A Chance to Do God’s Work
Berniece Mead is the National Sai Spiritual Education (SSE) Coordinator for USA. Full of love and good humor, she is an inspiring speaker with a down-to-earth, practical approach to life. This is an excerpt from a talk she gave at the San Diego Center on March 25, 2001.
I always wanted to be a nurse because it seemed like a noble thing to do. I would go to school only sporadically because I had to work my way through school. You cannot stop and work when you are studying to be a nurse. So I decided to quit school, get a job, find a nice husband, have nice children, and live happily ever after.
I worked in an office, while my sister was a teacher. She would not only get two weeks off for Christmas, but also had summer and Easter vacations, whereas I was lucky if I would get a day off. This picture did not seem right. God works in mysterious ways to get you on the path that you were born to take. I truly believe that each one of us has a role to play. I never wanted to be a teacher. While God was saying, “Yes, you are going to be a teacher,” I rebelled! Suddenly, one day, I decided that maybe teaching wouldn’t be so bad after all. I wrote to the supervisor of the college education department to see if I could possibly complete the course in a short time. She wasn’t sure, but she said that it was worth a try. “Why don’t you come, and we will see what we can do?” she said. When I look back, God has been guiding me all along. I finished my degree in two summers and a year. I was a teacher!
After I got married and had children, Swami came into my life. I attended a program organized by the Los Angeles Sathya Sai Book Center, where people had just returned from their first trip to Swami. He had asked them to start children’s classes in the United States. Instinctively I knew that this was what I was supposed to do—begin the Bal Vikas (now Sai Spiritual Education or SSE) classes. It took me a year to get involved with the organization and start teaching children at my home.
It feels good when I see a young man like Daniel who was in my first class. Now a senior at UCLA, he was five years old when he started with me. It is so nice to see these young people growing up to be wonderful human beings and to know that swami has a role for all of them to play. I have seen it with my own children. My daughter, a mother of two young boys, has matured with this background of Sathya Sai education. These children do not realize how blessed they are, having taken birth into good families who know about Sai Baba and who bring them to these Sai spiritual classes.
Swami says that SSE is the basis for restoring Dharma (righteousness) in the world. We all know that He has said, “When righteousness declines, the Lord comes to show man the path again.” Righteousness has declined to such a low that the Lord has come to rescue us. When you stop and think, being good seems so easy, for then you feel good and people like you. But why have we gone so far off the path. Why do we still get angry? Why do we suffer the pain of jealousy and hatred? Why is the world a hotbed of anger? Our children are suffering and schools are a tough place to be in right now. Is all this proper? I believe that everything happening has to happen until we all wake up and realize that we have to change and do things differently. I’ve gone to numerous teacher’s workshops on character education organized by companies with profit intent, who put out mammoth materials. These are good, but there is something missing. What is it?
First of all, character education as a profit-making corporation is not right. Swami, on the other hand, has all these wonderful teachers volunteering and sacrificing their time to teach the children. He has formulated an Education in Human Values (EHV) program for public schools. Wherever we demonstrate the program, people say, “This is exactly what we need.” But they are afraid to use it because we talk about God. A basic part of the program is to pray; can you do that in public schools now? So what do we have to do to make people sit up, take notice and say, “This is what we want”?
Several years ago, I was asked to speak on character education to the board members of the State School Board in Oregon. They sent me a form to fill out, and I truthfully mentioned Sathya Sai Baba as the originator of the program. That brought up a red flag, and they wrote back saying, “We are not quite ready for this yet, it is a bit too eastern. But maybe you could do a workshop for us in a year or two.” I still haven’t heard from them.
They are not ready to hear us talk about equating human beings to God, that divinity is inherent in all of us, and that until we get in touch with the basic qualities of human beings, we are like a bunch of wild animals. The Lord of the universe has come to rescue us! He said, “Look, you are human beings and the human values are already there. You are not teaching anything new to these children, you are only helping them manifest their real being—which is truth, righteousness, peace, love, and non-violence.” The question is: if all this is within us, then what happened? Somewhere along the way we forgot that we are divine. Why are we jealous of anyone? Do we feel good when we go through these pains of anger, hatred, and jealousy? We don’t feel good because these are not natural human qualities. Swami told us at the Teacher’s Training in 1981 and 1983 that we are raising the level of consciousness—of the children, but also our own.
Life is a wonderful game, and if we learn to play it correctly by living righteously, then this world will be a much better place. Jack Hislop (late president of the U.S. Sathya Sai organization) used to complain to Swami about how bad the world was. One time he took some clippings of newspaper articles about a certain guru in an ashram in Oregon. Swami basically said, “Mind your own business! That is MY business.” And then He told Jack that the world isn’t so bad. He said, “It would be a lot worse if it weren’t for my devotees!” Think about that! Every one of you is making a difference—in your home, neighborhood, and workplace. It does not mean that we are there yet, but we are making a difference.
Our friends and family are constantly watching us to see how Swami influences our lives. Swami said, “My Life is My Message, but your life is also My message.” So we have to set the right example by following the righteous path and practicing the values that Swami has taught us. While working on the SSE manual, I showed the chapter on values to my sister-in-law and she remarked with tears in her eyes, “This is incredible. These are Jesus’ teachings.” My nephew, a preacher, asked me to share with him experiences of my trip to India. I joked with him and said that I would be happy to do so provided he did not try to save my soul. He remarked, “No, no, I have been watching you now for 12 years. And all I can see is that you have gotten better.” So you see the people around us are puzzled and want to come to their own conclusions, and so we have to be the best examples of Swami’s love, grace, and teachings.
During Shivarathri, Swami said that if we have compassion in our hearts, speak with Truth, and use our body to serve others, then Kaliyuga (this dark age) cannot harm us. We should think of the hungry, the abused, the sick, and the sad and troubled people—the world is filled with such illnesses. That is compassion, thinking of others, and not just of our own families. Expansion should be our way of life. The SSE teachers sacrifice their Sundays and other days in preparation for working with the children. If you desire to work with the children, make the commitment to do so. We are in the process of printing new community manuals for taking the program to communities. These programs are for conducting after-school activities and taking the values to these places and to those who are ready. We will start out small, and slowly and steadily we will grow. We will make a difference, and hope that very soon the public schools, too, will invite God with a red carpet.
Once we were talking about guidelines for testing, saying that the children need at least 70% of their answers correct before they get promoted to the next grade. Swami said, “Merging with God? Do you have to have 70%? It is not like that. You may just have 60% or 65%. God’s grace will bring you home!” Know that we are the handpicked, chosen ones, and we are having this wonderful chance to do God’s work—to work with the Avatar (living embodiment of divinity)! Don’t be afraid to talk about Swami’s program. Just repeat His name as you go and doors will open. When they do, have enough courage to walk through with confidence and belief in yourself.
Finally, all of us have a personal relationship with God, and we must all try to develop that relationship. We have to work hard and trust Swami as He works on us and transforms us. The Lord is giving us a wonderful chance to work with Him and for Him, and to love Him. He doesn’t need our work! We know that with His Divine will He can accomplish anything, yet He is gracious enough to let all of us be a part of His wonderful cosmic drama—showing us who we are, what we are, and where we are. Through this process, we are getting closer to our source. It is incredible to think about how He showers His grace on us. He has given us the best gift—our body!
