From Team Venugaanam’s Desk

We are delighted to bring to you the February 2013 edition of Venugaanam. This edition begins with Swami’s Divine exhortation to all to develop unwavering faith, love and devotion for God. The Pandavas and Gopikas were exemplars of such devotion and they firmly believed that Krushna will always protect them and the Lord never fails his devotees. 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.

In the section on Astrology and Spirituality, Bhargav shares his insights on how Sun typifies the soul and the significance of this important star in the birth chart. He also describes characteristics that arise from the presence of a powerful sun in the horoscope of an individual.

In the section on ‘A Journey Within’, Sriram shares his insights on what how all of us are exactly where we have chosen to be. Life is a question of choice and not chance he opines.

Shrikanth shares an interesting incident from the life of the celebrated saint Thyagaraja and shows how this saint had implicit faith in Lord Rama and how His grace poured on the saint in immense measure.

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 where Swami illustrated how one can remove one’s ego by understanding what a small speck of the universe each one of us is.

A leader is one who understands and leads his team to achieve better results. A leader takes responsibility during a crisis and gives credit to the team where success is due. In his article, Prakash shares his insights on what constitutes true leadership.

There have been some significant developments last month.  Construction is progressing rapidly and the external wall masonry, plumbing and electrical work are being done for the second floor also. The flooring with vitrified tiles and the external wall painting are all expected to give Sai Krushna Mandir a homely and aesthetic appeal to welcome the children by April/ May. Read more in the construction 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! 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

Swami's Discourse- Krishna : incarnation of love

Love is God; the Cosmos is permeated with Love.

Assuming the Love form, to save His beloved ones,

Showering the nectarine stream of Love,

Krishna came as the embodiment of Love for those yearning for

Him.

Everything is born out of pure Love;

All joy is derived from unalloyed Love;

So are Truth, Sacrifice, Peace and Forbearance

If Love is lacking, there can be no contentment.

This is the path of Sai and the word of Truth.

Atmajyoti

Sri Lakshmi Narayan Aithal

THE  WORLD  IS  AN  IMAGE  IN  A  MIRROR  APPEARS  IN  THE  UNIQUE  SELF.

 

 (Objection: -) If  the  cognition  of  the  world  is  simply  illusionary,   after  obtaining  the  knowledge  of  the  Self,  should  it  not  disappear,  as  the  snake  in  the  rope,  etc.  Disappear?

   (Relief: -) From  the  view  point  of  reality  we  have  answered  this  objection.  Now,  we  are  going  to  give  another  consolatory  solution,  accepting  that  the  world  really  exists  and  it  appears  empirically.  An  appearance  which  doesn’t  really  exist  may  continue  to  appear  even  after  knowing  the  reality.  For an instance, the reflection in a mirror can be taken.  Children  believe  their  respective  reflections  in  the  mirror  to  be  another  child  alone  and  after  a  few  days  they  understand  that  is  the  reflection,  and  really  there  is  no  child.  Even  after  this  understanding  the  reflection  continues  to  appear,  isn’t  it?  Similarly,  the  world  doesn’t  have  a  separate  existence;  its  existence  is  that  of  the  Big  Self,  itself;  and  even  after  knowing  this  reality,  the  world  continues  to  appear.

Construction Updates- Sai Krushna Mandir

With the Divine Blessings and grace of our Beloved Swami, the ground floor of Phase 1 of the children’s home – Sai Krushna Mandir – will be operational soon. While there are numerous challenges, the SKM construction team is working to ensure that the construction and funding are all moving along expected timelines.

Astrology and Spirituality: Sun- Harbinger of life

KVRKBhargav

The vibrant orange orb, peeped into the world from the eastern horizon, beckoning all the denizens to forsake the lap of sleep and start the day. The cock announced the arrival of the morn and the birds were on their wings. The temple bells called the devout for worship, azaan echoed from a nearby mosque, a cowherd set out with his flock of cattle to the country side and a pious housewife adorned her doorstep with tasteful rangolis.

The Journey Within- The Drama of Life

Sriram S

 



Everybody says they want to be happy. We hardly ever come across anyone who willingly seeks negativity or troubles. Yes, we have all heard of masochists and also those that yearn for God and salvation through punishing themselves. But then by calling them masochists, we are certainly hinting at a truth that the ‘normal’ people do not (want to) hurt themselves. And yet, in our lives we come across more people going through trials and tribulations and turmoil than would seem ‘normal’ ---especially when everyone is seeking happiness.

What is the cause of this suffering then?

Inspiring life of Saint Tyagaraja

Srikant Srinivasan

 To appreciate the greatness of Saint Thyagaraja, we must understand his characteristics.  It is well known that Saint Thyagaraja is a great devotee of Lord Rama.  He was also an accomplished astrologer and despite cajoling by his elder brother he took the path of devotional singing.  The saint went around the town singing his devotional kritis.   The citizens, who were deeply inspired by the saint’s soulful songs, offered him dakshina of fruits/food which was brought home and Saint Thyagaraja, his wife, and daughter took as prasadam.  

Golden Moments- IV

Soumya Roopa

  

 The golden day had finally dawned on 4^th march 1988 when bhagwan came to the B.Ed college at Brindavan. We had yearned for 10 long months for Bhagwan to visit us and give us an opportunity for Darshan, sparshan and sambhashanam seeing the Lord , touching His Feet and talking with Him.

 On third march we got the message that our Beloved lord would be coming to the hostel and college at Brindavan, Bangalore. So we arranged the education in human values exhibition, cleaned everything and made a few snacks like pakodas etc to offer Bhagawan.

Real Leadership

Prakash Srinivasan


One of the most ambiguous topics which has been extensively debated is what constitutes good leadership? Is it just confined to corporate life, is it about seniority or it is inherited?
The life stories from great leaders are an easy way to understand leadership and inculcate that into our own life. I would like to share one such inspiring story.
It was one of the busy days for ISRO, India‟s premier space launch body, they were getting ready for another rocket launch and everything had been planned to the last detail. At the critical launch moment the countdown began and when the rocket was to be launched something happened and the rocket failed to take-off. The ISRO team checked everything and everything looked fine but still the rocket could not be launched. Finally, the rocket launch had to be called-off and an investigation was ordered for the failure. During the post-launch press conference, the head of ISRO then attended the conference and he had asked all his scientists that he would assume the responsibility for the debacle and hence he would attend the press conference. During the press conference, the chief said that the ISRO team would investigate and determine what caused the technical snag and they would have another successful launch.
After a few months, the ISRO team readied another launch and the rocket was launched successfully the second time. The team was elated that they had reversed their earlier loss. Once again when the press conference was being convened, but this time, the chief of the team asked his senior scientists to attend the conference without attending it himself.
The chief who is mentioned above was Vikram Sarabhai, the head of ISRO for many years.
The above anecdote clearly illustrates some of the important aspects of a leadership: A true leader owns up the failure and gives credit to his team for the success. A true leader is selfless
It is very rare to find such leaders today and blessed are those countries/organizations who are blessed with such leaders.