Dr. Veeru Mudigonda is a distinguished medical professional and a devoted long-time follower of Baba. He has played significant roles within the Sathya Sai organization, serving as the former president and currently holding the position of president of the Sri Sathya Sai Charitable Trust UK. We had the privilege of engaging in a conversation with Dr. Mudigonda, exploring his profound connection with Sathya Sai Baba, delving into the teachings that have shaped his life, and discovering the impactful experiences that have left a lasting impression.
Through heartfelt anecdotes and insightful reflections, Dr. Mudigonda unveils the true essence of seva (selfless service) and highlights the universal language of love that transcends religious and cultural boundaries.
The Awakening Times (TAT): Dear Dr. Veeru, thank you for accepting our invitation and taking the time to share your experiences with Sathya Sai Baba for the Special Edition we are issuing for His birthday.
Veeru Mudigonda (VM): Om Shri Sairam! and thank you very much. It is Baba’s birthday celebration on the 23rd of November and it is a joyous occasion for all of us and I’m very happy to join yourselves and very kind of you to have invited me to share a few experiences, few thoughts of what I have seen and what I have been involved with.
TAT: With other devotees, we delved into personal connections with Baba, miracles, and visits to Puttaparthi. Now, let’s redirect our attention to the broad scope of Baba’s mission and his dedication to assisting the less fortunate. Could you provide some insights into this significant aspect of Baba’s work?
VM: We can try to list and comprehend it from a human perspective and a human mind, in numbers and things like that. But, from the divine will, His mission was, as he said Himself, His mission was to light the lamps of love in people’s hearts. That was the fundamental reason for the Avatar to take place on Earth. He has given many discourses and written many letters, but He gave a poignant discourse in 1968 in Mumbai, where He spells out what His mission is for this avatar.
And that is to connect hearts through love. And once that started happening, once people felt His love and came into His presence, then automatically the rest of the things expanded. So, chronologically, yes, for our minds we say this hospital started in 1956, another hospital started in 1990, and things like that. They are landmarks, of course. But, I think His biggest mission expanded by connecting hearts.
So, even more so, the people who experienced His love, wherever they came from, whether in India or from the small village of Puttaparthi itself. From that epicenter the power of love expanded to give life purposefully and meaningfully to people. This automatically inspired love in people’s hearts, within India and outside India, spanning across continents like Africa and Europe.
Once touched by that love, people carried the lamp of love in their hearts. Baba used to say that if there is a lamp and you light another lamp from it, the light of the original lamp doesn’t diminish; it keeps giving light and warmth. This, I believe, is how Baba’s mission of service to humanity, through hospitals or various means like providing water, food, clothes, and education to the less fortunate, brought about transformation in the heart.
This transformation occurred with the lighting of the lamp of love. Baba’s mission expanded not as an empire, but as an empire of love, based on unconditional love. As many devotees have experienced, meeting Baba is an extraordinary encounter. He addresses you as if He has known you for years and lifetimes, without making any judgment. His first interaction includes a warm greeting, without questions. This initial connection, with His smile and radiance, touches people’s hearts. My experience of interacting with Him or being in His presence aligns with this. I have witnessed it happening to myself, my family, and everyone who came in contact with Sathya Sai. His heart was full of love, and he would say that we too are full of love. This connection made the mission of spreading the message of love expand worldwide.
TAT: Can you provide more details about how you first met Sai Baba, what drew you to Him, and perhaps share a personal anecdote or a family experience with Baba?
VM: Thank you very much. It is indeed a cherished touch of the Lord that has transformed our lives completely. It is purely His grace that led us on the journey of our life.
I was about five or six years old at the time. I’m from India, specifically from Hyderabad, which is about 400 kilometers from Puttaparthi, where Baba’s Prasanthi Nilayam is located. My family consists of my parents, a younger sister, and a third child born in 1972. Unfortunately, a few weeks after his birth, he developed a severe skin condition, with persistent blisters and infections. Despite various efforts, including consultations with different doctors, his condition didn’t improve. The only suggested remedy was steroid medication, which posed risks to his immunity. This was in 1973, a time when medical advancements in India were not as developed as they are today.
