How Ra.Ganapati Became Sai Baba Devotee Under the Guidance Of Paramacharya

Ra.Ganapati[Anna] - the name everyone will recognize as a great devotee of Kanchi Paramacharyal and Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba[Swami]. He has authored many books on both of them. Now let us get to know how he came to Swami through Paramacharyal!!! - From the diaries of Mr.Suresh who personally recorded this from Anna.

Anna when working on "Devathin Kural", used to literally stay in Kanchi Mutt so that he will not to miss any divine nectar flowing from Paramacharyal on this. His lone father was in Chennai. Their family's deity was Sri Soolini Durga to whom they were doing daily poojas for generations. The custom gets transferred to the next generations. Anna was still single and his dad was haunted that after Anna who will take this daily Aradhana. He was pursuing Anna to get married, but Anna would just dismiss it.

One of these days when Anna was in Kanchipuram and his Dad in

Chennai, when the regular pooja got over, Anna's father thought again of the Aradhana continuity. He decided that the only solution to make his son agree for marriage would be of taking this matter to Paramacharyal whose words his son will not dismiss. So he planned to go to Kanchipuram that day evening. As soon this thought came to his mind, the all-knowing Paramacharyal immediately summoned Anna to his room. He told Anna about his Dad's plan to bring this to his holiness's durbar. He also told that he may approve of his Dad's wish as this was related to custom not breaking and he is bound to Dharma than Anna's decision against marriage. Anna got upset and was pleading Paramacharyal for a remedy.

The magical words "Take your dad to Puttaparthi" fell on Anna's ears from Paramacharyal. Anna was taken aback and protested why he should he take his Dad to some "Baba". Anna asked Paramacharyal why where they sent to Puttaparthi. For this Paramacharyal answered that "I am in the position of the Judge who can [preach dharma] deliver the Justice based on the rules set, So I wanted you to be sent to the Governor who can veto it".  Anna then immediately went to Chennai and told that Paramacharyal asked both of them to go to Puttaparthi. As always an implicit obedient disciple, his father readily agreed to go. The very evening they left to Puttaparthi.

Puttaparthi and baba were both new to them. They came in settled down and sat for darshan as others did. Swami came for darshan, saw them but did not talk to them for not only that day that but next 2 two days as well. They were getting impatient and then on the third day, Swami called Anna's father alone for Personal interview.

Anna's father entered the interview room with swami. Instead of a room, he saw a dense jungle inside and swami grabbed his hand and starting walking. They walked for long and near a banyan tree swami just vanished and there came Sri Soolini Durga in her full form. Anna's father was perplexed and fell flat on her feet. Sri Soolini Durga told him that she was already very happy and satisfied with his and his forefathers Pooja and he need not pursue his son to get married and continue with the Aradhana. Then she was again replaced with swami's image. Anna’s father even after this experience was not sure on whether to do namskaram to Swami’s Form. Knowing this, Swami started of the special mantra of their family [like abhivadye] which is told before we do prostrations this makes Anna’s Father continue and finish the Mantra and Prostrate on Swami’s Feet.  Swami once more said that Anna was meant for something and not to bother him to get married. Then Anna’s Father took leave of Swami and along with Anna they travelled back to Chennai. His Marriage topic was dropped forever and Anna remained single all through his life. Infact the Pooja was given to Anna’s Cousin to continue.

Anna on the way was thrilled to know what happened inside the interview room and went on to become a great devotee of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba also. He authored many books on Swami.

Kanula Mundara Kadali Aade - Beautiful song

Translation
Kanula Mundara Kadali Aade Karuna Roopamu Neevu
{You are the Embodiment of Compassion moving about in front of our eyes}  

Pilachi Nantane Palukarinche Prema Bhavamu Neevu!
{You are the Embodiment of Love who responds to our calls}

Neeve Maa Sarvam, Neeve Maa Praanam! (x2)
{You are our all, You are our very life}

Girula Taruvula Taaki Galagala Paaru Nadulamu Memu
{We are the rivers that flow down from the mountain peaks making murmuring sounds}

Aruna Kiranapu Kaanthi Milamila Meriyu Kadalivi Neevu!
{And You are the ocean with its surface shining in the rays of the sun}

Neeve Maa Sarvam, Neeve Maa Praanam!
{You are our all, You are our very life}

Ella Veelala Madhuvu Korakai Vedaku Bramaramu Nenu
{I am the bee ever in search of honey}

