And, then, remembering what he had said to me about the Greek mythology being beautiful but not true, I said to him: "Your temples are indeed gorgeous and costly; your music is grand your altars are superb; your litany is exquisite; your chants are melting; your incense, and bells and flowers, your gold and silver vessels are all in rare taste, and I dare say your dogmas are subtle and your preachers eloquent, but your religion has one fault -- it is not true."
When you love Me, you love all; for you begin to feel, know and experience that I am in all. By means of meditation, you can realize that I am the resident in all hearts, the urge, the motive, the guide and the goal. Yearn for that vision, that awareness and make it your priceless possession. Then, you have what you often ask Me for. . . .Sakshathkara (direct vision of reality). Your love has to be pure and free from the taint of ego, so that it can merge in Me.
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. XI. P. 96.
Falcon
08-03-2009, 11:59 AM
That first post reallll long brag- summarise it and allow me to comment nuh!
It is encouraging/interesting that you seem to be showing some interest in discussing/ commenting on the subject of religion. At one time I observed that you deliberately shied away from it, or so I thought. it is amazing how the Spirit moves us all.
The beauty of the parable is in the entire conversation. It may not one of those pieces you can just summarize.
letric
11-07-2009, 03:38 AM
Ye know nothing at all,
Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man
should die for the people, and that the whole nation
perish not.
St.John ch.11 v.49
Hands that help are holier than lips that pray.
Many speak about God as a person in Heaven, but many others extend the concept of God to include actions, including the good, bad and ugly. For many, selfless service is as much God as a celestial light form or deity of God in the abode of the gods in another realm of consciousness.
Love and selfless service transforms into God's Grace and guarantees a place in Heaven with the Deities of God. It will not merge anyone with God/Brahman, the Hindu concept of true salvation or liberation.
Only the study of the Atma or Atma Gyan, through Atma Vichara (self inquiry) will lead to true salvation, and it all must be accomplished on earth, not in Heaven. But only immersion in the love of all of God's creation or extensions can lead to self inquiry.
The first lesson of service has to be learned in the family circle itself. I do not attach any value to the turning of rosaries by hands that know no help. Do not keep yourself apart, intent on your own salvation through meditation; instead, move among your sisters looking for opportunities to be of help, with the Name of God on your tongue and the Form of God before the mind's eye.
Service is a lifetime program; it knows no rest or respite. This body has been given to you so that you may devote its strength and skills to the service of brother-man. Serve man until you see God in all men; then, what you do will be elevated to Worship.
Baba
Pinellas County homeless can get free medical screenings and more Saturday
“The intent is to connect people with services,” says Sarah Snyder, executive director of the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless.
By Waveney Ann Moore, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Wednesday, January 27, 2010
ST. PETERSBURG — A busload is coming from Orlando. A handful will fly from the Virgin Islands. A caravan will bring others from Georgia.
Saturday morning, 60 doctors, 70 nurses and other health professionals will converge on St. Petersburg's historic Coliseum to donate a day of free medical screening to the homeless in Pinellas County.
The free screening will be one element of a broad program being offered this weekend to people down on their luck. Project Homeless Connect, an offshoot of a national effort, is designed to provide dignified assistance in a one-stop setting.
"The intent is to connect people with services so they can become housed and stable," said Sarah Snyder, executive director of the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless.
The seven-hour event, to be held inside the Coliseum and under tents on its grounds, will offer services ranging from blood pressure checks and vaccinations to haircuts, shampoos and Florida IDs. Advocates for the homeless also will use the occasion to conduct the county's annual count of those without shelter.
Volunteers are preparing to assist at least 1,200 people, among them families and veterans. First organized locally by the city of St. Petersburg and the Homeless Coalition in 2007, this year's event is a collaboration of groups that include the city, Pinellas County Health and Human Services, the Homeless Coalition and the Salvation Army.
"It's a huge community event," Snyder said.
Each person or family will be paired with a volunteer guide. Some 900 volunteers have been recruited for the event. The volunteers are being coordinated by Bay Pines VA Medical Center employees Derenda McCook and Edgardo Solivan. The two have turned to local members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for assistance, having been impressed by their previous day of service at Bay Pines.
"They are assisting me with the coordination," Solivan said.
"They are my captains out there helping to move the troops around. We want to make sure everybody gets served."
Pinellas Park resident Maureen Hesse will be one of the volunteers from the Mormon church. She will supervise the "giveaway station," the point where those who go to the Coliseum for help will end their day.
"Each person, no matter what the age, they are going to get a sleeping bag as well as a goodie bag, essentially of toiletries," said Hesse, a supervisor at Raymond James.
Snyder said 82 organizations are expected Saturday, including hair stylists. St. Petersburg will allow water from its fire hydrants to be used for shampoos, she said. The St. Petersburg Bicycle Club will repair bikes and distribute helmets. Help will be provided for filling out census forms. Those who attend the event also will be able to sign up for food stamps and other benefits, get information about vocational training and receive legal aid. Additionally, they'll be able to sign up for free community voice mail through 2-1-1 Tampa Bay Cares. Free breakfast and lunch will be provided by the Salvation Army.
