It is indeed a special privilege and honour for me to be here with you today to deliver 32nd convocation address. I want to thank the organizers for giving me this opportunity. I must say I have delivered probably over twenty five convocation addresses but I never had a setting like this. It is overpowering, inspirational, emotional, peaceful, pleasant and unbelievably quiet.

This is my first visit to this University. I have been reading and hearing about it on and off for many years. But one of my colleagues who works with me, Vikas Bagri who graduated from here with a degree in Business (MBA) in 2008 has been working with us for five years. He is an example of your ambassador-very sincere, honest, hardworking, courageous, committed, disciplined, creative, ethical, with an ability to analyze things and willing to do everything, like I see here.Everything you can ask for- you see in him and you all should be proud of the institution you have.

You have a great Institute with so many distinguished people. Before wearing this gown we all were together and I was amazed to meet some of these distinguished people whom I have known for many many years as part of my work in the eighties and I had no idea that they were all involved with this Institute. So you are indeed lucky to have the right spirit, right talent of advisors and seniors, proper environment, eco system and you are lucky to be graduating today.

My congratulations to all graduating students. I wish you the best of the best in your journey forward and I hope you make a substantial contribution not only to yourself, your family, your community but also the country and the world.

I can’t help but think of the day I graduated looking at all these beautiful young faces. I graduated from college with a BSc in Physics just about 52 years ago. It seems like yesterday. I was out there sitting, not with your kind of discipline, unfortunately. Young, just coming out of the Indian independence movement fervor – I was born in 1942. Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Sardar Patel and others were our role models. In those days, telephones were hardly available. In fact, I had never used a telephone in my life before going to America in 1964. I had never seen television in my life before going to America in 1964. Life was pretty simple. Needs were very little and goals were very clear.

I want to tell you a little bit about my journey. To give you an example of how we all take different turns in life and no matter how you plan, the journey turns out to be very different. Exciting, at times challenging, but everything you learn in colleges do add up to lot of good experiences.

I was born and raised in a small little village – a tribal village in Orissa. My parents were Gujaratis settled in Orissa and our heroes were again Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and others while growing up. In this village there were no schools, no water, no electricity, no phone, no doctor or no nurse. My mother delivered eight children – all eight at home – zero cost of delivery. All eight turned out to be mentally healthy, physically healthy and all eight went to America because at that time that was the way to get out of poverty.

My father had fourth grade education – he was a carpenter and his dream was to make sure, like every Indian parent, that his children do get good education. I must tell you nowhere else in the world do parents spend so much time, energy, money and resources to educate their children than in India.

So I got my BSc, then I got my Masters in Physics and then read in the newspaper that President Kennedy has decided to send man to the moon. I was young, energetic, little bit stupid, and I decided to go to America. I had no money, no support, didn’t know anybody. So I found some money, borrowed some, and then took a boat from Mumbai to Genova through Karachi, Aden, Port Said, Alexandria, Naples, Genova. Took a train from Genova to London, took a plane from London to New York and took a bus from New York to Chicago. I had never been there, had never seen snow, didn’t know what cold meant and all of a sudden realised that ignorance is going to help. I went to a college to study for a Ph.D. in Physics when my professor told me that it takes seven years to get a Ph.D.

My priorities changed and I did a Masters in Electrical Engineering because I could get that in one year. Then I spent many years calling my family one by one to America, putting them through college, working hard, built a business in 1974, sold the business in 1979 and then came to Delhi in 1980. I had never been to Delhi before. I tried to make a phone call to my wife and I tried and I tried and I couldn’t make a phone call.

So, with a fair amount of arrogance and lot of ignorance I said, ‘I am going to fix this.’ If I had known everything I know today about India, I would have never even tried it. I learned that ignorance is a great asset. If you know too much, sometimes you back off. I went back to Chicago told my wife that I am going to spend ten years fixing India’s telephones. I didn’t know how and I didn’t know with whom.

Finally I had a chance to meet Mrs. (Indira) Gandhi and that is when I met Rajiv Gandhi for the first time. I could convince Mrs. Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi that telecom would change the face of this country.  I told them, “Information Technology will give us the resource we never had but it will take 10-15 years. We know we can do it, give us a chance to do it.” Mrs. Gandhi believed in technology.

Rajiv was just about my age and we made a good team. But I needed young people like you to get it done because without five hundred young engineers, I couldn’t have done anything. So it required the right kind of combination of political will, domain expertise and young talent. At that time, we had two million telephones. It used to take ten years to get telephone connection. Today we have nine hundred million telephones and we are a nation of a connected billion. This complex country with all its diversity is now connected for the first time in history. Anyone can pick up phone from any corner of the country and talk to anybody else. It is a very powerful fabric that we have created for the unity of this country. It is for development of this country in a very different way. It cuts across all barriers – religion, languages, physical location and customs. This powerful tool now is going to be an instrument to build a new India. Very few really understand the power of connectivity. The first phase of the telecom revolution is over but the second phase of the telecom revolution is about to begin.

Then I had a heart attack, I had a quadruple bypass and I ran out of money. I had worked for ten years and had spent all my money. When Rajiv Gandhi died, I lost my heart and went back to the US to pay for my children’s tuition. I went on a tourist visa as I had given up my US nationality, but I could not work there on a tourist visa. So I spent lot of time restructuring my life. My mother was there, my father had died there and no one in the family knew that I was completely broken in terms of the heart, had lost my friend. Because everyone assumed that I was powerful and had all that was needed. No one could deal with the fact that it was all gone. But you need an inner strength to build again. So I always tell my friends – my highs are very high and my lows are very low. My roller coaster ride is unbelievable.

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I came back and worked on the National Knowledge Commission and then decided to focus on building public information infrastructure to really democratize information because I am convinced that the poverty today is the poverty of information. If we can empower our people with knowledge, education, information – they will figure out the rest on their own. Don’t under estimate the power of people in rural India. Don’t under estimate the knowledge of our young. We have not been able to give them tools. To an extent Gandhiji’s dream of Rama Rajya was not possible because we didn’t have the tools and the Internet.

India has taken long strides in development – the fact that we can feed 1.3 billion people today on our own is a great accomplishment by our agricultural scientists. We are a nuclear power, we have just sent a mission to Mars, we are the largest producer of milk in the world, we have eradicated polio, we don’t have guinea worm and millions and millions of our children can go to colleges and schools.

Internet and web has changed everything. It has changed business models, delivery systems, it is changing governance, education, health, agriculture and banking. Almost everything we do today is basically obsolete. Everything we do needs to be done differently keeping in mind Internet, keeping in mind new technology. So when the government introduced right to information, I believe that was the biggest decision in the history of India. Very few people understand the power of right to information. By introducing right to information we said – we are going to empower every human being in this country. It will take time. It will take probably ten or twenty years but the process is on. Whenever we introduce an instrument like that it takes time to settle. It creates confusion. People misuse, people abuse. We have right to information but we don’t have information organised in a manner that it can be used. So our job is to really organize information.

We are creating two major networks – one called knowledge network to connect all our Universities and R & D institutions, libraries and others, with 40 GB bandwidth to transfer large amounts of information so that our scientists can collaborate better, share resources and expedite research and development.

The second network is to connect 250,000 local panchayats through optical fiber. When that happens, all our villages would have huge amount of broadband capacity. These two networks will cost us about 50,000 crores. The first one is already built, the second one will be built in next eighteen months. In addition, we are creating platforms for ID (Aadhar) that Nandan Nilekani is working on; GIS (Geographic Information Systems) – Dr. Kasturirangan, Dr. Ramaswamy, Dr. Nayak are working on; Dr. Gairola in NeGP (National e-Governance Plan) where information on food distribution, driver’s license, passport, income tax – all would be organised. We are computerizing 32 million court cases because it takes fifteen years to get justice today. We need to organise and computerize the police, CBI and prisons.

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Indian conversation today is rubbish. It is all about cricket, bollywood and political gossip. We need to change that conversation. We need to really take the lead forward to talk about Indian values, Indian customs and indigenous development. A nation of 1.3 billion can’t be doing nothing. There are lots of good people in this country doing lots of good work. They don’t get any recognition. It is time to change the conversation in this country and young can do that and you need to take the lead.

I get disappointed when the young in India don’t demand change. You are the constituency who should be demanding change. But you are not demanding change! You put up with the way things are.

So, when this public information infrastructure is built, in may be two or three years at the cost of about 100,000 crores – education will change completely and lot of education institutions don’t want to recognize that. We really don’t need teachers to deliver content and create content. Content is already created by best of the best in the world. It is available on the net. Today we need teachers to be mentors. But none of our teachers are trained to be mentors.

Similarly, the delivery of health services, delivery of government services – all of this is going to change drastically in a very short period of time and you need to be the agent of change. You need to innovate, you need to think differently, recognizing that information brings about openness, accessibility, connectivity, networking, democratization, decentralization and as a result, social transformation.

We are at a tipping point in India, believe me. If we don’t take care of next ten years we are headed for disaster. The next ten years are going to be the most critical years in the history of India mainly because of the potential of technology and the energy in our youth. Technology today, not just IT but like biotech, nanotechnology, stem cell research and alternate energy gives you different ways of doing things. That requires young talent and new minds. Because today in India systems are basically designed to promote perk, privilege and patronage. It is not designed for productivity, performance and processes. We need to change that. We cannot go on protecting the old system with the old guard. That phase is over. They did a great job, with great respect to them, we need to move on.

It is good to look at history to gain strength and perspective. But it is wrong to get stuck in the past. It is time to look forward and not look backward. The world is looking to India to provide leadership because the western models, based on consumption, are not scalable, sustainable, desirable, workable. India needs to provide a new model of development to the world. India needs to really lead the growth. We must continue to grow at the rate of eight to ten percent and we must focus on the bottom of the economic pyramid. We must lift 400 million who are below poverty line and build an inclusive society. A Society where everyone has a place, everyone is equal, everyone is respected. We have been living like this for centuries and we cannot come up with ideas that divide our system. This is where the young have to play an important role.

So, we need to innovate. How do we innovate in a system like this? So, we created the National innovation councils, sectorial councils, state level councils. We are creating a billion dollar fund. We are going into clusters. But then the innovation is not about products, markets, services. It is not just about a globally competitive market place. It is about innovations in governance, innovations in life style, innovations in education, innovations in health. Everywhere I look around, I see a great need to change the paradigm.

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I get upset when people don’t welcome change. Everyone in India tells you why it can’t be done. Everyone takes great pride in identifying a problem. You don’t need talent to identify a problem nor do you need talent to suggest solutions. You really need courage and talent to go and get it done against all the odds. Dr. Kurien when he started work on milk didn’t wait for anybody. He just went and did it. It took him forty years. All of these things that focus on nation building require long commitment. Nothing happens in less than twenty years.

Building a nation is very complex, very different. It requires different kinds of parameters, a different mindset. Building a company is easy. Productivity, efficiency, cost reductions, rules and regulations and so on and you can do it.

Our collective task is very complex. When I say our task, I mean you all need to build a very strong, secular, united nation which gives direction not only to India but to the world. The world is looking and the world is interested in India’s development. How do we get everybody to rally? If we can’t put our own house in order how do we get everybody to rally? When you look at the media, you feel that everything is falling apart. Morals are going down, work ethics are going bad, and everybody is stealing everything. The rich are becoming richer and the poor are not being paid attention to and it is chaos, confusion and contradictions.

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But when you look at the young, at the tools and technology, you see great hope. You feel we can change the face of this country in twenty years, if we just turn it over to the young and that is the requirement of the day.

So when I see these graduate students my message to them is – Build a very strong self. Build a self that is going to serve people. But first you have to serve yourself. If you can’t serve yourself, you can’t serve anybody. So get a good job, work hard – there is no substitute for hard work. Look beyond your personal interest – to community interests and really create hope.

