Hari Subramaniam to talk at Dharmakshetra on 30th September, 2012
Here is the last leg of programs for the month of September 2012.
We start the day with Balvikas Annual Day - presenting 'Practical Spirituality' from 10am to 1.00 pm.
The icing on the Cake would be the Talk on 'Glory of Sai Avatar & Nava Vidha Bhakti' by Hari Subramaniam in his signature style from 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm. It will be treat for all bhajan singers to attend this session.
Come One Come All, and have a spiritually filled Day!
October Programmes at Dharmakshetra - Invites
UNITING EUROPE THROUGH THE VEDAS
- An exclusive conversation with Mr. Vajko Kerchen, Slovenia
part 01
Slovenia, the South Central European country, is known for many things, right from its limestone caves to World Cup skiing competitions, to castles and of course, its fabulous mountains, 300 waterfalls and breathtaking lakes. Now however there is something more beautiful sweeping across this country and infact this entire continent, thanks to two dedicated Sai devotees.
Slovenia joined the European Union in 2004 but these two Sai youth are now trying to bring about another union – the Veda Union. And one of this inspired duo is Mr. Vajko Kerchan. In this conversation which was recorded as part of our Radio series "Tryst with Divinity", Vajko shares with Radio Sai's Bishu Prusty, how along with his Sai brother Branimir Gonan from Croatia, they have been inspired to start this unique Veda movement in Europe.
Presented below is the suitably adapted transcript of this conversation which was conducted in July 2012.
Listen to the audio
Radio Sai (RS): Welcome brother Vajko to the studios of Radio Sai.
Vajko: Sairam.
RS: It is really fantastic to have you here in the studio. I was really excited when I heard about Veda Union the other day and felt this is a message that has to go out to the world. Not many know about it, including people in Prasanthi Nilayam. So please tell us what this Veda Union is all about – its genesis, goal and mission.
Vajko: Sure, Veda Union came as a simple idea two years ago, when my Sai brother, Branimir and myself set ourselves on a path that we should do something together concerning the Vedas.
Both of us have been long-time devotees of Swami as well as long-time devotees of the Vedas. At a certain point, the idea crystallised about Veda Union. And we called it so because we felt Europe has united in many secular and monetary ways, and now there was a need to unite different groups across this continent through Veda chanting and the message of the Vedas. That was how Veda Union came to be.
RS: Wonderful, so when did you actually get interested in the Vedas?
Vajko: Well, I have been coming to Prasanthi Nilayam for ten years. Actually, this Guru Poornima day was my small anniversary with Swami.
RS: Beautiful!
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| | Mr. Vajko Kerchan at the Studios of Radio Sai at Prasanthi Nilayam |
Vajko: It was exactly 10 years ago that I saw Bhagawan.
RS: A decade with Bhagawan!
Vajko: Yes! A decade with Bhagawan. And I got really interested in Veda Chanting right from the time Vedas began to be chanted during darshan sessions in Prasanthi Nilayam.
RS: Veda chanting during darshans started probably in 2004. However Vedas used to be chanted before this also, especially on many festival occasions.
Vajko: Yes, correct. Even before coming to India, I had heard of certain mantras - the Gayathri Mantra which everybody hears everywhere and the Tryambakham yajamahe... mantra as well. But at that time they were just some nice sounds; I didn't have any deeper connection with them.
But after coming here, to Prasanthi Nilayam, and hearing these sacred words and mantras, I developed a certain liking. So I thought, let me try to learn one and picked up a book and a CD. I learnt the first mantra maybe in two weeks, when I was here.
RS: Which was this mantra?
Vajko: Narayanopanishad
The Homecoming
RS: So you saw Bhagawan first in 2002. How was that experience?
Vajko: I was travelling for the first time to Puttaparthi and I already knew, I was coming home, that was for sure.
RS: You were just coming here and you knew you were coming home, even before reaching here!
Vajko: Yes. My mother came a little bit sooner than I, maybe a couple of months before and I followed her; it was really coming home.
And at that time, for some reason, Swami was not coming on the gents' side during darshan. So, I stayed here during that trip for a short while, maybe 14 days. Ah! The yearning was so great to see Swami coming to the gents' side but He did not come until the last day.
And finally He did come. I was sitting in the back and as He was walking Swami literally stopped there so that I could have a full view of Him and that was love. From then on, I noticed that Swami opened in me something that I didn't know before - the love for God.
RS: He just unlocked that treasure of love, which was in your heart.
Vajko: Yes.
RS: Fantastic. Were you brought up in any religious or spiritual way?
Vajko: No, my parents were not religious. They did not go to any churches and only after coming back from India did I start developing an interest in churches in our country.
RS: Slovenia is full of churches I guess, and there are a lot of Catholics in the country, right?
Vajko: Yes.
RS: I read somewhere that 97 per cent are Catholics…
Vajko: Yes, quite a lot.
RS: But you were not really brought up as a Christian?
Vajko: No, we were not brought up as such. So actually, Swami gave us all the religious practices and views on religion. I learnt all these here and when I am back home, I try to observe in a similar fashion whatever is happening in India and here.
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| Bhagawan's Students from the Sri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School, Prasanthi Nilayam, Chanting Vedam in the Divine Presence | |
RS: Fantastic. Learning about religion from Prasanthi Nilayam is the best way, you don't have to unlearn anything.
Vajko: Correct. This is true religion, the religion of the heart.
RS: Absolutely.
Vajko: So, it went from the heart to the outside, not vice versa.
RS: You will never ever get confused with religion, if you start learning about religion from Prasanthi Nilayam.
Vajko: Correct, correct, correct!
RS: So, that was really such a sound foundation that Swami laid in your heart about Vedam and about love for God and that love for God translated into doing something for God and into Vedam.
Journey With the Vedas Begins
Vajko: Actually, ever since my first trip, I do not think there was any year when I have not come three times to Prasanthi Nilayam.
RS: Hmmm… You have been coming every year.
Vajko: Yes, every year and maybe for a couple of months. And all these years my inclination towards Vedas kept increasing; I wanted to learn and study more.
There are so many questions for which one wants answers once you start hearing Vedic chants; you don't know what they are, how to approach them, where to study them from and so forth. So, as the years pass by, with a lot of prayer and dedication, the answers come.
RS: So, you were able to learn Vedam even in Slovenia?
Vajko: Yes, at the beginning you have a book, a CD, and you try to imitate the sounds. Later, I concluded my basic Veda studies at Chennai.
RS: Oh! You came to India to study the Vedas?
Vajko: Yes.
RS: You learnt from a master, from a gurukulam?
Vajko: Yes, I learnt from an institute in Chennai.
RS: Vedic Institute?
Vajko: Yes, a Vedic Institute in Chennai that gave me a great basis to build on. We went through all the pronunciations, the rules of Vedic chants, how to approach them, so on and so forth.
So, all what I have been doing, mostly on my own in my room, with Swami of course, was getting refined when I was going to Chennai.
RS: So, it was becoming clearer now.
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| No festival at Prasanthi Nilayam was complete without the holy vibrations of Veda Chanting. |
Vajko: It became clearer and structured. And that is what I needed.
RS: You were doing something but you didn't really know if it was the right way. Now for sure you knew it is the way.
Vajko: Exactly.
