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Competitions
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Easwaramma Day
Competitions |
This is a notice about the competitions to be
held prior to Eswaramma Day in May:
There will be competitions at each group level in Speech, Essay
Writing, Slokas, Bhajans and Quiz.
Speeches to memorize for Group 1,2 & 3 are given here. |
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GROUP
1 - Speech to be memorized and submitted
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My humble Pranams at the lotus feet of
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, respected gurus, revered judges, Sai
brothers and sisters, Om Sri Sai Ram
The topic I am going to speak to you today is Love. Everything in the
world has a nature. Salts’ nature is to taste salty, sugar’s nature is the
sweetness, fire is to burn or heat. So every object has a nature. If that
is true does man not have a nature too? Of course! Man’s nature is to
love.
The first thing comes out of man is love. He shows love to the Mother,
Father, siblings, relatives, friends and God’s creations. Like this, life
starts with love. The same love is expressed in our thoughts, words, and
deeds. The reflection and the spark that has come out of love are known as
Truth. The same love when expressed through our actions is called Right
Conduct. When love is contemplated upon, the mind acquires Peace. When we
enquire from where this love has come from and understand its very source,
then we realize the principle of Non-violence.
Therefore the undercurrent that flows through Truth, Right Conduct, Peace
and Non-violence is Love alone. Without Love where can you find any other
values?
This is reflected through one of Swami’s teachings, which goes:
Love as thought is Truth.
Love as feeling is Peace.
Love as action is Right Conduct.
Love as understanding is Non-violence.
Jai Sai Ram |
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GROUP 2 A & B - Speech to be memorized and submitted |
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Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda was born in Calcutta (India) on 12th of January 1863.
His name at birth was Narendra. His father was a renowned pleader of his
time and lived a pious life. His mother was an embodiment of wisdom and
simplicity. She taught Narendra the true meaning of Hindu Religion. Based
on the mythological stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata, she introduced
Narendra to fearless character of Hanuman, to the divine nature of Sri
Rama and Krishna, and values of truthfulness and simplicity.
Narendra was very scientific in his attitude. He did not accept anything
without proof of knowledge. During his college days once his professor
told him to go to Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar Temple if he wanted to
know true meaning of trance or Samadhi.
This wise man of Dakshineswar with his simplicity and immense knowledge of
Advaita Vedanta won over the mind and the heart of this young boy--Narendra--once
for all. At the lotus feet of his Teacher Sri Ramakrishna, Narendra learnt
and realized true spirit of Eternal Vedantic Religion--Sanatana Dharma,
and gradually evolved into Swami Vivekananda.
He renounced the transient worldly pleasures based on the five senses and
started to lead a life of a monk. For him now the mission of his life was
to broadcast this message of Sri Ramakrishna to the East and the
West--everywhere. On 11th September 1893 at the Parliament of Religions,
in Chicago, his call of, "Sisters and Brothers of America..." echoed the
voice of universality and oneness of life. It shook the Western thought of
reason and science at its very root.
He believed that the Divinity is best manifest as human consciousness.
Hence it is logical and rational to 'worship God in each human face'
rather than try to find Him in icons and images, temples and buildings,
scriptures and books. In the year 1897, after his triumphant return from
the West he formed the New Monastic Order - Ramakrishna Math and Mission -
with its Head Quarters at Belur, in Calcutta, India. The world to day is
rich because of his tremendous contribution in the realm of true
Spirituality, which he has elevated to the category of Science.
According to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Swami Vivekananda is now born
again, and is living at present. It is said that he will follow the
footsteps of Bhagavan to fulfill the mission of Baba. Thank you, Om Sri
Sai Ram. |
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GROUP 3 -
Speech to be memorized and submitted |
A Part of Martin Luther King’s – Nobel
Lecture-The Quest for Peace and Justice
It is impossible to begin this lecture without again expressing my deep
appreciation to the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament for
bestowing upon me and the civil rights movement in the United States such
a great honor. Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable
fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called
words. Their meaning can only be articulated by the inaudible language of
the heart. Such is the moment I am presently experiencing. I experience
this high and joyous moment not for myself alone but for those devotees of
nonviolence who have moved so courageously against the ramparts of racial
injustice and who in the process have acquired a new estimate of their own
human worth. Many of them are young and cultured. Others are middle aged
and middle class. The majority are poor and untutored. But they are all
united in the quiet conviction that it is better to suffer in dignity than
to accept segregation in humiliation. These are the real heroes of the
freedom struggle: they are the noble people for whom I accept the Nobel
Peace Prize.
This evening I would like to use this lofty and historic platform to
discuss what appears to me to be the most pressing problem confronting
mankind today. Modern man has brought this whole world to an awe-inspiring
threshold of the future. He has reached new and astonishing peaks of
scientific success. He has produced machines that think and instruments
that peer into the unfathomable ranges of interstellar space. He has built
gigantic bridges to span the seas and gargantuan buildings to kiss the
skies. His airplanes and spaceships have dwarfed distance, placed time in
chains, and carved highways through the stratosphere. This is a dazzling
picture of modern man's scientific and technological progress.
Yet, in spite of these spectacular strides in science and technology, and
still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. There is a sort
of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our
scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become
materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have
learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have
not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.
Every man lives in two realms, the internal and the external. The internal
is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and
religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms,
and instrumentalities by means of which we live. Our problem today is that
we have allowed the internal to become lost in the external. We have
allowed the means by which we live to outdistance the ends for which we
live. So much of modern life can be summarized in that arresting dictum of
the poet Thoreau1: "Improved means to an unimproved end". This is the
serious predicament, the deep and haunting problem confronting modern man.
If we are to survive today, our moral and spiritual "lag" must be
eliminated. Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not
proportionate growth of the soul. When the "without" of man's nature
subjugates the "within", dark storm clouds begin to form in the world. |
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