Mass wedding on May 16th, 50 couples to tie knot

Sathya Sai Baba

Mass wedding on May 16th, 50 couples to tie knot

The Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation, Pune, will organise a mass wedding on May 16, the birth anniversary of Sathya Sai Baba, at Phulgaon village in Pune.

“We have booked 50 couples, which include some Muslim and Buddhist couples, who have agreed to get married on the appointed day,’’ said, Venkatesh Jalgi, district co-ordinator Pune, Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation.

The couples have been chosen from different rural areas of Pune and are not able to afford marriages. “The couples have been drawn from diverse backgrounds and they came forward for the marriage, which is being held free of cost. We are providing utensils and clothes to the couples,’’ Jalgi said.

The marriages are being held in an austere setting without any pomp and show and the estimated expenditure incurred by the organisation on each marriage is between Rs 10,000 and 15,000, he said.

“Some of the couples are from slum areas and some belong to families of farmers. We took the initiative as in villages such as Phulgaon, couples have been running into debt and cannot afford weddings,’’ Jalgi said.

The organisation looks into the area of socio-economic development of the people from the rural backgrounds of Pune, and it is for the first time that it is organising the marriages on such a large scale.

“We are targeting the solemnisation of around 85 marriages on Sathya Sai Baba’s 85th birth anniversary. This is being held on the auspicious occasion of Akshaya Tritiya,’’ added Jalgi.

The Sathya Seva Organisation plans to keep the event sombre. He said the organisation booked the marriage offers through its Grameen Seva Kendra at Phulgaon village and has collected donations for the event.

“We have a well-established network of philanthropists, who have come forward to fund the event. We are doing this as there are hardly any organizations that work towards helping people conduct marriages, thus laying the base for the basic social unit of the society,’’ said Jalgi.

He added that most of the couples who have come forward have got their respective matches arranged by their parents.

Indian Express Reference

Why should we serve society?

Why should we serve society?
Sai Reflections
Published: 17 Mar 2010

Love is equally present in all. You make use of this love for selfishness, self-interest and for service.

Unfortunately, in the present day world, selfishness and self-interest predominate. Everything is done now with an attitude of “my people and for me.” If there is no society, where do you and your people stand? You get education out of society and earn money from it. Even the position and reputation you hold come from the society. Having received so much from society, what help are you rendering in return? While receiving the benefits from it you still keep harming the society! Over the years, Sri Sathya Sai Baba has placed great emphasis on the value of selfless service by saying, “Hands that serve are holier than lips that pray.” When we are engaged in any kind of activity, our mind is focused on the task at hand. The mind has a free run and takes us along its whimsical path only when the body is not engaged in any activity. The adage, “an idle mind is a devil’s workshop” is so true. In these times of fast communication and bombardment by the media, our lives are made stressful and peace of mind seems so far off. An idle mind can also trigger by itself all pent up negative feelings and imaginary fears. That is why Satya Sai Baba also defines rest thus: “Change of work is rest… otherwise it becomes rust!” The mind, which is a bundle of desires, is constantly fed by fleeting thoughts and hence it is virtually impossible to still the mind. We are mere expressions of our thoughts. Even prayers, meditation or singing the praises of the Lord cannot give quick results.

However, when the body is engaged in activity, the mind has a better chance to be focused away from useless and negative thoughts. Sri Sathya Sai Baba says, “Bend the body, mend the senses and end the mind.” Therefore, whenever we are engaged in good deeds, like selflessly serving others, we are not only purifying our senses but also filling our minds with positive and Godly thoughts. Bending the body signifies humility, an essential quality for a true spiritual seeker. To please God, to please our conscience, we have an inescapable duty to perform—ie, to give something back to the world that has and still is sustaining us. What is service? Every activity is service, as long as there is no selfishness or ego. We offer the fruits of our labour to the Lord without any reward. It is up to Him if He gives us something in return—greater than our input, lesser than our input or even nothing at all. The manifest world is God’s kingdom, our Father’s kingdom and we, as His children, have rightfully inherited everything in the world to enjoy, but not exploit and destroy.