RS: Now, you are in a position to actually guide others.
Vajko: Correct. Initially I had so many questions to ask, but nobody to answer them. Even after concluding my studies in Chennai, I connected with different people from all over India to know a lot of things I wasn't aware of. So I went through this hard process, as a result now I can help others.
RS: So, eventually, you got your answers.
Vajko: Yes, I did.
RS: When did this happen, coming to Chennai and learning from a Vedic institute?
Vajko: From 2008 to 2010.
RS: You were in India for two years?
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The tiny tots of the Sri Sathya Sai Primary School posing with Swami
for a picture after chanting Vedam | |
Vajko: No, this is a course I was visiting. So, I was home, came here for 2-3 weeks, went back, so on and so forth.
RS: So probably, when you were in Chennai, you must have made trips to Prasanthi Nilayam too.
Vajko: Every weekend, almost. Luckily, my school was near Sundaram.
(H2H Archives: You may want to read the Cover Story - Sundaram)
RS: Oh, near Sundaram? Swami's abode.
Vajko: Yes, I was so glad about this, I used to walk from my school to Sundaram almost daily for bhajans. So it was a great time.
RS: So, you had a really good spiritual time, learning the Vedas and then, going for bhajans to Sundaram. It is a place where Swami has stayed and visited so many times.
Vajko: Yeah, they used to have excellent bhajans there. Every Thursdays and Sundays, I was there.
RS: Wonderful! In some way, Swami was orchestrating all this.
Vajko: Correct.
RS: His invisible hand was working. And, when did you meet the Sai brother, Branimir Gonan from Croatia?
(H2H Archives: You may want to see the Croatian Choir)
Vajko: I am from Slovenia, and he is from Croatia. See, I was so eager to chant with somebody. So I was asking around and heard that a Sai brother in Croatia had his own group. I called him and said, "Sairam, I want to meet you." He said, "Come."
I went and we met, I also saw his group. At that time, I found out that he had already presented Veda chanting to Swami in 2007.
RS: So, he had come with a group and chanted in front of Bhagawan?
Vajko: You are right. And this is how all these groups came to be there. So slowly, our relationship developed. He began in 2000 and I started in 2010 and we decided to do something together and that's how the Veda Union evolved, I would say, a little bit on its own. We were not even controlling it, we were just going with the flow. And it was evolving itself, growing and giving us the path where we should go.
Project - Rudram 2012
RS: So, you tried to give it some structure and thought of a particular project, and that is how Veda Union came into being?
Vajko: Correct. After 2006,
Athi Rudra Maha Yajna happened in Puttaparthi. That was such a powerful event!
(H2H Archives: You may want to read the Cover Story - The Athi Rudra Maha Yagnam)
RS: Yes.
Vajko: It resonated all over the world.
RS: You were here?
Vajko: No, I was not here.
RS: But, you felt it.
Vajko: I got so inspired by the messages on all the 11 days that I thought we should chant Rudram here every day. Let's learn and teach others also. So we decided our first project would be to teach a number of people, especially devotees to chant Sri Rudram in two years. That would be called Rudram 2012. And we completed it this year.
RS: You completed it?
Vajko: Yes, we completed it. It lasted two years.
RS: So how many groups and in how many countries did you teach?
Vajko: Seven countries and seven different groups.
RS: So this is Serbia…
Vajko: Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, some German groups, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the like. The idea was that I counted the number of verses and divided them approximately into two years. If every group was capable of learning two to four new verses a week from the Sri Rudram; in two years we would be in a position to comfortably chant the mantra together. We charted a timeline and proposed to meet after every major or couple of anuvakas (Vedic paragraphs) and do a workshop. All in all, we had five workshops.
RS: Five workshops?
Vajko: Yes. What we tried to do was that each group would learn on their own for two to three months and after that period when the set of anuvakas was completed, we meet at a certain place. So we met at Zagreb for the first time, then Lithuania, Slovenia, Budapest and the last meeting was in Serbia.
RS: Wow!
Vajko: All these different groups from Europe came to a certain place and then we had 100-120 people chanting.
RS: Together, at public events?
Vajko: Yes, these were all public events.
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| | Sri Rudram 10th Anuvaka workshop, Prague, Czech Republic, 1 October 2011 |
RS: Let me ask you this. Was it really a very challenging task trying to teach Vedam to all these people in different European countries with diverse cultures and diverse tongues? Because getting the intonations right can be difficult, sometimes many Indians also don't get it.
Vajko: From my experience, when I am now also working at home, teaching or chanting with the Sai devotees is different from those who are not. That is the first difference. This is because many people who come here, even if they don't chant, they listen to these all the time.
RS: Yes.
Vajko: So that is the difference. That is the first major thing which is very good for us; it is easy to work with Sai devotees. But, yeah, it was challenging. So we do repeat plenty of times – we take one mantra, split it in half, or sometimes, even split a word. At times we first chant without the intonation marks and then slowly learn to get it right.
Yes, we do make mistakes. That is why we come to these workshops together so that we can correct ourselves and can align our chanting in the right manner. So, we come together at one place for one day, now it is in Serbia, from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m.
RS: The whole day?
Vajko: Yes, the whole day. The morning is spent learning new anuvakas and revising the old ones. After lunch, we chant two to three times depending on the time and conclude with bhajans.
RS: Wonderful! So it is a spiritual Veda retreat.
Vajko: [laughs] correct, correct.
RS: After you mentioned about the website,
Vedaunion.org, I did visit this site and watched all these clips, I must tell you, it is so impressive. First of all, the website is done so well, I don't know who manages it, apart from you two. But it is really nicely done.
Vajko: Thank you.
RS: And even the videos which go along with the write up about the public events is so impressive, it is so nice to see such a big group of people dressed in milky white sitting on the stage and chanting Vedam with so much clarity. Even though, I am sitting here and watching the video, it really filled me with such good vibrations. It is wonderful!
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| Images from the Veda Union's Sri Rudram Public Event held in Zagreb, Croatia, 29 May 2010 |
Posted on : Sept 28, 2012
UNITING EUROPE THROUGH THE VEDAS
- An exclusive conversation with Mr. Vajko Kerchen, Slovenia
part 02
Listen to the audio
Veda Chanting is a Feast to the Spiritually Starved
So, let me ask you something else? Now, when we are talking about Vedas and spreading the message of the Vedas, apart from the challenge that you face in chanting these mantrams, do you also face other questions like - Why Vedam? Why you are engaged in something which has to do with Hindu culture? Why are you forcing Veda on us? And so on.
Vajko: Personally, I've seen very few instances like this. There might be other people there who may talk like this. However, first of all, the need is so great, not only in our country or Europe, but everywhere else in the world; people are so hungry about spiritual knowledge that they would take anything, from yoga, meditation and chanting, to other spiritual practices. Our country is booming with spiritual groups.
RS: Because for so long people were so much hungering for something like this and during the communist regime, it was always difficult when it came to spirituality and religion.
Vajko: Yeah, people are just hungry. So, I meet with zero resistance when working on this.
RS: Wonderful!
Vajko: There are also the different questions on why we are doing this. There's also a question on why we shouldn't do it? One might approach Vedas first through Hinduism, but studying more of the Vedas, you see this is not even a religion, it is a way of life. It is a way to teach you how to be human and be actually divine.
