Retreat Template

With Bhagavan’s grace and blessings we are happy to announce the SSIO Region 3 Retreat 2019. The retreat will be held at the Hyatt Regency, Jacksonville, Florida. The retreat will be held during the Memorial Day weekend, May 24^th – 27^th, 2019.

The theme of the retreat is “Our Life is His Message”.

As always, we’ll have elevating Morning Prayer sessions, exciting YA programs, fun filled activities for SSE children, inspirational talks by guest speakers, uplifting bhajan sessions and useful Workshops by experts. In addition we’ll also have group discussions for center officers, cultural programs, etc.

Over all, it will be a spiritual weekend with activities for the entire family and is a great opportunity for all of us to connect and collectively offer our gratitude to Lord Sai.

On site hotel rooms are recommended for most participants. Each room comes furnished with 2 queen beds, table, chairs, bath supplies, and comes with daily service.

Note:

1. Jacksonville city will be hosting multiple other events on the memorial day weekend. It is recommended to register as soon as possible in order for the registration team to make the room reservations.
2. If you prefer to make your own accommodation arrangements, please indicate that in the registration form. Please make sure to make your own arrangements to commute to and from the venue, to be on time for all the programs.

The cost per night for the rooms are as follows (inclusive of taxes):

Food Cost

1. There’s no cost for Pre SSE (ages 0 – 5) and SSE children (ages 6 – 17) to attend the retreat.
2. Food charges for the entire retreat are: $92 for adults and young adults (ages 18 – 40).
3. All prices are inclusive of taxes.
4. Friday night dinner and Monday breakfast and lunch are prepared by local center devotees at no additional cost.

Room Rent

• Please click the Accommodation tab for details.

Parking Fee

• Please note parking is available on site for a small charge ($15 / night). If you plan to drive and will be parking your vehicle in the hotel parking lots, please make this payment directly to the hotel at the time of checking in.

Note

Please use the cost calculator at the bottom of this page to determine the accommodation cost and food cost for your group and make the payment per details provided here.

How to make the payment?

1. Address check to “Hands Serving All, Inc”.

2. Specify on the Memo: “2019 Retreat – <Your Registration Number>”. Registration Number will be emailed once you complete the registration. Please note that checks received without the Registration Number will increase reconciliation time for the planning team, and hence you are requested to ensure the registration number is specified on the check.

3. Hand over check to your Center President, or Group Lead. Please do so within 7 days of completing your registration.

4. If you do not have a center / group nearby, please mail the check to:
    Hands Serving All, Inc
    2242 NW 78th Ave
    Margate, FL 33063

5. Once you hand over the check, please reply to the registration confirmation email you received, or, drop an email to registration@sairegion3.org with the check details so we can look out for it.

6. Center Presidents, Group Leaders: Please collect the checks from your center members and mail them to the above address every two weeks.

Through a series of fun and lively activities, the workshop, Hide and Seek with God, will help us contemplate on our relationship with God. It will delve on connecting with God and reveal our role in ushering the Golden Age. It is a small group interacting setting for maximum effectiveness.

Faranak Khandadia grew up in a Sai family knowing Swami as God. Trained as a Clinical Psychologist, Faranak has been a professor and Head of Psychology Department for almost two decades in Bombay, before moving to USA. With Swami’s Grace, she has served at His Feet as an ‘active worker’ for many years. For forty years Faranak has been a Bal Vikas guru as well as a BV gurus’ trainer in Bombay and USA. Currently she is the SSIO Online SSE Coordinator. Faranak was blessed by Swami to be a trainer in the First EHV team in Mumbai, when the program was initiated by Swami. She was the Mahila Coordinator and lead psychologist for the Vocational Guidance service wing in Mumbai. She worked in serving the visually handicapped children in Mumbai as their reader, mentor and educator. She has led counseling programs for the under privileged children and adult education in Mumbai slums through the Sathya Sai Organization.

Recently, with Swami’s blessings, Faranak completed the First All India psychological research to test the efficacy of Bal Vikas education in character development. It was offered at Swami’s Feet in Puttaparthi during the 2017 BV graduation ceremony.

Swami reminds us all the time that we are all Gods and have all His powers inherent in us. We just have to open our minds to absorb His energy and redirect it to heal ourselves by surrendering to Him. Once His energy flows in us, it strengthens us spiritually and becomes the foundation of healing both the mind and the body. In this interactive workshop, we will have a brief look at Yoga that complements Swami’s teachings on the subject.