This weekend's medical screening will be done primarily by members of the Sathya Sai Baba organization, an international spiritual group whose members offer free medical camps around the world. St. Petersburg oncologist Geetha Kamath has been coordinating the dozens of local and visiting professionals who will participate in the homeless project Saturday.
Kamath said 66 medical booths will be staffed by experts in family medicine, pediatrics, smoking cessation, cardiology, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and psychiatry. St. Anthony's Hospital is helping with the labs, she said.
"Medicine for the rich people is wonderful. We want to do the same thing for the homeless," she said.
Waveney Ann Moore can be reached at wmoore@sptimes.com.
sourced:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/pinellas-county-homeless-can-get-free-medical-screenings-and-more-saturday/1068334
"Selfless service has a spiritual foundation.
Many do such things now as "social service" and not as a spiritual exercise, in a full-hearted manner; spirituality is not found in the activity. Service is primarily spiritual discipline. What exactly is selfless service? It is the very essence of devotion, the very breath of a devotee, his very nature. It springs from the actual experience of the devotee, an experience that convinces that all beings are God's children, that all bodies are altars where God is installed, that all places are His residences.
The spiritual exercise of service is quite distinct. In service, you devote all your energy and attention to the task at hand, for it is a dedicated task. You forget your body and ignore its demands. You set aside your individuality and its prestige and perquisites. You pluck your ego by its roots and cast it away. You give up your status, your conceit, your name and form and all that they demand from others. This process makes the mind pure."
Source: SSS American Service Guide
Baba makes it clear that the service we do is for our own sake. Naturally, we want to help others, but the real value of the service lies in what it does for us --provided we do it with the right attitude: as a spiritual discipline. Selfless service helps us to:
•Control and purify the mind
•Put a ceiling on our desires
•Erase our karmic burden
•Remove the ego
•Bring love into our lives
•Experience the Unity of all
•Become aware of the God within all
'You are doing service for you own sake. You are engaged in service in order to become aware of the Divine Spirit in you, in order that you may discard the allurements of your ego, in order to know yourself and to get the answer to the question that torments you, namely, "Who am I." You do not serve others, you serve yourself; you do not serve the world, you serve your own interest.
Constant work in loving service to others covers the seeds of past sinful and harmful actions, so that they die away and do not grow into a new round of misery. Service is the best spiritual exercise for eliminating the nefarious pull of the mind towards desires.
To remove the evil of egoism, service is the most efficient instrument. How is this possible? By saturating service with love, work can be transformed into worship. When it is offered to God, it gets sanctified as worship. This makes it free from ego. It is also freed from the earthly desire for success and the earthly fear of failure.
When a devotee seeks with humility and purity to give service and love to My creatures who are in need of such selfless service, as his beloved brothers and sisters, as the blessed manifestations of My Immanence, then in fulfilment of my role as Sathya Sai, I descend to help, accompany, and carry that yogi. I am always near such a yogi to guide him and to shower My love on his life.'
'So, service helps our worldly self. But there is another sense in which selfless service is a self-serving activity: We serve the One God that is within us all, the supreme, absolute SELF.
The core of the spiritual discipline of service is to see everyone as yourself and yourself in everyone. You are not doing service to others, you are doing service to yourselves, to the God in you, the God who is equally present in others.
All waves are on the same sea, are from the same sea, are the same sea. Service teaches you to be firm in this knowledge. Service will also impress the Unity of all mankind on the person doing service. Service can instill more intensely than any other activity the sense of the basic ONE. ... There can be no higher austerity, nothing more rewarding.'
sss American Service Guide
Our attitude when doing service
God will not ask when and where you did service; he will ask what your motives and intentions were. The attitudes of mutual help and selfless service develop the "humanness" of man and help the unfoldment of the Divinity latent in him.
Our attitude during a service activity determines whether the service helps us grow spiritually. Service performed with a sense of pride or superiority may help the person we are serving, but it does not help us.
Do not pollute your service with the poison of pride . Feel that you are serving yourself, curbing the ego. Engage in humble service and egoism will fade away.
letric
02-02-2010, 03:54 AM
In *Buddhist philosophy, the blowing out of the
flame of the self. Hence the end of all suffering - by living
without craving or by dying never to be reborn. Com-
monly understood as pure extinction, it is described by
some Buddhist scriptures as a positive state of perpetual
peace.
Since the self, strictly speaking, does not exist any-
way, who enjoys this permanent painlessness?
Is it real - since nothing real can be permanent?
These remain questions to be answered by silence.
T. Stcherbatsky.The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana.
Also, service should be performed without expectations for results.
Do not serve for the sake of reward; serve because you are urged by Love. Service is its own reward. Do not worry about the result. Help as much as you can, as efficiently as you can, as silently as you can, and as lovingly as you can; leave the rest to God, who gave you a chance to serve.
