Do you work only for Money? Open source community and Sai Servants

Sairam friends,

From 2006, I had a Shirdi Saibaba Community in which few devotees were actively writing about their experiences. I used to organize Naam Saptah in which devotees will express participation and everyone will be doing Naam Saptah ( Chanting of Sai’s name) where ever they are.

There was a good Sai friend of mine who allots chapters for devotees’ who will read their chapters on Thursday. Example, In the 50 chapters we have, I will be allotted chapter 4,5, Someone in U.S will be given chapter 6.7 and someone in Bangalore or Mumbai will read 8,9….. Thus the entire Sai Satcharitra book ( Life of Saint Shirdi Saibaba) would have been read by everyone together. There was group prayer and other spiritual stuff.

The good thing was it was like a StarSai family.

The bad thing was, family does have some issues and problems. So when a girl doesn’t get her desire fulfilled, she will write a long complain about Shirdi Sai Baba or sometimes even hurt other devotees. Gradually, people who were organizing also wanted to leave the community for their own personal reasons.

Note – Many people come to serve Sai. Only few do it for lifetime. Others leave in the middle. They say a reason to do so but what can we do? That’s the difference between Sai servants and people who do seva for time being.

I am also not perfect but Sai is giving some work to me to serve his devotees and am happy about it.

I am pleased that some devotees continue to organize Sai Satcharitra parayan even today in my Sai Forum though I don’t even know whos actively using the site.

After few incidents, I decided to focus on StarSai.com because here, no discussion happens. So no arguments. Even then, I do get some mails from devotees that hurts me and Sai.

Anyway, The theme of today’s article is this.

Many of us choose to do a work only if we are paid. We expect some kind of monetary gains.

Right?

The past 20 days there was login problem for handful of members who continue to use the Sai community.

StarSai.org

I am maintaining this website just for less than 20 Sai devotees who continue to organize Sai parayan and group prayer etc. I myself tried to login but I also had issues in reading the messages.

2-3 devotees mailed me asking me to solve the problem.

I have very little technical knowledge though I work in the Business side of an IT concern and hence I was thinking what to do.

Finally, I posted a request in the Community page of the forum. I gave the user credentials and went to speak to my Mom. I came back to see “Everything was fixed perfectly”

I was really happy.

The person who fixed it was so kind to check the issues and help me and few devotees get back the site live.

Trust me, I myself don’t use the Sai forum as before. I login very rarely but I wanted to save approximately 1 lakh messages in it written by devotees and also the devotees who are using now must continue to show devotion on Saibaba through this. I can’t take care of arguments which might arise anytime. As Sai says “Discussion” is not always good.Hence, I stopped new registrations.

My only concern was to make sure what ever I do in StarSai must be kept alive forever and this person from Open source community fixed it for me.

Now answer my question.

1. How many of us feel really frustrated when loads of work is given to us?

2. Even when we do a job for which we are paid, we at times show our stress to others.

3. Tell me what you do in life without expecting any returns * Monetary gains?

4. How many times did you think you were not paid enough for the work you do?

5. Have you ever used your skills to help someone.

Some people teach poor children. Some will guide students to choose right Course and career. Even this is a good service. Please do little you can to others growth in life.

I myself have such monetary thoughts and I agree open source community too have their own revenue stream. ( Few of them)

The message here is,

“Do any work that you can do without expecting any return.Money must be the last thing you expect from a work”

I am not asking you to work for less but my point is there must be times when you can use your skills to do little good for others. When ever you get such opportunity make use of it.

At the same time, Sai himself has said that one who works hard and with dedication must be paid well so that he will be satisfied.

My life:

Many times, some people ask me what you gain from StarSai

and I myself ask Baba,

What am I gaining in doing all Good to devotees. My life itself is too painful.

Then I tell myself that every single minute one to multiple devotees land in any article of StarSai and they are getting benefited. So I must be happy for creating this transformation in the devotees heart.

I do it because, Sai wants to use my skills for welfare of few thousand devotees living in some corner of the world

I think Sai servants are like someone working for Open Source Community…he he…

Our mission is to bring peace and happiness to Sai Children.

After I saw StarSai.org working well, I wrote the below post to the one who fixed it…

Hi,
I posted you the message and went to take care of my Mom who was sick. When I came back, I see everything works perfect !

Its like someone in other end of the world has spent their valuable time for me and few people who were using the site regularly.

I would like to know your name please.
It works perfectly !

Thanks a million.
I am happy.

Venkat

And the reply was…

Yep. We have success! I just got a very nice PM, explaining what the site’s about and I’m extremely happy that I could help, even if it was only in a small way.

Ain’t life grand?

Anytime, Venkat. Anytime.

My name is “Kat”. I just type it as “K@” because I’m a bit strange.

I felt happy for this reply friends.

It made my Day.

Further, he told that he is learning a bit about how Indian Railways works as he was a Train Driver in his country.

I don’t want to reply him especially because my words can’t do much to him.

I just wanted to tell the world what I learned from this incident.

“Do any small work to solve others problems with your knowledge and skills. Do not always think of Money or any returns. Work for bringing happiness in others life. Some day your life will be good.”

OK friends.

I am getting late now.

Sai blessings

Venkat

Little servant of Shirdi Saibaba