Our Lives are Your Message, Swami
For the past year, time and again we’ve heard devotees say that our beloved Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba has only left his physical form, that he remains ever-present, guiding us with unfaltering love.
When we, the Young Adult group of Manhattan’s Sai Baba Center, started planning a presentation and offering for Swami’s Mahasamadhi, we set out to find out how He lives on in the busy streets of New York City.
For several weeks, we attended service projects that Sai Baba devotees spearhead around the city. On a Saturday around noon, we met Hugo and Victoria Vasquez on the corner of 1st Avenue and 29th street and watched them organize a small troop of devotees into an efficient assembly line that for the past 13 years has been feeding over 300 homeless people.
In the corner of Adam Clayton Powell and 116th Street, Hemant Wadhwani coordinates a feeding operation that every Wednesday evening provides hot meals to people from all faiths and ethnic backgrounds in Harlem.
Downtown, we met with Bowery service coordinator Don Nolan on a drizzly Saturday morning. Every week since 1978, they have served home cooked meals to low income residents of the area and anyone who passes by.
After that, we were off to Goldwater Hospital in Roosevelt Island for the weekly service of singing and entertaining patients.
Then, on the third Sunday of April we attended the monthly Senior Citizen’s Lunch that brings devotees together to cook and serve healthy vegetarian meals for seniors from the vicinity of the Madison Baptist Church on 31st street.
Putting a video together of all these experiences was a challenge and a blessing, and having it finished in time to present it at the Sai center for our April 19th program was a true Swami miracle.
With our eyes still teary after the video, we sang about Swami’s meaning in our lives. We dedicated fours songs to our Bhagavan. The bhajan ‘Hey Sai Tera’ asked how we may hold Him in our thoughts while surrounded by worldly attachments; ‘Krishna Nee Begane’ performed for Swami by Hariharan; Nada Particular, a song by Miguel Bose that told us the name of Bhagavan is our only resting place, and Lovely Day, a Bill Withers song rewritten for Swami.
At the end of our program, we encouraged everyone to browse an exhibit on the timeline of Swami’s life and teachings.
In the process of documenting Bhagavan’s work, rehearsing to sing His glory, and researching about His life, we learned a great deal about ourselves, connected with devotees who melted our hearts with their dedication and selflessness, attended seva projects we had never been to, and became motivated with new opportunities to serve.
More importantly, through the lenses of our cameras and in person, we were able to see Swami’s love in the devotees who extended a hand to people in need, living His message. We saw Swami hard at work, all over the city.
Om Sai Ram
~The Manhattan Sai Center Young Adults
New York, USA
