June 2023

Dearest Brothers and Sisters,

I pray that with Bhagawan’s grace, you and your families are all keeping safe and well.

On Saturday 20th May, we celebrated National Easwaramma Day in Bushey. Swami has given us Easwaramma Day to celebrate His mother’s life and the virtues and principles that she displayed. In His words:

It is the foremost duty of children to fulfil the wishes of their mother and make her happy. Serve others to the extent possible. You need not take up any service activity beyond your means and capacity. If you find your neighbours suffering, give them solace. Help them to the extent possible and make them happy. This is what I expect you to learn today. On the occasion of Easwaramma Day, I exhort all of you to practise these three principles of service, experience bliss, and share it with all.

Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 39, Ch. 8, 6th May 2006

It was truly inspirational to see so many devotees, over 500, join together from across the country to be reminded of and imbibe Swami’s messages through the range of offerings made during the day. The satsang with Swami and the atmosphere created provided energy to those that attended and a feeling of bliss as we left. I would also like to thank our Zonal Chairperson, Bro. Philipp von Dietlein, for being our guest speaker and supporting our National events so graciously with his time. There is an article that provides more details about the day.

As well as the National celebrations, Easwaramma Day was celebrated in many Centres and Groups across the country with a range of offerings to Bhagawan. With Swami’s grace, the commitment and dedication from the children, parents and gurus has enabled so many events to take place in praise of Mother Easwaramma and our beloved Swami.

Looking forward, we are entering a crucial period for those attending the UK Pilgrimage in July. In preparation, devotees are continuing with their individual Sadhana, most importantly. Additionally, a number of pilgrims are working towards or supporting the range of offerings that we are hoping to make to Swami while we are there, including Vedam chanting, musical offerings, bhajan singing and a Bal Vikas (SSE) play. Our final prayer meeting for the pilgrimage will be on Saturday 15th July.

With Bhagawan’s grace, we continue to have busy but exciting times ahead of us, both Nationally and within our Centres and Groups. We thank Swami for the opportunities He gives us to progress in our spiritual journey and hope there are many more in the future.

Lovingly, in Sai service,

Sakthi Shanmugathasan

Final sadhana meeting

On Saturday 3rd June, we had our final National Sadhana meeting attended by over 200 devotees, and as we get closer to the pilgrimage, you can sense the excitement growing! There were inspiring talks from Sai devotees, logistics updates, and explanations of the numerous service opportunities available. What stood out from the whole event was the number of wonderful devotees working behind the scenes to make sure everything runs smoothly – from the wonderful sisters working the costumes and sarees, to the brothers working on the details with accommodation and transport so that all pilgrims are informed. The day was a chance for us to show gratitude to all the hard workers involved and practise all the various offerings to be given in Prasanthi: Vedam, bhajans, musical items and the Bal Vikas play. With Swami’s grace, we are all truly embracing a beautiful ‘Journey to Sai,’ regardless of whether we are going on the pilgrimage or not.

Next meeting

The next - and final - meeting will be a National Prayer Meeting, on Saturday 15th July at Oxhey Wood Primary School, Oxhey Drive, Watford WD19 7SL (timings to be confirmed). All are welcome to attend, including those who due to join the Pilgrimage; we do request that all pilgrims, including children, consider this meeting to be mandatory, even if currently undecided, as meeting together is part of our collective sadhana. 

Need more information?

Email the planning team or visit the microsite via the links below. 

Over five hundred devotees, families and children from across the UK gathered together in the familiar surroundings of The Grange Academy in Bushey to celebrate National Easwaramma Day on 20th May.

The day began with the Bal Vikas (SSE) children taking part in a procession entitled “Journey to Sai”, where each region portrayed its handmade banner based on a particular quote of Swami’s, such as “Why fear when I am here”, “The hallmark of love is selfless service”, and “The greatest spiritual practice is to transform love into service”. Twenty-six Bal Vikas students from Regions 2 and 6 confidently led the Vedam chanting, before the Gratitude Pledge was given by the children, followed by Swami’s discourse on the importance of sadhana.

Our National President, Brother Pratap Thakkar, welcomed us to the programme and thus commenced the first half of the programme - filled with a multiplicity of performances, from a Ganesh dance and dramas from the scriptures, to flautist instrumental items and children as young as 5 singing. The standard was excellent and it was wonderful to see so many children take part. It was clear to see that their dedication and efforts had all paid off as they lovingly offered their performances to Swami.

Lunch was served by our fantastic volunteers and eagerly awaited was the ice cream! As the children ate, three devotees shared their experiences on previous trips to Prashanti, recalling the abundance of rehearsals leading up to the trip, the indescribable feeling of performing in front of Swami, and the unseen hand of Bhagawan behind everything! Then, whilst the adults ate, the children took part in various activities, exploring their creative sides by making key rings, friendship bracelets, origami and pompoms.

The second half of the programme began with an address by Zone 6 Chair, Brother Philipp von Dietlein, who spoke about his time in the Organisation. He stressed the importance of service, but also about grounding ourselves as devotees. His background in neurolinguistics had helped him to do this, and so we were led through a breathing exercise to practise. Thereafter were more performances from the children, including songs, dances and a talk on the Divine Mother.

The day came to a close with gift-giving to the children, announcing the poster and poem competition winners and Songs of Love: bhajans sung beautifully by children from each region. Finally, Mangala aarti was sung and group photos were taken.

As an offering for Swami’s centenary birthday celebrations, a global initiative, ‘Sri Sathya Sai Prema Tharu,’ was launched at Prasanthi Nilayam last year, to plant 10 million trees by 2025. As part of this, the UK has pledged to plant 10,080 trees.