Do not believe that you can by means of selfless service reform or reshape the world. You may or may not. That does not matter. The real value of seva, its most visible result, is that it reforms you, reshapes you.
Chicabonita
02-03-2010, 09:33 AM
Also, service should be performed without expectations for results.
I think that's what LOVE truly is. Selfless service.
That is why most Hindus do not believe that there is such a person as an Atheist. All Atheists are counted as Hindus, because Love is God and God is love, no contradiction about God, because Love is is at the center of not only man but of all of God's creation as the soul.
In the final analysis, the concept of selfless service must lead to the dept of understanding through virtuous living. It is the forerunner to heightened self awareness (know thyself) and full understanding of God as the Self before merger with God can occur in order for true slavation as merger with God. Even the concept of God has to die before merger can take place with God, the Brahman. "Many will be called, but few will be chosen."
"Sometimes, members try to do what they want to do, rather than what needs to be done. They may perceive some task as more important and others as "less desirable". For example, some would rather serve the food than pick it up from supermarkets and bakeries or clean up afterwards. This attitude is counter-productive, and a more positive approach is better.
Do not consider any act of service as demeaning. Sweeping the streets, for example, is not below your dignity. Do you not sweep the floor at home, do you not scrub and wash off dirt? Serve people with no thought of high or low; no service is high, no service is low, each act of service is equal in the eye of the Lord. It is the readiness, the joy, the efficiency, the skill with which you rush to do it that matters."
Falcon
02-04-2010, 08:15 AM
Sai baba does sweep he house? Jes aksin.
He bends his body and feeds the poor with his own hands. Another opportunity to score points, Falcon?
Falcon
02-04-2010, 08:50 AM
Not really, because the scribes used to say them was fasting, look at me.
Ah ask yuh if he does sweep and do house work, not nutting about feeding people in front of other people.
When yuh answer that I will then ask you if he washes their feet.
Ignoring the message to score points again, Falcon? May be you can tell us if in his earlier incarnations as Jesus he did all those things. I suppose that is what happens when a One Way to Salvation Dogma is forced down the throats of others?
Falcon
02-04-2010, 10:05 AM
does.......sai......baba......sweep.......his..... ...house....and....do.......chores.......?
Does you eighty five year old grandmother do those things when she has children, grand children and great grand children around her. Every thing has it time and place. You believe, as a boy he did not do those things.
Falcon
02-04-2010, 11:36 AM
rofl
come better than that man.........my grandmothers never said they were God, and never lived to 85. Till the day they died, they loved doing housework, in spite of hordes of kids, grands and great grands to help.
What I getting at is the servant attitute of any leader. If this man is indeed God incarnate then humility would be a hallmark.
I guess if you say the poor and illiterate and low caste have their time and place in the world NOW then that could explain the apathy in India today towards them.
You don't have to explain what you are getting at, and I am not referring specifically to your own grandmother. Example is the teacher, you don't get it, besides selfless service is not limited to house work. Furthermore, it is Sai Baba himself who is the one performing all selfless service. His wide range of activities is for internalizing as the model for higher understanding of who he is. The humility of another has to be experienced to know it, and that is the message of selfless service. Millions experience his humility and can hardly explain it, but that would be too much for many to understand. Again, you limit Jesus to washing of feet, because of the limitation a one way only doctrine puts on all.
Chicabonita
02-04-2010, 12:07 PM
I don't think we limit Jesus to washing of feet. He gave his life for humankind, he was born in the most humble of the circumstances when he could have perfectly being born like the Kings do...rich. While on Earth, his "fruits" were selfless and due to the love he had for his "friends" as he called all of us. He continued living under humble material circumstances entirely by choice. I would like to know if Mr. Sai Baiba lives a humble lifestyle and by humble I mean, in the material aspect. It is really a yes or no answer. Thanks.
Is God, or anyone for that mattter, more humble by the clothes he wears, the food he eats, the roof under which he lives, the way he travels in modern times. Boy, I am so glad I am having this discussion, as it is an eye opener about what the doctrine of exclusivity does to a person. Yes and no answers belong in Courts.
If Jesus chose not to accept the gifts of others and to live as he preferred, almost like John the Baptiste, did that make him more humble than someone else who was willing to provide more for him? Different times call for different behaviors.
Should your Holy Pope, Cardinals, Bishops and Priests go back to living like Jesus? Would that make them more effective as spiritual leaders? They sure are not doing too bad as they live. Try doing some of the research about the poverty into which Baba was born or how he lived as a boy. Do you have any idea how Baba transformed millions globally through his love? Did Jesus provide running water for an area five times the size of Trinidad fre of charge? Did Jesus build a two Super Speciality Hospitals and care for thousands free of charge. Did Jesus provide formal education from the primary to the University levels for millions free of charge?
Chicabonita
02-04-2010, 01:29 PM
Wow, this conversation is turning creepy. Your idolatry towards this man...yes this MAN (not the son of God) is scary.
