| | Issue 55 - January 21, 2018 | | In a Satsang held in Swami's presence at Suffolk, UK in 2016 Swami responded to a question about prayers to Him for help. Here is what Swami said:"You ask Me for help, I will send help.Once, a man was crying; he had gotten into trouble and was being chased by thieves. He saw the thieves chasing him, in the forest, and he cried, "O Krishna! Help me! Save me from the thieves." Then, he turned around and started pelting stones at the thieves – but, the thieves did not run off. After some time, he ran again; again, the thieves began chasing him. He turned around and said, "O Krishna! Save me now, at least." Then, he started throwing sticks and stones at the people and trying to save himself. Finally, the thieves caught him and he cried, "O Krishna! Help me," and gave up. When he gave up, Krishna finally came. The man said, "Krishna, I called You twice, but you did not come; only now have You come. Why did you come so late?"Krishna said, "The very first time you called, 'Krishna, come help me,' I was about to come, then I saw that you were helping yourself, so I didn't interfere. When you called, 'Krishna, come and help me,' the second time, I was about to come but, again, I saw you helping yourself, so I stayed back. It was only the last time, when you really gave up, and said, 'O Krishna! Only You can help, I cannot,' then I came. The delay is not from My side. When you surrender and pray, "Swami! You alone can help, I am nothing," I will help you in a thousand ways. That is the way it works – whatever you need, I will send." | | Getting Ready for Christmas | | In December, the youth team started to organise activities for children. Manual arts and handicrafts are a good way to encourage children to participate. This time they devoted themselves to baking Christmas cookies; preparing the mixture, shaping the cookies, baking and decorating them! They also decorated little bags in which they put the cookies. | Youth usually meet with the group once a month to visit museums, exhibitions and relevant cultural areas. Instead, this time youth organised a lunch to say goodbye to 2017 altogether.
It is absolutely necessary to be grateful to the Universe because of the skills which were given to all, and we have to use them to serve people, who are less fortunate. When we have a light bag and we see a brother, who carries heavier bags, let us help him by carrying some on his behalf. | | Boxes of Love to Broken Families | | Delivering hundreds of boxes filled with food and basic goods; seeing families broken by debts and financial difficulties, and visiting households destroyed by the economic crisis: the last month provided powerful and humbling experiences to all the youth who took part in the newly begun Narayana Seva activity. | | | My wonderful adventure with Swami began in 1998. At the time I was 24 years old and my life was going really crazy. My family was having major problems with my brother taking very heavy drugs and was just being diagnosed with bulimia and mental problems. | | Until.... Baba came and changed my life forever. It happened through my Reiki Master, one day she showed me a picture of Swami saying that she just came back from a trip to Prashanthi Nilayam. I recall looking at His picture and recognising Him as if I had known Him for ever. From that day... | | | | | |