Spread the love
The Sai Organisation is created to develop and foster Love; it is not established by coercion; it has sprung from the heart and expands the heart. The inner desire to attain Love and expand Love has taken external form as this Organisation.
Sri Sathya Sai, 21 November 1970 (Third All India Conference)
Sublimation of the human being
Sai has resolved to transform the individual and society by promoting this mutual regeneration, through the action of one upon the other; hence the formation of this Organisation and the establishment of Units in all countries, for the sublimation of the human into the Divine.
4th January 1974 (Fifth All India Conference)
You must have the firm conviction that the aim of this Organisation is to remove the obstacles which keep man from God…. this Organisation must elevate the human to the Divine.
21st November 1970 (Third All India Conference)
The main aim of the Sai Organisation is to elevate human consciousness to the Divine by eliminating all animal tendencies.
11th November 1995 (Sixth World Conference)
Food is the medicine for the disease of hunger; water for thirst; for the disease of the Birth-Death cycle (bhava-roga), Bhagavan is the medicine; for the disease of desire, Jnana is the specific. For the disease of doubt, despair and vacillation, which are the occupational diseases of spiritual aspirants, the most effective remedy is paropakara (doing good to others). For the main infection of ashanti (anxiety and restlessness), the course of treatment is bhajans. The organisation should be dedicated to providing these remedies to the sufferers. Organisations should be such that their members find pleasant places to deepen their Sadhana, cultivate their virtues and overcome their ego, by contact with workers who are free from the slightest trace of that deadly poison. If this is achieved, its success is certain.
21 April 1967
The Sathya Sai Organisation is established to translate the principles of Love and Non-Violence into daily practice. It should also promote the investigation of four basic problems: The Body – What is it? (Deham) | The Body – I am not that. (Nahum) | Then who am I? – (Koham) | Well, I am that! (Soham) –
20th November 1970 (Third All India Conference)
Remember also that the development of this Organization will bring Peace and Tranquility to the World torn by chaos.
21st November 1970
Spiritual practice
…the purpose of the Centre is to provide a meeting place for those who wish to learn, discuss and practise the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba, and to serve as an information point or “signpost” for people interested in these teachings…
Vol1, No1 15 June 1976 Sathya Sai Bulletin (reprinted September/October 2006 Vo 30 No 4)
Our Organisation must apply the touchstone of practice to any precepts that its members may express or profess.
22 December 1971 (Fourth All India Conference)
Two guidelines peculiar to this Organisation must not be neglected: 1) Act and then advise… 2) the rules and regulations we have laid down… must be scrupulously observed, down to the smallest dot and line.
22nd December 1971 (Fourth All India Conference)
Do not make any distinction between your official work and your work in the Sai Organisation. Spirituality cannot be compartmentalised. The Sathya Sai Organisation was created solely to enable its members to manifest their love in all their activities.
11th November 1995 (Sixth World Conference)
The prayer hall can wait; the atmosphere of the place where such work is done cannot be anything but prayerful.
Source: Sri Sathya Sai Digvijayam (1926-1985)
You cannot resurrect the leaf hut, the hermitage, in the twentieth century; you have to discover a bridge between the ancient and the modern.
Source: Sri Sathya Sai Digvijayam (1926-1985)
If the needs of the modern age require change, change the non-essential. Do not dilute the truth so much that it loses its authenticity.
September 15, 1963
Promote faith and self-inquiry
Your organisations must strive to promote faith in God. If that basis is absent, worship, bhajan, puja, good works, everything becomes a meaningless automatic ritual, performed under social compulsion… Faith can grow only from the root of enquiry… You must encourage enquiry on the part of the members you contact and welcome their efforts to gain first-hand experience.
21st April 1967 (First All India Conference)
….the very process of sharing in the activities of the Organisation and getting involved in its activities will induce faith and strengthen devotion and dedication and make you better and more useful citizens and happier and more peaceful people.4th January 1974
(Fifth All India Conference)
The acquisition of love of God should be the main aim of the members of Sai Organisations.
11th November 1995 (Sixth World Conference)
The first quality that every member of the Sathya Sai Seva Organisation would have is a firm faith in God. This faith must be based on the awareness that God is Omnipresent.
SSS Veda Vani p. 327
Man today is going down the wrong path. You need not follow anyone. You must follow your conscience, which is your teacher. Since you respect and follow the words of those who are disharmonious in their thoughts, words and actions, you tend to forget your Swami, your true Self. This situation is created by yourself. Follow your conscience. I never force anyone to do anything. What is the reason? The reason is that one has to follow the dictates of his source, the conscience. Force connotes external imposition. The Source is related to the Atma, which is actually love. So, cultivate love.
24th November 1998
The power of good company
Meeting fellow pilgrims and like-minded aspirants is a rare stroke of good fortune.
February 18, 1966
Ascetic practices, years of constant recitation of the Name, pilgrimages to holy places and shrines, the study of sacred books, will not help the aspirant to spiritual victory as much as communion with saints and good people.
May 16, 1968 (First World Conference)
At first, this Namasmarana is best done in company. For, when you do it alone, distracting thoughts will overpower seriousness. A single fiber of grass has little strength; but if you wind a large number into a rope, you can tie a rebellious elephant to a tree with it! The savage mind can bear the bondage of faith that is confirmed in pious company.
