Sai Vichaar for Thursday, March 09, 2006

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newsletter to your interested associates in its original form. IN THIS

ISSUE: FEATURE OF THE WEEK CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE DEVOTEES SAY PRAYER CLUB

EXPERIENCE OF DEVOTEES QUOTATION OF THE WEEK QUESTION OF THE WEEK SAI

ACTIVITIES FROM THE EDITORS KEYBOARD FEATURE OF THE WEEK: Will Logic

Help? "There are several ways to go up. One starts from here. The journey is

difficult, path full of tigers and wolves. If you

have a Guide with you, then your journey would be safe". These words are not new

to a Sai devotee. However, what may be lacking is the inability to remember of

Sadguru's assurances. This is enough to make the difference between hope and

despair, happiness and gloom. To be cautious of tigers and wolves needs a very

conscientious effort, for most of those beasts are hidden within. Karma,

Bhakthi, Gnana and Yoga are said to be the different roads leading to the same

destination. Sai Baba has stressed once and several times, the importance of

Devotion and surrender of the Self. For the material man, this may sound like a

forfeiture of the self, a passive giving in to some unknown entity. Does this

surrender demean the human spirit? Does this by any means make a man less

divine? Not at all! The ability to even raise this question is a function of

human enterprise, the ability to analyze, discriminate and identify with a

particular attribute. If we let

the self, give itself away, we are divine! Dispel the darkness and what we have

is light! Traits that have made the man an advanced species on the globe are

the same ones that seem to take him away from the self. The material self of

the day is the result of the sequential build up of our intellectual function,

the faculty immersed with the pursuit of definitions, data, facts, figures,

theses, and functions. Does this approach help one in anyway to seek the

perennial happiness? If so, how far is the goal? From the days of Flat earth to

the hurricanes on the mars, centuries of time are just a few feet of the miles.

Who shall build the computer that takes us to God? Saadhana, and surrender,

faith and patience are not passive states of existence. On the other hand, they

are the active pursuits that are not easily comprehensible and unquantifiable

entities that take one to the Sadguru in all his glory. On this beautiful

Thursday, let us remember His love

towards us, towards our perfections and imperfections. Let us reinforce our

faith in Sainath and the Goodwill of Sai brothers and sisters worldwide.

CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE: Surrendering to Sadguru Ruso mama priyambika, majavaree

pithaahi ruso.. ruso mama priyanganaa priyasuthaathmajaahi ruso.. The ancient

Hindu scriptures proclaim that of all the means to realize God, the path of

devotion or Bhakthi Maarga is the most suitable for modern times. Although this

can be interpreted in several ways depending on one's religious views, the

abstract of the content seem to transcend the boundaries of religion. Gaining

knowledge by reading scriptures might make one a scholar, or learned. However,

it does confer one a sense of "learnedness", a form of ego. On the other hand,

Bhakthi Maarga or the path of devotion commences with the acceptance of the

superior

nature of God and proceeds with the single-minded goal of realizing that God

pervades everything. This is accomplished by constant contemplation, known as

Saadhana or an intense pursuit. This simple path to the spiritual awareness is

quite common to most of the religions, with their own variations. It is

accepted that one need to have the guidance of Guru in their spiritual

pursuits. During this intense pursuit, one becomes very aware of the importance

of self-surrender. Self-surrender to Guru is believed to benefit the seeker in

his pursuit of self-realization, thereby achieving the purpose a life may have.

Self-surrender may not be a passive resignation that arises out of inability to

deal with one's duties and responsibilities. Sadguru Sainath said that pursuit

of God and renunciation that arises out of weakness and selfishness is sinful.

On the other hand, the surrender of the self is an active pursuit wherein the

seeker realizes the importance

of Guru God and recognizes Him as his utmost priority. Sadguru Sainath's evening

Aarthi glorifies this concept with the phrase, "Oh Sainath, please do not leave

me and be with me even if my spouse, parents, children, and siblings forsake

me". (Contributed by Sai devotee) DEVOTEES SAY: IndiraWe were trying to

sell our house and move into a rental home while our new home was being built.

