Places Hold Vibrations
“Follow winding road to the next Pocono Picnic Company sign and make a right onto Camp Akiba Road ….” These were the directions to the 20th Annual Regional Conference of the Sri Sathya Sai Baba Organization of the Mid-Atlantic Region in the United States. The conference began on Friday, May 26, and ended on Monday, May 29, 1995. Camp Akiba was named for Rabbi Akiba, who lived in the belief that everything God does is for the best, even though at the time it may seem like one catastrophe after another. He was a renowned teacher and was deeply loved.
When the Mid-Atlantic Region called the Pocono Picnic Company to arrange the conference, another group was already scheduled. The owners offered to see if the group would rearrange its dates. After a number of months and a series of miscommunications, it was concluded that the camp would not be available. As another site was being investigated, one member of the planning team went to Prasanthi Nilayam. The day he arrived, there was a message on his answering machine back in the U.S. saying that the owners could accommodate the Sai group. It would seem that Swami had a hand in this decision.
On the first day, there were the usual challenges of registration, with additional ones being thrown at the seva dals and officers working with the camp owners. The latter were constantly changing what they wanted from the Sai group, putting out more demands while backing down from their own commitments. Their behavior seemed to indicate a belief that people would take material advantage of them, so a good offense was the best defense. The building for registration was not available when originally promised, so delaying the process for hours. The land they were to till for the seeding of the butterfly garden was not ready. Yet the flowers they had asked us to plant were waiting there, all 4,300 of them! To aggravate things further, the cabins and toilets did not meet our standards for cleanliness. One wise seva dal sighed and then reflected, there was a reason Swami wanted us to be at this particular camp. Four different coupon collecting systems were tried at the dining halls for as many meals. The original agreement for counting was no longer acceptable to the owners. An atmosphere of tension existed at the doors, with everyone anxious to begin eating. On Saturday evening when the final ticket system was introduced on the women’s side, two additional seva dals were watching along with the owner and his employee. These additional people were an indication of how little trust existed at this time between the owners and the Sai Organization. The seva dals taking tickets felt the need to change the atmosphere. One began saying, “Sai Ram” to everyone, and the other called on Swami, asking, “What do You want me to do?” She saw Him, with her inner eye, standing at the side of the line. He told her to smile and welcome people into the dining hall, and not to worry about the tickets. So, she too said, “Sai Ram, Sai Ram.” The atmosphere was becoming more relaxed.
Another glitch: The stage curtain once closed would not reopen! When the children’s play was to begin on Sunday evening, it was delayed as an eight-foot ladder was brought in to open the curtain. It seemed like all the other frustrations could be accepted with resignation, but when it came to the children, everyone wanted the best for them. The costumes, the script, the songs, the scenery, the rehearsals, all were to support the children learning human values. In some ways, the whole retreat seemed a vehicle for this Bal Vikas play. It was an example of what the region could accomplish when it pulled together in a group effort. The audience reacted with smiles and tears, giving the children a standing ovation.
On Monday morning at breakfast, there were only two people present to take tickets on the women’s side: the owner and the seva dal. Once again, this seva dal greeted people with, “Sai Ram, Sai Ram.” Then, Swami’s leela (Divine play), the owner did the same! He had awakened that morning humming a bhajan and now he realized he liked the feeling of saying, “Sai Ram” and seeing people smile. Someone had given his wife a book on Sai Baba, which she had left at the camp. She called her husband that morning, reminding him to bring the book home. She wanted so much to read it.
Later, one of the speakers shared her experience of Swami. Her childhood was one of physical and emotional abuse, broken homes, running away, and teenage years of drug and sexual overdoses in the glittering, yet empty, lifestyle of the rich and destitute in Hollywood, California. Many in the audience were touched, even as they were uncomfortable absorbing the reality of her life. She shared how Sai Baba helped her transform into the person we saw. It became obvious what finding God can mean in a troubled youth’s life, a young life where human values of self-worth and dignity had not been taught. Swami’s leela was standing before us, showing that help is available, even when hope seems impossible.
And a final piece! An employee mentioned that soon 300 disadvantaged children would be coming to the camp. These children do not have the same opportunity that the Bal Vikas students do to learn human values. The regional play was about Harriet Tubman, who worked to free slaves in the United States in the 1850s. Poverty is a very real threat to freedom and human values in the United States in 1995. Equally threatening is material wealth without love and respect for each other. Why was the Mid-Atlantic Region to meet at this site? Sai Baba says that places hold vibrations from the thoughts of people who have been there. Perhaps we were there to help these children feel help is available, even when hope seems impossible.
Over 500 people sang bhajans throughout the weekend, changing the vibrations at Camp Akiba. Many had their own versions of Rabbi Akiba’s belief: that everything God does is for the best, even though at the time it may seem like one catastrophe after another. So how did we wind up there? Whose thoughts brought us there. And whose thoughts were shaping our weekend: ours, people we were with, people who were at the place before us, and/or God’s? It was to find and celebrate God’s love that we came together. And it was some of the God in each of us that we left behind, sanctifying land named for another man of God. The play was videotaped for Swami. But was it only the play that was captured on that tape or, what I believe, all the vibrations of the weekend? For the 70th birthday, what better present could be made to Him and from Him?
~Stephanie Cappitelli,Manhattan, New York
