United Souls of America for Sai - Commemorative Volume Celebration 85 years of the Divine Advent

Excerpts shared for educational and spiritual purposes with reverence to the author. This is a non-profit project dedicated to selfless service.

Harish Krishnamurthy Naidu, is the son of Mr. T.G.Krishnamurthy and Mrs. Soundarya Krishnamurthy of Chennai. His parents have been ardent devotees of Swami and have served Bhagawan for over four decades as part of the Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organization in Tamil Naidu. From a young age, Harish has been profoundly influenced by his parents devotion and practical adherence to Bhagawan's message and he is eternally grateful to them for bringing him to the Divine Incarnation of our times at the age of four. With the Grace of Bhagawan, Harish moved to the United States in 1986 to complete his Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering and has been working in the software industry since 1988. Harish has served Swami as part of the Sathya Sai Organization USA in many capacities including, Center devotional coordinator, Center president, Regional male young adult advisor and is currently the Regional President of the Pacific North Region, USA.

"You and I are One": A perspective

by Harish K Naidu

In the year 2002, in the month of August, my family and I had the great good fortune and privilege of an interview with Bhagawan at His Divine Abode at Prashanthi Nilayam, India. During the interview I had the opportunity to ask Him for a divine message to take back home to the United States. With a look filled with Love and Compassion, and in the softest and sweetest and most soothing voice that one could imagine, Bhagawan said:

"You put me on a pedestal and worship me. This is the wrong attitude. I am in you and you are in Me. You and I are one. This is the right attitude."

This essential and most fundamental truth was said in the simplest and most down-to-earth way, as Bhagawan always does. I could not help feeling that I as an aspiring devotee, and perhaps my fellow aspirants as well, created a distance between Bhagawan and us by "worshipping" Him as someone different from us. Bhagawan experiences the oneness with us. He is our most intimate friend. Yet we may be pushing Him back by creating a distance. This divine message stayed with me and ever since has ruminated in my mind many times, coming to the fore during times of reflection and then receding into the background as I got embroiled in the inevitable game of simply living.

What does Oneness with Bhagawan mean? It could mean that we observe and develop in our own daily lives Bhagawan's many examples of how to live a life filled with Love. This article does not intend to explore this question in its entirety but offers a certain aspect of this oneness that can be applied practically in our lives.

All of us as human beings have a rational side that is dominated by intellect or the mind and a more 'irrational' side dominated by the heart. Using myself as a specimen, I recognize that a significant portion of my rational mind is used in formulating solutions to daily problems and leveraging the analytical capabilities of the intellect in tackling hard challenges in my profession. It also seems very clear to me that this rational and analytical thinking dominates most of my conversations with my fellow human beings during my interactions. These experiences belong to the realm of the mind or "head".

Twill be referring to my own analysis of myself during the rest of the article but will use the term "we" as I extrapolate and extend this thinking to my fellow human beings.

We all also are subconsciously aware of our more 'irrational' nature that includes, to name a few, the experience of projection of trust in our relationships, courage in our actions, our intuitive abilities to determine what the right course of action needs to be in any given situation, and compassion to our fellow human beings. These experiences belong to the realm of the heart.

In our society, our intellectual or the "head" aspect of our personality is reinforced starting from an early age. Our mind dominates us, and our societies and the world stage in which we live are likewise dominated by the head. We in general may not be exercising the "heart" aspect of our personalities sufficiently. And hence this muscle is weak and gets suppressed easily by the mind. The heart may say that I need to give away a significant portion of my earnings to start a new charitable

venture; the mind may say that there is too much risk involved in the current economic situation and that the money is better put away safely for reducing personal financial risk. In general, the mind, if left unchecked, projects fear and suppresses our intuition or our heart.

Having said this, there are many examples in human society of what it means to lead with our hearts as opposed to our minds, a pattern where the heart sets the direction and the mind simply supports that direction in implementation. We will briefly explore a few of these examples.

On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. in response to the prevailing atmosphere of segregation in the Unites States said. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." His campaign and struggle for civil rights in America was instrumental in the relative freedom from segregation that is enjoyed in the USA today. The heart set the course for the struggle and the mind set about ways in which to achieve the direction. His intuition, reflected in the momentous "I have a dream" speech, came to fruition.

Mahatma Gandhi believed that the powerful British Raj that ruled half the world could be made to leave India through peaceful and nonviolent means. At a time when anger against the British was mounting, these concepts did not find ready acceptance. Gandhi persevered through many different means, and the rest is well documented history. Here again it appears that the heart set the course through the principles of nonviolence, courage, and determination and the mind enacted a supporting role brilliantly. Gandhi's intuition proved right. It helped India to gain independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

We all have experienced situations where we have bet on our intuition and worked to achieve it and have most likely brought the intuition to fruition. I would wager a guess that a good majority of the significant things that happen in our lives happen because we want them to happen. In life I suppose our intuitions can help us be part of changes that have an extraordinarily broad social impact, or perhaps more mundane ones. Michael Jordan, who by popular acclamation is known as the greatest basketball player of all time, for instance did not make his high school varsity basketball team. Yet he intuitively believed that he was born to play basketball, and this rejection only made him work harder to achieve his goal. In this way our intuitions arising from our heart, used correctly, can help us rise to greater heights.

