Sathya Sai Grama: An inspiring place to learn and admire India’s secular culture

Sathya Sai Grama: An inspiring place to learn and admire India’s secular culture

Mangalore Today News Network

By Bhamy V. Shenoy

Mangaluru, June 29, 2024: “Love All: Serve All, One World:One Family”. These are the quotes of Sathya Sai Baba which greet the visitors as they walk through the immaculately maintained Campus of Sathya Sai Gram ( Muddenhalli). This village, the birth place of Sir M. Visaweswarya is located close ( 35 kms) to Bengaluru airport after Nandi Hills.

Sathya Sai Grama

Statues in the campus

School Building

When Sadguru Madhusudan Sai had visited Mysuru last year, SOM editor, K B Ganapthy and I had met him thanks to former Vice Chancellor of Mysuru University Sashidar Prasad. We were keen to learn about the institutions started by him and also his philosophical principles guiding them. He had invited both of us to visit Muddenhalli and I took the opportunity again with the help of Dr. Prasad on June 16 to spend two days at Sai University.

It was a great learning experience both from the interview I had with Sadguru and interactions with Dr. Narasimhamurthy (current Chancellor of Sai University), Varun ( An IIT Roorkee architect and all rounder), students and staff. Not only the buildings, but the surrounding landscape is spotlessly clean. Satya Sai Grama houses various educational institutions such as Shri Satya Sai University for Human Excellence, PG Campus, Shri Madhusudan Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Skill Development Center, Shri Sathya Sai Lok Seva Gurukulam and Shri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Veda Gurukulam.

Vedashala where students are taught vedas

Where ever one goes there is one more architectural beauty like the auditorium with world class sound system which can match the best music hall. There was satsang led by Sadguru. Other eye catching architectural buildings are: 500 bed hospital where about 2000 OPD patients are given free medical consultation along with free prescription every day. Surgeries are performed again free of cost. Another 1000 bed hospital is proposed next to the current one. Approximate cost to Sai Institute is around Rs. 150 crores per year. To provide the same medical treatment, private institutes would have collected Rs. 300 crores. What a great contribution.

Museum and lecture hall

School which was started 51 years back by Madiyal Narayan Bhat. Other buildings are: Hostels for students, staff quarters, Guest House, Medical College ( cost of Rs. 400 crores) where students get free education and only one of its kind in the world. Goshala where 120 cows are housed etc. In the background of the campus are several hills and prominent one being Nandi Hills.

My purpose in writing this article is to share some photos of some beautiful buildings with attractive architecture, and also to draw attention to what we the people, management schools, elected leaders and the government officials can learn from these Sai institutes. Let me start with Education. The kind of education imparted in 27 residential schools training 5000 students ( the one in Muddenhalli has about 200 from grade six to X) from grade six to research level goes beyond what is suggested in NEP.

Goshala

There are four components to the schooling - Intellectual ( total flexibility with options to choose, English speaking ability, soft skills and Computer literacy), Spiritual ( Vedic learning, religious harmony and knowledge of vedas, knowledge of the self), Emotional ( grounding in moral values, arts and creativity, social service and self reliance, music and fine arts, goshala care), and Physical (Yoga, outdoor and indoor sports).

Dining hall

I had extensive discussion with Sadguru on education. When he is spending enormous amount to educate students, couldn’t he have selected the brightest? His answer was simple and convincing. What is the use to India of such bright students? Most of them migrate to foreign countries and India is not benefiting to the extent it should. His goal in giving world class education is to prepare students to be teachers at Sai Institute or change making leaders to bring about the needed changes in rural areas to help the poor.

Auditorium with world class sound proof system

He told me that when he visited the US and met IIT alumni (one such organization is WHEELS Global Foundation representing IIT Eco System of about 50000+ alumni and 23 IITs), he asked them to give back to the mother land and get involved in nation building activities. His goal is to encourage them to return to India. To my knowledge, he may be one of the very few gurus (or only one) and Indian leaders encouraging Indian graduates to return to India. It may be worth recalling Swami Vivekananda’s words, “So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them”.

In 1992, I had computed the cost based on the earning power of migrating IIT graduates to be around Rs. 8,000 to Rs 14,000 crores in current rupees. If it is based on what they could have done to build new enterprise, it would have been much larger. Sadguru must have intuitively realized such an enormous loss and is taking active interest - one of the very few attempts to stop loss from brain drain.

I was happy to learn how students at the school read books other than text books. One talked of Mahatma Gandhi’s “ My experiment with Truth”. Another mentioned Poornchandra Tejaswi’s book. How many of our students even going to premium schools read library books? For that matter, how many of our teachers read books other than the ones that they have to teach?

Every student I met responded like a robot when I asked the question what they would do once they graduate. They would do whatever Sadguru asked them to do. One may question such an attitude of surrendering to Guru’s dictat. However when such a guru has noble principles of “Love all, serve all” and “One world, One family”, only good will come out of such complete surrender. It is like Krishna asking Arjuna to surrender to him in Bhagavad Gita.

Student Hostel

Sadguru’s comment on how some of the institutions started by saints and leaders with high ideals decline and fall or work less efficiently was insightful. According to him once the “anchor” disappears, chances are high that their institutions suffer. Therefore it is absolutely essential to prepare such anchors. He was happy to hear from me a response I got from one of the teachers at Maradevannahalli (Sai school located in Mandya) that even when Sadguru is not there to raise funds to manage institutions, leaders he has created at each institute will have the potential to raise funds in their own way.

Sadguru told me that he is making sure that when he is ready to hand over the charge in ten years, there are enough number of anchors to manage the institutions. While he discussed the concept of management efficiency, strategic planning, motivation ( all of which he showed great familiarity), he stressed the need for spirituality to drive the operations. He introduced me to the concept of “professional spirituality” to respond to my question of how such a complex organization working in 33 countries spread in four regions and 23 Indian states with 4 Union territories can work efficiently. I was amazed with the cleanliness of the hospital and also the campus. It was difficult to find any dirt in any building. This cannot happen by chance. And every thing is free, free and free. Will our management schools try to study how these institutions are managed efficiently without any hint of corruption and dedication?

When I asked the question why millionaires and billionaires despite being unhappy continue to amass wealth, his response was that they do not know any other way to use their time or energy. If only they see the value of giving back to society and learn about spirituality, they could be much happier.

Look at the way our K R Hospital which once served the royalty is functioning today in Mysuru. Less said the better about the cleanliness of our city which was judged as the ‘cleanest city’ ( this was because others were more dirty and some have caught up now and we have fallen to 23rd rank).

If our educational institutions can learn from Sai schools to impart “True Education” taking into consideration all four components - intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical - and not just harping on passing examinations to get high marks, India will be a developed country much faster.