Under the Sathya Sai Council of Malaysia VIP, 45 SAI Youths from Malaysia and Singapore jointly will participate in this Grama Seva.
Place: Near the Border of Kalimantan/Sarawak. Ulu Lemanak District, Long House Ulu Bawie. The Poorest Village in Sarawak in 2004. Now with Sathya Sai Avathar Divine Hand Touched their villagers heart. Phase 1 completed with new long houses built for 49 families , water system and also sanitation given each family door to door, fruits farm and vegetable, narayana seva , medical care, etc for since 2004 until 2010. Currently the village undergoing the 2nd Phase of development which will cover: solar systems for community hall, playground, fruits tree farm, vegetable farm, library,reading corner,computers, books,bcycles, mass cooking, etc. This is what GS2011 will focus in this trip.
The Grama Seva aims at communicating the following important message to the society at large:
* Service demands Quality and not Quantity.
* Love must be the undercurrent of any service activity
* Social Service is not 'Slow'cial Service nor is it 'Show'cial service.
* Reaching out to the lowest of the low and the poorest of the poor in the social order.
* Paropakaaraartham Idam Shariram - The very purpose of donning this human body is to be of service to others.
* One must move from Vyashti (Individual) to Samashti (Society) to Srushti (Nature) to Parameshti (Divinity)
Word was going around for sometime that Kampong Bawie is one of the poorest villages in the Sarawak state. It was said that even going there is very difficult. Brother Charlie and Brother Simma was the one who had some knowledge of the area repeated these claims and suggested that we should include the village in our Narayana Seva Programme.
Although I could not join the first group of devotees who went there for an initial survey, they confirmed everything what we heard! Therefore, I was really excited like a schoolgirl when our Sai Centre in Kuching decided to adopt that village in the Gramma Seva Project. It was another gift from Swami to assist the poorest of the poor people and for that He kindly chose us as His instrument!
In the event, when I and other devotees commenced journey the difficulties proved to be more formidable than what we had anticipated! To begin with the village was not accessible by road of any sort to drive; trekking was the only way! Walking for four hours on a mountain terrain, crossing endless streams, climbing steep hills carrying bags of necessities -- may sound romantic but not so easy in reality! But we made it with by the Grace of Bhagawan.
Good to describe what the others described them as ...kasar...
But that was only the beginning. When I saw the Long House in the village and people living there my heart sank in pain! The intensity of the poverty was simply beyond our imagination! There was not much to eat. They survived on whatever litte rice they could grow on the hilly terrain. Not surprisingly they, particularly children, were visibly undernourished.
Animals and humans lived together in the same long-house. There was a sever lack of hygiene consciousness -- no proper toilets, no drinking water other than the river and the rain. There was no reliable supply of electricity. There was only one house that had a generator. If the generators breakdown, as often they do, darkness becomes the way of life. In a country that is moving fast to a high technological society these people are struggling! I cried in prayer: “Swami -- In this endless misery how can we help these people? Where to begin?” But there was no time to waste ...
The first thing we did was to cook and feed them; rest of the left-over provisions were handed over to them. Unfortunately the food we cooked was never seemed adequate. They returned again and again to ask for more. They pushed each other just to get the food. I could only see the deprived eyes -- be it a child or an elderly person. How much we wished Swami to grant us a proverbial ‘Akshaya Patra’ (=a divine vessel where the food never gets finished no matter however much we take out of it)! We tried came better prepared during later visits. .. But in GS2010,,it really happen—swamy done Akshaya Patra ,,food start filling in not finishing.
Beside serving food we carried out some essential repair jobs, shampooed and cut the hair for those who needed. The day ended with some EHV classes. The villagers were sitting in a daze! They must be wondering what we were up to ... who are these people to come and do all these things ... do they belong to any government body, or a religious group? The problem was that no other organization or group ever came to the village to carry out such work. (It is good to put the quote from the villagers here.)
Therefore, it was not surprising if they thought that all this was being done with some selfish motive. Hence they were not very receptive, initially! Nonetheless, we continued – with a prayer in the heart as Swami advises.
