samastha loka sukhino bhavantu in this...
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VENUGAANAM SAI KRUSHNA CHARITABLE TRUST NEWSLETTER Issue # 26 222
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Venugaanam
Sai Krushna Charitable Trust Newsletter
September, 2013
SAMASTHA LOKA SUKHINO BHAVANTU IN THIS ISSUE
We are delighted to bring you the 26th edition of Venugaanam this
September. As we enter into the last quarter of this year, we bring excerpts
from Swami’s Divine Discourse during a sevadal conference. Read this to
know His message of ‘Seva’.
In Atmajyothi, we continue with a new series of discussion on Narada Bhakthi
Sutras. These Sutras or aphorisms contain the secret of true devotion and
highlight its glory.
Prakash reveals how Swami’s message of “Constant
Integrated Awareness” has impacted his life. He shares
the joy of making this one teaching a part of his life.
T R Mist starts continues the new serialized story “the
Night” which is bound to keep you hooked on.
Bhargav talks about how precious water is, therefore,
“Don’t waste water”.
Sai Krushna Mandir is now a place bustling with activity as
the four children have made it their home. To know more
about the latest at SKM and how you can volunteer, read
the construction update. We invite applications for a
watchman for the children’s home.
We are happy
to have your
feedback on how to make ‘Venugaanam’ a better
communication tool. You may kindly mail us at
[email protected] . Do feel free to share
with us your experiences in following Swami’s teachings or
on any other theme of your choice.
We pray to Swami to bless all the children and inmates so
that they may all come up to His expectations.
May Swami turn our lives into a celebration of His
message of love, sharing and caring.
With All our Prema,
Team Venugaanam
Sai Krushna Charitable Trust
From Team Venugaanam 1. From Team Venugaanam………P1
2. Swami's discourse………………..P2
3. Atmajyothi………………………..P4
4. Construction update……………..P6
5. CIA_Prakash……………… …......P7
6. The Night_Mist……………………P8
7. Don’t Waste Water_Bhargav….P11
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Where and when does ‘service’ in our lives start?
And how can it be a true spiritual activity? Is it
more, or less important, than meditation or
chanting His name? Swami beautifully explains all
these and more in a discourse delivered to the
delegates of a Sevadal Conference on November
19, 198. Here are excerpts from that profound
message
Society is the coming together of people.
Cooperation among people in a society, motivated by
spontaneity and pure intentions, is the hall-mark
of seva (service). Seva can be identified by two basic
characteristics - compassion and willingness to
sacrifice.
History tells us that in all countries and in every age,
man is a social being. Man is born in society; he grows
in and through society, and his life ends too in
society. His songs and speech, duties and diversions,
are all determined by society.
Seva can be identified by two basic characteristics -
compassion and willingness to sacrifice.
Society for man is like water for fish: if society rejects
or neglects him, he cannot survive. What a single
individual cannot accomplish, a well-knit group or
society can achieve.
A man walking alone may feel tired and miserable at
the end of five miles; but, walking with ten others as
a group he would find the five miles a jaunt; he will
arrive refreshed and strong.
Social living contributes increased happiness and
efficiency in efforts among birds and beasts. When
they act as a group they are able to defend
themselves from enemies, secure food and shelter,
travel great distances and migrate to far away
locations.
The Liberating Chain of Service
The first lesson in service has to be learnt in the
family circle itself. Father, mother, brothers, and
sisters - in this limited group which is well-knit, one
must engage in loving service and prepare for the
wider service that awaits outside the home. The
character of each individual member determines the
peace and prosperity of the family; the character of
each family is the basic factor that decides the
happiness and joy of the village or the community.
And, the nation's progress is based on the strength
and happiness of the communities which are its
components. So, for the welfare of the country and of
the entire world, the spirit of service, vital
enthusiasm, constructive imagination, pure
motivation, and unselfish alertness are all needed
urgently.
For the welfare of the country and of the entire
world, the spirit of service, vital enthusiasm,
constructive imagination, pure motivation, and
unselfish alertness are all needed urgently.
Take Hanuman as your example in service. He served
Rama, the Prince of Righteousness, regardless of
obstacles of all types.
Though he was strong,
learned and virtuous, he
had no trace of pride.
