GRAMA SEVA 2011

Om Sairam dearest Sai family

Greetings from the holy land, Puttaparthi. With His divine grace, blessings and His immense compassion, things are looking great in Parthi. The energy levels are high, the tempo is being maintained, the Prashanthi schedule right from Suprabhatam is as it used to be with very peaceful and extended Mahasamadhi darshan arrangements.

GRAMA SEVA 2011

Come the end of september there is always tons of anxiety in the air as the most beautiful festival of Dasara followed by Diwali fast approaches. It is also a great excitement for the people of Puttaparthi and surrounding villages as they would be blessed with Swami's Prasadam as part of Grama seva.
Even for the students it would be a busy schedule as they do the major "home work" and "hard work" right from packing the food packets, sarees, dhothis to distributing to one and all in villages.This "Grama seva" also gives a good chance to students in particular to peep into the lives of the poor villagers where the living conditions are poor, the nutrition levels are poor and even the houses are poor but yet you will find all the villagers content and happy which is a very important point to be noted.

This year's grama seva which is starting from the 28th September to 6th October, is very unique as it marks the 10th Anniversary of this stupendous project which Swami very lovingly started in the year 2000 where He personally monitored each and every aspect of the Grama Seva programme, from selecting the villages, students, mode of transport and also the type of sarees and dhotis to be distributed. Swami's every "work" is very closely knitted with perfection and purity.
This year's grama seva is also very unique as it would be the first Grama seva in His physical absence. There were many rumour mongers who predicted the closure of "grama seva" project from this year. there were some who doubted if this is still in the "Prasanthi Schedule" but our Swami has left His physical form only to "work with more intensity and power" and rest assured, with His grace all the activities would continue for eternity and beyond.

145 VILLGES, 350,000 HOUSES:

This year's Grama seva will cover three mandals surrounding Parthi, Kothacheruvu, Bukkapatnam and Puttaparthi mandals. About 145 villages would be covered as part of Grama seva this year with about 350,000 houses. Each house hold will be given a saree, Dhothi and food packets and Laddu for each member in the family..

Talking of Grama seva we should also mention about the great fortune of few youths from the UK whom Swami very graciously allowed to do the Grama Seva along with the students from the year 2002. In the evening of one fine day in the month of January 2011, I bumped into Mr.Puppet from the UK near Sai Kulwanth hall and his face was brightly lit and he looked very very happy and before I could ask him, he very kindly said, brother Satish, Swami has very kindly accpeted the programme for this year's grama seva programme and with His immense compassion has asked me to bring all the youths who have participated in grama seva over the years to Prasanthi to mark the 10th year of Grama seva programme.. Apparently Mr.Puppet said, Swami! among the boys there are many who are already married and living with children and Swami said, "sabko bulake aana" (bring every one).
Now to keep the promise given to our beloved Lord, there are about 100 youths coming to Prasanthi, old and new, from the UK on the 25th september to play their role in this year's Grama seva programme which I am sure will make Swami very happy.

Dasara sapthaham is going to start from the september 30 in Poorna Chandra Auditorium with poornahuthi on October 6th.

FREE FOOD PROGRAMME:
Not sure how, even though there is no official word yet, but every one in Puttaparthi are talking about the probable launch of Sri Sathya Sai Nithya Annadana Pathakam (free food to all devotees). Some say it will start from Dasara some others say from Swami's birthday. Every major temples in India be it Tirupathi and even Shirdi for that matter, provide free meal to all the Devotees, (provided you wait, sometimes for hours, for your turn). Even though Swami's ashram operates three canteens within the ashram premises, the South Indian canteen in particular is providing a FULL MEAL for just Rs.6 which itself is literally free food scheme as Rs.6 is nothing even for the poorest of the poor.
In this era of high vegetable prices, fuel prices etc, to provide full meal for just Rs.6 is not a small thing. This is where Swami and Swami's ashram stay unique and this free food programme is indeed a noble gesture for Swami's devotees.
The other canteens will operate as usual even after the launch of Free food programme.


VIBHUTHI MATERIALISATIONS:
On a different note, Swami has blessed the General hospital in Puttaparthi with Vibhuthi prasadam as you can see in the pictures with Vibhuthi on them. The black and white photo graph of Swami holding a stethoscope ( Divine Doctor photo) in ward number 14 in the General hospital, has been blessed with Vibhuthi since Septermber 14 2011 and you can also see another Vibhuthi photo of Swami in NORTH 4 block in the ashram. Even though such divine occurences are not new to the Sai world, such a sign of Swami's omnipresence gives immense joy to us the Devotees especially when it happens in His very own Puttaparthi.
On a different note, attached here is a photograph of a poor mother, selling coconuts on the street, definitely an illeterate lady checking her son's note book as he gets ready to go to school. This photo shared by Dr.Amrat Lad of Newzealand is very touching and a definite lesson to all those so called BUSY working women who, inspite of being highly educated, don't have few minutes to look into the child's home work. May God bless this poor mother for her mother hood and love she has for her child inspite of being illiterate and poor..

NO CHANGE IN CHRISTMAS PROGRAMME:
There were many enquiries about the status of Christmas choir which happens on Christmas eve and also the children's choir on 25th December Evening, which for reasons best known was missing from the Prasanthi calender released by the ashram. Even though the Media co-ordinator was notified about this but so far there is no official word but according to a source who is key member for the Christmas programme said that the programmes are as scheduled and they have added Multi faith mass in the double deckar building (conference hall opp.Shopping center) on 27th December and a choir by Croatians on 20th of December in Sai Kulwanth hall.
With Pranams at the Lotus feet of our beloved Lord,
R.Satish Naik
(Please note: this is a personal article with no affiliation to the Official Sai Organisation.
log on to www.sssbpt.org for official news/photos of Swami