From Team Venugaanam. September,2014 SAMASTHA LOKA SUKHINO BHAVANTU. We are delighted to bring to you to the 38 th edition of Venugaanam.

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1 222 September,2014 SAMASTHA LOKA SUKHINO BHAVANTU From Team Venugaanam We are delighted to bring to you to the 38 th edition of Venugaanam. In this edition, we have our beloved SWAMI s discourse about the IN THIS ISSUE We 1. are From delighted Team Venugaanam.. P1 to bring you the 35th edition 2. Swami's of Venugaanam discourse..p2 this July. 3. SKM Updates...P3 4. Atma Jyoti...P9 5. Lessons I Have Learnt.....P11 6. Winds of Change......P12 Importance of knowing oneself in reality. Baba exhorts that life is meant to be a loving, selfless sacrifice. The SKM updates brings to you some pics from the recent happenings at Sai Krushna Mandir. We share with you pictures of the new uniforms for the children, their new play area, and from the birthday celebrations of the children. Ganesha Chaturthi was celebrated grandly. See this and much more in the SKM updates. In Atmajyothi, we further continue sharing the knowledge on devotion as indicated in Naradha Bhakti Sutras. Here we discuss the various aspects of the devotion. Prakash S shares some of the pros and cons of tablet devices. Using them wisely or getting addicted to them is a personal choice. 1

2 True creativity happens beyond the barriers and limitations of our abilities, opines Deepak Muniraju. Read more in his article entitled The Passion for Art. We are happy to have your feedback on how to make Venugaanam a better communication tool. Please mail us at contactus@saikrushnamandir.org. Do feel free to share with us your articles, thoughts and ideas. We pray to Swami to bless all the children and inmates so that they may all come up to His expectations. May Swami turn our lives into a celebration of His message of love, sharing and caring. With All our Prema, Team Venugaanam Know Thyself Excerpts from Prema Vaahini Cultivate One Pointedness of Vision Above all, cultivate one-pointed steadfastness (ekagratha) in whatever you do. Impartial vision (sama-drishti) is auspicious vision (subha-drishti). The lion, though king of the forest, turns back every few steps while walking through the woods, because it is afraid of being pursued. Fear in the mind makes the vision falter. Violence within the heart distorts the vision and distracts the sight. People must have impartial vision. All creation must appear as equally auspicious to their eyes. They must look upon all with as much love and faith as they have in themselves, for nothing is evil in creation, no, not even an iota. Evil appears as such only through faulty vision. Creation gets coloured by the nature of the glasses we wear. By itself, it is eternally pure and holy. There have always been, there are, and there will always be teachers who reveal to people and who instruct them in attaining the heights they can reach through one-pointed steadfastness and the fullest manifestation of their physical, mental, and intellectual powers. But people s minds revel in external objects and in purposeless observation and criticism of the outside world. How then can their minds be trained to be steadfast? Each one should ask themself this question: Great souls (mahatmas) and outstanding sages were also people like me; they were also embodied beings. If they could attain perfection, so can I, if I follow their method. What profit do I get spending my time in discovering the faults and weakness of others? First search and correct faults within yourself Thus, the first spiritual practice (sadhana) is to search for the faults and weaknesses within yourself and to strive to correct them and become perfect. 2

3 The unceasing toil of each succeeding day has as its aim and justification this consummation: to make one s last days sweet and pleasant. But each day also has its evening. If the day is spent in good deeds, then the evening blesses us with deep sleep, invigorating refreshing sleep, the sleep about which it is said that it is akin to samadhi One has only a short span of life on earth. But even in this short life one can attain divine bliss, by wisely and carefully using the time. Two people, in appearance the same, ostensibly of the same mould, grow under the same conditions, but one turns out to be an angel while the other stays on with their animal nature. What s the reason for this differential development? Habits, behaviour formed out of these habits, and the character into which that behaviour has solidified. People are creatures of character. To a superficial observer, life appears to be a rotation of eating and drinking, toiling, and sleeping. But verily life has a much greater meaning, a much deeper significance. Life is a sacrifice (yajna). Each little act is an offering to the Lord. If the day is spent in deeds performed in this spirit of surrender, what else can sleep be except total immersion in the Godhead (samadhi)? People commit the great fault of identifying themselves with the body. People accumulate a variety of things for the upkeep and comfort of the body. Even when the body becomes weak and decrepit with age, people attempt to bolster it by one means or other. But how long can death be postponed? When Yama s warrant comes, each has to depart. Position, pride, and power all vanish before death. Realising this, strive day and night, with purity of body and mind and spirit, to realise the Higher Self by the service of all living beings. The body must be preserved as a vehicle for this service. But remember, you are not this body; this body cannot be you. Life is a selfless loving sacrifice SKM Updates There have been exciting developments in Sai Krushna Mandir. The children have new school uniforms newly designed from this year. There is a new play area comprising of 2 swings, a see-saw, a slide and climbing blocks. We express our gratitude to K Sreenivas (S/o Mr Pothanna Setty) & Preeta (D/o Mr Ashok Meda) and their entire families for the generous gift of the play equipment for the children as part of the couple s wedding celebrations. The cash gifts were donated by the couple towards this play area and we gratefully acknowledge and thank the Setty-Meda families for their noble initiative. 3