I am not saying he should live in poverty, but I don't think is necessary for him to show up in a limo as he does. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Same with the Pope and with ALL those religious leaders that need to live extravagantly. It is NOT necessary and goes against everything God taught about riches.
Yes, I understand, idolotry, for which many innocents suffered at the inquisitions, and are still being persecuted everywhere today.
Well you know what they say about feelings. Only what is inside can be felt, as all on the outside are maya or illusions and teaching tools for discovering the reality within.
Chicabonita
02-04-2010, 03:09 PM
I see my point about riches cannot be refuted because God cannot lie.
All the wealth of the world is God, so where is the question of wanting to be rich or poor.
Some people critique continually during the service, feeling that they know better how to do certain things. This is the wrong approach; do what has to be done willingly, whatever it is, and bring up your constructive criticisms afterwards, when the service is being discussed in preparation for the next activity.
How can you shorten a line drawn on a blackboard without touching it? The answer is simple: draw a longer line under it. The line above will automatically get shorter. This is how you must use your critical faculty: stay silent and try to do better by showing how things should be done. This is constructive criticism.
Quoting scriptures, Zed said that charity was a duty, which should be undertaken with sympathy and modesty. He suggested Hindus to focus on inner search, stay pure, explore the vast wisdom of scriptures, make spirituality more attractive to youth and children, stay away from the greed, and always keep God in your life.
Stressing renunciation, Rajan Zed pointed out that three opening words of ancient scripture Isha Upanishad: “tena tyaktena bhunjita” said it all—“By renouncing it {the world}, enjoy it.” Bhagavad-Gita, another ancient scripture, also promised “freedom through renunciation”.
Consumerism had resulted in neglecting spiritual values, Zed argued and quoted Bhagavad-Gita, which says: there are three gates to self-destructive hell—greed, anger, and desire. Abandon these three. A person freed from these three gates of darkness, seeks what is best and attains life’s highest goal.
Mahashivratri falls during the dark half of the month of Magh. A day of strict fasting accompanied by Lord Shiv worship and vigil precedes the festival which is celebrated with great rejoicing and feasting and it is regarded as extremely auspicious. Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal.
Rajan Zed
letric
02-08-2010, 04:42 AM
What we are today comes from our thoughts of
yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life
of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our
mind.
Dhammapada v.1
We worship God in different ways --prayer, meditation, devotional singing, repeating His name, selfless service, and so on. All of these ways are helpful to us, and to different degrees at different times for different people. Sathya Sai Baba Himself emphasizes different forms of worship from time to time. However, two forms of worship seem to stand out in Sathya Sai Baba's teachings: service and repetition of a Name of God. These two spiritual disciplines reinforce each other, one being an outer activity, of the world, and the other being an inner activity that helps us continuously to remember that God is resident in all beings. Heads in the forest, hands in society
Service is the best form of worship, the highest spiritual discipline, the essence of devotion. The bliss you receive through service cannot be gotten through any other activity. Service is more fruitful than repetition of the Name, meditation, or sacrifice. There is no morality higher than truth, no prayer more fruitful than service.
Repetition of the Name is the easiest and quickest spiritual discipline, the key to the treasure of bliss, the means of liberation in this age. It is enough to give you all the results of every type of spiritual discipline.
You must be engaged in constant repetition of the Name of God, so that you remain a true servant of God while claiming to serve man, or rather, so that you may see in man the God that is his real nature.
So move among your sisters looking for opportunities to be of help, with the Name of God on your tongue and the Form of God before the mind's eye.
letric
02-13-2010, 11:29 AM
Brahma is the Creator God - one of the triads of gods at the heart
of Hindu mythology, It is believed that Brahma created the world by
meditating. Contemplate your own world as it is now. How do your
current thoughts create your reality? Now meditate on your life as
you would like it to be.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Gospel of St. Matthew 5:3-10
letric
02-18-2010, 10:11 AM
Hold faithfulness and sincerity as
first principles.
Love and selfless service are the two sides of the same coin.
letric
02-21-2010, 08:47 AM
If one does not behold any self or anything of
the nature of self in the five groups of grasping
(material shape, feeling, perception, the impulses.
consciousness, one is an Arahant, the outflows.
Samyutta-nikaya (Kindred Sayings) pt.3, p.127
"Seva brings out all that is great in man. It broadens the heart and widens one's vision. It fills one with joy. It promotes unity. It proclaims the truth of the Spirit. It drives out all the evil qualities in a man. It must be regarded as a great spiritual discipline.You are born to serve, not to dominate. Everyone in the world is a servant and not a master. All relationships between husband and wife, mother and child, the employer and employee are based on mutual service. The world is progressing because of such acts of service. If not for the principle of Seva,the world would come to a halt."
Source: SSS,-Vol. XXIII, Chap-31.