To initiate this project in the UK, the National Service team held meetings with the Regional Wing Coordinators and Centre/Group Presidents of every Region across the country, to explain the project, as well as to offer guidance on how devotees could get involved and use resources to disseminate information to each Centre/Group. The importance of this tree planting project was also discussed and some key themes that repeatedly came up were how instrumental trees are for maintaining biodiversity and reducing the impact of climate change, as well as increasing spiritual well-being and unity amongst devotees. Guidance was also given on how to coordinate, plan, research ideas and finally implement the tree planting process across each Region.

It was heartwarming to see much enthusiasm in all of these meetings, with devotees eager to start the project and contribute towards this beautiful global effort. Some had even begun research of their own and were amongst the first to plant trees and add to the UK goal of 10,080.

In order to support devotees, a UK flyer and PowerPoint slide deck for the project have been produced, as well as a webpage on the National website (the link can be found below). These contain further information about the types of trees to plant, different organisations that you can contact locally, and how to track and record each tree you plant.

Thank you to all of the devotees who have already shown so much support and love. By Swami’s grace, let us pray we come together to reach our UK pledge of planting 10,080 trees, contributing to the global aim of planting 10 million trees by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba's centenary birthday in 2025.

On Saturday 13th May, Young Adults from several regions joined together in the beautiful landscape of Rutland Water Nature Reserve. The day began with three Oms in the fresh air, before we started off the hour-long walk around the lake. It was lovely to be in the company of Young Adults from across the UK because it gave us an opportunity to meet people from other regions, informally get to know one another and talk about our spiritual journeys. We stopped for a picnic which felt very much deserved, and then continued on, treating ourselves to ice cream when we got back! Hopefully, there will be many more opportunities to do similar activities in the scenic outdoors that we are lucky to have in the UK.

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 series of articles will capture a snippet of the service activities supported by Young Adults across the United Kingdom, in the hope of inspiring others.

In this month's issue, we hear from Sister Dharmishta Patel from Region 4 about Leicester soup runs.

Serving the homeless is a national initiative. The Leicester soup runs take place every three weeks on a Friday or Saturday evening, bringing together devotees from the Leicester Sai Centres and other volunteers who wish to join us to serve our homeless brothers and sisters. It involves organising and packing food, soup, hot and cold drinks and items such as socks, underwear, tissue packets, gloves, scarves, hats, jumpers, blankets and sleeping bags, to distribute to the homeless and disadvantaged in the city centre, whatever the weather.

The number of people we serve varies each time from fewer than twenty to up to forty. We have regular volunteers and have had first-time volunteers joining us recently making up half of the group on each run. New volunteers have included colleagues of devotees, their old school friends and members of these people’s families. We hope to inspire others to join us as we continue this service and, as they spread the word of their experiences, to involve even more people from the wider community. Feedback from first-time volunteers has been that it is a lovely service and that it is always nice to have talks about Swami while serving; they have enjoyed the seva and it makes them realise even more how lucky we are.

We start the soup run with prayers and ask Swami to take us to those who need us and also bring them to us that particular night. The food and supplies that we distribute are charged with love and prayers. We have seen that Swami provides the resources and people where there is a genuine wish to serve and continues to guide us to do more and the best we can.

The stories of the lives and situations of the people we have served have shown us that people can become homeless due to all sorts of reasons, therefore we should never judge anyone and their circumstances. The following are brief examples of a few people we have met on the streets. Tom – he explained how he was a chef and due to a string of unfortunate situations in his life he had become homeless only 4 weeks earlier. Due to leaving his job he is unable to claim any benefits for 6 weeks, but has made plans and is taking action to find work. Peter – he had been on the streets for many years and originally came from Ireland. He asked which organisation we had come from and wanted to know more. He was shown a picture of Swami when he asked who the leader of the Organisation is; he said he’d seen a picture of Him before. He asked many questions about what Swami teaches and the Organisation. He mentioned how he thought ego and greed of people were big issues and how they contributed to the issues of people in situations like his. Cameron - he honestly told us that he’d just stolen some alcohol to sell. He said he could buy food, but he has nowhere to cook it, therefore has to steal, sell, and buy ready made food. Ready-made meals cost more than ingredients for homemade meals.

We see their consideration for others who are in the same situation as theirs. When offered food and items they will take what they need, give back items they do not need and ask us to give them to one of the others who may need it. It is always lovely to see them enjoying the soup and hear their comments on it - “This soup is delicious!”, “This is heaven!”, “You could start a business and sell this!” And a gentleman named Darren saying he got spoiled on the streets when he was given two extra cheese rolls. The appreciation, calling it ‘spoiled’.

You are referring to the gift of food as Anna-dhaana (the charity of food). But, no one has the authority to give in charity what has been given by God or be proud of it or even to feel that he has given something in charity. God gave the rains, God fostered the sapling and God ripened the grain; what right have you to call it yours and give it in charity? It is not dhaana (charity) that you do; you are only offering gratitude to God; you are sanctifying the grain you have harvested by offering the food prepared out of it to these Narayanas (Gods in human form). Call it Narayana Seva! That will be more correct. Anyway, since you are doing it with love and humility, in spirit of Divine worship, I have come to your village to bless you. Do not cast all responsibility on a committee, or a group of enthusiasts; join them wholeheartedly and offer to share the burden. I want everyone to join in this Narayana Seva and that it should be done, not once a month as now, but even at more frequent Intervals.

(Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 13, Ch. 4, 28 January 1975)