I worried a lot about the timings of everything and how to manage all three, a

house, rental and then the new construction but with Baba blessings I started

reading the Sai Satcharitha on Thursday and just as I was finishing it the

following Wednesday we got a potential offer. On Thursday, we got a firm offer

with a closing date of just a day into our rental contract. It is only with Sai

Baba's blessings that this was possible. SwapnaMy

dear Baba, thank you very much for coming to my home. I was immensely surprised

today on receiving your prasad from Chicago temple, as it happened to be my

wedding anniversary. I just casually checked my mail and surprised to find it

in my mail. I cannot explain my happiness in my words and I feel I have Baba

always behind my husband and me. My feeling at present is that I have lot of

support at the back of me. Baba, please be always with us and never leave my

home and us. LakshmiBaba I thought I would thank You through Sai Vichaar if I

know that I am pregnant. Thank You very much Baba. Baba, I am going to some of

my important tests on Tuesday, Please be with me and help me go through all the

tests well. RamyaI was assigned a task of converting a Sai Leela Magazine hard

copy in to a word document. I had spent weeks doing that and when I was almost

done on Friday night my laptop just crashed. No matter

what, I could not retrieve my data. I was so dejected and went to bed praying to

God. Next morning miraculously my husband tried to retrieve it on his system and

it instantly worked. It may be a small incident but gave me a bountiful of

assurance that Baba listens to prayers made earnestly. Sai, please accept our

koti pranaams and guide us forever. SumaSai thanks for healing my niece's

allergies. She should grow into a healthy kid. Please bless her with good

health. PRAYER CLUB: SasiBaba please help my husband to get his job

confirmation soon. Please reward for his hard work by helping him to get grant

and publish paper in good journals. Sai devoteeI want to pray for the child

Arya, who is only 4 years old. She is not keeping well for the past couple of

weeks. She has continuous cold, cough and

fewer. She has become very weak. She has been hospitalised for complete

check-up. Please Sai Baba let the reports be normal. She should be fine. Baba,

please let things be okay. She is too small to go through all this. Sai

devoteeFinally I have got thru with my job appointment with an organization

which I longed for. I waited one full year with my full devotion to my Sadguru

Sai Baba and He showed the light from the dark. My prayer was heard my tears

washed His holy feet, the tears were my suffering and now my tears of joy have

started to wash His holy feet. My love and devotion towards Baba has increased

many folds, deeper then the ocean, and I cry out for Baba's help in need

always. How kind and forgving He is to his bhakta's. Oh Sadguru! Let my head be

bowed before You always and forever and cast Your holy hand over my head with

blessings as I have learned to walk holding Your finger and now do not leave me

alone as I will always have to

turn back for Your presence like a child looking for his mother. Thanks a lot

Baba, I bow down to worship You. Give me success in my new career. SriramDear

Sai brothers and sisters, please pray for my wife who is suffering from severe

back pain and stiffness. Kindly also pray that she qualifies in her tests. Baba

has always blessed us and we sincerely hope that he will do it this time too.

Sai DevoteeKoti pranaams to You Oh Sai. I want to thank you very much for my

successful trip to India. Thanks to your blessings, I was able to meet all my

family members. Thank you also for protecting my children and not making them

fall ill during our stay. Oh kind Sai please continue to bless us especially

please shower Your blessings on my sister and give her an issue soon. My son's

minor health problem should also disappear. SrinivasOh Baba! please help us.

