Sairam Dear All,

Hope all is well with Swami’s grace!

After much deliberations and based on guidance from International Sai Organization / Regional Team / NYC Sai Center Presidents / Our Center Past Presidents / Current Office Bearers, as a result of Emergency declared in NY due to the on going COVID-19 Virus outbreak, please note that starting from Saturday, March 14th to Sunday April 19th 2020, we will be suspending (holding off) all outdoor service projects (Riverside Food Service and Bowery Food Service). Therefore there will be no food preparation, transportation nor serving during this time period.

NOTE: Apologize for the lengthy email but please go over the email as we are implementing center meeting virutally (online) using technology. Need your cooperation and support as always.

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 link below.
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: You can un-mute yourself and provide chorus (This might not be real time experience and you might encounter some latency (delay) … If you are not comfortable please mute your phone and then provide chorus among your own family members.
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 rendered?
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 unison prayer session, where all of us will render together.
7. Vibhuthi Mantram is also chanted together, 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.

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95 Sadhana Program: For more details please go to www.ssbcflushing.org/nyc95

As part of the 95 Sadhana Program, the following is scheduled this Sunday as part of Center activity
1. We will start off with 21 AUMS before bhajans and conclude with 9 SAMASTHA LOKA after bhajans as part of Daily Prayers.
2. We will implement chanting of 95 Sai Gayatri’s as a sadhana activity.

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
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