For months, my brother suffered, and no cure seemed in sight. My family, having a belief in Lord Shiva and Lord Balaji from Tirupati, sought assistance from astrologers and holy men. One holy man, whose help from my parents sought, mentioned that my son would be cured on April 7th. Although my father, a man of science, was initially skeptical, my mother found solace in the assurance that her son would be cured.
Fast forward to Baba’s visit to Hyderabad in 1973, where my father, intrigued by Baba’s discourses, attended with an interest in spiritual insights. Meanwhile, my mother hoped for some kind of healing from Baba. After a week of attending Baba’s sessions, nothing extraordinary had happened. On the last day, as Baba waved goodbye, my mother could no longer contain herself and started shouting for Baba. Miraculously, Baba walked toward her, picked up my brother, and whispered in Telugu, “tagutade, tagutade, tagutade,” meaning it will come down. Overjoyed, we returned home, and the next morning, my brother’s skin condition had completely healed, without any traces of blisters or scars.
This incident, occurring on the exact date predicted by the holy man, left my father astounded. It shattered his logical expectations of tangible remedies like pendants or Vibhuti. The realization that the cure happened solely through the word of God, without any physical intervention, left an indelible mark on him. It marked the beginning of our family’s journey with Baba, leading us to regularly conduct bhajans in our home, visit Prasanthi Nilayam, and foster a deep-rooted faith in the Divine.
Today, our family’s journey continues with the next generation, and the lamp of love and faith burns brightly. We are profoundly grateful to Baba for guiding us into His grace. Thank you for allowing me to share this significant chapter of our lives. It’s noteworthy that during Mohanji’s sharing of a similar skin problem in Dubai, I shared this experience with him, highlighting the extraordinary healing touch of Baba.
TAT: It’s a deeply personal experience, thank you for sharing it. Beautiful, beautiful story.
What would you say that it’s the most relevant, relevant message for you at this time? What can bring us together?
VM: I feel in my heart, and this is again Baba’s message, not mine. Seva (selfless service). It doesn’t matter which God we pray to. It doesn’t matter which master we follow. It doesn’t matter what kind of lifestyles we lead, which country, either. Geography, color. Nothing. Wherever we are, if we are able to join our hearts with the needy, be it human beings, animals, or the environment… If we connect genuinely, with love, and participate in Seva, it will bring the world together; there is no doubt. And Seva is the only way, you know. And Baba had His message, as you know, “Love All, Serve All!” and it is only through service that we can all come together.
Are you in Slovenia, where are you?
TAT: I’m in Croatia, and Petra is in Serbia.
VM: So, wonderful to know that. You see, wherever we are, when we go and serve a hungry person, it doesn’t matter to that hungry person who has given him food. It’s the same food we will give. In that way, we have connected with each other. In that way, we have connected with the person who is in need. There are people who are in need, and that need may not just be a material need. Sometimes it is a hand of friendship, sometimes it is a lovely smile. Sometimes it is speaking genuinely from our heart, speaking softly, speaking lovingly, which will ease the need. At that time, they may have everything, they may have lots of food, lots of money and everything else, but they may be lacking something.
Mother Teresa, in her book she says that loneliness is the biggest need amongst human beings. Feeling of being unwanted is the greatest form of suffering.
So, for us to connect genuinely with love, with people who are in need and serve them, serve them like our own kith and kin, this was the other thing that Baba used to say.
We used to do medical camps. I’m from a medical profession, so we used to do medical camps in and around Puttaparthi. Why Puttaparthi? We just wanted to be in His presence. The need is there everywhere. But we felt if we go around there and then go to Him and make a presentation, give Him a report, He will talk to us, and He will look at us, and He will smile at us.
This is how we want God for ourselves isn’t it? Who doesn’t want to be near God? So, we did this medical camp, and then we went and gave a report to Baba.
