Team Venugaanam's Desk

We are delighted to bring you the 28th edition of Venugaanam this November. With the impending deepavali festival and Swami’s birthday, we have few excerpts from Swami’s divine discourse which indicates about the internal and external meaning of deepavali.

In Atmajyothi, we continue with the “Two forms of devotion”, that we had started last week, as part of the Naradha Bhakti Sutras.

T R Mist continues the new serialized story “the Night” which is bound to keep you hooked on. This issue begins with the episode entitled The Game of Shadows.

Swamynathan had shared the story about Thotakacharya and the birth of Thotakashtakam.

Can telling a lie be of some good to any? An interesting perspective shared by a 7th grader Shivani Seshan  in her article.

Bhargav shares his thoughts on the polarities that two situations we face in life may offer us at the same time.

Sai Krushna Mandir is now 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 SKM update.

We are happy to have your feedback on how to make ‘Venugaanam’ a better communication tool. Please mail us at contactus@saikrushnamandir.org . Do feel free to share with us your articles, thoughts and ideas.

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

Swami's Discourse

 Deepavali- An event to signify the cleansing in ourselves

Though, at the time of birth, man has no good or bad qualities, changes occur in his nature due to

the food he consumes, and the influence of associates around him. One develops ego and attachment based on the company he keeps. As a person gets educated, he or she develops pride and entertains vainglorious thoughts about one's superiority over others. This conceit pollutes the heart.

When dirty water gets mixed with milk, the milk has to be boiled to make it pure. Likewise man has to undertake various types of Sadhana to purge his heart of impurities. Exercises such as meditation, Yajna or thapas can only provide mental satisfaction. It is only when the heart is melted in the heat of Divine love that one can succeed in getting rid of bad qualities and make the heart shine in its pristine effulgence. Just as. the sun's rays can bum a heap of cotton if the rays are concentrated by passing through a lens, the rays of the intellect will destroy one's bad qualities only when they are passed through the lens of Divine love.

Updates from Sai Krushna Mandir

The children are back in Sai Krushna Mandir and it feels like the fragrance is back in the air and the place is agog with excitement. The children had a nice vacation for the Navarathri festival and they are getting back to their school schedule. The children have all fared well in their examinations. The festival of Vijayadashami was celebrated with some festivity even as the children enjoyed the special sweets and snacks prepared at Sai Krushna Mandir. There was an important trust meeting held on 27^th October and it helped to focus on specific tasks to fulfill to meet the one year and three year plans of the trust in line with the long term vision of helping the underprivileged.

It has been decided to take about 18 children by November 2014, in tune with Swami’s command to increase the strength of children gradually. We are looking to absorb children in the age group of 5-8 so that they also study at the Sharavathi school getting English medium education. These children will be given free food, accommodation, education and above all a loving home until they become self-reliant. As earlier, the boys in Sai Krushna Mandir will be absorbed from the categories of:

• children having no parent
• children having only one parent
• children from very poor financial backgrounds

One important requirement towards this will be to get a suitable warden for the children. The ideal profile of this person will include the following:

ü      Service minded person

ü      Age preferably less than 40 years

ü      Any experience in a similar field will be preferred

ü      Knowledge of computers/ accounts handling will be an added plus

ü      Keen interest to grow and develop one’s own personality and at the same time work towards the development of children.

We expect that this will be a challenging role with ample scope for self-development and self-fulfillment. That said, a suitable person will also be paid well according to one’s experience, qualification and other factors which will be gauged in the selection interview. Food and accommodation will also be provided. Interested people may please e-mail their CV to us at contactus@saikrushnamandir.org.

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 and vegetables, spending time with the children and helping them learn and catch up with their curriculum.  

As you are all aware, Sai Krushna Charitable Trust completed 3 years on September 23, 2013. We are happy to let you know that as part of Swami’s birthday celebration, the Trust will be releasing its first Annual Report on 23^rd November, 2013. 

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.

Atmajyoti

Lakshmi Narayana Aithal

 TWO FORMS OF DEVOTION (continuation from last month) 

There is a differnence between worldly love and devotion. Worldly love is a mental  condition  which  originates  by  the  connection  of  objects  in  the  vicinity  of  sense-organs.  There  arises  a  mental  condition  according  to  the  form  of  an  object.  When  the  sensual objects  are  known,  the  following  conditions are  formed : Uncertainty (विकल्प)  of  the  object,  doubting  it (संशय), certainty  about  it (निश्चय) and  egoistically  attaching  to  it.  Similarly –

कामः सङ्कल्पो विचिकित्सा श्रद्धाsश्रद्धा धृतिरधृतिर्ह्रीर्भीरित्येतत्सर्वं मन एव ।।बृ. 1-5-3।।

