Thursday, December 30, 2010

Sai Spiritual Showers - Issue 2/76


New Year Blessings!

Over five decades ago, on the first day of year 1959, Bhagawan had written to a devotee, upon reaching Madras (now Chennai)...

"We arrived at Madras just now, at 12 noon. In all places, every thing was so wonderfully joyous. The happiness of all is my happiness. What else do I need than that? May all have greater and greater devotion, knowledge and renunciation, long life, health and happiness and may all deserve more and more the Grace of the Lord!

With mutual friendship and affection, be engaged in Bhajan, Puja, Meditation and the Study of the Glories of the Lord! Utilise the little time available in thoughts of the Lord, without wasting it in idle talk. Time, once lost, can never be reclaimed! The time that is yet to come cannot be claimed, as certainly yours! So, to transform each moment into joy, make this moment, while it is still with you, holy and pure. Give up all yesterdays and tomorrows and the days after; do now, this very day, the task that is worth while. This is My New Year Blessings to you all."

As we are ringing out the ‘old’ embracing the ‘new’ we cannot help but recapitulate what a fantastic year the ‘last’ has been! The passing year has been the year of celebrations, year of Festival of Joy, marking the 85th Year of His Divine Advent!

For eighty five long years, our Beloved Lord has been with us...walking, talking and steering us through our own ‘kurukshetra’ (field of action), finally to take us to the most desired land of ‘Dharmakshetra’. What have we achieved? How successful have we been in living His messages? After 85 years of His glorious earthly saga, now, when we are entering into a new year, man can pause for a while posing and asking himself: Whether he has been living His message?

The above letter that was written over five decades ago spells out His love and compassion for His highest creation. He spoke about precious time and its proper utilisation and the importance of living in the Now, as a worthy beings. If we have not been, if our answer is not affirmative, then Now is the time, for as He had said, The time that is yet to come cannot be claimed, as certainly ours. We need to strive now, walking His talk, moment after moment, step following step towards God, to enter into the dateless realm of ‘eternity!’

There is a pleasure in the dateless days,
In walls with no calendars, table tops, diary free.
No clocks on shelves, no watches on the wrist,
Nothing to chop Eternity into bits
And tell us we are getting old.

All living things.
And even rocks do disintegrate
And stars and planets fade to dust
And dust, to swirls of Force
And Force to Love and Love to God!

We all trek back to God, from whom we strayed.
Let others call this, New Year Day. Let them!

I treat each moment as a little step
To God, with God, in God.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas 2010



 


The birthday of Lord Jesus Christ was celebrated with happy cheers at NED on 25 December 2010, beginning at 10.00am.  We started with veda chanting and bhajans, then followed with songs of praise and christmas hymns.  Our chairman, Bro Thum, presented the nine beatitudes from the Holy Bible as the Divine Message for the day.

Immediately after arathi, Santa Claus brought his bag of goodies to distribute gifts to the children and adults while the christmas carolers sang in the background.  Refreshments was served at the end of the event.  It was a joyous occasion for our members and residents of the nearby housing area.


Click below for more pictures :

Thursday, December 23, 2010

House Bhajan 22/12/10


On Winter Solstice day, our members were invited to conduct a House Bhajan in the beautiful home of Bro Rudy and Sis Charis Lim.  After prayers and bhajans, there was a sumptuous vegetarian buffet dinner to conclude the blissful evening.

Sai Spiritual Showers - Issue 2/75


Our sweet Lord has been most generous to us this Christmas with His Love and His Blessings. We have all had a chance to taste the sweet nectar of His Grace. It is our one-pointed yearning and devotion that has evoked such a loving response from, our dearest Swami. When all we want is He, and when we follow His precepts for living in love and Dharma, then He gives us everything we hope for and fills our hearts with joy.

I want to relate a little incident that happened on the Veranda of the Mandir in Prasanthi Nilayam, a few months ago. Swami was walking by a line of devotees sitting there, when He turned quite unexpectedly towards one of them, and asked, "What do you want?" A little surprised at the sudden question, the person being addressed by Swami, answered, "O Bhagawan, I'm very happy. I'm satisfied. I really don't want anything.” Now it was Baba's turn to act surprised, and He said, "You mean you want nothing?" The recipient of all this attention from the Lord held his hands to his heart, and in an emotion filled voice replied, "Dearest Swami, the only thing I want is You! Only You!" At this Baba leaned forward and said quite emphatically, "That's Not Nothing!" Spreading His arms wide apart, He said, "That's Everything!" Then pointing a finger towards the world outside, He added, "Nothing is there!" "Everything is here! Everything is here!” He concluded, waving His hand towards the heart which had just expressed its divine longing, so sweetly.

