Highlights of 2003

Expanding Our Service to the Light

Highlights of 2003

2003 was a phenomenal year for Humanity in Unity both in the USA and internationally.  As individuals and as a community, we have matured and anchored more Light within ourselves and within our organization, and in doing so, we have supported Sai Maa Lakshmi Devi in Her Work and laid a strong foundation to continue the expansion of Sai Maa's Work for years to come.

During the year, we internally restructured HIU in several ways: 

This year we have also seen tremendous expansion of the Work.  For the first time, Sai Maa's trained teachers offered intensives at locations throughout the USA.  The Personal Sessions team also expanded with the training of new practitioners.  More cities are now holding local meditations, and within those groups, more and more people are stepping forward to lead meditations and organize service initiatives.  We have also instituted a program where our HIU family members who do not live in the vicinity of a local center are able to have the support of a virtual community through Unity meditation phone calls.

We are delighted to have witnessed a tremendous commitment by individuals within our family to make choices that help anchor the Light both in our individual bodies and the planet.  Examples include exceptional responses to our fundraising for Swami Truichi's Golden Dome in India, for HIU's future center in Indianapolis, and for the monthly offerings program supporting all of HIU's organizational and humanitarian work.  More importantly, there has been extraordinary dedication to doing the inner Work.  Many beings are transforming themselves and the world with their brighter Light and many are stepping forward in leadership roles at both local and national levels.

We fully expect that our new organizational structure and your continued dedication will enable us to vastly expand the Work of our beloved Sai Maa Lakshmi Devi in 2004.  In the process, Humanity in Unity will grow into a dynamic worldwide force to facilitate the planetary shift we are beginning to experience - from duality to Unity, from untruth to Truth, from death to Ascension and from fear to Love. 

We now offer this reflection upon the accomplishments of the past year that will serve as the foundation for the blossoming of our individual and organizational "Flower of Life" in the years to come.

 U.S. Humanitarian Efforts, Initiatives and Honors

**Feed Every One in Indianapolis reaches over twelve shelters in the city with $16,000 worth of food each week.  This service is extended four days a week and is supported by over twenty volunteers from the HIU community.

**$28,000 was donated to various other organizations committed to serving the Light such as the House of Good Shepherd in Chicago, Boulder County Safehouse, Human Evolution Church in California and the Kashi Foundation in Florida.

**Sai Maa visited the Indiana Women's Prison in May.  She met with administrators and guards, small groups of offenders, and held a convocation attended by about 200 women.  Face after face shifted from the transforming power of Sai Maa's love.  After Sai Maa's visit, the prison was described as having a quiet peace throughout.  A ward that was previously filled with raucous shouts became silent for several days.  When visitors asked about the source of the change, the prisoners replied, "It's been this way since that lady visited!"

**In July, 40 HIU volunteers from six states, including seven of our dear family members from the Miracles Healing Center in Wisconsin, organized the Indiana Prison Summer Camp project.  This camp allowed young children to spend time with their incarcerated mothers and grandmothers. HIU volunteers secured all 2,000 of the camp's meals, along with future meals donated by Kroger Food Stores. This camp received television coverage and the Governor's wife joined Humanity in Unity to participate in the camp.  T-shirts as well as "Build-a-Bears" containing a personal message in the child's or mother's own voice were given to each participant.

**In August, guests from all over the world arrived in Huntington Beach, California to honor and celebrate Sai Maa's 50th birthday.   (Sai Maa would say, "I AM Eternal, but the body is 50").  The celebration weekend included tributes to Sai Maa, including The Golden Book: Fifty Years of Divine Grace (composed of Her students' messages to Sai Ma), a wonderful video and live musical tributes.  After a delicious dinner, Sai Maa and the celebrants danced until 1AM!  Other highlights of the weekend included a special Yagna (sacred fire ceremony) and a powerful "Pada Puja" ceremony, and a magnificently-transformative intensive with Sai Maa.

**In September, our Boulder family introduced Sai Maa at the Boulder County Safehouse, an organization that provides support for women who have experienced domestic violence. Maa met with about 30 women, holding each one on Her lap. One HIU volunteer described the meeting as Maa having "washed away eons of pain." The following night, many women from the Safehouse attended Sai Maa's public meeting, bringing their children and other family members.

**Sai Maa was interviewed for a feature article in the November/December issue of Nexus, Colorado's premier holistic magazine with a distribution of over 50,000.  The article, entitled "Chalanda Sai Ma: Divine Mother Speaks about Bridging the Gap between Differing Spiritual Messages," can be found in it's entirety at: www.nexuspub.com/articles/2003/nov2003/interview.htm. Other articles about Sai Maa and HIU also appeared in Chicago's India Post, India Tribune and Indian Reporter & World News and Detroit's Phenomenews.

** The "Living in the Vibration of Love" tour, which took place in seven cities across the nation, included programs with nationally-recognized spiritual leaders Marianne Williamson, Ram Dass, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Master Teacher, Devra West and Sat Santokh.

**Sai Maa presented programs at the Omega Institute in New York and Naropa University in Boulder, CO, where she met personally with Naropa's new President, Dr. Thomas B. Koburn.

**In May, Sai Maa was the distinguished teacher and guest of Master Teacher at the Miracles Healing Center in Wisconsin. Alden Hughes, the Senior Minister from the Miracles Healing Center, said of Sai Maa's visit, "Master Sai Maa taught with unworldly love and joy the message of enlightenment.  This event was additionally very auspicious because it is the beginning of a partnership of the light of the East and the light of West."
 