This morning I had an interesting opportunity to meet Prof. Jaware Gowda, father of your Vice Chancellor, who is 100 years old. He came to have breakfast with us. Full of energy, he could hear, talk, think, discuss and he said, “Mr. Pitroda, I read your report from the National Knowledge Commission. And when you recommended mission on translation, I was thrilled.” A hundred year old man talking not about the past but talking about the future!

This is the India we need to recognize and celebrate. He has no complaints, was not negative and he gave me joy. He made me feel that there is hope. I think there are lessons to learn from so many different interesting people in our society. But they don’t get the kind of exposure in the public.

Some actor will get an exposure. Some cricket player will get an exposure. These are the heroes of India.

So once again I want to wish you all graduating students the best of the best. I want to thank all the parents for encouraging their children to go to this institute and want to thank you for your support to your children. I want to thank all of the teachers and professors and members of the board for giving support and direction to this institute and finally really genuinely thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me this opportunity and this great platform to have a conversation.

II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

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SaiRam to all of you!

I am wrong. I am really wrong. I didn’t think this occasion will overwhelm me. It did. I will find my bearings. The reason I say so is – talking is something I like, specially about Swami; talked about Him all over the world, so I thought what is it – it’s okay. And everybody in the hospital said – Are you nervous Sir? I said, Of course not, I am not nervous.’ Totally wrong; Totally wrong.

But in the next thirty minutes or so I will try to make some sense.

I was born just 150 miles from here. I was the fifth child in an average farming family. So much so they didn’t even think that it was necessary to record my date of birth. So, when I was ready to go to High School there was a conspiracy between the admitting clerk and my dad and they made up a date so that I am old enough to get into the High School and that is how I ended up getting a date of birth. So I was pushed way ahead of my time and there is a wonderful Telugu expression… it says – Gallilo perigaadu. Basically that is how I grew up. Nobody ever took me serious and then it must be Divine protection from then on. I went on – didn’t do very bad, passed all my exams very well and ended up going for cardiac surgery abroad and lived the American dream and I will come to it in a bit.

But all along I had immense faith in God. So, the two ingredients for the success of my life is – immense faith in God and my hard work. So this went on.

Now television is there, so everybody knows what an American dream is. You have a six or seven bed room house, five or six cars though you can drive only one at any time. You party every Saturday night. The men are talking about cars, the women are talking about jewellery. And you waste so much food and you have everything taken for granted and that was my life. I was so happy.

And then, somewhere in my mind there was always a big hole and that was to do free heart surgery in this country which made me what I was. That is one other thing… I had always never forgot my roots.

So when somebody told me that there is a free hospital that does free heart surgery in rural part of South India, I did not believe it. Because having practised cardiac surgery for over three decades, having seen the growth all over and having been involved with a few corporate hospitals in this country, I said this is an oxymoron – there is no free heart surgery. But then they said – No, it is there and you go and see for yourself.

And lot of things came together – they had a huge international cardiac surgery conference in Hyderabad for which I was invited and I asked what about Puttaparthi when they said – it is a short flight and you can go. So I ended up to check myself this so called free heart surgery. And sure enough the first thing I did was to go to the hospital. Because it is on the way. So when I went to the hospital one of the young administrators was nice enough and he took me around. First of all when you look at it it doesn’t look like a hospital. At least it didn’t look like one for me.

But now a days we call it aptly so – The Temple of Healing.

In every aspect it is Temple of Healing. I came from this excess – Everybody wants everything that is ‘The Best’ and when I walked through this hospital – yes in this rural area – poorest of the poor, there was this citadel – a citadel of healthcare that can be built only by Divinity and nobody else.

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It was absolutely state of the art equipment whether you are talking in the outpatient department or in the operating room or in the intensive care unit. The only department missing was (is) the billing department. So when I looked at it, I said this is the dream – it is not a reality!

It was so calm, so cool, no confusion, nothing like any super speciality hospitals that I have ever been or ever will be.

So, that was an initial shock. Obviously much bigger shock was to come the next day. I was in this same Kulwant Hall. There was dust, sand. Men used to sit on that side and a series of coincidences which we now start calling them now as Sai incidences. I was sitting in the front row. And then my nephew next to me said – Uncle, uncle pray to your Ishta Devata and Swami will talk to you. I told him, Srinivas, there are ten thousand people, Swami is going to talk to me? He said – No, no… try uncle. I said fine… what is wrong – I am not going to loose anything. So I was praying to Lord Balaji and first time I ever saw Swami glide down.

Obviously if you ever see Him gliding down, that is the most beautiful sight we can ever see. We can’t see His Feet, that orange robe flowing in the early morning Sun – the most impressive halo of hair. You will not forget that sight. It was so powerful that I had to close my eyes.

Sure enough when I opened He was right in front of me and when I locked my gaze with Swami I think that was the end of my own entity. I am sure all of us have that feeling. You lock your gaze with Swami for the first time and then I blurted, I am Dr. Choudhary from Los Angeles and He said, Yes I know who you are. I didn’t understand that.

And next thing, on the same day I was put in a very small room. At one end I was there and at the other end was Swami. I still don’t know how that happened. Believe it or not, first time across in that small room – now I know it is the Interview Room. In pure Telugu He looks at me and says – How come you lost weight? And far as I know that was the first time I was seeing Him and He asks me – how come you lost weight? Which is true – I had a bad tooth abscess and lost about six kilograms. I always weighed the same about seventy kilos but if you are my family, co workers you can tell… as far as I know this is the first time He is looking at me and He says – how come you lost weight?

That threw me off the balance completely and then in the same tone He said – Don’t worry, the tooth will be okay.

And now was the disaster to come. I had no idea where I was. Then He, in His own Divine fashion, asked – What do you want? And that even people could wake me up in the middle of the night and I know what I want. So I said Swami… i want peace. That is all I said. He laughed and He said – Very easy. You take ‘i’ away, you take ‘want’ away so what is left with? I said Swami ‘Peace’. He said see… very simple.

For a cardiac surgeon, specially coming from California, I will tell you why that is important – big time cardiac surgeon from California – didn’t make any sense at all. I thought He is going to give me some mantra or give me a book to read - when He said take ‘i’ away and take ‘want’ away and you are left with ‘Peace’. No, no.

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So, I changed the topic asking Swami, Can I work in Your hospital? And I think He got the drift and He said, Bangaru this is your hospital – you can come anytime you want to come. You can work as long as you want.

So you better be careful what you ask God for! Sometimes it might come true! After retiring two times I am here.

People think that Trust has asked me to take this job (Directorship at SSSIHMS). No, no. I offered myself to take this job. Yes I am crazy – there is no question about it.

So, now, with this background what I want to tell you is, Yes this citadel of healthcare Swami has put on this planet is unique, so unique that there are two hospital architects – Paul Jones and Ken Nooks. They release every five years Architectural Digest of hospitals in the world. If you look at their 1994 edition our Puttaparthi hospital is in the top fifty in the whole world. And the first time they ever found a hospital worth from the developing countries. And the more important thing is – they said there are two reasons why they had put our hospital in their list.

The first reason is – the philosophy of a Holy Man that healthcare and education must be free for the entire mankind.

The second reason they said – There is always a form and there is always a function. This institution is a perfect marriage of a form and function that they have come across. So when God creates something – Yes it is Perfect…. it is Perfect.

The other day we looked at our schedule, our statistics for some other visiting people. We have done nine hundred open hearts with eleven deaths in it which puts us to mortality rate of 1.3 or 1.4 percent and I cannot reproduce it anywhere else. I have seen enough programmes – it is not reproducible because average mortality is between four and seven percent in the best institutions in the world.

We have done more than five thousand Urological procedures with one death. They are not minor procedures. We have done Laparoscopic Nefractomy – that is cutting edge surgery these days and it is free.  And then they do conservative surgery. You see you need half a kidney to survive.

The other day I was looking in the list – one procedure was, they are taking a part of the kidney out in the upper portion and then, removing a stone in the bottom portion of the kidney and still keeping the rest of the kidney intact. This cannot be done on a day-to-day basis. It needs extreme surgical dexterity. That is the kind of operations done.

We have done over six thousand Ophthalmology procedures in the last twelve months with no death. We don’t do regular cataracts here. Even the best institutions have trouble doing what we call Faco which is intraocular lens implantation. It is almost that you are recreating Swami’s work. It is a small incision – they take away the cataract and put a new lens inside. You don’t even know that the patient had surgery. And again it is totally free of course. See this is the kind of work that is being turned out day in and day out and it can only be done with Divine Grace. Nothing else.

I will tell you a little bit about this Divine Grace. I told you earlier – I will digress a little bit – this big time cardiac surgeon from California – you know California is only a state – one of the fifty states in the United States. It is just a state like Andhra Pradesh. But if you see the economy of California – it is eighth in the world. There are only seven countries that have bigger economy than the state of California. That is where I used to practice. So it gives you some idea. It is all Swami’s grace. And they calculate how many surgeries we do in the early eighties. I have done more heart surgeries than any surgeon in the state of California. So He is preparing me from day one. Every minute I have spent in my life so forth is just for this. Again the approach is what that I think is clear here. You don’t work for Swami. You look at it that it is the most privileged thing that Swami has given so you can offer yourself for Swami.

You see, one day we were in Kodaikanal – Prof. Sampath, Prof. Anil Kumar, Balram. Swami came down a little early. Just a little early. And we were hurdling around Him. When do you get a chance to hurdle around Divinity so often? So we were just hurdling literally like kids. And Prof. Sampath was one of the most evolved people that I could see. He suddenly looks at Swami and said, Swami… Swami, we must have done something in our last life that we are this close to You. And Swami said – No Sampath, last hundred lives.

So, now I know when the first thing He told me – how come you lost weight? So, this is how this big time cardiac surgeon with a head of a football slowly start what I call defragmentation. Only Divinity can do it to a cardiac surgeon. You know they always go around saying – What s the difference between God and a cardiac surgeon? God never thinks He is a cardiac surgeon. So to complete the sentence – Cardiac surgeons think they are Gods!

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So, this is the frame of mind with which I came here – believe it or not. I had a sports car and it said it could go upto 320 kms. I wasn’t sure; so I pushed it to about 280kms. There is a beautiful straight stretch of road and I said let me see what this can do. And there was no police around and so I kept going 240, 260, 280… I was going beautifully except I got a headache. So I said let me stop here and slowed down. But I didn’t realise that Swami could lift His little finger and He could get the best of cardiac surgeons ever to come for Him forever and ever.

So, this thousands and thousands instead of hundreds of lives are the background for this or what we call…Telugu is a beautiful language and you can express this beautifully in one word called – Poorva Janma Sukrutam. There is no other word for it.

One time I was leaving California to come here and work. A very big time Gastroenterologist calls me and says – Dr.Voleti you are going to Bangalore? I said, Yes… I have to fly there from Chennai. And he says – Could you operate on my mother, she is very sick. I said No, I am going to Swami and I won’t operate on your mother. He is very rich. He can bring anybody. He can bring the richest and the best to Bangalore. So I said, I will go to Puttaparthi. He said let me tell you one other thing – My mother is 72 and for the last 35 years she has been a widow and she is running a house for handicapped women, when she gets better she wants to go back and do the same. And then I couldn’t say No. I said, Yes I would operate.

Those days you couldn’t fly into Bangalore. So we flew into Chennai. We used to come as a whole team. We were all known as the team from America…and I did this surgery on Sunday morning – by Swami’s grace the operation went very well. And they said: sir, stay overnight we will send you first in the morning. I said that looks good. So the patient did well. They arranged a car at 3.30 and I was here at 6.30. As usual I was sitting because by that time you know how Swami ‘spoils you’ in the beginning and you are in the honeymoon phase. So I always get this front seat. I was sitting there and was always used to be pampered by Swami. He always used to come and ask – How are you? When did you come? How long are you going to stay?

