Sai Ram and greetings from Prashanti Nilayam. October has come and is about to go. The beginning of the month saw an unexpected and global flutter about Swami giving a Cosmic Darshan. We do not have to recall all that since much has been said already. [Currently, there seems to be a second innings to that incident with Swami in the Moon!] Anyway, that event [the Cosmic Darshan in the Airport] passed and soon it was the Navarathri season, which opened as usual with a quiet non-stop Puja in the Mandir for Devi the Universal Mother. Simultaneously, Grama Seva, now in its eighth year running, commenced, covering about 150 villages and neighbouring hamlets [called tandas over here], involving distribution to thousands of households. In all, about half a million food packets were distributed, as also tens of thousands of sarees and dhotis.

Soon after the Navarathri (Dasara) season commenced, so did the annual Yajna performed for Universal Peace, with the daily proceedings this time being duly adapted to suit [the by now familiar] Swami’s somewhat flexible routine. At last, everyone has come to realise that Swami’s body cannot be taxed with punishing schedules as earlier, and that we must learn to discipline ourselves as also be thankful for what we are blessed with. The evenings [of the Yajna days] saw the usual quota of speech making. Apart from the regular speakers, we had one or two new voices too which gave fresh viewpoints.

In the midst of all the traditional pre-occupations, 20th October came and went by WITH HARDLY ANY NOTICE BY ANYONE WHATSOEVER! One wonders how many even remember what 20th October is all about. And, as if to drive home the point, Swami’s Discourse on 21st October, the concluding day of the festival, began with a pointed reference to the Shirdi Avatar. Swami reminded the audience that it was on the Vijaya Dasami day that God brought the curtain down on His earlier incarnation as the Avatar of Shirdi, with the promise to come back again soon.

It is amazing how quickly we tend to get defocused these days, with the mobile phone ever ready to distract our attention. In the Gita the Lord says that Avatars come to teach man a lesson, in fact the same lesson imparted earlier. God comes again to do a revision course when the earlier teachings have been forgotten, making it necessary to revisit ancient wisdom once more.

All that was in the good old days, as they say. But in this Kali Age, we have become “very efficient”! We are learning to forget God and His Message even while the Avatar is here. Actually, we need not even bother to make any serious effort to forget. One short command suffices: CONTROL-ALT- DELETE - Long live Windows!

In His Discourse on 21st October, Swami said, “All of you are the Embodiments of Sai!” There was the usual applause of course. But one wonders whether anyone anywhere paid attention to the import of that statement. What does the statement that all are Sai really mean? Naturally, different people would tend to interpret that differently but we here in H2H venture to submit our view.

We believe it means [among other things] that all of us must act in a manner that would be in as much conformity as possible with what Swami says and stands for. Is that happening? That question was actually asked by Prof Anantaraman, a member of the visiting faculty, in Swami’s University. Speaking in one of the evening sessions a few days before Vijaya Dasami, Prof Anantaraman, in a voice dripping with pain, asked why there is so much selfishness and jealousy in our hearts, why there is so much in-fighting even within the Organisation when we all should be highly pro-active in setting great examples of Sai Love to the world. He ended his thought-provoking talk [that had a distinctly different flavour from what we are used to here] with the words, “The time has come when we have to seriously ask ourselves if we really deserve Swami?”

Tough talk, but a pertinent and meaningful question nevertheless – so we believe. What do you say? Do please let us know.

Jai Sai Ram.