From Team Venugaanam

We are delighted to bring you the 25^th edition of Venugaanam this August. With Swami’s grace and your contribution, we enter the third year of Venugaanam with this edition. This month, we bring excerpts from Swami’s Divine Discourses on Guru Poornima. Read this know His message of ‘Grow in Love’.

In Atmajyothi, we continue with a new series of discussion on NaradaBhakthi Sutras. These Sutras or aphorisms contain the secret of true devotion and highlight its glory.

In the article- “Initiation of Swami Namdev”Swaminathan quotes the story of how Swami Namdev got the deeksha of humility and devotion from his guru.

Prakash gives us a quick insight into the world of phone applications that are making life easy. Read his article “Apps- Revolutionising our Lives”.

T R Mist starts off a new serialized story “the Night” which is bound to keep you hooked on.

SaiKrushnaMandir now has four children who have been residing in the children’s home and attending school for the last one month. With Swami’s blessings, we have identified a cook. To know more, read the construction update.

We also 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 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.

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

SaiKrushna Charitable Trust

Grow in Love- The Message of Gurupoornima

The festival of Guru Poornima is one of the most significant celebrations in the Sai calendar. Over the years, Bhagavan has used this occasion for the unfurling of many landmark events of His mission, be it the opening ceremony of the first college campus of Sri SathyaSai University in 1971, or the inauguration of the Sri SathyaSai Water Supply Project, Stage-I in 1995, or the announcement for the establishment of Sri SathyaSai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Whitefield, in 1999, or the revelation that He is in fact the Shiva-Shakthi Avatar on earth in 1963. And on every one of these momentous days He blessed the devotees with a profound discourse.

Many wonder what is so significant about Guru Poornima? Why do we celebrate this festival? And how should we observe this day? Bhagavan has given clear answers to all these and much more. Let us now recapitulate this immortal message of the Sadguru, the Supreme Teacher, through a few simple questions.Top of Form

Atmajyoti- The Eternal light of Satchidananda

by Shri Lakshminarayan Aithal

MEANING OFव्याख्यास्यामः वि(very clearly), आ(by all manners)and ख्यास्यामः(we ana-lyse) – are three parts in the word व्याख्यास्यामः .There is a danger of misunderstanding devotion that it is similar to ordinary worldly love if that word is not clearly defined. We discuss the following questions : What is devotion ? What is its characteristic feature ? What are its appearing different forms ? What are its means that cause its appearance ? How does its fruit touch the mind ? What are the qualities of devotees ? The meaning of all answers are included in the आpart of the word.
In this manner, in this aphorism of solemn declaration – the devotion which is the subject matter of the scripture and its use are clearly indicated .

The Making of SaiKrushnaMandir

Saikrushna mandir after Phase 2

With the Divine Blessings and grace of our Beloved Swami, the Phase 1 of the children’s home – SaiKrushnaMandir – has begun operations from June 23^rd, 2013.. The “Gruhapravesam”(House Warming Ceremony) of the children’s home was held on 3^rd June. The first four children have joined and two more will be joining in the first week of July. The children are attending school at the associated Sharavathi Higher Primary School. We thank Swami for sending us a cook and helper for the children’s home. We have also found some volunteers to live with and take care of the children. We also invite applications for a few more suitable caretakers.  The caretakers would also be paid suitable 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 are very happy to have had devotees from SaiGruhalakshmi family, SaiGitanjali and PadmanabhanagarSamiti come and visit SaiKrushnaMandir in the month of July.

Initiation of Swami Namdev

by Swaminathan


'Swami Namdev' would not entirely be a new name to most of the Hindus, especially if they are more enchanted towards PanduRanga - a form of Sri Krishna himself. Some of his contemporaries, who are known to this world through their devotion to PanduRanga are Swami Gora Kumba, Swami Dynaeshwar, MuktaBhai, JanaaBhai etc.

Swami Namdev was one of those very few blessed children of the Lord - who happened to have the divine sight of the Lord PanduRanga himself at the age of five. A Marathi Abhang [ Song parsing Lord Panduranga], says that, Lord descends himself and starts dancing with love and joy, the moment Namdev starts singing. The thought of getting the sight of the Lord himself dancing, whenever he sings on him, had him held as a victim of his ego for a short span of time.

Apps- Revolutionizing our lives

by Prakash Srinivasan

One of the products of the modern smartphone-tablet age are apps. I was quite ignorant of apps until a year ago when I changed my phone and got a basic Android smartphone. Over the past year I have discovered quite a few apps which are actually very useful and they are a perfect substitute for many things I don’t need to buy (will explain this soon). I will list and shortly explain the apps which have made life better for me, saving me time and money and the cherry on the cake is that all of them are free!

The Night

By T R Mist

It was the haze of dark nothingness that bothered me always. It is something I could never get away from, even in those brightly lit streets with various kinds of shops that sold happiness. As I looked I saw men, women and their children happy, some of whom I knew, others who were strangers enter and exit from these brightly lit shops of a dreary city, with an air of nonchalance. They had what they wanted. And they were happy. For them the haze seemed nowhere. I had stopped gazing too long and with a start I started back on my way. Bright lights were not for me.