Sunrays For Friday (A Collection of Inspirational Stories)

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From the time that Bhagwan Baba used to say. "My life is My message", to the time He started saying. "Your life is My message", the authors Priya and Sanjay Tandon have come a long way in the journey of self-improvement with devotion and love. One the way they have lit up the journey for others too by the Sunrays series of books, this one being the sixth one in the series. These books, each of which contains 52 Inspirational short stories are all about…

Priya S. Tandon, B. Com, (Hons), LLB is a stock broker and Director of Competent Finman Pvt. Ltd. (Member NSE, BSE, CDSL). She is actively involved in all the philanthropic activities of Competent Foundation. These include Bi-Annual Blood donation Camps, weekly Narayan Seva (langar) at the local temple, aid to Cancer patients, publishing books etc.

Sanjay Tandon, B.Com. (Hons), FCA, AIIA, ACMA is a practising Chartered Accountant and is also the promoter of the Competent group of Companies based at Chandigarh. From the last six years he has been the State President of BJP Chandigarh. Inspired by Bhagwan Baba, he is doing many philanthropic activities under the banner of Competent Foundation whose motto is "Help ever, Hurt never".

Everything they say happens only when it is destined to happen. Despite earnest intentions of compiling this set of stories into Sunrays for Friday, we have taken an unduly long time to do so. Worldly reasons and excuses one side; the will of God is the primary reason.

Swami's physical absence in Puttaparthi, is painful and there is nothing; absolutely nothing that can compare with the bliss of having had His darshan and Divine proximity. Now, all we have is memories of those beautiful moments of love and bliss. But there is something new in Puttaparthi. A feeling that was not there before! What is that? The computer science teacher at the boy's school, Mr. V. Prusthy put it very simply, when we asked him how people were managing without Swami being physically present. He said, "Everything goes on as before. Earlier Swami was in one place. He was either in the Mandir or in the school or at His residence ... Now, He is everywhere! Now everyone has his own Swami! Swami is with everyone!"

What a profound thought! Said so easily; so smoothly; but what a deep connotation it had! The form had passed on into the formless! The finite had dissolved into the infinite! The physical had permeated into the metaphysical! Swami is everywhere! Show us a place where He is not! The beautiful memory of what Swami had said to us in a personal interview in 2001, came flooding back in an instant. He had said, "I am in you, with you, around you, besides you ... I am always with you!" With those words He had taken our breaths away! Surely life is not just about breathing. It revels on moments that take our breath away! And then it dawned on me ... let us not regret that He has left us; let us rejoice that He came to us, just for us and He shall live on through us and in us till eternity! We remember once attending a program by a theatre group performing Raas-leela. The scene was one where all the Gopikas were dancing around Krishna. They were so engrossed in His thoughts and in such bliss, that each one of them felt that Krishna was dancing with her and her alone. This was beautifully portrayed on stage by ten young boys, each dressed as Krishna, dancing with ten Gopikas. Each one had coupled with a gopi, and each couple danced in bliss. By the end of it, all the Krishnas left the stage except one, who was playing the lead role. Didn't God say, "I am one ... I will be many..." That is something only God can do!

God is everywhere. He is so small that He is present in the atomic particle. At the same time, He is so large that He permeates into the entire cosmos. He is the inexhaustible energy around us all.

Swami is our life breath, without Him we cannot even breathe! We are ... because He is! We are what we are ... because He is what He is!

I (Priya) had visited Puttaparthi in the last week of March 2013. Our youngest son Satyam was studying in Class XI then in the Sri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School at Puttaparthi. During my stay there, one day as I was musing to myself, I said, "Swami, how will the next book get made? I don't have enough good stories yet." The same day, after the morning session at the Mandir, I bumped into Dr. B. Prabha, a gynecologist at the General Hospital in PrashantiNilayam. She said to me, "I have been looking for you Priya, I have an old book of stories called Chandrakant. It is in hindi. I want to give it to you, because I think you are the person who can best put it to good use." I was a little taken aback, for I just know her a little. Her grandson was Satyam's class mate. I said, "Auntie that is very sweet of you. I would love to go through it." So I went along with her to her apartment and she gave me the book with utmost love. She carefully packed it in a neat polythene bag and handed it over to me saying, "You have inspired so many people through your books. Whenever I. see this book on my shelf, I think of you. Now that I have been able to give it to you, I feel I have done my bit." The love and grace with which she gave it to me, made me say, "Auntie, you are giving this book to me, but I feel that Swami is giving it to me." And she said, "Of course Swami is giving it to you! Don't you see? He wanted you to have it. So He inspired me to give it to you. That is how He operates. He does not physically do everything for anyone. He gets things done by putting the thought into someone's mind!" I was at a dearth for words then; but through the medium of words, and His inspiration needless to say, a number of stories from it, have found their way into Sunrays for Friday. Truly, man proposes; God disposes!

All of us go through phases in life; sometimes good, and sometimes bad. It is our attitude that sees us through rough times. When floods come, fish eat ants. But when floods recede, ants eat fish. Time is the key player. God gives opportunity to everyone. May we have the good sense to understand that we don't have to just go through life; we have to grow through it too ...

A saint was walking along a street where he observed three sculptors, each working on a slab of marble, slowly chipping away at the slab. The saint enquired with the first sculptor what he was doing, the first sculptor replied that he was feeling very-depressed and felt unfortunate that he had to work under the hot sun and hammer away at these un-forgiven and harsh stones,. On asking the same question to the next sculptor, the second sculptor responded that he was fortunate to have some work and by doing so, he was earning a living and could feed his family. The saint then turned to the third sculptor, who was deeply engrossed in his sculpting and only when he had finished his work and was satisfied with it did he turn to the saint and very humbly with folded hands said that he was blessed to have been given the opportunity to create a marvel which would be worshipped by millions for ages to come!.

The reason I have narrated this story is that this is the feeling I derive when I read any edition of Sunrays. What Sunrays does is it chips away the unwanted layers of ego, desire, greed etc. and veritably brings forth the truth... It chips away the unreal to reveal the real!

Start each day of the year with reading and reflecting on Swami's quotes or reading one story and you will find that these minute moments of transformation culminate into a mega transformation.

Sunrays provides the most fertile seeds for children. All that each parent or teacher has to do is to provide water and manure of being ideal. This will not only help the child to imbibe the greatest lessons in human values and spiritual thinking through an age-appropriate methodology but will also help the parents and teachers in their own growth.

**Contents and Sample Pages**