We cannot enjoy anything unless we do our part to care and share. After all, no one enjoys a great meal without sharing it with another! All the resources of the world and the benefits which society has to offer for our happiness are not just for ourselves alone. There are others around us who are less fortunate. We have an obligation to make the world a better place for future generations to inherit. Service is not confined to helping the sick and the disadvantaged alone. It also involves avoiding unnecessary waste and destruction of resources. Desires have a voracious appetite to consume far beyond our needs and breed selfishness. By learning to manage well all the God given resources—money, food, time and energy—we improve not only the quality of our own life, but also become privileged to share the surplus resources with those who are less fortunate. This is true spirituality and expansion of love in a practical way. When we wake up every morning, our prayers need not be in quantity, but improved in quality. We can ask ourselves: “What can I do today that will please God?” What is Sai Baba’s clarion call? Love! Love!! Love!!! And, what is love in action? Service! Service!! Service!!! Remember: “Love All Serve All”.

Guardian TT Reference

Bharathanjali: Senior personalities in the art field felicitated

Bharathanjali: Senior personalities in the art field felicitated

It was Sri Sathya Sai Baba‘s 84th birthday this Monday and it is a ritual by Acharya Choodamani Anitha Guha where she felicitates and honors exponents in the field of arts for their commendable contribution. The awards were conferred upon by Dr.Pappu Venugopala Rao, Secretary, Music Academy and Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy, Founder, Director, Bharathalaya. What started as honoring young artists 8 years ago has now turned to the older people. Says the ever-smiling Anitha Guha, “Being an ardent Sathya Sai Baba devotee, I try following his saying ‘Love all, Serve all’. This is something that I can do to my artistic family from my side and it is not an award function. It is just a thanksgiving function from Bharathanjali to the doyens of the art field.”

This year being the completion of 20 years of Bharathanjali and 10 years of Bharathanjali trust, around 8 personalities like Yagna Raman, Former Secretary, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Karthik Rajagopal, Founder-Secretary, Vice President, Karthik Fine Arts, D.S.Ramanujam, Former Secretary, Karthik Fine Arts, Leela Sekar, Chairperson, I.D.A, R.Srinivasan, Senior Executive IOC (Retd.), Member, LAC, TTD, Chennai, Nandini Ramani, Bharatanatyam Exponent, Managing Trustee- Dr.V.Raghavan Centre for Performing Arts, K.Hariprasad, Lecturer in Vocal Music, Kalakshetra, Dr.Gayatri Kannan, Principal of Nrithyodaya. The title given to each awardee was uniquely titled by Anitha Guha herself like Sathya Parama Kala Poshaka Sundaram, Sathya Gandharva Gana Sundaram and Sathya Gana Kokila Sundaram. “These people have been with us helping with our productions from time immemorial and that is why I thought of felicitating them.”

Coming to Anitha Guha’s function and going back home without seeing a dance performance from Bharathanjali sounds ridiculous. Students with the perfect Nritha and Abhinaya gave a few performances which kept the audience in rapt attention. One fact what quite evident and true, Anitha Guha is definitely a boon to the artistic community as she has groomed her students very well.

Chennai Online Reference

Education without values serves none: Baba

Education without values serves none: Baba
Express News Service
First Published : 23 Nov 2009 03:27:00 AM IST

PUTTAPARTHI: Higher education should not be pursued with an aim to amass wealth and get power.

It should be done for selfless service to the society, says Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

Addressing students at the 28th convocation of Sri Sathya Sai University at Sai Kulwanth Hall in Prasanthi Nilayam today, Sathya Sai Baba said the real purpose of education is served, when the needy are helped and the society gets the benefit. Love is all powerful and with it the world can be won. One should remember that education without values serves none and good conduct is far more valuable than wealth. There is no greater education or love than that of mother’s love. There is also no greater degree than love, he said.

Emphasising that what one learns through education should be used for the good of society, he said the greater meaning of education is love towards fellow humans and all living beings in the universe. Education is physical and educare is spiritual knowledge.

Expressing concern over the increased rat race for the worldly pursuit, he advised students to learn Sanatana Dharmas, which are truth, love and non-violence. “Love is God and it is in every living being. Inner satisfaction is far more worthy than physical satisfaction.” He advised people to reduce the use of cellphone which has become a hindrance to love and respect to people. “Instead of bringing people together, it is widening the gap among them,” he observed.

In his convocation address, Samuel Sandweiss of University of California, who is also the author of ‘Saibaba: The Holyman and Psychiatrist’, ‘Spirit and Mind’ and ‘With Love Man is God’, elaborated on the purpose and value of education in the context of spiritual needs of human beings.

