Of Trees, Faith and Greener Pastures

Swami said once, Why get agitated? Let Me take care of all your business. I shall be the one who will think about them. I am waiting for nothing else than your surrender to Me, and then you do not have to worry any more about anything.

How true.

Let me narrate to you an amazing journey that I personally experienced recently – some call it mere coincidence, but to the believer, it’s a miracle.

It was a busy start in 2009 as we embarked on our next journey after the Human Values Drama Competition held successfully in September. The challenge was to create a sustainable awareness campaign to raise consciousness of the human values into the society suffering from countless maladies. This maiden effort was themed after the most pressing issue currently – the environment. Go Green was the theme.

Back in the office, January 2009 saw a shift in roles and responsibility. I was moved to a direct opposite function within the company in an effort to prepare me for future positions. I was given the first task to complete by April – to lead a team to streamline business processes within the division and prepare for a group-wide audit. There were 3 ratings within the scale of process effectiveness: green, yellow and red; green being the most effective. It was a daunting task, but with Swami by my side, the burden was lesser.

Why get agitated? Let Me take care of all your business.

Publicity was well on the way by January and as February approached, we fine-tuned the efforts. Once again Swami’s lessons during the Human Values Drama Competition proved useful this time. We did not take chances with publicity. We were all out to get 1000 participants to walk with us, walk for nature and walk for the environment. There were children, youths and adults – as well as the public.

Rounds and rounds of checking and corrections were done to some ailing processes. The process was tough, being new to the division itself, I relied fully on the confidence given by Swami. People from all strata of the organization observed lack of control. They predicted low ratings. The HQ conducted a pre-audit in March and they warned of a red rating.

But the wallpaper on my PC had the flier for Walk for Values – it said “Go Green.”

It was time for more promotions for the Walk and the real work began right away. We met so regularly that the team became one big happy family. We endured the pain and pleasure together. We laughed away the trials and we giggled when we found solutions.

I am waiting for nothing else than your surrender to Me, and then you do not have to worry any more about anything.

We had the whole team, adults, children and youth working on one single goal for the whole first quarter of 2009. They were all going green. As we finished our day jobs, we had Swami waiting for us at our night jobs at Bangsar and SS3 centres.

“If we get a yellow, I am happy enough,” said one senior colleague to me. I smiled. I looked at my wallpaper. It smiled back at me. Swami said Green – that is enough for me. I was telling everyone to believe that we could get green. And then the human flaw came in and I said, “At least we aim for green in three out of the five categories!”

Why get agitated? Let Me take care of all your business. I shall be the one who will think about them.

The day arrived. 10th May 2009. We had worked all through the night. Completing the 500 odd paperbags, decorations and stage setting. It was the first of its kind in Malaysia and Southeast Asia – Walk for Values - Go Green. There was a sea of green at the SS3 basketball court. Close to 500 children, teens and and adults. We walked. And what a walk it was… truly amazing. We were mesmerized by the event. Swami was there – every step of the way.

Take one step towards me and I will take a hundred towards you.

11th May 2009 – It was the end of my task at HQ, and once again I was on the move. I was shifted to the branch office in Petaling Jaya for a new change in responsibility. My PC was not set up yet – so I had to bring it over from the main office. After fixing the PC up at my new desk, I opened up my Lotus Notes. There were a significant number of mails on Walk for Values. Each one carried a tale on how Swami carried all of us on another wonderful journey.

Then I paused. There was another email from the Group Auditor of my company.

It read, ‘Dear all: A good news for everyone. We just received the official announcement. We obtained an overall GREEN report as well as GREEN results for all categories. Congratulations and well done to everyone involved!’

I was awestruck. What a miracle. A double green whammy, by Swami… (and that rhymes!) My feeble mind asked for a three out of five but the divine showered a full score of five out of five!

There is no conclusion to this narration. This is just an aspect of the vastness of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. He is so personal to each one of us in our own way and yet, subtle in the messages that he sends to all of us.

Thank you Swami, I surrender this to your lotus feet.