Birth of Thotakashtakam

Swamynathan S

It would not be entirely new to many, if not to all to say that Adi shankara was one of the most prominent GURUs that 'Sanathana Dharma' had ever given to its children. Being the embodiment of Jnana Yoga and Advaitha Vedhantha, with-in a very short span of 32 years, he had stretched himself infinitely to bring light to several souls who were lost in the darkness of ignorance. While several minds can argue about the efforts an individual soul had to take to progress in the spiritual path, it is only the MASTER who can grant the ultimate liberation. It is their causeless love and mercy which protects and guide disciples and help them reach towards the ultimate experience. Through Thotakacharya, Adi Shankara taught the universe about how a disciple should be devoted towards his GURU, which is most important and infact, the only aspect that a spiritual aspirant must cultivate.

Is lying something bad all the time?

Shivani Seshan

Why Lying is okay at times.


Have you ever been told by your parent or guardian that you should never lie? However, it’s not always bad to lie because it can help save lives, preserve freedom, and help protect lives.


80 years ago, the Holocaust began, terrorizing every faithful Jew in Germany. If Jews were found by Nazis, they were put in concentration camps. There they would suffer from starvation, from deadly gasses, and death. In order help these people, other German citizens hid Jews from the Nazis in their attics. When the Nazis came to search their houses, the citizens risked their lives and lied about the Jews. This way the Jews were saved from dying.


Lying can help preserve freedom. When slavery was still allowed, slaves tried to escape the tyranny of their owners. Something that helped them do so was the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was a series of ‘safe’ houses where slaves could spend the night or when in danger. There was a lot of risk and lying involved because if the owners of the houses were caught, they could go to jail. Lying was involved because the owners had to lie that the slaves were not living in their houses.
Another incident was about a tortoise which was continuously being stoned by some children playing in the street, with an intention to kill it. Its strong shell left the tortoise unharmed. The perplexed children happened to see an elderly looking saint, who was passing by the place of incident. The children explained the situation and asked how the tortoise is unharmed. The saint laughed and said that the tortoise would die if it’s stoned, after turning it upside down. The children proceeded as per that and killed the tortoise. Truth ended up being something harmful at this point of time. A simple lie would have the spared the tortoise with life and saved the children from sins.

A lie which could save few lives is always better than the the truth that may harm millions.


(Shivani is an enthusiastic kid who is very interested in learning new stuffs in her life. Being a 7th grader in one of the reputed schools at US, she spends quality time in learning and appreciating arts such as classical dance, Carnatic music and have a great passion for science.)

The Night-IV

T R Mist


Continuation of Night-I, Night-II, Night-III

The Game of Shadows II

The story so far: The protagonist is leaving to meet his friends at the Sunshine Cafe when suddenly he is called out for from a dark alley. The man is an old acquaintance whom the protagonist had named Corto. Corto cryptically mentions about his involvement in the failure of the light globs of the city, which stuns the protagonist.

-------------------

“You with me?” I was too stunned to reply.

“You look like those frozen stumps of trees in the jungle”, he added. “Don’t look so confounded I have not even begun telling you what I have come to tell you.”

“You mean to say there is more. More of your dare-devilry and machoism, of which I need to be enlightened about?” I asked. Corto laughed. It was the first time I had ever heard him do it. But as the man’s nature, it was brief.

“Don’t you think I am here to boast about things that we have been doing, I came with a completely different purpose. I hardly venture out so openly, but today I have done it as the situation demanded it,” Corto said.

Flip Flop of Life

KVRKBhargav

A small street in the pilgrim town of Puttaparthi was getting ready for the marriage ceremony of Anand at Sai Prem Nivas, the house of Shastri's. The street was tastefully decorated with buntings, pandal was erected, the hard cement road sported rangolis of myriad colours and hues looking even more beautiful in a chain of blinking LED rope lights placed on either side of the street leading to the house from the main gopuram road.  Sai Prema Nivas was decorated like a bride with flowers and countless small decorative lights. People came dressed up in different types of fashionable clothes as if participating in a school fancy dress competition. There was a lingering aroma of the different delicacies which were being prepared in the make shift kitchen with street dogs loitering around and enjoying the fragrance with their olfactory capabilities. The blaring music from the latest Tollywood and Bollywood numbers interspersed with some devotional ones and bhajans created a din which overshadowed the sweet jingling of the chimes hanging at the entrance of the groom's house. Guests sitting in small circles used to burst into peals of laughter reliving some lighter moments of their college days. There was an atmosphere of joy and conviviality.