LOVE IN ACTION – Grama Seva 2004
It all started suddenly and most unexpectedly.
Swami came as usual in his golf cart to the verandah on the afternoon
of 15th
October, 2004. He stopped His cart on the outer verandah and was
engrossed in the Veda
chanting. Suddenly He gestured to
Prof. Anil Kumar, who went up respectfully and listened to what
He had to say. One could see that Prof. Anil Kumar’s natural
enthusiasm was growing and he seemed to be fairly bubbling with
exuberance as he went up to the mike to make the important announcement
that Swami has blessed that the Grama
Seva start in 2 days
time.
Things began moving rapidly. Soon people realized
that much had already been accomplished. God always works silently
and most efficiently. Everything was already in place for the Grama
Seva to begin and no one was even aware of it. A sufficient
quantity of laddus
had already been prepared for the initial distribution. All the
ingredients for the Prasadam preparation
and the clothes for distribution had already been procured and the
infrastructure was well in place even before the announcement was
made!
The faculty and staff of the Institute quickly
organised themselves for the Seva.
Steering and planning committees were formed. The boys and the staff
from the Puttaparthi and Brindavan College campuses as well as the
Puttaparthi High School students were divided into 6 groups with
an A and a B section in each group. Thus the A section of all the
6 groups would go for Grama Seva
one day, while the B section would go the following day. This not
only provided a day of rest, but also the boys staying back ensured
that the Mandir activities, like Veda
chanting for the Dasara festival, leading
the Bhajan singing in Sai Kulwant Hall,
and the afternoon programmes went on simultaneously and were not
affected at all!
Each group going for the Grama Seva had 4 trucks for transportation
along with a tractor for the heavier loads. All the 24 vehicles
and 6 tractors were connected through a mobile communication facility
with each other and a ‘home base’ that provided updates
as well as kept track of the progress of each group. This helped
them anticipate and respond well to emergency situations like shortage
of clothes or Prasadam and respond to vehicle breakdowns. Each vehicle
also had a uniformed policeman to provide security to the convoy,
and to have a salutary effect by his presence and prevent any untoward
incidents. In addition there were 2 SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles)
used by two of the project coordinators, assisted by a couple of
students, who visited multiple sites between them to co-ordinate
the distribution better. This system of 32 vehicles was the lifeline
that helped the Grama Seva move forward smoothly and efficiently.
A daily schedule
was drawn up outlining the villages to be visited for the day and
allocating each of the 6 groups with the villages to
be visited by them based on the population and the number of houses
in each village. An estimate of the food to be loaded in each
vehicle was thus arrived at from these figures as well as the food
for the students doing the distribution. This was rolled up for
all the vehicles to arrive at a “master production plan”
for the number of packets of Prasadam
to be distributed each day. Excess food was also loaded for contingencies
and also to distribute to the poor people along the way. A sari
and a dhoti for each household in each
village to be visited for the day, also had to be planned for and
loaded properly in each truck.
The Prasadam that
was distributed to each person was a food packet of pulihora
or tamarind rice and a laddu, a sweet
in the shape of a small ball. The girls of the Anantapur campus
had perhaps the more difficult task. They did most of the ‘behind
the scenes’ work like the rice packing and the laddu
preparation. The girls came up with a schedule so that they could
start by early evening working through the night in shifts, so that
the food packets were ready for loading into the trucks in the wee
morning hours making the vehicle ready for an 8:30 a.m. departure.
They not only toiled through the night but also attended both the
morning and afternoon Darshan and Bhajans
in Sai Kulwant Hall. Theirs was truly a spectacular effort and we
salute all of them.
In a day about 12 to 15 villages were covered by the 6 groups and
the students knocked at the doors of 5,000 homes to share Swami’s
Prasadam and love with the residents. Thus over 20,000 packets of
Prasadam were distributed each day. This snippet of statistic is
provided just to give an insight to the magnitude of the project,
but statistics don’t tell the full story. The Grama Seva is
essentially a love story; a story of the compassion of our dear
Lord for the inhabitants of the villages, who depend only on Him.
On
the morning of the 16th October there was another announcement.
Swami said that tee shirts and caps would be distributed to all
the students and staff members so that they could wear it and go
for distribution the next day, chanting the Sai
Gayathri. The packets of tee shirts were brought out and
stacked in a pile in front of the verandah and a shirt was first
shown to Swami. The white coloured tee shirt had the Institute emblem
embossed on the front left side and the words LOVE ALL SERVE ALL
on the back of the shirt, in red. After looking at the shirt Swami
called a student and asked him to try the shirt on. The student
immediately put the tee shirt on, over his regular white shirt.