He said education is the very process which lays the foundation for Dharma (Righteousness) by removing ignorance and letting the self inner shine. Citing examples of the earliest universities Oxford, Salamanca and Soroban in Europe and Nalanda and Taxila in ancient India, he said these institutions had deep religious and presumably spiritual foundations. He lauded the growth achieved by Sri Sathya Sai University and its endeavour for social welfare.

Varsity Vice-Chancellor Vishwanath Pandit presented a report. In all, 21 students received gold medals from the hands of Sri Sathya Saibaba.

District Collector P Janardhan Reddy, SP MK Singh, Puttaparthi MLA P Raghunath Reddy and others were present.

Express Buzz Reference

Sai Baba In The News – November 2009

Sai Baba In The News – November 2009

Aswamedha Trust in service of the poor
Express News Service
First Published : 22 Nov 2009 03:55:00 AM IST

ANANTAPUR: Inspired by Sri Sathya Sai Baba and Mother Teresa, Aswamedha Charitable Trust, the brain child of NT Chowdary was founded in 2007 to sponsor education of poor students in drought-prone Anantapur district.

The trust helps poor students, irrespective of caste, creed or religion, to pursue higher education. It also provides free coaching for Public Service Commission examinations, ICET etc.

Scholarships are also being provided to the students pursuing MBA, MCA, B.Tech, MBBS, degree, Inter and nursing courses. So far 850 students were given scholarships.

Group insurance facility was also extended to 850 students by the Trust.

Differently abled and mentally challenged students are also being taken care by the Spandana Orphanage and the the Trust has donated Rs.50,000 to the orphanage. The trust has provided mid-day meals to nearly 650 students for a period of 45 days and donated Rs 2 lakh to NTR Trust through Governor ND Tiwari.

In order to eliminate corruption from the society, the District Collector N Sreedhar had organised a 3K Run on anticorruption in Anantapur. The trust distributed biscuit packets and fruits to those participated in the run. It donated Rs 2.5 lakh to the Teachers Associations and Unions.

Under Anantha Pratibha programme, 300 students have been provided help to secure admission in corporate colleges.

Free coaching for clerks recruitment examination in State Bank of India was given for 600 candidates by the Trust.

Expess Buzz Reference

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Blood donation camp held at Civil Hospital
Ludhiana: Shri Sathya Sai Baba Sewa Samithy, a non-governmental organisation, organised a blood donation camp at Civil Hospital on Saturday. Sanjay Sondhi, a member of the NGO, said the camp was held as a part of birthday of Shri Sathya Sai Baba.

Indian Express Reference

84-Hour Long Sai Bhajans Programme

84-Hour Long Sai Bhajans Programme
TNN 8 October 2009, 06:53am IST

ALLAHABAD: A non-stop all religion bhajan programme would be organised by Sri Sathya Sai Seva Sangathan here as a prelude to 84th birthday celebrations of Sathya Sai Baba. Spreading the message of love, truthfulness, non violence, peace and co-existence, hundreds of devotees will start singing the Sai Bhajans on October 8 (7.30 am onwards) continuously for 84 hours.

The programme will start with the lighting of lamp by Justice Sanjay Mishra of Allahabad High Court. The bhajan programme will be held at Mathur Vaisya Dharmshala, Mumfordganj.

Giving information, Gopal Tiwari of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Sangathan said that the programme is being organised to spread the teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. “Devotees, crossing the bar of caste and religion, belonging to different parts of the state have already arrived here for the programme,” he said.

Beside the bhajan programme, an exhibition on Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings will also be organised. The Bhajan programme will conclude on October 11 at 7.30 pm by Mahamangal Arti of Baba. The state president of the organisation, Y K Saluja will address the gathering and perform mahamangal arti.

Times Of India Reference

World Class Healthcare Absolutely Free

World Class Healthcare Absolutely Free
June 7th, 2009 – 1:00 pm ICT by IANS
By K. Jayaraman

Bangalore, June 7 (IANS) A super-speciality hospital here has redefined the approach to healthcare by providing world class treatment completely free.

Patients referred to Sri Satya Sai Institute for Higher Medical Sciences hospital do not have to come in with a credit card or a cheque book.

“Here we don’t charge for anything, whether it is a heart bypass, lung operation, or a brain surgery,” says Satyaranjandas Hegde, a top neurosurgeon and director of the 330-bed hospital. “In fact, we have no cashier or a billing section.”

Treatments, tests, medicines, food and hospital stay are all free, “and if some tests cannot be done here, we get them done outside at our cost,” says Hegde.

