Devotion
“Where there is faith, there is love; where there is love, there is peace; where there is peace, there is truth; where there is truth, there is God; where there is God, there is bliss. “
– Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Sri Sathya Sai Baba on Devotion
The Devotional program consists of group devotional singing, study circle, prayers, meditation, and other activities designed to strengthen one’s faith, devotional fervor, and understanding and practice of spiritual principles.
Devotional singing (bhajan) is one of the processes by which you can train the mind to expand into eternal values. Teach the mind to revel in the glory and majesty of God; wean it away from petty horizons of pleasure… Devotional singing induces in you a desire for experiencing the truth, to glimpse the beauty that is God, to taste the bliss that is the Self. It encourages man to dive into himself and be genuinely his real Self, says Baba.
The real intention of Bhajan is to make man cleanse his heart and mind, which will in turn make him get released from the bonds of Maya, and his innate Divinity helps him to shine in all aspects of Life with happiness and peace. The real intention of Bhajan is to make man cleanse his heart and mind ,which will in turn make him get released from the bonds of Maya, and his innate Divinity helps him to shine in all aspects of Life with happiness and peace.
Devotional Activities
To develop harmony and true devotion Bhagawan Baba has given us the method of Namasankeerthan or Bhajan. Baba stresses that through Bhajans man gets to overcome the vices of” Kama” and “Krodha”..Desire and Anger– the most devastating enemies of mental peace. Community singing or Bhajans alone can create an opportunity to illuminate the spark of divinity within every heart and also unite people in and around the vicinity through the light of Love .Only internal purity can destroy mountains of sins and bring about real transformation in man, says Baba.
The real intention of Bhajan is to make man cleanse his heart and mind ,which will in turn make him get released from the bonds of Maya, and his innate Divinity helps him to shine in all aspects of Life with happiness and peace.
Nagarsankeertan activities: There is no greater joy than coming together like a flock of birds and taking the melodious name of the Lord in unison. Groups of devotees get together in the wee hours of the morning, every week and make their way across the bylanes near the temple and sing bhajans in unison, spreading the sacred name of the Lord.
Baba, who is the Veda Purusha, has educated us time and again on the supreme benefits of chanting Vedas. Veda classes are conducted by Vedic scholars, at various centers to enable many people to attend .Every occasion gets started with Vedic chants which leaves the whole place charged with divine vibrations. Laksharchana is also conducted on a regular basis. Vishnu Sahasranama and Lalitha Sahasranama are also chanted on special days.
The ultimate goal of human birth being to reach the Divine, methods of Meditation and Namasmaran to make man focus on the Divine are regularly practiced. Jyothi meditation is conducted at regular intervals so as to make people, clearly learn the method to practice every day.
At first, set a few minutes every day for meditation, and extend the time as you feel the bliss that you get. Let it be in the hours before dawn. This is preferable because the body is refreshed after sleep, and the dealings of daytime will not yet have impinged on you. Have a lamp or a candle before you with an open, steady, and straight flame. Sit in front of the candle in the lotus posture or any other comfortable sitting position. Look on the flame steadily for some time, and closing your eyes try to feel the flame inside you between your eyebrows. Let it slide down into the lotus of your heart, illuminating the path. When it enters the heart, imagine that the petals of the lotus open out by one, bathing every thought, feeling, and emotion in the light and so removing darkness from them. There is no space for darkness to hide. The light of the flame becomes wider and brighter. Let it pervade your limbs. Now those limbs can never indulge in dark, suspicious, and wicked activities; they have become instruments of light and love. As the light reaches up to the tongue, falsehood vanishes from it. Let it rise up to the eyes and the ears and destroy all the dark desires that infest them and which lead you to perverse sights and childish conversation. Let your head be surcharged with light and all wicked thoughts will flee there from. Imagine that the light is in you more and more intensely. Let it shine all around you and let it spread from you in ever widening circles, taking in your loved ones, your kith and kin, your friends and companions, your enemies and rivals, strangers, all living beings, the entire world.
Since the light illumines all the senses every day so deeply and so systematically, a time will soon come when you can no more relish dark and evil sights, yearn for dark and sinister tales, crave for base, harmful, deadening toxic food and drink, handle dirty demeaning things, approach places of ill-fame and injury, or frame evil designs against anyone at any time. Stay on in that thrill of witnessing the light everywhere. If you are adoring God in any form now, try to visualize that form in the all-pervasive light. For Light is God; God is Light.
Bhagawan’s teachings are a treasure trove which needs to be elaborated to understand how man can tune his life to reach his goal. This needs proper understanding through discussions and clarification with appropriate elaboration to digest and absorb .Only correct and proper assimilation of His teachings can result in adhering and following the right path to reach the Divine.
Various Scriptures and philosophic Literature books are also discussed as part of Study Circle. Seminars and workshops are conducted for proper understanding of subjects.
Weekly Devotional Program in Ashram
Mondays
Evening Prayer : 7:30 PM
Chanting of Sri Rudram and other Vedic hymns.
Thursdays
Morning Prayers : 5:45 AM to 6:30 AM
21 Omkars,
Suprabhatham,
Meditation
Nagara Sankeerthan,
Tapovanam reading
Evening Prayers : 8:00 PM to 8:45 PM
Ashtotharam & Bhajans
Sundays
Evening Program : 4:20 PM to 6:30 PM
SSE Classes : 4:20 PM to 5:20 PM
Study Circle : 4:20 PM to 5:20 PM
Bhajans : 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM
Bhajans Format
- Om – 3 times
- Gayatri Manatra – 3 times
- Ashtotharam – 108 Names of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
- Devotional Songs / Bhajans
- Sarva Dahrma Prayer (Om Tat Sat Sri)
- English Aarthi
- Sanskrit Aarthi
- Samastha Loka Sukhino Bhavantu (May all the beings in all the worlds be happy) – 3 times
- Jai Jai Kaar (Chant victory to Sri Sathya Sai Baba)
- Silent Meditation
- Asatoma Sadgamaya Prayer
- Vibhuthi Prayer
- Sai Gayatri Mantra – 3 times
- Thought for the day
- Announcements
Veda Chanting
- Om – 3 times
- Ganapati_Prarthana :
- Sri Rudram – Namakam :
- Sri Rudram – Chamakam :
- Kshama Prarthana