Swami's message is that all the sweetness we can ever garner, every joy, every delight, all beauty, all bliss, all goodness is experienced here inside us when we install the Lord in our hearts. This is also what Jesus proclaimed when he said, "Seek Ye the Kingdom of Heaven within you." This Christmas Swami blessed all with a taste of the joy and the divine love of that Kingdom within. We realize that Christmas is such a happy day because we celebrate the birth of the Divine Child. This Divine Child is not born in some far off place, in some far off time; it is born today itself, inside of us. It is born as pure delight, as pure love, as a bubbling sweetness that leaves an unforgettable taste of joy in our hearts. How can we ever forget fine honey, once we have tasted its sweetness? How can we ever forget the experience of the living Divinity once we have tasted His sweetness? Once we have experienced the Divinity as we did today, it is n atural for us to go on with a work for which we have incarnated. We go onto realize our own Divinity, realize our own ineffable joy, realize our own springs of pure, selfless love, realize our own inner beauty, our own innate goodness, our own sweet essence. This very path is the one that Jesus walked long ago, before us.
Oneness with Divinity

Unfortunately, we know very little about Jesus' life. There are just some glimpses given in the Gospels which were set down many years after his passing away. There is hardly anything to speak of the wonderful good humour that Jesus must have had. We know nothing much of his joy, his Ananda, his laughter, his happiness in the company of his devotees who must have been unable to take their eyes off him for even a moment, lest they miss his look or his smile or some endearing gesture. We know hardly anything of his physical beauty. But we do know that Jesus realized the ultimate goal of human life, he realized his oneness with Divinity, and so he must have completely transcended body consciousness and been filled with Divine Bliss. Even as he sacrificed his life for humanity and his body was undergoing the extreme trial of the crucifixion, he himself must have remained immersed in Ananda and totally unaffected by the physical suffering o f his body.

Swami says that the first step on the spiritual path is to be happy, to be always contented and satisfied. The spiritual path, He says, is not pressure but pleasure; it is not information but transformation. It is not taking on new burdens but getting rid of old ones, becoming light, giving up all burdens to Him. He says, "Get on My train and I will carry you and your baggage." But first we have to get on His train. That means thinking always of Him, loving only Him, surrendering everything to Him ..... everything we think we are, everything we think we do. A year ago, He gave us this promise, "I will always protect those who are Mine, those who surrender and say, 'Lord, I am Thine'."
The Message Today

Is this then the full story of the great drama that is now unfolding around us, as the Avatar graces the Earth with His presence during this present time of great crisis? No, the story does not stop there. Swami has revealed to us a destiny which is beyond anything we could ever have dreamed of. Swami was asked the question, "Bhagavan, over 3000 years ago, Moses led the people out of slavery and brought them to the Promised Land. Then 2000 years ago Christ came and taught them the way to the Kingdom of Heaven. Now we pray that another Messiah will come and bring final salvation. Swamiji, are you that Messiah who has come to deliver us all?" We expected that He would answer in the affirmative, since He had previously spoken in this way of His mission; but this time Baba answered differently, and in the process gave His highest teachings. He said, "No, it's not like that. Not one Messiah. You are all Messiah. In truth, you are God. Here and now you have the strength to save yourself and help others also. Live in God. Live in Love. Always think God. As you think so you will be. Dust if you think, dust you are. God if you think, God you are. Think God. Be God. Realize it! Realize it!"

This is the inspiring message of the Avatar, bringing to light again the ancient teachings of Sanathana Dharma. This is the fulfillment of all our religions. This is the path of Self‑discovery, which step‑by‑step, leads us to realize that we are the one Transcendental Principle, that we always have been and always will be the Supreme Atma, ever pure, eternal, unchanging. With this revelation comes the mind‑shattering realization that in essence, we and the Avatars and all the great Godmen of history are exactly the same.

This is the momentous message that Sai has come to bring, and with it He has lit the light which will forever banish our night of ignor­ance. "I am God. I am God. I am no different from God. Fear and grief can never touch me!" That is the mantra He has given us. It heralds the birth of the Divine Child of peace and love within our hearts. When the birth comes, every day will be Christmas and every day a celebration, for then our star will have risen in the morning sky and will shine as a beacon of hope for all mankind.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Ladies Wing Service Activity


Our Ladies wing and family members lend a helping hand at a charity food fair for the poor and needy organized by Moral Uplifting Society, Penang, on 19 December 2010.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Sai Spiritual Showers - Issue 2/73


Days that are marked out as festivals in the calendars of all races and religions are significant because they have a deep spiritual meaning. They have to be used by man for examining habits and practices, prejudices, and partialities and for cleansing the mind of these. The attitudes and guidelines that are clogging progress have to be discarded and fresh fruitful ones welcomed. The days have to be dedicated for trimming the old and planting the new.

