WORKING under the motto, ‘Love all, serve all’, the members of the Sathya Sai International Organisation (SSIO) share a common goal.
That is to reach the ultimate goal of realisation of their innate divinity by practising the teachings of love and service taught by the founder of the organisation, Sathya Sai Baba.
The Sathya Sai Service Organisation of Fiji (SSSOF) is an affiliate of SSIO.
This international organisation was formed more than five decades ago by Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba to help humanity recognise its inherent divinity.
According to Sri Sathya Sai Baba, in order to transform society, the first prerequisite is individual transformation.
The SSIO is a free, non-denominational voluntary organisation and they are based in over 126 countries.
More than 350 individuals in Fiji are active members of this organisation and they are from different faiths.
The SSSOF was registered as a charitable organisation in Fiji in 1995.
The organisation is committed to uplifting humanity and its logo embraces the universal human values of ‘Sathya (Truth), Dharma (righteousness), Shanti (peace), Prema (love) and Ahimsa (non-violence).
The national chairperson of SSSOF, Dr Rajat Gyaneshwar, said since its inception the organisation has been undertaking its function in the areas of devotion, service, education, activities for youths and men.
Dr Gyaneshwar said the major thrust of the organisation in Fiji was to be a service organisation and that it would work with Government and other organisations to assist people during times of disaster.
He said the service activities that had been undertaken by the organisation included free medical care,blood drives, regular food and clothing distribution to the needy and poor, community adaptation projects and disaster relief response.
He said the organisation was assisted through its partners from Australia and New Zealand to conduct its services locally.
The organisation’s leader for Fiji, Australia and New Zealand, Neville Fredericks, said service in the organisation had been regarded as the highest form of spiritual practice.
Mr Fredericks said he presented his report twice a year to the international organisation in India.
The organisation also administers the Sathya Sai School at Johnson Rd, Drasa in Lautoka.
Since the year 2000, through the support and assistance of the Ministry of Education,the school has conducted normal classes for Years 1 to 8 and a special program for those in kindergarten.
In addition to the regular curriculum and syllabus from the Education Ministry, values education is also taught and practised at the Sathya Sai School.
Mr Fredericks said on education and human values, some countries were now embracing and integrating values into the curriculum not just as a one-hour session in school, but it had been integrated in every lesson plan value.
Mr Fredericks said this would require teacher training, but the fact would be the expectation to ensure that children who undertook education value programs possessed good and robust characters which would in turn assist those around them and also the society as a whole.
In addition to this, the organisation has been conducting weekly Sai Spiritual Education (SSE) classes on Sundays focusing on values education aimed at children aged 6 to 17 years.
Meanwhile, last weekend the organisation had its annual conference in Suva and more than 100 members were part of the event.
Dr Gyaneshwar said the event focused on bringing people together to encourage its members about the universal human values.
The conference revolved around the theme “The Power of Love”.