So this time He just comes and walks just past me. And I think, Oh what is going on here? That is Monday morning. He did the same thing on Tuesday morning – He just walked past by.. I said, no this is not right. I have to get hold of Swami. So Wednesday morning comes and I see Swami coming and I started getting up. Swami said, What, you want to leave; the gate is there. I said… No Swami I came three days…. I didn’t even finish the sentence and He said No… you only came two days ago. Your team came three days ago which is 100% true. Nothing but truth comes out of Divinity. Yes I only came on Monday morning. The team came on Sunday. I came only two days ago. Instead of saying anything He walked ten feet away, turned around so that everybody could hear in the vicinity – He said: Choudhary – come two weeks you are going to leave Me but, I will never leave you.

He could have just said it on my face. No, He did not. He went ten feet away and said, looking at the entire team. This is not meant for me. He is never going to leave any of us. No…no. We are His children – bad, good, indifferent – we are His children. That is one thing I want you to make sure.

Swami is as close to you as you think you are, As far away from you as you are afraid of. Believe me. That was His message that day.

So, when He gives you that kind of assurance, where is the question of He is here or not here. So when they ask me Oh! God! you are going to travel alone, I say no… Swami is with me. I never travel alone. No. He always travels with me. When I am sitting in the office He is always there. But the mistake we do is we don’t recognize that fact.

Now one other thing I just want to tell you I never left Puttaparthi – you know in medicine you never say never but I could say here never. I never left Puttaparthi without getting Swami’s Padnamaskaram – whether I was going to Bangalore, whether I was going to my village or I was going to the US.

But one time I was working here but they asked me to go for four weeks stay in Whitefield. So when Swami came I said, to go away for four weeks to Whitefield and I won’t be able to see You and immediately He rubbed me and He says  – Why are you worried…I Am here. But this, I think is happening in Puttaparthi, that is wonderful.

But listen to this. I was in Sao Paulo in Brazil and 99.99 % people speak only Portuguese. They have a school for Swami there, fully recognized by the Brazilian Government and there is a young teacher. She teaches in Swami’s school and they always give me a translator. So I asked the translator to find out when was she in Puttaparthi the last time? And she says that she has never been to India. I was surprised that she has never been to India and how come she knows about Swami and how come she is teaching about Swami. What is there, Swami is here. (pointing to the heart)

Swami is here. Go explain it! So don’t try to explain. Take Swami for granted. No questions asked. One of the things that always comes up at least from my perspective… I want to put some kind of an end to it.

This thing about Maya, Mahima – I want to say something about it because Maya is magic. That is what cheap magicians do.
Mahima is the miracle – that is Swami.

I will give you as best as personal example as anybody can give. It is about almost fifteen years ago. A bunch of us were in the Interview Room – as usual men are on one side and women are on the other side. And Swami is always talking and suddenly, unannounced to anybody, He goes like this (gesture) and out drops the most dazzling bracelets I have seen. It drops from His hand and men were sitting quiet and women started saying Ah… Oh…..  So Swami says what’s the matter? Now they should be truthful and they said Swami… Swami design? So Swami looked at them and said design or desire?

He was teasing and suddenly He asks me to come forward and puts that most beautiful dazzling bracelet around my wrist. That is what I carry and have it with me. Except when I am operating or playing tennis, I have it all the time.

Now turn the clock forward almost ten years – 2007. There is an island called Kawai which has one of the best – top ten trekking destinations in the world and I was trekking with my son and daughter-in-law. I am very careful as I trek a lot but it is very treacherous. While coming down, though I had trekking shoes and everything, it was so wet that I slipped and fell. And I hear this crackling noise. So when you fall, you have to break your fall either with the right hand or the left hand depending on how you fall. So I broke the whole fall with my right wrist and I hear this crackling noise and immediately, this brain thinks and says. Oh my goodness there goes my right wrist.

Now this is the one I operate by, this is the one I hit my tennis shots, this is the one I click the camera and there goes the right wrist. Suddenly my son says – Dad, dad look at the bracelet. I said, ….wwwwhat? When I looked at it – it is the bracelet that broke into two and my wrist was absolutely intact.

Go… figure this out yourselves. Then you may say, Yes there is no magic in it, it is Swami’s Mahima or miracle. And I always wear it. No, you cannot have it.

Coming back to the hospital… It is a citadel of healthcare. The only unfortunate thing is there are so many people with more means than even Swami that they could have reproduced it. But no – that is my only sadness. The humanity in total, in certain ways looks like that, we have failed Swami.  But that is a different story.

But the continuity is there. The hospital is going strong like I gave you the statistics for the departments and more things are to come. The departments are well established and what is the proof for it – the next 22 or 23 minutes please enjoy the audio visual presentation. Almost all the staff members in the hospital have helped me to do this. And it is our offering to Swami and I thank you all very much for the patience with which you have listened to me.

Jai Sai Ram!

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My Humble Pranams at The Lotus Feet of beloved Guru and Master – Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

Respected elders, dear brothers and sisters, my loving SaiRams to each and everyone of you.

It is a pleasure to be here on this holy and auspicious occasion of Guru Purnima. As I stand here before you, I am reminded of how I first came to Swami – a humorous incident, when I first came to Swami back in 2008 after having moved from the United States to India.

This was around Guru Purnima time, and I had just joined the SSSIHMS as a cardiologist, as Swami’s cardiologist. And so I had come here to Prasanthi Nilayam on my first visit to seek Bhagawan’s blessings as I began this new career, this new phase of my life.

Imagine my excitement, as I sat here on the verandah, not too far from where I am standing today, and Bhagawan approached me in His chair and motioned for me to come forward.
With my heart palpitating, every limb in my body trembling, I approached Bhagawan, kneeling before Him, engulfed by His smile, His radiance that beautiful Divine fragrance that emanates from Him. And with a heart full of enthusiasm, I burst it out with my hands thrown and I said SAIRAAAM SWAMI!  …And Swami just looked at me with a smile of amusement.

I was very naive perhaps at that time, and certainly very simple in my approach to how I understood Swami. Perhaps in the time that has intervened, I have matured a bit, but my  practice of Swami’s teachings is still very simple.

And what I would like to share with you this morning, is just one of these simple practices that I follow.

Swami has given us the four Fs -
Follow the Master; Face the devil; Fight to the end and Finish the Game.

These are the four Fs. In my simple minded practice, I actually only follow one of these – Follow the Master. I will tell you what happened to the other three at the end of this talk.

Follow the Master – this lesson I learnt actually by watching our students. As Bhagawan sat before us on the dias,  I would observe how Swami’s students would interact and relate with Swami – they were ever attentive, always alert to Swami’s slightest motion. Always focussed with one-pointed attention on everything that Swami did. Whenever Swami gave the slightest instruction, the slightest hint, that he wished something to be done, they would run of immediately performing the task and when the task was completed, they would come back again and watch Swami with one-pointed attention.

There are deep lessons in this simple practice for all of us.

Just as these students were always observant of Swami, ever ready, always alert and always obedient to the slightest hint of Swami’s wish, His will – we can also do the same.

So, on this holy occasion of Guru Purnima, I wish to talk to you about Following The Master. This is the only practice that I really know. FOLLOW THE MASTER.

How do we do it? It is not enough just to talk. We can be like Swami’s students but here we have to follow the inner MASTER, the inner SAI. We have to watch Him with that same one- pointed attention, that same extreme focus, looking inside of ourselves, watching always alert, always ready and ever obedient to His DIVINE WILL in our lives.

Now, when I share this with devotees from around the world, I find that devotees tend to fall in three different groups :-

Children, adults and our youth or young adults.

Interestingly, when I share this with children, they understand right away. It is simple for them. I just tell them and they say okay uncle and they practise right away. And so I am delighted to see that students from both of Swami’s Primary Schools are here. Children, you are the ones who have to take this forward. You have to set the example – Follow the inner Master. Follow the inner SAI. Be always alert, be always ready and be always obedient to Swami.

But you know Swami is very mischievous and He loves to play. And so make this practice fun. Play the game with Swami…play with Swami…have fun with Swami. Follow the Master.

When it comes to adults, I find something different. Adults are often led away, sometimes very far away by the monkey mind. The easiest way to tame this monkey mind, to vanquish this monkey mind is simply to love Swami, to adore Swami. Because when we love our Lord, we become immersed in our Lord; we become immersed in Him, we become absorbed by Him. And then the monkey mind vanishes.

The second thing I find in adults is that we have to develop purity. We have to vanquish the six enemies – Pride, lust, anger, greed and so on… Again the simplest way to do this is just through love, just contemplate and meditate on Swami’s pure, sweet, unconditional love. It is this love of Bhagawan that has drawn Him to us and it is the love of Swami that will purify us. Just contemplate on that love and all these six enemies will vanish forever.

And then the third thing I find with adults is that sometimes they carry excess baggage. You see when our students are sitting before Bhagawan, and Swami would ask them to do something – they would get up and run and then they would come back and again sit silently. They would never proclaim what Swami had told them. They would just carry the work out silently, without making any fuss.

But when we carry excess baggage, it is difficult for us to run. It is difficult for us to be agile, to follow Swami’s instructions. And this excess baggage is our emotional baggage. Our resentments, our regrets, our sense of rejection – these, we need to hand over to Swami, because we don’t need this heavy weight any more.

So when we purify ourselves, when we immerse ourselves in love, when we get rid of this excess weight, even we adults can follow the Master very easily.

Yet there is a third group. And this third group is the one that I find has the most difficulty in following the Master and this is our youth – our young adults.

Surprising! What they tell me is that, Sir it is fine for you to follow the Master sometimes, but what about us – we have to study…we have to work…we have to establish ourselves in our careers…we have to move forward… I just have a family…I just had a child…I need to earn to support myself.

Perhaps just as I was naive, when I first came to Bhagawan as His physician and I said SaiRam to everyone, even to Swami Himself, perhaps these young adults are also naive in thinking that somehow if we follow the Master, we will be relegated to a third class way of life.

Brothers and sisters, let me tell you that this is absolutely incorrect.

Let me give you some examples from my own life.

Twenty years ago, when I was a medical student in the United States, I was physically far away from Swami. I didn’t have access to Bhagawan’s physical form and so I had to learn to connect to the inner Master – I had to learn to follow the inner SAI. …And I find interestingly that twenty years later, we are all in the same position, a beautiful position today.

Now, I had, as a student, all medical students had to take the National Board exams in order to pass out of medical school. Some of you may know this as USMLE exam. I was so attuned to Swami in those days that Swami gave me the strength to study for 16, 17 or 18 hours a day for months on end to prepare for this exam. And when the time came to actually take the exam, I found that the answers flowed effortlessly, so easily that I was able to answer during the two day course of the exam without any difficulty at all.

A few weeks later, when the results were announced, I was surprised to find that not only had I received the highest score on these Board exams in the history of my medical school, I had also received a highest score ever in the history of the exam itself.

This is what happens when we follow the Master. But let us be clear – Swami made it very clear – a few days after all the congratulations from the family and friends, classmates and professors had died down – Bhagawan appeared to me in a dream and He said, with His finger raised He said – you see that was all My doing, Swami’s doing. He said to me that there is no way you could have achieved that kind of score on your own.

As you heard during the introduction, I went on to work at a hospital called as Cleveland Clinic which is regarded as number one hospital for cardiac care in the world. So, let me give you my example. When we follow the Master, Swami will make you not only Number 1 in the world, not Number 1 in the country rather, He will make you work in the Number 1 institution in the world. He will make you the best that you can possibly be.
But still, there will be some doubts. Still there will be those who think that if we follow the Master, we will somehow lack.

Again this is incorrect. Let me give you some examples from Swami’s own hospital – simple and short examples.

When we follow the Master, Bhagawan will bless us with all success. He will bless us with all fame and He will bless us with all wealth.

I will give you three such examples.

First, let us look at how Swami has blessed us with all success. We doctors in Swami’s hospitals are not only physicians who take care of patients, we are also preceptors, teachers to the next generation of physicians. They are called residents, they have completed their medical school and they are completing their speciality training to become full-fledged physicians. At the end of their residency training, they have to take national level exams and these exams are very very difficult. For every three residents who appear for the exam, only one will pass and the other two will fail. It is a very difficult exam.