Through activity man attains purity of consciousness. In fact man has to welcome activity with this end in view. And why strive for a pure consciousness? Imagine a well with polluted and muddy water so that the bottom of the well cannot be seen. Similarly within man's heart, deep down in his consciousness, we have the Aathman (Divine Spirit). But it can be cognized only when the consciousness is clarified.
Your imaginings, your inferences, your judgments and prejudices, your passions, emotions and egoistic desires, muddy the consciousness and make it opaque. How, then, can you become aware of the Aathman that is at the very base? Through seva (service) rendered without any desire to placate one's ego and with only the well being of others in view is it possible to cleanse the consciousness and have the Aathman revealed.
So, for whose sake are you performing seva? You are doing seva for your own sake. You are engaged in seva in order that you may become aware of the Aathman in you, in order that you may discard the allurements of your ego, in order to know yourself and to get the answer to the question that torments you, namely, "Who am I." You do not serve others, you serve yourselves; you do not serve the world, you serve your own best interest.
Reference: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. XIII, Chapter 29.
Seva
Millions come to Kasi as pilgrims. It is said that those who see Kasi will not be born again. One day at Kailasa, Parvathi asked Shiva, "Lord I have heard it is said that all those who visit Kasi, where there is a celebrated shrine for your worship, will attain Kailasa, and stay on there in Your Presence. Millions are coming to Kasi, but is this place big enough to accomodate all of them? "Shiva replied" All the millions cannot come to Kailasa; I shall design a drama and make clear to you who among the milions can come here. You too have a role to act. Do as I direct you to."
Parvathi became an old hag of 80 and Shiva a rickety old man of 90. The old woman had the old man on her lap, at the main entrance of the famous Siva shrine of Visweswara, and she implored on piteous tones the pilgrims who passed by on their way to temple, 'My husband is terribly thirsty. He is about to die of thirst. I cannot leave him and go to the Ganges to bring him water. Will any of you pour a little water down his throat and save his life?'
The pilgrims were coming up from the ghats after their ceremonial bath in the holy river, their clothes still wet and clinging to their bodies. Some of them lamented that their peace of mind was disturbed by the sight of this pathetic couple. 'We have come to take darshan of the Lord, and look what meets our eye." Some there were who flatly ignored her cries and lifted their noses in the air. Some said, "Wait, let us finish the worship inside the temple, and then only can we bring the Ganges water for you."
No one offered to bring the needed help to the aged patient. Just then a professional robber who was hurrying into the temple to pick a few pockets, heard the plaintive voice of the old woman and halted near them. He asked her, 'Mother, what is the matter?' She replied, 'Son, we came to this place to have darshan of Lord Visweswara of Kasi, but my husband has fainted out of sheer exhaustion. He might survive if some one will bring a little Ganges water and pour it down his throat. I cannot leave him here and go for water. Please help me and earn the merit.'
The robber was moved with compassion. He had a little Ganges water in the hollow gourd he had with him. He knelt down near the dying person on the lap of the old woman, but the woman stopped him saying, 'the moment the Ganges water wets his throat, my husband may die; he is in the last stage of living. Therefore, speak a word of truth and pour the water. The robber could not understand what she meant, so he asked her, 'What do you mean?'
Parvati explained, 'Speak within his hearing, some good deed that you have done in your life, and then pour the water in his mouth.' That created a problem for the robber. He was at his wits' end. He could not quite comply. He said, 'Mother, I have in truth, not done any good deeds so far. This present act, the offering of wate to this thirsty man, is the very first good deed I am responsible for, 'and saying this he placed the gourd at the lips of the old man and gave him a mouthful. Just at that moment, the couple disappeared and in the place stood Shiva and Parvathi, blessing the robber.
Siva said, 'Son, Life is to be dedicated for the service of others and not devoted to the exclusive interests of oneself. So however many wicked deeds you might have done so far, for your selfless offering of water, with truth on your tongue, we bless you with this vision. Remember, there is no morality higher than Truth; there is no prayer more fruitful than Seva.'
Jai Sairam! Taken from "Seva A Flower at His Feet" compiled by Grace J. Mc. Martin.
Your humble servant
In Sai service
Raynu
The fulfillment of human life consists in the service that man renders, without any thought of return, in an attitude of selflessness. Service rendered in this spirit sheds light in the dark interior of man. It widens the heart, purifies the impulses, and confers lasting ananda.
Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. VII, Page 382
Duty is God ; Work is worship. Even the tiniest work is a flower placed at the Feet of God. Approach the pilgrims who come here for the festival with a heart filled with the treasure of love.
Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. V111, Page. 1
Money and materials are not essential for service, but a loving heart is. We should fill our hearts with love. In nature , consciousness is never wasted . When it is developed with ego, it generates bad deeds, but when it is associated with the Atma, it produces good deeds.