About 20 of us were sitting, and Baba came in that evening, and He asked, what have you done? Then we said, Swami, we went and did Seva, Medical Seva in this place. We treated so many patients. Many people had these problems, and they’re really suffering and all that. Then Baba asked, why did you serve? We have initially started with the numbers. Swami in this village there are 3000 people, 2000 have an ear problem… You give statistics to God. He just looked and asked again, why did you go to serve? We said we went there because they don’t have medical facilities. Like that He asked four or five times. Any answer we gave it did not satisfy Him. He then looked at us and said, you went there because it was your sister who was suffering. You went there because it was your brother who was suffering. You went there to give some clothes to your mother. You went there with that feeling that they are my own brother, my own sister. If you do not have that feeling then Seva does not do anything to your heart. It’s only a statistic.
So, Baba always emphasized that we must serve humanity or serve any being with that connection through love, and with that intensity.
He even asked will you take your mother to that medical camp, or will you take her to a five-star hospital in Bangalore? If you want to take your mother to that medical camp, then you can also bring that other lady in that village who is your mother to that medical camp. He was telling us that the standard of care, irrespective of where we go, must be the same whether we give food. If I give food, it must be of the quality that I would serve my mother, or I would serve my guest, or I would serve God himself.
If I’m making for Baba, some Prasad or some food, with what kind of devotion and that kind of care we have to make food when we do Narayan Seva. When we go and feed the homeless, when we go and feed in the food banks, wherever we do.
The intensity, the feeling should be that heart connection, that I’m serving my own kith and kin. So, I feel that in this world, as you said there are many, it’s, it’s grief-stricken, it is war-torn, it is people are fighting everywhere. But one thing we can do is pray. Definitely all of us in the world, irrespective of where we are, which God we pray to, which master we follow, if we all come together and do a yagna for World Peace, or a bhajan for World Peace, or a prayer for World Peace, it has got a massive impact. Baba used to tell us as youth. He used to say this entire atmosphere is filled with radio waves. That is completely chaotic. It has got so many waves. How do you purify that? Sing the name of God, chant the name of God. And that’s how we will purify and make the atmosphere, make the ambiance around us very positive.
He used to encourage us to go into villages. He used to say to us never wait for an opportunity to serve to come by your way. You go, there are enough places. There are enough opportunities. Where there is a need for you to go, be proactive with service, with this feeling that it is my brother, it is my sister, it is my mother who is going through tough times. If all of us in this world who are embarked on this spiritual journey, be it in our Sathya Sai organization, Sathya Sai devotees or Mohanji organization, ACT foundation or many others, a church or whatever, all of us, if we start doing it more and more, we are already, I think the world, there’s already so much good work going on. But for people like this joining together in Seva, there won’t be a conflict. So, I think for me, the biggest message is of Seva. Prema in our hearts when I’m interacting with people and in action. Baba used to say, “Love in action is Service”.
TAT: Can I just share something? I just remembered that in every Hard Rock Cafe worldwide, there is a sign, “Love All, Serve All.” And I heard that the owner and the founder of Hard Rock Cafe was a devotee of Sathya Sai.
VM: That’s right. This is what I mean. People from all walks of life, it doesn’t matter who we are, but each one of us has an opportunity to serve. To carry the badge of God. His message and message of any Master, any religion, they are all talking about love only. You know Baba’s quotation, He says, “there is only one religion, the religion of love”. If in our hearts we have that desire to connect, then the Divine makes it happen. It is the Divine Will that will make it happen. It is very much possible for all of us. We may have our identities, and that is fine. You know, we have to be loyal to our masters.
In the same discourse that I mentioned earlier in 1968, Baba said, “I have not come to start a new religion. I have not come to take people from religions and start my own religion”. “I do not want any followers”. “I have just come to give you more courage”. “If you are a Christian, be a better Christian”. “If you are a Hindu, be a better Hindu”. “If you are a Buddhist, be a better Buddhist”. And as we go to the core of all our religions, it is nothing but love. Buddha was full of love, Jesus was full of love. Who has taught anything that is not love? So, it is very much possible. Sometimes in our, you know, human mind, when we apply the mind then we see the difference. But when we apply our heart, then we connect and in this world it is very necessary today. What examples are we leaving to our children? If you look at it, if they turn on a TV there is division everywhere. What role models are we creating for unity? So, organizations like the Sathya Sai organization, ACT Foundation, Mohanji’s and many other organizations that are there and they may not be only religious based organizations, there are many other social organizations that are doing wonderful work with refugees, for example, in the UK, and in environmental care in all of these, when we join our hearts, then the impact of it is massive, is massive in this world.