It was a tight fit. Swami asked that a larger size shirt be brought,
personally inspected it to make sure it was now the right size and
then gave it to the student and asked him to put it on. When the
shirt fit correctly, Swami broke into a broad smile of motherly
affection and love. He sat on the verandah for a long time that
day listening to the Veda chanting
and looking lovingly at all the boys who were eager to begin His
work the next day.
Generally
the daily schedule used to follow a more or less set pattern. After
giving Darshan in the morning Swami
would come to the verandah and would generally ask a staff member
where they were going for the day. The staff members would be well
prepared to brief Swami with maps and a list of villages that they
intended to visit that day. It was a real sight to see Swami pouring
over the maps along with the staff members and asking relevant questions
to make sure that nothing had been missed out. Swami would then
give His Divine Blessing for the day’s distribution. At that
point, two students would bring the food out in buckets to be blessed
by Bhagavan and the sanctified food (Prasadam)
was now ready for distribution!
Soon the boys scheduled to go that day, either
section A or B, would leave Sai Kulwant Hall and rush to put on
their shoes and collect their hats etc. and hurry to their
designated trucks. The boys remaining in the Mandir
would continue with the Veda chanting
so that the Mandir activities were
not interrupted.
The trucks numbered 1 to 24, the 6 tractors (numbered T1 through
T6) and the two special vans, were lined up in a numerical sequence
along the main road of the Ashram starting from the Gopuram gate
and extending up to and beyond Shanti Bhavan. These trucks had already
been loaded by the recently graduated alumni in the wee hours of
the morning and were all ready to go. A quick inventory was taken
to ensure that the truck had been stocked correctly, a quick headcount
and everything was ready to roll.
When everything was accounted for, the coordinator
gave the signal and the convoy started to go out slowly. As each
truck reached Sai Kulwant Hall a resounding chant of ‘Bhagavan
Sri Sathya Sai Babaji Ki Jai’ rang out, and the long
convoy slowly wound out of the Ashram like a long snake. They did
not go far though. Only up to the Institute Hostel, where they made
a ‘pit’ stop. This is where they collect goodies for
the students (usually biscuits, chips or potato patties and a fruit)
so thoughtfully provided by Mother Sai, and cans of drinking water.
A can of majiga, or spicy buttermilk,
one for each truck, is also loaded, and thus equipped, the convoy
moves out bringing Swami’s love to the countryside!
The
first two days of the Grama Seva
was concentrated around Puttaparthi and the adjoining villages.
October 17th, the day one of the distribution is centered on Puttaparthi,
up to and including the Chitravathi Road. The boys walk up in Nagarsankeertan
up to the village, starting around 10:00 a.m., followed by the trucks
with the food, after the end of the morning’s programme of
the first day of the Saptaha Yagna
in Sai Kulwant Hall. Puttaparthi is home for most of the boys so
they experience no real problems and the distribution moves fast.
The next day the action moved to the adjoining
villages like Brahmanapalli, Kovillaguttapalli, Gokulam and so on.
In the morning, around 8 a.m., the coordinators asked permission
to leave so that they could start and finish the distribution early.
Swami remarks that all the villages are close by so where is the
need to hurry? Only then we realise that it being a Monday, Rahukalam
was from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. We had forgotten, but He had not!
At 9:20 a.m. Swami’s blessing is obtained and the boys hurry
out eager to get started and come back in time for Swami’s
Dasara Discourse in the afternoon.
At each of these villages the roads have been washed
clean and welcome banners strung up. The washed roads are decorated
with floral patterns and all the boys are welcomed as if they were
welcoming Swami Himself! The boys are touched. The planning and
coordination has been fine-tuned after 4 years of Grama
Seva so everything proceeds
like clockwork without any hiccups. Some of the villages have a
sizeable Muslim population. So more often than not the response
to our “Sai Ram” is a “Salaam
Alaikum”. The Muslims also eagerly accept Swami’s
Prasadam coming as it does during the
month of Ramazan, the most holy month
for the Muslims. Truly, Swami’s love knows no boundaries.
After 2-3 hours almost everyone is finished, tired from the unaccustomed
labour in the Sun, but elated also at having done His work satisfactorily.
From now onwards the distribution has to move further afield. The
trucks have now to take the road less travelled, most of the time
over dirt tracks, to reach remote villages and distribute under
trying conditions. I decide to hitch-hike a ride on one of the trucks
and accompany the boys so I could take some photographs and experience
the Seva first hand. Please join me on my journey……
October 19th, I join Group 3 which is distributing
to Venkatagaripalli village. It is a big village with a sizeable
population, so half the group (i.e. 2 out of the 4 trucks) is assigned
to this one single village. My truck is mostly full of Brindavan
boys with some Brindavan teachers. We leave a little after 9 a.m.,
as the village is quite near. We soon take a turn off the main road,
on the diversion to the village. The villagers walking along the
dirt track all say “Sai Ram” to us as we lurch along.
