As part of the SSE (Sai Spiritual Education) programme a day is held every year for SSE teachers from all the regions in the UK to get together, network with each other and share ideas and information etc.

The programme this year was started with a lovely message sent from Kishan Khubchandani (Zonal Chair).  The message was beautifully written as an analogy of saplings, which clearly highlighted the important role of the teachers, parents and the centre to ensure our SSE children develop a strong character and the importance of nurturing them from SSE right through to youth and beyond.

This was followed by a beautiful presentation called “Setting the Scene” which was put together by the youth wing.

After some updates on the SSE syllabus, exams, etc, Dr Judo treated us to a truly inspiring talk.  The talk “Sathya Sai Educare – A Better Understanding”, helped to highlight areas that we should focus on developing in SSE.  Dr Judo explained the difference between Education and Educare: -

• Education – is the external map of the universe and involves our day to day thinking.
• Educare – is the internal map of the universe and involves deep thought i.e. discrimination.

He explained how SSE was complementary to mainstream education where the intelligence and knowledge aspect are catered for well, but that SSE will help to develop the child’s character as a whole such as moral, interpersonal and emotional aspects i.e. deep thought and discrimination.

Dr Judo in his uniquely inspiring and amusing way stressed the importance of thoughts and positive thinking which brought out the following key messages: -

• “As we think so we are” – the importance of positive thinking and faith that what happens to us is good for us.
• Thoughts have energy – the importance of always having good thoughts full of Divine love.
• Thoughts are like a boomerang – i.e. the law of Karma, as thoughts have energy they will in some form at some stage come back to us.

We were informed how so many people in this day and age suffer from depression or have low-self esteem, with one in four people suffering from some form of mental disorder because of modern lifestyles.  Dr Judo covered the importance of the food we eat and what we take in through all our senses and the impact this can have on our thoughts and also explained the importance of developing a child’s ability to concentrate and to think clearly in any situation.

After lunch we were treated to yet another inspiring talk by Air Chief Marshal Suri, who in his very amusing and charming way explained the relevance of ‘Values in the Contemporary World’ and in particular the importance of Love.

We all then took part in a group activity, which involved sharing ideas for activities in SSE classes followed by a quiz lead by Ishverbhai Patel (Central Coordinator), which definitely ‘quizzed’ us all!

The programme concluded with a lovely play on ‘Elements in Action’ by Region 3 SSE Teachers and Arti.

Baba explains that there are three types of teachers, those who inspire, those who explain, and those who complain and we all came away inspired to be inspiring!

Photographs from the day included below - 6 in total.