Reviewed Websites
Visit Sai Baba Website
The 8th World Conference of the Sathya Sai Organisation will be conducted during celebrations of the 80th Birthday of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Prashanti Nilayam, 18 - 24 November 2005. Many events will occur during this period. This website, although incomplete when reviewed, is an informative site about the programme, the events and organisation of the World Conference. Much effort to obtain and present information has gone into this site, which is occasionally marred by out of date information and misspellings. When complete, we suspect this site aims to give all the necessary information to those who wish to visit for the 80th Birthday and World Conference Celebrations.
This website is found here Visit Sai Baba Website
University of Waterloo Sai Baba Group
The introduction to this website commences: "The UW Sai Baba Group was founded in September 1999 at the University of Waterloo (UW) in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada."
"The UW Sai Baba Group is a collection of students who have come together to pursue and practice the teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. We are a multi-faith, spiritual group that strives to encourage spirituality, morality and selfless service in individuals. We welcome people from all faiths and cultures to participate in our activities".
The main page has a brief overview of the activities of this group; Bhajans, selfless service and study circle. The next page is a crisp, short introduction to Sathya Sai Baba and his mission. The next page is a brief synopsis of the triple incarnation of the Sai Avatar, with small photographs of each incarnation. There is also a link to the Shirdi Sai Sanasthan, the Organisation of Shirdi Sai Devotees.
The Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation page has a pithy summary of the nature of the Organisation and a link to the main Website for the devotees. Education, Medical Care and the Water Supply project are introduced, with photographs.
There is a page on Sai Prayers; all these prayers are Sanskrit, and have English translations. Included are the Sarva Dharma Prayer, the Gayathri Mantra, Mangalam and the Sai Gayathri. Superimpostion of Sathya Sai Baba onto an image of the Gayathri Idol at Puttaparthi is somewhat of a clanger, as the Sai Gayathri is a prayer in Gayathri Meter (21 syllables) and does not address Mother Gayathri. Other that this observation, all these pages are neat and apt.
There is a page named 'Sai Quotes'. I somewhat trembled when I clicked this link as quotes pages can be interminably large pages with a useless morass of citations from Bhagavan Baba. Quite pleasingly, this is a small, simple page with three main quotes broken up with space and some small strophes at the end. Crisp, disciplined, and to the point.
There is also a Sai Answers page, which has about a dozen topic areas ranging from Bhajans to Drugs, Marriage to Vegetarianism. The answers therein range from a sentence to a short paragraph.
Summary:
A lot of thought and discipline has gone into the preparation of this website. It seems the work of a group of clear-headed university students who have done the task of introducting Sai Baba, the Sai Parampara, and the various aspects of the Sai Mission with excellent self-control, and thus presenting a clear, simple message of introduction and welcome. A simple, well laid out website that does not suffer from devotional excess nor data overload. All pages have small photos of Sai Baba, and are well laid out - lots of space. Care has been taken with selections of Swami's teachings in the Sai Answers section. Neat, crisp, inviting website. TOP
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning
Approved by Swami on 21 August 2005, the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, with Campuses at Prashanti Nilayam, Brindavan and Anantapur now has a website.
An attractive, simple and uncluttered site. There are seven drop-down menu items which cover "About Us" which includes the mission, history and assessments of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning; an overview of the three campuses; the courses offered at each campus; the admission procedures, which includes the application, eligibility, the entrance test and entrance test syllabus. Annual events, daily life in the Hostel and a Guest Book, comprise the remainder of the site. A small, crisp concise website, well laid out.
Astrologers Web Page
This is the web page of a Jyotish Astrologer. In large part, it appears to be laid out in order and mostly quotes from Sathya Sai Speaks. There are two brief paragraphs introducing Sathyanaryan Raju, and aspects of the ashram, Swami's teachings and the need for doing selfless service are addressed. The Institute of Education and giving of free education are noted, as also the pillar of all faiths in the Ashram. Human values and the imperative to do selfless service to aid an ailing humanity are also mentioned.
While only a simple page with many quotes cobbled together, this is a humble page offered with love to this astrologer's Guru,Bhagavan Baba. It covers all the necessary basics for an introduction to Sai Baba, with simplicity and humility.
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Sai Baba of India
Be sure to click the ENTER link to the left under the image of Swami, and look for it or you may well be clicking all around the screen when you try to go into this website.
This website is graphics intensive, and there are recommendations to view all the items on the site, Macromedia Flash Player should be downloaded and available as a plugin for your browser. Once past the entry page, there are flash images of Swami, news pictures and the like all changing. If you wish to 'catch the action' then this flash player is essential. Many images in the news section are done in flash. Flash is a form of animation of images where the images change. For example, in the news section, there are images of Swami coming in the car, taken from a Puttaparthi Weblog. The images change second by second, showing the car coming closer and closer until Swami is visible.