It’s not the numbers, of course, numbers have got strength there is no doubt about that. Numbers are essential to sort of give us are we going in the right direction. It may be in that way it is, but more than that, Baba always used to say more than quantity, quality is important. He used to tell us when we were youngsters, I remember this very much, he used to say that if 10 of you came to me and said, Baba Swami, each one of us has constructed a road, I will be happy. I will be happy, but I will be happier. When you say 10 of us together have constructed one road. All the great, you know, saints, the rishis, the sages, the monks, the masters, the avatars, everybody has traversed on this earth only to connect people. There is not a single avatar, not a single holy being who has ever talked about division. All was about connecting people and today’s world connecting people with God is also important.
If God wants to talk to any of us, I think in His own world probably He or She finds it very difficult, because we are not ready to listen. So, we have to prepare our hearts, our minds. I like to attend the Midnight Mass in one of the cathedrals in the UK. So, last year I had the opportunity to go and attend the midnight Mass in Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. Beautiful, beautiful evening, so lovely. And the Bishop who was there, he was giving a talk in the sermon that evening, and it was so touching. He said a few of them had done a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. And when they went, what they found, the last few miles of Jerusalem was, it’s a walled city and the walls are concrete walls which are, I don’t know, 10 feet, 12 feet high, no one can see. And he was saying it struck him. He said that Jesus had come amongst humanity to connect with each and every person, you know, a fisherman, a poor woman, whatever. He was connecting with people.
But today we put them behind a 14-15 feet wall, and he was saying that it’s not a criticism of Jerusalem or something. He was saying it is time we need to bring Jesus amongst people. It is time for all of our organizations, all of our people in this world who believe and who are working towards this unified world, humanity that is full of joy for the Satya Yuga or for the Golden Age to dawn that is upon us. You know it is all upon us if God, Avatar has come, they have touched our hearts. Now we need to do something about that. And the best thing is to look at these wonderful ways in which we can connect. I I don’t know much detail about it, but I think, you know, there was a program like a Live Aid concert many, many years ago. It’s reverberated through the world, across the world, through music. It connected hearts, you know. So, it is possible. We have to apply our minds. We have to apply our hearts. And those transparent walls that are there between these organizations, somehow we melt through. And the only way in which that can be melted, my experience, I believe firmly is through Seva.
When we work for the betterment of the society around us, people, you know, should be able to come together in that single goal. That is a single goal that we should have for our children. A visual like that, you know that so many good people are coming together and doing good things in the world will give them a lot of courage, a lot of hope and it will give a counter story to the one that is now being projected in our world through media or whatever. And we’re not blaming anybody, but that is what we see whenever we open a newspaper or open our TV channel or talk about. It’s all about some division somewhere and all of that. We need to create this positive and it is very much possible. I I believe in it. I pray for it. I live for it.
TAT: Thank you. You made such a beautiful introduction for our next edition as well, which will be on Jesus. Thank you for that.
VM: It was a divine connection.
TAT: Could you provide us with an overview of the work that you have related to the Sathya Sai Organization, maybe you can mention important projects or initiatives?
VM: I’ve been part of the organization right from my childhood, in India first. I came to the UK in 1997, and I have been part of the Sai organization here. But the Sathya Sai organization, as a precedent, when you assume a role as an office, you have a fixed term, and then after your term finishes, you hand over to the next brother or sister, and then they take it forward, So, I was the President of the organization in that role in the UK from 2016 to 2018 for two years. But before that, I’d held other roles in the organization and now I’m in the Trust, Sathya Sai Trust in the UK. And at the moment, I’m the Chairman of the Sathya Sai Trust UK.