When asked who he was
by the demons in Lanka
into which he had entered
so daringly, he described
himself, in all humility, as
The Mighty Spiritual Activity- Service
Excerpts from the Divine Discourses by Bhagawan Shri Sathya Sai Baba during Sevadal Conference 19-11-
1981
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the 'servant of Rama.'
That is a fine example of uprooting of the ego which
service must bring about in us. No one can serve
another while his ego is rampant. The attitudes of
mutual help and selfless service develop the
'humanness' of man and help the blossoming of the
divinity latent in him.
Krishna was known to all as almighty, all-knowing,
all-encompassing and all-fulfilling. Yet, the
enthusiasm to do service prompted Him to approach
Dharmaraja, the eldest of the Pandava brothers, on
the eve of the magnificent Raajsooya Yaaga he had
planned to celebrate, and offered to take up seva of
any kind. He suggested that He might be given the
task of cleaning the dining hall after the guests have
partaken of the feast! Krishna insisted on outer
cleanliness and inner cleansing. Clean clothes and
clean minds are the ideal combination.
The Lord Sets the Example…
The Lord sets the
example for the devotees
to follow. He teaches that
service done to any living
being is offered to Him
alone and is accepted by
Him most joyfully. Service
rendered to cattle, beasts,
and to men is laudable
spiritual practice. Keeping
the environment of our
residences clean, providing
help to those who live around the place, going to
hospitals and serving the patients who are in the
wards – it is such acts of service one must take active
part in. Many undertake such activities now as 'social
service,' not as a spiritual practice in a full-hearted
manner.
Through the spiritual practice of service, Hanuman
attained identity with Rama, as the river attains
identity with the sea. Arjuna too considered every act
as a spiritual act to attain the grace of Krishna, for
Krishna directed him to fight on, ever keeping Him in
memory -"Maamanusmara Yuddhyacha."
Offer service to someone in need, with a full heart
and experience the bliss that results. It need not be
something big; it can be a small act, unnoticed by
others. But it has to be done to please the God
within you and the other person.
You too should keep God ever in your mind as the
pace-setter, whether you are serving patients in
the hospitals or cleaning a drain in the bazaar. That
is the thapas (penance) – the highest form of
spiritual practice. More than listening to a hundred
lectures or delivering them to others, offering one
act of genuine service attracts the Grace of God.
The body has to be utilized for service to others.
Activity is its main purpose. Lord Krishna says, "I have
no need to be engaged in work, but I do work in order
to activate the world." More bliss can be gained by
serving others than what can be got by merely
serving oneself.
Offer service to someone in need, with a full heart
and experience the bliss that results. It need not be
something big; it can be a small act, unnoticed by
others. But it has to be done to please the God within
you and the other person.
Eliminate the Ego
We need today those who take delight in selfless
service, but such men are rarely seen. You, who
belong to the Sathya Sai Seva Organisation, every
one of you, must become a sevak (volunteer), eager
to help those who need it. When the sevak becomes
the nayak(leader), the world will prosper. Only
a kinkara (servant) can grow into
a Shankara (Master).
When the sevak becomes the nayak (leader), the
world will prosper. Only akinkara (servant) can
grow into a Shankara (Master).
Of course, one has to eliminate the ego totally; even
a trace of it will bring disaster. However long you may
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do meditation, or how constant maybe
your japa (chanting His name), a little ego will render
them barren of results. Bhajans done with egoistic
pride will be as harsh as the crow's caw. So, try to
avoid the ego marring your spiritual efforts, even to a
small extent.
What God Will Ask You
The Sathya Sai Seva Organisation has laid down
service as spiritual activity,in order to uproot from
your mind this evil trait; service helps you to remove
the ego. So, do not pay heed to what others might
say when you engage in service activities. When you
are doing good acts, why hesitate, feel ashamed, or
fear?
God will not ask you, when and where did you do
service? He will ask, "With what motive did you do
it? What was the intention that prompted you?"
Let Compassion and Sacrifice be your two eyes; let
Egolessness be your breath and Love be your
tongue. Let Peace reverberate in your ears. These
are the five vital elements you have to live
upon. God will not ask you, when and where did you
do service? He will ask, "With what motive did you do
it? What was the intention that prompted you?" You
may weigh the service and boast of its quantity; but,
God seeks quality, the quality of the heart, the purity
of the mind, the holiness of the motive.
WHY ONLY THIS PRONOUN अि�मन ् IS
SELECTED ?