Shri came to Swami’s fold back in 1993 when his employer moved him and his family to Scotland. In an amazing coincidence (Surely it was Swami’s will) that the first Indian family he met in Scotland was the family of president of Sai Organization in Scotland. Soon after, this further led to a meeting with Brother Victor Kanu of Zambia. The whole experience was so overwhelming for him that he decided to visit Prashanti the very next year in 1994. Since then, he and his family have participated in many Sai activities including setting up of a Sai Center in Swindon, England where he held the position of president in the Center for one term. He has been living in Florida since 2000 and is a regular participant in seva and meditation activities. Meditation and Yoga have been his passion for last 30 years. Professionally, he is a six sigma consultant.

“If there is no spiritual transformation in your way of life over the years, you would be guilty of having wasted all your energies, time and opportunities.”- Sathya Sai Baba.

This workshop will cover what kind of spiritual transformation Swami is expecting from us. What do we need to do to successfully achieve this spiritual transformation? The three-fold transformation: (SAI) Spiritual changes, Association changes, Individual changes.

Jose Gomez, M.D. has been a former professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Medical School at the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, his native country. He is a Founding Fellow of the Institute for Coaching at Harvard University, Medical School. Dr. Gomez is a dynamic motivational speaker and he has written or co-authored four best-selling books. He has been featured in Newsweek magazine, Forbes, and TV stations affiliated with CBS, ABC, NBC, and FOX, and also in in over 350 American newspapers including The Boston Globe and The Miami Herald.

Dr. Jose Gomez is a physician and practicing psychiatrist in Jacksonville, Florida and has served the Sathya Sai Baba Organization as a Regional Vice-President, Regional Service Coordinator for the Southeast Region, USA; Region 3; as well as Center President at the Sathya Sai Baba Center in Jacksonville. He has also served as a consultant psychiatrist at the Sri Sathya Sai General Hospital in Puttaparthi, India.

Group songs have a lot more power when sung in unison. During the 2007 pilgrimage, many of us witnessed how the group singing pleased the Lord because it signifies love and unity. This workshop on English unison songs will be particularly powerful in a multicultural setting such as ours. When it’s easier to understand the meaning of devotional songs we offer at the Sai Centers, it will also project well when we sing. Fortunately, there are a variety of English songs available to choose from, including those composed by devotes from the US and UK, translations of Native Indian Chants, and translations of well-known Sai Bhajans in Indian languages. You will walk away with one or two English Songs to incorporate into your devotional meetings from attending this workshop.

Suganya Gobinathan, better known as Arthy, has been aware of Swami and has accepted him as her Lord from childhood, as far as memory could carry her. She grew up through the SSE system in Nigeria, West Africa, where her entire childhood into adulthood was spent. She is a Clinical Nurse Educator for Obstetrics. She has been actively involved in the Sai Organization activities, most notably in the group songs preparation and practices for the 2007 Pilgrimage to Prashanthi. She has been a resident of Coral Springs, FL for the past 28 years. A mother of 3 boys, she is currently the devotional coordinator of West Palm Beach Sai Center.

This workshop will demonstrate ways to making plant based choices for foods we regularly consume. Participants will learn ways to incorporate healthy alternatives into the diet while having fun experimenting and helping the planet. By incorporating Swami’s quotes on diet, we will learn how to make delicious and nutritious beverages, snacks, and desserts quickly and easily. Workshop attendees will have an opportunity to learn new recipes to try at home and enjoy tasty treats with their families. By slowly incorporating small changes at a time, your entire family will benefit from a healthier lifestyle. Workshop attendees will get to try their hands at making delicious foods and sample them as well.

Michele has been a Florida resident for 61 years. She has recently relocated from Orlando to Clearwater to be closer to her family. Michele is a raw food enthusiast and became a certified Raw Food Instructor through the Living Light Culinary Institute in Fort Bragg CA in 2009. She is passionate about her work, and loves to share her knowledge about healthy food preparations. She is currently an online student of herbology. This year, Michele was amongst the first group of students to become a certified Breatharian Healer.

This workshop will cover different facets of Selfless Service such as, “What is Selfless Service? What are the forms of Selfless Service? How do we perform Selfless Service and whom do we Serve?” Most importantly all the material presented are direct quotes of Bhagwan Shri Sathya Sai Baba from His Vahinis which form the Compendium.