The boys all call back “Sai Ram” in unison. Soon the
truck in front of us comes to a stop rather suddenly and we wonder
if we have reached the village. We peer out but no huts are seen.
A teacher gets down hurriedly from the lead truck and is seen negotiating
with a village woman. He buys a basketful of freshly plucked guavas.
He must have been a good negotiator for he gets it relatively cheap
at Rs 100.00. All the boys are happy at the prospect of eating some
garden-fresh guavas.
In a few moments we reach the village to a heartwarming
sight. The village is well decorated with buntings and pictures
of Bhagavan. The streets have been nicely cleaned.
And all the villagers are waiting to welcome us at the village entrance
and start singing Sai Bhajans as soon
as our buses are sighted. The boys all hop off the bus and join
the singing. A couple of teachers in the meantime go ahead to scout
the village and plan the distribution strategy. After we sing Bhajans
for a few minutes, the villagers do Arathi
to Bhagavan’s picture in the front of the bus. And now we
are ready to start the distribution.
The village “main road” is rather long and houses and
huts are laid out on both sides. The road is quite narrow and the
trucks would not be able to negotiate it easily. So the thoughtful
villagers provide us with a bullock cart to help us transport the
Prasadam packets from the trucks at the village entrance up to the
current distribution point. One of the more enterprising boys hops
onto the cart and takes charge of the bullock cart loading operation.
The boys break up into sub-groups. About 8-10 boys
are assigned to a teacher and the distribution area is well coordinated
between the sub-groups so that there is no duplication or overlap.
The 8-10 boys in each group all have different tasks. 2 boys carry
the crate containing rice Prasadam
packets. One or two boys carry the plastic bags of laddus.
One boy carries the bundle of dhotis
and another boy carries the bundle of saris.
The remaining boys and the teachers act as Swami’s messengers
to hand over His Prasadam to the villagers.
The modus operandi of the distribution is quite
simple. We knock at a house and politely say, “Sai Ram”
with folded hands. Then we tell the villagers that Swami from Puttaparthi
has sent some Prasadam for them. We
ask them for the number of inmates in each house and hand over the
requisite food packets and laddus to
them. Some of them accept it in their hands. Some nip back in to
get a plate and some ladies accept the food in the folds of their
sari in the rural fashion. Quite a few of them touch the food to
their eyes in a gesture of respect to show their thanks at Swami’s
immense grace. The teacher or designated elder then hands over the
sari and dhoti
to the elder in
the house. A small picture of Swami is also given to each household.
When the crates
of food or stack of clothes is getting low, the boys act as runners
and rush up to the bullock cart which is somewhere along the main
road (so as to be equally accessible to all groups) to get replenishments.
It is demanding work and the boys are soon sweating from the morning
sun, but the distribution is proceeding fairly fast. They get a
break when the bullock cart has to go back to the truck to get additional
supplies.
Whenever we come to a fork in the road, the lead group decides
to take a path and posts a lookout to inform the groups following
them as to which areas they are going to cover. A teacher brings
up the rear (behind all the groups) to ensure that no house has
been left out.
I am busy taking pictures of the village scene and the distribution
but soon have a sizeable crowd of small kids following me. I now
feel like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, with the kids going wherever
I lead. I find out from them that their village school has closed
for the day as we were coming down to distribute Prasadam, so the
whole village wears a festive look. The kids all clamor for a photograph,
so I oblige them. I then ask them to go and wait in their respective
houses to receive the Prasadam when we come to their doorstep.
For most of the students this is their first visit to a village.
Some of them are surprised at the number of people living in such
small houses and under such spartan conditions. But all of them
appreciate the villagers’ warmth, their spontaneous simplicity
and devotion to Bhagavan.
The village itself is very clean and as is true of all villages
in India, is full of domesticated animals that roam freely everywhere.
Goats, sheep, pigs, cows, hens, stray dogs that growl menacingly
and even monkeys, all are well represented. A goat that has just
had a couple day old kids catch the students’ fancy and they
cuddle the small little goat kids that can barely stand on their
four legs.
In about a couple of hours all the groups that
have spread out to distribute the food are almost done and we wend
our way back to the main entrance of the village and wait for everyone
to join us. After everyone is gathered, the villagers want to do
Arathi and thus show their thanks to
Swami. We again gather around the truck which has a picture of Swami
attached to the windshield and the village elders do Arathi.