It is right to follow the celebrity of scriptures;
still, why – any one of the following words like
: परमाम�न’in the Supreme Self’ , परमे वरे’in
the Supreme Lord’ , भगव�त’in God’, etc. – that
are agreeable to scriptures – should not be
applied ? Answer to this question is as follows :
Here, this pronoun अि�मन’्in Him’ is properly
used. For, Pronoun = सव�नाम in Sanskrit.
सव�नाम is the name for everything; and God,
Himself, has become everything.
The Supreme Self has different forms like :
Virtuous(सगुण), that without qualities (�नगु�ण),
that having form(साकार), and that is
Atmajyothi by Shri Lakshminarayan Aithal
Lakshminarayan Aithal has served for over 3 decades in Swami’s institution and is the former Principal of the Sri Sathya
Sai Loka Seva Institutions at Muddenahalli. Inspired by Swami’s direct message to study the Upanishads, he first learnt
Sanskrit and then studied the direct works of Adi Shankaracharya and Swami. Sincere perseverance led him to the reality
of Aham Brahmasmi and He realized and experienced Swami’s words: “I am God and so are you”. He shares the import of
the Upanishadic teachings with us in this series of articles.
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formless(�नराकार). �ु�त, �म�ृत and पुराण have
invented thousands of names in order to
recognize these forms; and some of the
names are as follows : Truth (सय), Knowledge
(�ान), Bliss(आन�द), Eternal-Pure-Awareness-
Liberation(�नयशु�बु�म!ुत), Imperishable One
(अ�र), the Soul of the universe("#म), the
Supreme Lord (परमे वर), the all pervading
God($व%णु), the Auspicious God(&शव), the
Goddess of Energy (शि!त), the Sun God(स$वत)ृ,
etc. Every name among these, all at once,
brings its special meaning itself to our mind.
These names are defined : सय means that
which remains in the same form without
changing; �ान means that which is having
never changing form of consciousness; आन�द
means that which is having complete
happiness; �नयशु�बु�मु!त means that which
is ever disconnected from impurity, that which
is eternally having its all-knowing (सव��) form,
and that which is eternally not having any
regulation; अ'र means that which is having
imperishability; "#म means that which is the
biggest one by all manner; परमे वर means the
one who is the Supreme Lord than the
independent rulers; $व%णु means the all
pervading One; &शव means the one who has
the Auspicious Form; शि!त means the goddess
who is the ball of energy; गणेश means the
Lord of the group who are having body,
organs, etc; स$वत ृmeans the Creator of the
world and the fruit of action for all living
beings. In this manner, every word carries its
own meaning; this
सव�नाम (pronoun) अि�मन ्(in Him) is the word
which is the compendium of meaning of all
the above names; therefore, this word is
selected rightly.
Then, what fitness is there in selecting this
pronoun by leaving all other pronouns ? This
question is also answered : There is one reason
for this selection. अयम ् (He), the pronoun, as
we have already mentioned, is the famous
verbal one in the scripture; this word is
employed in the sentences of the Upanishads
like – अयमामा "#म, etc; God is everywhere
and He is the Inner-most Self (सवा��तरामा) of
everyone and everything; and, therefore, this
pronoun is befittingly selected. The
practitioners (साधकाः) obtain confidence that
God who is the Self dwells in them and He
need not be searched externally elsewhere.
Therefore, there is a greater fitness in
employing this pronoun which refers to the
nearest one.
This reminds us the following sentences :
प यि�वहैव �न,हतं गुहायाम ् (मु.ं 3-9-8). This
sentence of the मु.डक उप�नषत ् tells : If it is
clearly seen, the Principle of God
(परमामतव) is found in the cave of the
heart. ई वरः सव�भूताना ं45ेशsेजु�न �त%ठ�त (गी. 18-
61), the Lord tells : O अजु�न, God dwells in the
heart of all living beings.
THE EXPLANATION OF परम9ेम:पा
8. The word भि!त has many meanings in
Sanskrit : (1) In the सामवेद, a part of one साम is
called भि!त. (2) In the श;दशा�< (Grammar), if
one word is used in another meaning, that
word has भि!त means a secondary meaning
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(गौणविृत). (3) The word भि!त has a worldly
meaning : faith or love towards teachers and
elders. The भि!त word has originated from
the root भज ्which means serving; in order to
serve anyone love is essential; therefore, it
flashes in the mind that the भि!त word has
the meaning ‘love’ (9ेम) also. The following
words like : मातभृि!त, $पतभृि!त, गु>भि!त,
राजभि!त, रा%?भि!त, etc. contain the word
भि!त which has only one meaning : love that
has originated due to the worshipful attitude.