RS: It is just knowledge.
Vajko: Yes.
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| | Mr. Branimir Gonan and Mr. Vajko Kerchen, founders of the Veda Union |
RS: I remember, there was one occasion when somebody questioned like this, and Swami said that just because Newton discovered the gravitational force, you can't say that the gravitational force belongs to England because Newton belonged to England.
Vajko: True.
RS: Swami said, the Vedas are there from times immemorial, it is just that the Indian sages understood it, grasped it, codified it and communicated it. The Vedas are there for all to learn and benefit from.
In another discourse Swami mentioned, how Vedas are so important for the propagation of right conduct or dharma, Baba said, "Vedokhilo dharma moolam" which means, if you want to protect dharma, that is righteousness, you have to protect Vedas because in Vedas, there are these codes of conduct about right living and if you don't protect the Vedas, you are actually sabotaging righteousness in the world.
And in another discourse in 1987, Swami very emphatically said that one should be fearless while talking about Vedas, one should be confident because there is so much need for this in today's times. I do not really know if you have heard Swami talk about all this but it is so heartening that you and your Sai brother have been so passionately engaged in this mission.
Vajko: I understood that certain qualities develop in you over the years as you chant Vedas. Only later I found this out.
RS: Can you give some examples?
Vajko: The relationship with your fellow beings, your family and learning to follow simple life style. In the Taithireeya Upanishad there are beautiful quotations on food - do not throw food, respect food and grow food - and all these simple things of life. These qualities just develop in you.
RS: Fantastic! There is so much, I think, especially in the area of the relationship between man and man, man and Nature and Nature and God.
Vajko: Correct.
RS: I think this entire spectrum is so beautifully inherent in the Vedas. You take any mantram and you will find these things.
Vajko: Correct, correct.
RS: I remember Swami saying on another occasion, that the most important thing about Vedas is the knowledge of unity – that divinity pervades everything. And it is just one principle, that atmic principle which we call advaita.
So this unifying factor of divinity is contained in the Vedas and as you said, as you dig deeper and deeper this knowledge comes to you and then, automatically you feel one with creation.
Vajko: Absolutely.
The Lessons and Experience Accrued
RS: Beautiful! So tell us how has this experience of travelling to different countries, spending so much time and energy has been? Were there times when you really felt that, 'Oh, this is so difficult, I don't know if I can manage. Swami, please help me!' `
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| Sri Rudram 11th Anuvaka workshop, Novi Sad, Serbia, 31 March 2012 |
Vajko: Well, not really, but professionally I am very busy, I work in a software company.
RS: Yeah, I understand that, that is why I asked you.
Vajko: I spend most of my time involved in the Vedas; it's challenging and evolving. This, you notice the day after the workshops. They are so concentrated because to chant six hours with one focus in mind, takes so much effort and then the next day you feel the changes, you feel the energy, you feel very much blessed to be able to do that.
So, yeah, it is a lot of work, but how we organize is that every local group in their own city or country conducts these workshops. Branimir and I just help, give our guidance and support but the local groups are responsible for choosing the venue and making the arrangements.
RS: So, if it happens in Croatia, the local devotees in Croatia will do everything.
Vajko: Correct. So this is how we organise and it is working.
RS: I saw the videos and the choice of the venue also is so good!
Vajko: [laughs] Every time, everything goes off very well.
RS: [laughs] So, you must be feeling Swami's presence in so many ways whenever you organise it. Were there times where you really felt His presence very strongly?
Vajko: Whenever we chant, it's 100 people chanting these mantras together and we feel it in our hearts. So that's the biggest presence, which I can feel when so many wonderful people chant this. I feel the presence of God, Swami and myself in my heart, and then I know I'm doing the right thing.
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| Sri Rudram 8th Anuvaka workshop, Budapest, Hungary, 16 April 2011; Mr Vajko and Mr. Branimir Gonan conducting the classes | |
RS: Personally, what kind of impact has it had on your personality, in the way of life, in the way you look at life, after you started getting more and more involved in the Vedas and becoming stauncher devotee of Bhagawan and loving Him more and more?
Vajko: One of the things which I somehow learnt a couple of years ago is that, basically there are no differences in whatever I do. Whether I do my office work, my Veda work or other work, my mind should be the same; it should be fully involved and concentrated in what I am doing.
RS: The virtue of concentration.
Vajko: Yes, concentration, doing everything from the heart and with depth. It's better not to do things that are on the surface. So, in all these years, things have just fallen off me, meaning, from my mind, from my obligations. I have only a couple of obligations and if I follow them with my full concentration, everything will be fine.
RS: Beautiful. So, you have come to a way of life where you don't really distinguish between different kinds of work, be it be your office work or Veda work or your personal work.
Vajko: Yes, I really don't. If I have to write an e-mail for Veda chanting or for my office, I have the same attitude. It should be correct, it should be to the point and it should be from the heart. So, it really doesn't matter anymore.
RS: So, you are living with the understanding that God pervades everything. Everything has to be done perfectly.
Vajko: I try to do that.
RS: That is what Swami has been saying all the time. Often people get into a boxed mindset, so they put on the spiritual cloak and sit for bhajans and do seva but once they go to their workplace, they say 'this is a practical world, I cannot make spirituality work here.'
But Swami always wants us to seamlessly integrate spirituality into every facet of our life. He said, for example, if you are rolling chappattis, know that you are flattening your ego, or if you are cutting vegetables, think you are slicing your desires, and so on.
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| | Mr. Vajko in the Studios of Radio Sai, August 2012 |
So these are the kind of things that Swami always told us because He gave us that beautiful cosmic relationship and connection, that man is a limb of society, society is a limb of Nature and Nature is a limb of God. So, ultimately, everything is divine. And that perspective is what is there in the Vedas and you are now able to somehow see that and live in that feeling. That is fantastic. I think you must be sharing these insights with your fellow devotees, who are learning Vedam?
Vajko: Yeah. I personally teach twice a week at my home, sometimes even thrice, it depends. We talk about these things; through the Vedas we try to imbibe the teachings, we meet, and yes we share our experiences.
RS: How has their experience been? Have any of them shared with you how they felt after they got involved with this Veda Union project?
Vajko: Yeah, sure. Most of them are Sai devotees already. So this is just a continuation of their spiritual practices, if I may say. But the newcomers come and share their experiences. You know, just listening to these sacred chants calms your mind and fills it with concentration and motivation for other spiritual practices. So it's quite evolving, I must say this.
RS: So people definitely must be sharing their stories of how it has benefitted them and that would be another inspiration to carry on this project.
Vajko: Yes, that's true. That is an inspiration.
RS: Wonderful. As we were talking about these vibrations, I was reminded of a conversation I had with Mr. Sai Surendranath, a very senior member of the Prasanthi Bhajan group.
And he was sharing how, many years ago, Swami, one day told all the boys, who were sitting jam-packed in front of Him in Trayee Brindavan, "Boys, you should not sit like this where you are touching each other so much. It is ok, when you are sitting in front of Me, but else where you should not touch each other so much, because each boy has different vibration and these will really get into each other. So, try to avoid physical contact as much as possible."
