GAME DAY – 95 Sadhana (Nama Likitha Japam), Center Meeting, Sunday, May 31st 2020 

LIFE IS A GAME, PLAY IT

Sathya Sai Baba says “Sports and Arts are intended to give pleasure. Our Institute students should engage themselves in sports for health and enjoyment. The participation of students coming from different regions and different backgrounds in games should be conducive to the promotion of unity. Even games should be regarded as sacred. Thereby, the participants become holy. Participation in sports and games is necessary for your health and recreation.

If devotion and earnestness are present, even great dangers can be averted. Dangers may come from any cause. But even mountains of danger can be removed by the grace of God. But that does not mean you may take any risk. You should be cautious. Moreover, when some hazardous exercises are performed, there should be safety measures to meet any untoward contingencies. Such precautions should be taken by the organisers of the sports events.
 
Students think that sports events are confined to a few days in January. On the contrary, they should regard life itself as one continuous game. Life is a Game! Play it! Treat the play as an ideal. Thereby you will be adhering to your ideals wherever you go.  – Sathya Sai Baba, Jan 14th 1993
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We are planning this Game / Activity for all on this Sunday. This will be very easy to play and participate that will cover Bhajan Anthakshari along with Sai Jeopardy with various categories including Dumb Cherades, Memories from the past etc. We are encouraging all families / members to join this fun.

Please see below the rules…

Note: Daily Prayers common conference call is scheduled daily at 8 PM. For those who wish to join daily at 8 PM please see the details.
Dial-in number: (712) 775-7465 | Participant Code: 209737

Note: While joining if it prompts for entering password please enter 10081008

Where can we be seated?
1. Please ensure that you and your family members appropriately assemble at your own home altar.
2. Ensure that your laptop (see below requirements) is also visible to all of you.
3. Ensure that you all are seated at the altar comfortably and also joined into the meeting.
4. Ensure NO background noise of any kind is present as much as possible. If not, please kindly mute your phone or go to a silent room where the noise is near zero.

How do we log in?
1. Please log in by clicking the links above.
2. If all of your family members are together then we suggest to limit to one login and one laptop to join the meeting.
3. If you are assigned singer, then please ensure you log in separately using either another laptop or your phone or ipad.
4. If one of your family member is not with you, then have them log in by themselves separately.
5. Ideally one login per house, excluding singer logins.

When can I turn on my Video Cam?
1. Only by lead singers when they are leading a bhajan (optional)
2. Only when Arathi is being done.
3. We are requesting to hide your video cam for the rest of the time in order to ensure that we all have a better experience in terms of audio quality and reduced latency (lag).

When to Mute and When Not to Mute my Audio?
1. During 1:45 PM – 2:00 PM – Please mute your self
2. During assigned bhajans 2:00 – 2:40 pm: All will be muted by default only the lead singers will be un-muted as needed when they lead bhajans.
3. During Closing Prayers 2:40 – 3:00 PM: You can un-mute and you will follow with others. Some we will play recorded chanting and you can provide chorus along.
4. During Bhajan Workshop 3:00 PM – 3:45 PM: Please mute your audio and when needed you can un-mute as it will be a bit interactive session.

How will the bhajans be rendered? (Note: After various options finally we will have the lead singer to render the first line and as well render the chorus by themselves or their family members while all of us will join during the chorus (this is done to reduce the latency (lag). At the same time we will have harmonium / tabla played).

1. We will pre-assign bhajan singers and the order will be known.
2. Lead singers are expected to join separately by themselves using cell phones or land line.
3. We will try to have limited instruments where possible to maintain the beat, if not we will just use clapping.
4. We will follow regular sunday pattern of slides, that will be shared on the screen.
5. Since to make it more touching, we can request lead singers to enable video cam so they can be seen while singing bhajan (optional).
6. Closing Prayers will be lead by assigned singer while all of us will render together..
7. Vibhuthi Mantram is lead by designated singer, please ensure you have vibhuthi at your altar and ensure that your family members get the same.

By Who and How will Arathi be given?
1. When we start arathi, we request all devotees to do arathi at their altars.
2. We will have arathi’s offered by all devotees at their homes at the same time. So please be ready with deepam / or others.
3. During this time you can all show your video camera so we can all see all arathi’s that are done at the same time.

NOTE: Please kindly forgive and excuse us if this does not meet with your standards. We know this cannot mimic the real time bhajans session or center meeting but this ensures that we all are wired at the same time to the divine. We will take feed back and continue to improvise for next meetings.