You know very

well what I am talking about. Please see that my health will be normal without

any problem or complication. Everything should be absolutely normal. My check

ups should go well and doctor's should confirm that I am absolutely normal. See

that our family is blessed with health, wealth and happiness. Please bless us so

that we will be successful in our business and take that as our career and earn

name, fame and wealth. We need your blessings Baba. Please shower your

blessings. EXPERIENCE OF DEVOTEES: MohanambalBaba has blessed our family

with health and happiness, always. Last October when my father was diagnosed

with prostrate cancer, it shook all of us. The reports showed that the cancer

had spread to the bones also. After removal of the cancerous growth, my father

was on medication for checking the spread of the cancer. Then in December my

father showed symptoms of a

heart attack and the angiogram showed three blockages in the arteries. He then

underwent operation to clear the blockages. Last week he went for his quarterly

bone scan, which showed that the lesions on the bones had reduced. We believe

that this was purely due to Baba's blessings and grace on my father. Then

suddenly from this weekend onwards my father has been having light pain in his

chest. I pray to Baba to please completely cure my father and bless my parents

with good health. Baba we pray to you to be with us now and always and shower

your blessing on us. Sai devoteeLately my close friend was passing through

critical illness. She was in real bad state of physical health. Doctor had

asked her to take complete bed rest. I was very upset seeing her condition, I

prayed to Saibaba to shower his blessings on my friend and I took ad oath that

I will eat rice after she recover fully. In the second week, her health started

improving and now after

four weeks, she feels great. My request to all sai devotees is do not loose hope

in desperate situation; sai is always there for us. Since I have started

believing in Saibaba, I see his presence in my dreams and when I have problems,

somehow he sorts them out. RajkumarI was a doing my PhD and was trying for a

full time position and the most I got was an internship, and all along, I was

asking Baba for a full time job. Recently I lost my PhD as I was not able to

qualify and I was devastated and that helped me realize that PhD at the current

situation was not the thing for me, which I could not realize for the last two

years. Even though it was a bad experience in few days with Baba's grace I

realized that it was for the good of me and I had to take a less qualified job

to be in status. I was also trying for other interviews, which were not

successful, I got to accept that at this point I stopped asking Baba for a

specific thing and just

requested him to do the best for me. I was low in my morale, when there was a

week for me to start on the accepted job; with Baba's grace, I was offered an

interview for a full time position in a good firm. The interview was a two day

affair and I have to tell you that it was only Sai Baba that made me overcome

my inferior complex and made me do the last minute hard work to be successful

in the interview. KavithaI have seen lot of miracles done by Saibaba for my

family. To start with when I was severely suffering from thyroid problem and

one day I was crying to baba to save me from that disease. My husband went to

bring me tablets. When he gave the tablets cover, my child Pooja opened the

cover and she showed Saibaba's beautiful picture was inside. That moment I

cried out of joy and felt that sai was with our family. There was lot of

problems and misunderstandings with my husband. Everyone told to have one more

child so that the problems will

be reduced. But I refused and told that already my daughter is 8 years old and

it is impossible to have another one with my health problems. One time when my

father went to Sai's temple he tied a yellow rope in the tree where people do

this to get the thing, which they have desired. My father came and told that

soon you will get one boy child and I laughed at him. After this we went to

Shirdi and took Baba's blessings and my husband got a job in Chandigarh. We

visited Tirupathi before leaving Chennai. After coming here I feel better of my

health problems. And after 5 months, I was conceived and on June 9th 2004, I got

a baby boy. This was the great miracle done by my Saibaba that he was with me

always. After 10 years gap I got a baby boy who has changed my husband to a

very loving nature and we have named him Sai Akshay'. My daughter is 10 years

elder than him and it is a miracle done by Sai after giving me lot of strength

and courage by make me do angapradakshina at Tirupathi

temple to have this baby boy. QUOTATION OF THE WEEK: "The sense of

differentiation, as 'me' and 'you', is the barrier that keeps away the disciple

from the Master. Unless that is destroyed the state of union or at-one-ment is

not possible"-Sai Baba QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Q. Comment on what Baba said

- given below A. by Usha Q. Baba said, "I give my people what they want until

they will begin to ask me what I want to give them ". Comment? A. Sai Baba is

like a friend, philosopher and guide to all his followers but apart from that

he is also "Baba". Being a father, He always wants his followers to have

patience and wait for good things to happen, just like our parents will not

give us things if we will ask for it again and

again. Like wise Sai Baba also doesn't want his followers to ask from Him what

he will give them instead they should wait for the right time and Baba will

give them the right things because Baba knows what they want and how much they

should have, it's all His 'Leela.' Q. Comment on what Baba said - given below

A. by Nandini Q. Baba said, "I give my people what they want until they will

begin to ask me what I want to give them ". Comment? A. "Aum

sarva-mangala-karaya namah (Obeisance to Shri Sainath, the bestower of

auspiciousness)" Generally, we tend to think we know what is good for ourselves

(sometimes for others too). But in reality, we do not. In the Satcharitha, we

read about a mother forcing her child to take bitter pills for good health. The

child does not realize that its mother does it for its own good. Similarly many

times in life, we are faced with situations where things do not work out the

way

'we' wanted them to. We term it defeat, failure, disappointments, setbacks etc

and make our lives miserable. We never know what is in store for us the next

minute. But we continue to beg Sai to give us what 'we' feel is good for us.