In fact, the Sathya Sai organization Baba started it in 1967, I think in India around that time, and it was called Sathya Sai Seva Organization. The organization was for service; it was not for anything else. It was for individual development. But in that individual development, you do community service and through that, you evolve. That is the way in which you also develop unity because, what are the obstacles to unity? Obstacles to unity are selfishness or ego. We all face that, each one of us faces that. How do we get rid of it? Only by joining together and working together, we learn to work like brothers and sisters, and then we subsume our own individual egos. It’s a process. It takes time for all of us. At least for me, it has taken a long, long time. There is no doubt about that.
So in the organization, my journey has been about expanding my heart, keeping myself behind. It’s not important for me or for somebody else. But self-confidence is faith in God. Self-satisfaction is when God is taking care of me. Then I don’t need to worry about anything else. It is in that process, it is that journey that has been a privilege to work in the Sathya Sai organization. It is a privilege. You know, it’s a role actually. You have certain duties to do, certain duties to perform. So it is that role. But the reason, the main purpose is to transform yourselves, all the time and be of service to the Lord as an instrument, as a small instrument to work for the divine. If you do that, then you know it is a wonderful thing, an opportunity in life, in the Sathya Sai organization.
Initially, while I was in India, it was about Gram Seva-working in the villages, the remote villages. And Baba used to encourage us a lot, to go and work with them and to go and connect with them, to go and teach them the fundamental values of respect, of love, of leading healthy lives. Not smoking, not drinking, respecting women, child health, giving them good values, giving them good ways of living, the importance of education, and education is for life, not for living. These are the messages that Swami used to send through us into those villages. And He always used to say when we do any project, let it be a sustainable project. That was the most important thing. Baba would tell us, there is no point just going there, doing something, and then, you know, closing shop and then coming back. That doesn’t work like that. If you have taken care of a child for one year to study, what about the next year? This was Baba’s continuous message to us, advice to us.
In the UK, in the Western world, the Seva opportunities are different. The challenges are different but the need is the same, more and more. If you look at it, you know that living costs are affecting everybody, even working people. It is affecting, but more importantly it is also connecting hearts that is very important in the Western world. So, in the Sai organization within the UK, during my time as a President and also in the years before that I worked as a Vice President and as a spiritual coordinator, various things, various roles it has been to connect people. Working in partnerships for community cohesion, interfaith programs were a big platform. We would celebrate, we would invite leaders, we would invite followers, communities, everybody bring them together and share their message of love so that we understood each other.
The first and foremost thing in connecting hearts and connecting people is to know them. You know we need to know them, we need to work together with them. We need to have genuine interest in each other, as to what we are doing without any judgment or without any feeling that I am bigger than you or I am higher than you, or my God is bigger than your God. It is this kind of a barrier that needs to be broken down and bridges built. So, a lot of interfaith activities were one thing that we were taking up in the UK, the Sathya Sai Organization.
Seva programs are in 5 main streams, as Baba had set it up, one was called Educare. So, you bring out the values. And education is not just our mainstream school education, which is important, but also education in the values of being a human, human values is a big thing. So, a lot of programs in the educare sector, a lot of programs in healthcare.
So we would take medical camps to different parts of the world wherever there is a disaster there. When a medical need is there, we would go there and conduct a Nepal earthquake. We did a Nepal camp, camps in Russia, camps in Africa, many parts of Africa, Nigeria, South Africa, so many parts from the UK.
I’m now speaking particularly about what happened in the UK Sai Organization. So, taking healthcare activities to different parts of the world. Within the UK, we would conduct health awareness days, you know, things like that. Again, raising awareness about health amongst people, animal welfare, that’s another thing working with the, you know, other organizations that are involved in the rescuing of animals, we would work with them in partnership. So, so Educare, Healthcare, Aquacare was the other you know and so water, supply of water, drinking water, cleaning of rivers within the UK, cleaning of beaches, you know pollution is a big thing that goes on. And I know Mohanji also talks a lot about having a clean environment around us. So we would even undertake tree plantation actually used to happen in various parts of the UK. Now there is a focus because Baba’s 100th birthday celebrations would be happening in two years time.
