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Temple of Learning
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of
Higher Learning
The genesis
Today, the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher
Learning is known everywhere and almost taken for granted. Do you
know how it all started? Here is that story, the story of three
colleges that were started one after another, and were later fused
into a University in a small village, when experts declared that
such a thing was impossible! What a pity these learned people did
not know about Sai Sankalpa and the fact the word IMPOSSIBLE
occurs only in the dictionary of man!
Interestingly,
the first college that Swami started was for women. He did this in
1968, locating the college in the neighbouring town of Anantapur,
the District Headquarters. Once Swami starts any activity, He must
just 'get on with it'; He is not the one to sit around and mull,
letting grass grow under one's feet, as they say. As Kasturi has
noted, classes were started in rented halls and hurriedly erected
sheds so as to avoid delay, even as the regular building was
coming up. Finally, after the buildings were ready, there was a
glittering formal inauguration on Gurupoornima Day, 1971 by the
President of India, with all the speech-making. On that occasion,
Baba said:
India is
being forged into Bhogabhoomi [land of luxury], a land
of skyscrapers, tinned food, air-conditioning, and
television. Indians are being shaped into an
imitative, insurgent, ill-disciplined mass. They are
being transplanted on other soils and encouraged to
grow without roots. This is an insult to the past and
a dangerous defiance of history. It is a sacrilege on
the history of Time, on the sole purpose of the human
body. That is the reason I have decided that this
College be inaugurated on Gurupoornima Day, as a
reminder of the highest tradition, in which the
highest ideals of life were instilled by personal
example and guidance by the Guru, to pupils eager to
imbibe.
The seed has
been planted; it will sprout and spread, heavy with
fruits, providing shade, security, and sustenance to
all. |
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Quickly
on the heels of the college in Anantapur, came the college in
Brindavan, Bangalore, which was for boys. After a modest
inauguration ceremony, classes were started in improvised
locations while the main building came up slowly. Over now to
Kasturi for a brief description of the inauguration.
On the Inauguration Day, the College looked
spic and span ?.. On 9th June, 1969, the Chief Minister of Mysore
State, Mr. Veerendra Patil had the honour of inaugurating the
College. ?.. Speaking on that occasion, Dr. V.K.Gokak, Vice
Chancellor of Bangalore University to which the College is
affiliated welcomed the new addition as "a gem in the crown of the
Bangalore University." [Later, Dr. Gokak became the Vice
Chancellor of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning.] He
added:
This College
would set the pattern for College education, not only
in the academic field but also in the ethical and
spiritual fields. This is a College conceived,
chiselled, and completed by Baba's Love, Grace, and
Wisdom. Brick by brick, plank by plank, He attended to
every detail. It is a lesson for all those who seek to
do sincere service. |
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Since
Swami usually spent several months in the year in Brindavan, it
was now very convenient for Him to be with students a good part of
the time, gently moulding them the way He wanted; Kasturi gives us
a glimpse of the process:
There is no
activity of the College in which Baba does not evince
interest, for He knows that it is the atmosphere in
which education is imparted and imbibed that really
counts. Since the College and the Hostel are situated
within the compound [of Brindavan], Baba walks in
during the Prayer Session, presides over Moral
Instruction Lectures, and Himself supplements the
Instructor. He writes and directs plays for the
College Dramatic Society. Often, He pats a student on
the back, pulls up a Lecturer who saunters in late,
inquires from a sluggard the percentage of marks he
secured at the monthly test, creates a fountain pen or
a watch for some diligent, well-behaved boy about whom
the Principal gives a report that confirms His own
opinion, advises the Librarian about classification,
and generally moves about as the Guardian Deity of the
Institution. |
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It
was time now to turn to Puttaparthi, and in 1978, Baba started the
third College. By the beginning of the eighties, there were three
colleges, in Anantapur, in Bangalore and in Puttaparthi
respectively. Soon the time was ripe to fuse all these into a
University, and that step was taken in 1981. And now, a Music
College also has been added.
Swami compares His strategy for attracting
students with what Yasoda the foster mother of Krishna once did.
Yasoda was becoming a bit tired of Krishna's pranks and the
complaints from the villagers. So one day she decided to catch
Krishna and punish Him. But Krishna went into hiding. To draw Him
out, Yasoda said in a loud voice, "Krishna, come here and see what
I have in my hand. I have something You like very much, butter.
Come and get it!" Yasoda no doubt had butter in her outstretched
hand but in her other hand, concealed behind her back, she held a
stick! Swami says that Yasoda wanted to first attract Krishna with
butter and then apply the stick! Baba adds that He first attracts
students with the prospect of earning a University Degree. Once
they are in, He leads them by the hand on the spiritual path!
Source: Radio Sai
E-Magazine, 1st November 2003
http://www.radiosai.org/Journals/05NOV01/TemplesLearning/Genesis.htm |