Satya Sai News Letter (U.S.A),volume 13, Number 3, p. 3
Remember, with each act of love and service, you are nearing the Divine Presence; with each act of hate and grab, you are moving farther and farther away. The ideal of service must inspire those in authority, those who possess riches, those who are endowed with skills and intelligence, leisure and health. Serve the community and the community will serve you. Exploit it and it will exterminate you. Put an end to laziness; bury your clamorous ego‑, bury the greed for power and pelf; then you have the qualifications needed for a member of the Seva Dal (service corps).
Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol.IX Page 131‑132
Through sacrifice you will come to know that your real nature is charity. Charity does not mean that you have given some money to an individual or an organisation. The removal of all of the evil thoughts that are within you is true charity. Charity will , in turn confer purity upon you. Once you have purity, there will be unity. And once you have unity, you can reach Divinity.
Satya Sai News Letter (U.S.A), Volume 13, Number 4, page 20
Let love be ever translated into service, into beneficial acts, sweet words of consolation, comfort, and courage, and thoughts of sympathy and compassion.
Sathya Sai Speaks, Volume VII Pages 15‑16
The first prerequisite is the spirit of sacrifice. This can be developed only through love. The person filled with love is ready to make any sacrifice. The person without love will not be willing to make any sacrifice. God does not dwell in any particular place. You arc God. When you get rid of the body *consciousness, you will realise your Divinity.
Sanathana Sarathi, April, 1989. Page 283‑284
The day when you resolve to practice My advice, to follow My directives, to translate My message into acts of service, and to engage in sadhana ‑ that day is My birthday for you. The 23rd day of November, which you now honor as the day on which I was born, is only. like any other day if you celebrate it in a routine, ritual fashion. Adore man; the adoration reaches Me. Neglect man; you neglect Me. Of what avail is it to worship the Lord and to suppress man, His counterpart? Love for God must be manifested as love for man, and love must express itself as service.
Through love alone ‑ love acquired through sadhana, and shared with all as sadhana ‑ can peace be attained, by the individual as well as by the nation. My Life is My Message and My Message is Love. That explains why you have gathered hither in hundreds of thousands.
Sathya Sai Speaks, Volume X Pages 41‑42
Love is the solvent for the hardest of hearts. Without love, free, full and selfless, no spiritual sadhana can succeed. Without it, bhajan is a waste of breath, sathsang a waste of time, and meditation a self‑deception. Bhajan, sathsang and meditation done with a mind soaked in love can confer peace, joy, and wisdom. When the raindrop falls into the sea, it gets the name, form, and nature of the sea. So, too, when the individual merges in the vast concourse of humanity and feels one with it, he is endowed with the name, form, and nature of Divinity. Whatever you do as service, to whomsoever you offer the act, believe that it reaches the GOD in that person.
Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol.X, Page 34
Why should we serve society?
Sai Reflections
17 Mar 2010
Love is equally present in all. You make use of this love for selfishness, self-interest and for service.
Unfortunately, in the present day world, selfishness and self-interest predominate. Everything is done now with an attitude of “my people and for me.” If there is no society, where do you and your people stand? You get education out of society and earn money from it. Even the position and reputation you hold come from the society. Having received so much from society, what help are you rendering in return? While receiving the benefits from it you still keep harming the society! Over the years, Sri Sathya Sai Baba has placed great emphasis on the value of selfless service by saying, “Hands that serve are holier than lips that pray.” When we are engaged in any kind of activity, our mind is focused on the task at hand. The mind has a free run and takes us along its whimsical path only when the body is not engaged in any activity. The adage, “an idle mind is a devil’s workshop” is so true. In these times of fast communication and bombardment by the media, our lives are made stressful and peace of mind seems so far off. An idle mind can also trigger by itself all pent up negative feelings and imaginary fears.That is why Sai Baba also defines rest thus: “Change of work is rest... otherwise it becomes rust!” The mind, which is a bundle of desires, is constantly fed by fleeting thoughts and hence it is virtually impossible to still the mind. We are mere expressions of our thoughts. Even prayers, meditation or singing the praises of the Lord cannot give quick results.
However, when the body is engaged in activity, the mind has a better chance to be focused away from useless and negative thoughts. Sri Sathya Sai Baba says, “Bend the body, mend the senses and end the mind.” Therefore, whenever we are engaged in good deeds, like selflessly serving others, we are not only purifying our senses but also filling our minds with positive and Godly thoughts. Bending the body signifies humility, an essential quality for a true spiritual seeker. To please God, to please our conscience, we have an inescapable duty to perform—ie, to give something back to the world that has and still is sustaining us. What is service? Every activity is service, as long as there is no selfishness or ego. We offer the fruits of our labour to the Lord without any reward. It is up to Him if He gives us something in return—greater than our input, lesser than our input or even nothing at all. The manifest world is God’s kingdom, our Father’s kingdom and we, as His children, have rightfully inherited everything in the world to enjoy, but not exploit and destroy.
