Avatar Declaration Weekend – Saturday October 19th and Sunday October 20th 2019 Activities

This Saturday, October 19th 2019 we will have our regular naryana seva feeding service opportunities lined up. Bowery Food Service will be the opportunity to serve the needy with a hot meal. Please join the activities in any capacity you can. See below flyer for more details. Also this Saturday we will be visiting Cliffside Nursing Home with a cultural presentation by our SSE children from 1:30 PM onwards. Please see below for more details. On the occasion of Avatarhood Declaration Day we are also blessed with an opportunity to prepared food and pack for Ronald Macdonald House Brunch. This is a very restrictive service offering in terms of number of volunteers. The following food will be prepared on site “Pasta, Spanish Rice, Soup, Lasagna, Sandwiches, Baked Potatoes, Fruit Bowl”. For most of these items cooks have been identified and will procure their ingredients. Please kindly reach out to Manorama Aunty for more details.

The following is excerpted from Sathyam Sivam Sundaram, Volume One, the biography of Swami written by the late Prof. N. Kasturi, an exemplary and long-time devotee.

On the twentieth day of October, 1940, the day after they all returned from Hampi by a special bus, Sathya started for school as usual. The Excise Inspector of the place, Sri Anjaneyulu, who was very much attached to the young Baba, accompanied Him as far as the school gate and reluctantly went home. He seemed to see a superb halo around the face of Baba that day, and he could not take his eyes away from that enchantment. Within a few minutes Baba also turned back to the house. Standing on the outer doorstep, He cast aside the books He was carrying and called out, “I am no longer your Sathya. I am Sai.” The sister-in-law came from the kitchen and peeped out; she was almost blinded by the splendor of the halo which she saw around Sai Baba’s Head! She closed her eyes and shrieked. Baba addressed her, “I am going. I don’t belong to you; Maya (illusion) has gone; My devotees are calling Me; I have My Work. I cannot stay any longer.” So saying, He turned and left in spite of her pleadings. The brother hurried home on hearing of this, but Sai Baba only told him, “Give up all your efforts to ‘cure’ Me. I am Sai. I do not consider Myself related to you.” Neighbor Sri Narayana Sastri heard the noise; he listened and realized that it was something serious. He ran in. Seeing the splendor of the halo, he fell at Sai Baba’s Feet. He too heard the historic declaration: “Maya has left; I am going; My Work is waiting.”

He moved out into the garden of Sri Anjaneyulu’s bungalow and sat on a rock in the midst of the trees. People came into the garden from all directions bringing flowers and fruits. The grove resounded to the voices of hundreds, singing in chorus the lines that Sathya Sai taught them. The first prayer that He taught them that day was, as many still remember: Manasa bhajare gurucharanam; dusthara bhava saagara tharanam. (Meditate in thy mind on the Feet of the Guru. This can take you across the difficult sea of existence in birth after birth.)