Volume 1 - Sathya Sai Baba Central Council of Malaysia

Perseverance, Patience, PerfectionAn interview with Bro Billy FongFormer President of the Sathya Sai Central Council of MalaysiaHAVING held ofice for the past six years,Bro Billy Fong Goon Poy has renouncedhimself as President of the Sathya Sai CentralCouncil of Malaysia, making way fornew leadership under the reigns of Prof DrSuresh Kumar Govind.Bro Billy, who has been with the organisationsince its infancy, has contributed tothe marvellous undertakings of theorganisation ever since he was a youth of27 years. He started off as the Youth Coordinatorof the Bangsar Centre, and graduallymoved to become the National YouthCoordinator, some 28 years ago. His determinationled him to be Deputy Presidentof the council and President soon after.The Transformation Team caught up withhim for a short interview recentlyHow did you irst come to hear about Sai Babaand what attracted you to Him in the irstplace?Billy: I came to know Bhagavan through a friendwho showed me a pendant of the Goddess ofMercy, Kwan Yin. The pendant had a picture ofSathya Sai Baba on the other side. She then toldme that Kwan Yin had been reincarnated in Indiaas Sai Baba. I am a devotee of Kwan Yin, and so,that attracted me.A colleague of mine then told me that her motherwas a devotee of Sai Baba and that her pictureshad materialisations of vibhuti on them, a giftfrom Sai Baba. One day, an ofice boy gave me abook on Sai Baba, it was Dato’ J. Jagadeesan’sJourney to God Part 1.After reading the book, I got very excited andcalled up the centre, and visited them duringbhajans. When I was there, I thought to myself,

Currently, Australia has seen participation of over200 devotees. In Malaysia, the Ampang, SS3 andBangsar centres have incorporated theprogramme.Unleashing a new breed of warriorsThe Warrior programme came to form after one ofSwami’s, Bro Kumar Venkat (who was appointed asthe National Youth Coordinator for Australia),visited Swami on his 80th birthday. He had writtena list of all the youth activities and also the eventsfor 2006 and was seated for darshan, when Swamicame up to him and enquired:“Is everything ok?”Bro Kumar replied “Yes Swami”“Is everybody happy?” Swami asked.“Yes Swami” was Bro Kumar’s reply.committed than the youth.Instead many of adults were probably quitecontent with worshipping Swami’s form andusing him as a business partner, rather thanfocusing on unconditionally practicing his teachings.A shift in consciousness was required. The enthusiasmof the youth had rubbed off on the adultsand soon the adult version of the Sai WarriorProgram was launched in a centre in Perth inNovember, 2005.Later, in 2008, as the adult program started tospread, it was named the Self TransformationProgramme.Swami then continued “But, there is no commitment.Sai is used as a business partner. I will do thismuch, you give me that much. When you say 'Sai'you should melt, that is the level of devotion andcommitment all youths should have.”Swami had thrown Bro Kumar a challenge and thisired the "values activist" in him into action. BroKumar went back to Melbourne, where he wasliving at the time, and with a sense of urgencycalled his core youth team together and did somesoul searching on what the youth could do to establishtheir commitment for Swami. This resulted inthem developing a programme of spiritual practicecalled the Sai Warrior programme.Bro Kumar thenvisited Perth where they successfully launched SaiWarrior. The programme was subsequently implementedacross all the other states in Australia.Eventually, in just nine months, a large contingentof over 150 youth travelled under Bro Kumar’sleadership for Gurupurnima in 2006 to visitSwami. On the eve of their departure, Swami calledon them and blessed them with a group Interviewin the mandir. That was until then unheard of, andthis helped to impress upon the adults as to howimportant it was to Swami to be committed to practicinghis teachings.Meanwhile some of the adults who attended the SaiWarrior workshops in Western Australia, struck bySwami's words and touched by Bro Kumar's sincerityand commitment, felt that they were no more