From Team Venugaanam

We are delighted to bring you the 29^th edition of Venugaanam this December.
 

There were two specials in November, which we are very happy to share with you here:

·         The release of the 2012-2013 Annual Report of the Sai Krushna Charitable Trust ,  and

·         A special video on The Making of Sai Krushna Mandir.

Kindly click on the above links or visit the home page of our website to view these.

In this edition, Swami’s excerpts teaches us about Jesus Christ and his messages.

In Atmajyothi, we will be reading more about the fruits of devotion.

Swamynathan had shared an incident about Kanchi Mahaperiyava  – that he came across in his life.

Prakash highlights the current trends of transportation and also suggests some improvements on the same.

Aravind B shares the magical moments that Sachin Tendulkar had had with our loving SWAMI.

Arun Gopal provides his view on the doctrines of peaceful living.

Sai Krushna Mandir celebrated the deepavali and SWAMI’s birthday with the children.  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 email

 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

The message of Jesus Christ

A Divine Discourses by Bhagawan Shri Sathya Sai Baba during Christmas day, December 25,1992

On December 25th, when Jesus was born, three kings. came to his birthplace. These three gave

expression to three different views about the new-born babe. One of them, looking at the infant,

said: "This child looks like one who will be a lover of God." A second king said: "God will love

this child." The third king declared: "Verily, this child is God Himself." The first one viewed the

child from the physical point of view. The second saw the child from the mental viewpoint. The

third saw from the Aatmic (spiritual) point of view.

The three declarations indicate how one can progress from the human to the divine level. What is

needed is the destruction of the animal and demonic qualities in man. Man today worships

inanimate idols and images, but makes no attempt to love his fellow human beings in flesh and

blood. This was the first message of Jesus. Though one sees his neighbours day after day, he

does not choose to love them. How can one believe that such a person can love an invisible God?

If a man cannot love a fellow human being who is visible before his eyes, how can he love what

is not visible to him? This is not possible. Only a man who loves living beings around him can

love the invisible Divine. Love must start with love for beings that have form. It must be

extended to all beings. This is the primary stage in spirituality.

Updates from Sai Krushna Mandir

November was the month of joyous festivity and gaiety at Sai Krushna Mandir. On 2^nd November, Deepavali was celebrated with all fun and crackers. It was the first Diwali function at Sai Krushna Mandir, and the building was lit  with lamps and coloured candles. The children were delighted to have two of the Sai brothers from Mysore and some guest from London, UK came and participated in the function. The care-taking staff at Sai Krushna Mandir got together to prepare various delicacies for the occasion. The children relished all the sweets and snacks and also helped to keep the premises clean. They were dressed in new clothes and were proudly bursting soundless crackers like stars, crackles, flower-pots, Chakras, and rockets. Pictures from the occasion have been displayed below.

On 23^rd November, Swami’s birthday was celebrated amid much grandeur and joy. The program started with Nagarsankeertan at 8:30 am and this was followed by specially designed activities for the children:

·         Class 1- Face painting

·         Class2- Colouring

·         Class 3&4- Join the dots and Colouring

·         Class 5- Colouring Ganesha

·         Class 6 & 7 Girls- Rangoli competition

·         Class 6 & 7 Boys- Dustbin making 

Swami’s birthday cake was then cut by one of the school students who also had his birthday on the same day. Birthday songs were sung in unison and the children were vociferous in wishing their Lord and Chief Patron on this happy day for the gift of free education..

The Fruit of Devotion

by Shri Lakshminarayan Aithal

 यल्लब्ध्वा पुमान् सिद्धो भवत्यमृतो भवति तृप्तो भवति ।। 4 ।।

     

 4.If  the  Soul  obtains  this (Devotion),  he  becomes  Perfect,  Immortal  and  Satisfied.

             MEANING  OF  यत्

    14. In  Sanskrit,  though  the  भक्ति word  is  in  feminine  gender,  why  यत् the  word  of  neuter  gender  is  used  here ?  Answer  to  this  question  is  as  follows : In  order  to  emphasize  the  Immortal  Form  of  Devotion  यत् (which)  is  narrated  in  the  previous  aphorism,  use (fruit)  to  the  one  who  obtains  this  deathless  Devotion  of  the  Form  of  Supreme  Love – is  clearly  mentioned  here.  Though  this  fruit  is  pointed  out  by  the  अतः word  of  the  first  aphorism,  the  compiler (सूत्रकार) has  the  intention  of  unfolding  features  of  that  fruit (फलम्). Those  who  contemplate  this  scripture  also  obtain  such  fruits;  by  knowing  this,  the  readers  should  develop  interest  in  this  work;  this  is  the  intention  of  the  compiler.

An unforgettable incident

By Swamynathan S 

In exactly 45 more minutes, the clock will tick 12:00 AM and welcome our SWAMI's birthday. I had a long day, yet could not retire to sleep. Somehow, my heart was little heavy and my thoughts are kind of rolling back towards one of the greatest and moving incident that I had heard from my mother directly. The story dates back before approximately 25 years (not really sure about the exact time). My father was a government official and my mother was clerk in bank. I was in my primary school. We belonged to a Brahmin family and we respected the rituals and the 'Anitya' karmas that a family is recommended to perform. My father had never missed any of the ancestral worship that he had to do on every new moon day and a priest with name Ganapathy (Name changed for the article purpose) used to help my father with the rituals.

Public Transport - Trends and solution

By Prakash Srinivasan



Almost every major country today is battling the problem of migration to cities. The people from the smaller towns and villages move to the larger cities in search of a livelihood. India faces this problem in a larger measure owing to its population.

One of the symptoms of the problem of mass urbanization is the proliferation of personal vehicles like cars and two wheelers. To add fuel to fire, India does not have the infrastructure viz. good roads, parking space to support such a large volume of vehicles. Already this has reached its peak with traffic jams being commonplace in the peak hours and it is only a matter of time when even the non-peak hours will be full. Half of the roads are blocked by parked vehicles like cars and trucks so the space available for vehicular movement is very less. The problem is very acute because even the essential services like ambulances get delayed and many precious lives are lost.

Sachin Tendulkar and Sathya Sai - the story of the little master and his 'little' Master

Source : http://aravindb1982.hubpages.com/hub/Sachin-Tendulkar-and-Sathya-Sai-the-story-of-the-little-master-and-his-little-Master

 

A moment captured during Sachin's visit to Baba in Chennai, January 2007.

Source: aravindb1982

Date: 24th April, 2011
Venue: The Rajiv Gandhi cricket stadium in Hyderabad
Occasion: The IPL T-20 match between Mumbai Indians and Deccan Chargers

The stadium had been packed to its capacity as it awaited the start of a clash between the home team, Deccan Chargers, and a charismatic team which boasted of having the God of Cricket – Sachin Tendulkar – as its captain. Adding to the excitement and anticipation of the crowd was the fact that it was also the Little Master's birthday! A grand celebration, irrespective of the result of the match, was in order and a magnificent cake had been ordered to celebrate the cricketing God's birthday. Everyone was in a festive mood – everyone except for the little master himself.