Bal Vikas Ex Students' Meet - 1st May 2009

May 31, 2009

Report from Sai Yukak Website

Like every year, this year too, the Bal Vikas Ex-students' meet was held at Dharmakshetra on Friday, 1st May, 2009 at 10.00a.m. More than 150 Ex students attended. The programme started with Veda chanting and bhajans. Shri. Nimish Pandya, Mumbai District President, welcome the gathering and introduced the four speakers. The first speaker was brother Deepak Mazumdar, an Exstudent who has created a special niche for himself as a performer, teacher and choreographer in the field of Bharata Natyam. He took us down memory lane, when he recounted how in that very same hall he had danced in front of Swami, who was flanked by Easwaramma and Kasturiji on either side. He sharedthe memorable momentsthe he had with Bhagwan, like the trip to Parthi, where Swami suddenly told him to perform. When Deepak told Swami that he had not brought his costume, Swami Himself, dressed him up in His silk dhoti. He also got him all the jewellery and

lovingly spent a lot of time trying it out on him. Swami advised him to take dance as a profession. Over the years, Deepak always felt that Inner Strength guiding him. The second speaker was Ramesh Srinivasan, currently working in the US, after his Doctoral studies in Chemical Engineering. An Exstudent Ramesh was an excellent speaker and elocution winner. He spoke about his experience as a Bal Vikas child, during one of Swami's visits to Mumbai, how Swami came up to him and reminded him that Swami had come to take, take, take away all our misery and suffering, but how many of us were willing to give, give and give. He praised the dedication of the Bal Vikas Gurus who had invested so much time and energy to mould children like him. He narrated a life changing experience, an accident which occured while he was trekking with friends in the US. He resolved that his second birth would be for Swami and His work. Ramesh is currently the Vice President

of the Sai Centre in California and is involved in a lot of service projects. The third speaker was Shashank Shah who is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at the Sri Satya Sai Deemed University. He was awarded the Gold medal for all round excellence for his MBA and M.Phil degrees. He spoke about SEVA and how Swami wants us to do it. He spoke about how Swami would himself serve food during Narayan Seva at Parthi to all the people assembled there. Seva should be done as Social work and not showcial work. He spoke about the Gram seva initiated by Swami for His students, so that they know about the problems of rural life. The fourth speaker was Girish Atre, of the first batch of Swami's Parthi college. An MBA, Girish is an industrialist who is deeply involved in music. He recollected how Swami gave him admission in his college. He spoke about the four levels of existence waking state, dream state, deep sleep state and self realized state and how

Swami is trying to wake us up from our ignorance and show the path of realization. He spoke about Swami's love for his students. He then sang two melodious songs. The Exstudents posed a number of interesting and relevant questions to the panel of speakers. Nimish Pandya then summed up the talks and the programme ended with Arathi and Prasadam.

Photos of Sri Sathya Sai Bal Vikas Ex-Students' Meet held at Dharmakshetra on 01.05.2009