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Toronto Meet Highlights Satya Sai Baba's Work


More than seven hundred people attended the presentation held at the Bloor Street United Church in downtown Toronto on the humanitarian works and message of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, a spiritual leader who lives in Puttaparthi, India, and inspires millions of people world wide to experience personal transformation.

Offering information and insights into the remarkable life and achievements of Sathya Sai Baba were three professionals: a medical doctor from Toronto, a Professor of Computer Science from Cornell University, U.S.A., and a Professor of Management at the School of Business Administration at Dalhousie University, Halifax.

Spelling out the purpose of the meeting and introducing the other speakers, Dr. Peter Hacker, a Toronto Dermatologist, reminded the audience that despite all the material progress humanity is making, turmoil and conflicts around the globe continue to rise. The five universal human values of Truth, Right Conduct, Peace, Love and Nonviolence, which form the basis of Sathya Sai Baba's teachings, if put into individual practice offer hope for resolving the tension around us. Sathya Sai Baba is an inspiring role model whose life showcases what one person can achieve, even though successive governments have failed to do so.

An impressive and touching PowerPoint Presentation was done on Sathya Sai Baba's teachings and humanitarian works by Dr. David Gries of Cornell University, where he is currently Associate Dean of Engineering.

The Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning at Puttaparti and the fifty-odd Schools and Education in Human Values Institutes set up around the world under the inspiration of Sathya Sai Baba are perhaps the few institutions globally that emphasise character building as much as mere academic excellence. The single golden thread that runs through the gamut of all the activities of these Institutes is that education is for life and not for mere living. The uniqueness of the academic system lies in the academic environment being suffused with pure Love and students being moulded in a spirit of sacrifice and service to the community.

Practical knowledge and skills are imparted in Sathya Sai Schools, including the one recently established in Toronto at 3321 McNicoll Avenue, Scarborough, in an atmosphere of tenderness and intense love, without charging any tuition fees.

If relieving the burden of tuition fee was not enough, Sathya Sai Baba has also undertaken the world's largest project by a not-for-profit organisation, through the Rural Water Supply Project for millions in villages of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in India. The first project cost over U.S. $63 million, while the second one is nearing completion.

Dr. Yassin Sankar, Professor of Management in the School of Business Administration at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, stressed how misused and misunderstood the term "ethics" was till Sathya Sai Baba shed clear light on the topic and revitalised its significance to solve world problems.

Describing Sathya Sai Baba as an exemplary educator, Dr. Sankar said in his entire teaching career, he found Sathya Sai Baba as the greatest living expert on ethics and moral education of our times. Sathya Sai Baba rightly advises that ethics must become an integral part of all disciplines in our schools. In the past, much money and resources have been spent on developing an understanding of ethics, with little results. That is because ethics was treated as a separate subject, a theory. Only by integrating it into every field of learning, be it government, business, medicine, social sciences and so on, can we promote "ethical literacy", which is a true measure of a leader's integrity.

"Character is power", says Sai Baba. It is one singular trait that empowers a leader, who in turn can inspire and motivate a team. Character makes a person a VIP (virtuous integrated personality). Character gives us the moral compass that points us to the truth.

The presentations were followed by two impressive short films. The first was on Sathya Sai School of Canada, which was featured on a national television network, and the second was on Sai Baba's humanitarian works and message.


Original Publication Date: Saturday, October 16, 2004



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