This is an planned, laid out website which attempts to present all the news and all the information on Sathya Sai Baba, Shirdi Sai Baba, ashrams, India, language, hotels, and for those who sit in front of computers all day, there are literally hundreds of desktop wallpapers, the background you see on your main computer screen when you turn it on. The desktop wallpapers range from Sathya Sai Wallpapers (with an humunguous variety of backgrounds, including country flags, Shirdi Sai Wallpapers, Sai Baba Quotes wallpapers and Sai and the Zodiac wallpapers. Quite usefully, there are also instructions on how to load the wallpapers, and how to hide those pesky icons, if even only for a moment!
The designers of this website have good computer image and graphics skills; every page has different images, and many of the images are RECENT images of Swami, in Puttaparthi Mandir. This is bespoken of an intense sadhana to provide a most comprehensive online resource on the Sai Avatars. Much of the information is corralled from other sources; however, it is all in one place here for devotees to pursue whatever their abiding need: pictures, discourses, news (there is also a Yahoo Egroup associated with this site) and the news pages are all illustrated with small flash (moving) images of Swami.
Perhaps a visitor needs assistance, for once that clean, white entry page is navigated past a somewhat overwhelming page with so many links is presented. Being a bit of a left brained website viewer (broadminded, although) I found that the latest news page had a neat left column of links down the side which is much more pleasing and navigable to the human eye.
This site is also available in Danish,and has a comprehensive section with text and audio of Anil Kumar's Sunday talks in English, Spanish, Italian, French and a number of other languages. A comprehensive website at which one could spend many hours. Good seva. TOP
Sai Wisdom - Prof Anil Kumar
Professor Anil Kumar is known to Devotees of Sathya Sai Baba as the Translator who supplies the translation from Telugu to English when Swami gives divine discourse. Anil Kumar is a sought after speaker on Sathya Sai Baba, and when Swami permits, he gives Sunday Talks in the hall above the North Indian Canteen, nearby the Western Canteen.
A plain introduction page, which outlines the four main sections of this website:
- Sunday Talks
- Questions and Answers
- Sai Pearls of Wisdom
- E Book versions of the two books published by Anil Kumar, Satyopanishad
A small, neatly designed website with attractive design which achieves its modest goal. Perhaps there could be a skip-flash link on the main page. Browsing through the Questions and Answers show a wide range of topics that Anil Kumar Kamaraju has responded to. This website reflects a good seva. TOP
Sai Baba Quebec
This website is in both French and English.When this website was first loaded in our Opera web browser, we met with a notice which told that this site can be viewed in Internet Explorer or Netscape only.
We find this a little odd; web pages should be standards compliant, and load in all browsers. We have four browsers, and part of the process of reviewing websites is that cross-browser compatibility is tested. Last year, Microsoft dot com blocked the Opera browser on the Windows Update site. A small-minded and childish move which was rectified two days later. Now, a French-English Sai Baba webstite which only loads in Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape. While some do use Netscape, it is usually Netscape version 4, which older users of the Internet refuse to abandon. They are a minority.
All pages are under construction. This website, unfortunately, has significant security issues. Go to the links page and watch what happens when you click a link. A javascript executes and is blocked by your pop-up blocker.
When a link is followed, the result is most disconcerting. Here is what happened when we followed the link to the International Sai Org website:
It is apparent that this site is loading all the links without the address bar. We followed another link after closing the first link with its odd window... This link below was simply entitled "Sadhana"
When a user loads this page, what site are they in? What is the address? Is this an official Sai Organisation site or a private devotee site on Sadhana? A user cannot tell.
While this sort of website development might be the modern bop or the latest in the bag of tips and tricks for website developers who have won awards (yes, we fiddled around and looked up this and that, and found that the developers were website award design winners), it is a grave disservice to utilise these kinds of developers. Devotion and enthusiasm aside, this sort of web design reminds us of Swmami's comments about skilling knowledge and killing knowlege; the work is restrictive, misleading and does not enhance the online experience of a devotee. Not recommended, and a thumbs down. No devotional content here. TOP
Dr Reet Priman
PinpointersDr Reet Priman hails from Estonia and spent her girlhood in a concentration camp with her Mother, in Siberia. Due Divine Grace, she moved on from this environment to obtain a good education. Dr Priman writes frequently, in Sai Baba News Yahoo Group, and in some other online groups. Here, on this page, Dr Priman asks:
Many parts of Swami's Teaching has dedicated to the role and personality of teachers, educators. Who has a moral right to teach others, youths, adults? How is possible to obtain necessary qualities for teaching and how to put them into practice?
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