In my own experience I have found that the art of setting a vision and observing a future is fundamental to all aspects of leadership. This is true irrespective of whether the leadership is in the context of raising a family, leading a team, or running a corporation. This vision, while informed with intellectual "real world" data, still has a significant intuitive component to it. For instance, most successful entrepreneurs that I have encountered have a well-developed sense of intuition.

February 2009, the Pacific Northwest region of the US Sathya Sai Organization decided to undertake a pilgrimage to Swami in summer 2010. We hoped to bring a cultural program that was locally relevant and present it in His Divine Presence.

The hearts of the people involved proposed a Native American themed program. We knew that this was right but did not know how to go about it. The events that unfolded warrant an article. I will not go into all the details. As part of the coordinating team, we visited the centers in the Region soliciting input. In one visit, a Native American devotee who was visiting a center in Oregon said that we needed to read a few books written by George Walking Bear Gillette, an 85-year-old Native American medicine man from the Redding, California area. To our delight, we found these books to be a great exposure to Native American spirituality. In addition, George had dedicated a chapter to Swami, who he described as the Avatar and the Great Mystery! There was reference to a prophecy from the Hopi Indian tribe of Arizona about the "Great Mystery" coming from the east dressed in red to save and protect. George had known Swami since 1975 but had not yet visited India.

We were in awe at this beautiful instance of Swami's Universal Divine Presence. We clearly knew that Swami was unfolding a series of events that would support the heart's vision of bringing a Native American program to Swami. In the process, over a period of more than a year, several Native American devotees came forward to teach the SSE children chants and dances of their rich traditions, and the SSE children and parents learned about the similarities between Swami's teachings and those of Native American spirituality in their SSE classes and workshops. Moreover, the pilgrimage blossomed into the first ever USA Pilgrimage, and many devotees and children from across the nation got involved in the presentation. In the end, Swami blessed the effort by allowing the presentation to happen in His Divine Presence. Seven Native American devotees made their first ever journey to see Swami and had several wonderful experiences and interactions. Swami graciously and lovingly accepted a flower from George at the end of the presentation in Kulwant Hall. Here again, the heart sets the vision. Throughout the year Sevadal members of the coordinating committee had visualizations of the presentation in Sai Kulwant Hall through dreams and intuitions. All of this materialized after an unprecedented effort of unity and cooperation by all involved, and Swami's Divine guiding Hand was evident in every step of the way. These intuitions came to fruition. Swami is the Lord and Master of what following one's heart means. He has been setting examples time and again in His Glorious Avataric Mission. Swami once said in a letter to His brother on May 25, 1947, "have a 'Task': to foster all mankind and ensure for all of them lives full of Ananda. I have a 'Vow': to lead all who stay away from the straight path back again into goodness and save them. I am attached to a 'Work' that I love: to remove the sufferings of the poor and grant them what they lack." Given Swami's lack of education and His youth, the skeptics were many. Swami's words did not satisfy the rational mind. Yet this direction from Swami has come to fruition in so many different ways. One has to simply study Swami's well-documented life to determine this.

In yet another instance, on November 22, 1990, Bhagawan announced that a Super Specialty Hospital offering sophisticated treatment completely free of charge to all would be inaugurated the next year, in the very hamlet of Puttaparthi. The rational mind found it hard to accept this was possible in twelve months given all the challenges around costs, approvals, and infrastructure development that were needed in this remote area of India. Yet the first cardiothoracic operations were carried out successfully exactly one year later. The Super Specialty Hospital was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India, Shri P. V. Narasimha Rao, on November 22, 1991. In a discourse that day Swami said, "Today an auspicious announcement has to be made. Within fifteen minutes of the inauguration of the Hospital by our Prime Minister; the first operation was begun in the Hospital. Within three hours four operations were performed. One was a very complicated case. There was a hole in the heart of the patient. All the operations were performed successfully and all the patients are doing well."

So let us come back to the original question, what does Oneness with Bhagawan mean? Swami is no different from our hearts. All feelings and intuitions arising from a pure heart are Swami's intentions indeed. If we are able to allow our heart to set the direction, our head to formulate an implementation plan in support of this direction, and our hands to implement the plan, there is a high likelihood of our efforts eliciting Divine Grace. Human effort+ Divine Grace = positive result. Swami has mentioned this several times as 3HV: When the Heart, Head, and Hand are aligned, we experience Peace and Bliss.

We need to develop the courage to trust and act on our intuition. Modern education does not do an effective job of helping us and our children learn to develop their purer and more sublime nature. Developing nearness and oneness with Bhagawan in our hearts helps us to correct this imbalance. Compassion without action is ineffective. We need to use the mind to support the compassion that stems from the heart and develop effective means to manifest that compassion. While Bhagawan is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, we have the ability and responsibility as co-creators to develop positive thoughts that reinforce the notion of universal good. These positive thoughts then will come to fruition.

On May 18, 2010, in a surprise discourse in Sai Kulwant Hall Swami said, "Everyone today seems fearful for no reason at all!" We as co-creators have the responsibility to fearlessly propagate positive thoughts and actions. The faith that the golden age is here must permeate our being, the faith the Divine incarnation has not come in vain and that the world will be a better place for future generations to come must take hold firmly. Fear has no place in the heart; it is simply a product of the mind. The mind insists on certainty; the heart is comfortable with the unknown. The more we develop awareness of our hearts the more we realize that we are one with our beloved Sai.

Jai Sai Ram