Followers from some 85 countries around the world, the President and Prime Minister of India and various Chief Ministers, some of India’s top industrialists, and many noted personalities attended Sathya Sai Baba’s week-long 85th birthday celebrations earlier this month. Click here to see the Indian Weekender photogallery.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was deeply impressed by the free educational institutes that Sai Baba runs and said he was going back with some good ideas that he would like to see implemented into the national system. Sai Baba offers education through free universities, colleges and schools throughout India but with the added dimension of human values as an integral aspect of the curriculum.
The President, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, chief guest at the Women’s Day function at Prashanti Nilayam, the abode of Sai Baba, called on women-related issues to the forefront. Governors E.S.L. Narasimhan (Andhra Pradesh) and Shivraj Patil (Punjab) and State Minister for Information and Public Relations J. Geetha Reddy were present for the Women’s Day celebration which is part of the birthday celebrations.
Sai Baba is not a religious movement, cult or sect. His organisation is based on a few very simple affirmations – Help Ever, Hurt Never; Love all, Serve all, and God is Love and Love is God. While apparently simplistic in the first instance, Sai Baba has spent the past few decades honing the understanding and practice of such axioms for his followers the world over. That is why he is regarded as a Satguru (a teacher of truth), a world teacher (jagat guru) and an avatar in line with Krishna, Rama, Buddha and Jesus.
His teachings have reverberated every teaching of every scripture, his followers are from every religion: Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, followers of Judaism, Shintoism, - the list is endless.
He has always said all religions have the same basis of attesting to truth, right conduct, peace, love and non-violence. These human values make up the foundation of his service organisations in more than 167 countries around the world.
The adherents of his philosophy of divinity in all number over 100 million, many of them registered to the organisations in their country, including New Zealand.
Every religion is celebrated at Prashanti Nilayam – with annual celebrations of Eid, Christmas, Hindu festivals and many more. Sai Baba does not tolerate any differences in the practitioners of any religion – every follower of the Sai philosophy is asked to treat everyone else as himself/herself, without an iota of otherness.
It is a philosophy that has held true for the past 60 years. While initially people are drawn to Sai Baba because of his miracles, the past few decade has seen a massive growth in followers based on the social commitment Sai Baba has to humanity. He says his life is an example of service to humanity and his followers need to follow that.
His services include free super speciality hospitals that undertake heart surgeries and other high-level surgeries, his water projects that bring potable water to millions of villagers in several states in India and offering free education up to university level. His overseas branches are geared to assisting local issues as and when they rise, as well as starting free schools and medical facilities in their own countries.
Sai service organisations operate on a simple maxim - help fellow man without any conditions whatsoever. While no money or subscription is every asked for in the organisation, these national and regional bodies have been carrying out successful relief work for years in their areas.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sai Baba – Man of Miracles
The Western world was introduced to the godman, Sathya Sai Baba in a book by an Australian journalist Howard Murphet. While since that book – Sai Baba Man of Miracles - several hundred other books on Sai Baba have been written, the simple beauty and deliverance of that book remains a must-read for all followers.
Murphet spent years in India in the 1960s in search of ancient knowledge, and then dedicated himself to Sai Baba after finding in him everything he wanted as guru. A practising Christian, he freely acknowledges Sai Baba as an avatar, as god walking on Earth.
Books on Sai Baba have been written in many languages. While many dwell on the miracles that he has been doing for the past six decades, there are dozens of books about the his mission, his accomplishments and his methods. Many more exist of the personal experiences of people who have stayed with him, tested him and accepted him as an avatar of the age.
Sai Baba says he has come to clear the path to spirituality that has been overgrown with the five diseases of humanity: anger, greed, attachment, pride and lust.
Sai Baba does not advocate one religion over another, saying that each is a pathway to god and each provides a particular way for people to reach that goal. He asks that his followers become better in the religion they have been born in: a Hindu to become a better Hindu, a Muslim to become a better Muslim, A Christian to become a better Christian.
In all, he says one thing – everyone has to become a better human being to attain anything in life. Humanism is the basis of all religion and with the appropriate reasoning and intellectual discrimination, one can understand what it is to be a true human being. It is this message of Sai Baba that appeals to all, no matter what state their minds may be in.
International Sai Organisation website - http://www.sathyasai.org/
Sai organisation – India - http://www.srisathyasai.org.in/
No comments:
Post a Comment