But , in this scripture, भि!त is love for God.
We have to deliberate that why परम (highest)
– adjective is added to this भि!त. We need
some objects like : father, mother, husband,
wife, money, etc.; therefore, we like them.
Hence, one can tell that we have love towards
them. None loves objects or persons for their
sake but for his own sake. Therefore, nothing
is beloved than one’s own self. Therefore, the
�ु�त tells : तदेतत ् 9ेयः पु<ात ् 9ेयो $वतात ्
9ेयोs�य�मात ्सव��माद�तरं यदयमामा ।।ब.ृ 1-4-8.
‘Therefore, this Self is more beloved than son,
money, and other things; and It is the Inner-
most One’. Thus the Self means one’s self;
and through the worldly experience itself, one
can understand that one’s own self is the
most beloved one, isn’t it ? God Himself is the
Reality of one’s self, therefore, the love of the
self is nothing but that of Him. Without
knowing the reason, we have love towards
objects or that towards our imagined selves.
Instead of this, if we love God, the Real Self,
that is called ‘Devotion’. Therefore, it is told in
the aphorism : ‘Devotion is the Supreme Love
in Him’.
The Making of Sai Krushna Mandir Construction Update
The four children at Sai Krushna
Mandir. (From L to R) Chandan,
Shridhar, Shreyas and Devi
Prasad.
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Life at Sai Krushna Mandir starts quite early. But the pace picks up exponentially when the children wake up.
Their bright smiles and chatter amidst the hustle and bustle of breakfast, getting them ready for school makes it
all worth the while. And once they leave for school comes the calm after the storm. Once they are back, time
flies between homework, play, bhajans, dinner and bedtime. And at the end of the day, watching the innocent
smiles on the naughty faces as they fall asleep after much ruckus, coaxing and cajoling is heartwarming.
We thank all the donors and volunteers who have been generously contributing towards daily expenses to run
the children’s home, construction, setting up an RO drinking water system, solar lighting and maintenance of
the building. We are also grateful to the volunteers who have devoted time to buying groceries, spending time
with the children and helping them learn and catch up with their curriculum. We invite applications for a few
caretakers who will be paid suitably as per their experience and ability. Support staff families would be provided
suitable accommodation and their children would be given appropriate educational facilities also.
Some other minor construction works like the bathrooms for visitors and external staff are in progress to
facilitate the effective working of the children’s home.
We look forward to all your active involvement and participation in this God given opportunity. We also welcome
you to come and visit the site and participate in the activities of Sai Krushna Mandir. We pray that Swami’s grace
will crown our genuine intentions and He will continue to guide and bless the children and residents to live in a
happy home and grow to His ideals.
When contemplating on Swami’s teachings, I always
wondered how can I follow at least one or two of
them on a daily basis and see how they work. I
thought even if I follow a handful of them but follow
them100% without any compromise it would make
Swami happy.
To implement this, first I identified one of my
weaknesses: my impulsiveness. I have the habit of
doing things too fast. I seriously needed to slow down
my life. By being on the fast lane, I never enjoyed the
journey but was more concerned about reaching the
destination. One more disadvantage of my hurried
Constant Integrated Awareness by Prakash Srinivasan
Prakash is a student of Swami who completed his B.Com, MBA and PG Diploma in Culture and Philosophy from Sri Sathya Sai
University. He is a talented singer with the enthusiasm for Swami’s work. Prakash is currently working at HP, Bangalore.
Phase 2 Sai Krushna Mandir
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living was that I was forgetting things, having minor
mishaps and being extremely absent-minded. I was
quite perplexed and was thinking how can I stop this
and become slower and more organized.
A thought suddenly struck me about Swami’s
teachings about “Constant Integrated Awareness.” I
have heard this phrase from Swami directly in His
innumerable discourses. I used to think and almost
mock at Him by saying it’s a very fancy jargon that He
has invented! I was doing my MBA at Parthy and had
enough jargons to manage and remember. But at this
juncture when I was zooming in life I pondered about
this teaching and gradually began discovering its
power. It dawned on me that it’s actually a very very
powerful phrase. The English language has amazing
variety of words for the same meaning and each
word has its intensity and power but this phrase has 3
powerful words and it started motivating me
whenever I thought about it.