Prema Madhuvunu Nindiyunna Hridaya Kamalamu Neevu!
{And You are the Lotus filled with the Nectar of Love ever present in our Hearts}

Neeve Maa Sarvam, Neeve Maa Praanam!
{You are our all, You are our very life}

Kanula Mundara Kadali Aade Karuna Roopamu Neevu
{You are the Embodiment of Compassion moving about in front of our eyes}

Pilachi Nantane Palukarinche Prema Bhavamu Neevu!
{You are the Embodiment of Love who responds to our calls}

Neeve Maa Sarvam, Neeve Maa Praanam!
{You are our all, You are our very life}

Bhagawan and Kasturi’s Mother

 

Many widows like Subbamma and Narasamma have been recipients of Baba’s grace. To the list of such who were entwined with Baba both in life and death must be added the name of N. Kasturi’s mother – Janaki Amma.

The very fact that a Brahmin widow like Janaki Amma, steeped in the orthodox traditions, reposed intrinsic faith in Bhagawan at a time when He was still not widely ‘accepted’ is itself a proof of her open-mindedness and receptivity. For, though Baba does not condemn any of the time-honoured orthodox conventions, He does not comment their observance either.

Baba gave expression to His affection for Janaki Amma in myriad ways. That old lady would take Baba’s Hands in her and plead, “Swami, when I close my eyes for ever, You must give me the holy water with these tender hands and reach me to salvation.”

“Oh yes! It will be so” Swami would say.

Swami, Who used to visit every house in Prasanthi Nilayam to enquire of the welfare of inmates, would deliberately by-pass Kasturi’s house, teasing the lady with the twitch of His slanted eyes.

The old lady would come running and remonstrate: “Swami, You pass by without coming to our house!”

The little Bhagawan would reply with His mischievous innocence, “I’ll come to your house only if you offer Me two aratis instead of one,” as if the arati was of any consequence to Him!

“Oh yes! I shall give you a double arati, Swami,” the lady would respond and lead the lad lovingly.

He would wander into the kitchen and open up all the food that has been cooked, “Amma” – He would say – (the Sai Mother exudes the babe-like beauty when He calls His lady-bhaktaks as Amma-‘mother’), ‘there is so little food here. Why have you not prepared any vegetables? Eat well, Amma, eat well. I Am providing your son abundantly.” The babes’ remark used to full of parental affection.

One morning a messenger came running to Kasturi who was at the bhajan mandir at Prasanthi Nilayam. Janaki Amma had vomited once and collapsed in his house within the Nilayam precincts. At that time, Swami was in Bangalore.

All agitated, Kasturi ran to his mother. Tha Saviour Is not here, from Whose hands mother had prayed for the sacred water that would seal the cycle of births once for all.

How can He not be there? From His picture hung on the wall beside Janaki Amma, there began to pour out the gurgling Ganga.

The blessed woman cupped her palms and took the holy water in, three times. Swami took her in.

At Bangalore, Swami was humorously remarking to those around: “See! Kasturi himself in an old man. He is weeping like a child, because he has lost his mother.”

On returning to Puttaparthi, Baba started telling Kasturi, “In the bhajan hall, the vomitting…” Kasturi was about to hasten to the hall under the impression that Swami was drawing his attention to somebody vomitting in the bhajan hall just then. Baba explained, ‘Nobody is vomitting now. I only wanted to refer to the vomitting by your mother that day when you were in the bhajan hall”, and continued, ‘I wanted to give the holy water prasadam only after she had been totally cleansed, and so, I made her vomit first.”

Remember This !!!

 

When you do your duty, God will reward you in more ways than you expect

When you do your duty, God will reward you in more ways than you expect...by Mrs. Geeta Mohan Ram

Swami teaches us simple things in beautiful ways. When I was a young girl in Brindavan we were given some jobs, as there was no Sevadal gardener and cook. Everything was done by us. So my job was to set up the altar in Swami's bungalow and I used to come only once a week since I had school on other days. That particular weekend I did not want to go because MS Subbalakshmi was giving a concert in Bangalore..i said " Swami is always there, but MS comes only once a while.."..But my parents were very strict and committed to Swami. They said, "Once you are committed to Swami you should do the work."...Then I said "Why can't you do it for today?"..Then my parents replied that I should have informed Swami last week. Then I requested for half the concert. Mother said that we can come back after Swami's Bhajan. Then I grumbled, "Swami sits and goes on answering questions after Bhajan and He will take an hour."

