Sending Love is the Basis of all Services

Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s most well-known teachings are:

– Serve the needy.

– Quiet the mind.

– Expand the heart.

Our group does a service project that integrates all these injunctions; we pray for missing children. This service came to us in a unique way, through a series of seemingly unconnected circumstances.

First, while I was answering calls for assistance referred to me by a local help organization, I met a couple, both physically disabled, who particularly longed to do something to help return lost or abducted children to their rightful homes. Then while I was watching the television show There Is a Way, I found myself listening to a guest speaker who was not only an author and lecturer but someone who rejoices in her awareness of Sai Baba’s presence on the planet. Because of my experience with the couple, I was quite receptive to her message.

During the show, she described how one day a friend had called her and asked for help in a frightening situation. The friend’s ten-year-old daughter had disappeared, and no one had a clue as to what might have happened. Although she was not a psychic, the speaker had decided to spend time in silence, listening for guidance on how she might be of service. After five days and five nights, she had still received nothing and was about to give up when she decided to continue a little longer. Within a few hours, she heard quite clearly the names of three men, the make of a car, and an instruction to call the child’s parents.

As instructed, she asked the parents to think the most loving thoughts possible about those three men – to put them in the light of God. Both mother and father began immediately to do as asked [although that must have been the most difficult task these two people had ever undertaken]. The parents thought about the men the three names represented, declared them to be children of God, and recognized that in their true spiritual identity they were lovable and loving. After forgiving them for their mistaken behavior, the parents sent many loving thoughts their way.

A Course in Miracles tells us that every attack is a plea for love. Those men were begging for love in the only way they knew how. In sending love, the parents gave them what they had so desperately needed. The results were truly miraculous.

Before the police were able to find the men, the little girl walked into a police station and told the officers there her story.

She said that she had been abducted by force, locked in a dark room, mistreated, and threatened. Suddenly, she said, the men unlocked the room, asked her forgiveness for the way they had treated her, and took her to the car. They drove to a corner just one block from a police station and told her to get out of the car. The police, they said, would return her to her parents. She just had to walk to the station and go inside. This she did, and the outcome not only corrected the immediate situation affecting one family but established a clear procedure useful for every discordant situation.

After hearing this story, our group made a commitment to send loving thoughts regularly toward all the missing, hungry, and abused children in the world. We each participate in this “Bring Home the Children” project according to our own schedule and in our own way. However, many of us find it helpful to start by directing love toward a specific child. Hardly a day passes that we do not see a picture of a missing child, if not in our own mail, then in some public place. After we have surrounded the child with love and God’s light, we expand our hearts to include the child’s parents, friends, and relatives. We also include the abductors, if any are involved, recognizing that they are expressions of divine love, no matter how mistaken their behavior may be. Then we gradually broaden our love until it includes all children and all humanity in one embrace.

Anyone can do this spiritual exercise. It takes only a few moments and requires no financial resources. Since physical strength is not necessary, this service is not exclusive to the young or the healthy.

All we have to do is LOVE. Sathya Sai Baba tells us, Love is the solvent for the hardest of hearts. He also says, See God in everyone, even in people you regard as enemies. Seen through the eyes of love, all beings are beautiful, all deeds are dedicated, all thoughts are beneficial, and the world is one vast family. Love is the best foundation for service. Think love. Send love. Be love. Love is the highest power. Love is God.

— Joy Thomas of Sri Sathya Seva Organisation