On an average day, surgeons here perform six neuro and seven heart surgeries. Together with laboratory tests, X-ray scans and outpatient procedures these are worth over Rs.5 million ($100,000) in commercial terms but done free, says Hegde, who quit his high paying job in another hospital because he did not like the “commercial culture” there.

He was not the only one to make the switch. Kolli Challam, head of anesthesia and critical care, left his flourishing practice in Abu Dhabi two years ago to join Hegde’s team.

Government dispensaries do offer free treatment for minor ailments but tertiary care always involves money, says Hegde. “It is a disaster for a poor family if one of its members requires brain or heart surgery. It means selling family jewels to meet hospital costs or just pray to god and hope for the best.”

For thousands of Indians – as well as patients from neighboring Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka – their god comes in the shape of the Sai hospital. Set up in 2001, it is run by a medical trust created by Sri Sathya Sai Baba, a spiritual leader with a global following.

Built with trust funds, the Rs.200 million that the hospital spends annually on salaries, medicine, equipment and maintenance come entirely from unsolicited donations from his devotees.

“The state government gave us land and the power supply for hospital is free,” Hegde said. “Companies give us medical equipments at discount and one computer firm installed Rs.10 million ($20,000)-worth hospital software at no cost.”

The hospital does not advertise to fill non-clinical positions. Skilled workers queue up to volunteer their services because of their faith in Sathya Sai Baba.

Those who man the gates, serve at the reception and counsel patients are all volunteers inspired by Baba’s philosophy that “seva,” or selfless service, is service to god. People wanting to offer ’seva’ are so many that there is a waiting list for volunteers, says Hegde. “We keep rotating them to give everyone a chance.”

Sai hospital is actually known as a “temple of healing” as it provides medicare in a spiritual ambiance devoid of commercialism, its employees say. “I can see god’s mission being carried out here,” said former president of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam during a visit to the hospital in 2006. “The doctors and staff looked to me as angels.”

Free service does not mean compromising on quality or standards, Hegde points out. “Ours is as well equipped as, or better equipped than, corporate hospitals.”

The hospital, with highly qualified physicians and surgeons, attracts dozens of specialists from India and abroad because they are either devotees of Sathya Sai Baba or “infected by the desire to do seva”, says Hegde.

Sivaraman Yegyaraman, a practising cardiac electro physiologist in Stratford, New Jersey, is one such specialist who comes to Sai hospital twice a year at his own expense. “I had always wanted to place my medical training at the service of the under-privileged and Sai hospital presented me the opportunity,” he told IANS during his recent visit.

Another regular visitor, Ravindra Goyal, chairman of neurosciences at McLaren Regional Medical Center in Flint, Michigan, is a Sathya Sai Baba devotee. “Each trip to this facility charges and motivates me to apply the principle of ’selfless service’ to my work back in the US on my return,” he said.

What makes the Sai hospital unique? It is not just the state-of-the-art technology or high quality service but the spiritual ambiance pervading through the campus, says hospital manager Sri Krishna.

“It actually makes me feel I am entering a temple and not a hospital,” said Akella Chendrasekhar, medical director of Wyckoff Medical Center in New York. He was one of three specialists who came from the US spending their own money to conduct a workshop on ‘critical care medicine’ at the Sai hospital last week.

By redefining medical care Sai hospital has clearly shown it is certainly possible to provide the best treatment absolutely free, says Hegde. “There is no reason why this model cannot be replicated in other places in India and even abroad.”

The Indian Reference

Twin Towers Of Healing

Sathya Sai Baba And The Twin Towers Of Healing

Twin Towers Of Healing
by Dr. A.N. Safaya
Sanathana Sarathi Special Edition

Desire to have knowledge about the Divine and its manifestations including the phenomenon of life in the living has been in the human mind since the beginning of human intellectual evolution. Along side it, there has been the urge for the practice of the art of healing the afflictions and injuries of the human form. The two have been together since eternity. The Vedas, which present the most ancient documentation on spirituality, amply exemplify the togetherness of thoughts on Divinity and the art of healing.

The Principles of Arogya
It is therefore but natural that Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba emphasised the importance of human body and mind remaining in a state of good health to achieve the desired results when He initiated the Sai Seva Mission for the service of mankind. Advocating the importance of the awareness of Divinity and the practice of the principles of spirituality, He emphasises the need for the prevention of bad health and avoiding unhealthy personal hygiene and unhealthy lifestyle. Every now and then, Bhagavan keeps on laying stress on the observance of good and healthy principles of personal hygiene, food, nutrition, and healthy lifestyle.