We cannot enjoy anything unless we do our part to care and share. After all, no one enjoys a great meal without sharing it with another! All the resources of the world and the benefits which society has to offer for our happiness are not just for ourselves alone. There are others around us who are less fortunate. We have an obligation to make the world a better place for future generations to inherit. Service is not confined to helping the sick and the disadvantaged alone. It also involves avoiding unnecessary waste and destruction of resources. Desires have a voracious appetite to consume far beyond our needs and breed selfishness. By learning to manage well all the God given resources—money, food, time and energy—we improve not only the quality of our own life, but also become privileged to share the surplus resources with those who are less fortunate. This is true spirituality and expansion of love in a practical way. When we wake up every morning, our prayers need not be in quantity, but improved in quality. We can ask ourselves: “What can I do today that will please God?” What is Sai Baba’s clarion call? Love! Love!! Love!!! And, what is love in action? Service! Service!! Service!!! Remember: “Love All Serve All”.
http://guardian.co.tt/features/life/2010/03/17/why-should-we-serve-society
One should not feel proud about the position one occupies. The strength derived
from wealth or position is unreliable. Morality and purity of mind alone can confer
real strength. To develop these qualities, one has to take up selfless service.
The spirit of service eradicates egoism and selfishness. In the process, not
only is your life sublimated, but the nation also gains through the example of
a dedicated servant of the public.”
Source:SSS,Vol. XXII, Chap-23.
Preliminary to any service, you have to uproot all egoistic tendencies, get rid of all sense of mine and thine and burn to ashes the pride that tomes of the feeling that you are offering service to someone poorer and less fortunate.
Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol.Y, Page 220
The Below wonderful incident was told by Shri.Anil Kumar in a wonderful talk on September 20th 2002 :
Once Swami Was serving Food to some poor people to start Narayana Seva, Suddenly stopped at one spot, noticing a lady who was carrying a little, small child in her arms. Swami stopped there and called to one Seva Dal boy. "We are serving food to these people; how about that child?"
The Seva Dal Boy had no reply. "Swami, what should I do?"
"Bring a glass of milk for this child."
So the Seva Dal boy went all the way to bring one tumbler of milk.
Swami went on moving around the lines, serving food. From a long distance, He stopped and shouted, "Did you give milk to that child?"
That boy said, "Yes, Swami."
Swami said, "Nothing doing!"
Swami went all the way back to that lady and touched the glass. "It is very, very hot. How do you expect the child to drink the milk? No, bring another glass."
He started cooling the milk -- pouring it this way and that, pouring it from one glass into the other. He made it cool and offered the milk to the child and only then left.
This shows the personal care He takes and the sprit that He wants us to maintain while doing seva. Seva or service is not a routine; it is not mechanical, no! It is not a schedule. We have to do it wholeheartedly.
Om Sai Ram
Date: Sat, Sep 25, 2010 3:50 am
AHMEDABAD: Sri Sathya Sai Heart Hospital at Rajkot has organized a mega heart camp at Ahmedabad on World Heart Day on Sunday. More than a thousand heart patients have already registered for the camp. All these patients will be checked free of cost at the camp. In addition, heart surgeries, if required, will be offered gratis.
Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court S J Mukhopadhaya will remain present as chief guest at the camp. The hospital caters to the needy heart patients by organizing heart check-up camps. Last year 784 heart surgeries were performed free of cost at the hospital.
On the occasion of the World Heart Day, hospital has organized a seminar on Saturday at GLS, Law Garden in Ahmedabad.
sourced:: 1,000 register for Shri Satya Sai heart camp - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/1000-register-for-Shri-Satya-Sai-heart-camp/articleshow/6622741.cms#ixzz10W1SQySH
To Be Is To Be Served.
http://vimeo.com/16183036
Published on Friday, October 29, 2010 at 23:30 Hrs. IST
A two-day International Conference on Cardiovascular Diseases, entitled “International Conference on Cardiovascular Diseases —The Sathya Sai Model” was organised by SSSIHMS at the hospital premises, on 25th and 26th October, 2010. The conference was blessed by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
The conference was attended by eminent cardiologists and cardio-thoracic surgeons from around the world in an endeavour to share breakthroughs in the field of Cardio Vascular care, with a focus on administering efficient cardiac care in tune with Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba dictum that that free healthcare, like free education and drinking water, is an inalienable right of every individual, irrespective of race, religion, caste, creed, economic status or nationality.
The highlight of the conference was the visit of Bhagawan in the midst of the conference proceedings. Bhagawan also attended a presentation on “Redo CABG – Do’s and Don’ts” by the famous Cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Sudhanshu Bhattacharyya.
Director of SSSIHMS, Dr. A.N. Safaya in his welcome address to the conference said that SSSIHMS is a model established by Bhagawan. “This hospital is in its 20th year, when it is viable in this remote village of India, then this model can be emulated all over the world”, Dr. Safaya said. “Why cannot the richest countries in the world do something like this,” he asked. Dr. Safaya also deliberated about the essential element of human care while administering healthcare. “Treatment should not be like giving penny to a beggar, but like a rose to God,” he said.