Everyone was doing their job but I had a long face. Swami was moving around the house and He looked at me, saying "Hey 'castor oil face', what is wrong with you, why are you banging my pictures? What happened, an argument with mother?"

"Swami, today there is a concert by MS Subbulakshmi in Bangalore."

Then Swami said, "She is a great singer isn't she? Then why did you not go?"

"Swami, my mother told me I have to do my duty first."

Swami replied, "She could have cleaned the altar. At least she should have done that much. OK, you can go a little late, but if I start speaking after Bhajans then you will be late." So Swami was speaking of all that I had told my mother!!!

Then Swami said, "Today I will not speak after Bhajans - you all go for the programme." I was thrilled.

Bhajans started and Swami was also singing. After sometime Swami asked everybody to wait and that He would come back. Five minutes later Swami walks in with MS Subbalakshmi!

We were all shocked and Swami said, "Subbulakshmi, didn't you have a concert today in Bangalore?"

"No Swami," she replied, "There was a misprint in the newspaper, it's tomorrow."

Swami told her "See that young girl sitting there; she loves your music so much."

He then gave her a list of songs which I like and asked her to sing those songs. She was a Great Devotee of Swami and with all devotion she gave a private concert to the Lord.

Then Swami called me and said "See when you do your duty, God will reward you in more ways than you expect. You heard the concert today; you can go to the concert tomorrow as well."

Guru Purnima

Sathya Sai Baba : A divine legend : An Article by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

I admire Bhagwan Satya Sai Baba for his selfless work and contributions to the welfare of the people by providing drinking water for the rural population, free healthcare facilities for the rural poor and free higher education.

 The major factors in human resource development are value based education and quality healthcare. In addition, the infrastructural requirement like availability of potable water is an essential need of the human resource. While the government is actively engaged in providing these resources to the citizens, Baba has been sensitive to these essential needs of the Indian population, particularly of the people living in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, for over four decades.

Keeping this in mind, he has created vast infrastructure for providing value-based quality education to children from primary to university level, established super specialty hospitals in rural areas - as early as 1991 when there were no corporate hospitals in such interior regions - and worked on a project to provide potable safe drinking water for people of Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. I would like to discuss the unique characteristics of these institutions. 

Value-Based EducationThe best part of a young person is his or her childhood in school and the best time spent is 8am to 4 pm each day in the school. This is applicable for all children in the age group of five to 20 living in both urban and rural areas.
Baba has realised the problems of the rural poor and has made it a point that education is absolutely free in all the schools and colleges established by the Sathya Sai Trust.

Interestingly, the Sathya Sai Educational Institutions cater equally to the development of the mind, heart and the body. This is achieved through integrated education, which lays equal emphasis on keeping the body healthy, the mind active and sharp and the heart pure. Baba, being the Chancellor of the institute, spends substantial amount of time with the students to groom them into ideal citizens.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba says, "Students are the foundation of the nation, the only wealth that I cherish.  Students are my all; my entire property consists of students. I have offered myself to them." He also says, "The end of education is character and the end of knowledge is love." This is the reason why Sri Sathya Sai Institute of higher learning emphasises character building as an important component of education apart from acquiring academic excellence.

Nobility in character comes out of humility, generosity, compassion, helpfulness and respect for moral values. The single thread that runs through all the activities of the institute, curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular is that education is for life and not for mere living. Experience has shown that leading organisations and companies in the country absorb Sai students. It is claimed that the students so recruited bring about a quiet change in work ethics and inject team spirit as well as a value-based approach to all aspects of organisational activity.

Water Mission
In 1994, Baba made a moving reference to the difficulties experienced by the people of Rayalaseema region in getting safe drinking water and suggested that the century-old problem needed urgent attention. In 1995, he added a new dimension to his societal mission by the trust, undertaking work to provide good and safe drinking water to as many people of Anantapur district as possible in the shortest possible time, irrespective of the difficulties experienced and the cost.

Tapping ground water was considered as an option, but was ruled out because of the fluoride problem. It was decided to use rainwater by drawing water during the monsoon and storing in special reservoirs.

Most of the water sources were in the northern part of Anantapur district and the terrain to the south sloped upwards. Hence, bringing water to the southern region needed creation of large number of pumping stations to pump water against gravity. This called for extensive civil and engineering work. In spite of all the difficulties, the water was made available to Anantapur district in 18 months. After a year of regular operation, the entire water works was handed over to the people of the state as a gift. The scheme covers 750 villages and provides water to over one million people.