At Swami’s Institutions, we take this as a holy duty, as a sacred responsibility to train and mentor this next generation of physicians. And so what do we do? We follow Swami’s examples, We follow Swami’s guidance, and we follow the Master – attuning ourselves to Him so that we are constantly refining and upgrading our teaching programme so that our residents get the best possible experience.

The result – is that whereas in the country, only 33 percent of residents are passing these exams, at the SSSIHMS, our success rate is not less than one hundred percent.

Let us look at the second gift from Swami.

Fame – Now we all know that Swami is the only hero and we are all just zeroes. I will give you some examples from my own department – the department of cardiology.

At best we see that fame is a distraction. We have no interest in this. But we know that Swami gives fame as part of the play. If you look at the senior faculties in our department, we find that they are so attuned to the Master, that to be with them is similar to being with a Master Himself.
Our junior faculty have risen so quickly by following the inner Swami, that they have won two national level awards at various meetings.

And as this fame, this word of our expertise and knowledge spreads, we find that we and staff are in such demand that when we look at medical conferences where physicians are educated, we find that we are booked for every single major national and international conference until the conference schedule ends in February of next year. Such is the demand on Swami’s doctors.

But not just His doctors, it’s His Institution – the sacred institution that He has formed.

You see, when we as doctors go to a medical conference, we not only expect to hear the most expert physicians speak to us on the latest manners, we also want to see complex operations, difficult procedures being performed, so we can learn and these are beamed into the conference venues from various hospitals around the world.

The organising societies, the senior physicians who lead the societies will choose hospitals which have expert physicians, which have access to a wide range of complex and difficult cases, which have the latest technology and which have excellent infrastructure to support this type of activity.

Swami’s hospital has all of these. And what we are finding is that when these conferences are organised, these senior doctors are saying – I don’t care what it takes – I want Sathya Sai Hospital at our conference.

Let us look at the last gift of Swami – when we follow His teachings, Swami will bless us with all wealth. We just have to follow the Master. Recently, I was part of the team which was entrusted with the responsibility of purchasing new high end CT scanners for both of the  Super Speciality Hospitals.

We had prepared a budget, which was in rupees naturally but the vendors which provide these CT scanners give their prices in dollars. Now, as many of you are aware, because of various external factors, the cost or the value of the rupee against the dollar has fallen by more than twenty percent in recent months. So, whereas we had budgeted for a certain level of CT scanner initially, we found that when we were actually ready to make the purchase, our budget was only able to allow us to purchase this much.

Now, here I should add that the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust has been very progressive, very forward thinking in making sure that all of Swami’s hospitals are enabled and equipped with the latest technology and the we are always functioning and exceeding the latest medical standards.

But we have a sacred responsibility. Swami had told us, that every paisa that we spend has to be spent in the most responsible and efficient manner and so we take this duty very seriously.

So we had this much to work with, but the difference for the very best of the best CT scanners was this much. It was actually more than 2.5 crore rupees for both scanners.

Now, for that much money, brothers and sisters we can perform 500 heart operations. That gives you the perspective of what we were thinking.

Here, I will recall what Swami had done – when the first Super Speciality Hospital was opened more than 20 years ago – when He was asked what type of CT scanner to purchase, Bhagawan simply answered purchase the best CT scanner on the face of the earth and that’s what was done. But now some time ago, we found ourselves in a different situation and so what to do?

What else should we do? Follow The Master – Go and get inside and follow the Master. All of us – whether it was from finance, bio-medical engineering, cardiology, radiology – that’s exactly what we did. And in the end do yuo know what happened?

The vendor which sells the leading CT scanners came to us and they said look, we know that you are budgeting for this level scanner, our mid-range scanner, but we very much want  our top end scanners at both of your hospitals.

Here is what we are going to do – We will give you both of our very best scanners at the same prize as the mid-range scanners which you are planning to buy.

And so Swami’s both of the Super Speciality Hospitals will once again have the best CT scanners on the face of the planet. This is the wealth that Swami gives us when we follow the Master.

Follow the Master – you will have all success, you will have all fame and you will have all wealth.

But I know that none of us are going to follow the master for these things. This is worldly success.

We follow the Master because we love the Master. We follow the Master because for us Swami’s love is our life-breath. We know nothing else but to serve Swami. We want nothing else but to serve Swami.

But when we follow the Master, Swami will give us all spiritual success as well. He will show you the truth. Bhagawan’s will is for you to know that you are SAI, that you are God and that everything is God. And when you follow the Master, this will become as plain as day.

When you follow the Master, there is no need to face the devil because the devil would disappear. When you follow the Master- there is no need to fight till the end because all fighting will cease. When you follow the master, there is no need to finish the game because the game of duality will be finished itself.

Brothers and sisters, on this holy and auspicious day of Guru Purnima, let us all dedicate ourselves to following our Divine Master, let us all remain ever alert, ever ready and always obedient to HIS WILL.

II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

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It is by Your Divine will that You have taken us under Your protective care. Swami, we pray to You that You never ever break this bond of loving relationship with us because we are You and You are us.

Most revered elders, dear brothers and sisters, SaiRam to all of you!

Let me take you briefly back to the surreal blue mountains of Kodaikanal. It was a wonderful cold afternoon, Swami was sitting with all His students and all of a sudden Swami popped out a question – What is the rarest phenomenon in this Universe?

A quite deep and profound question!

One of the students answered – Swami Self- realisation or ‘Mukti’ is the rarest phenomenon in this Universe. A pretty decent answer; but Swami’s reply to that was – Absolutely not! Self realisation is the ultimate destiny of every single life form and therefore it is the inevitable end of every single being. Therefore it cannot be the most rarest. ‘Mukti’ or Self-realisation is not the rarest.

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And then Swami answered. When all the other boys were looking at Bhagawan’s Face, Swami answered: the rarest phenomenon in this Universe is to be a contemporary of the Living Avatar… And Swami went on to say that even rarer than living with the Avatar is to know the Living Avatar… And even rarer than knowing the Avatar is to love the Lord in human form and even rarer and probably the rarest of everything in this Universe is to get a chance to serve The Lord.

It is our Divine fortune, it is the ultimate compassion of our Divine Lord that He has given all of us , the few of us who are over here, that Divine opportunity to serve Him, to know Him, to love Him.

So the question now is – how do we serve the Lord?

It was in the clarion call that the Avatar made on 20th October 1940, when He said just four words in the beginning of His bhajan -’ Manasa Bhajre Guru Charanam’.

Here was the Lord asking all of us to come together, He was not saying all of you chant the name of the Guru. He was saying Manasa Bhajare – O Mind, chant the name of the Guru’s Feet.

The second word is ‘Bhajare’ which is contemplation. He is asking every mind seated over here to contemplate on the Guru’s Feet.

And what is a Guru?
Couple of years back when we had been to Kedarnath, we had the privilege of meeting a Self-realised soul and when some of us asked him this question when we said, we are all very pained that our Guru is not anymore with us in the physical form. How are we supposed to overcome this? When we asked him, his answer was – think about what you are all asking. Ask yourself, Who is the Guru? And then he went on to say – Does not Baba Himself say that Guru is the One Who is Gu – Gunatita and Ru – Roopvarjita. And so, therefore, what is it that is actually the Guru? And he went on to say that Guru is not the physical form, Guru truly is the word which comes out of the physical form. And imagine the potency of this particular statement. He is saying that the word is the actual Guru….and he went on to say that if you look at the word, it does not have any form and it is truly beyond the three attributes. It is truly Gunatita and Roopvarjita and therefore the true Guru is the message of the Guru. The message of the Lord is the true Guru.

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And the fourth word – Charanam – what is this Feet of the Lord?
Let me again take you back to Paduka Poojas which often used to happen every year in Prasanthi Nilayam. Once, after the Paduka Pooja was over, Swami was sitting with some of His students in the interview room and all the boys had the great opportunity to press Swami’s Feet. And Swami asked this question, what is Paduka Pooja? And one of the boys seated next to Him said, Swami what we are doing is Paduka Pooja. Swami said, No, no… this is not Paduka Pooja. And then someone had a little higher understanding of telling Swami – in fact our tears of gratitude are like ‘Toyam’ and  ‘Patram’ and the Phalam are all our merits and demerits that we offer at Your Lotus Feet. You know He wanted to give a little better understanding of what is Paduka Pooja and Swami said no, no, no that is also not Paduka Pooja. And then Swami went on to say that true Paduka Pooja is when the Lord in human form leaves His Footprints – to walk in His Footprints is truly Paduka Pooja

To walk on the Footprints of the Lord, to make our lives His message is truly Paduka Pooja.

So now the next question is – How do we do it? Do we have the opportunity to serve the Lord? We have the rarest of the rare opportunities to serve the Lord. We also know what it is to serve the Lord? What is the true Paduka Pooja? What is the Guru Charanam that we are supposed to contemplate on?

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So now the next question is – Are we really qualified? What is our qualification? And here Swami so beautifully says – The only qualification that you need is to need Me. If you need Me, you deserve Me. And I think each and every one of us seated over here have that qualification because we need Bhagawan, we need Swami in our lives.

But there are two qualities that even this need is required for – intensity and consistency. Most of the time our need is intense but not consistent. Some other times it is consistent but not intense. What we need is an intense and consistent need for the love of the Lord.

A lot of people say that you are all so lucky that you are all Bhagawan’s students. We never got the opportunity to be Bhagawan’s students. And there is a beautiful thought that one of our brother’s said – Yes, probably all of you will never be, will never have the good fortune of being Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning students, but we definitely have the good fortune of becoming Sri Sathya Sai students. We may never be able to become the institute students, but we can definitely become Swami’s students. As Swami Himself once said in Trayee that not all the institute students are My students. And what is more important for us is to become Sathya Sai students and not merely the institute students.

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A lot of people have asked us, how have your last couple of years been? Swami was very much a part of our daily routine. How is it now? And my only answer to them is – Well everything has changed and nothing has changed. That is the magic of Prasanthi Nilayam. Everything has changed but at the same time nothing has changed.

I would just like to recollect one dream that I had – It happened couple of years ago on the occasion of Ashadi – it was immediately after Bhagawan’s ‘Mahasamadhi’ and this whole area was covered as it was not still open – the opening of the ‘Samadhi’ was scheduled on Guru Poornima and to me it was extremely important to know how the Samadhi is going to look? Is it going to pull me the same way that Bhagawan pulled me everyday to Mandir? And so every night I used to pray – Bhagawan, I wish to know – this is so important for me. Every night I used to pray and cry away to sleep.

On AshadiEkadashi in 2011, I had a dream – in the dream I am seated on the upper portico in Prasanthi Nilayam and the whole scene is as follows -

The entire Kulwant Hall is jam packed, is packed to capacity – you know why? Because all of us know that Bhagawan Has Returned. And every heart seated in Kulwant Hall is palpitating with that excitement. We are all waiting for Bhagawan to walk out of the interview room. Because we are all waiting for that moment when Swami is going to step out and so even my heart is equally palpitating with that excitement. I am seated in the upper portico and there and then the doors of the interview room open and Bhagawan walks out… and Swami is like a thousand watt bulb, His face is shining like a bright lily as He walks out with a beautiful smile adorning His face… and He walks up to me and He recognizes me – He says, Hey you are sitting over here. I said, Yes Swami, thank You so much Swami, thank you so much. And then Swami looks up at me and says – You knew… You knew isn’t it that I Am going to come back – for your sake I have come back.

And I simply took Swami’s Hand in my hand and I kissed it and I said – Thank You Swami, thank You so much for coming back. And He says – No… but I did not go anywhere, I Am here only, I am very much here only. Some of these people think that I have gone. I have not gone anywhere. And as I sat behind, behind in this upper portico, I watched – I actually saw the Samadhi from behind. And I was wondering Oh My God! What have we done? Bhagawan is back here and we have the Samadhi over here. Where is Bhagawan going to sit? And what will Bhagawan be thinking? That the Samadhi has been built? And so saying, my alarm clock rang, something fell in my room and I was woken up. And I came to Mandir and I had a beautiful Ashadi. And then on Guru Poornima, when I sat over here, I saw the exact, same Samadhi that we see over here that I had seen in my dream.

