INSPIRING SAI SEVA IN TAIWAN
In the “Sai Seva” section of the last issue, we gave you brief but inspiring accounts of service activities from 14 countries around the world. If you have missed it, go here. In this issue we want to take you to a country that we have not covered before - Taiwan. There is wonderful Sai Seva going on in this 394 kms long little island in the Pacific Ocean of East Asia.
Taiwan, for those who do not know, lies close to mainland China and is south of Japan. It is counted as one of the “East Asian Tigers” because of its sound economy. The religious beliefs of the 23 million people who inhabit this island centre mainly around Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. |
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Here Heart2Heart gives you glimpses of the last 3 months of Sai Seva done from the two Sai centres in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.. There are stirring pictures of ‘love in action’ and we are sure that you will be touched to see them.
The first commemorated Swami’s 80th Birthday, when blood donation was arranged by the Seva team of the Sathya Sai Center in Tienmou. They collected 120 bags of blood.
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Cheerfully giving.... |
Offering so willingly... |
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In front of the mobile Blood Donation clinic .... |
Secondly, the young people from the Bal Vikas group visited a home for mentally and physically challenged children in Pali on 17th September 2005. They played with the children and sang songs for them. They gave out fruit and medicated milk. Just look at the pictures to see the joy given and received. Truly, there is no greater joy than sharing love with the less fortunate and special.
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Playing with the children... |
Giving joy... |
We have a short video showing the Bal Vikas children spending quality time with the mentally challenged. You can download it here. [3.5 MB]
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All the Bal Vikas children together... |
Thirdly, on 12th October 2005, the Seva team of the Sathya Sai center in Tienmou visited a home for the elderly and distributed seven modern wheelchairs and a physiotherapy table. Two more wheelchairs were donated at a later date. They gave a lot of love and care to the elderly people! Needless to say, the senior citizens were deeply moved.
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A listening ear, a caring touch while distributing wheelchairs to the elderly... |
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The Hsichih bhajan group organized a yagna (sacrifice) in a beautiful local Chinese temple on 10th October 2005 to invoke Swami's blessings on the region and pray for peace. The Sai Gayatri was chanted for two hours along with the offering of ghee and cooked rice in the sacrificial fire. This was followed by kumkum laksharchana (chanting 1 lakh times with the offering of vermillion) and bhajans. Over 70 people participated in this function.
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The Yagnam for peace held in a Chinese temple... |
We can never tire of learning about the spread of Swami’s Love around the world – love that can be seen on people’s faces, love that can be apprehended by the sacrifices that people make to serve others and love that is received back again. Swami reminds us that we are serving ourselves by serving others. It is only in this way that we can transform ourselves and the world around us and share in God’s love - in action.
- Heart2Heart Team.