Ravi Goyal MD was chairman and Medical Director Neurosciences at BRMC, Michigan and faculty at Michigan State University and Henry Ford Hospital Detroit. Prior to retirement in 2011 and even after, Dr. Goyal has been actively involved in teaching both resident doctors and nurses in USA. As an honorary visiting Consultant at SSSIHMS, he has visited the Institute regularly. During these visits he has prepared residents for their exam and workshops for neuro nurses certification. In addition he has conducted many Surgical Workshops using implants donated by USA companies. Besides, he has recently certified 108 neuro nurses from critical care on Skype. These certificates were blessed by Swami by showering Vibhuti on them.

Dr. Goyal now lives in Ponte Vedra, Florida. His wife is Psychiatrist and also serves as a Honorary consultant @ SSSIHMS and teaches Communication Skills to the nurses. They have two sons who are both physicians practicing in Florida.

The journey within is not about attaining a goal that we don’t know, it’s rather about going back to what we know better than anything else. Meditation has an elusive and intimidating persona at the same time for many people. Swami has already given us everything we need to know on meditation. Let’s collectively understand what Swami simply and lovingly has prescribed for us. In this interactive workshop, we will explore meditation from a practical perspective and also go through a few guided meditation exercises. We will cover the basics & the different types of meditation techniques and most importantly, we will concentrate on the importance of establishing a practice.

Darshana Patel has been a member of the Atlanta Sai Center for over 20 years. Her love for Swami is expressed through participation in the altar decoration as well as leading the meditation session at the center on a weekly basis. With Swami’s grace she has been offering Swami a uniquely themed birthday cake every year with a team of dedicated devotees. In her professional life, Darshana is a Product Management leader for a technology company focused on digital marketing. In all areas of life, Darshana enjoys bringing people together, helping people realize their value and collectively achieving the best for everyone’s benefit.

This workshop by the young adults for the young adults, will be focusing on Personal / Career Development. The workshop will be covering different aspects of career development stages that YAs go through: those who are in college, those just starting their first job, those who are in manager / leadership positions.

Blessed to be born into a Sai family, Girish Jandhyala had the opportunity to study in Swami’s school under His guidance; he is influenced by Sai’s teachings on values and value based education from a very young age. Girish has his bachelors in International Business, masters in Economics, and an MBA from Sri Sathya Sai University, Prashanthi Nilayam. He is currently working for Volvo Group North America as a Global Business Manager, Sales & Marketing, prior to this role, he worked for TVS Motor Company in India. Him and his wife, Divya, were blessed with twins, Rio Sai & Akshaya Sai, in 2012. The Jandhyala family currently live in Greensboro, NC.

Sanjeev Muralidharan graduated in 2014 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a dual degree in Industrial Engineering and Business. Following graduation, he joined Delta Air Lines and has held roles of increasing responsibility including his current role as Specialist of Network Planning – Latin America. Between 2016-2018 Sanjeev completed a part time masters degree in Transportation Engineering at Georgia Tech. He also served as the YA representative for Atlanta Sai Center. Sanjeev is active in the Indian classical music community including as President of Aarohi @ Georgia Tech and Youth Chair for SRGMPDN DC Metro. Sanjeev currently lives in Atlanta, GA.

Satyam Metha graduated in 2015 from the University at Buffalo, with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and Applied Sciences. After graduation, he did research in Bioinformatics. Currently Satyam works at Lockheed Martin as a Software Engineer in the Aerospace Industry in Fort Worth, Texas. He has been the YA representative in the Buffalo Sai Center while also teaching SSE online and in Sai centers to group 3 and 4 students. He has been designing and maintaining web pages, producing movies, and editing bhajans for Sai centers.

A wonderful bouquet of activities are being organized for the SSE children attending the retreat. Here are a few highlights:

 

Morning Prayers: Children will begin the day with Suprabhatham chanting and Nagar Sankirtan in the morning breeze as the sun rises.

 

 

 

Yoga For Healthy Living: Children will then enjoy a nice yoga session outdoors. Kids – Please pack your yoga pants.

 

 

 

God Is One, Live in Love: A play written by the children, and offered with love to Swami, by the children.

Care has been taken to provide a simple, balanced menu from diverse cuisines, with nut-free options available in each session. If you have any particular needs, please specify that on your registration form, or send an email to retreat@sairegion3.org.