**Also in May, Sai Maa was the keynote speaker at the "Celebrate One...Voices for Peace and Unity," an interfaith service on National Day of Prayer in Indianapolis, Indiana. About 350 people attended presentations by Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist, Sikh, and Native American leaders.  Together with prayer, song, music and dance a beautiful tapestry was created from weaving together the underlying unity.  

**This October Sai Maa met with the Honorable Arun Kumar, Consuluate General of India and top members of his staff at his offices in Chicago.  The following night Maa and several of her students were the guests of Mr. Kumar and his wife at their home overlooking Chicago's Miracle Mile.  Mr. Kumar has offered to be of assistance in any way he can to secure land or a building in Chicago to be a home for the Rajarjeshwari murti.

International Humanitarian Efforts, Initiatives and Honors

**$10,000 was donated to Voix Libres ("Free Voices"), an organization that provides education and training to Bolivian children from the least privileged sections of the population: those living in prisons, in the streets and rubbish dumps - as well as to prevent children from working in Bolivian mines.  www.voixlibres.org

**Another $10,000 was donated to Green Medicine, a French humanitarian organization that provides natural and ecological medicine to people who urgently need medical care.  They have current projects in Ecuador, Vietnam, Latvia, Rwanda and other countries.
 www.green-medicine.org

**In Germany, Sai Maa was introduced to His Holiness the Dalai Lama by Dr. Pankaj Naram. An observer of the interaction noted, "At the time of their meeting, His Holiness was accepting Tibetan scarves/garlands with his hands. He never allowed anyone to put one around his neck except our Sai Maa. He bowed to Sai Maa and they held hands while talking. When His Holiness left the room he said to Sai Ma: 'We will see each other again and again.'" 

**In March, Sai Maa was hosted by His Holiness Parama Pujya Sri Sri Sri Triuchi MahaSwamiji, a 75 year-old Shiva Master of the renowned Rajarajeswari Temple of Banglore, India.  He honored Sai Maa as Sri Nithyananda Mayi Maa. Together, they performed an extremely powerful "World Yagna" to purify the consciousness of Sai Maa's students and bless the world. Sai Maa said this was a very unique event and never before has She conducted such a powerful Yagna. The name of Mother Divine was repeated 33,000 times by 61 pundits.  Sai Maa, on the behalf of Humanity in Unity, fed over 1,000 people during the three days of sacred ceremonies. At the conclusion, Sai Maa told the group that the impact of the Yagna was so profoundly transforming that they would not know the extent of what occurred until the moment of their enlightenment.

**Later in the year, on behalf of Humanity in Unity, Sai Maa was present for the dedication of a golden dome for the Rajarajeshwari Temple in Banglore.  Sai Maa's commitment was to raise enough money to complete the golden dome while Swamiji Triuchi is still alive. Your contributions made this possible.  The completed dome was dedicated in December.

**Sai Maa was the distinguished guest of the Shankarcharya of South India in March and again in September. As one of the four most respected leaders of Hinduism, it is very rare to meet personally with this exalted spiritual leader.  Sai Maa not only met with him, but was recognized by him as the embodiment of Shiva Shakti.  He invited Sai Maa to consider His ashram "Her home" and to sit by His side at the sacred Navarati Yagna, an honor never before extended to a woman.

**During Shivaratri, Sai Maa was hosted by Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji, a highly revered Saint, at His beautiful Mysore ashram. A beloved and respected spiritual leader who is a talented Gandharva-Veda musician, Swamiji has a large following in the U.S. and Europe.
 
**Sai Maa received the "Jewel of Society Award" from the city of Bombay, India.

**In March and April, Sai Maa spent time in the village of Bet Lar, India with many students from the United States and Israel.  During those months, Maa not only educated the village women and children on hygiene but facilitated the organization of medical camps throughout neighboring villages.  Hundreds of people who otherwise would have had to travel for days for care were lovingly treated by Sai Maa's students, several of whom are trained doctors and nurses, for ailments both minor and severe.  Sai Maa even arranged for a dentist to come and extract severely decayed and painful teeth. A highlight of Maa's time in Bet Lar was when the village children put on a Mataram Lila (spiritual play) for Sai Maa depicting the life of Sai Baba and acting out scenes of Sai Maa giving darshan and the healings that subsequently took place. The initial performance of the play drew hundreds of people from neighboring villages, all of whom Sai Maa fed for free.  Humanity in Unity also contributed over $14,000 to Bet Lar for improvements such as housing and solar power for electricity. 

**Sai Maa was honored by Her Guru, Sathya Sai Baba, by his proclamation that "you are not just Sai Maa, you are Sathya Sai Maa." 

**During Her travels, Sai Maa had the honor of meeting with Guru Natan, a Tantric Master who She visited in Calicut.  Guru Natan ascended and chose to be here now on the planet to serve humanity. During Sai Maa's visit He invited Her to address His followers.  Sai Maa spoke to about 1,000 people at His ashram.

** Sai Maa has been invited as a delegate for the upcoming 2004 Parliament of World Religions next summer in Barcelona, Spain, an honor extended to only 200-300 spiritual and religious leaders in the world who are involved with social activism.

     Australia | Quebec {Canada} | France | United Kingdom | India | Ireland | Japan