Bhagavan advocates the golden principles of Arogya (absence of ill health). Seva Dal volunteers of Sri Sathya Sai Samithis all over the country are spreading the awareness of these principles effectively and diligently. Under this programme of awareness, society is going on a steady march, at grass root level, towards a state of positive health for its members. This is how Sai Health Mission took its first step towards Arogya with the message that it was the foremost duty of man to keep his body healthy.

Sri Sathya Sai General Hospitals
The second step in the direction of treatment of disease, once it had occurred, was the establishment of two Sri Sathya Sai General Hospitals, one at Prasanthi Nilayam and other at Whitefield, Bangalore. These two general hospitals look after the patients of all general ailments, conduct tests, give treatment, drugs and do surgical interventions completely free of charge. Nearly one crore patients have been benefited by the services of these two hospitals since their inception years ago.

Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Prasanthi Nilayam
The third step was to establish the twin towers of Sai Health Mission in the form of two Sri Sathya Sai Institutes of Higher Medical Sciences-one in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh and the other at Whitefield, Karnataka.

On the occasion of His Birthday on 23rd November 1990, Bhagavan Sri Satya Sai Baba made a momentous declaration of establishing a Super Speciality Hospital in Puttaparthi for highly specialised treatment of diseases of heart, kidney and eyes. As a consequence of this Divine Sankalpa of Bhagavan, Institute of Higher Medical Sciences was conceptualised, planned and built in a record time of six months. It was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India, Sri P.V. Narasimha Rao on 22nd November 1991 and started functioning fully from that day. It has never looked back. Established in an architecturally and aesthetically beautiful building, which sits majestically in the centre of its sprawling lush green lawns, it lodges the specialities of cardiology, cardio-thoracic surgery, urology, ophthalmology, anaesthesiology, laboratory medicine, blood bank, bio-medical and general engineering services. The staff working in these departments is hand picked, well chosen with care and dedicated to the service of ailing patients. The equipment used in diagnosis and treatment of the patients is the latest and state of the art. All the parameters of functioning of the Super Speciality Hospital in all its branches are highly satisfactory and of international standard. It is highly popular, well renowned and well known all over the world, and is open for treatment to all, irrespective of the distinction of caste, creed, colour, religion or country. All the diagnostic investigations, laboratory tests and the treatment including surgery are done completely free of cost to one and all, rich and poor!

Service with Love and Humility
All this workload is shouldered by the hospital creditably and completely free of cost to the enormous number of patients it has served so far. All the treatment is given by the dedicated staff of doctors, nurses and technicians to each and every patient with humility and love, amidst spiritual environment, with the name of God on their lips. The hospital maintains very high standard of cleanliness, purity and discipline with the help of nearly 100 Seva Dal volunteers working round the clock.

Seva Dal volunteers are the dedicated devotees of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and come by turn from every State of the country under a laid down scheduled programme. They dedicate their Seva at the Divine Feet of Bhagavan Baba and work in the hospital in honorary capacity for varied intervals of time of few days to few weeks or months. This is an excellent example of community participation in the healthcare programme. Middle level management and the care of the equipment including its preventive maintenance is done by a group of Technical Officers who are highly skilled graduates and postgraduates from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, a deemed university. Their dedication and diligence is responsible for nearly 100 per cent uptime of all the equipment of the Institute. This Institute of excellence has developed within typical rural environment and has been functioning in a purely rurai setting since its inception. Of course, now an airport and a railway station have come up in close proximity, a great boon for the patients and their attendants. Patients of concerned specialities come from all over the country and are examined fully. Urgent cases are given prompt medical attention and those who can wait are put on waiting list and are called when their turn comes. Attendants of patients have a dormitory facility with a canteen attached.

Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Whitefield
Bhagavan Sri Sathya SaiBaba’s infinite love and compassion for the suffering masses concretised in the establishment of yet another Super Speciality Hospital at Whitefield, Bangalore. It is, in fact, a second Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences. The Institute was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India, Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 19th January 2001. It is functional since then. The Institute is situated in a fully developed urban-cum-industrial setting, in fact, next door neighbour being the world famous International Technology Park. The palace-like architecture of the huge hospital building is breathtakingly impressive. This white brilliant jewel of a building sits pretty in the emerald green lawns surrounding it. It lodges the super specialities of cardiac sciences and neurosciences with all of their necessary support services. It has a bed strength of 333 which is looked after by highly dedicated, well qualified and experienced staff. Like the Institute of Higher Medical Sciences at Prasanthi Nilayam, this Institute also gives international standard treatment to its patients for the diseases of heart and brain completely free of charge. Patients are served by the staff, doctors, nurses and technicians with love, understanding and sympathy in keeping with Bhagavan’s principles of loving selfless service.