So before doing anything and almost on an hourly
basis I started telling myself about living with
Constant Integrated Awareness. This meant to me
that I was going to be very aware of my surroundings
and I will be steady (not too slow) and will be very
mindful of the actions I needed to do and the best
way to do it. Actually it a little difficult to express it in
words as it a very elaborate concept. I started
enjoying the benefits of it almost immediately, I did
not forget anything, and I did things better, faster
and more efficiently. My memory also improved, I
took lists from home and memorized them instead of
jotting every small thing down. Working with
computers dumbs us down to such an extent that we
are too lazy to remember even the smallest of things.
CIA has become an everyday part of my life and it
even improves my creativity and I try to think of
solutions to complex problems. That’s the challenge
of life. Above all it gives me some satisfaction that I
am committed to at least one teaching of Swami and
am trying to be honest about following it.
Suddenly my survival instinct kicked in. I bent my
right elbow and hit back at the chest of the man
behind me. Hmmp came a sound. I knew it had
found its mark. The hand yet remained on my mouth.
This time I attacked the hand. With both hands I
grabbed the huge hand on my mouth, it loosened a
bit. I gasped and caught some air and fought harder. I
could feel the beads of perspiration forming on my
brow and slowing trickling off my temples. I bent a
little and then with sharp turn of my feet tried to
swing around to throw my attacker off balance. He
seemed too big for me he hardly moved, but
suddenly I felt free of the cage around my mouth.
The first breath I took sounded through the whole
stairway. I turned around and stood facing the
stairway going down. It was as deserted as it had
been. The same dim glow of the light and the
creeping mist. As I took in deep breaths of air I felt
the chilly air burning through my lungs. The cold was
gone and my body burned with fear and yet unseen
threat to my life. Something made me look to the
darkened corner on my left, where a door existed to
an apartment that was occupied long ago by a person
who then and went to live in the inner city. Was there
a silhouette of a man there. “WHO IS THERE, SHOW
YOURSELF. WHO IS IT,” I shouted. The whole
The Night by T.R. Mist
T.R Mist is a new entrant to Venugaanam. He is a resident of Puttaparthi and would be contributing a serialized story “The
Night”.
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building shook with my frenzied shouts borne out of
the instinct of self-preservation. Silence. My heart
pounded hard. “Ha ha ha,” came a reply.
“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU SHOW YOURSELF”, I
shouted back. This time a tall muscular figure in a
long black coat walked a pace up towards me from
the dark corner.
As it came forward the dim light of the stairway
slanted upward across its face. A round balding head
and a strongly set jaw. A feeling of relief swept over
me.
“How dare you?”, I shouted and grabbed the collar of
the coat of my best friend and landed a few punches
in the pit of his abdomen. He just laughed. “I am
having flab there, won’t really hurt”, he said. “Had
you taken a few moments more to remove your
hand, you could have in fact started arranging for my
funeral,” I said.
“Oh come on I did not hold you for so long. It was just
a few moments, yeah but what would have definitely
killed you was your fear, ” he retorted.
“Sure, some friends I have. Ok when was the last time
you paid a visit?”
“That was pretty recent, hmm some two months
ago.”
“Great.” A well-directed kick went straight into his
shin.
“Owooo”, he cried.
“Ha ha ha ha.” It was my turn to me merry.
My friend I will call him K, well not because of any
Kafkaesque connection, but because his name starts
with the letter K. And may be if you wish, there is
definitely some Kafkaesque calm about him.
We had known each other since our childhood we
had grown up together. Since his childhood K has had
a strange kind of gravitas about him. A calmness, all
knowing, yet restrained. I had known him long yet, in
some strange corner of my heart I knew, I could never
fathom the depths at which his mind freely roamed.
Seemed as if to be a part of the crowd he made
himself look stupid.
He was tall, lean, muscular, with a round face and
brown eyes and with a strength which defied his
frame and lately a paunch was making its presence
felt. His opinions always seemed to be balanced
rather being on the extremes and in the dark insane
world, he seemed to be one of the few sane people I
could share my opinions with. And yes just like me he
despised the inner city. We were both together on
the fringes.