I knew that my Swami was there every second with me. In fact, He is very much over here.

I have been talking to lots of students asking them what is it that actually brings them back to the University? Now those were the days when we used to dream, run in the evening and come to occupy vantage positions in Prasanthi Nilayam for darshan. What is it that makes the boys run even today? I was asking them.

And the kind of experiences that I was hearing from each one of them were simply awe-inspiring.

Every student says – it is the legacy that Swami has left with that particular student. When I see that particular student, when I was outside, when I had not joined the institute and when I have come in contact with a particular Sai student, I know that it is Swami who is working through him. And I wanted to be like that student. I wanted to be like that boy. And that is what has pulled me over here.

Swami continues to live through each and everyone of our lives. And while that is a privilege, that is also a big responsibility.

On one of the occasions, one of the students asked Swami a very beautiful question – He said, Swami, what is the best relationship that we can have with You? It was one of the questions that even I had been wanting to ask for a very long time. But this student asked this question. Swami, what is the kind of relationship that we must have with You.

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And Swami’s answer to it was – The best relationship to have with Me is that of a Guru and ‘Sishya’. A Master and a disciple’s relationship is the best. And Swami went on to explain – He said, in every other relationship, whether it be between a mother and a child, father and a son, two brothers or even husband and a wife, there is some element of conditionality. Whereas in this one relationship, one between the Master and a disciple – there is absolutely no condition. It is purely unconditional. The student accepts the Guru, the Guru accepts the student for whatever they are. “And then Swami said once having had this kind of relationship, the one between a Master and a disciple, then the disciple can look at the Master as a mother, as a friend and in fact it is this friendship or this kind of closeness – that Sneham which actually ultimately leads to Atma Nivedanam – which (Sneham) is the last but one in the ‘Nava Vidha Bhakti’.”

And that is the power of this relationship between us and Swami – as a Master and a disciple.

In conclusion, I would just like to narrate a beautiful story from the Bhagavatam.

It seems when Lord Krishna as little Gopala used to break the pots of butter, He used to wait for the Gopikas to come and capture Him. And it so happened that He was such an agile boy, that He used to hide somewhere and Gopikas would keep trying to search Him out but they wouldn’t be able to. And Krishna also used to wonder that why is it that these Gopikas are not able to find Me? And so what He did was a very beautiful thing.

From next time onwards, whenever He used to break the pot, He used to use His Feet to crumple the curds, to crumple the butter and then walk away, and as He walked away, there were these little footprints of butter you know which were left behind. And the Gopikas would see those footprints of butter and would go and fetch out Krishna.

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Why I narrate this is because even today when our Bhagawan has gone to a place where we are not able to seek Him out, when we are not able to see Him, but He has still given us these footprints which we can seek and if we just follow these footprints, we will be able to seek out and we will be able to find our Bhagawan. And those footprints are all His discourses that He has given to us. All the messages that He has given to us are footprints that we need to walk upon. And needless to say, if we do walk upon those footprints, we will be able to seek, we will be able to find our living Divinity.

With that prayer in our hearts, that we may we be able to put our feet on to His footprints and ultimately seek Him, we pray and  make our obeisance at His Divine Lotus Feet!

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II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

Aum Sri Sai Ram!

I offer my most reverential and loving pranams at the Divine Lotus Feet of our beloved Bhagawan.

Dearest Lord, Respected elders, fellow alumni of the Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas, dear brothers and sisters. Loving Sai Rams to all of you.

As I stand here today, on this holy ground in the loving presence of my sweetest Lord amidst this assembly, a million of emotions flow my mind but the most overwhelming of them is gratitude. Gratitude to Bhagawan for having brought me to His Lotus Feet in this lifetime, gratitude to my Balvikas gurus for having sowed the seed of love for God in my young heart, gratitude to my parents for having nurtured that seed of love.

Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas has provided me and to all of us – the foundation for a lifelong journey to rise in love for God and for all things Godly. Bhagawan in His infinite grace and in His infinite compassion sparks the lamp of love in each of our hearts at the young age. And even if we want to go away from Him, Bhagawan never lets go of us. Bhagawan’s omnipresence, Bhagawan’s omnipotence, Bhagawan’s love carries us across oceans and across continents.

A few years ago, when I was in the US, part of the organisation there, we were organising a Sai Spiritual Retreat and as part of that Spiritual Retreat, we had invited the alumni of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning – the so called music boys to come and offer a garland of musical songs to Bhagawan as part of that Spiritual Retreat. And I always had this yearning in my heart that I wanted to be a student of the Sathya Sai Institute. That never came to be and so I took upon myself the task of taking care of all of Swami’s students – hosting them, providing hospitality as if Bhagawan Himself had come.

The spiritual retreat went extremely well. On the very last day, the very last programme was an offering of bhajans by Swami’s students and I sat right behind Swami’s students looking at Bhagawan’s picture. Immediately a dam broke inside me and emotions started pouring out – and in my mind as tears profusely steamed down my cheeks – I prayed to Bhagawan that why did I not become Your student? Why did You not accept me as Your student? What wrong have I done either in this lifetime or past lifetimes so that I did not get that opportunity? And the more I dwelt on this, the more tears came. It was almost as if the heart was being wrung like a wet towel. And as these thoughts kept coming, I asked Bhagawan – Is it because I am a step child of yours? All of these students are Your real sons. I am Your step son which is why You have kept me away from You for so long. And at the very end I gave Bhagawan a little bit of an opportunity to make up for His lapse. So in my mind I told Bhagawan – alright probably some great sin of mine has caused me from not being Your student, can You at least not give me a hug? Is that too much to ask for?

I went home that day continuing to cry. All of the Sai elders, all of my Sai brothers were very worried and concerned. But how could I share with them the shameful secret that I was accusing the Lord of being a step-father. I went to bed crying that night, never imagined that so many tears could actually flow from human being. The next morning at about 4.00 am, I get awakened by a phone call. It was a Sai brother of mine who had called and said – Ramesh I want to tell you something. Swami came in my dream – you were also in that dream – you and I were sitting with Swami at the dinner table and Swami kept ignoring you and kept talking to me and you kept crying in the entire dream. But you know what happened then? Suddenly, Swami got up and he ran towards you and gave you a big hug. Hearing this, I broke down again – overwhelmed by the love of the Lord. Sitting in America – in my own mind praying to Bhagawan for a hug and here He is giving me a hug. It is said that Swami can listen to a foot fall of an ant, the sneeze of a butterfly, the yearning of every sincere heart. As my brothers pointed out earlier, Bhagawan’s heart melts in no time.

Balvikas not only teaches us to rise in love for God, it also teaches us to love all things Godly and that means the responsibility to practise the teachings of Bhagawan.

I recall my final year engineering programme in Mumbai and as was the fashion in those days, there was mad rush among all of the students to actually get admission into a foreign university. And so in the final examinations it turned out that many of my fellow students were not shy of borrowing from each other during examinations and so they would encourage me to participate in this activity with them. But Bhagawan has taught us through Balvikas that excellence while the goal of human life has to be balanced with values and character, and so, the scene I would describe to you – we had in the final examination three rows of benches. 59 students in the class were seated in two rows and there was one student seated on the third row all by himself. It turned out that I actually did not come first in class and so it was a great disappointment for me and I kept asking Bhagawan – you said that if you follow Truth – Truth wins. Why is this Bhagawan? Time came for admissions to the universities abroad and with Bhagawan’s grace – I was awarded admission into one of the leading universities in America. But even more importantly than that – Bhagawan gave me the opportunity to work in a laboratory that was awarded the nobel prize in Chemistry while I was a student in that laboratory.

So, indeed yes – Truth triumphs. What Bhagawan wants is certitude – certitude in character and certitude in following His teachings. But the urge and the yearning to follow God and follow all things Godly comes through us, through Bhagawan’s very special instruments and they are our Balvikas gurus.

The Sri Lalitha Sahastranama praises the Divine Mother as She Who showers causeless unconditional compassion and to me our Balvikas gurus are conduits of that ceaseless compassion for our beloved Bhagawan. In my own case, I was alone group III Balvikas student in the Samiti that I was in Mumbai and my Balvikas teacher used to live a few kilometers away – and for 3 years, brothers and sisters, my Balvikas teacher would change two buses to come and teach me – one student for 3 years.

All of us may be familiar with that story of the starfish. A beach littered with starfish, and there was a young boy who kept picking up a starfish and kept throwing it back into the ocean. Another person approached him and said – what is the use – there are thousands of starfish lying on the beach. The little boy picked up a starfish, threw it back into the ocean and said that it made a difference to that one. And yes, my Balvikas guru’s love and dedication for Bhagawan made a difference to this starfish.

The last day, for us alumni, has been a time of re-connection, re-collection, rejuvenation, but now it is time for re-dedication. The holy Bible says – To whom much is given much shall be asked of. We, as the alumni of Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas have received unceasingly from our beloved Bhagawan, unceasingly from our gurus. How do we repay a debt so great? The honest answer is that we cannot. We cannot repay this debt. But what we can do is to live up and practise the teachings that Bhagawan and His Balvikas gurus had instilled in us.

My mind goes back to 1990 April 28th, the scene is in Mumbai – Dharmakshetra. Bhagawan had visited Mumbai that year for 3 days. And it was the year when I was graduating from Balvikas – in the evening we had a programme by Sri Sathya Sai students of Mumbai and I was seated right by the stage pit. My role that evening – the opportunity was to lead all the graduating students of Balvikas in Jyoti Meditation in front of Bhagawan and then recite a prayer. So as we were seated in the pit, bhajans were going on, suddenly Bhagawan rose from His chair, walked in my direction, pointed to me and asked me to come up on stage to receive the certificates, the diplomas on behalf of all of the students of Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas Mumbai. But there is a twist to the story – because another student, another Balvikas brother was actually given that role that day to go up and receive certificates from Bhagawan. And so, me in my desire to follow my Balvikas guru’s instructions, stayed put. I did not go up to the stage. Bhagawan beckoned the second time and that point Nimish uncle sitting here, in his not so gentle manner, gave me a big elbow to my rib saying, “Go, Bhagawan is calling.” And then I ran up and received the diploma from the Divine Hands of Bhagawan and that day I became an alumnus of Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas.

A few moments later, I led all of the graduating children in Jyoti meditation and after that I recited a prayer which all the children recited after me – O’ Lord, take my love and let it flow in fullness of devotion to Thee. Oh Lord, take my hands and let them work incessantly for Thee. Oh Lord, take my soul and let it be merged in one with thee. Oh Lord, take my mind and thoughts and let them be in tune with Thee. Oh Lord, take my everything and let me be an instrument to work for Thee.

As soon as I finished this prayer, Bhagawan motioned for Aarti to start, Bhagawan rose, Aarti started and I just simply sat down where was reciting the prayer. Aarti was over, Bhagawan retired to His quarters, and as the crowd began to disperse, suddenly there was a rustle of the curtain behind the stage and lo and behold – Bhagawan re-emerges back on the stage and this time His gaze is fixed straight on me. His face is looking very stern and He walks in my direction like a laser and right from the distance He beckons to me to come up on stage and at this point fear ceases my heart because I knew that something was not right.

At that moment, I realised that in my rush to sit down as Aarti had started, I had sat down on the ladies side and so in my mind working overtime I thought – O’ my God, forgive me. I run up to the stage and knelt down at the steps of the stage and Bhagawan looks at me and says – the prayer you just said is wrong. I was stunned. I was stunned because I had learnt that prayer from a letter that Bhagawan had written to His students in Swami’s own handwriting. And Swami said, the prayer you just said is wrong. I was stunned for words.

Bhagawan then asked, do you know why the prayer is wrong? I said, no Swami. Then came the Divine revelation. Bhagawan said, in the prayer you keep saying – take, take, take. I have come to take but you must learn to give. Give…give…give… And then in His Divine compassion He gave me Padnamaskar.