At that point nobody really understood much of what Bhagawan said. And then a few days later, Mr. Frank Baranowski came. He is the man who has the gift to see auras or radiations, emanating from every being and everything. For example, if it is a mother and a child, he saw that a blue or a pink aura of love, enveloping the mother and the child. And if there are two people fighting he saw the colour of aura change to red, and so on.
And one day, sometime in the 70s, when the
nagarsankirthan was on in the
Brindavan ashram, Swami came out and Mr. Sai Surendranath was there and when Frank saw Bhagawan coming out, he simply shouted because, as he explained later, 'I have never seen anything like this. This aura is so deep and it is white and blue and then pink; pink is the ultimate colour of pure love and it is just extending beyond, I don't see where it ends, I have never seen a person who gives out so much continuously.'
(H2H Archives: You may want to read the Cover Story - RAYEE: THE GIFT OF DIVINE INTIMACY)
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| Mr Vajko teaching the Rudram during 2nd - 4th Anuvaka Workshop, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2 October 2010 | |
He was saying that when Swami is giving darshan, or when He is talking to someone, this light from Bhagavan is completely suffusing the other person.
Only when the boys heard this, they realised the importance of what Swami said of vibration and radiation.
How powerful is this! When we sing bhajans together or chant Vedam together, we really do not know the impact that we are causing to the world, to ourselves and to our surroundings.
Vajko: Absolutely.
RS: Many a times even if God asks us to do something, our stupid mind gets convinced only after someone explains that to us scientifically.
The Road Ahead for the Veda Union
So it is really beautiful that this mission is trying to unite Europe through these positive vibrations. So what is your next project now?
Vajko: We have completed the Rudram 2012 project having spent two years on that. Now it's the Chamakam and I believe we may spend a year-and-a-half learning it.
RS: So again you are going to different corners of Europe to teach chamakam?
Vajko: Again, we will follow the same organisational structure. We will divide certain anuvakas and I think it may take three or maybe a maximum of four different workshops around Europe but at least for now, our short term goal is to learn complete namakam and chamakam, so that, we are able at a certain point to come together from different cities around Europe and chant namakam 11 times and chamakam once.
This is the goal towards which we are heading. We prepared two years for namakam, now comes chamakam and after that we hope to organise different workshops around Europe where 100 to 150 people can come together and chant these 11 times. Of course, we have to practice more; try to find people who will be able to lead because the two of us cannot do this alone. So what we will do is divide ourselves into two groups, so that every group chants a line. So, it's a big process to go through to get there.
RS: And earlier you were mentioning that you want to come to Puttaparthi also as a group.
Vajko: Yes. As a matter of fact, there is now the plan - to come for Dasara this year.
RS: Dasara, this year? Wonderful!
Vajko: Just to pray to Bhagawan to let us continue this work so that we can start chamakam after Dasara.
RS: Wonderful, Dasara is the time when many years ago, Swami started the Veda Purusha Saptha Jnana Yajna.
Vajko: That's right.
RS: From, then on, it has always continued. Swami has never stopped this Vedic sacrifice during Dasara. I remember in the earlier years, Swami started the Veda Pathashala in Prasanthi Nilayam when we had few students who learnt only Vedic hymns. But later once the University came into being, Swami had the pathashala closed because the whole thing now acquired such a big proportion; all the boys now chant Vedas.
Of course, the major thrust came in 2004 as we were talking before when Swami wanted Vedam to be chanted during darshan sessions, in the mornings and evenings. So it has now become a regular routine of Prasanthi Nilayam. So it is really wonderful that in some ways this message is going out and in such a wonderful way it is happening in Europe and Swami has blessed you to be an instrument for this. Anything else you would like to share to our listeners?
Vajko: I would encourage anybody who is inclined towards doing this practice, towards this chanting. I want to say to them - 'It might be hard in the beginning but with devotion, sincerity and with prayers you will definitely succeed.' There are people who come to me and say it's very difficult but I want to do it.
So you just have to approach it slowly and pray. If you pray things will be answered, that is for sure.
RS: Fantastic. It was wonderful to have you in the studios of Radio Sai and share with us this journey with the Vedas and I hope when you come during Dasara we will probably meet again.
Vajko: Sure.
RS: Thank you so much.
Vajko: Thank you. Sairam.
- Radio Sai Team
Ganapati Exhibition at Dharmakshetra
UNITING EUROPE THROUGH THE VEDAS
- An exclusive conversation with Mr. Vajko Kerchen, Slovenia
part 01
Slovenia, the South Central European country, is known for many things, right from its limestone caves to World Cup skiing competitions, to castles and of course, its fabulous mountains, 300 waterfalls and breathtaking lakes. Now however there is something more beautiful sweeping across this country and infact this entire continent, thanks to two dedicated Sai devotees.
Slovenia joined the European Union in 2004 but these two Sai youth are now trying to bring about another union – the Veda Union. And one of this inspired duo is Mr. Vajko Kerchan. In this conversation which was recorded as part of our Radio series "Tryst with Divinity", Vajko shares with Radio Sai's Bishu Prusty, how along with his Sai brother Branimir Gonan from Croatia, they have been inspired to start this unique Veda movement in Europe.
Presented below is the suitably adapted transcript of this conversation which was conducted in July 2012.
Listen to the audio
Radio Sai (RS): Welcome brother Vajko to the studios of Radio Sai.
Vajko: Sairam.
RS: It is really fantastic to have you here in the studio. I was really excited when I heard about Veda Union the other day and felt this is a message that has to go out to the world. Not many know about it, including people in Prasanthi Nilayam. So please tell us what this Veda Union is all about – its genesis, goal and mission.
Vajko: Sure, Veda Union came as a simple idea two years ago, when my Sai brother, Branimir and myself set ourselves on a path that we should do something together concerning the Vedas.
Both of us have been long-time devotees of Swami as well as long-time devotees of the Vedas. At a certain point, the idea crystallised about Veda Union. And we called it so because we felt Europe has united in many secular and monetary ways, and now there was a need to unite different groups across this continent through Veda chanting and the message of the Vedas. That was how Veda Union came to be.
RS: Wonderful, so when did you actually get interested in the Vedas?
Vajko: Well, I have been coming to Prasanthi Nilayam for ten years. Actually, this Guru Poornima day was my small anniversary with Swami.
RS: Beautiful!
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| | Mr. Vajko Kerchan at the Studios of Radio Sai at Prasanthi Nilayam |
Vajko: It was exactly 10 years ago that I saw Bhagawan.
RS: A decade with Bhagawan!
Vajko: Yes! A decade with Bhagawan. And I got really interested in Veda Chanting right from the time Vedas began to be chanted during darshan sessions in Prasanthi Nilayam.
RS: Veda chanting during darshans started probably in 2004. However Vedas used to be chanted before this also, especially on many festival occasions.
Vajko: Yes, correct. Even before coming to India, I had heard of certain mantras - the Gayathri Mantra which everybody hears everywhere and the Tryambakham yajamahe... mantra as well. But at that time they were just some nice sounds; I didn't have any deeper connection with them.
But after coming here, to Prasanthi Nilayam, and hearing these sacred words and mantras, I developed a certain liking. So I thought, let me try to learn one and picked up a book and a CD. I learnt the first mantra maybe in two weeks, when I was here.
RS: Which was this mantra?