8 May 1968
John Hislop: Well, at least Swami’s devotees know how to hang up their minds and can do it.
Sri Sathya Sai: If it were not for the change of mind of the Sai devotees, the world would have already fallen into complete chaos. The deterioration of the mind and of man has been very rapid and abrupt, even precipitous, during the last fifteen years. That the world is not in total destruction is due to the change of mind of the Sai devotees and the Grace of Sai. You are not aware of it, just as you are not aware of your eyes until you lose them. In the same way, the world is not aware of the Grace of Sai.” –
Source: My Baba and I, Conversations, 7 November 1980, p190
Earn benefits and rewards
I am launching a Seva Samiti. Those who become members of this Samithi and perform selfless service will be liberated from the cycle of birth and death. Not only they, but also their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. However, the test will be severe. I will witness how many people stand the test and emerge victorious.
21st October 1961
Food is the medicine for the disease of hunger; drink, for the disease of thirst; for the disease of Bhava Roga (cycle of birth-death), Bhagavan is the medicine; for the disease of desire, Jnana is the specific. For the disease of doubt, despair and vacillation, which are the professional diseases of the Sadhaka, the most effective remedy is Paropakara (doing good to others). For the main infection of Ashanti (anxiety), the treatment is Bhajan.
April 21, 1967 (First All India Conference)
John Hislop: There may be 50,000 or more people in the USA who are Sai devotees, but less than 1,000 who are in the centres. Organisation seems to be of minor importance. Why bother with it? Even the United Nations has dozens of non-organisational Sai devotees.
Sri Sathya Sai: Organisation gives people a chance. In America and other countries, there are a large number of people who know Sai, have faith in him, talk about him, his Leelas and his teachings, but who do not join the organisation. The organisation imposes a certain discipline and requirements which these people do not wish to undertake. The Sai organisation may be limited in size now, but as time goes on, it will attract so many people that the general public will not be able to find a place at Sai meetings. All available spaces will be allotted to people within the Sai organisation. So membership in the Sai organization offers an opportunity. For example, you are the president of the American Sai Organization and Bozzani is the officer of the foundation (i.e. the Sathya Sai Society of America). Because of this, you are in the car with Swami, having about 9 hours of interview instead of half an hour in the interview room.
Source: My Baba and I, Conversations, December 2, 1982; pp. 208-209
Share the message
It is our duty to share the blessings of our inner freedom and joy with those around us in society. This is the real brotherhood of man. Our Sai Organisation should have this goal constantly before it.
Divine Whispers, p. 200
…we cannot attain the Ananda we have set out to acquire, if such advancement (growth of organisational activities) takes place only in some corner of this world. Only when, in all spheres, our aims and objects, rules and disciplines are propagated and their value is shown through actual practice, can they be transformed into Sadhana, which is alive. If they are only propagated, without being practised, it will be like a flash of lightning – a momentary flash of light, soon smothered by thick darkness which will soon be overcome by disbelief.
Divine Whispers, p. 186
The members of Seva Samithi (Service Organisation) have to heal themselves and inspire others to heal themselves.
Sri Sathya Sai 28-3-1968
You are still young. There is a tendency in your young minds to waver a little. If one wants to explain the nature of a young man, it can be compared to the behaviour of a hundred monkeys. Taking this into consideration, when you come back, you should join the Sai Organisation and in that good company you should do good to the rest of the world.
Summer Showers in Brindavan 1977, p281
Do not promote my name or any name in particular
Sai organisations have no selfish interest in them. They want to help all religions and all jivas. They are acceptable to all. They have not been established for the purpose of promoting a name.
Summer Showers Brindavan 1977 p.280
I do not want the impression to be gained that I want this Name and Form to be publicised. I have not come to start a new cult, I do not want people to be misled on this point. I assert that this Sai form is the form of all the various names which man uses for the worship of Divinity.
17th May 1968 (First World Conference)
I have not the slightest intention of using the Seva Samithis (service organisations) to propagate My Name or pay homage to My Name. No! I am only satisfied when spiritual efforts and disciplines to uplift and purify man progress everywhere.
17 May 1968 (First World Conference)
The Organisations bearing my name should not be used to publicise My Name or to create a new cult around My worship. They should try to spread interest in japam (recitation of the Name of God), dhyaanam (meditation) and other sadhanas (spiritual practices) that lead man towards God; they should demonstrate the joy that is derived from bhajan (group devotional singing) and Naamasmarana (remembrance of the Name of God), the Shanthi (peace) that one can derive from Sathsang (good company). They should render seva (service) to the helpless, the sick, the distressed, the illiterate and the needy.
Sri Sathya Sai, 23-2-1968
This Organisation believes that the Atma in each is the Atma in all and that the God that each worships is the God that all worship. You cannot insist that only Sathya Sai songs be sung in bhajans! I am very disgusted by that kind of fanaticism and I condemn it.
Madras, 23-12-1971
A devotee who spoke said that the world is becoming filled with Sai (Saimayam), that the name of Sai is on everyone’s lips. I want it to be deeper. And I do not insist that it should be the Name “Sai”.
26th February 1961