This incident, brothers and sisters, have left an indelible impression on my mind. It is not that the words of the prayer were wrong. It is that the intent behind the prayer has to be one, not of passive devotion but of active surrender.

Active surrender, to give to Bhagawan all that He desires of us – to give of our mind, to give of our talents, to give of our time, to give of our energy – not for Bhagawan, but for the good of the world that He had come to bless. Service to the world – this is the way in which we can redeem or attempt to redeem our debt to Bhagawan. Service is something that we have all learnt from Bhagawan.

I remember a story – a Sai brother of mine was very close to Mother Teresa and every time she would come to Coimbatore, he would be in charge of hosting her and receiving her. So, once, when Mother Teresa landed in Coimbatore airport, she walked out of the terminal and she was carrying a small bag. Sai brother asked – Mother is there more luggage coming behind you? …and Mother said – No, this is all that I have. He asked, Mother but you are going to be here for 2 weeks, you surely have more luggage and Mother said no, I only have two saris – one that I wear and one in my bag. Sai brother asked, why Mother? She said, you know in the morning when I wake up, I do not want to be thinking about what colour of sari I would be wearing that day because those few moments are given to Jesus – and therefore, for me, every minute and every moment of my life is in service for Jesus and even that fraction of a second I do not want to loose in the service of Jesus.

Yesterday was the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda and we, in our group III Balvikas, were taught of the ideals that Swami Vivekananda set for the youth of this country. And so, may I pray to Bhagawan to give us the strength to love Him with all our mind, our heart, our soul and re-dedicate ourselves to His mission. The organisation that He founded completes 50 years in 2015. It is upto us – the Sri Sathya Sai youth, Sri Sathya Sai alumni of Balvikas to carry forward Bhagawan’s mission with self-confidence, with self-sacrifice, with self-satisfaction.

May I conclude with Swami Vivekananda’s clarion call – ‘Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.’

II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

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Om Sri Sai Ram!

My humble pranams at the lotus feet of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

Respected elders, dear brothers and sisters,

I feel privileged to share my experiences and views regarding Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas classes. I have been associated with Balvikas right from the childhood and it did start from the divine classes of Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas. Truly speaking, I did personally enjoyed a lot going to Balvikas classes. I remember, in fact I cherish those good old childhood days when my mother used to take me to Balvikas classes on a weekend accompanied with a group of friends. We used to do a lot of fun loving activities. Just to put few activities into perspective – games, chanting slokas, enacting plays, listening to great epic stories which were simply amazing and trust me it did not have space for boredom at all. But there were few questions which always used to strike my mind. I remember these questions asking to lot of my gurus during my Balvikas classes.

What is Balvikas all about? What is the aim of Balvikas? What are we expecting out of Balvikas? I am reminded of the answers stated by my gurus. Balvikas in fact is a Sanskrit phrase which means – blossoming of child and its aim is to foster character development and inculcate spiritual transformation and at the same time, it also inculcates self respect in the students like me and the students who are all sitting here – a matter of self-respect so that students like us to become the masters of mind and not the slaves of senses and moreover, we have absolute control over sense organs.

‘Love All Serve All’ was Swami’s one of the prominent teachings throughout His existence in physical form. Let me tell you one of the perpetual memories which I gathered here at Prasanti Nilayam. I was a Balvikas student and belonged to Bihar and Jharkhand Seva Samiti. Every year we used to come during Holi to celebrate the festival with Swami and it was then I was blessed with a chance to portray spiritual drama way back in 2006. The drama went on really well. Swami liked it. As soon as the drama got over, we all assembled near Swami to just take a photograph which we could carry back to our home and keep it as memory for the rest of our lives.

Swami came close to us and suddenly all the characters started interacting with Him. There were lot of interactions going on between Swami and the characters. Swami suddenly looked at me and smiled and asked me a very simple question – What is your name? to which I humbly replied – Gopi. Swami smiled again and nodded His head and says in telugu – Chala Baagundi. I was extremely delighted to listen to such wonderful words from Swami. Swami’s graceful love and shower of love made me feel so special. This signifies that individual like me, individuals like you all sitting here look out for love. We expect people to shower love. We expect people to be graceful. We expect people to be polite. Because Swami also says – Love can create miracles.

All the learnings that I have gathered in Balvikas classes is in fact became fruitful when I grew old and I had lot of challenges to face – may it be my education career, choosing the right college for my institution, commencement of professional career – I think Swami played a very vital role and helped me take very crucial decisions throughout my lifetime. I passed out my Year 12 in 2006 and let me tell you something more on this…

I had two desires in life – I wanted to pursue engineering degree and secondly I also wanted to study in Swami’s institute which was completely impossible because Swami’s Institute does not have engineering courses. But still I made my mind that I would do B.Sc because Swami’s institute had B.Sc courses and only if I get admitted in Swami’s Institute or else I will go for engineering. I came to Puttaparthi and gave my entrance exams but unfortunately I was not selected. I was dejected and was literally crying sitting inside the Mandir that particular evening. That is why I carried a lot of worries when I entered into my engineering course. Worry as to how will I proceed? How will I do? Will I be placed as soon as I pass out of my engineering courses? But I did not lose trust and faith in Swami. That trust and faith did pay me back – I was awarded the gold medal for securing first class honours degree in my engineering. That is what Balvikas can do. As I said – it can create miracles. What better could I have asked from Swami?

Talking something about modern education, modern world which is progressing at a very rapid pace. Every individual is aiming high to have a great and a very lucrative career and I would say that is completely ok. We should aim really high in life. But dear brothers and sisters, I would also say that why not have intelligence in combination with spiritual knowledge. Intelligence and spiritual knowledge – the amalgamation – not only helps you to progress at a very faster pace but also helps you to take very crucial decisions in life and become an excellent team member which I am sure everyone sitting here would desire to.

To all the youngsters, brothers and sisters,  what do we aspire in life? What do we want to become? What expectations do we have from life? A good career, decent job, stability in life? I think Yes. Everyone would at least aspire for these three things and trust me all these things can be received through Balvikas. Having said that, let us not become hypothetical. Merely attending Balvikas classes will not fetch you so many things. You should in fact ask a question to yourself. What is it that Balvikas is going to offer me? What does Balvikas have in store for us? Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas classes would enable you to stay focused till you reach your goals and that is the most important thing when you actually want to reach your goals. All of us sitting here know what we want in life. We know our goals but we never stay focused or determined. Balvikas enables you to do it.

Balvikas overall has got a tremendous impact on my life. Let’s inculcate the virtue of setting examples rather than impressing the younger generation by mere preachings. Balvikas – let us be a part of such a wonderful education movement laid down by Swami which has got so many things to offer at no cost.

Before I end, I thank Swami for making me a part of His wonderful education system and I dedicate all my achievements at the Lotus Feet of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. I urge all the parents across the globe that every child born must be blessed with Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas classes.

II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

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Humble Pranams at the lotus feet of beloved Sai!

We all are blessed that we are here. Today I am really thankful to my Balvikas gurus who made me capable to be here. and I am really thankful to my parents who took this right decision to send me to the Balvikas classes at the right time and at this stage of my life, I can feel that yes, transformation was going on at the time when I was in Balvikas group I, group II and group III. We all are familiar with Balvikas training programme which includes group I, II and III. Nine years, Oh My God! But don’t worry. Let me give you quick calculation about the time what we had spent in Balvikas group I, II and III to learn all teachings of Sai Educare. In a month, it is 4-5 times, 50-52 hours in a year, equal to three days, so it becomes 9 days to clear one group i.e., group I and total of 27 days to clear group I, II and III. What an amazing figure, just 27 days out of 9 years, 27 days out of 3285 days and we are transformed!

Hence, we can say that our smart parents are really smart who have taken this decision to send their children to the Balvikas. Why I am calling this Balvikas training programme as a process because it is the only process who has the power in it to transform the child. And if you think in a broader way, you will find that we were getting something extra, yes something extra at that time and that was the thing about human values.

Earlier there were dadis and nanis in the house, who were doing this divine job of educating their children. Now-a-days we are finding nuclear families all around. Hence our Balvikas gurus are doing this divine task to educate children in human values. Therefore on behalf of Mother Sai – I call upon all parents to  spare these 27 days out of 3285 days to get them transformed.

Moreover, the education what I got in my school and college has taught me how to earn money? How to get status in the society? But the Sai Educare has taught me how to live in this world, how to educate your heart, how to discriminate between good and bad? And I am really thankful to my Balvikas gurus for imbibing these good qualities, to inculcate these good qualities in the children through the process of Balvikas.

At last I would like to share some of my experiences with Sai . In my 10th standard, I got less marks in my Board Examination. Then I decided that I will work hard for 11th Board examination and I will top in my school as well as the district. Hence I started doing hard work and was very happy to see that I am done with revision of all subjects which was done seven days prior to the XII Board Examination. But I don’t know what happened to me that day. I got infected with some kind of viral and got hospitalised. I became so weak that i was unable to even move my hand. My parents were also worried that how would I be able to give the XII Board Examination. They even asked me if I was ready to drop that year. Doctors also suggested the same as I was not in a position to exert. But anyhow, I decided that I will attempt my exams and this is what, which only I know that how I had attempted those exams. Being a non-medical student – Physics, Chemistry and Maths were my core subjects and out of 36 sheets what I got, I wrote 2 sheets for Physics, 1 sheet for Chemistry and 1 sheet for Maths again. For Physical education and English – it was the same case. When exams got over I was very well aware that I would fail in all these exams and I will have to clear these exams next year – that I have give my XII Board Examination next year once again. But I really got surprised when National Informatics Centre declared the results and I got first division in XII Board Examination.

But at that time who was aware that one day I will work with NIC – National Informatics Centre as the Network Administrator. Yes, Swami blessed me once again at the time of my interview with NIC. Interview was for the position of Network Administrator and the eligibility criteria was 3 plus years and expertise in networking. But I had 1.3 years of experience and little knowledge of networking. Anyway, the panel interviewed all the candidates and gave me feedback as – your technical networking skills are not very good, but your human networking skills are superb. I was confused at that time that what they are saying. And as they were searching a techie, hence I was aware that I will not get selected. But when they announced the result – I again really got surprised that out of many expert candidates, I was selected as a Network Administrator for Karnataka region. That time I was thinking that why have they not selected those other expert candidates who had 4-5 years of experience and expertise in networking.  And what I feel that why I got selected is because of the confidence and because of the positive thinking which I got from Sai Educare.

I am really thankful to Swami for giving me this confidence , the stability in the form of truth, righteousness, peace, love and non-violence, and as Swami says – My Life is My Message. So now it is our duty, our responsibility is to carry His message forward.

II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

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My humble Pranams at the Lotus Feet of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Pranams to all my elders present here, Sai Ram to everyone, to all my brothers and sisters also present here.

As Balvikas alumni, I am sure we are all aware of Chinna Kathas, so a Chinna Katha I start with. Just that this Chinna Katha happened to be, which showed me Swami’s omnipresence. It was during one Shivaratri – 2008 if I am not wrong – that Swami during His discourse mentioned something very strange. I remember Prof Anil Kumar’s voice translating it thus – ‘Among the birds, the bat is a very different kind of bird.’ … And he repeated that twice. The discourse went on, but the bat was not mentioned again. I was a little surprised because the bat reference here seemed a little out of context and so I wondered – why bat? But about one thing I was absolutely sure – Swami would never say anything that is meaningless or purposeless. I did not get any explanation however until the next day.

