No Rear View Mirror

KVRK Bhargav  





Let us ask a fundamental question. Why do we use mirrors? It makes us feel good, makes us feel confident about our looks or otherwise or sometimes props up our vanity. It sometimes verges onto narcissism, a word coined after the poor Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection and ruined his life. Let me be little more specific. Why the mirrors are used on a two wheeler? The answer will be quite different. But if I say that I found a town where mirrors are not so much in use atleast on the roads on two wheelers, does that mean the denizens of this town are free from the ills of vanity or I can say they don't care much about their looks or they have excellent road sense that a rear view mirror is superfluous.
As I was riding my scooter through the dusty pot hole filled roads of Dharmavaram, a small town around 40 kms from Puttaparthi, I found it quiet difficult to negotiate through these cluttered chaotic roads. To get some space for my scooter to manouvre, I was adding to the already existing chaos with the harsh sound of the croaking of a frog of my Honda Eterno. As one motorcyclist came just in front of me, the artificial frog croaked full throated but there was no clearance from the fellow in front of me. I tried to search for his face in his rear view mirror to gesticulate him to move out. I found none. When I turned around, to my surprise, I was the only narcissist or a vain fellow or I can say the one who scrupulously follows some basic road rules, in that posse of motorcyclists.
I remember when I went for my first driving license test, first because I failed a couple of times once in prelims and the second time in practicals not because I was not competent enough but because I had a soft corner for Anna Hazare and had made an iron resolve not to contribute my part to this ill of the society. One question asked in the written test was about the importance of rear view mirrors. I answered it correctly- It helps to keep an eye on the rear side beyond the peripheral vision of the driver during parking, lane changing or taking a turn.
I grew curious to find out why I was the odd man out in this group of motor cyclists. Dharmavaram is a busy town always bustling with activity due to its roaring silk saree business. One can hear the sound of people working on their looms in many of its labyrinthine by lanes. It also has a rail head which is an important junction to reach the spiritual town of Puttaparthi. The railroad bisects the town into two. During peak hours of traffic the level crossings across these tracks are very busy. I reached one such level crossing and waited patiently for the train to come. Many motorists were scurrying away with their two wheelers, bending their vehicles and passing underneath the iron bar of the level crossing. With the deftness of an accomplished gymnast the riders took the two wheelers near the level crossing, bent it low cleared the hurdle and sped away riding the vehicles.
Either side of the level crossing, there were boards which had broken backs, twisted arms, disfigured faces as they had angered the two wheelers with their message and bore the brunt of their fury. Still they were holding fort and trying to scream a message to apparently blind eyes,
‘Danger: Don’t cross the tracks when the gates are closed.’

Golden Moments..

 







Soumya Roopa

It was on 18 January 1988 at Parthi, during the morning darshan that Bhagwan gave me a moment of unimaginable joy. Each time I remember it, it fills the moment with renewed joy.

The Annual sports meet was over. We, the students doing the B.Ed course had stayed back for a few more days. The first two batches of B.Ed students had studies had studied at the Brindavan Campus. Later, since 1988 June, course is being conducted at Ananthapur. We were requesting Bhagwan to come to Brindavan. As Bhagwan came near us, I kneeled and said,  “Swami…” I wanted to request and ask Bhagwan when he would come to Brindavan. He had already walked on. When I began the sentence, saying “Swami….”. He turned, looked at me and tapping His chest lightly, He asked, “Han Sri Vaishnavi Aaa?” Meaning “Yes, (did you say) Sri Vaisnavi?” He was asking me and confirming that He was indeed Sri Vaishnavi Mata. Our Omnicient Lord had validated an experience which I had not told anyone. The incident was as follows.

From Team Venugaanam

We are delighted to bring you the 26^th edition of Venugaanam this September.  As we enter into the last quarter of this year, we bring excerpts from Swami’s Divine during a sevadal conference. Read this to know His message of  ‘Seva’.

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

Prakash reveals how Swami’s message of “Constant Integrated Awareness” has impacted his life. He shares the joy of making this one teaching a part of his life.

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

Bhargav talks about how precious water is, therefore, “Don’t waste water”.

Sai Krushna Mandir is now a place 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 construction update. We  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

Sai Krushna Charitable Trust

The Mighty Spiritual Activity- Service

(Excerpts from the Divine Discourses by Bhagawan Shri Sathya Sai Baba during Sevadal Conference 19-11-1981)

Where and when does ‘service’ in our lives start? And how can it be a true spiritual activity? Is it more, or less important, than meditation or chanting His name? Swami beautifully explains all these and more in a discourse delivered to the delegates of a Sevadal Conference on November 19, 198. Here are excerpts from that profound message

Society is the coming together of people. Cooperation among people in a society, motivated by spontaneity and pure intentions, is the hall-mark of seva (service). Seva can be identified by two basic characteristics - compassion and willingness to sacrifice.

History tells us that in all countries and in every age, man is a social being. Man is born in society; he grows in and through society, and his life ends too in society. His songs and speech, duties and diversions, are all determined by society.

Atmajyothi

WHY  ONLY  THIS  PRONOUN  अस्मिन् IS  SELECTED  ?

It  is  right  to  follow  the  celebrity  of  scriptures;  still,  why – any  one  of  the  following  words  like : परमात्मनि’in  the  Supreme  Self’ ,  परमेश्वरे’in  the  Supreme  Lord’ ,  भगवति’in  God’, etc. – that  are  agreeable  to  scriptures – should  not  be  applied ? Answer  to  this  question  is  as  follows : Here,  this  pronoun  अस्मिन्’in  Him’  is  properly   used.  For,  Pronoun = सर्वनाम in  Sanskrit.  सर्वनाम is  the  name  for  everything;  and  God,  Himself,  has  become  everything.