4 222 New Uniforms for the school children New Play Area for Children in front of SKM Its been birthday season in Sai Krushna Mandir. Sridhar and Manikantha 2 of our SKM children celebrated their birthdays on 26 th August and 31 st August respectively. They wore new clothes and cut the birthday cake prepared specially for them. The children were very happy for the same. Sridhar's Birthday celebrations in SKM New Play Area for children in front of SKM 4

5 Manikantha's birthday celebrations: 31st August We are also grateful to Prakeerthi and her parents for choosing to celebrate her birthday on 28 th August with all the children in Sai Krushna Mandir. She shared some chocolats and biscuits with all the children and the SKM children were delighted to have their elder sister on her birthday. Prakeerthi celebrated her birthday in SKM on 28th August 5

6 On Saturday, 30 th August, the alumni of our school arranged for a special Rakshabandhan for all the school children. This has been done every year. The idea is to instil a sense of mutual security among the children and to make children responsible and caring. It was nice to see the bond of love as the children tied rachis for each other. This spirit of brotherliness and caring is even more important in today s world torn by unimaginable crimes and we hope that the children would imbibe this spirit of respect and concern for each other s welfare. Rakshabandhan in school 6

7 The alumni also arranged for a special Yoga training in Surya Namaskara Asana. The children perform Yogasanas every Saturday morning and so it was good to have a special training session on Saturday to reinforce the importance of these yogasanas for health. Yoga in school for the children every Saturday Finally, it was time for the ultimate celebration of Lord Ganesha s birthday- The auspicious festival of Vinayaka Chaturthi. The children made a clay idol of Lord Ganesha and worship was conducted for the same on 29 th August. The kids took delight in making individual Ganeshas as well as a central Ganesha out of clay. The worship and bhajans went on with festive devotion and the grand lunch Prasadam at the end of it ( including Modaks, Vada, Payasa, and other sweets and snacks ) was the befitting tribute to the Ganesha in all our SKM Kids making clay Ganesha with Poornima Akka stomachs! 7

8 Individual and central Ganeshas in the making Ganesha Chaturthi celebrations in SKM 8

9 Sweets and Snacks Prasadam :-) We invite all of you to come and visit Sai Krushna Mandir whenever you can. You could choose to volunteer your time teaching the children and playing with them. We assure you that you will cherish a well spent weekend. So why wait?. Here is your invitation to spend your next weekend with us! Atmajyothi by Shri Lakshminarayan Aithal Lakshminarayan Aithal has served for over 3 decades in Swami s institution and is the former Principal of the Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Institutions at Muddenahalli. Inspired by Swami s direct message to study the Upanishads, he first learnt Sanskrit and then studied the direct works of Adi Shankaracharya and Swami. Sincere perseverance led him to the reality of Aham Brahmasmi and He realized and experienced Swami s words: I am God and so are you. He shares the import of the Upanishadic teachings with us in this series of articles. THE THEOREM OF न रद न रदस त तदर प त ख ल च रत तद र स मरण परमव य क लत तत But, न रद (tells) : (It is the mark of Devotion) that offering all the activities of the one to Him and he is greatly troubled when He is forgotten. तदर प त ख ल च रत 46. It is rightly told that according to श ण ड ल य the Love of the Self, itself, the mark of a devotee. For, the Devotion is the Supreme Love in God; and, therefore, it is proper that the devotion is the merit (धम ) of the mind. But, it is not proper to consider that the mind of the great Devotee moves inside and shrinks; his mind has become broad to see God everywhere. Therefore, it is told (in the 11 th aphorism ) that the devotee according to his devotion, conducts worldly and Vedic activities. Therefore, 9

