Swami’s visit to the Youth Wing April 2015!

Om Sharavanabhava!

‘Be strong! Be strict! Be straight!’

The OSBM Youth Wing was blessed enough to welcome Swami to our monthly meeting, on the 11^th of April 2015. This is was a highly anticipated meeting with this being Swami’s second visit to the Youth Wing.

Before Swami’s arrival, the Youth Wing was fortunate enough to invite Sai Geetha Amma to the monthly meeting. Sai Geetha Amma is an active member of the Sai organisation and has been for 40 years. She came from India especially to aid Swami’s mission in the UK and was eager to address the Youth Wing. Sai Geetha Amma firstly began her speech congratulating the youth on all our achievements and endeavours throughout these past few years. She then shared with us her invaluable experiences with the Sathya Sai Organisation and the various charitable activities she undertook and led as well as her own recent experiences with Swami. Her speech was truly insightful and inspiring for us all to listen to. We all definitely learnt volumes from her motivational speech.

Sai Geetha Amma addressing the Youth Wing

Soon after Sai Geetha Amma’s speech, Swami visited the Youth Wing and the experience started with a divine satsang from Swami. Swami began his satsang delving into the idea of a Guru, and emphasised to us that a Guru is seva, service to the wider community, therefore a Guru has no form.

Swami continued his speech on the topic of seva. Firstly, he commended and appreciated all the seva that has been done and is being done by the OSBM Youth Wing. He also encouraged us to continue with our heartfelt seva,so it can reach many others within our society. Swami reminded us all that we must be role models to others among our society; when someone associates with us they must acknowledge we are a member of an establishment of dharma. Being the youths of today, we must thrive to attract only good attention to ourselves therefore endeavour to perfect our behaviour, this was a strong message conveyed by Swami.

In the satsang, Swami highlighted three qualities, which he advised us to embed into our lives: be strong (to have a strong mind through positive thoughts and to be active), be strict (to be disciplined and to have integrity) and be straight (to always be honest).  These divine pearls of wisdom from Swami deeply touched us all.

After Swami’s beautiful satsang, we all had the opportunity to see receive dharshan individually, where Swami blessed us and presented us with flowers and chocolates.

It was clear to us all from this visit, Swami was immensely proud and pleased with the Youth Wing’s achievements and seva activities. Swami’s visit not only motivated us to continue with our charitable activities but to also nurture and develop the Youth Wing.

Swami with the youths - April 2015

Below are some thoughts of youth members on the experience of seeing Swami for the first time.

‘I was initially keen to be in Swami’s presence and hear what he had to present to us. His wise and encouraging words gave us all a little something to think about, it really opened our eyes. I felt like everything that was spoken about touched each of us, individually to perfect our own lives. On the whole, it was a purely treasurable experience for all of us at the Youth Wing and I’m grateful for this experience.’

“Swamis composed tone, inspiring words and vibrant smile made me realise he’s there to guide us on our path to enlightenment, on our spiritual journey. His smile radiates a form of hope and I felt as though he is truly the epitome of love.  I hope to progress on my spiritual journey and hope to be shown the way by Swami himself. I shall never forget his words of wisdom and his vibrance and unconditional love for all. With his blessing, I hope the Youth Wing’s projects will only grow and hope his words will guide us to be better beings. “

Om Sharavanabhava!

The Blog Team

OSBM Blog Team

Aims of the blog

The OSBM blog was created in July 2014 by a blog team consisting of a group of 10 youth members. The blog team meet monthly and work on uploading articles and videos in order to raise awareness of the OSBM youth wing. The blog updates include information on how the youth wing is progressing and provides more information about the charity activities we have organised, as well as sharing spiritual ideas explored by the youth members over the last two years.

About the blog team

As part of the blog team, we have the technical team, who work on uploading articles written by members of the youth as well as working on the aesthetics and the design of the blog it self. Members of the blog group and the youth wing volunteer to write articles for the blog regularly. These are based on the monthly youth wing meetings or presentations given by the youth wing members as well as the charitable endeavours we take part in. We also have a blog editor and a sub-editor, who check and edit the articles once they have been written.  In addition to this, the blog team has created business cards for the youth wing in order to encourage other youth members to increase recognition of the youth wing. 

OSBM Business Card

Contact us:

If you are aged between 16 and 25, would like to join the youth wing and have a taste of what the meetings are like, please contact us at:

osbmyouth@gmail.com

Swami's Satsang

Om Sharavanabhava!

Swami visited the UK once again in February 2015. During his long awaited visit, Swami conducted numerous regional and community programmes over the past month with hundreds of devotees flooding in to receive his blessings. At every community and regional visit, Swami imparted his pearls of wisdom through his satsangs. His satsangs are not only pregnant with teachings and divine messages for the audience, as a whole, but there is always a specific message directed towards each and every individual in the gathering.

Swami at a regional programme in Wembley

Below is an extract from Swami’s satsang at a regional programme in Tolworth.

'A Guru gives us self-confidence that is why we go to a Guru. Yesterday a gentleman came to seek Swami’s blessings. At dharshan, this gentleman shared with Swami his sorrows and the fact that he feared he would die soon, as the gentleman was living in a situation where this was highly probable.   Swami affirmed to this gentleman, that he will in fact live for many more years. Since Swami gave him that confidence, that gentleman now has the will power and belief that he will live.

A Guru instils faith in us. Without faith, there is no life. As a result our faith must be resilient, and our faith must cultivate.

Thirdly, a Guru leads us to karma bodham. A Guru directs our karmas, often in disguise so that we fulfil our dharma.'

The message in Swami’s speech were incredibly potent, and everyone was deeply moved after hearing Swami’s soul stirring words. 

Swami at a programme in London

Team Cocoa's Spiritual Presentation - Love

At our last meeting, in February, Team Cocoa delivered a spiritual presentation based on the theme of love. This was an interesting presentation to prepare for team cocoa, as “Love” is a relatable topic for everyone. Love is a very complex feeling and everyone expresses it in different ways and forms. Everyone underestimates the effect of love on the world but without love the world would have perished a long time ago. We looked at 4 different forms of love; love through charity, affection, love within friends and the unconditional love which Swami conveys.

One of the greatest displays of love, in our youth wing's eyes is Swami. Swami acknowledges no barriers of any kind including nationality, caste, community, gender, ethnicity, race, wealth, or religion. Swami’s message is powerful but simple – unconditional love of which he is a living embodiment. Swami’s actions are selfless; his life is dedicated to spreading the message of love, positive energy, and compassion among humanity. He emphasises that love should be at the centre of our existence – Swami has once said, “the world is love, love is our life.” 

Swami shows his love to all his devotees by treating everyone equally. He is omnipresent and ensures this love is evident to his devotees wherever he is. He has visited people not always as himself but in a different form for example as a cat and showed that love can be found anywhere as long as you show it yourself. Swami’s love cannot be found anywhere else and he always has a way to make you smile. In his satsangs, Swami has highlighted the importance of our parents - the unconditional love they show to us is what we must show back to them. Selfless service is something swami encourages all his devotees to engage with. This is one way we can show our love to the rest of the community.