India needs a thousand such organisations to provide cost effective potable drinking water to the billion people spread in different parts of the country.

Healthcare
During the 1980s, a substantial number of super specialty corporate hospitals came into being in our urban areas. However, due to commercialisation, they could cater only to the needs of urban rich people. There was wide gap in the availability of medicare for the rich and poor and between rural and urban population. Keeping this in mind, Baba declared on November 23, 1990, there would be a world-class hospital in Puttaparthi area within a year and it would offer free treatment to everyone who come there, especially the poor.

This hospital was inaugurated on November 22, 1991. After its inauguration, the super specialty hospital has conducted many major heart surgeries and catheterisation procedures. Specialist surgeons from reputed hospitals, both from India and abroad, voluntarily take leave from their regular work and come to Puttaparthi and perform operations free of cost. Same is the case with nursing services.

I understand the convalescing patients provide voluntary help to the new patients who come to the hospitals for operation. Also the hospital premises are maintained in a clean, calm, serene and divine atmosphere. We can see the power of service consciousness flowing in the entire hospital environment.

Project Management

Whether it be a super specialty hospital at Puttaparthi or provision of safe drinking water for Anantapur or provision of drinking water to Chennai by solving the problems associated with Kandaleru reservoir, all projects have been completed to meet the specified objective within the prescribed time and cost. How this has been possible? I was thinking about it.   The major reason appears to be that the projects have been entrusted to socially committed project managers, contractors and sub-contractors. They have executed the project with a spirit of co-operation, the spirit of sacrifice and dedication.  The programme chiefs have followed the five core human values - truth, right conduct, non-violence, love and peace -while executing the projects.  Can there be a better role model than this for promoting a nationwide selfless, societal transformation mission?

Link from 

http://www.hindustantimes.com/columnsothers/sathya-sai-baba-a-divine-legend/article1-688409.aspx

The Swami in our Hearts - Chess Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand

The Swami in our Hearts...by Vishwanathan Anand

We used to visit Sundaram (Swami's Residence in Chennai) often and listen to Bhajans. This I found most relaxing. The most impressive thing for me was the dedication, discipline and commitment the volunteers show. Just love can make people do such wonderful things.

We visited Puttaparthi on July 27, 2010. We were keen to experience Puttaparthi rather than try and see how close we

could get to Baba. The evening Bhajan was magical and Baba's presence was indeed special. We witnessed him giving a necklace to a group of singers. I was amazed at the discipline during the Bhajans and the simplicity and cleanliness in Puttaparthi. We visited the hospital and I was awestruck at the highly advanced technology that was used to reach out

to the most needy. All this without accepting a single rupee in

return!..We returned from Puttaparthi and within a week we realized we were going to be parents. Aruna (wife) mentioned the child whatever it is, would be Sai something. That night Aruna dreamt of a baby boy. In a few days we had Sai Akhil.

People have seen miracles from Baba, spoken to Him. Some refer to Him as a friend or family member. For us Baba is in our hearts, He is the inner voice that does not need to speak, but can be heard when we seek for it...

Anandamaya Bhagawan Bhajan

Ananda Maya Bhagawan Hey Prema Maya Bhagawan O Bhagawan Sai Bhagawan [ Ananda Maya Bhagawan ... ] Hey Karuna Nidhey Prabhu Sai Ram Krupa Nidhey Deenon Ke Pran Lelo Prabhu Mujhey Sharan Lagalo Mujhey Daya (Krupa) Karo Bhagawan

THE LORD OF THE UNIVERSE !!!!

SOULJOURNS - A SAI COUPLE - SUNDER & MAYA IYER- LESSONS FROM BEING BABA'S PERSONAL ATTENDANT

Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai baba - 89th Birthday celebrations

89th Birthday Celebrations - Morning Programme - 23 Nov 2014

89th Birthday Celebrations - Evening Programme - 23 Nov 2014

Swami's Assurance

I wait outside the door of your shrine room, listening to the prayers you address to Me from the depths of your hearts so that I may fulfill them. When you cry, "O Lord, have You no eyes to see?" My eyes are there to see ! When you supplicate, "Lord, have you no ears to hear this cry?" My ears are there to hear ! When you call in despair lamenting over misery, My Feet are there for you to hold.

--Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba - Darshan in Ooty

Sri Sathya Sai - The God of small things - Aravind

Sri Sathya Sai - The God of small things by Aravindb1982 on Mixcloud