“Through service you realise that all beings are waves of the Ocean of Divinity. No other spiritual discipline can bring you into the incessant contemplation of the One-ness of all living beings. You feel another’s pain as your own; you share another’s success as your own. To see everyone else as yourself and yourself in every one, that is the core of the discipline of service.”
– Sri Sathya Sai Baba, 14th November 1975
Sri Sathya Sai Baba teaches us that hands that help are holier than lips that pray. Many of those who follow His message and teachings and serve selflessly have had personal experiences of His omnipresence.
Since its inception, the Sri Sathya Sai International Organization (SSSIO) has been providing selfless and loving service to mankind through various humanitarian projects. The SSSIO is committed to provide immediate and long-term relief to those affected by natural disasters from the acute phase to rehabilitation. Sathya Sai volunteers are engaged in medical services, offering food and water on an on-going basis, providing shelter and temporary accommodation, educational activities, and reconstruction of facilities and services destroyed by natural disaster.
There are two aspects of the services provided by the SSSIO that sets it apart from other non-profit and nongovernmental organizations. There is no overhead for services provided and volunteers use their own resources. Secondly, services are rendered with love and compassion, adding a new dimension to the healing and restoration process, which touches the heart of the caregiver and the recipient, both. In addition, SSSIO volunteers are often the first to arrive and the last ones to leave a disaster site.
The SSIO has, in the recent past, engaged in humanitarian relief services in Nepal, Philippines, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Indonesia, Italy, Sri Lanka, and Haiti – to name a few. For its timely and exemplary services, the SSSIO has been honored with awards and recognition by authorities in many countries, although this is never the prime objective of the organization or the volunteers.