Vajko: Narayanopanishad
The Homecoming
RS: So you saw Bhagawan first in 2002. How was that experience?
Vajko: I was travelling for the first time to Puttaparthi and I already knew, I was coming home, that was for sure.
RS: You were just coming here and you knew you were coming home, even before reaching here!
Vajko: Yes. My mother came a little bit sooner than I, maybe a couple of months before and I followed her; it was really coming home.
And at that time, for some reason, Swami was not coming on the gents' side during darshan. So, I stayed here during that trip for a short while, maybe 14 days. Ah! The yearning was so great to see Swami coming to the gents' side but He did not come until the last day.
And finally He did come. I was sitting in the back and as He was walking Swami literally stopped there so that I could have a full view of Him and that was love. From then on, I noticed that Swami opened in me something that I didn't know before - the love for God.
RS: He just unlocked that treasure of love, which was in your heart.
Vajko: Yes.
RS: Fantastic. Were you brought up in any religious or spiritual way?
Vajko: No, my parents were not religious. They did not go to any churches and only after coming back from India did I start developing an interest in churches in our country.
RS: Slovenia is full of churches I guess, and there are a lot of Catholics in the country, right?
Vajko: Yes.
RS: I read somewhere that 97 per cent are Catholics…
Vajko: Yes, quite a lot.
RS: But you were not really brought up as a Christian?
Vajko: No, we were not brought up as such. So actually, Swami gave us all the religious practices and views on religion. I learnt all these here and when I am back home, I try to observe in a similar fashion whatever is happening in India and here.
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| Bhagawan's Students from the Sri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School, Prasanthi Nilayam, Chanting Vedam in the Divine Presence | |
RS: Fantastic. Learning about religion from Prasanthi Nilayam is the best way, you don't have to unlearn anything.
Vajko: Correct. This is true religion, the religion of the heart.
RS: Absolutely.
Vajko: So, it went from the heart to the outside, not vice versa.
RS: You will never ever get confused with religion, if you start learning about religion from Prasanthi Nilayam.
Vajko: Correct, correct, correct!
RS: So, that was really such a sound foundation that Swami laid in your heart about Vedam and about love for God and that love for God translated into doing something for God and into Vedam.
Journey With the Vedas Begins
Vajko: Actually, ever since my first trip, I do not think there was any year when I have not come three times to Prasanthi Nilayam.
RS: Hmmm… You have been coming every year.
Vajko: Yes, every year and maybe for a couple of months. And all these years my inclination towards Vedas kept increasing; I wanted to learn and study more.
There are so many questions for which one wants answers once you start hearing Vedic chants; you don't know what they are, how to approach them, where to study them from and so forth. So, as the years pass by, with a lot of prayer and dedication, the answers come.
RS: So, you were able to learn Vedam even in Slovenia?
Vajko: Yes, at the beginning you have a book, a CD, and you try to imitate the sounds. Later, I concluded my basic Veda studies at Chennai.
RS: Oh! You came to India to study the Vedas?
Vajko: Yes.
RS: You learnt from a master, from a gurukulam?
Vajko: Yes, I learnt from an institute in Chennai.
RS: Vedic Institute?
Vajko: Yes, a Vedic Institute in Chennai that gave me a great basis to build on. We went through all the pronunciations, the rules of Vedic chants, how to approach them, so on and so forth.
So, all what I have been doing, mostly on my own in my room, with Swami of course, was getting refined when I was going to Chennai.
RS: So, it was becoming clearer now.
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| No festival at Prasanthi Nilayam was complete without the holy vibrations of Veda Chanting. |
Vajko: It became clearer and structured. And that is what I needed.
RS: You were doing something but you didn't really know if it was the right way. Now for sure you knew it is the way.
Vajko: Exactly.
RS: Now, you are in a position to actually guide others.
Vajko: Correct. Initially I had so many questions to ask, but nobody to answer them. Even after concluding my studies in Chennai, I connected with different people from all over India to know a lot of things I wasn't aware of. So I went through this hard process, as a result now I can help others.
RS: So, eventually, you got your answers.
Vajko: Yes, I did.
RS: When did this happen, coming to Chennai and learning from a Vedic institute?
Vajko: From 2008 to 2010.
RS: You were in India for two years?
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The tiny tots of the Sri Sathya Sai Primary School posing with Swami
for a picture after chanting Vedam | |
Vajko: No, this is a course I was visiting. So, I was home, came here for 2-3 weeks, went back, so on and so forth.
RS: So probably, when you were in Chennai, you must have made trips to Prasanthi Nilayam too.
Vajko: Every weekend, almost. Luckily, my school was near Sundaram.
(H2H Archives: You may want to read the Cover Story - Sundaram)
RS: Oh, near Sundaram? Swami's abode.
Vajko: Yes, I was so glad about this, I used to walk from my school to Sundaram almost daily for bhajans. So it was a great time.
RS: So, you had a really good spiritual time, learning the Vedas and then, going for bhajans to Sundaram. It is a place where Swami has stayed and visited so many times.
Vajko: Yeah, they used to have excellent bhajans there. Every Thursdays and Sundays, I was there.
RS: Wonderful! In some way, Swami was orchestrating all this.
Vajko: Correct.
RS: His invisible hand was working. And, when did you meet the Sai brother, Branimir Gonan from Croatia?
(H2H Archives: You may want to see the Croatian Choir)
Vajko: I am from Slovenia, and he is from Croatia. See, I was so eager to chant with somebody. So I was asking around and heard that a Sai brother in Croatia had his own group. I called him and said, "Sairam, I want to meet you." He said, "Come."
I went and we met, I also saw his group. At that time, I found out that he had already presented Veda chanting to Swami in 2007.
RS: So, he had come with a group and chanted in front of Bhagawan?
Vajko: You are right. And this is how all these groups came to be there. So slowly, our relationship developed. He began in 2000 and I started in 2010 and we decided to do something together and that's how the Veda Union evolved, I would say, a little bit on its own. We were not even controlling it, we were just going with the flow. And it was evolving itself, growing and giving us the path where we should go.
Project - Rudram 2012
RS: So, you tried to give it some structure and thought of a particular project, and that is how Veda Union came into being?
Vajko: Correct. After 2006,
Athi Rudra Maha Yajna happened in Puttaparthi. That was such a powerful event!
(H2H Archives: You may want to read the Cover Story - The Athi Rudra Maha Yagnam)
RS: Yes.
Vajko: It resonated all over the world.
RS: You were here?
Vajko: No, I was not here.
RS: But, you felt it.
Vajko: I got so inspired by the messages on all the 11 days that I thought we should chant Rudram here every day. Let's learn and teach others also. So we decided our first project would be to teach a number of people, especially devotees to chant Sri Rudram in two years. That would be called Rudram 2012. And we completed it this year.
RS: You completed it?
Vajko: Yes, we completed it. It lasted two years.
RS: So how many groups and in how many countries did you teach?
Vajko: Seven countries and seven different groups.
RS: So this is Serbia…
Vajko: Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, some German groups, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the like. The idea was that I counted the number of verses and divided them approximately into two years. If every group was capable of learning two to four new verses a week from the Sri Rudram; in two years we would be in a position to comfortably chant the mantra together. We charted a timeline and proposed to meet after every major or couple of anuvakas (Vedic paragraphs) and do a workshop. All in all, we had five workshops.
