While Bhagawan's Divine Messages took the magazine to great heights and it lived up to its mission of “Moral and Spiritual uplift of Humanity through Truth, Righteousness, Peace, Love and Non-violence”, in the days of old when Puttaparthi did not even have a good road, let alone electricity, transport, a decent post-office, etc. and with the old manual typesetting letter press machine (which would take a skilled person a minimum of two days to compose one page), for Prof. Kasturi posting the magazine by the 16 th of every month with the help of just one assistant in the first two years was an ordeal of gargantuan proportions for which he prayed for the Almighty’s blessings every minute. How complex was the process? And how did it actually get done every month in time? Over to Prof. Kasturi for the interesting first-hand account from his biography: “For about a year, Narasimhachari, the sole helper at the treadle, put together the types, prepared the pages and pedalled away, to get two pages printed at a time. I offered to help him in the composing and in the footwork when I found him delaying or dozing. I was shocked when he accepted the offer whenever I made it! The job was really hard, though he lightened and brightened it singing Bhajans to himself. “I was kept busy most of the day and even a few hours of the night, since the number of subscribers increased fast. Money was sent by post or paid direct by devotees and pilgrims, who realised that the Sarathi was the link between the Chariot and the Charioteer. The Register of subscribers became more voluminous with every festival at Prasanthi Nilayam; thousands who came to the holy Presence mired to ensure that the voice of the Lord should enter their doors at least once every month. “For over two years, I and Narasimhachari bore the yoke. We were anxious to post the numbers at the newly opened Prasanthi Nilayam Post Office, on the 16th of every month, as announced in the very first copy. Devotees, we knew, would welcome it even more reverentially when they find, on the wrapper, on the right hand corner, the circular frank-mark of the Post Office with the euphoria-filled name “Prasanthi Nilayam” (Prof. Kasturi was himself the post master for eight months!). But a cutting machine which could trim the edges of the magazine was acquired only much later, long after a cylinder press was installed to cope with the 3000 copies we had to print. They had to be trimmed at Bangalore City , 100 miles away. “Every month, therefore, after the printing was over, I stuffed the quantity of English and Telugu magazines into two gigantic boxes, took them to Bukkapatnam on a bullock-cart, had them lifted to the roof of the bus proceeding to Penukonda, and ordered the bus to stop near the level-crossing about 300 yards away from the Penukonda Railway Station. The boxes were brought down from the bus and a Tarzanian porter, Narasappa, carried them as head load to the platform. There, I awaited the arrival of the passenger train to Bangalore, 85 miles away to book the boxes as freight. Reaching Bangalore, porters loaded them into horse-drawn vehicles, which I directed to a Press that had a cutting machine. The boxes filled with trimmed copies were then taken to the house of a devotee in the heart of the City. I spent the night there with a dozen young men who volunteered to put the magazines into wrappers (with the addresses on) which I had brought from the Nilayam. The copies were thus ready to be posted and we could sleep through the short hours of the night. The next day, I repeated the schedule while returning – horse, vehicle, porters, railway journey, Penukonda station, Narasappa, level-crossing, bus until Bukkapatnam, bullock cart, and finally the Prasanthi Nilayam Post Office to receive the Holy Name affixed and allow the precious Prasadam to travel to more than 3000 homes! The devotees received it with reverence, thanked the postman who brought the magazine and put it in their altar before reading it.” So that was the ‘behind the scenes’ story of perfecting and posting the beautiful Sanathana Sarathi. But it was not drudgery all the time, with the divine beside lightening and brightening the burden at every available opportunity. Prof. Kasturi narrates a very entertaining yet enlightening incident that happened in the second year of the magazine in his ‘Loving God’ which goes like this: “I remember one evening in 1959 when He sent some one to bring me to His room at the mandir. Baba told me that the Editor of a daily published from Hyderabad had asked for my photograph, for he was announcing me in his paper, alongside a nice write-up as the Editor of the ‘Sanathana Sarathi’. Baba had promised to send him my photograph and He asked me to prepare myself for being shot within minutes by Baba Himself, with a brand new camera He had specially selected for the purpose. O! My joy knew no bounds! I rose to the eighth heaven. I rushed down the eighteen steps to reach home for a quick face lift. “I returned to the Presence, within minutes, shaved and starched, with a big broad smile on the frontispiece. Baba held me by the shoulders and positioned me at an appropriate distance. He peered through the lens and congratulated me on my ‘photogenic face’. I was elated that my picture will catch the eye of at least 30,000 readers all over Andhra Pradesh. My smile swelled into a toothless grin! Baba gestured and I swallowed the grin in one gulp. He cautioned me with a ‘steady’, followed immediately by a ‘ready’. He clicked…. A black hairy blotch with a flashing tail bounced on my neck from inside the camera! With a shrill screech, I hopped into the corner of the room casting away the horrid, hirsute….was it a rat? Was it dead? No. It was a cotton mouse….that was cunningly tucked inside the dummy camera, to be released when clicked. Baba had a hearty laugh at my panic. I too laughed to relieve the tension. “He reprimanded me mildly for swallowing the story He had invented to deflate my ego. He reminded me that my being the Editor was not the kind of ‘news’, which the world was interested in. Lasting fame is to be sought not through newspapers, which turn into the very next morning, but through dedicated service to God and the godly. I left His room, a leaner and wiser man. “Baba mercifully helps us, slowly and subtly, to shed the burden of the ego….He advises that we should be just ourselves and not wear masks behind which we hide. ‘What greater status can you attain than being the medium for packaging and posting My message to thousands of devotees every month?’ He asked me. Baba is too bright a Sun for human eyes; we can bask and bathe in sunlight but we cannot gaze at Him.” This was how Swami was ‘chiseling and creating’ the ideal editor out of Prof. Kasturi after bringing into existence the magazine a year ago. The Sarathi then was half the current size and bilingual with articles in English first and then in Telugu. The cover picture, a telling sketch of Krishna holding the reins of the galloping horses and directing Arjuna’s chariot, was in direct consonance with its name and mission. After the first anniversary, the cover pages portrayed beautiful sculptures of the earthly manifestations of the Lord through different ages, thus, covertly conveying the divine declaration of Lord Krishna - ‘Whenever there is a decline in Dharma and rise of wrong conduct, the Lord incarnates to save the pious, destroy the evil and restore righteousness.” And the inside pages overtly had a beautiful and benign image of the current and happening incarnation – the Sathya Sai Avatar. - taken from : http://www.saiomni.homestead.com/Devotion/HistoryofSanathanaSarathi.html Sai Ram -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "saimsg" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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