January 2024

Sai Ram dear devotees,

I pray that you and your families are all keeping safe and well.

As we begin this New Year, let us reflect on the timeless wisdom imparted by our beloved Bhagawan and let His teachings illuminate our path and guide us towards a year filled with love, compassion, and selfless service.

Swami’s teachings remind us that the divine essence resides within each one of us. Let this awareness be our guiding light, fostering unity and understanding among all beings. Let the start of the New Year be a reminder of the infinite possibilities that lie within us, waiting to be awakened.

May this year be a journey of spiritual growth and self-discovery. Let us pledge to live a life of purpose, dedicating ourselves to the service of humanity. As we walk together on the path of love and service, as inspired by Bhagawan, let’s pray that it brings joy, peace, and spiritual fulfilment to each and every one of us.

We have our annual National Office Bearers and Active Workers Conference coming up on Saturday 3rd February at Hariben Bachubhai Nagrecha Hall in Stratford from 10am to 4.30pm. I kindly request that all Office Bearers and Active Workers register as soon as possible.

At the Conference, there will be information on the vision and strategy of the Organisation, with presentations from each of the National wings. There will be news on key events planned for the year and information on Centenary celebrations.

I look forward to seeing you all on the day.

Lovingly, in Sai service,

Pratap Thakkar

It gives us immense pleasure to introduce the UK National Council members who will be serving the Sri Sathya Sai Organisation United Kingdom, effective immediately: 

• National Council President: Mr Pratap Thakkar
• National Council Vice President: Dr Sakthi Shanmugathasan
• National Spiritual Coordinator: Mr Satish Kumar Thirupadripuliyur Mohan
• National Service Coordinator: Mr Jayesh Patel
• Joint National Bal Vikas Coordinator: Mrs Vasuki Easwarakumar
• Joint National Bal Vikas Coordinator: Mr Roni Ramdin
• Joint National Young Adult Coordinator: Mr Kapil Dev Prasher
• Joint National Young Adult Coordinator: Miss Triveni Patel
• National Media Coordinator: Dr Amit Patel
• Region 1 President: Dr Jitesh Patel
• Region 2 President: Mr Neel Mehta
• Region 3 President: Dr Arul Srinivasan
• Region 4 President: Mrs Manisha Patel
• Region 5 President: Dr Ketan Parmar
• Region 6 President: Ms Sushma Kumari Gurung
• Region 7 President: Dr Senthiru Sivaloganathan
• Region 8 President: Dr Sreebala Sripada

We are grateful to Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba for giving us the opportunity to serve. Please join us in welcoming all the National Council members and we kindly request that you extend your loving support to them. We should also like to take this opportunity to thank all the outgoing officers for their outstanding, selfless service.

We appreciate the support and the continued guidance of the Sri Sathya Sai Global Council in Prasanthi. We pray to Swami to bless us all so that we can serve with love and unity.

We are pleased to invite you to the National Office Bearers and Active Workers Conference 2024.

• Date: Saturday 3rd February
• Time: 10am till 4.30pm
• Venue: Hariben Bachubhai Nagrecha Hall, 202 Leyton Road, Stratford, East London

Please register via the link below. Registration will close on 1st February.

Please note there is limited car parking space at the venue, with additional parking facilities on the side streets. Please consider using public transport.

Devotees from around the UK gathered in Region 1 on Saturday 16th December for the National Christmas Celebrations. The 350-strong congregation entered a beautifully decorated hall with dedicated altars to Swami and Jesus Christ. One could immediately feel the festive spirit as devotees settled in, waiting in anticipation for the event to begin.

The programme began promptly at 11am with a welcome address by our National President, Brother Pratap Thakkar. Subsequently, we were blessed to listen to Swami’s divine discourse from Christmas 1996, which showed Swami materialising a miniature Bible. Following this, the Bal Vikas (SSE) students led a procession to Swami while the choir melodiously sung the first carol of the morning’s service.

The rest of the morning’s programme folllowed a traditional Christmas Service format consisting of nine readings and nine carols. Devotees from various regions took it in turn to read lessons from the Bible, interspersed with beautiful carols from the choir. The service began and concluded with words from  the Reverend Mark Eminson. Reverend Mark, who has been working as a priest in South Wimbledon since 2019, gracefully highlighted the essence of Christmas and the spirit of giving.

Devotees were then invited to a feast for lunch where many dishes had been lovingly prepared by the service team. After the delicious lunch, the programme proceeded with Bal Vikas offerings. Children had travelled all the way from Tunbridge Wells (Region 6) and Swindon/Bath/Cheltenham (Region 7) to offer their love to Swami in the form of various acts. The Region 7 children presented a brief version of the Nativity in an extremely creative shadow acting performance, followed by some lively Christmas songs. The children of Region 6 presented a skit, also followed by some popular festive songs. Then, the Bal Vikas children of Merton Sai Centre (Region 1) presented a Nativity play, bringing together children in colourful costumes. All the Bal Vikas offerings were delighted in by the congregation and the amount of love, practice and hard work that had gone into these offerings was evident for all to see.