RS: Five workshops?
Vajko: Yes. What we tried to do was that each group would learn on their own for two to three months and after that period when the set of anuvakas was completed, we meet at a certain place. So we met at Zagreb for the first time, then Lithuania, Slovenia, Budapest and the last meeting was in Serbia.
RS: Wow!
Vajko: All these different groups from Europe came to a certain place and then we had 100-120 people chanting.
RS: Together, at public events?
Vajko: Yes, these were all public events.
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| | Sri Rudram 10th Anuvaka workshop, Prague, Czech Republic, 1 October 2011 |
RS: Let me ask you this. Was it really a very challenging task trying to teach Vedam to all these people in different European countries with diverse cultures and diverse tongues? Because getting the intonations right can be difficult, sometimes many Indians also don't get it.
Vajko: From my experience, when I am now also working at home, teaching or chanting with the Sai devotees is different from those who are not. That is the first difference. This is because many people who come here, even if they don't chant, they listen to these all the time.
RS: Yes.
Vajko: So that is the difference. That is the first major thing which is very good for us; it is easy to work with Sai devotees. But, yeah, it was challenging. So we do repeat plenty of times – we take one mantra, split it in half, or sometimes, even split a word. At times we first chant without the intonation marks and then slowly learn to get it right.
Yes, we do make mistakes. That is why we come to these workshops together so that we can correct ourselves and can align our chanting in the right manner. So, we come together at one place for one day, now it is in Serbia, from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m.
RS: The whole day?
Vajko: Yes, the whole day. The morning is spent learning new anuvakas and revising the old ones. After lunch, we chant two to three times depending on the time and conclude with bhajans.
RS: Wonderful! So it is a spiritual Veda retreat.
Vajko: [laughs] correct, correct.
RS: After you mentioned about the website,
Vedaunion.org, I did visit this site and watched all these clips, I must tell you, it is so impressive. First of all, the website is done so well, I don't know who manages it, apart from you two. But it is really nicely done.
Vajko: Thank you.
RS: And even the videos which go along with the write up about the public events is so impressive, it is so nice to see such a big group of people dressed in milky white sitting on the stage and chanting Vedam with so much clarity. Even though, I am sitting here and watching the video, it really filled me with such good vibrations. It is wonderful!
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| Images from the Veda Union's Sri Rudram Public Event held in Zagreb, Croatia, 29 May 2010 |
Posted on : Sept 28, 2012
UNITING EUROPE THROUGH THE VEDAS
- An exclusive conversation with Mr. Vajko Kerchen, Slovenia
part 02
Listen to the audio
Veda Chanting is a Feast to the Spiritually Starved
So, let me ask you something else? Now, when we are talking about Vedas and spreading the message of the Vedas, apart from the challenge that you face in chanting these mantrams, do you also face other questions like - Why Vedam? Why you are engaged in something which has to do with Hindu culture? Why are you forcing Veda on us? And so on.
Vajko: Personally, I've seen very few instances like this. There might be other people there who may talk like this. However, first of all, the need is so great, not only in our country or Europe, but everywhere else in the world; people are so hungry about spiritual knowledge that they would take anything, from yoga, meditation and chanting, to other spiritual practices. Our country is booming with spiritual groups.
RS: Because for so long people were so much hungering for something like this and during the communist regime, it was always difficult when it came to spirituality and religion.
Vajko: Yeah, people are just hungry. So, I meet with zero resistance when working on this.
RS: Wonderful!
Vajko: There are also the different questions on why we are doing this. There's also a question on why we shouldn't do it? One might approach Vedas first through Hinduism, but studying more of the Vedas, you see this is not even a religion, it is a way of life. It is a way to teach you how to be human and be actually divine.
RS: It is just knowledge.
Vajko: Yes.
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| | Mr. Branimir Gonan and Mr. Vajko Kerchen, founders of the Veda Union |
RS: I remember, there was one occasion when somebody questioned like this, and Swami said that just because Newton discovered the gravitational force, you can't say that the gravitational force belongs to England because Newton belonged to England.
Vajko: True.
RS: Swami said, the Vedas are there from times immemorial, it is just that the Indian sages understood it, grasped it, codified it and communicated it. The Vedas are there for all to learn and benefit from.
In another discourse Swami mentioned, how Vedas are so important for the propagation of right conduct or dharma, Baba said, "Vedokhilo dharma moolam" which means, if you want to protect dharma, that is righteousness, you have to protect Vedas because in Vedas, there are these codes of conduct about right living and if you don't protect the Vedas, you are actually sabotaging righteousness in the world.
And in another discourse in 1987, Swami very emphatically said that one should be fearless while talking about Vedas, one should be confident because there is so much need for this in today's times. I do not really know if you have heard Swami talk about all this but it is so heartening that you and your Sai brother have been so passionately engaged in this mission.
Vajko: I understood that certain qualities develop in you over the years as you chant Vedas. Only later I found this out.
RS: Can you give some examples?
Vajko: The relationship with your fellow beings, your family and learning to follow simple life style. In the Taithireeya Upanishad there are beautiful quotations on food - do not throw food, respect food and grow food - and all these simple things of life. These qualities just develop in you.
RS: Fantastic! There is so much, I think, especially in the area of the relationship between man and man, man and Nature and Nature and God.
Vajko: Correct.
RS: I think this entire spectrum is so beautifully inherent in the Vedas. You take any mantram and you will find these things.
Vajko: Correct, correct.
RS: I remember Swami saying on another occasion, that the most important thing about Vedas is the knowledge of unity – that divinity pervades everything. And it is just one principle, that atmic principle which we call advaita.
So this unifying factor of divinity is contained in the Vedas and as you said, as you dig deeper and deeper this knowledge comes to you and then, automatically you feel one with creation.
Vajko: Absolutely.
The Lessons and Experience Accrued
RS: Beautiful! So tell us how has this experience of travelling to different countries, spending so much time and energy has been? Were there times when you really felt that, 'Oh, this is so difficult, I don't know if I can manage. Swami, please help me!' `
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| Sri Rudram 11th Anuvaka workshop, Novi Sad, Serbia, 31 March 2012 |
Vajko: Well, not really, but professionally I am very busy, I work in a software company.
RS: Yeah, I understand that, that is why I asked you.
Vajko: I spend most of my time involved in the Vedas; it's challenging and evolving. This, you notice the day after the workshops. They are so concentrated because to chant six hours with one focus in mind, takes so much effort and then the next day you feel the changes, you feel the energy, you feel very much blessed to be able to do that.
So, yeah, it is a lot of work, but how we organize is that every local group in their own city or country conducts these workshops. Branimir and I just help, give our guidance and support but the local groups are responsible for choosing the venue and making the arrangements.
RS: So, if it happens in Croatia, the local devotees in Croatia will do everything.
Vajko: Correct. So this is how we organise and it is working.
RS: I saw the videos and the choice of the venue also is so good!
Vajko: [laughs] Every time, everything goes off very well.
RS: [laughs] So, you must be feeling Swami's presence in so many ways whenever you organise it. Were there times where you really felt His presence very strongly?