The Making of Sai Krushna Mandir- Construction Updates

Life at Sai Krushna Mandir starts quite early. But the pace picks up exponentially when the children wake up. Their  bright smiles and chatter amidst the hustle and bustle of breakfast, getting them ready for school makes it all worth the while. And once they leave for school comes the calm after the storm. Once they are back, time flies between homework, play, bhajans, dinner and bedtime. And at the end of the day, watching the innocent smiles on the naughty faces as they fall asleep after much ruckus, coaxing and cajoling  is heartwarming.

The four children at Sai Krushna Mandir. (From L to R) Chandan, Shridhar, Shreyas and Devi Prasad

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, spending time with the children and helping them learn and catch up with their curriculum. We invite applications for a few caretakers who will be paid suitably 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 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.

Constant Integrated Awareness

Prakash Srinivasan

When contemplating on Swami’s teachings, I always wondered how can I follow at least one or two of them on a daily basis and see how they work. I thought even if I follow a handful of them but follow them100% without any compromise it would make Swami happy.

To implement this, first I identified one of my weaknesses: my impulsiveness. I have the habit of doing things too fast. I seriously needed to slow down my life. By being on the fast lane, I never enjoyed the journey but was more concerned about reaching the destination. One more disadvantage of my hurried living was that I was forgetting things, having minor mishaps and being extremely absent-minded. I was quite perplexed and was thinking how can I stop this and become slower and more organized.

A thought suddenly struck me about Swami’s teachings about “Constant Integrated Awareness.” I have heard this phrase from Swami directly in His innumerable discourses. I used to think and almost mock at Him by saying it’s a very fancy jargon that He has invented! I was doing my MBA at Parthy and had enough jargons to manage and remember. But at this juncture when I was zooming in life I pondered about this teaching and gradually began discovering its power. It dawned on me that it’s actually a very very powerful phrase. The English language has amazing variety of words for the same meaning and each word has its intensity and power but this phrase has 3 powerful words and it started motivating me whenever I thought about it.

So before doing anything and almost on an hourly basis I started telling myself about living with Constant Integrated Awareness. This meant to me that I was going to be very aware of my surroundings and I will be steady (not too slow) and will be very mindful of the actions I needed to do and the best way to do it. Actually it a little difficult to express it in words as it a very elaborate concept. I started enjoying the benefits of it almost immediately, I did not forget anything, and I did things better, faster and more efficiently. My memory also improved, I took lists from home and memorized them instead of jotting every small thing down. Working with computers dumbs us down to such an extent that we are too lazy to remember even the smallest of things.

CIA has become an everyday part of my life and it even improves my creativity and I try to think of solutions to complex problems. That’s the challenge of life. Above all it gives me some satisfaction that I am committed to at least one teaching of Swami and am trying to be honest about following it.

(Prakash is a student of Swami who completed his B.Com, MBA and PG Diploma in Culture and Philosophy from Sri Sathya Sai University. He is a talented singer with the enthusiasm for Swami’s work. Prakash is currently working at HP, Bangalore)

The Night-2

T R Mist

Continued from last issue 'The Night'

Suddenly my survival instinct kicked in. I bent my right elbow and hit back at the chest of the man behind me. Hmmp  came a sound. I knew it had found its mark. The hand yet remained on my mouth. This time I attacked the hand. With both hands I grabbed the huge hand on my mouth, it loosened a bit. I gasped and caught some air and fought harder. I could feel the beads of perspiration forming on my brow and slowing trickling off my temples. I bent a little and then with sharp turn of my feet tried to swing around to throw my attacker off balance. He seemed too big for me he hardly moved, but suddenly I felt free of the cage around my mouth. The first breath I took  sounded through the whole stairway. I turned around and stood facing the stairway going down. It was as deserted as it had been. The same dim glow of the light and the creeping mist. As I took in deep breaths of air I felt the chilly air burning through my lungs. The cold was gone and my body burned with fear and yet unseen threat to my life. Something made me look to the darkened corner on my left, where a door existed to an apartment that was occupied long ago by a person who then and went to live in the inner city. Was there a silhouette of a man there. “WHO IS THERE, SHOW YOURSELF. WHO IS IT,” I shouted. The whole building shook with my frenzied shouts borne out of the instinct of self-preservation. Silence. My heart pounded hard. “Ha ha ha,” came a reply. 

'Don't Waste Water'

KVRKBhargav

Our neighbour Sastry garu commented, " Ours is a special street, we always have the sacred akash ganga falling on us from heavens and flowing through the street every now and then. Especially during the summer months it is full of water quenching the thirst of the parched cement road.”

Puttaparthi has the luxury of having one bore well in each apartment. Due to the boon of uninterrupted power supply, the denizens have the comfort of switching on the bore well whenever they want. Chalapati the caretaker of a neighbouring building says, his chest puffed up with pride, “I was in Anantapur recently, there they have twelve hours of power cuts but we have none in Parthi, you see this is the abode of the lord.” He switches on the motor switch and adds, “Cities like Kurnool and Vijayawada have minimum eight to ten hours of power cuts. I heard that even Hyderabad has a load shedding of six hours a day. Even the temple town of Tirupati faces a load shedding of six hours.”