The hospital is equipped with latest, state-of-the-art equipment; some of the systems for diagnosis and treatment are made available to patients for the first time in the country. A bigger team of Technical Officers keeps the equipment of the hospital in a state of perfect functioning at all times with practically no down time. They are supported by the Biomedical and General Engineering Departments. Though not connected directly with the treatment of patients, the workers of the support departments have thorough technical experience and knowledge to keep the hospital infrastructure and support services in ideal state of functioning in a manner which should serve as a model to other hospitals of the country.

The data and the indices of patient care are comparable to the data available from any other hospital at international level.

Patient Counselling Service
A unique feature in the patient care process of the two Institutes is the Patient Counselling Service. This service has been introduced as a model project in Super Speciality Hospital at Whitefietd. The consultants of the treating department of the Institute keep the patient under health surveillance after he is discharged from the hospital with the help of the volunteers of Sai Organisation.

The counselling activities cover all the three phases of the hospital-patient contact period, that is, the pre-hospital phase, the hospital phase for which the patient is admitted for surgery or treatment and the post-hospital phase after discharge of the patient from the hospital. This arrangement ensures that the counselling continues at the locality of the patient’s residence also. Counselling to every patient also includes spiritual counseling and offering suggestions on issues like faith, prayer, meditation and control of emotional stress, etc. Such a comprehensive counselling care is not only disease and person specific but is also holistic, and amounts to almost emotional adoption of the patient with a firm promise of help for his ailment. This is a distinct feature of the functioning of Sai Health Mission. The system is in operation in the State of Karnataka at present and is in the process of being extended to all other States of the country.

Twin Towers
Our country has incomparably large population and has equally huge incidence of disease and ill health. We have no illusion that these Twin Towers of Healing will treat all the patients of the diseases of heart, brain, kidney and eyes and will wipe the tears of all suffering patient population. No, it will help only a few – a drop in a big ocean! But, these Twin Towers of Healing will serve as models for establishing such Institutes all over the country and all over the world. Such centres will provide state-of-the-art medical treatment through dedicated staff with love, understanding and compassion, free of cost and without any restriction of caste, creed, colour and country, like these two Institutes provide to every patient everyday.

Fighting The Smears – Defense Of The Sathya Sai Organization

Fighting The Smears – Defense Of The Sathya Sai Organization

Robert Priddy (a caustic critic and defamer of Sathya Sai Baba and others) said the following about Dr G Venkataraman and Joe Moreno’s defense of the Sai Organization:

Sai Organization Defense Claims

Robert Priddy: “Despite Moreno’s oyymoronic claim that the Sathya Sai Organization needs no defending, it has been defended by Dr. G. Venkarataman of Radio Sai and also massively by Moreno himself. This defense was done because of documented evidence and testimony on a large scale of its unaccountability, planned disinformation and deceptions of the public, covering up and ignoring crimes, including murder and sexual molestations of which all its leaders are aware. They have failed to exercise duty of care and ignored mandatory reporting.”

It is entirely true that the Sai Organization does not need to be defended from any bona-fide or legal complaints because none have ever been filed with the police or courts of law in India.

The only defenses offered by Dr G Venkataraman and Joe Moreno for the Sai Organization are those that expose the massive fraudulence of critic’s smear, disinformation, hate and defamation campaigns against Sathya Sai Baba on the internet.

Robert Priddy said that the Sai Organization “failed to exercise duty of care and ignored mandated reporting” regarding allegations of sexual abuse. Actually, the only people who have “failed to exercise duty of care and ignored mandated reporting” regarding sexual abuse are alleged victims and their mothers and fathers who have all (without exception) failed and refused to file a single police complaint, court case or public grievance in India against Sathya Sai Baba. These irrefutable facts strongly argue that Sathya Sai Baba never abused anyone and alleged victim’s accounts are highly unbelievable and come from non-credible sources.

The big question that Robert Priddy and other critics continually ignore is:

WHY should the Sai Organization resort to the legalistic process of “mandated reporting” regarding internet rumors when all of the alleged victims (without exception) and all of their mothers, fathers and relatives (without exception) have all failed and refused to resort to the legalistic process of “mandated reporting” themselves against the Sai Organization?

