Sai Service Newsletter-05

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SAI SERVICE Newsletter – 05

Issue May 09, 2002

 

Sai Service Newsletter is a Weekly newsletter distributed every

Thursday and is

devoted to the life, philosophy and teachings of Sai Baba of Shirdi.

Feel free to forward this newsletter to your interested associates.

Our contact e-mail address is: essgee

 

This Thursday's Message: (Baba said)

 I am god (Allah)

 I am Mahalaxmi; I speak the truth-sitting as I do at the Mosque.

 I am Vittoba of Pandari- Go, I am at Pandhari ( to Nana G

Chandorkar)

 I am Ganapathi; Mother, all offerings you made to Ganapati have

reached Me.

 I am Dattatreya; Are you puffed up? Where was male progeny in your=

 

destiny? (in answer to the prayer you offered before Datta at

Gangapur) I tore up this body and gave you a son.

 I am Laxmi Narain; Why go for Ganga elsewhere. Hold your palm at m=

y

feet. Here flows Ganga.

 What matters it whether in your meditation you see this (Sai)

figure or the figure of Laxmi Narayana?

 I am Maruti; My father dedicated me to Maruti.

I make gestures before his temple telling him I am his brother.

 

 

a) Baba's Talk with Devotees

b) Weekly Article: Sri Saibaba's Touch

c) Devotees Page

d) Our Prayers to Baba

e) Baba's Help

 

a. Baba's Talk with Devotees:

 

Baba as a dog and sickly Sudra:

 

Kasinath Govind Upasani Maharaj (KGU) who lived at Shirdi in 1911-14,

prepared his food which a black dog was watching. Offering nothing to

the dog, KGU went to the masjid and offered it to Baba.

 

Baba: Why did you bring it here, I was there.

KGU: Baba, there was nothing, except a black dog.

Baba: I was that black dog.

Baba refused to accept food that day. Next day KGU prepared his meal

at his quarters and found no dog there. But a sicky Sudra was

standing leaning on a wall and looking him away from that place and

brought the food to Saibaba.

Saibaba: Yesterday you didn't offer me food. today also you drove me

away. Why bring food here?

KGU: Where were you Baba?

Saibaba: I was leaning n the wall.

KGU: What! could you be in such a person?

Saibaba: Yes I am in all things and beyond.

 

"He pervades the earth and transcends it" – Purusha Sukta.

 

 

b. Weekly Article:

 

SRI SAI BABA'S TOUCH

 

Sri Narayan Ashram of Vaman Mutt Gangapuri, Wai is a cultured sanyasi

who says that "a considerable and momentous advance in his spiritual

condition was due to Sri Sai Baba". While serving in the Customs

Department in 1910, he approached Baba. But within a few years, Baba

noted that he was after higher things than worldly welfare and

"graciously conveyed" to him without any words, the feeling that

differences between souls, nay all differences, were unreal, that the

one Real Thing is that which underlies all. Baba did not speak out

and express this in words. In fact Baba spoke to him very little.

 

Baba's influence, he says was mostly silent. Baba's touch was a

potent factor in molding those who come to Him. "Baba had a way of

touching (with His palm) the head of the devotee who went to Him. His

touch conveyed certain impulses, forces, ideas etc. Sometimes He

pressed His hand heavily on the head, as though He was crushing out

some of the lower impulses of the devotee. Some times He tapped,

sometimes He made a pass with the palm over the head etc. Each had

its own effect - making remarkable difference in the sensations or

feelings of the devotee"

 

The Spiritual Push:

 

"Baba's touch was one means. Apart from that He would invisibly

operate on the nature of the devotee and effect a great change in

him" For this, immediate proximity was not necessary. Sri N. Asram

(then Mr, Toser) would go and sit even there, he was under Baba's

direct influence.

 

Unfortunately, almost the whole lot that went to Baba wanted worldly

benefit and had only poor, if any spiritual ambition. Hardly any was

competent to receive the highest teachings. He evidently found none

to receive all that He could confer, and so none has succeeded to His

position at Shirdi.

 

In the case of Sri Narayan Asram, Baba gave the first great push in

Paramartha about 1914 and left him in charge of the departed, yet

living soul of Vasudevananda Saraswathi (as all great souls are one)

who is responsible for his present condition.