Vajko: Whenever we chant, it's 100 people chanting these mantras together and we feel it in our hearts. So that's the biggest presence, which I can feel when so many wonderful people chant this. I feel the presence of God, Swami and myself in my heart, and then I know I'm doing the right thing.
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| Sri Rudram 8th Anuvaka workshop, Budapest, Hungary, 16 April 2011; Mr Vajko and Mr. Branimir Gonan conducting the classes | |
RS: Personally, what kind of impact has it had on your personality, in the way of life, in the way you look at life, after you started getting more and more involved in the Vedas and becoming stauncher devotee of Bhagawan and loving Him more and more?
Vajko: One of the things which I somehow learnt a couple of years ago is that, basically there are no differences in whatever I do. Whether I do my office work, my Veda work or other work, my mind should be the same; it should be fully involved and concentrated in what I am doing.
RS: The virtue of concentration.
Vajko: Yes, concentration, doing everything from the heart and with depth. It's better not to do things that are on the surface. So, in all these years, things have just fallen off me, meaning, from my mind, from my obligations. I have only a couple of obligations and if I follow them with my full concentration, everything will be fine.
RS: Beautiful. So, you have come to a way of life where you don't really distinguish between different kinds of work, be it be your office work or Veda work or your personal work.
Vajko: Yes, I really don't. If I have to write an e-mail for Veda chanting or for my office, I have the same attitude. It should be correct, it should be to the point and it should be from the heart. So, it really doesn't matter anymore.
RS: So, you are living with the understanding that God pervades everything. Everything has to be done perfectly.
Vajko: I try to do that.
RS: That is what Swami has been saying all the time. Often people get into a boxed mindset, so they put on the spiritual cloak and sit for bhajans and do seva but once they go to their workplace, they say 'this is a practical world, I cannot make spirituality work here.'
But Swami always wants us to seamlessly integrate spirituality into every facet of our life. He said, for example, if you are rolling chappattis, know that you are flattening your ego, or if you are cutting vegetables, think you are slicing your desires, and so on.
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| | Mr. Vajko in the Studios of Radio Sai, August 2012 |
So these are the kind of things that Swami always told us because He gave us that beautiful cosmic relationship and connection, that man is a limb of society, society is a limb of Nature and Nature is a limb of God. So, ultimately, everything is divine. And that perspective is what is there in the Vedas and you are now able to somehow see that and live in that feeling. That is fantastic. I think you must be sharing these insights with your fellow devotees, who are learning Vedam?
Vajko: Yeah. I personally teach twice a week at my home, sometimes even thrice, it depends. We talk about these things; through the Vedas we try to imbibe the teachings, we meet, and yes we share our experiences.
RS: How has their experience been? Have any of them shared with you how they felt after they got involved with this Veda Union project?
Vajko: Yeah, sure. Most of them are Sai devotees already. So this is just a continuation of their spiritual practices, if I may say. But the newcomers come and share their experiences. You know, just listening to these sacred chants calms your mind and fills it with concentration and motivation for other spiritual practices. So it's quite evolving, I must say this.
RS: So people definitely must be sharing their stories of how it has benefitted them and that would be another inspiration to carry on this project.
Vajko: Yes, that's true. That is an inspiration.
RS: Wonderful. As we were talking about these vibrations, I was reminded of a conversation I had with Mr. Sai Surendranath, a very senior member of the Prasanthi Bhajan group.
And he was sharing how, many years ago, Swami, one day told all the boys, who were sitting jam-packed in front of Him in Trayee Brindavan, "Boys, you should not sit like this where you are touching each other so much. It is ok, when you are sitting in front of Me, but else where you should not touch each other so much, because each boy has different vibration and these will really get into each other. So, try to avoid physical contact as much as possible."
At that point nobody really understood much of what Bhagawan said. And then a few days later, Mr. Frank Baranowski came. He is the man who has the gift to see auras or radiations, emanating from every being and everything. For example, if it is a mother and a child, he saw that a blue or a pink aura of love, enveloping the mother and the child. And if there are two people fighting he saw the colour of aura change to red, and so on.
And one day, sometime in the 70s, when the
nagarsankirthan was on in the
Brindavan ashram, Swami came out and Mr. Sai Surendranath was there and when Frank saw Bhagawan coming out, he simply shouted because, as he explained later, 'I have never seen anything like this. This aura is so deep and it is white and blue and then pink; pink is the ultimate colour of pure love and it is just extending beyond, I don't see where it ends, I have never seen a person who gives out so much continuously.'
(H2H Archives: You may want to read the Cover Story - RAYEE: THE GIFT OF DIVINE INTIMACY)
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| Mr Vajko teaching the Rudram during 2nd - 4th Anuvaka Workshop, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2 October 2010 | |
He was saying that when Swami is giving darshan, or when He is talking to someone, this light from Bhagavan is completely suffusing the other person.
Only when the boys heard this, they realised the importance of what Swami said of vibration and radiation.
How powerful is this! When we sing bhajans together or chant Vedam together, we really do not know the impact that we are causing to the world, to ourselves and to our surroundings.
Vajko: Absolutely.
RS: Many a times even if God asks us to do something, our stupid mind gets convinced only after someone explains that to us scientifically.
The Road Ahead for the Veda Union
So it is really beautiful that this mission is trying to unite Europe through these positive vibrations. So what is your next project now?
Vajko: We have completed the Rudram 2012 project having spent two years on that. Now it's the Chamakam and I believe we may spend a year-and-a-half learning it.
RS: So again you are going to different corners of Europe to teach chamakam?
Vajko: Again, we will follow the same organisational structure. We will divide certain anuvakas and I think it may take three or maybe a maximum of four different workshops around Europe but at least for now, our short term goal is to learn complete namakam and chamakam, so that, we are able at a certain point to come together from different cities around Europe and chant namakam 11 times and chamakam once.
This is the goal towards which we are heading. We prepared two years for namakam, now comes chamakam and after that we hope to organise different workshops around Europe where 100 to 150 people can come together and chant these 11 times. Of course, we have to practice more; try to find people who will be able to lead because the two of us cannot do this alone. So what we will do is divide ourselves into two groups, so that every group chants a line. So, it's a big process to go through to get there.
RS: And earlier you were mentioning that you want to come to Puttaparthi also as a group.
Vajko: Yes. As a matter of fact, there is now the plan - to come for Dasara this year.
RS: Dasara, this year? Wonderful!
Vajko: Just to pray to Bhagawan to let us continue this work so that we can start chamakam after Dasara.
RS: Wonderful, Dasara is the time when many years ago, Swami started the Veda Purusha Saptha Jnana Yajna.
Vajko: That's right.
RS: From, then on, it has always continued. Swami has never stopped this Vedic sacrifice during Dasara. I remember in the earlier years, Swami started the Veda Pathashala in Prasanthi Nilayam when we had few students who learnt only Vedic hymns. But later once the University came into being, Swami had the pathashala closed because the whole thing now acquired such a big proportion; all the boys now chant Vedas.
Of course, the major thrust came in 2004 as we were talking before when Swami wanted Vedam to be chanted during darshan sessions, in the mornings and evenings. So it has now become a regular routine of Prasanthi Nilayam. So it is really wonderful that in some ways this message is going out and in such a wonderful way it is happening in Europe and Swami has blessed you to be an instrument for this. Anything else you would like to share to our listeners?