View Photo Slideshow:
http://www.sssbpt.org/images/cardioconferencereport1.swf
In his inaugural address Dr. Angelo Thomas Pezella, the director and founder of the International Children’s Heart Fund, the US, emphasised that apart from food, water, clothing and shelter, the basic needs also to include, education, transportation, safety, empowerment, respect and recognition. Dr. Pezella added that everyone in this world had a right to adequate standard of living that would ensure the well being for himself and his family. Further, Dr. Pezella said he was struck by Bhagawan Baba’s five principles of healthcare, which are the essential elements of efficient medical care.
Renowned Indian cardiac surgeon Dr. P. Venugopal, in his keynote address, dwelt about his experience of working on the SSSIHMS project and how Bhagawan Baba had guided the project team at every step. “The general consensus was that a project of this size and magnitude from construction, completion and commissioning could not be executed in seven months,” he said while referring to the deadline Bhagawan Baba had put on the completion of the project. Dr. Venugopal, however, said that he had felt differently and had committed to Bhagawan that completion and commissioning of the project was indeed possible if Bhagawan’s blessings were with them. “Initially we ran into many roadblocks but at the end of every roadblock stood Swami and He made the impossible possible. He got into the bottom of every aspect from medical processes to equipment from training to principles and guidelines,” he said. “Swami was a doctor, midwife, mother all rolled into one when it came to delivering His precious baby — the hospital” he said.
Providing an overview of the Sri Sathya Sai Global Health Mission, Dr. Narendranath Reddy said that the society of today was caught up in www — wealth, wealth, wealth. Rather the society should imbue another set of www — work, worship and wisdom. Looking back at Puttaparthi Dr. Reddy said that some 60 odd years ago, no facilities were available at Puttaparthi, but now the face of Puttaparthi has undergone a complete transformation due to the ‘Love in Action’ of Bhagawan Baba. Dr. Reddy also highlighted the efficient role played by the sevadals of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations in providing relief and care across the world.
The two-day conference was divided into 10 sessions where a galaxy of Cardiologists and Cardiovascular surgeons shared their experience through various symposia and presentations on topics which included, congenital heart disease, valvular heart disease, coronary artery disease, heart failure, cardiac aneurysms, preventive cardiac care, new vistas in cardiac care among others.
At the end of the conference, the Head of Department of Cardio Thoracic and Vascular Surgery at SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram, Dr. Neelam Desai expressed in her concluding remarks that the delegates have been exposed to many advanced technologies and new treatment options for Cardiovascular diseases during the conference, all would be missing a golden opportunity if they did not carry along the divine wisdom from Bhagawan. “Swami says that the road to divinity is through service...Dedicating even one day a month or some free procedures a month will go a long way in helping the needy,” she said. Referring to an interview with Bhagawan, Dr. Desai said that Bhagwan had emphasised the fact that the main causes behind diabetes and heart disease were mental anxiety, jealousy, envy and competitiveness and also hurry, worry and curry. “The preventive aspect of cardiac care also has to be given importance so that in future conferences, we should be able to say, ‘last year we did 2-3 surgeries and not 200-300 surgeries’”, she said.
View Photo Slideshow:
http://www.sssbpt.org/images/cardioconferencereport2.swf
Evening Programme
Human heart is the centre of feelings and from the feelings arises human action. When the heart is inscribed with holy feelings, 'man' becomes man in the truest sense. Prasanthi was seemingly airing such a subtle message when one could spot many a heart hanging around bearing holy inscriptions such as, Love All Seve All, Help Ever Hurt Never, Service to Man is Service to God etc., decorating the Sai Kulwant Hall.
The backdrop of the entire scenario was the two day "International Conference on Cardiovascular Diseases - The Sathya Sai Way" being held at SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram.
The conference coincided with the a cultural programme in the evening put up by the SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram, in the Sai Kulwant Hall, on 25th evening titled “To Be Is To Serve” as part of Bhagawan’s 85th birthday celebrations. The programme was in the form of a docu-drama which showcased the health miracle of SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram, created by Bhagawan Baba. The doctors from SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram, took over the various characters in the docu-drama to emphasise the fact that since its inception the SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram, had benefited lakhs of people from across the country and even abroad going beyond the distinctions of caste, creed, class, race, religion and nationality. By showcasing the experiences of patients, staff of the hospital and the sevadals the programme underlined the aspect of the hospital being a temple of divine transformation, which had not just treated rather transformed lakhs of people including the staff.
As the programme was coming to close, a final song rang aloud recapitulating Bhagawan’s teachings on service - “Charo Disha Mein Hain Chayi Bahaar”. With the song making waves, staffers started trooping into the centre block joining in chorus. It became an apt occasion for the hospital to offer tribute to The Lord on the occasion of 85th birthday.
The programme was greatly appreciated by the delegates of the conference and also the audience.
sourced:
http://www.sssbpt.org/Pages/Prasanthi_Nilayam/cardioconference2010.html
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