4. Organisations are finding it difficult to retain people despite rich pay and incentives. How are you able to motivate people to do voluntary service?

It is a very good question.  

In a nutshell, the immediate answer is: they appeal to your mind, I appeal to your soul. So, there cannot be any better appeal. And, I am able to appeal to your soul because all the souls in the world belong to me. I am the Sole Authority for all your souls. That is why I coined a phrase ‘There are no inmates in Ramarajya. All are soul mates’

Name another person who cares for everyone equally like me; you cannot. This option is available to you too. But you do not opt for it. You are very choosy. You are unable to express yourself even in love. You have all the time. While I am busy, I still find time to extend my care to you. You do have the time but you do not interact or you live in islands in small groups. You do not interact with everyone equally. 

In my case you can see that so many persons give me foreign-made chocolates and I make it a point to distribute them among all. If you get something like that you will hoard and eat it. I give away everything. I am happy seeing you eat. I do not want to eat. I am very happy when I see you eat. 

Another instance. There is this child from Bangalore; she recently lost her mother. I promised her sister and her that I would be their Mother. My heart is so mellowed, full of love – like the Anicham flower (a flower that goes flaccid when you smell it). I am like that. I have a very delicate heart. And you cannot purchase me with anything other than love because I am not for sale. And if you have the love, I will return it thousand fold. I will do thousand leaps for every single step you take towards me.

And like this I interact with every person while you cannot. I have my own methods of moulding persons. Iam unaffected by anything. I do things for certain reasons. I may not tell you the reason. But I know what I am doing. Every step of mine is well considered. I just gave you a case study. 

Like this, I know everyone’s problems. You need not express them to me; I know them. At times I talk; at times I do not. Even ‘not talking’ is a prescription. When I talk, it is the other side of the prescription. You cannot understand how involved I am with all of you, whether you deserve or not. A few of you may not even deserve, but I am like that. 

I always used to say, Bin Laden and Yasser Arafat have people who are prepared to drink cyanide and commit suicide for their sake. But a spiritual leader does not have that following. If you follow Bin Laden or Arafat or LTTE Prabhakaran, you will be given a position. You are prepared to die for these people, but not prepared to hold on to a spiritual leader. The state of Sivam that you attain after death can be attained during your lifetime by following a spiritual path. People proudly claim to be a Sathya Sai or Ram Surat Kumar devotee, but a small pretext makes them cast these leaders away. That is because people can always get some other spiritualist.

Society these days, has cast off spirituality as unwanted. People are prepared to travel sitting next to the toilets in trains if they do not get a berth, because they have decided to travel to a particular place. But they have decided against spirituality. So they are in a constant state of analyzing – is an A/C seat available; if yes, they want only second class A/C and so on. They have decided they will not travel in that particular train of spirituality, so they do not surrender.

And, my experience is most people think that they are doing a favour by coming to a Mahaan(saint), as if they are the very reason for a Mahaan’s living. If the Mahaan seeks alms from them, they have a right to think so.

But Siva Shankar Baba has guts. He does not expect anything from anyone. He goes his merry way in a very casual style of living. He is not obliged to anyone. He does not subscribe to seeking anything from anyone because there is nothing he does for his sake.  So what will he gain out of it? If something has to be done, God takes care of the resources required. Siva Shankar Baba will not compromise on his policies. He has not come to beg. He has come to give. He is totally a management man.

So first, I, Siva Shankar Baba speak to your soul. Second, I have no obligation towards anyone. Since I am not obliged, I am never flexible. I will do what I want. I am a slave to love and not to either power or money. I do not care for anything else.

Thirdly, there are two ways of managing an organization: pull-pull technique and push-push technique. Suppose you want to thread a needle. However much you push the thread into the needle’s eye, it will travel a small distance only. If you pull it from your side, you can take it all the way to America. The push-push technique does not work; the pull-pull technique works. My management is pull-pull. I take the lead. I do not look back to see whether you are following me or not. I continue the work I have come for. What I want to do, I will do and I am doing, because it is God who is behind me. Even literally. So, I do not wait for anything else. If I had waited for people to toe the line, the organization would not have grown to such levels. I continue working even now.

I may not be a Jack-of-all-trades. But if ever there is a vacuum in this organization, I can fill it efficiently. I know a little of everything. I may not be the Master of that particular portfolio but I can manage without anyone. That is why I formed three quotations: ‘Everyone is accountable’; ‘Nobody is indispensable’ (see with what guts I say it); ‘No one is close or far to me’. This is the right state – a state of no wants.

Then why do I speak jovially with some and solemnly with others? That is my technique; a method for moulding people. For everything there is a technique. Every human being is a particular mould and no one is alike. And we need to mould everyone according to his cast. Technique Y may not work with person Z. That is why I handle each person in a different way.

Children of the younger generation may not understand great philosophies. They understand love. You need to be a friend to them. If you are bossy with them, the work will not get done. You should deal with them like a friend. And they will feel like coming here. Gradually they start loving you and your institution. They feel that the one way to express their love for Baba is to do what Baba likes. They may not know God; they may not know spirituality. But they love Baba. So they do everything that will make Baba happy. Baba is service-oriented. So they also start serving society. This is how I motivate people into service. Rome was not built in a day. It takes time.

I took particular interest in spirituality in 1988. Those days I was taking care of my business as well as attending to people’s spiritual needs. For each person who came, I used to buy coffee or tea or coco cola, dosas (a snack) to eat. We had no publications then that would generate money. Everything was spent out of my pocket. I used to get them vadas (a snack) in the evening. This is how I moulded everyone.

To make this a model world family, I had my own long-range vision, strategy. Every Pournami (full moon day), we used to charter tourist buses and visit some pilgrim centres. And I always bought some packets of food for them to eat during the way. I had to do all this to bring people together. They must be able to identify themselves as part of one family. We used to visit Thirukkazhukkunram*, Madurantakam*, Thiruvakkarai*, Mailam*, Seshadri Swamigal Ashram*, and Thiruvannamalai*. I would serve everyone food at Mailam. In Seshadri Swamigal Ashram, I would arrange for chapathis and puris for all of them. I took care of every single thing very meticulously for everyone who came to me. Then all of us would perform pradakshina (circumambulating) of the Thiruvannamalai hills, singing bhajans. (* these are pilgrimage centres)

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