Vajko: I would encourage anybody who is inclined towards doing this practice, towards this chanting. I want to say to them - 'It might be hard in the beginning but with devotion, sincerity and with prayers you will definitely succeed.' There are people who come to me and say it's very difficult but I want to do it.
So you just have to approach it slowly and pray. If you pray things will be answered, that is for sure.
RS: Fantastic. It was wonderful to have you in the studios of Radio Sai and share with us this journey with the Vedas and I hope when you come during Dasara we will probably meet again.
Vajko: Sure.
RS: Thank you so much.
Vajko: Thank you. Sairam.
- Radio Sai Team
Friday, September 28th, 2012
To the one who sought His grace with purity of heart and selfless devotion, Baba conferred His grace abundantly. Mataji Krishna Priya of Nagpur was one such devotee. Living in Nagpur, she would worship Krishna and considered Shirdi Baba as another form of Krishna and often frequented to Shirdi to be closer to the Divine in physical form. Read on a thrilling instance from her life featuring Sai Baba of Shirdi, Who heard the cry of a grieving soul, full of love and devotion for Him, and thus decided to reappear after His physical passing on…recounting the story as narrated by Bhagawan on the occasion of Shirdi Sai 'Birth Anniversary'…
Once Mataji Krishna Priya went to Simla. She was offering worship with unstinted devotion to Krishna considering Him as Baba. She came to know that Baba had left his mortal coil at 2.30 p.m. on Vijayadashami day in 1918. Immediately after this Ekadasi followed. Baba had told his close devotee, Kakaji, in the year 1916, that Dada would be shedding his mortal coil in 1918. Kakaji thought that Baba was mentioning only about Dada Sahib, another devotee, and never thought the reference was to Baba himself.
On September 28, 1918, Baba developed high temperature. Two days earlier he had collected food by seeking alms in some houses. He took that food and at noon, He expressed His wish to his devotees that he should be taken from the choultry to Bootywada. He hoped to have a quiet time there. In that ward, a Muralidhar temple had been built by a devotee by name Booty. He wanted Baba to install the idol of Krishna in the temple. But Baba was putting off the installation on one pretext or other. Booty did not want to install the idol without the blessings of Baba. Till His end Baba did not say anything about installation of the idol. He directed Booty and Kakaji to go and take their lunch. Feeling that Baba was better, they went out. Baba had nine rupee coins under His pillow. He took them out and gave them to Lakshmibai. Then Baba summoned Shyam to come near Him. Shyam sat close to Baba. Baba reclined on Shyam's shoulders and passed away.
Krishna Priya came to know of this and felt very sad the whole day. The next day she closed all the doors and windows in her house because of the severe cold in Simla. While she was resting in the house, a tall and well-built monk arrived at the next door, and enquired about Mataji's house. He made enquiry not because He did not know where Mataji lived, but only to make others know that He was physically present in Simla. The neighbour sent a servant with an umbrella as it was snowing, to show the stranger Mataji's house. He knocked at the door. Mataji opened the door and could not believe the evidence of her eyes. She wondered how Baba, who had passed away the previous day, could come to Simla. She asked: "How did you manage to come so soon. It takes at least three days to come from Shirdi to Simla." Baba said: "Beti (dear daughter), I am everywhere. You have worshipped me in the form of Krishna. Is this all that you know about me? I am feeling the cold, first get me hot tea." She prepared tea and offered it to Baba. After taking the tea, Baba said that He was hungry after his long journey. Krishna Priya brought Him chapatis and brinjal curry which Baba used to like very much. After taking the food Baba washed His hands and wiped them in a towel. He then told her: "The purpose for which I came is over and I am going away."
In those days nobody dared to exchange words with Baba. If anybody opposed or said anything to the contrary, Baba would wield the stick against them. He never brooked any contradiction. Hence Krishna Priya could not tell Him anything. He gave her a jasmine garland.
Krishna Priya watched Him as a He went out walking through the bazaar. In Simla, on the road side, there are usually deep valleys. As Baba was walking along, some workmen were engaged in some road work. Noticing that Baba had fallen down from the road, they ran to rescue Him. But they could find nobody there. Baba had just disappeared.
Before taking leave of Krishna Priya, Baba whispered in her ears: "See me in 1926." She did not know where to see Him, how to see Him. When I went to Simla about 15 years ago Krishna Priya came to see Me. She was shivering on account of age and the cold weather. She asked: "Baba, have you forgotten the promise that you made to me long ago?" I told her: "It is you who have forgotten, not I; I never forget what I promised."
These are some of the aspects of the Shirdi manifestation. When Shirdi Sai sought to impart wisdom, it was not through discourses. Everything was taught by stern methods. It was because of the conditions prevailing in those days.
II Samasta Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II
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When the mightiest of the Avatars walked the earth, how many of us, endowed with human faculties, understood Him, the rarest of the boons bestowed upon humanity, to follow His path? To inspire humans, here is the story of a lame four-legged mammal, whose rare instincts to recognise Him finally took him to The Divine Lotus Feet, a rare feat that even humans often fail to achieve. Read on an interesting poem by Prof N.Kasturi illustrating the rare story of Kuttan, The Lame.
There are dogs who swim and dogs who hunt
And dogs which crouch thro' snowy peaks;
There are some who yelp a pigmy grunt
And some whose barks are tiny squeaks.
Some guide the blind, some, sledges drag
And some like Leika are shot through space;
There are dogs of whom their masters brag
And long legged-ones that race.
But, of all the dogs that wag the tail
The purest, the best, is Kuttan, the Lame.
Of all the dogs that follow the trail
The saintliest one is Kuttan! The same!
No pedigreed dog; he was limping, cold,
Wet from the rain, with a cough on his chest
When he came to Bikkati, a pup of gold.
His manners were good, his habits, best.
He served the village as if duty bound
From dusk to dawn, from dawn to dark;
He growled and prowled like a hefty hound;
The village slept to the music of his bark.
'Twas April sixty-one, twenty second day,
Bikkatti rose, full happy and gay,
For Baba was coming, He was on the way;
'Twas no longer a question of `may'.
The valleys deep in ecstasy did thrill;
The road was sad, it hair-pinned so;
'Sai Ram! Sai Ram' repeated each hill
as the wayside trees did bend so low.
Believe me, it was Kuttan's gladdest day!
He ran, he leaped, without reason pranced;
He whined, he wailed, he barked jai
When Baba came, he knew his God; he danced.
His lotus Feet he saw; he took his stance
And fell as humans do, mumbling a hymn;
He smelt those fragrant Feet, O, Lucky Chance!
Baba smiling waved His Hand; and … called Him?
Soon as Baba left us lonely, we gave to all
The feast that He had touched;
Kuttan's ear had caught the Call;
He gulped the sacred meal and lurched.
Half blind with tears, he sniffed the air
He reached the Holy Dias and kept
His head on His Footstool there!
He breathed his last!…….the village wept!
We rolled him in the silky sheet
Which Baba's soles had pressed;
We dug his grave near the sanctified seat
And showered the flowers by Baba blessed.
We are proud of our brother, proud of the way
This Bikkatti Kuttan spent his day.
Dear Kuttan the Lame, he taught us the way
To live and—how to get away.
II Samasta Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II
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