10 he can conduct anything among the followings : worship, etc; telling stories, etc; meditation on the Self. His main mark is this itself : whatever he does, he offers all activities to God. In his life, there is no activity that is not offered to God. But, for any reason, if he forgets God, then only he has the disturbed mind. God, Himself, is his life. This is the opinion of न रद. कर named sage tells to the king तनमम :- क य न च मनस ण र य ब द य त मन न स तस भ त कर तत यद यत सकल परस म न र यण य तत समप य त तत भ ग It is the essence of the भ ग त-प र ण that all the activities of - the mind, the organ of talk and the body - should be offered to God, न र यण. Therefore, the opinion of all spiritual guides (आच य ) are summed up here. 47. Here is an objection : Has श णड ल य not told that the performance of any action should not be an obstacle? The actions are performed as the means for devotion, then, how do they become an obstacle to the devotion? 43 In order to have a relief to this objection, the one should understand the following things : Under two views actions can be performed. An action should be performed for its own sake is the first view; and, performing an action for the development of devotion is the second view. In the second view, the action is done aiming only to please God. In that view, two things should be absent : (a) an association (स ग) of the type : I am performing an action and (b) a desire of the type : I should have a particular fruit from the action. While, a devotee performs an action, that should be endowed with the following three aspects : (a) giving up an association (स गत य ग), (b) giving up fruit (फलत य ग) and, (c) continuous contemplation of God. Therefore, the devotee and his actions are included only in devotion; in that view, an action is performed for its own sake, all such actions of others are obstacles for the cultivation of devotion. That is why, the Lord श र क ष ण, at the end, tells to अर न :- स ग ह यतम भ य श ण म परम च इष ट Sमस म द ढममतत तत क ष य मम त ह तम मरमन भ मद भक त मद य र म नमस क र म म ष यमस सत य त प रततर न र प रय Sमस म ग ,

11 The Passion for Art By Deepak Muniraju (Hypothesis: The convictions of an artist are far greater than the trials that are endured during any work of creation. The obsession to create even under extreme circumstances reflects the intense desire to feel a sense of accomplishment; a sense of purpose towards an endeavor that s larger than the self.) The attempt to create the extraordinary is an attempt to merge with the spirit of life. The dynamism of human emotions and feelings, fluxed by vivid imagination combined together with the obsessive passion to create, often unlocks the doors to dimensions that transcend practical reality into a realm of infinite possibilities. The path to such higher realms are filled with provocations, infinite challenges and endless limitations of the self clubbed together with imperfections of social structures and conditionings that form the rigid establishments which are grounded in hard reality. The pursuit of art breaks away from the confines of the web woven in time by rigid traditions and institutions towards the next level of evolution passing through a transformational phase. Art is often a glimpse into a higher and a subtle reality. The collective experience and the collective efforts by artists towards abstract meanings and resolutions that rest in ambiguity often crosses the path of defined boundaries and limitations. The challenges and conflicts that an artist faces even at the face of failure are very essential and necessary because true creativity happens beyond the barriers and limitations of our abilities. The passion to create even amidst constant failures is warranted by the visions of destination that triggers the spirit within, towards the spirit and the verve of life! 11

12 Tablets- a boon or a bane By Prakash S Many people today are addicted to their gadgets starting from their mobile phones/tablets/laptops etc. It s a common joke that when two people meet somewhere, they look at their mobile phones more than they look at each other. In the recent past, these gadgets have been the object of ridicule and like every story there are 2 sides to it. I own a Nexus 7 tablet and I really use it for some value-adding stuff rather than being addicted to it. All the below can be done in mobiles too but I feel tablets are better suited for some things owing to their larger screen and better configurations. Reading ebooks: As I pointed out in one of my earlier articles, we can read ebooks in multiple formats (mainly epub & Kindle formats which are very common) in tablets. My reading habit has improved owing to the easy availability and portability of reading books in tablets. Being a little moody in reading different genres of books, I stock up multiple books in my tablet and read according to my taste at that moment. So, sometimes it s a spiritual book, sometimes an autobiography etc. My office bus travel is very fruitfully spent, thanks to my tablet. My tablet is a min-library where at any time, I have about 20 books. Making ticket bookings and bill payments thro apps: Nowadays most of the bill payments related to banking, mobile, internet etc is very easily done through apps. Apps are basically a portable version of the website and are better suited and clutter-free so that we can pay our bills easily. Moreover they all are free and all we need is an internet wifi connection which I would say is more important than even a television. Even booking train/bus/flight tickets is very easy through apps and many people stock up these apps in their mobiles too. Watching movies/videos while travelling: I do this while returning from office and in my train/bus journeys. I catch up on some movies/tv series/music performances in the tablet, here tablets have a clear advantage owing to their better battery life and larger screen. Moreover, the video apps have a plethora of great features which makes the overall experience wonderful. One more important point here is that the books/videos can be added to our tablets very easily (except for Apple ones where we need itunes) right from our computer. Its like copying data to a pendrive. We also don t need internet to read the book or to watch the video. So, tablets do have their uses and its upto us to know the dividing line, either we can use them to add value to our lives or get addicted to them. 12