HEAL - "Help the Environment Act with Love"
BE CLEAN, GO GREEN

Goals
Our Team
Quotes
Photos and Events
Green Tips

GOALS:

Our objective is to provide tips, resources, activities and insights into being more
environmentally responsible in our daily lives. Developing a spiritual connection and personal transformation through nature based initiatives is the ultimate goal.
We aim to achieve this by creating national guidelines for sustainable center practices, expanding the scope of regional conservation service projects, and providing resources to individuals for eco-conscious self- and home- improvement so that they can expand and share in their own communities.

What is Creation? Creation means the expression of the Will of God. It is called Nature. Everything that has emerged from Nature must necessarily have the quality of Nature. Man is born to express the quality of Nature. Creation refers to manifestation of thoughts.

Sathya Sai Baba, Pg. 11 God, Nature, and Man

Take the Green Challenge

Our Team

SSSGC Green Team Members

Sridevi Devaraj - Chair of the Committee-Has been a Go Green Champion for the last 4 years. She is from Houston, Texas. She is passionate about saving our environment and believes in personal transformation through union with nature. She has been in the Sai family for about 20 years, service coordinator for 4 years and offering seva in SSE for a long time. By profession she is the Medical Director of the clinical laboratories at Texas Children’s Hospital and Professor of Pathology at Baylor College of Medicine. Healthy body, healthy mind, healthy environment is her motto and she is also a Lifestyle Medicine provider.

Adith Srivatsa (YA - Co-Chair) - After growing up in the Sai fold in California, he moved to Atlanta, GA, where he is currently pursuing his biomedical engineering undergraduate degree at Georgia Tech. While serving as service coordinator for the YA group in college, he became very interested in conservation projects such as Trees Atlanta. Also, as a long-distance runner, he has found great healing in nature and hopes to use this opportunity to become a better friend of the environment.

Gowri Radhakrishnan - Based in Sacramento, CA, Gowri and her family are passionate about caring for Mother Earth following the principles of the Ceiling on Desire and Rethinking our approach to reduce waste. Although a work in progress, she is aspiring to conserve resources and reduce waste and strongly feels that through educare, we will be able to achieve the goal. Born in a Sai Family, and serving in the Sacramento Sai center for the past 18 years, Gowri is currently learning through teaching the young Pre-SSE minds.

Harmyasree Govindan -She is from Charlotte NC. She attended Balavikas in India and now serving as YA Coordinator in Charlotte Sai center. She is passionate about waste reduction, recycling and reforestation. She believes in practicing ceiling on desires and encouraging sustainable environmental practices.

Ramdas Narayanan - He is currently based out of Charlotte, NC. Been associated with the Sai center for past 18 years, actively participated in seva/service projects organized by the Charlotte Sai center. Recently got interested in environmental related projects done by the center, promoting tree planting projects to be initiated and executed by the Sai center. By profession, currently a product manager at Bank of America, Charlotte, NC.

Sri Harisha Kasturi - A current resident of CA and is part of the YA team at the Sacramento Sai Center. Harisha has had the blessed opportunity to come into Swami’s fold since she was a toddler. She has attended Balvikas education and has been part of various center and regional ‘Heal the Planet’ efforts throughout the SSE program and early YA days. Harisha and her family firmly believe change begins at home and have been focusing on waste reduction/ recycling. She is on a path to adopting a less wasteful lifestyle and wants to lead by example such that she can empower and inspire the community to take early steps towards a sustainable living.

Sudeepini Jonnalagadda - She is based on Florida and currently serving as YA coordinator for Jacksonville Sai Center and involved in service activities associated with center and YA activities. Born in sai family and attended Balvikas in India.In last few years she has been actively taking lead and coordinating to maintain center activities as eco friendly as possible.

WANT TO JOIN OUR EFFORTS?

