From Team Venugaanam's desk

We are delighted to bring to you the January 2013 New Year edition of Venugaanam. This edition begins with Swami‟s Divine exhortation to all to value the friendship with God as the only permanent relationship. It is this friendship which helps man to get over ignorance. What is the purpose of life and how does one achieve it? Read this discourse of Swami and know it in His own words.
In Atmajyothi, we continue the deliberation on realizing our inner nature and true potential. We are all aspects of the One Self and this deliberation throws light on how we can de-identify ourselves from the body mind complex.
Shirdi Baba always stressed on the importance of Shraddha and Saburi (intense faith and persevering patience) as the fundamentals of spiritual success. Bhargav shares his experience with Swami and how the same understanding dawned on him as a result of this experience.
SowmyaRoopa shares her experiences as a student of the Anantapur campus. In the series called Golden moments , she narrates incidents that happened during those precious years and specific instructions from Swami to improve our lives. In this article she shares an interview wherein Swami highlighted the essence of education and how one can get rid of ignorance.
“A book is man‟s best companion”. It can provide entertainment when one is bored and inspiration to the depressed. In the article on Book Recommendation- Prakash speaks on the best books he has read and how these have helped to share his life.
There have been some significant developments last month. Construction is progressing rapidly and the masonry, plumbing and electrical work are being done for the first floor also.
The New Year and Christmas celebrations were held on 30th December 2012, at Phase 1 of Sai Krushna Mandir amidst much grandeur. It was wonderful to have members of the Sai Grihalakshmi Apartments family, students, devotees and their families participate in the grand function. The great take away from this function was the amount that can be achieved when dedicated families and individuals come together for Swami's work keeping Him as the center and reason of their lives. As Swami says, when like minded people unite for a noble purpose, wonders can be achieved.
Read more in the update on construction and Swami‟s birthday celebrations update.
We are happy to have your feedback on how to make „Venugaanam‟ a better communication tool. You may kindly mail us at contactus@saikrushnamandir.org . Do feel free to share with us your experiences in following Swami‟s teachings or on any other theme of your choice.
Happy reading! Wish you all a Very happy and festive New Year 2013. Even as we celebrate the onset of another New Year - may Swami turn our lives into a celebration of His message of love and service.
With All our Prema,
Team Venugaanam
Sai Krushna Charitable Trust

GOD as Friend

(An extract from the divine discourse of Bhagwan Baba on 14/01/1991)

Do not brag about your learning,
Nor proclaim your affluence;
Don't lose your head over your wealth,
Nor boast about your progeny;
Do not proclaim you are a donor,
Nor feel elated because you are Swami's sevak;
Do not exult over your valour,
Or over your accomplishments;
When you win the approbation of a few
The Lotus-eyed Lord will bless you.
His feet are everywhere;
His eyes and Heads are everywhere;
With His ears in all directions,
Encompassing everything, stands the Lord.

DEAR Students and teachers! Embodiments of Divine Love! The Lord pervades everything in the cosmos with His myriad feet, hands, eyes, faces and ears. But man, not recognising the fact, imagines he is the doer and indulges in all kinds of speculation, thinking that no one knows about them. The Lord sees everything. No one can conceal anything from Him. He dwells inside and outside every living thing. Hence nothing can be hidden from Him. God dwells in all beings in one and the same form. Although living beings may vary from each other, God is One and indivisible. The sun shines over the water in the lake, in a well, in a vessel, in a river or over the ocean. Although the sun is one, he is reflected in different ways. The containers are varied, but God is one' and the same in all beings. Anthike Sath (The Divine is the nearest). There is nothing in the world nearer to one than the Divine.

Atma Jyoti

Sri Laxmi Narayana Aithal


(This is a guided discussion on the essence of Vedanta which shows us how to deliberate and reach the conclusion that the real I is actually Divine and not the mind-body-intellect complex.)
Q. When both the Self and the world exist; why there is a rule that the world alone appears and the Self doesn‟t?
(Relief: -) The world doesn‟t appear apart from the Self; but the Self, alone, without binding of the world, exists independently. For an instance, the Self exists invariably in the deep-sleep; then, the world never exists. Therefore, the world alone without the Self is not real; and the existence of the world is due to that of the Self; and this is the conclusion. As the existence of the world is falsified, so that of the Self is never falsified; and it is not possible to falsify the existence of the Self. Therefore, the Self, alone, is the Reality and the world is a mere appearance alone.

Sraddha and Saburi (Faith and Patience)

KVRK Bhargav





It was time for evening darshan. All the students, rushed to take strategic locations to get a look, a smile, a pat, padanamaskar or if lucky enough few words of exchange from our beloved Lord. I was lucky enough to sit in first line without going through all this hassle as I got a special opportunity to get the sacred threads blessed by Him.
It was the year 2000, Swami performed our Upanayanam ceremony, in February. All the vatus as they are addressed came in a procession accompanied by their parents, to the Sai Kulwant Hall clad in yellow dhoti and angavastram and carrying a small piece of yellow cloth tied to a staff known as the deeksha danda, the staff of determination. We all were provided a copper vessel and spoon, a beautiful photo of Swami were made to go through the ceremony very scrupulously. Bhagawan went around the hall blessed all, posed for photographs with a lucky few and spoke to few students. In one such conversations, he made a profound declaration that if all the students who are getting initiation into the sacred Gayatri mantra sincerely do Sandhya worship, there won't be any problems in the world. The students decided to perform Sandhya regularly.

Golden Moments

Soumya Roopa


It was a joyous moment, when we were called by Bhagwan for an interview on 22nd feb 1987, Sunday .Bhagwan spoke to us the final year under graduates and post graduates studends, from 4.20pm till 5.45 pm. In the interview room at prashanthi nilayam, we had prayed for this valuable interview for many months, since it would perhaps be the only interaction with Bhagwan before we left the portals of His university.
Swami knows everything, all that you do .But you don‟t know that Swami knows everything, that is the difference between you and Me .The reason for this is your ignorance. Even death is better than ignorance. There are three reasons for ignorance- Mala, Vikshepa and Avarna.

Book Recommendations

                Prakash Srinivasan





One of the most constructive pastimes is reading of books and all of us have definitely read many books in our lives though our interests would vary. Even with the advent of computers, tablets and the latest technology the art of book-reading never seems to wane. Of course, the format of reading has changed to ebooks and it is another sunrise industry in the making. In the olden days book shops were the favourite hangout places for many people and even today many people swear by it though the numbers have dwindled.
Books have influenced our lives and some great books have even changed lives, I talk about a few books that have changed my life and made it more enriching.
1. Tough Times Do not Last but Tough People Do: This is a classic bestseller by acclaimed author Robert Schuller. Whenever you feel down, you can pick up any random page from this book and after 5 minutes you will feel that your trouble is not as big as we think and many people have gone though worse situations.
2. The 4 Hour Work Week: This is a pathbreaking book by Tim Ferris where he talks about how we can escape the 9-5 drudgery and live life doing what we really love and yet live comfortably.
3. Mahabharata by C.Rajagopalachari: This is a wonderful and concise retelling of one of the greatest epics of the world. Rajagopalachari narrates the wondrous tale in a simple way yet effective manner preserving the tension in the story.
4. Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth by Peter Kelder: This is a book that I read recently and it talks about the 5 Tibetan rites (simple yogasanas) which will keep us in the best of health and it has also defied ageing and made people come back to their youthful appearance in many cases.