In 1987, when Prof. Kasturi shed his mortal coil, Swami appointed Sri V K
Narsimhan as the editor. A widely-travelled journalist who had served in three
national newspapers of India for half a century, Sri Narsimhan was the right
man for the job at a time when the Sarathi was becoming increasingly
international. By the early nineties, there were editions of Sanathana Sarathi
in various foreign languages like Japanese, Nepalese, Spanish, Greek, etc. Sri
C M Prakash recalls that Sri Narsimhan used to call the magazine a ‘monthly
miracle’. It was amazing how with seemingly inadequate infrastructure and
limited staff, the thousands of copies could be printed and shipped to various
corners of the world. There were subscribers of the magazine from even
countries like Curacao , Estonia and Rodrigues Islands .
The way the magazine has sometimes ‘found’ its subscribers, is also very
amazing. “In the summer of 1994, I was visiting India from America,” says Dr.
Raghu Nathan, a radiologist. “At that time, Swami was residing at Brindavan,
Bangalore. I had a desire to start subscribing to the Sanathana Sarathi,
however, I did not know whom to contact to initiate the subscription. While
waiting for Swami's Darshan, I expressed this wish to an elderly and pious
gentleman who was standing in line just behind me. And imagine, this person
turned out to be the co-ordinator of overseas subscriptions for Sanathana
Sarathi! He, then and there, took my address and finished whatever formalities
required, and when I returned to America, the current issue of Sanathana
Sarathi was waiting for me in my home! This may just be a co-incidence; but,
for me, it was a Sai-incidence! Living far away in California , the Sanathana
Sarathi is the monthly prasadam from Prasanthi Nilayam I eagerly look forward
to.”
Vincent Green, another devotee from Scotland, says, “I had a good dream
before I got my first issue of Sanathana magazine. I dreamt I was in a library
and Sai gave me sweet oranges to eat - lots of them. I now believe it is the
small and sweet pieces of wisdom that I was to receive that Baba was referring
to.”
The ways of the divine are beyond the kin of human understanding. In
fact, it was He in His inscrutable way, who was writing the articles, enlisting
subscribers and running the whole show. Yet at the mundane level, Swami has
been ever guiding and directing all who were concerned with the magazine. When
the need for a greater space and new infrastructure was felt, Swami directed
the press to be moved for the final time to a new location, now inside the
ashram compound itself. It is in this spacious location that the Sri Sathya Sai
Press operates today with the latest offset machine and a string of volunteers
to help. And just like the previous occasion, Swami again sent two of his
students to learn the mechanics and maintenance of this new machine to
Kolhapur, in the state of Maharastra. When they returned after two weeks of
training, they became invaluable assets to the press, and in extension to the
Sai mission. “It has been a great opportunity and privilege to be part of this
holy endeavour and I am ever grateful to Swami for the role he has gifted me
with, however small it may be, to be part of this glorious mission,” says
Saravanan, one of the students who joined the press in 1995.
The saga of the Sanathana Sarathi is no different from any other mega
service project of Swami; in fact, it is much grandeur with a glorious fifty
year history. It was the one which carried thrilling accounts when Bhagavan
announced the setting up of the Super Specialty Hospital in Prasanthi Nilayam,
the mega water project for Anantapur, the setting up of the second medical
marvel in Bangalore, the opening of the Chaitanya Jyothi Museum, or even the
recent water projects in Chennai and the two Godavari districts (East and West)
of Andhra Pradesh. And it is these ‘mass miracles’ of Swami that the magazine
had as its cover pages in the last five years (departing from the
more-than-a-decade-long Orange ) under Swami’s guidance. With the passing away
of Sri V K Narsimhan, in May 2000, the magazine had a new editor appointed by
Swami, Sri G L Anand, an experienced educationist who has served in the NCERT
(National Council of Educational Research and Training) for decades, and an
ardent devotee of the Lord.
Over the years, editors have changed, the content composition has
undergone many alterations, the aesthetics have greatly improved, the
subscription has grown exponentially, and the magazine has reached virtually
every corner of the globe, but the Master and His mission for this magazine has
remained the same. As Prof. Venkataraman says, “Sanathana Sarathi has been the
Lighthouse of Sathya, Dharma, Shanti and Prema, in a world that is otherwise
spiritually dark.”
In the modern times when the media has become a ‘play of money’ with even
reputed media groups willing to pass on anything ‘that can sell’ as news, not
giving a penny’s worth of thought about its impact on society or its younger
generation, and willing to compromise and commercialize anything and everything
with the logic that ‘otherwise it is not going to sustain’, the Sanathana
Sarathi stands as a role model, just like all other Swami’s service projects.
It is the pristine purity character of the Sarathi which has endeared it to
lakhs of devotees and spiritual aspirants world over today.
If Arturo Salazar from Venezuela says, “It is the perfect food for my
soul,” or if Ravi Rudra from New Zealand joyfully shares, “As I read the
articles, I feel the Lord directly communicating with me to inspire and
transform me so that I may be like Him,” or for that matter, if Perampalam from
Auckland testifies, “I have now greater awareness of my innate divinity and
purpose in life, and the need to express this in acts of love, fellow feeling,
sacrifice, selfless service, helping ever and hurting never”, it is because the
magazine has touched their lives like no other.
Truly, what the Sanathana Sarathi has achieved is perhaps incomparable to
any other mega service plan of Swami, purely because its mission, modus
operandi and immeasurable impact have been so mind-altering. It has worked on a
totally different dimension than other massive projects of Swami in subtly,
slowly but surely bringing out the best in each human being, and raising his
consciousness to a new realm of peace and bliss.