One particular highlight of the afternoon’s programme was an interactive item led by our Joint-National Young Adults Coordinator, Sister Triveni Patel. All devotees took part in this fun game involving the famous ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ song. 

As the event was drawing to a close, the children had a special visit from Santa himself, who distributed gifts to them. The event concluded with words of thanks from our National Service Coordinator, Brother Jayesh Patel and Region 1 President, Brother Jitesh Patel. The day was thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended and one could feel the festive cheer throughout.

The Bridge - Homelessness to Hope, is a Leicester-based charity providing support and advocacy to adult individuals (who are called guests) experiencing homelessness. This includes those who are rough sleeping, sofa surfing, and in temporary or unsuitable accommodation. The Sri Sathya Sai Organisation UK has been involved in supporting the charity for many years. The various services with which the Organisation supports The Bridge includes providing food for the clients and supporting with health-related and recovery events.

The Organisation has recently collaborated with The Bridge to develop a more psychologically-informed work environment. Staff members at The Bridge are not mental health trained clinicians; however have received basic training in mental health. Below is the experience of one SSSO UK volunteer.

I have been involved with supporting this project over the last year. My role has involved providing individual supervision sessions for staff members at The Bridge who support guests with enduring mental health difficulties. In particular, staff are encouraged to bring any difficult interactions they have had with the guests to reflect upon the emotional impact this has had on them and to identify helpful ways to manage similar future actions.

I have really enjoyed building connections with different staff members at The Bridge and learning about the incredible work they do for the guests in their respective roles. As a developing clinician, it has enabled me to strengthen and extend my clinical skills. It has been very positive to hear from staff members that they are benefitting from having a space to reflect upon themselves and the work that they do. Some of their feedback is below:

Staff 1 - I only have positive things to say about my individual reflective practice with Serena! I found our monthly catch ups really valuable. It was a chance to take the time to stop and reflect on the last couple of weeks, which I would never do without having the scheduled time with Serena. We would sometimes have specific topics/focus points that we discussed and other times it was more general. Serena always allowed me to take the lead on this! It was really encouraging to have someone that would listen, validate and occasionally question what I was saying, especially as someone who can be guilty of overthinking things at times! I often felt clearer on situations after my reflective practice sessions with Serena and saw them as a bit of a ‘reset’ for moving forward!

Staff 2 - At first I wasn’t sure exactly what to talk about, and Serena was helpful in talking me through what personal reflective practice is for and what kinds of things other people have found useful (I’ve been in group reflective practice before and didn’t realise how different it would be when it was just me!). She’s provided a helpful outside perspective on things that have made me anxious/frustrated, and has sent useful resources on things I’ve mentioned. She was able to be flexible when I didn’t need to talk through specific instances so much as ongoing anxieties/uncertainties.

Staff 3 - Every reflective practice session I have had with Serena has been a pleasure. Serena always holds a safe and reassuring space for me to take the time I need to express myself and process any difficult thoughts or feelings that are currently affecting me; allowing me to speak about situations that I may not otherwise feel comfortable enough to do so at work. I really appreciate the time she has given me over the past several months and look forward to continuing the sessions with her.

I am also fortunate to receive monthly 1:1 supervision for me to share any thoughts about the work or any concerns that may have emerged. I feel well supported by my supervisor, which has enabled me to continue to facilitate these sessions.

In terms of commitment, it feels manageable to schedule sessions around working and studying. Prospective volunteers would be encouraged to give a few hours of their time each month for 1 hour sessions with each member of staff and 1 hour for clinical supervision. It may be helpful to think about this as only giving up one evening of your time in total, per month. I would strongly encourage others who can offer some of their time and resource to join this venture!

Captured beautifully in the words of our dear Lord: “Do not believe that you can by means of service reform or reshape the world. You may or may not; that does not matter. The real value of service, its most visible result, is that it reforms you, reshapes you. Do service as a spiritual discipline; then you will be humble and happy.”

Serena Jones-Patel
(Final year Clinical Psychologist in Doctoral training)

[If you are a healthcare professional in mental health and would like to participate in this project, please send an email to Dr Upadhyay at healthcare@srisathyasai.org.uk.]

To mark the Centenary of our beloved Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, we have committed to conduct 1,008 house (community) bhajans, over the two-year period starting 23rd November 2023. Each Centre and Group should encourage devotees to participate and take the message of our dear Bhagawan out into the community.

Guidelines that we have put together for you to follow when conducting house (community) bhajans are available on the Centenary page on our National website via the link below.

All Centre/Group Presidents and Spiritual Coordinators are required to retain a log of the date when the house (community) bhajans were held, the name of the town and the Centre/Group name that provided support, as well a photo or two of the altar etc., so that we can keep track of our goal. Please note, regular Centre/Group bhajans are not included in the tally towards 1,008 bhajans. This log will finally be placed at the Divine Lotus feet of our dear Bhagawan at the Centenary Birthday celebrations.