The next day in the morning at around 4.00am,  I went to the Gayatri temple for pradakshina. It was dark still, I started the pradakshina when I suddenly heard a screeching noise. Distracted, I looked towards the wired fence, and I saw something very small hanging over there. the screeching noise was coming from that small thing hanging on the wired fence. I also saw a huge bird hovering around the small thing hanging on the fence. It wanted to swoop down at that small thing but then there were people around, so the huge bird was scared. With a sudden shock I realised that the small thing hanging on the fence was a baby bat and the bigger bird, hovering around it, was the mother bat. The baby bat had obviously fallen down from its mother’s side. So I looked around for some help and a Seva Dal member nearby helped me in lifting up this baby bat to one of the branches of big banyan tree next to the Gayatri Temple. The baby clutched to one of the branches and I was standing there waiting and watching and wondering if the baby bat could climb up the branches of the tree on its own. Suddenly I saw the branches above the baby bat shake a little and  saw something coming down – almost sliding down towards the baby bat. It was the mother bat. The next scene that I saw was perhaps one of the most beautiful scenes that I have ever seen in my life. Upon reaching the baby bat, the mother bat opened her wings, the baby bat clutched on to the mother bat’s chest. The mother bat closed her wings around the little baby bat and started climbing up the tree. It was the baby bat which was enclosed but with love by the mother bat’s wings, but somewhere I felt I was the one who was enclosed with Mother Sai’s Love. I realised that this is the reason why Sai Maa had mentioned the bat in the discourse the previous day so that I become mentally ready for this amazing rescue drama the next day.

Nothing that Swami ever says is meaningless or purposeless – nothing ever happens without His Will. This incident most importantly taught me that all of us are always at all times under His surveillance and protection. Another fact which this entire episode taught me is that the entire universe is nothing but a drama. Everything is pre-planned like the way He planned the rescue for the little baby bat. He is the Director and He is the Enactor too. Yes, He is the Enactor present in each and everyone of us. In fact, He is our true identity – the identity that we are constantly searching for in this external world. If you notice, every moment we try to be somebody or somebody’s. I am somebody’s mother, I am somebody’s daughter, I am somebody’s son, I am somebody’s sister, somebody’s father, somebody’s brother or I am trying to be somebody – I am a Vice President of a company or I am an engineer or I am a doctor. We identify ourselves with these roles so much that we think that they are our real identities. What are they? We get lost in all these role playing – we forget that this is all role playing in a huge drama. And in all these roles, who is the real me? That is where Swami came in and that is exactly where Balvikas comes in for me.

Balvikas – for me – is an answer to an identity crisis. In fact, the whole goal of Balvikas is to put us on the path of the answer to the question – Who am I? and I feel so lucky that even before I could actually speak properly or even walk properly for that matter, I was attending Balvikas classes – thanks to my mother who herself was a Balvikas guru. In fact, I am so grateful to my mother – it is she who put me on this spiritual path, it is from her that I learnt about Swami even before I knew my own name – rather the label that is my name. While the children all around us were learning to take up identities from the external world – we the Balvikas students were learning to shed identities.  We were being told that Swami’s form mirrored all that we truly are. Sat-Chit-Ananda – Being, Awareness, Bliss. Swami’s physical form might not be here today, but let us – his Balvikas alumni never forget the real reason why He came. Let us not make Him another picture hanging on the wall.

Again another Chinna Katha, like Swami used to say – A guru once while travelling far and wide, came upon a jungle in which two tribes were living. Both the tribes were living in very primitive conditions – they did not even know how to light a fire. The guru taught them how to light a fire, taught them how to cook and many more other things. After he went away from that place, after teaching them everything he knew – one of the tribes continued practising what he taught them. Generations passed. They forgot the guru, but they did not forget what he taught them. They practised what he taught them so much so that they became themselves like the guru. The other tribe however did not do so. They did not practise what he taught. They made idols of him and worshipped him. he became just another deity in the jungle for them. Now, which tribe do you think gained more out of coming in contact with this guru? Obviously, the tribe who practised his teachings. This is exactly where we – the Balvikas alumni need to do a self check. Are we, the Balvikas alumni walking Swami’s talk? Or are we making Him yet another deity in the jungle.

Time and again Swami repeated – Your life is My message. There is a deeper meaning to that. We would love listening to Swami’s Chinna Kathas, but I think right now it is high time we realise that we are His Chinna Kathas – each and everyone of us here are His Chinna Kathas. His little stories, His little fairy tales that He Himself has penned down.

While saying the phrase fairy tale – another incident comes to my mind. As a child, I believed in fairy tales a lot and I loved them. I am sure everyone of us here had loved fairy tales at one point of time or the other. Quite a few years back, I was here in Kulwant Hall, taking darshan of Swami and I remember I was very upset that day – I do not remember why I was upset but I was very upset that day and I do remember what I told Swami because I was so upset. I told Him, mentally of course, Swami why is life so difficult? Why cannot life be like a fairy tale? And I also added for no reason at all, which till date I cannot understand – Swami I think the grownups are right when they say fairy tales are just tales and they are good for reading. They are lies and they do not exist. Life is not a fairy tale. With such a depressive mind, I went out of the darshan hall and I got this sudden tremendous urge to go into the book store which is right across the entrance gate of the ashram. I listened to this urge and I walked into the book store and a small book in the corner of the book store caught my eye. That book’s name is – ‘Sai Darshan’. I picked up that book and I randomly flipped it open and the page which stared back at me in the face said and I quote - ‘When your love for Me is true, I respond at all times. My words echo – I am known,  I am present, do not worry when you hear these words – know for sure that the fairy tale will end happily everafter.’

Words cannot describe what I felt at that moment – my mind blanked out. Mother Sai had responded once again to Her child’s cry. Every moment with Swami is a fairy tale, every moment with Him is a miracle, every breath with Him is a miracle. His love for us is much more than the love of a thousand mothers put together. And we are His messengers, His army, His sparks, He would call us – Premswarooplaras’ – that is our true identity and it is up to us to spread this message of His. He is Love in action I did say is because He is Love in action through us right now and right here.

Our motto at the moment needs to be – ‘Haath mein kaam, mann mein Ram’ . He would constantly say – ‘Hands that serve are holier than lips that pray.’ That should be the motto of our Balvikas alumni present here.

Every time we say that we follow Sathya Sai -  our actions become a statement defining Him – at least to the rest of the world. So what kind of statements are we putting out today?

Balvikas exams are not just Group I exams, Group II exams or the Group III exams. Balvikas exams start as soon as the nine years of Balvikas training is over and we come out to face the world. Are we ready for it? I think we are after all these years of training that Swami has given. Most importantly, however, it is not just being ready, it is being eager to serve the Master and we can be of service to the Master when we whole heartedly realise and feel the main reason behind Swami’s advent into this world. The lesson being which we need to pass on to our children in turn is that Swami is just the wake up call to the Gods that we all actually are.

II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

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Om Sri Sai Ram!

My most humble Pranams at the Divine Lotus Feet of our most beloved Bhagawan and my loving SaiRam to one and all.

Maa or mother is the first word that every child utters transcending the barrier of language, race and country. When in pain, the first person we think of and call spontaneously is ‘Maa’. Listening to this call of a child – no mother can wait – her heart melts. Setting aside everything else, she rushes to help and shower love.

More than 40 years ago, the Divine Mother’s heart melted to the cries of her many children. Yes, Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Whose love is more than that of a million mothers responded to the prayers of Her children. In 1969, Swami launched the Balvikas movement to blossom His children into citizens and leaders of tomorrow. Swami invested something more powerful than money – it was SELFLESS LOVE. It is His love that has blossomed millions of children into youth of character. There are hundreds of teachers known as Balvikas gurus guiding these young aspiring minds to follow the Divine  Teachings and guidance of Bhagawan. I am fortunate to have my mother as my Balvikas guru.  She made sure that each and every moment of my life – I surrender all my thoughts, words and deeds to Him. I always felt the unseen hand of our loving Lord – guiding and guarding me in every step of my life. I am grateful to Swami for blessing me with my physical mother who persistently taught me to do my best and surrender to Him.

I was in year 8 when Swami started the Super Speciality hospital in Puttaparthi. One day while returning from Bhajan with my mother – she said – I pray to Bhagawan to bless someone from our family to become a doctor and serve Him in His hospital. At that very moment, I promised myself that I would make every effort to fulfil this wish of hers. As the years rolled by and time finally came, I was unable to qualify the medical entrance examination. I felt lonely and lost. I did not know what to do. To be on the safer side, my father asked me to start preparing for engineering entrance examination as well. I was totally confused and was not able to decide on what to do. My mother understood my plight and she told me to pray sincerely for Divine guidance.

Dear brothers and sisters, ice also take sometime to melt, but my Divine Mother’s heart melted in no time to my sincere prayers. In a dream one night, I was crying and poring out my woes to Bhagawan. He hugged and assured me that He would take care of everything. He directed me to start preparing for medical entrance and not for engineering. At the same time He instructed me to keep maths book on my study table just to satisfy my father.

On the night of my medical entrance – to silence my sceptical mind – Swami re-assured me in a dream that I would definitely pass this time. With Swami’s blessings, I got sixth rank in the state medical entrance examination. When I joined the medical school in Shimla, I was going to be away from my physical mother for the first time. She was wondering who would help me at the time of despair, who would guide me – what is the correct path? What if I fall into bad company. She prayed to Swami to be with me. Fortunately, the Divine Mother has been my constant guide and companion, nurturing me into a beautiful flower in his Divine garden.

While in medical school, Swami gave me some clear cut instructions through His dreams – some of which I would like to share with all the students present here. I quote – ‘Do not engage yourself in unnecessary conversations with your colleagues; Avoid bad company; Don’t go from room to room in the hostel; Constantly chant the Gayatri Mantra;  Watch your Thoughts, Words and Deeds; Do not hurt anyone.’

Swami is a hard task master and whenever I faltered, He would remind me and helped me to implement these instructions in my day to day activities.

My sister’s wedding ceremony was fixed when I was in 2nd year MBBS. I was overjoyed but was worried at the same time as my final exams were scheduled immediately after the wedding. With a wedding excitement all over the house, it was impossible for me to prepare for the medical exams. After the wedding with just few days left for the exam, I started revising the text – Knowing very well that I would never be able to complete the syllabus. On a Thursday evening, with just three days for the exams, something prompted me from within, to go for bhajan that evening. My friends who were drenched in books, discouraged me but I knew that only bhajans would help my disturbed mind. I went for bhajan and prayed with all my mind – Dear Lord! I have wasted three precious hours, attending your bhajan – I am neither asking you to write my exam nor dictate the questions and answers to me. Oh dear Creator of this universe, please create a little time so that I may revise my syllabus. When I got back to the hostel, I was amazed to find all my friends playing cricket. they welcomed me with exciting words – Rajan, your Swami has postponed the exams by a month. I then realised that three hours had not been wasted, but invested with an interest rate of 10 days per hour. Needless to say, I passed with flying colours.

Years in medical college flew by and then came the struggle for the post-graduate degree seat. I prayed to Swami to bless me with any PG seat in His Super Speciality Hospital. My beloved Lord again came to my rescue in a dream. He said – and I quote – ‘Your stars are very bad. You are not going to be selected anywhere this year. But Swami can do anything. You are 100% selected for My hospital. ‘ The Almighty Will prevailed. I got selected in the Shri Sathya Sai Super Speciality Hospital and went on to  become an anaesthesiologist.

Swami has helped me to realise my dream and now it is my duty to realise His dream and serve Him forever and ever.

On behalf of all the Balvikas students here and across the globe, I pray to you Sai Maa – Please bless us with your infinite grace, so that all of us become the ideal instrument in your Divine mission. Holding hands, we move in a determined stride, nothing can stop us with Mother Sai on our side. Deeply touching the lives of many, without asking for a single penny, by the spell binding radiance of love in our hearts and the essence of wisdom that pure knowledge imparts, uplifting the consciousness of the nations to the beauty and awe of the entire creation… Nothing can stop us.

Whole world, watch out – we will shine Swami’s light on every doubt. Through these bodies, Sai current will flow and fear…hatred and ignorance will gradually go. World peace and harmony will grow and love on the faces of all will glow. The golden age will gleam and beam in all its story and another chapter will be started in universal story. We will continue, we will proceed and with Swami’s blessings, we  will succeed. No stone left unturned, no lesson left unlearnt, in performing our role and doing our share. Whole world – watch out – it is Swami’s love that we share. We are the pacemakers, the torch bearers of truth. Whole world – watch out – we are Swami’s Balvikas children, we are Swami’s youth.

