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. Source : http://www.saiomni.homestead.com/Devotion/HistoryofSanathanaSarathi.html