The all-knowing, all-pervading Sai answers, though not always in a way we

wanted Him to. So, we feel sad. But if we ponder over this, we will see the

truth - Sai does not want us to tell Him, on the other hand He wants us to

surrender ourselves to Him by paying His dakshina - Shraddha and Saburi. An

unwavering Faith in Him that He gives us the best will see us through, and then

we will see the real blessings behind the experiences that 'we termed'

disappointments and failures. Q. Comment on what Baba said - given below A. by

SL Abhyankar Q. Baba said, "I give my people what they want until they will

begin to ask me what I want to give them ". Comment? A. One instance, which

explains what Baba, said, "I give to people what they want ..." is the instance

of Bhimaji Patil. Baba gave him health, curing him of TB and thereafter, the

way Bhimaji practiced Sai devotion every Thursday, became the norm for Sai

Bhakti, not only at that time, but for all time to come. SAI ACTIVITIES:

Sri Ramanavami celebrations in Chicago, USASri Ramanavami and Urs festival

celebrations are the first major celebration of the year for Shirdi Sai

devotees. The tradition started in 1910 and continues each year. Shirdi Sai

temple, Chicago will be celebrating the event for three days starting from

Thursday April 6th to Saturday April 8th. The program comprises of Aartis, Maha

Abhishek, Homam, Palki procession, Satcharitra parayan, bhajans and much more.

For complete details please visit http://www.saibaba.us/index.html or call

847-931-4058. Sri

Ramanavami-Urs celebrations, MinnesotaShirdi Saibaba Prayer Center invites all

to Sri Ramanavami-Urs celebrations on April 8, 2006 from 3 pm to 9 pm at Geeta

Ashram, Brooklyn Park, MN. The event includes Sai abhishek, Sai aarathis,

parayan, naam jap and bhajans, palki procession and chandan utsav. Please visit

www.hamaresai.org for more details. Sri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple of Dallas/Fort

Worth, TexasSri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple of DFW Metroplex is located at 2109 West

Parker (Parker Plaza), Suite 212, Plano, TX 75023. For temple hours and

activities please call the temple office at 469-467-3388 or visit the website

www.shirdisaidallas.org. Shirdi Sai-Ramnavami celebrations in Bay Area,

CaliforniaWe welcome all of you with family, to join us for Shirdi

Sai-Ramnavami celebrations in Bay Area, California on April 8th (Saturday) in

Sunnyvale between 4:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Venue: Sanatan Dharma

Kendra, 897 E Kifer Rd, Sunnyvale, CA 94086, (Located in Reliance Technical

Service complex). For RSVP and Info contact: saibandhu or

408-564-6704 Sai Satsang, New Jersey, USAShirdi Sai Dham, Inc regularly

conducts Sai bhajans followed by Aarti and Parsad on every 1st Saturday of each

month at Durga Mandir, Kendall Park, New Jersey from 3 pm to 5 pm (Winter

Hours). All are requested to kindly come and receive Baba's blessings. For more

information, please call us at 609-275-1334 or visit www.shirdisaidham.org or

email us at shirdisaidham (AT) hotmail (DOT) com Shirdi Sai Satsang, Toronto, CanadaShirdi

Sai Baba Sansthan of Canada cordially invites all devotees to join for Shirdi

Sai satsang on Sunday March 19th at 10:30 am followed by preeti bhoj. Location:

The Gur Mandir, 207 Queens Plate Drive, Toronto, Ontario, M9W 6Z7, Canada Tel:

416-402-8089 or email: saileela99 Shirdi Sai Mandir, Scarborough,

CanadaThe Shirdi Sai Mandir located at 2721 Markham Road, Scarborough, Ontario,

M1X 1L5 (Intersection of Markham and Nashdene) is open Monday to Friday from

6:30 p.m to 8:30 p.m. and Saturday to Sunday from 10:30 a.m to 8:30 p.m. Dhoop

Aarti is at 7:30 p.m. everyday. Bhajans are on Saturday from 5:00 p.m. onwards.

For other temple activities and information please call 647-444-4724 or send an

email to info (AT) theshirdisaimandir (DOT) com. FROM THE EDITORS KEYBOARD: Sri

Ramanavami is celebrated during the second week of April 2006. Please refer to

Sai Activities to know more about the celebrations. Please write to

maildrop (AT) saibaba (DOT) org if you would like to publish about Sai activities in your

area. Sai Vichaar thanks you for your support for the Question of the Week

feature. This feature is intended to initiate useful

discussion on topics related to Sai philosophy, His message, and Sai devotion.

Please send your suggested topics for the same. The "Question of the week" for

the week is, Q. Baba said, "I give my people what they want until they will

begin to ask me what I want to give them ". Comment? Humbly Yours,The Editor

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