Please do not hesitate to contact the National or your local Regional Spiritual Coordinator for any further guidance.

As we launch our updated child safeguarding policy and guidelines, we kindly request all Presidents and Bal Vikas Coordinators to attend a one-off, mandatory briefing, to help them understand their role and responsibilities as safeguarding leads in our Organisation.

Please contact your local Regional President or Bal Vikas Coordinator if you have any questions.  

Centenary Bal Vikas Wing Activities

Three activities have been selected as offerings to be made by our children, gurus and parents for next year’s Centenary event:

• Chanting of 21 Gayatri Mantras before the start of each class (with the tally of the number of those chanting to be recorded by each centre/region)
• At least 15 minutes of daily outdoor activity (to be recorded in spiritual diaries)
• Practise ceiling on desires and donate any monetary savings to a charity helping children in the United Kingdom (with the tally of amounts donated thus to be recorded by each centre/region); details of the chosen charity shall be provided in due course

These activities are to be carried out from now, until Bhagawan’s 100^th Birthday next year.

National Poster & Poem Competition

We are also pleased to announce the launch of this year’s National Poster & Poem Competition. This is open to all Bal Vikas children.

• Posters: your poster should be based on the theme, “100 Years of Pure Love.” It must be A4-sized and must not use any words. Paints and crayons are allowed.
• Poems: your poem should be based on the same theme. It must be in English and presented on A4-sized paper.

The winning poster will be used for the flyer to announce this year’s National Easwaramma Day programme. The winning poem will be displayed on the SSSO UK website and social media platforms.

Each entry must be supplied with the child’s full name, age, Centre and Region. All entries must be submitted to the Centre Bal Vikas (SSE) Coordinator by Sunday 10th March.

If you have any questions about anything covered in this letter, please contact your Centre or Regional Bal Vikas Coordinator in the first instance.

We pray to our beloved Bhagawan to inspire and bless us all in our humble endeavour to express our gratitude to Him.

We're thrilled to announce the highly anticipated Sri Sathya Sai Global Young Adult Conference in Prasanthi Nilayam!

Additionally, UK Young Adults have the opportunity to perform Grama Seva and participate in a medical camp between 15th-20th July, leading up to Guru Poornima on 21st July.

On top of all these opportunities, Young Adults who have enrolled on the Young Adult Leadership for Self-Transformation (YALST) programme will also be participating in the residential course on 16-17th July, to be held in the sanctum sanctorum that is Prasanthi Nilayam, culminating with their graduation ceremony in Sai Kulwant Hall on 18th July.

Graduates of today, leaders of tomorrow!

Stay tuned for registration details and more information. For any queries, please email us via the link below.

For the welfare of the country and of the entire world, the spirit of service, vital enthusiasm, constructive imagination, pure motivation, and unselfish alertness are all needed urgently.

Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 15, Ch. 31, 19 November 1981

The purpose of the Young Adults Wing is to serve the whole organisation whilst supporting the spiritual journey of the next generation. Thus, it is the duty of the Young Adults to be of service, not only to their fellow brothers and sisters across the nation, but also to the world from which they merely borrow.

This past year, we have followed a series of articles that captured snippets of service activities in which Young Adults across the United Kingdom have taken part. They have been a testament to the enthusiasm, energy and commitment of our Young Adults, who have shown that even the smallest of actions are filled with Swami’s grace.

It is imperative that we, as the future leaders, give back to the society which has given us so much, not only for our own sake, but for future generations. Swami has said, ‘Only the youth are capable of protecting this world. It is the youth and youth alone who can set this world right.’ Hence, we must serve with conviction and steadfast faith in Swami who works through us. Swami continues, ‘Sometimes, the elders underestimate the capabilities of the youth, thinking that they are inexperienced and young. But the youth are endowed with immense power. If they take a firm resolve, they are capable of achieving anything. If they realise their power, they can emancipate the nation.’ (Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 39, Ch. 11, 27th May 2006)

Often, we question our abilities, question the point and perhaps lose sight of the overall goal. But, why do we doubt His plan for us? We should not focus on the outcome, or consume ourselves with the thought that we are beyond the will of the Lord; we must only be concerned with the effort we are putting in. Sister Achchutha from Region 3 spoke about realising that all forms of service, with the correct mentality, are divine in nature. We read the same from Sister Dharmishta from Region 4 who saw Swami in everyone during soup runs for homeless people, and Sister Sravika from Region 6 who was filled with immense gratitude to Swami for granting her the opportunity to serve and find a sense of completeness. It is the emotions we experience during these opportunities that characterise and develop our stature, and that act as a mirror, reflecting the true nature of divinity within us.

‘The welfare of the country depends on youngsters’ (Sankranti, 2003), so we must not forget that our actions today will bear us with spiritual fruit tomorrow. Across the next year, we will be following more Young Adults as they continue to participate in service with renewed enthusiasm, fostering the qualities that Swami has prescribed: ‘sacrifice, compassion, and affection’ (Sevadal Conference, 1986). Let us come together and serve our humanity and only hope to inspire others along the way.