Doctor said that many of the diseases of the slum children could be prevented if only they had access to sufficiently nutritious food.
In the early eighties (around 1984) Viswanath, a Seva Dal convenor of one of the Sai Centres arranging medical camps for slum dwellers, was informed by one of the doctors serving in the medical camp, that many of the diseases of the slum children could be prevented if only they had access to sufficiently nutritious food-especially if they could be provided with enough proteins.
Unfortunately proteins were supposed to be available only from meat, eggs, milk, etc. or from costly beverages sold in the market. Thus the slum children should to be doomed to have acute protein deficiency and suffer from the consequences. Viswanath was terribly affected by this prospect and was very sad. He prayed to Baba for guidance and help. Then he got the idea of approaching the Home Science Department of one of the colleges in the city for advice regarding a cheap source of proteins for being supplied free to the slum children.
The professor whom he approached was very sympathetic and assured him that she would do her best to formulate different ingredients for such a cheap source, and asked him to come back after some weeks to choose one of the formulations.
After this development, Viswanath happened to visit Prasanthi Nilayam and was fortunate to have a seat in the front row. Bhagawan came near where he was seated and created vibhuti, part of which he gave to him and the rest of it to the one seated next to him. Viswanath put the vibhuti in his mouth and found it to have a peculiar taste - not at all like vibhuti (ash). He asked the other men who had also tasted the vibhuti whether there was anything peculiar about the taste. The man answered in the negative - it tasted like vibhuti only.
Viswanath could not understand what had been experienced and soon dismissed it from his mind. He returned to Bombay and soon went to the professor. She showed him three samples and asked him to choose any one of them or all of them for his purpose. He took a pinch from each sample and tasted them. And what did he find? One of the samples had a taste which seemed to be familiar to him and suddenly he realised that it tasted exactly like the ‘vibhuti’ given to him by Swami!
Naturally he chose that formulation and named it ‘Sai Protein’. This was one of the exhibits in the Seva Dal conference Exhibition (in 1984?) and began to be widely used by the Sai centres in Tamilnadu (and hopefully in other Indian states). This was initially supplied free to the slum or village children recommended by the doctors who served in the medical camps. However the free supply was discontinued after a few months because the Sai Protein was so tasty that every one in the house began to eat it, leaving only a fraction to the children for whom it was specially meant! So it was decided to recommend to the families to prepare the protein source themselves and use it to the advantage of all the children in the family. Soon many urban devotees began to use the same and some of them even began to sell it!
The ingredients of Sai Protein are:
1. Wheat 400gms.
2. Green gram 300gms.
3. Groundnut 100gms.
4. White Til (sesame) 100gms.
5. Sugar 200gms.
6. Cardamom powder 5gms.
7. Dry ginger powder 5gms.
The wheat, the green gram, groundnut and sesame seeds are lightly fried, separately and then all the ingredients are mixed well. The last two ingredients are not only meant to give a good flavor but also found to be good preservatives.
- Aum Sri Sairam
