Swami's Discourse- Revere and Love Your Parents

There is a subtle difference between caste and culture. You belong to the caste of humanity, for, there is only one caste - the caste of humanity. It is an inborn gift from your parents. On the other hand, the culture is something that is adopted in your life.

Culture teaches you what is to be done and how. It is based upon certain traditions. None can change your caste which is humanity. Based upon your inborn  caste of humanity, you can follow a culture. Another important point to be noted in this context is that caste and culture devoid of discrimination are not only useless, but harmful too. Your knowledge and sharp intellect are not that important. Discrimination is of utmost importance. You must be able to choose that which is useful and necessary for you. You have to switch on a light when you are in darkness. It is not proper to switch on a light when there is already light in the room.

Educare and Children- How Kids can Influence Parents

Mangala Shankar

(Mangala Shankar has completed her Masters in Chemistry from the Madras University in 1997 and moved to United States since 1998. She has worked in an International Organization in Quality Control for several years. Mangala Shankar has keen interest in Music and Vedam and she plays veena. She is also a lead Bhajan singer and teaches kids with bhajans and is also an SSE Teacher.)


I would like to take an opportunity to share a sweet and loving incident that I witnessed regarding how Swami pulls each one to His fold. God is Universal and He lets all His devotes enjoy the ambrosia of His love irrespective of which form we may be attached to.

There was a kid from New Jersey who was 7 years old learning bhajans from a bhajan teacher in New York over the phone for 8 months. The kid had not met the teacher.

His mother was an ardent devotee of Swami. The boy’s father was a devotee of Lord Muruga. On Guru Poornima day this year, the boy, his mother and father came to attend the program and speech at New York. Since the boy’s father was not interested in hearing the speech, he sat outside in his car during the morning program. The boy and the mother were attending the program.

During the lunch break, the boy told his mom,” Please ask dad to also come inside and sit and attend the program instead of standing outside. We will ask him to think they are talking about Muruga and not Swami”. He told his dad, “Dad please think of Lord Muruga and not Sai Baba during the speech and kindly attend”. The dad reluctantly agreed to the child’s request. All three of them sat together in the afternoon program. His father sat through the program and enjoyed every bit of it as the speaker was talking about the God aspect in general. On the way back the Dad was constantly talking about how nice the session was and regretted that he missed attending the first half of it.

The Dad continued to remember the speech even after several days. Finally the bhajan teacher met the kid during the Gurupoornima program. This incident was shared by the Mom to the bhajan teacher and she thanked immensely Swami’s grace and blessings on her husband. She felt how sweetly the son brought his Dad to attend and enjoy Swami as Lord Muruga.

CHILDREN’S CORNER: SCHOOL UPDATE

Our children in the Sharavathi Kannada Higher Primary School have successfully completed their examinations. The teachers have evaluated the papers and the results have been announced. The performance of the children has been much better this semester. The school is now closed for the summer vacations and the teachers and children are off for a well deserved break. In the month of May, the classrooms of the primary school will be given a new look with whitewashing of walls, painting of blackboards and making the classroom more fun and informative with posters/ exhibits etc. On their return, the children will also be given text books, note books, pencil boxes, geometry boxes, tables books and other items of stationery completely free of charge. The School Management Team is working to finish all of this before the school re-opens on 28th May, 2012.

We close this section with a small story for the children and wish them all a happy and enjoyable summer vacation. The story has been adapted from RadioSai and is a reminder that love and respect for parents is a direct way to please God.

Revere Parents and receive God's Grace- Chinna Katha

Once when Adi Sankara’s parents were to leave the house for some work, his father instructed him thus, “My dear son, you know that I daily worship the Goddess in our house and later distribute the naivedya (offerings) to all the people. Similarly, when your mother and I are away, will you please make the offering to Goddess?” The obedient son that Sankara was he immediately agreed to fulfill his father’s commands. And so after his parents left, he poured some milk into a cup and kept it before the idol of the Goddess and prayed to her “Mother! Please accept this milk which I am offering”. But despite his fervent prayers, the Mother neither took the milk, nor did she appear. The young boy was understandably disappointed, but did not give up. He prayed again, “Mother! Mother! You accept the offerings that my father makes to your daily! What sins have these hands of mine committed that you are not accepting the offering which I am giving to you?”
He continued to pray to her earnestly from the innermost depths of his heart, so much so that he was even prepared to sacrifice his life! Sankara told himself, “My father asked me to offer this milk to the goddess but I am not able to do so because the goddess is not receiving the offering, which I made. It is better that I die”. He went out and brought a big stone to kill himself. But the compassionate Mother, the Mother of the Universe could not keep herself away for too long.
Moved by Sankara’s unsullied devotion and sincerity, she at once appeared before him and drank the milk that he had offered and then placed the empty cup before him. The boy was very glad that the Mother of the Universe came and drank the milk. But now there was nothing left in the cup.

He thought that his father would certainly ask for the naiveidya (consecrated offering) of the God when he returned. He feared that the father may think that he drank away all the milk and hence may become angry with him. And therefore he prayed to the Goddess again.

This time asking her, “O Mother, Please give me at least a drop of milk so that I may be able to give it to my father”. But the Goddess did not come. He again sincerely continued to pray; the Goddess was yet again moved by his love and faith and she appeared before him. But since she was not able to give the milk that she drank, she gave her own milk and filled the cup!

It is believed that because Sankara was blessed to taste the Divine milk, he could attain the highest pinnacle of knowledge and wisdom. But the main essence of the story lies in the son’s blind and complete devotion to fulfill his father’s wishes. Because Sankara tried hard to please his father, he was able to get the Goddess of the Universe to manifest Herself before him.

Loving our parents and showing respect for them is a direct way to earn the grace and blessings of our divine parent.

- Baba