Proceedings of the Summer Course in Indian Culture and Spirituality 2016 - Day 01 (Morning Session)

Students and Staff attending the Summer Course in Indian Culture and Spirituality 2016


Invocatory Vedic chant by the students of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Brindavan Campus

The Invocatory Vedic chant by the students of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Brindavan Campus. The welcome address was delivered by Prof.(Miss) Madhu Kapani, Dean, Faculty of Humanities & Economics; and Director, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Anantapur Campus.
Prof.(Miss) Madhu Kapani, Dean, Faculty of Humanities & Economics; and Director, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Anantapur Campus.


She started her speech with her experience of Swami calling her a Summer course student even though she had just visited Ooty for the purpose of Swami's Darshan. Drawing similarities with her experience, she emphasized that even the audience are His students. She ended her enchanting talk with a wonderful analogy of comparing God to a software.
He enters the life,

Scans the problems,

Edits the tensions,

Downloads solutions

and deletes worries.

 Inaugral Address by  Prof. K B R Varma, Vice-Chancellor, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning.

In his crisp talk, Sir expressed his appreciation of the brotherhood that the students of  Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning exhibit. He urged the students to drive home the richness and the significance of Indian culture and spirituality which is verily the need of the hour.
Benedictory Message: Divine Discourse of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Benedictory Message: Divine Discourse of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

There are two things which are important for man’s life. One is confidence in one’s own self and the other is cleansing one’s own mind. Man cannot live by himself in isolation. The entire world depends upon the social structure and on the manner in which individuals are knit together into a society. It has been the good luck of our country to have had a society which is well knit on the basis of sacred principles. The quality of forbearance of our society is not to be seen elsewhere. It is blood that flows through the arteries of Indian youth. It is not water. You have to make a determined effort to revive our sacred culture and demonstrate to the rest of the world the vitality that is contained therein. The youth of India should be prepared to sacrifice even their lives for the sake of truth. This country has been such that it had always traversed along the path of truth, had lit the lamp of truth and shed the light of truth. Today, Indians have apparently been subdued by the situations that prevail in the country, by the times in which they are living and by the environment through which they are passing. They have forgotten the greatness of their own culture and are being ridiculed by others. The sacred tenets of our scriptures such as: respect your mother as God, respect your father as God, respect your teacher as God and respect your guest as God, no longer convey any meaningful messages to us in the social makeup of today.
Such undesirable changes have come about in our country today, and it is with a view to expose you to our original and ancient culture that these gatherings have been arranged. Experienced people have been invited to these gatherings to let you know what the greatness of our culture is, and thereby change your hearts. Our purpose is to take you all through experiences by which you will appreciate the true culture of our country.


Swami's discourse was followed by a talk entitled Self Confidence: The Foundation of Everything in Life by Sri Gopal Rao, Managing Director, Landmark Worldwide – India Operations. Sri Gopal Rao spoke on how Self-confidence is not based on our position, wealth or knowledge. He said that just as every tree is perfect, though dissimilar in many ways, every human is also perfect and unique. He also went on to emphasize that Swami always accepted us the way we were and nurtured the value and uniqueness of each student. 
Sri Gopal Rao, Managing Director, Landmark Worldwide – India Operations
He gave Swami’s definitions of Bhakti and Jnana. Bhakti is loving the Lord. Jnana is seeing everyone, including oneself, as God and to love them in spite of not being consistent with their true identity. He gave Swami’s definition of culture as “care and concern for others”. He spoke on how integrity was a sought after quality and that compromising on it diminishes our self-confidence.

The morning session concluded with a quiz program on Bhagavan Baba’s Teachings - coordinated by Dr. (Miss) Sharada, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Dr. (Miss) N Srividya, Associate Professor, Dept. of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Anantapur Campus.

The Quiz programme entitled 'A rainbow of Sai wisdom' consisted of 5 teams spread across various campuses of Sri Sathya Sai educational institutions. The quiz, which had seven rounds, brought out the essence of Padyams, Chinna Kathas and sayings from Swami's Discourses.

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