The door of my apartment creeked open and the
musty smell of the room took over. I switched on the
lights and opened the large window opposite the
main door. Afar we could see the light globs turning
bright orange before fading into black, fabricating a
sun set.
I turned and looked at K. He smirked.
“Come on don’t get me started on these globs,” he
said. “Either the people are dumb or the
municipality,” he added.
“Hey don’t say that, after the Sun went out these
light globs, no sorry, let me use the word used by the
municipality and the inner city people use for them,
‘the suns’. So after the Sun went out these ‘the suns’
have become the light givers, the sustainers, the
nourishers of the population,” I laughed.
“And there are fools like you and of course me, who
prefer not to be drenched in the electric glory of
these beautiful suns, and prefer to remain on the
fringes and wait for the real Sun to reappear,” K said
and added, “shame on us.” Our laughter shook the
entire apartment.
“ I don’t understand what makes the inner city people
so happy? I see only misery. I see only darkness, I only
see artificiality, all lies and everything fake. How can
they not see the same?,” I asked.
K smiled. “Let me tell you a story. Well may not be a
story after all, there might be some truth in it. So it
goes like this. In some country, a zoologist wanted to
study the behavior of a wild gorilla, when confined to
an isolated room. So he got a wild gorilla to his
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laboratory and locked it in a room. Then when he put
his eye in the keyhole to see what the gorilla was
doing, you know what he saw?” he asked.
I shrugged my shoulders.
K continued, “he saw the eye of the gorilla. Ha ha ha
ha.”
“So?”, I asked.
“Come on use your brains,” K said.
With a start, I understood, what K was trying to
explain, with his pretty much off the mark story. He
was trying to tell me that the way I felt about the
inner city people, they may be feeling the same way
about us, the people on the fringes.
“So you mean to say that, they may be thinking us to
be completely out of our minds that we are not able
to enjoy the life under the light globs?” I asked
incredulously.
“Why not? Don’t they have the freedom to think like
that?” K asked. “In fact they may say that the Sun has
given us so much, how then can we keep expecting
more from him. Come to think of it in another way,
the electricity which lights up the light globs, and
gets us food by running our green houses, comes
from fossil fuels for which indirectly the Sun was
responsible,” he smiled.
“Yeah sure, then I can definitely say one thing”
“And what is that” K asked.
“That they are definitely gorillas.”
Laughter rumbled across the entire deserted street
and we finally had to quieten ourselves down lest
some municipality constables down in the street raise
an objection. The constables seldom came to this
part of the town but, we had seen some of them
tucked up in their overalls since the light globs had
suddenly failed during ‘mid-day’ a few months ago. I
could little decipher the connection between the light
globs failing and the constables roaming around in
the fringes.
The cold wind was rushing in from the open window
and as the musty smell of the room became more
bearable, I reached for the window and pulled it shut.
Something on the table next to the window caught
K’s attention. He reached out and caught a strip of
medicines which, in some reckless moment I had left
there without realizing that it could lead me into
trouble if K laid his hands on it.
“What is this,” he asked. Taking the strip close to his
eyes for a closer inspection and turning towards the
light. “Goodness,” he cried. “Anti-depressants?
Aren’t they anti-depressants?” There was a deep
shock in his voice.
I felt weak at my knees and my throat went dry. “Nah
nothing,” I tried to dismiss his shock. “The doctor told
me to take it if I had trouble sleeping, and who does
not have trouble sleeping in this artificial night. I
assure you depression is not the reason I am taking
them,” I replied.
K seemed satisfied and his sudden shock of the
discovery of an anti-depressant drug in my house
seemed mitigated. I sighed an inaudible sigh in relief.
The truth was, however, that I was suffering, what
the physician said was a moderate form of
depression. I decided never to share it with K so as
not to hurt him. We have to hide certain things from
our loved ones, lest they feel hurt cause they care for
us so much.
K could cook well so it became an off day for me from
cooking. But even he could not add any zing to the
bland greenhouse vegetables. After a bland dinner of
cooked vegetables and some bread, K left for his
solitary walk to the other end of the same street
where he lived.
After K left, I gazed through the window glass which,
was gradually frosting and kept thinking about the
story of the gorilla he had told me. He was definitely
right. The inner city could hardly understand, why we
lived like a bunch of non-conformists on the fringes.