Robert Priddy’s argument is reverse logic. Instead of harping on the legal and moral duties of the Sai Organization, he should be focusing on the legal and moral duties of alleged victims and their mothers and fathers (all of whom have never filed any sort of legalistic complaints in India against Sathya Sai Baba).

Priddy’s argument is akin to accusing a person of theft, demanding that the thief publicly repent and turn himself into the police although there are no police complaints or court cases alleging theft!

Robert Priddy can interpret Moreno’s exposure of his embarrassing lies as a “defense” of the Sai Organization if he so chooses. In fact, if anyone is defending the Sai Organization, it is Robert Priddy! Why? Because Robert Priddy’s claims are so exaggerated, his pathos so caricatured, his libels so brazen, his arguments so flawed, his bitterness so palpable, his hissy fits so shrieking, no one in his/her right mind can believe anything Robert Priddy has to say against the Sai Organization.

Robert Priddy is an LSD Advocate and publicly defends Alaya Rahm (the prime interviewee on the Secret Swami Documentary) although Alaya self-disclosed (in official court records) that he was a college drop-out and a decade-long daily-user of illegal street drugs and alcohol seeking a large money settlement from the Sathya Sai Baba Society Of America! The end result of Alaya’s court case: Self-Dismissed With Prejudice! Robert Priddy is also a fierce defender, promoter and associate of Conny Larsson, an ex-devotee turned self-professed Prophet and Psychic Trance Medium! And to top it all off, Robert Priddy fabricated sexual molestation claims against Moreno. If Robert Priddy has the temerity to falsify sexual molestation claims against Moreno, what other stories of sexual molestation is he falsifying as well?

Thank goodness that very few revel in Robert Priddy’s bigoted campaigns to substitute rumor and gossip for bona fide evidence. The only defense the Sai Organisation requires is against the voluminous lies, conspiracies, propaganda and rhetoric dispersed against it by people who have shown themselves (time and again) to be pathological prevaricators.