II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

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Om Sri Sai Ram!

We have to begin with offerings of gratitude, given with humility to our beloved Divine Master Who has given us life, Who has given us a vision, Who has given us a mission, Who has taken us to Him and selected us from the millions and millions of people. I, on your behalf and on my behalf bow to our Lord, Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and express mine and your heartfelt gratitude for giving us this occasion to come together. Always this is our home and let me add my words of welcome to all of you – Welcome Home! Welcome to Sai!

On the 1st of January this year 2013,we had the alumni of the Institute of Higher Learning of Sai University, who gathered here and today we have the alumni and those who are shortly going to become alumni who have come here to this seat of Divinity, of learning and of excellence. The pathway to excellence -dear brothers and sisters – starts and ends at the Lotus Feet of our Beloved Bhagawan. So if you want to go and travel on this pathway-your journey begins at His Feet and your journey will end hopefully at His Feet. So, as I was saying that, we had the alumni of the University and today we have the alumni of our Balvikas. It is perhaps interesting to draw some comparisons.

As far as I know, there are about 10,000 alumni of the Institute of Higher Learning and again this is something I should know is that we have over 10 Lacs alumni of the Balvikas. The University students go through a period of 10 to 15 years of study, while you go through the nine years of Balvikas curriculum. The University students receive a Divine degree, you receive a Divine diploma – because both the University and the Balvikas, way back in 1968, both were started by Bhagawan Baba. The University course came a little later but Bhagawan started with the Balvihar and that evolved into the Balvikas. The University students receive Sai Integral Education, you receive Sai Education for life.

When we compare that we are 10 lacs, then today the first target we have to set dear brothers and sisters is that at the next alumni meeting there must be at least 10,000 of you to attend this and all 10 lacs of the alumni must attend at least one meeting a year held on a regional basis. While we will have a meeting at Prasanti Nilayam, I know that you are dispersed throughout the world, so you should now resolve that you should come together because Bhagawan always emphasized ‘Satsang’ i.e. collective action. He was not for individual action, he was for individual transformation.

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As you know the Sai organization today has set for itself a motto – ‘Transforming lives to transform the world’. We are first to transform ourselves before we can make the effort to transform the world. And Bhagawan always believes that transformation started at the individual level. Bhagawan always emphasized that action becomes worthy action if it is done collectively. He always said all the fingers of the hand have to work together to bring about meaningful action. Individual action, when we point with one finger, usually results in unworthy action. So it is important that the Sai alumni should meet regularly- at least once a year at your regional, zonal levels whatever we may wish to call it. Meetings to come together so that the lamp which Bhagawan has lit, as your song was sung, continues to burn with effulgence. That lamp should never be allowed to go off. It is important now, that the Balvikas have a proper database of all it’s membership. Database is so important. It is important that the Balvikas now has it’s own e-newsletter which will reach out to all the 10  lac members.

These are all small things, we should not look upon them as an end in themselves, they are ways and instruments to enable us to do a task which Bhagawan wishes us to do. Do you realize that you as Balvikas alumni have two Alma Maters – you have one as the Balvikas and if the Vice Chancellor would not mind – I would like to call this as Balvikas University, and the other is the school or the college where you studied.

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What have you done for your Alma Maters? How are you supporting the Balvikas movement. Have you ever reflected or is our commitment only oral. Bhagawan always said, ‘Do you do what you say?’ The wonderful words which were sung -’Duniya mein kitana Dukh hai, duniya mein kitana kashta hai, uske baare mein hum kuch kar Rahe hain ya nahin?’ about the difficulties and the problems and the griefs in this world – What are we doing collectively? Individually and collectively? In the other Alma Mater, what steps have you taken to introduce the Balvikas. Yours is to make the effort, the results are in His hands. We should never bother about results, results are in Bhagawan’s hands. But He wants you, He out of His love and His compassion for all of us, whether we are in the Balvikas, whether we are in the Seva Dal, whether we are in the University or whether we are in the hospital – He wants us to make the effort – problems will be there, but Bhagawan is the Master. He is The Lord Who ordains the results. So, as Balvikas alumni, have you taken any steps to introduce the Balvikas in your old school? Bhagawan always emphasized the importance of gratitude and He always stated that ingratitude is the worst sin that exists.

I do not know whether you realize that the Balvikas has two fountain heads- the source is here, but He created two fountain heads – the Iinstitute of Sathya Sai Education in Mumbai and the Balvikas Trust. Are you aware of these things? Have you ever visited the institute of Sathya Sai Education? Are you aware that there is a body called the Balvikas Trust of whom the chairman is our venerable Sri Indulal Shah. What action have you taken to support these institutions? I am being frank because we are talking among family members. This is not a public function, this is a time for recapitulation, re-dedication, review and resurgence.

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Brothers and sisters, we have to expand in all directions, we have to expand the Balvikas, we have to expand the university, we have to expand the hospitals because if we have stagnation, if we have contraction, it is the first sign of decay and how ungrateful we would be to our Lord and Master if we were to standby and do nothing. How should we do it? How can we expand the university and hospitals. Answers are with Him but it is our duty to think, to use this grey matter to plan, we are instruments… nimitam Bhagawan always said that you are just the instruments, results are in Bhagawan’s hands.

Today, the Balvikas, I am watching since last few years is steady around 3.5 lacs children all over India. Are we happy with that? No, we have to expand. We need more gurus and all you alumni -are you willing to be gurus? It is not that difficult to be a guru to contribute that time – you may be a house wife, you may be a career person but our classes are held one day in the week. And we are not interested now to propagate this concept of residential Balvikas. Yes, it has been the strategy for initial growth, but we have ordained now collectively that all Balvikas classes should be held in public places either in the samithi centres, in the bhajan mandalis, in schools, in any public place where people can congregate. So you are no longer restricted by having to go to somebody else’s house to conduct the Balvikas class. We are also thinking that we try to have at least two gurus per class, not just one guru. Because this is the way of growth, training, the pathway to excellence. Can you not be gurus? People think that when we are talking on these kind of forums, we are talking about money – Money is the least of the factors. Bhagawan paid no attention to money. He always said that for good work, resources will always come. But what we want is human effort to give off yourself, it is so easy to take out a pen and write a big cheque but to give off yourself – that is the greatest gift which you can give to our beloved Lord.

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So in this expansion of the Balvikas, what role are the alumni going to play? Are they just going to congregate once a year, sing some songs, have some meetings and disappear – no, no, no. Sai has to become part of our lives. Sai has just not to save us from earthquakes. Remember that. Sai is the reason for our birth, the reason for our existence. We should not pray to Swami only when we are in trouble. Everyday must be a day of living with Sai and He is here, He is listening and He must be saying as usual that this All India President has started to talk. But as usual He said that when I spent 40 years with Him. I used to catch His Feet and say that you only have given me this job and I have to do my duty to talk. This Vibration, this essence, His presence is here and this presence must be with you at all times, not just in the form of pictures but worship Him in your hearts, He must live in your hearts.

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And be aware that the opportunities of Seva don’t come only when we meet on Sundays. The opportunities for Seva come anytime, we may never know when they come. How often have we heard the story of Shirdi Baba Who came in different forms to enable devotees to do their Sadhana and who did not recognize. Today dear brothers and sisters, the suffering in the world has at least one good purpose – it creates continuous opportunities for serving mankind. Every moment of your lives, be alert, be ready, how to serve. And you can do service without compromising on your busy schedules, instead of looking and going all the times on our blackberries and iPhones needlessly. You can use that time instantlyto serve somebody, to relieve some suffering and serve with love. No service can become Seva unless it is done with love. Bhagawan always used to say, where there is no love, there is no Seva. You can’t just take an old lady’s hand, take her across the road, working on your blackberry. It is with full involvement, then it becomes Seva. One thing we must remember that Bhagawan has picked every single person, each one of us here today and all over the world who say they are Sai devotees.

Whoever had a chance to come to Him, they could come only because He decided that they should come. We could never come without His Sankalpa and with this good fortune comes great responsibility. Of the crores and crores of people if we are the devotees of  Bhagawan Baba, it is because he has willed us. We should never forget that. People say, Oh Bhagawan received lots of money. What did He do with that money? Did he keep anything for Himself in that plain robe which He wore? All of it was used in the Seva of the poor and the needy – the hospitals, the University, the water projects, building the houses for the flood affected in Orissa. Bhagawan’s heart was like butter.  The slightest sign of grief in the world used to melt His heart. Some people used to say that towards the end of His physical stay on this earth, Bhagawan sometimes used to shed tears. People used to mistakenly think that He was shedding tears because He was planning to leave. No, no, no. Bhagawan never cared about Himself, His compassion was only for the world. We must have that compassion, our hearts must also melt when we see suffering in this world. You cannot solve all the suffering, but you can feel the compassion for those who are suffering and do your little bit to ease that suffering. A person without compassion cannot be human and this was a source of compassion. If there is any one lesson that we have learnt from Bhagawan Baba – that must be compassion.

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Today, dear brothers and sisters, the organization cannot remain aloof from society. We have to be involved in society. We have to change and adapt. We should never forget the core values which Bhagawan gave us. But still you know this peripheral appearances for society, the peripheral methods of working which we have to make to change for society – that we have to do. So Bavikas alumni must be the vanguard. Today, Sai organization, again statistics – we are about 6 lacs of people of which Balvikas is 3.5 lacs, so you must be the vanguards for the involvement in society. We cannot say that we will do our bhajan, or we will do our sadhana, we will do our retreats and stay aloof from the world. No, no, no. Today Sai students cannot remain aloof from society. Today Balvikas cannot remain aloof from society. We must change the world but pray to Him that we never change. ‘Duniya ko badalenge lekin Bhagawan aapki daya se hum na badalein’. This should be our prayer.

Yesterday, in the Sports Stadium – I was just looking around the stadium and I found this beautiful display boards which we had made for the 85th birthday. And as you know, I do not know how many of you know, we put up these boards at prominent places all over India. Now we need a new direction. It is not enough if we have messages that the beginning of everything is character. We need more message – one which says that ‘ Love is Life – Share it’. So messages which are relevant to society, Bhagawan has given all the messages – Let’s go through all that He has written, you will find all the messages that you need. But pick out those messages and make posters – I give this work to you – the Balvikas alumni – to decide and make posters which will display. Most important, do you know that 90th birthday is around the corner, do you know that the 50th anniversary of the Sathya Sai organization is around the corner, we just have two years. 2015 is the year of the 90th birthday celebrations. 2015 is the year of the 50th anniversary of the Sathya Sai organization.

Your posters could concentrate on Love, Service, Unity of religions, the Seva to daridra narayanas, not just talk about Madhava Seva. Talk about Seva to those daridras in whom Madhava resides.

I think I have taken a long time, I have much more to say but I do want to leave that to Nimish during these various meetings to tell you what the Sathya Sai Central Trust is doing, what is the Sathya Sai Organization doing.

I will only close with a prayer to Bhagawan to bless each one of you. My request to you, not to all of you but to many of you – come and work in Swami’s institutions, come and work in the hospitals, in the ashram here, you see now we are introducing totally modern procedures. Today the Sathya Sai Central Trust is run on higher standards of corporate governance compared to any other Institutions in India. Don’t believe on the muck and the stupid things which are written. Today we are totally transparent. Sathya Sai Central Trust is one of the few public charitable trusts which brings out a comprehensive annual report with all financial details. Don’t pay attention to all this 40,000 crores and  50,000 crores. Facts and figures are there, audited. You don’t need to go by rumours. Everything is there, you can see it any time. Look at the website – all the details are there. You are the messengers of Sai. At some stage of your lives, many of you are fortunate to come at an early stage – but may be some others later in life. Come and work in Swami’s institutions, and hopefully we will have many of Sai’s institutions not just in Puttaparthi but all over India.

Dearest Bhagawan, bless these children, make them fit instruments in Your Hands. The future of the Sai mission is in their hands.

II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

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