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Jaga's seva of Love in Poland
Date: 6/4/02
Dear Sai Family, I have just returned from this country (Poland)
national meeting of Sai devotees (which was announced in SaiNews
earlier last month). I joined the meeting only on the third day
(on Saturday, the 1st of June). Here are a few short notes of
information and some impressions. All these are 'unofficial' (I am
not a member of the Organisation) and typed from still fresh
memory.
The meeting of about 300 devotees (this number is, I believe,
greater than for any of 9 previous such meetings) was dominated by
Dato' J. Jagadeesan who, according to the programme, was to have
four talks in the first three days, but has agreed to lead yet one
more session of Q&A today, the fourth and final day of the
meeting. So I was lucky to listen to two long talks (over 6 hours)
instead of only one that initially seemed destined for me!
Although each of Jaga's lively lectures lasted 2-3 hours he never
slowed down or displayed other signs of fatigue. This is still
more significant when taken into account that he left Malaysia
with a flu or something similar and medicines would not help much.
It looked as if the soring throat will spoil his participation, so
he earnestly prayed to Swami for a grace of just being able to
speak. And what performances he presented! You wouldn't belive. It
was love, teachings and fun for hours non-stop. To illustrate one
point he went as far as perfectly singing ... guess what ... quite
a few lines of one of Elvis Presley's hits of 1960's! By the time
I arrived he already could sing in ... Polish! It was a beautiful
three language bhajan (in Sanskrit or Tamil, English and Polish).
At the conclusion of the Sunday's session, Jaga moved many
devotees assembled literally to tears by the way he lovingly
treated the President of Organisation in this country who (I
learned later) had serious problems to deal with within the
Organisation. The President himself, who until now served
tirelessly as the translator, henceforth out of emotion could not
continue this seva. I was talking to many oldtimers on their
opinion about this meeting and they invariably expressed words of
genuine appreciation stating that it was best one in recent years.
This was attributed primarily to Jaga's presence, however the
organisation of the event was also praised highly. I have got a
feeling that this meeting is potentially a breaking point to a
better future for Sai devotees in Poland after a few last years of
trials and tribulations, which begun with the 'revelations' of
Conny Larsson and last year led as high as the Parliament forum.
Should my hopes come true, the success would be in a great measure
thanks to this wonderful guest speaker. On Saturday evening I was
leaving the place (only to return next morning) with a devotee who
said (I noticed tears welling up in her eyes when she spoke) she
have seen a true Apostle in Jaga.
You will appreciate yourself how busy is this saintly man if I
mention after him that only in the last 3 months he travelled to
two different African countries, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji
and Poland, each time for about a week.
To have an idea on sort of the stories he presented refer to an
earlier interview with him by David Jevons which is available at
http://www.ramalacentre.com/newsletter01.htm
and the interview with Jagadeesan
is specifically here:
http://www.ramalacentre.com/newsletter09_01_03.htm
If you did not read it yet, do so
and you will not be disappointed. Necessarily, at the meeting
there was much, much more then in the source indicated. Among more
significant things Jaga tried emphatically to imprint on hearts of
the leaders of Sai Organisation and the devotees at large during
his last two talks (and presumably earlier as well) were these
concerned general policy of Organisation of a country in view of
attacks from forces opposed to Sai Baba and problems inside the
Organisation itself. As a rule there should not be any advertising
Sai while doing social seva. Let people and politicians recognise
the goodness of the Sai movement by the work and fruits, then they
will themeself happily spread the Name. Paraphrasing Jaga humorous
presentation, when they ask who is this Sai Baba, tell them 'I
cannot say this', 'Tell, please!', 'No, no!', 'Oh, please, please!',
'I'd better not' ... finally the devotee may graciously succumb to
the pleadings: 'OK! Since you insist, ...' The idea is never talk
unasked to nondevotees about Sai Baba. He spoke firmly on improper
habit in our (in the West) regular meetings to have a big Sai
portrait, as the main or only item on the altar. That repels e.g.
Catholics (these are in overwhelming majority in this country) who
hold dearest forms familiar to them rather than that strange
figure of dear to us Sai. No wonder outsiders might develop
unfriendly attitude. We know that what is important in Sai Mission
is not that much His Person but rather the teachings, the human
values. On similar lines we were advised to sing more songs/bhajans
in native language rather than in Sanskrit or English but in this
particular respect am not quite sure now - it could well be that
somebody else so argumented during discussion. In Q&A session Jaga
said it is quite bad practice to organize Sai events during
national religious holidays since religious leaders (Chirch) would
regard it as intentional means to draw their flock away from their
faith (note that this meeting in Poland, as usually, begun on
possibly third in importance holiday of Corpus Christi!). There
were also strong words of Jaga about unity in the Sai Organisation.
Members are free to suggest proposals for seva activities to their
leader but here their role ends. One lider - one voice. What the
leader decides must be respected by the members implicitly. Group/Centre
leaders collect such proposals and alone decide which to submit to
the national committee which may in turn choose a few from the
pool submitted by the leaders. The chosen ones are then launched 'globally',
on country scale. This way, if the sev a iscarried out
systematically for a sufficiently long time, it must bear fruits
on a coutry scale and will inevitably find recognition by one and
all unlike many dispersed activities carried out locally. He
underlined the importance of nishkama karma in seva - acting
without expecting any form of personal reward, recognition or
fruits.
Sai Ram, Kazik
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