Contact: sssgc.enviro@gmail.com

Quotes

Help the Environment Act with Love

Whatever man seeks to achieve, he has to rely on Nature. Nature is not anyone’s private property. It belongs to God. Without the grace of the Lord no one can enjoy the benefits of Nature. Not realizing this truth, some people embark on the exploitation of Nature, out of arrogance and self-conceit. This is highly misconceived.

--Sathya Sai Baba

The five elements — ether, air, fire, water, and earth – are the vesture of God, as well as of man. Use them moderately and with wisdom, with fear and humility.

--Sathya Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Speaks VI, 27, 125.

Mountains help man to build houses by using stone slabs, quarried from them. Trees provide the timber for constructing houses and also firewood for domestic use. Among animate beings, every creature, from an ant to an elephant, is of assistance to man in one way or another. Cows provide nourishing milk to man. Bullocks are useful for ploughing the fields and helping to grow food crops. All other creatures like birds, fish, sheep, and others are serving man in different ways.

-- Sathya Sai Baba 1988

Today, all the five elements (earth, water, fire, air, and space) are polluted and, consequently man is mired in insecurity. Today the world is losing its ecological balance as man, out of utter selfishness, is robbing mother Earth of her resources like coal, petroleum, iron, etc. As a result, we find earthquakes, floods, and such other devastating natural calamities. Human life will find fulfillment only when ecological balance is maintained. Balance in human life and balance in Nature, both are equally important.

Nature is more progressive than Man, and to protect Nature, Man has to make use of it within limits. When Man tampers with Nature recklessly, It reacts adversely and trouble arises. In order to protect Nature, Man has to place a ceiling on desires.

--Sathya Sai Baba, “The Predicament of Man Today,” Discourse 21-1-1993 (in In His Image by Madeleine Guillemin, p. 55)

“Today the world is losing its ecological balance as man, out of utter selfishness, is robbing the mother Earth of her resources like coal, petroleum, iron, etc. As a result, we find earthquakes, floods and such other devastating natural calamities. Human life will find fulfillment only when ecological balance is maintained. Balance in human life and balance in Nature, both are equally important. Today even marine life is in danger due to so-called advancement in science. Advancement in science is welcome but it should not lead to ecological imbalance. The people and the world at large should be benefited from science. But today everyone is interested in selfish gains. No one seems to care for society. The food that we eat, the water that we drink, the air that we breathe, are all polluted. In fact, all the five elements, which are of utmost importance for man, are polluted.”

-- Sathya Sai Speaks vol.33:15

Man has the rare good fortune of adoring Nature as the Body of God and offering grateful worship to God. But, is he conscious of God being the Source and Sustenance? Does he give God the first place in his thoughts which is His due? Or, is he engaged in the activities of life in total disregard of God? It is a pity that, instead of paying attention to God, Nature and Man, in that order, men today are concerned most with themselves, more with Nature and very much less with God. From birth to death, from dawn till night, man pursues fleeting pleasures by the exploitation, the despoiling, the desecration of Nature, ignoring the truth that it is the property of God, the Creator, and any injury caused to it is a sacrilege which merits dire punishment.

-- Divine Discourse, July 11, 1985.

“The five elements have to be adored and treated reverentially, as the Rig Vedha directs. Worship them in humility.”

--(Dasara Discourse, Prashanti Nilayam, Oct. 20, 1982)

The scriptures (Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita) declare, “All Nature is God” and “The Lord is in all beings”. When learning about the sublime secrets of the trees, appreciate the Creator and strive to understand the principles behind creation. Life is a tree. The mutual relationship we cultivate and cherish are symbolized by the branches, twigs and leaves; the thoughts arising in the mind are the flowers; Ananda (Joy) is in the fruit, Dharma is the sweet juice it contains. The tree is held firm by the very roots which fed it...roots that symbolize faith and self-confidence. Nurture the roots well.

-- Divine Discourse, February 18, 1980.

“Our primary task is to purify the environment which is affected by pollution of air, water and food. All the five elements are affected by pollution. People should, therefore, try to reduce the use of automobiles and control the emission of harmful industrial effluents.”

-- Sathya Sai Speaks vol 26:4