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Excerpts from Miami Retreat, October 2001
From: R.
Dear Sai family,
SaiRam! I was fortunate to participate in the South-East Regional
Sai conference that was held in Miami from Oct 5-7. It was a very
spiritually elevating weekend, with several excellent speakers,
LIKE our National education Coordinator Berniece Mead, Service
coordinator Hal Honig, Dr.Hose Gomez, former Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of India, Honorable Justice P.N.Bhagawati and ex
students from Swami's college. Provided below is this retreat as
described by one of our young adults Dr.Srikanth Sola.
"Sai Ram. Several of us were fortunate enough to attend the
Southeast Regional Sai Conference in Miami this past weekend,
where we enjoyed a joyful, divine retreat filled with Swami’s love
and grace. I would like to share with you some of my personal
notes from the conference so that you may also benefis from what
we experienced. Although it is not possible to relate everything
that happened, I hope that this gives you a feeling of the
wonderful satsang we all shared.
Bernice Mead spoke to us about Swami’s definition of MAN, which He
says stands for:
M – overcoming Maya
A – experience the vision of the Atma
N – attain Nirvana
She reminded us that it is not necessary to tell people about God
or that He is here on Earth. Instead, she said, let them see the
God in you. She encouraged us repeatedly to remember that,
“I am God. I am God. Know it. Experience it.”
The Honorable Justice P.N. Bhagavati, former Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of India, took time from his busy schedule to speak
with us. He related how, as a small child, he would go out into
the open and cry for the Lord in the form of Krishna. Years later,
Swami came to his home in 1959. Justice Bhagavati came to the
airport to greet Swami, and on seeing His divine form for the
first time, Justice Bhagavati knew that his Krishna had come. He
recalled Swami’s visit and noted that loved poured out from Him to
everyone around. On another occasion Justice Bhagavati was
speaking to Swami and was overcome by emotion. Swami told him not
to give in to emotion – rather, strive for devotion, which is much
better than emotion.
Several of Swami’s former students were at the conference, and
hearing them talk made us feel as if we were once a part of Swami’s
schools and colleges. Srikanth Vaidyanathan described how Swam
would coach the students in public speaking, and how He would have
them practice their talks multiple times in front of Him until He
was satisfied. He shared one experience during which Swami had
come to one of the Institute’s schools to inaugurate a new solar
powered hot water heater. Swami was to open the tap from the
heater, after which hot water would pour out into a container
below. Unfortunately, when Swami opened the tap hot water sprayed
everywhere, drenching the front of Swami’s gown. Everyone was
horrified, but what could they do? Swami just laughed and said,
“Not only did I inaugurate the hot water heater, but I also took
the first shower.”
Another student, S. Kumar, talked about the different stages that
a student went through during his time with Swami, and described
how Swami would coach him in his singing. Swami told him that when
singing in public, one should sing with the proper tune and rhythm,
as well as with true feeling. Sai Subramaniam gave a PowerPoint
presentation featuring many of his cherished photos with Swami,
and talked about how Swami would spend so much of His time and
energy on His students. He always insisted on the best for them –
e.g.He would purchase the best musical instruments for them to use,
or make sure they had the best food to eat and the best costumes
for their plays. When traveling Swami would take care of every
preparation for his boys, down to the smallest detail. Sai showed
us a photo of Swami holding the ring of Sri Rama, a huge diamond
and gold ring that King Janaka had given to Sri Rama at the time
of His wedding to Sita. He also showed a photo of Swami holding a
large hair brush, for which Swami joked, “See how big My comb is?
You people are so lucky - you can comb your hair with only a small
comb.”
On Saturday evening, several YA’s and former college boys gave a
wonderful music program featuring many of Swami’s favorite songs.
One could feel Swami’s divine presence during the program, and we
all felt as if were in Prashanti Nilayam itself.
Hal Honig spoke with us about the recent events in NY, his recent
trip to Puttaparthi, and about the YA’s in general. With regards
to the troubled times in which we live, Hal spoke about how we
unfortunately live in a culture that celebrates violence. He
quoted statistics from a gun control group that described the
number of deaths due to handguns in various countries for a given
year (1997, I believe): 2 in New Zealand, 15 in Japan, approx. 100
in Canada, and over 9,300 in
the USA. This violence, he said, is seen everywhere in our society
– in our media, our television, our recreation, and internet.
During one of his recent interviews, a mother of a 7 year old
child complained to Swami that her son was watching too much TV.
Swami told her, “That is your fault,” emphasizing our
responsibility to ourselves and our children. Hal repeated Swami’s
recent quote in his message to Dr. Goldstein about the recent NYC
tragedy, and related another quote from Swami in which He says,
“Be bold. So bold that you are determined to bare out any calamity
that may assail you. When you have God installed in your heart,
who can deter you?” Hal’s interviews with Swami, which took place
before the NYC tragedy, took place at a time when Swami is
withdrawing from the public eye and asking His devotees to find
Him within. Still, Swami spent a lot of a time answering spiritual
questions and giving specific instructions to His devotees. Some
of the questions and answers from those interview sessions were:
- How do you develop self confidence? “Believe that God is within
you.”
- How do you quieten the mind? “That’s easy. Just stop your
thoughts…. Work more, think less.” Hal said that our we have to be
very careful with our thoughts, as they determine what we
experience in life.
- One devotee asked about surrendering to Swami. Swami replied
that he (the devotee) did not even have control over the mind or
the senses. First, control the senses, then you can think about
surrender. During an earlier interview Swami had asked, “What is
surrender?” to which He gave the answer, “Surrender is seeing
oneness.”
- What is youth? “Youth is determination.” Determination for what?
“Determination to control the senses.”
- What type of service should we do? Swami said serve the poor,
the elderly, and the diseased.
Finally, when asked what were the qualities of the best YA groups,
Hal said:
1) commitment – a commitment to Swami and His teachings, to the YA
group, and to service;
2) the members of such groups enjoy what they are doing.
Let us use the blessings and energy we received from this
conference to intensify and expand our work for Swami.
Jai Sai Ram
Source:
http://www.geocities.com/saicenter_us/snl/snl_102701.htm
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