Bhagawan’s Birthday Observance in USA

Bhagawan’s birthday was celebrated with service activities and devotional programmes across the USA.

Sathya Sai Centres of the Mid-Atlantic Region, USA, observed Bhagawan’s Birthday by conducting at least one service activity every day during November 2014. Over 60 different projects were organised by more than 200 Sathya Sai volunteers, for the benefit of several thousand needy people throughout the region. Service activities included serving food at soup kitchens, churches, parks, and street corners; conducting grocery, food, clothing, and book drives; cleaning beaches; visiting nursing homes; distributing school supplies, hygiene kits, winter kits, wheelchairs, and tote bags; mailing cards with uplifting messages to US service men and women overseas; conducting computer training sessions; and organising blood drives.

Sathya Sai Centres across the South-Central Region, USA, undertook a variety of service projects in honour of Bhagawan’s Birthday. Volunteers from Houston served hot meals to more than 75 needy people at a Salvation Army location and to about 150 transient residents at two local homeless shelters. They coordinated a “Winter Jacket Drive” to secure outer garments for the poor. Some 600 Sathya Sai devotees in Houston attended a Birthday celebration for Bhagawan. The Honourable Consul General of India, Mr. Harish Parvathaneni, as well as the founder and president of a homeless shelter in Houston where Sathya Sai volunteers conduct service projects, served as the two featured speakers.

Volunteers from the Sathya Sai Centre of Austin hosted a fun-filled event for 35 mental health patients at the Austin State Hospital on 21 November 2014 in honour of Bhagawan’s Birthday. The volunteers lovingly served food and distributed gifts. On 23^nd November 2014, SSIO members served 400 indigent people breakfast at the Caritas facility in downtown Austin. On the same day SSE children, accompanied by adults, visited a home for the elderly, where they talked with the seniors, served delicacies, and distributed blankets and socks. On 23^rd November, the Sathya Sai Centre of Austin celebrated Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s Birthday through a devotional programme including a speaker from the US Air Force and a drama presented by Young Adults and other devotees.