 

"Baba was pre-eminently practical", says Sri N. Ashram. "He just gave

people a push to carry them a few steps beyond the level at the time

of approaching Him". Others will be there at the exact psychological

moment to give the needed help and guidance at each level and stage.

 

(The Wondrous Saint Sri Sai Baba, by Pujyasri B V Narasimha Swamiji,

Founder-President, All India Sai Samaj (Regd), Chennai, India)

 

 

 

c. Our Prayers to Baba:

 

"If My stories are listened to, all diseases will got rid of. So,

hear My stories with respect, and think and meditate on them,

assimilate them. This is the way of happiness and contentment." –

Shri Sai Baba, SSS Ch. III

 

 

Kamakshi,

Dear Sai Ram,

I request you to kindly pray for my daughter who is having a growth

in the brain and may require to undergo surgery. Also to help my

elder daughter to deal with her son who is Autistic. Sai Ram thank

you.

 

S. Vasuki

Dear Saibandhus,

Could someone give method of HEALING PRAYER seeking Sri Sai Baba's

help? It will be helpful to pray for our Prayer Club members who seek

our efforts in healing their problems. Om Sri Sai Ram.

 

Indu

Sairam, please pray to Baba for His help to solve some personal

problems

of mine. Please help me with this. Thank you,

 

 

Rita

Koti Koti Pranam on BABA Lotus Feet

Sai Ram to all the Sai Devotees

I would just like everyone to pray for Special Need Children all over

the world. Please can you also pray for their Parents as well ,To

give them Strength , Patience and lots and lots of Love to give these

lovely children.

I am also a parent of a lovely Special Need Child and I realise that

how difficult it can be without BABA's love and guidance.

Thank you Sai devotees

Sai ram

 

 

 

d. Baba's Help:

 

When people struggling to run the family with their meager income,

how can they dream for own house? For many such people, their

ambition will just remain as a day dream for ever. But for Sai

devotees, R.B. Purandhare's experience of having own house is very

interesting and informative; one can realize Baba's Love towards

their devotees' welfare.

 

Purandhare was a poor clerk and had no worldly financial ambitions.

He was living as a tenant in some house and had to face a lot of

trouble in consequence. Now we will take the first remarkable benefit

Baba conferred on him. When we love a child we love to adorn it's

body with fine clothes and ornaments etc., When Baba, with His

wonderful powers loved Purandhare, He could not endure the idea of

this good fellow being ill-treated by all those whom he had to

contact in occupying a rented house. So, the first thing that struck

Baba was that He should make this poor clerk own a bungalow of his

own. The idea that a clerk on Rs. 35 monthly salary could purchase a

plot of land and build a bungalow on it was so queer that Purandhare

could not think of it. Yet, very early in his contact with Baba, Baba

told him definitely, `Bhav, you had better buy a plot of land and

build a bungalow on it'.

 

Purandhere naturally thought it was beyond practical politics, and he

could not act upon it. Baba was impatient. When Purandhare went to

Him again and again without building the house. Baba got provoked and

even threw stones at him. Baba told others, for instance, Bade Baba,

to go and tell this R.B. Purandhere, whom He called `Ram Bhav', `Ask

that man whether he thinks me to be a man or a beast? Why does he not

act on my words?' When Bade Baba came and asked Purandhare and found

out what Baba's advice was, he also thought that it was not a

question of practical politics for this Rs.35 clerk to buy land and

build a bungalow on it.

 

Similarly, Baba complained to Nana Chandorkar and Kaka Dixit about

this instransigent devotee and told Nana to ask that fellow whether

he thought that Baba was a man or a beast. When Nana Chandorkar went

to Purandhare and asked him what Baba referred to, Purandhare frankly

told him the situation. Then Nana went back at once to Baba's feet

and said, `This matter is beyond his means; if you so desire, we will

build a house for him and give it to him'. Baba's reply was most

remarkable, he said, `I do not want anybody else to pay for it'.

There is a lot of money of this Ram Bhav in My Sirkar and I alone

will enable him to build. Nana could not understand how this Sirkar

was going to work, and there the matter seemed to end. But Baba kept

on digging into Purandhare.

 

At last it occurred to Purandhare that he might get at least a site.