How is a holy festival day celebrated now? Immediately after dawn, people take a bath and wear new clothes or fresh washed clothes. The house and the space around it are swept clean; the walls are whitewashed; the furniture is dusted; the cobwebs are swept off. Festoons of green are strung over the doors. We find joy and laughter on every face. All partake together a feast, prepared with love and care. The past is forgotten; the present is filled with happiness; tomorrow is not allowed to cast its shadow on today. Hope, faith and enthusiasm fill the air.

All this is certainly good. But there is more in a festival than these ostensibles. Behind the seen, there is a sublime unseen. The seen and the unseen are two halves of the One, or rather, two phases of the One. From the Full, the Full has emerged, leaving the Full ever Full. The Created is as full of the One as the One whose manifestation it is. The Experiencer is as Full as the Experienced. A grain of sand is as full as a star in the sky. The Paramatma, who is the One Fullness, has willed mankind, which is co sharer of that Fullness. Man has to fulfill himself, half by his individual effort and half through the Grace of the indwelling Divine. Awareness of this Fullness, escaping from the illusion of incompleteness, is the goal, the destination of human life. When man knows, visualises and experiences the Creator, he becomes as mighty, as majestic and as knowledgeable as the Creator. The ultimate cause cannot be the object of direct vision, nor can it be discovered by logical inference. One has to rely on the Word, the Sabda, the Vedas, and proceed along the path laid down therein.

Success in this Sadhana depends on self-control and sense control. Even for the successful execution of daily routine chores we find that these controls are very beneficial. Why? Birds and beasts, insects and worms suffer much when they allow their acts and movements to be guided by the senses. Many have learnt to check the fatal tendency to obey every whim or to pursue every thing that attracts. Discrimination has developed through necessity for survival in most living beings but, in man, it has become a highly developed skill. Man has to use this skill to separate the chaff from the grain and decide on the constructive path of truth and righteousness.

Meditation is now practised and propagated in a very new fangled manner. Without cleansing the mind of its evil thoughts and low desires, how can one use it to win good results? Food cooked in unclean vessels is not fit to be eaten. The prime need for progress in Sadhana is a pure mind, rid of evil thoughts and feelings. Work is purified by the attitude of worship. Dedicate all your activity to God. Then, it will not be warped and worsened by the ego. Satsang, such as you can have in the Hostel, will be of great help. Each one of you must hold on to the discipline that can keep you straight. No one anywhere else has such congenial opportunities and such constant encouragement.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

SADHANA CAMP - 28 November 2010


NED's 3rd Sadhana Camp was held on 28 November 2010, from 9.30am to 12.30noon.  There were three sessions comprising of  'Less Luggage, More Comfort' facilitated by Bro Lee YK.  The second session was on '2012' by Bro Thum, our Chairman.  And the final was a video presentation on the talk given by Isaac Tigrett in Dallas 2009.

Refreshments was served at the end of the camp.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Sai Spiritual Showers - Issue 2/72


I saw A Man...
His Voice was sweet, like Nectar, (When it flows!)
And, when He spoke, the words fell, soft,

Like dew drops on a Rose;
His step was firm where'er He walked...
His Foot prints... shining bright,
And, tho' gentle was His Touch,
He was A Man of Might!

And, like A Halo round His Head,
He wore His coal black hair;
And Love, just like a sweet Bouquet,
Was offered everywhere!
He brought a new un clouded
View Unto my human eyes,
And, tho' I knew not whence He came,
I knew The Man was Wise!

The graceful Robe, around His Form,
Caressed Him...
Like a Flame,
And then, I learned from a passer by,
`Sai Baba' was His Name!

I sat among the growing throng...
And, eagerly, I sought to understand
His Mystery...
That filled my every thought;
I saw Him heal an ailing child...

And, soon...
The Name of 'Sathya Sai' was chanted,
EVERYWHERE!
And, silent, as a passing breeze,
And bare of foot... He trod,
And 'something' whispered in my soul
"This is not Man… BUT GOD!"

The years have passed on restless wings,
And, strong; the Bond remains...
And, when I cannot understand,
He silently explains!

There is no ‘goal’ I can't achieve...
No Load I cannot bear
As long as (in my human way!)
I see His Footsteps there!
His Smile is Something
I recall with tenderness .... And awe!
For me... He spreads a Shining Path,
And opens every door...

Today...
I kneel in gratitude,
As tear drops fill my eye,
And, whisper soft, I speak the words
"I love You, Sathya Sai..."