SAI N e w s l e t t e r Sept/Oct 2012 Back to SSE Issue Dear Students... - Excerpts from the Divine Discourse of Sathya Sai Baba Who is a student? A student is one who is acquiring education and who conducts himself with humility, obedience and discipline. Dear Students, you must respect your parents. If an elderly gentleman visits your house, welcome him with reverence and respect. Speak to him sweetly and softly. When that gentleman enquires the whereabouts of your father, do not brush him aside saying, Go and find out. That is not the reply you should give. Politely tell him, Sir! My father is in the living room, I will call him. When you thus speak sweetly and softly, the visitor will have a good opinion about you. He would think that you are the worthy son of a worthy father. You must protect the honour and prestige of your father. How? With your good behaviour and sweet and soft words. Otherwise, the visitors would form opinion, The father is a good and respectable person, but this son of that father is a bad fellow. He is rude and arrogant. He is not a worthy son. Therefore, what we have to learn today is to cultivate humility, in spite of our modern education and living in a modern age. Dear Students! You are full of noble qualities. You are strong in body and mind. Along with that, try also to develop good character. There is no use developing friends circle, wealth and strength, without developing character. Become ideal students and propagate the principles of Sathya Sai Education and earn respect from the world. Mark you calendars September 9 SSE classes begin September 19 Ganesh Chaturthi September 23 Active Members Meeting September 28 Shirdi Sai Baba s Birthday October 8 Thankgiving October 24 Dassera
Reflection for Teachers/Gurus... Here s Educare in a Nutshell For a mighty Oak to grow, we must first plant an Acorn. If a child is compared to an acorn, imagine what lies within the child!
The Mother behind the Man... Parents are the unsung heroes of every person that has ever done anything great. Think about the people that you most admire in your life. Do you attribute any of their greatness to the people that raised them? Often, we do not even think about the fact that there were most likely two people who were most influential in making a person who they are. Of course we are referring to your parents. People who have sowed the seeds of greatness. The Ben Carson Story Ben Carson's mother Sonya grew up in foster homes until the tender age of thirteen. Later she married and had two sons. She had only attended school up to third grade and took 2 and sometimes 3 jobs as a domestic to support herself and her sons. Younger son Ben had never done well in school. His older brother wasn t doing well with his studies, either. What could an illiterate mother, do to help her growing boys? She worked such long hours cleaning people's houses that she wasn t even there during the kids after-school time, often not arriving home until they were in bed. Sonya knew that she had to do something to help her boys begin to live up to their potential. Though she didn't know what to do, she knew Someone who did know. So, she prayed and asked God for wisdom and guidance. She also paid attention to the habits of the high achievers she worked for. She made some decisions and told her sons about them: they were to choose and read two library books per week and hand in book reports to her (they didn t know she couldn't read), and they were to limit TV to two pre-selected programs per week, watchable only after homework was done. Two books per week! Benny thought, alarmed. He had never read a book in his life. And how would he live with almost no TV? Ben's mother repeatedly told her sons that they could do anything anybody else could do, and do it better, if they would only work hard at it. She always had faith in them, and she never accepted excuses. She made none for herself, and would accept none from them, for their own good. Ben Carson went from the bottom of his fifth grade class to the top of his sixth grade class in one and a half years. He earned a scholarship to Yale and became the head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital when he was thirty-three years old. He was one of the youngest people to ever hold such a position. In the first seven years of his career, he performed breakthrough surgeries that changed the lives of his patients. He accounts his success to his mother. The simplest way to say it is this: I believe in my mother.
For Quiet Reflection... "The human heart when young is very soft. It responds to grief and pain in fellow beings. It is the example of elders, the lessons they receive from parents, the company they get into, and the wrong training they receive in school and society that harden their hearts into stone. Parents must not find fault with others in the vicinity of children or show their hatred or envy before their tender minds. Children should be taught to share the grief and joy of others; and to be never jealous of others happiness or success. Instead of giving room to the feeling of envy, teach them to emulate the hard work of the successful, to pray for intelligence, or for a sharper memory. Keep those young hearts soft." - Sathya Sai Baba Did You Know? Watch Your Words... A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. Whatever is visible outside man, is but a reflection of what really is within him. People find the reflection of their own defects in others. Those who find mistakes in others, do not know their own mistakes. The good and the bad that you see and experience are the results of your own thoughts. - Sathya Sai Baba She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, "I'm drawing God." The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like." Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, "They will in a minute."
What Do You See? One person quickly replied, I see a black dot. Okay, what else do you see? Others joined in agreement: A black dot. Don t you see anything besides the dot? she asked. A resounding No came from the audience. What about the sheet of paper? I am sure you have all seen it, but, you have chosen to overlook it. In life, we tend to overlook and take for granted many wonderful things that we have or happen around us and focus our attention and energy on small, dot-like failures and disappointments. The so called problems that we have are usually like the black dot on the paper. They are small and insignificant if we can widen our horizon and look at the whole picture. Are you one of the person who focus your attention and energy on dot-like problems?
Reflection for Children... During Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD. Painful moments, TRUST GOD. Every moment, THANK GOD! ***Competition for SSE Students*** What are the ABC s of Life? Always Be Careful! Always Be Cheerful! Always Be Charitable! Avoid Bad Company! Always Be Content! Action for the Betterment of the Community and more... Dear Children, what does ABC mean to you? Email your ideas to the Editor. Everyone is a Winner! Pleasing Parents, Pleases God. - Sathya Sai Baba Aim High! My mother said to me, If you become a soldier, you'll be a general; if you become a monk, you'll end up as the pope.' Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso. - Pablo Picasso Published by the Sri Sathya Sai Baba Centre of Toronto-York For additional information on Centre activities, please visit the following website: www.sathyasaitoronto.org To provide comments or feedback to the Editor, please email: theeditoris@gmail.com