Between You and Us

Dear Reader,
Sai Ram. It is almost one year since we brought out the first issue of our web journal H2H. When we started, we did so almost impulsively, and not as the result of a deliberate decision-making process. One day, some of us were sitting around and wondering how to reach out to more people and how to serve better the devotees of Bhagavan; and then like a flash this idea came up. We wasted no time and went ahead to create the inaugural issue. It wasn’t exactly great but it wasn’t bad either. The fever quickly spread and many here plunged with great enthusiasm, of course encouraged by the wonderful response we received right from day one. And like a proud mother, we showed off H2H printouts to visitors who came here. Some were very complimentary but others wondered: “It is nice no doubt, but how are you going to sustain it?” Our reply was simple and in the same spirit in which young Dhruva answered Sage Narada. In case you have not heard, let us recall for you that famous dialogue.

As you perhaps know, young Dhruva was unhappy about being ignored by his father and wanted to pray to the Lord so that he too, like his step-brother, receives his father’s affection. This lad was barely five years old and there he was going into the forest! On his way, Dhruva ran into Sage Narada who asked, “Where are you going?” Dhruva explained where he was headed and for what reason. Narada then asked how exactly he, Dhruva, was going to pray to the Lord. Dhurva replied, “Right now I do not know. But He who put the idea into my head that I should go to the forest would also teach me how to pray!” Well, that was our view too. And indeed it is clear that it is Swami who has really sustained this journal and not us.

Bringing out this journal has been a most stimulating experience for us. No doubt there are many e-journals in the world, but there are very few which are wholly devoted to Spiritual Matters, totally interested in spreading Global Harmony, and are free from commercial overtones. And in one respect, we might even claim to be unique. We beg to stand corrected, but we doubt if there is any e-journal in the world that offers Bhajan lessons!

As we inch towards our first birthday, we have been doing some serious thinking. Basically, our situation is like this: In a family, the new born baby no doubt gets a lot of attention compared to the older children, but when the new-born becomes a bit older and a newer one appears, then naturally the time that can be spared becomes less. We are in a somewhat similar situation. Firstly, there is our Radio Streaming service [started after H2H appeared], which, we are very happy to note, has become very popular particularly in America. But it needs a bit of tuning. Next, our Studio facilities are being expanded [we hope to do a story on that for H2H soon], and that also takes away some of our time. Thirdly, the 80th Birthday is not as far as it once seemed; and there are SO MANY things we have to do in connection with that, on the audio, radio, and video side. Actually in the case of radio and video, we now are supposed to cater to many languages! As if this is not enough, we have, more or less from the time H2H appeared, been presenting three 20 minutes program every week on a major TV channel plus one one-hour special every month. And then there is so much of archival material that we have accumulated but have not been able to sort out and categorise. We have over 20,000 photos and tons of old, precious 16 mm film footage. All that film footage has to be logged, and then converted into video footage. The list goes on and on.

We don’t want to seem to complain; far from it. Nothing gives us more joy than to bring Swami’s Prasadam to everyone and fill you all with Ananda. However, considering that we have less people to attend to all this varied work than the number of fingers in one hand, it is understandable that there is a time crunch. One may say: “Listen, the answer is simple; get more people.” Yes of course that is the obvious answer. If we can get volunteers, that sure is welcome. But you know volunteers who will stay here and work in a sustained manner are not all that common! The only other way out for us is to ask for additional staff to be appointed; and that we do not want to do. Why? For a very simple reason. Every penny we can save for the Trust is a penny available for Swami’s water projects, hospital projects, etc. Their need is greater than ours. So we feel that we just have to work harder and do the best we can.

We have no problem with that. But since God has given only 24 hours in a day, we have to cut some corners. Thus it is that we have decided, with much regret we might add, to make H2H into a monthly instead of the present fortnightly it is. We assure you that this slight decrease in frequency would be more than made up with not only further improvements in content, but also through the incorporation of many suggestions received from you, our dear readers. And, we hope it would please you to know that we are making active efforts to bring out a regular hard copy version. This way, you do not have to print out what you see. You can see and browse, and later read it all in detail when the hard copy is in your hands.

Bringing a print version and distributing it all over the world is a task that is far from easy. So don’t be surprised if one of these days we seek your kind help in this matter! Meanwhile, we want to assess how much enthusiasm there is for a print version. For this purpose, we have elsewhere a small form which we request you to fill and send to us.

You know, sometimes putting up with a bit of inconvenience leads to greater convenience later. For example, sometime ago when the Sai Kulwant Hall was getting some touch up, Darshan was shifted to the Poornachandra Hall – this happened in June, July of 1999. But when the improvements were completed, we had a grander hall for having Swami’s Darshan! In the same way, please bear with us for a while, keeping in mind that we offer a COMPREHENSIVE service covering audio, video, radio and all that and not just H2H.

In summary, from September 1st 2004, H2H would become a monthly journal. We are also suspending the PDF version so that we may offer you a regular print version. Making the e-version and PDF version simultaneously takes too much time that we unfortunately cannot afford at present. But at the end of it all, we are sure you would be happy with what we have to offer, though you may have to face some inconvenience in the interim.

Thanking you in anticipation for your patience. With unabated desire to serve you always and with much love from,

SGH TEAM