So towards that all the Sai devotees, the Sai organizations around the world are planting trees. And again I know that Mohanji’s ACT foundation does a lot of fruit tree plantation which gives sustenance also to people apart from providing the necessary greenery and the, you know, and the making an environmental change. So, so you know, looking after water, looking after the environment, so environment care, aqua care and then what we call social care, social care is you know, building homes for people who in, you know, in remote areas where they don’t have it, earthquake-torn areas or storm-torn areas. So these are the, giving food food banks in the UK, homeless shelter activities. So these are the five sort of main streams of the Seva programs under which different working with the refugees, you know, creating them, trying to integrate them with the local communities, working with the local councils and giving them a hand in providing the necessary accommodation, food or language skills. So these are the areas also, I mean certain others like for example working with, you know, domestic violence and domestic abuse and those are the kind of things, elderly care, having small tea parties where the elderly can come and join and spend some time taking them out for a day into a park or spending some time with them talking to them.
So these are the various activities that we had taken up and they still happen. I’m not the president of the Sathya Sai organization anymore. But whoever is now in charge, they follow the same kind of principles. And coming to Baba’s birthday celebration we are very keen to do more and more in the Seva. Nothing- Baba used to say. No gifts. I don’t need a gift. I don’t need to celebrate a birthday, because I don’t have birth and nor do I have death. What is a birthday? And then happy birthday, He would say. I’m always happy, and so what is this happy happy birthday but happiness for us. Baba used to say that happiness is union with God. As long as we are in union with God. This divine principle is not a narrow-minded being. If it was a narrow-minded being we would not be connecting. Divine is broad-minded. It’s a supreme universal consciousness. And when we connect with that, that’s where Swami used to say, that His happiness is union with God.
For His birthday He would say, if you give the flower of the love in your heart, Hridaya Pushpam. If you offer that at My feet I would accept it with a lot of eagerness and with a lot of bliss. I will take that. I will invite you. I will embrace you when you give that Hridaya Pushpam at my feet and that Hridaya Pushpam is love. Love in action is Seva.The idea that you had, you, you mentioned that, and asked is it possible for all of us to come together? It’s a wonderful, wonderful idea. Maybe we should all work towards it. We don’t need to delay it till the 100th birthday, we can do it straight away. But towards a marking, a big event like that, organizations, all of us, we all come together for the love of the world, for the happiness of the world, for the betterment of the world, for enriching people’s lives. Yeah, that will be wonderful. Baba is the mentor. I mean Mohanji has got so much love for Baba, for Shirdi, for Sathya Sai, so much love, so much respect. When he talks about these incarnations, you can see his heart with such joy. We’re all on the same journey sister and we can all come together already, one from Serbia, another from Croatia and I’m from the UK. So whether it happens in other parts of the world, we can make it happen. So, it’s very much possible and we must all work together.
TAT: Thank you so much. Don’t be surprised if we call you in a while to help us out with this idea of uniting organizations and individuals in a joint project of love.
VM: Sairam! As a fellow spiritual journeyman, I believe that when we all come together, it will be in alignment with Baba’s vision of Loka Kalyanam, the welfare of the world. For the welfare of the world, Baba would do anything, without concern for His own self. If we work towards that, then He is with us. Mohanji, along with all the masters and rishis, will be with us. With a genuine feeling in our hearts, great things can happen. I strongly believe in that.
Thank you, dr.Veeru. This was truly an inspiring experience. Thank you for your time and wisdom.
VM: Thank you both. Thank you, Leah, and thank you, Petra. We hope to connect very soon, meet each other, and engage in Seva. Love is our deepest desire, and we dedicate our lives to that. We pray to the Lord to bless us all to be of some service. Thank you very much.
TAT: Hridaya Pushpam, right?VM: That’s right. Baba’s words. If you offer me the Hridaya Pushpam, I will accept that with the greatest eagerness. I will take it, He says.