Then there were moments of human pessimism when we wondered whether the project will be sustainable. At those times all we did was what all sincere devotees do -- we placed our hearts at Swami’s sacred feet and followed His dictum: Carry out the service to the needy and let it transform people. With that as our protection we never lost faith.
At the end of that first visit we made a deal with the elders of the community: we will come to visit you regularly to help you with food, clothes and other necessities but you must clean-up the house and organize things a little better. Our main objective was to see them living in a cleaner and healthier environment. [Simma can describe the actual arrangements] They agreed.
To keep our end of the bargain we returned to the village after three months and they kept to their promise. And what a pleasant surprise! Houses were cleaned, organized and all pets were kept in cages that they themselves built. It was indeed a beautiful site!
Since then, members of our Centre returned to the village and carried out many beneficial activities. Such is their devotion seven long hours of long and laborious journey to reach the village did not deter these committed youths. We assisted them to built a new home, gave them seeds to grow their own vegetables, built sanitation facilities and provided water-storage tanks in the village. Slowly but steadily the villagers realized that we are serious in our intentions and had no ulterior motives. In all such projects, as the one we undertook, that is a significant step forward!
Even during previous visits, villagers simply used to sit around and watch us cooking, serving food to them and carry out other chores. We used to wonder why they don’t come forward to offer assistance and share the work?
But this Christmas trip saw a very pleasant turn of the events. It was almost like a shock. A total transformation is how one can describe it. Some villagers stood along the path to welcome us while the children kept running behind the wheels to greet us. Many came and helped to unload things that we brought for them. They came forward spontaneously with offers of assistance. They helped with cutting the vegetables, cooking, organizing the crowd while the food was served and clearing-up later. We built homes with their assistance. We found some of them had good carpentry skills. And all this was done with full of love and warmth. It appeared as if Swami was saying to us, “children this is what it meant love all and doing with so much joy”. And we did!
We celebrated Christmas in real spirit of the festival -- we sang carols, exchanged gifts and of course shared food -especially the durian fruits that the villagers picked from the jungle. They treated us as members of their own families. The whole night spent talking and minggling – just like relatives. They made home very comfortable so that we might be tempted to stay longer -- such was their love and kindness!
Inhabitants of Kampong Bawie are no longer lazy, self centred people, as we (and so many others) mistook at the beginning. Now they work together as one big family of selfless members. When the inevitable moment of parting the company came, they all lined up, hugged us and bid a hearty farewell. Some even shed tears as we left the village with heavy hearts.
Although what we saw in the village is no less than a total transformation from a self-centred community to a group of selfless people working together for the betterment of their society, there is still lot to be done.For instance, educational awareness is still far from them. Unfortunately most of them stop schooling after the Primary School due to long distances from schools, and intense poverty. Remedy for this (to awaken the authorities) needs another Sri Sai miracle. Perhaps it’s already on the way! A mud road (logers’ road, as they call it) that appeared recently, although far from perfect, must reduce the commuting problems. A school in the neighbourhood? May be we celebrate next Christmas with that! What is beyond Bhagavan? ‘Swami kindly consider our application’
Several villagers wanted to know which organization we belonged to and why are we so kind to them? When explained the nature of our mission, they began to experience of Swami through our hearts. Now Sri Sathya Sai Baba is a household name there. People in Kampong Bawie now consider Sai people as messengers from God. For us the participants, it’s an unforgettable divine experience.
Everyone wanted to see Swami in person (Don’t we all?). One even asked if Sai Baba (this is how they refer to Swami) is old, if so it would be difficult for Him to travel because of the mountain terrain. There was even a suggestion that an helicopter could be arranged to bring Swami into their midst! Given their enthusiasm and love we should not be surprised if one day Swami grants them a personal Darshan.
Swami! Considering great miracles You carried out such as providing drinking water to the people in parched lands, huge free hospitals and educational institutions, the transformation that has taken place in Bawie might only be a small one but the fact that You chose us for the project and helped us to carry it out successfully makes us immensely happy! How can we thank You?
Jai Sai Ram…Love all Serve all
From
The Organizer Team VIP Sathya Sai Malaysia