There were plenty of sites available at Bandra. A site in a place far

away from popular quarters would be fairly cheap. Anyhow even that

price was unavailable. At once that friend instead of saying anything

else came and placed the money before him so that he could at once

take the plot. Purandhare asked whether he should execute a document

for the money and what interest he should pay. That friend declined

to have any document or any terms. He simply said, `Go on; build, Let

every other thing wait'. Purandhare then bought the land and secured

the title deed for the land. So he had taken one step in the

direction in which Baba wanted him to move. But it is one thing to

have a site and a totally different thing to have a bungalow built on

it.

 

Those who have built bungalows know to their cost that actual

building far exceeds the original estimate. Purandhare was faced with

further difficulties. He did not build. But when he went up to Baba

without building it, Baba got angry with him and found fault with him

for everything and for nothing. The conduct of Baba seemed to be to

others most unaccountable. For instance, on the Ram Navami

celebration of Baba's day, Purandhare and a friend of his were

commissioned to regulate the huge crowds that were flowing towards

Baba to take darshan. Purandhare did his best to reduce the force on

the confluence towards Baba. But Baba got angry and said, `You

fellow, you did not give Me peace whether I am in Mosque or

elsewhere. You allow these people to rush at Me and give Me no

peace'. This was obviously an unreasonable remark, for Purandhare had

done his very best. The crowds in those days were so huge that

procession of the darshan seekers would extend for many furlongs from

the mosque where Baba sat. It is not possible for one or two fellows

to control such a huge crowd; Still Baba got angry and severely

threatened him with punishment of all sorts.

 

Baba said that He would even bury him in the Mosque at His own feet

with His own hands. The way in which Purandhare put up with this

apparently unreasonable treatment is evidence of the strong love that

was growing in His heart. Love endureth all things.

 

Love does not blame. Love does not find fault. So he quietly endured

without offering a word of explanation for all this treatment. Then

Baba treated him in a different way. Having exhausted the threats and

abuses, Baba inflicted on him, by His own mysterious means, a severe

neuralgic headache, which Purandhare went on enduring, nights and

days.

 

Once Bade Baba came and asked Baba to give Purandhare some

palliative, Baba simply said, `That fellow would not listen to me'.

Then Bade Baba said, `He is working heart and soul in your service.

So kindly give him some treatment'. No treatment given to Purandhare

would give him relief. It was not Baba's idea to give him relief till

he finished his building. So all the time he stayed at Shirdi, he

suffered intense pain. He was asked to go back his home and carry on

his work. Purandhare went home fully convinced that this headache

inflicted by Baba would only cease, as Baba said, after he built the

house.

 

How is he to get the money? It occurred to him that the office lent

to the establishment some sums for building purposes for building a

tenement. So he applied and got from his office a sum of Rs. 500 and

got ready some materials like bricks, etc., for building the

bungalow. He was too unwell to look to the building. So his brother

went up and looked after the building work. Quick building is jerry

building and is bound to have serous defects. The wada or bungalow

that was put up in the course of a month by Purandhare's brother was

built so hastily that in a short time, in a year or so, there were

cracks on the walls. It must be remembered that the building was

built on agricultural land without any settu or hard foundation.

Evidently the hasty foundations laid for this wada were insufficient

to keep the walls together and in perpendicular position. So cracks

developed. Anyhow it was built rapidly in a month, and Purandhare

with his orthodox ideas wanted to do Vastupuja himself on the

building before occupying it. So he went up and did Vastupuja and

strangely enough, only after he went and occupies this bungalow, his

neuralgic headache ceased.

 

Here is a strange instance of Baba's Love forcing a man to get a

bungalow when he could hardly afford it. There were other defects

besides this jerry building. The site was a lonely site in the midst

of a waste. There were no neighboring houses to give one safety of

company. Purandhare was simply afraid of that, with young wife and

child at home, things were not safe, especially when he went away to

his office. Baba told him however, `Don't you be afraid. I am there

guarding your wife all the time'. This was found to be true, because,

though Baba's form was not always seen, no danger befell this family

living a solitary life in the midst of a waste.

 

(Courtesy: Life of Sai Baba, His Highness Poojyasri B V Narasimha

Swamiji, All India Sai Samaj (Regd), Chennai-4)

 

 

 

Publisher's Note:

 

Mailing Address: Vasuki Mahal Shri Shirdi Saibaba Trust, Vasuki Mahal

Compound, Gandhi Nagar, Edayar Palayam, Coimbatore 641025, India. e-

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