Slowly we say our good-byes to the villagers and the two trucks
move out. About a kilometre from the village we stop in the shade
of a large tree as we are famished and we tuck into the refreshments
and the buttermilk that has been provided. And of course, the fresh
guavas.
On October 20th, I join Group 1, and am assigned to Vehicle number
3 that is headed to Satarlapalli village, a village at a distance
of just over 45 kms as the crow flies. But the road winds over really
difficult terrain so it is estimated that it could take 2-3 hours
to reach.
In the morning the coordinators again ask permission to leave early.
Swami says “Yes” and so we leave around 8:45 a.m. Group
1 consists of Vehicles 1 through 4 and the assigned tractor (T1).
Right outside the Ashram, near the Kalyana Mantapam, Vehicle 1 develops
a puncture. It takes a while to get the puncture fixed, as there
was a power failure so we could not get the tire inflated. Finally
around 10:00 a.m. we are ready to roll. We finally realised that
we need to act according to His will and not hurry up so we could
be back in time to listen to the afternoon Discourse.
After about 20 kms, while we are in the rural countryside, we had
to wait again as Vehicle 2 had an accelerator cable ruptured right
in the middle of nowhere. It takes about a half hour but some of
the boys manage to repair it with some makeshift wires that are
available. The driver of the truck is amazed at their versatility.
I am in a truck with High school boys and a couple
of their teachers. The young boys are beginning to feel tired as
it is not exactly pleasant travelling in a pickup truck along bumpy
roads. At this one of the teachers suggest we play a game. My ears
immediately perk up. Memories of many journeys done in my youth
come to mind where we played idle games just to “pass the
time”. I wonder what kind of games will be played by the boys
from the High School, where God-centered education and character
building is given so much premium. I was not to be disappointed.
The teacher announces that it is going to be a memory game. He said
that I will say, “I love Swami”. The next boy will add
to this, “I love Swami and Jesus”.
And so on it goes, with each boy adding His favourite name of God
or a Holy teacher. The trick is to remember the right sequence of
names - if you get the sequence wrong then you are out of the game.
What a revelation!! A game consisting of names of the Gods just
to pass the time. Soon
everyone is engrossed, and it becomes quite complex after 8-10 names
are added. And of course, lots of fun. Attention is thus easily
diverted from the aching body and
before we know it we are at the crossroads that would takes us the
last kilometre in to Satarlapalli village.
We wait at the crossroad till all the trucks catch
up. It is already 11:30 in the morning so we decide to partake of
some of the goodies that Swami has sent. That and the glass of buttermilk
refresh everyone and all are now keen to start. While truck 3 goes
to Satarlapalli village, the other trucks move on to their assigned
villages 3-4 kms further down the road.
We take a diversion and one kilometre of bone-jarring
ride on a goat track brings us to this remote, isolated village.
We pull up and soon the entire village gathers around the truck.
The boys quickly form a line while the group co-ordinator talks
to the village head. We go in a Nagarsankeertan
from the truck up to the Rama temple in the centre of the village.
It has been our experience that no matter how poor and destitute
the village is, it still has a neatly maintained temple in the village
square. That is why Swami always says that the true Bharatiya
culture is to be found only in India’s villages.
All the village kids join us in the Nagarsankeertan
and clap wildly to the Bhajans in unrestrained
excitement that is the province of the young and truly innocent.
The Nagarsankeertan winds its way up
to the temple along a very narrow cobbled pathway, avoiding cow
and goat droppings and other such items strewn all over the road.
At the Rama temple we stop and continue singing Bhajans
till it seems all the inhabitants of the village join us. The leader
of our group then announces that we have come from Puttaparthi to
distribute Swami’s Prasadam and
request everyone to wait in their respective homes and that we will
come and deliver at their doorstep.
Soon we get organized into 4 small groups and the area of distribution
for each group is quickly earmarked after studying the layout of
the village. Very soon the distribution is in full swing and the
4 small groups spread quickly in all the 4 directions. I have a
difficult time tracking down the next group after finishing taking
pictures of one group as they have moved so quickly.
As in the other village I am again surrounded by the kids. These
kids are very friendly and take me to the back of the village and
proudly show me their village well which is full of water. This
is welcome as all the wells in the village which we visited the
day before were dry. I take some pictures and the kids are very
happy and delighted, just like a tour guide showing off the Taj
Mahal to some gawking tourists.
