A Ceaseless Offering of Sai Prasadam
Most of us are aware of the Sri Sathya Sai Grama Seva [village services], where students of Bhagawan go out to villages during Dasara [festival of good destroying evil] distributing prasadam [blessed food] to the villagers around Puttaparthi at their very doorstep. But few know about a project that Swami silently launched on 23 Nov 2010 that takes Bhagawan’s prasadam every day to one selected village in the vicinity of Prasanthi Nilayam.
The Sri Sathya Sai Nithya Annadana Padhakam (SSSNAP) serves a sumptuous meal to 800 to 1000 villagers every day of the year. It is a project that has been silently going on for the past four and a half years. As the name suggests (nitya or continuous), this is a project that happens without a day’s break. Be it a festival or a public holiday, this service continues relentlessly.
Two trucks and a mini bus convey the food and seva dal [volunteer from Swami’s service corps] to one of the 31 nodal villages everyday. All the villages are within the radius of about 30 km [18 miles] from Puttaparthi, and they are from the six taluks [district subdivisions] of Bukkapatnam, Kothacheruvu, Puttaparthi, Nallamada, O.D.Cheruvu, and Chennakothapalli. Over the years, a schedule has been drawn out according to which the same village is visited on the same date of every month.
Though SSSNAP is an initiative run under the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, the food for this project is cooked in a dedicated kitchen in the ashram by cooks employed specially for the project. Apart from these staff, 42 members of the Seva Dal (21 men and 21 women) are also allotted for this project.
The unique feature of this endeavor is the complete Sadhana-Camp like schedule that is in place for the participating seva dal. Their day begins at 4 a.m. with chanting of Omkaram, Suprabhatham, and Namasmarana.
At 4:30 a.m., the gents’ seva dal go to the kitchen to assist the cooks and the women seva dal to cut vegetables. The cooking for the day begins at 4:30 and by 6 a.m. most of it is completed. Thereafter the seva dal refresh themselves and finish their breakfast and report back by 7 a.m. for loading one of the trucks with the utensils and water.
From 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. everyday the seva dal participate in an elaborate and interactive study circle. Various spiritual topics of interest are discussed and this also serves as a fine orientation program to those who are new to Bhagawan’s message. This is a well-received initiative as an increasing number of seva dal are first timers to Prasanthi.
The convener of the project, Col. Sundar, attends and steers these sessions, discussing various topics of spiritual interest and also encouraging the participants to freely share their views and doubts. By the end of the tenure, the seva dal leave satisfied, having attended a sadhana camp where they not only studied but also had the opportunity to practice Bhagavan’s message.
At 9:30 a.m. the cooked food is loaded into the second truck, and at 10 a.m. the convoy proceeds toward the village. The gents’ seva dal travel in the trucks while the ladies travel in a mini bus. By the time the volunteers reach the village, a marquee is erected and a shrine set up by a few locals in readiness for the seva. After a session of bhajans, the prasadam is served at around 11 a.m.
Men and women of the village are made to sit in rows and the prasadam is served in a loving manner. The menu typically consists of rice, dal (lentils), potato curry, and buttermilk. In the initial days of the project, the villagers were served sambhar rice and curd rice, but later Bhagavan instructed that what they like should be served to them. The menu was then fixed in consultation with the villagers themselves.
On an average 800 people are fed everyday. Sometimes the number goes up to 1200. The seva dal are instructed to serve the villagers as much as they want. After serving, the seva dal too partake of the same prasadam and leave. If a good quantity of food is left over (to serve 100 or more) the team heads to a nearby village and the food is distributed to those who wish to take it home in their own utensils.
After this the team returns to Prasanthi Nilayam. On reaching there, they unload the trucks, clean the vessels used, offer Arati [sacred flame] to Bhagavan and disperse for the day by 4:30 or 5 p.m. They then report again at 4 a.m. the next day for the prayer session.
On numerous occasions Bhagavan has shown His presence and blessings for this project through the shower of Vibhuti [holy ash], kumkum [vermillion], or amritham [Divine nectar] at the shed in Prasanthi Nilayam and on the altars set up in the villages. An interesting incident the volunteers recall is when one of the cooks added 6 kgs [13 lbs] of salt to 20 kgs [44 lbs] of cooked dal (lentils) by mistake. It was too late to cook again and the dal prepared was definitely unpalatable. The nervous team made a humble prayer to Bhagavan and added a little vibhuti to the dal, and that was enough to miraculously offset all the salt and make the dal as tasty as it is everyday!
There are many social welfare programs such as the SSSNAP. Yet this program that is running in its fifth year now has some unique qualities to it. First is the approach to make this a Sadhana Camp for the visiting seva dal; and second, men and women from different parts of the country and strata of society come to Puttaparthi and take part. Thereby they learn from observing a stable, well thought-out working program that has enabled the replication of this model in many other states—a purpose that served every project initiated by Bhagavan Baba.
Discarding the path and wasting one’s life is an insult to the very name of the species! Instead of getting enslaved to the evanescent and the false, and wasting precious time in their pursuit, dedicate every minute to discovering truth and contemplating on the everlasting, ever-true Lord. Such dedication is the real function of the soul. On the other hand, spending time in illusory appetites is the drag of the world. One shouldn’t fall victim to the poisonous attractions of worldly luxuries or the wiles of seductive beauty. One day all these fascinating scenes will vanish as a story unfolded in dream!
“The characteristic of a spiritual aspirant is the attainment of truth, not the search of the unreal in this evanescent world. In this false world, there can be no true living (sathya-achara). There can be only false living (mithya-achara). True living consists in the realization of the Lord. This must be borne in mind by everyone every moment of their life.”
~Deepak Arjandas Bharwani [a student]
Source: Prema Vahini, Ch 58
“Selfless Love alone can dispel the darkness of ignorance.” ~Baba
