By Bhagawan’s Grace, the last nine months were especially creative and included expansion into new forms of service. Everything began with His command: do more Seva.

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The service activities that took place can be summarized as follows:

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1. Narayana Seva: Takes place twice a week; every Wednesday and Friday from 4:30 pm to 10 pm. Approximately 20 to 30 volunteers each time – most of them youth – buy, prepare and cook vegetables. About 300 meals cooked each time are distributed to homeless people. Over the last nine months, around 27,000 meals were prepared and distributed. The team has also distributed hundreds of sleeping bags, thick blankets and clothing.

2. Supporting poor families: A new Seva activity was started in December 2017 and has been ongoing since then. Twice a month, the youth visit poor families’ homes in some of the poorest districts of Athens, providing them with big boxes filled with dry foods, cleaning products, clothes, toys and more; depending on the needs of each family. The members of these families are suffering from chronic diseases, are unable to work, are too old to support themselves or are victims of the economic crisis in Greece. The families on the receiving end number almost 70 in total.

3. Satsang – Bhajans: Every Thursday at Sai Natha, Satsang and Bhajan sessions are held. This commences with the chanting of Rudram and Mantras, followed by meditation, Satsang and finally, Bhajans in praise of the Divine Lord.

4. Many new members and volunteers join the ‘Nectar of Love’ Seva Center: Many new volunteers are coming to help with the service at Nectar of Love. They have expressed interest not only in Seva but also in spirituality – this has become even more evident after Swami’s Divine visit in April, 2018. The core team has been welcoming them and helping them to integrate. Recently, the team carried out a small campaign on Facebook which resulted in 25 new volunteers at the Seva Center.

5. Veda and Mantra class: Once every week the youth hold lessons on Veda philosophy and Veda chanting, including hymns from the Greek culture. This session was started for the purpose of helping and training any newcomers who are interested in learning more about this topic.

6. Coordination of European Sai youth: Since the beginning of the year, a lot of work has been done to coordinate the European Sai youth, including but not limited to organising Youth Meet that took place in Assisi in April and July of 2018.

7. Cyprus and Greece cooperation: After Swami’s remark that for Him, Cyprus and Greece are one and the same country, the youth started cooperating and working more closely together. Brothers and sisters from Cyprus support the Greeks in food donations for Narayana Seva. Some examples from the Seva that they do includes blood donations, Narayana Seva and fundraising to support Non- Governmental Organisations.

8. Translation – Uvacha team: One of the most active and continuous Seva activities are the translation services offered by the Uvacha team consisting of ten members. They worked hard during this period to prepare the two books, “Uvacha Volume 3” and “The Story Divine” in Greek, which was presented during Guru Poornima at Bhagawan’s Lotus Feet. They are currently translating the “Uvacha Volume 4”. The team also prepared the English and Greek versions of the “Divine Visit to Greece” booklet (April 2018), as well as the booklets of the “Divine Visits to Italy” (2015), Sri Lanka (2015), Singapore (2016), Indonesia (2016), UK (2016), Brazil (2016), Spain (2016) and Russia (2017). A new guide for translators, a dictionary of Sanskrit terms, has been prepared as a Greek guide for all future translations of the Uvacha books.

9. Mobile Medical Unit: The team managed to get the final permit to begin the Mobile Medical Unit. They have contacted many volunteers, doctors and now, with the blessings of Bhagawan, are ready to start in the month of October. Their first visit will be to the underprivileged area of Perama.

10. Cultural Events at ‘Nectar of Love’ Seva Center: An event was organised to present the publishing of a book commemorating the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Furthermore, the team organised a musical concert in which brother Rajesh on the mandolin and brother Praveen on the tabla were accompanied by seven Greek musicians.

11. Architectural Services: A member of the Greek team who is an architect by profession has completed the designs for the new gardens at Muddenahalli and has also completed the designs for a school in Nigeria.

12. Ashram: The most auspicious and joyful of all the things that happened over the last nine months is in regards to the Ashram. Namely, the government announced the new forest maps for the Ashram, and informed the Greek team that after a preliminary study, a part of the Ashram land will not be classified as forest territory. This has opened the road to receive the necessary permission to build. The Greek team will further investigate with engineers, architects and topographers to clarify this situation. Any objections the team have must be submitted to the government within six months.

 

The youth pray, by the Grace of Bhagawan, to make progress and develop these projects and to prove worthy of His Mission!