For them the phase of Sun was over and done with.
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For them the Sun showed himself through the light
globs, the green houses, the bright shops in the
market place, the ‘sun’ parlours, the artificial lights
and the pleasures which, the inner city brought. It did
not seem to matter to them that the city had literally
turned into a cold wasteland, but they were warm,
their families were warm and they could not care less.
To be continued…….
Our neighbour Sastry garu commented, " Ours is a
special street, we always have the sacred akash
ganga falling on us from heavens and flowing
through the street every now and then. Especially
during the summer months it is full of water
quenching the thirst of the parched cement road.”
Puttaparthi has the luxury of having one bore well in
each apartment. Due to the boon of uninterrupted
power supply, the denizens have the comfort of
switching on the bore well whenever they want.
Chalapati the caretaker of a neighbouring building
says, his chest puffed up with pride, “I was in
Anantapur recently, there they have twelve hours of
power cuts but we have none in Parthi, you see this is
the abode of the lord.” He switches on the motor
switch and adds, “Cities like Kurnool and Vijayawada
have minimum eight to ten hours of power cuts. I
heard that even Hyderabad has a load shedding of six
hours a day. Even the temple town of Tirupati faces a
load shedding of six hours.”
What is unusual is that the promptness in switching
on is lacking in promptly switching off the motor
switch. Then comes the incessant cascade of akash
ganga and it flows through this street of Parthi,
sometimes stopping at one place due to the lack of
engineering expertise of the contractors who laid the
cement roads known as pothole. All the buildings
around and their residents feel like Bhagirathas who
have taken the responsibility of getting the Ganga
not from the heavens but from their respective
‘building peaks’ generally from their ‘sintex’ glaciers.
Our apartment is the only one which is committing
the sin of first of all not adding a tributary to this
heavenly Ganges and then showing the audacity of
trying to prevent this cascade of water which has
come only to slake the thirst of the road and few two
wheelers and four wheelers eagerly parked to
experience its limpid waters.
Unfortunately this Ganga in the words of Sastry garu
again, ‘gets transformed into a vaitarni river (a
mythological river separating hell and heaven). We
actually have the ordeal of proving ourselves pure
and holy by crossing it every day.
O! Chalapati, please switch off the motor, you should
be careful, don’t waste water like this” I yell, when he
walks past quite leisurely, getting drenched in his
contribution to the akash ganga. “No problem sir, the
road has not been washed for quite some time, it is a
good service if some water overflows.” Then with
utter indifference he ripostes avoiding eye contact,
“You see, so many sparrows, pigeons, dogs, cats
quench their thirst.”
It has become an invariable practice of our family to
run to the nearby buildings and turn off the motor
switch. We know the motor switches of all the
buildings perhaps better than the residents of these
apartments. Our auditory capabilities have become
Don’t Waste Water by KVRK Bhargav
Bhargav is a student of Swami who after completing his B.Tech in Textile Engineering graduated with an MBA from
the the Sri Sathya Sai University in 2001. Ever since, he has had the great fortune of waiting for Swami’s direct
guidance. He has been blessed with many interactions with Swami. Currently, he helps out at the University
Administrative Block.
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www.saikrushnacharitabletrust.org
very strong, I exclaim, ‘this is Sai Prema apartment or
that is the Sai Raghavendra apartment or the Sai
Sainik apartment’, immediately after hearing a gush
of water from heavens. My brother says in
exasperation, “I will go and turn off the switch, I can’t
bear the water getting wasted.”
We the residents of Satya Sai Soudham had an image
of infallibility and all others were goaded by our
conscience acting as their alter- ego, in preventing
wastage of water. But they got relieved of this
burden of conscience one day. It was the IPL going on
in full swing. We were glued to the TV to watch the
whirlwind knock of Gayle. The ‘Gaylestorm’ stuck us
unawares and our ‘cement tank’ glacier melted first
time ever and off came our contribution to the akash
ganga to the merriment of many denizens of our
street. By the time we realized there was a big pool of
water in front of our house. One of us switched on
our motor and forgot to turn it off. I immediately
went and turned it off.
Many of the residents came out, especially Chalapati
and looked at the new tributary with glee. Next
morning, few of them came to me and gave a piece
of advice, “Sir, you should be careful, don’t waste
water like this.”