Again another
two hours of non-stop distribution and we are done. But we find
a number of ladies and gents waiting and clamouring for the Prasadam
and clothes right beside
our truck. Enquiries reveal that they are residents of hamlets that
are close to the villag e. As these people are really poor, we seat
them all next to the truck, the 30 odd ladies in front and the 10
or so gents behind. We take a quick inventory and feel that the
Prasadam and the clothes would suffice
but just barely. We give one sari to
each lady and a dhoti to a gentleman,
apart from a packet of food and a laddu
each. By Swami’s grace, the number of saris
is just exactly enough to give to all the women and not one extra
sari is left over! Everyone is wreathed
in smiles and very happy to have received these tangible gifts of
Bhagavan’s love.
We all board the truck and it is time to leave.
A pained and embarrassed silence follows, similar to what we experience
before the imminent departure of our loved ones at the railway station
or an airport. The innocent villagers do not know how to express
their thanks to Swami and stand quietly shuffling their legs. The
young kids stare at us with their large eyes that say it all. Suddenly
on an impulse, I lean out of the truck and extend my hand to the
nearest kid and say “Sai Ram”. He immediately takes
it and pumps it up and down vigorously yelling “Sai Ram, Sai
Ram” at the top of his voice. All the kids now join in and
want to shake hands. A little physical touch that enables them to
give us a proper send-off. Even the adults hanging shyly in the
back, now come forward and jostle each other in their eagerness
to shake hands. By now all the students
are also hanging out of the truck shaking hands with the villagers.
Slowly the truck starts and we leave the village with about 40 kids
running behind us shouting “Sai Ram” and waving their
hands wildly.
We take the dirt road back and go ahead to join
the other trucks in the group that are 3-4 kms down the road. They
are still not done with their distribution and we wait for about
a half-hour for them to finish. We compare notes and find that they
had got all the little children into the village school
and had taught them the Sai Gayathri.
Soon it is time
to go home. We decide to continue ahead and loop back to Puttaparthi
from a small town called Pedapalli, rather than retrace our steps
back the same way we had come. The road is bumpy but motorable the
drivers assure us. We pass through some 3 kms of forest land that
is very
tranquil and soon reach the town and are back home at around 3:45
p.m. A quick shower and it is immediately to the Mandir
and I am gratified to find that
Swami’s Divine Discourse had not started yet.
And
the list goes on. Everyday we visit different villages to different
experiences and memories that would last a lifetime. Villages like
Cherlopalli, Chendrayanipalli, Kottalapalli, Buchaiahgaripalli and
Venugopalapuram.
So many memories
flood the mind and will remain in the heart for a lifetime. For
example, when we were the last bus finishing the distribution in
Cherlopalli village and running about 15 minutes behind the others,
the villagers ask us to visit their village temple for Arathi.
We decide to oblige and trudge
back up wearily about half a kilometer to the top of the hill and
what did we find - a bigger-than-life size picture of Bhagavan in
a temple devoted solely to Swami. Or on the way to Yerrapalli village,
when we stop for snacks under a railway bridge and all the students
climb
up the embankment up to the railway
line so I could take their picture. Or the total innocence of the
very isolated village of Venugopalapuram where
we taught the little school children the Sai Gayathri; or the exquisite
scenic beauty of Reddivaripalli, that was situated miles in the
interior and surrounded by hills with a deep red soil and thick
green vegetation that gave it a surreal look. Above all, the most
lasting memory would be of the love and reverence that all the villagers
showed us, with no exceptions, as Swami’s emissaries.
On the way back to Parthi, the excess food packets
left over were usually distributed to the people working the fields
on both sides of the road. The sight of the villagers running up
to the road, sometimes as much as half a kilometer, as soon as our
truck with its yellow Grama Seva banner
is spotted is a sight that has to be experienced. We always stopped
for them and gave them a Prasadam packet
and laddus and receive their blessings
and good wishes in turn.
And soon we are done, many days ahead of schedule.
Immaculate planning and the availability of 32 vehicles enable us
to finish the distribution in the targeted mandals
(sub-districts) of Puttaparthi, Bukkapatnam and Kottacheruvu - about
142 villages in all.
The boys are tired but very, very satisfied. It has been a soul
elevating experience for them. Swami always says that service begets
humbleness in a man. And humbleness is perhaps the most important
prerequisite on our spiritual path back to God.
And the villagers! Would just a meal and clothing make a real difference
in their lives? No, but the very thought that the God in Puttaparthi
is looking after them and thinking about them gives them so much
hope, nourishment, and love and meaning that the entire exercise
has become one of the most rewarding lifetime experiences for all.
And it is all just because of His love!!
Jai Sai Ram.
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