81 Ways to Serve Mankind

Sri Sathya Sai

81 Ways to Serve Mankind
Helping the Less-privileged Sections of Society

1. Organising Narayana Seva by distributing food and clothes to needy people.
2. Organising free food centres for needy people.
3. Providing Amruta Kalasham (bag of food items) to needy families.
4. Providing rugs and blankets during winter season to poor people.
5. Providing Sai Protein to meet the nutritional needs of poor people.
6. Organising systematic poverty alleviation schemes for the most needy sections of society by adopting needy families.
7. Organising Grama Seva in villages for conducting programmes of total village uplift.
8. Providing training and means of self-employment to needy people.
9. Providing training and efficient tool kits to plumbers, electricians, carpenters and other trained professional workers to make them self-reliant.
10. Organising self-help groups in villages for maintaining sanitation and for constructing public utility conveniences like approach roads, water storage tanks, bus shelters, etc.
11. Constructing houses / shelters for those who are without shelter.
12. Providing help in repairing of houses for those who live in dilapidated or unsafe houses.
13. Setting up orphanages to take care of destitute children.
14. Setting up old age homes for old people.
15. Organising visits to old age homes to help aged people.
16. Providing drinking water to people in scarcity affected areas by digging wells and setting up water supply schemes in rural and remote areas.
17. Providing electric supply to remote areas which are still without electricity.
18. Organising cleanliness drives in villages.
19. Adopting villages for village uplift programmes.
20. Providing the services of agricultural scientists to farmers at their doorstep to improve the agricultural yield.
21. Conducting mass marriages to save on wasteful expenditure on marriages.
22. Organising rehabilitation programmes for homeless street children.
23. Providing tricycles to physically challenged persons to make them mobile.
24. Conducting Seva camps during religious fairs for providing sanitation, medical aid and guidance to pilgrims.
25. Conducting youth camps to guide the youth on the path of Seva and spirituality.
26. Conducting youth camps to provide training in disaster management.
27. Organising disaster management during calamities like floods, earthquakes, etc., for saving lives of people.
28. Organising relief measures for the rehabilitation of victims of disasters.
29. Setting up small-scale village industries for providing employment to villagers, especially the housewives to utilise their spare time and increase the income of the family.
30. Providing electronic devices like iCARE developed by Sathya Sai Organisation of Arizona (U.S.A.) to help the visually challenged persons to read books and to identify people.
31. Helping the villagers to make water safe for drinking by chlorination of wells and water tanks.
32. Setting up agricultural institutes for training the children of farmers in better techniques of farming.
33. Providing value-based education to students for proper use of water and other natural resources so as to avoid wastage.
34. Organising tree plantation drives for planting more trees to combat deforestation.
35. Conducting surveys in villages for providing need-based services to the villagers.
36. Organising Bhajans, meditation and lectures in jails for the reformation of the inmates.
37. Conducting health check-up camps and organising health education meets to prevent the spread of diseases.
38. Putting up health education exhibitions to provide guidance to people on health education.
39. Organising medical camps for providing free medicare to underprivileged sections of society in villages, urban slums and remote areas.
40. Setting up free homoeopathic, ayurvedic and allopathic dispensaries to dispense medicines to needy people.
41. Setting up hospitals for providing free medical treatment to less privileged sections of society.
42. Setting up hospices for terminally ill patients like the one set up by the Sathya Sai Seva Organisation of Sri Lanka
43. Organising malaria eradication programmes like the Sainet Project started by the Sai Organisation in Kenya.
44. Organising visits to spastic homes to help spastic children.
45. Setting up leprosy home for rehabilitating lepers and providing treatment to them.
46. Setting up schools for deaf and dumb children for their rehabilitation
47. One single act of service offered to the God whom you visualise in another is worth all the years of yearning for God.
48. Providing hearing aids and spectacles to needy people.
49. Providing artificial limbs to needy physically challenged people.
50. Organising medical help and counselling to mentally challenged people.
51. Setting up schools for the visually challenged.
52. Monitoring and improving the health and nutritional needs of expecting mothers.
53. Providing health check-ups in schools and colleges for students.
54. Organising special medical camps for drug de- addiction and freedom from bad habits like smoking.
55. Visiting hospitals and distributing gifts with humility and love to patients on various festive occasions.
56. Conducting free veterinary camps for treating domestic animals in rural areas
57. Providing the services of livestock experts to villagers at their doorstep for improving the health of the livestock, and for the eradication of diseases of the livestock.
58. Setting up schools, colleges and other educational institutions for providing free value-based education to students.
59. Conducting literacy classes to eradicate illiteracy in rural areas, urban slums and other backward areas.
60. Providing scholarships, books and other teaching and reading material to needy school children.
61. Conducting free coaching classes for helping needy students.
62. Constructing buildings for schools in villages with the help and cooperation of villagers.
63. Conducting Bal Vikas classes for providing education in human values to children.
64. Conducting seminars to provide value-orientation to school and college teachers.
65. Conducting interfaith meetings to foster love and harmony between followers of different religions.
66. Conducting summer courses on Indian Culture and Spirituality to spread awareness about Bharat’s cultural and spiritual heritage.
67. Setting up forums of professionals like lawyers, professors, businessmen, doctors to provide value-orientation to professionals.
68. Setting up exhibitions to spread the teachings of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba on social service, village uplift and for spreading the values like Sathya, Dharma, Santhi, Prema, Ahimsa in society.
69. Conducting Pallaki Seva (palanquin processions) and Nagar Sankirtan in villages, towns and cities for the spiritual regeneration of people.
70. Spreading awareness about the need of values in society through Ratha Yatra, seminars, conferences, etc.
71. Organising cultural activities like dramas, Burra Katha to spread values among people.
72. Holding exhibitions and seminars on Sathya Sai Parenting to educate the parents how to inculcate values in children.
73. Setting up Sathya Sai Human Values Institutes to train human values teachers.
74. Conducting Bhajan classes and Bhajan centres.
75. Conducting spiritual retreats and Sadhana camps for the spiritual advancement of people.
76. Conducting functions like Mass Upanayanam to initiate children on spiritual path.
77. Conducting Yajnas for the welfare of the world and promoting the teaching and learning of Vedas by setting up Vedic schools and honouring Vedic scholars.
78. Publishing books and magazines and producing films to make people aware of the humanitarian work of Bhagavan.
79. Producing serials on the Life and Message of Bhagavan for broadcasting to educate people about the ideals of Bhagavan like “Love All Serve All”.
80. Producing ACD’s VCD’s, DVD’s on the teachings of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba to spread values in society.
81. Holding meetings at local, national and international levels to propagate the ideals of morality, ethics, spirituality taught by Bhagavan.

(Reference: Sanathana Sarathi Pgs 370-373 November 2005)