Guest guest Posted July 3, 2002 Report Share Posted July 3, 2002 SAI SERVICE Newsletter – 13 Issue July 04, 2002 [shri Shirdi Sai Baba's Messages, Life events, Articles are available in / ] Baba made preparations for termination of His physical body four months before His Mahasamadhi. Read related Divine Revelations in the above web link. This Thursday's Message: (Baba said) I am formless and everywhere. I am in everything. I am in everything and beyond. I fill all space. All that you see taken together is Myself. I do not shake or move. I am here to give you temporal and spiritual welfare. a. Baba's Talk with Devotees N G Chandorkar bowed to Sai and said: Enough of this Samsara for me. As the Sastras describe it, samsara is really nissara i.e., worthless. Break its fetters off from me, Baba. What first seems to be joy here is seen to be sorrow at the end. Fate leads us a nice dance here and there. I cannot discover even a bit of happiness in this Samsara. I am quite disgusted, I do not wish to touch it, Baba, any further. Baba: What crazy and delusive talk is yours! There is some truth in it – mixed up with error. As long as the body remains, samsara remains. None escapes it. How can you? Even I am caught up in it. Samsara is various sorts. It is like the surface of the body. Kama (desire) Krodha (anger) etc., and any mixture of these is samsara. All mental and bodily processes are samsara. The contact of any two things is samsara. By going away to a forest you cannot escape samsara. Your present condition, has been brought about by yourself. What is the use of irritation at it? This Deha Prarabdha is result of the karma done by you in former births. This body was, therefore, born. The jiva takes birth in body to work out former Karma. Without suffering the results of Prarabdha Karma, you cannot get rid of it. All persons, all creatures differ in form etc., Why? Because of previous karma of each. Difference between species, like difference between individuals is due to the same cause. see the difference between the rich man's dog lolling on sofa and the poor man's running about in search of crumbs. That is due to Deha Prarabdha. b. Divine Dews from our God Be more truthful in future. (SSS Ch.V) The Lord will protect you. (SSS Ch.X) If you say "Sai, Sai", I shall take you over the seven seas (SSS Ch.XIII) Leave off all cleverness, and always remember "SaiSai". If you = did that, all your shackles would be removed and you would be free. (SSS Ch.X) Fakiri (mendicacy) is real, Lordship (riches) is transient (SSS Ch.VIII) I want nothing from him; ask him to live in peace and contentment.= (SSS Ch.XXIX) c. Weekly Article: Mrs. Tarabai Sadasiva Tarkhad of Poona, is also one of those devotees of Baba who derived very peculiar and very great advantages, mostly in temporal matters, but partly inspiritual matters also and therefore her experiences with Baba's name was through her brother-in- law Sri. R. Tarkhad of Bombay, who was a Director of a mill there. He had been to Baba, and had a very high impression of Baba's power and nature. When he visited his brother's house, he spoke of Baba in terms of high praise which naturally roused Mrs. Sadasiva Tarkhad's attention for a special reason. her little child Nalini Tarkhad had taken ill suddenly at the age of 15 months, and she was perplexed as to what to do. Hearing of Baba'' fame, she said, `if Baba is the wonderful Saint that my brother in law stated he is, then he should make the child recover, and if he makes the child recover, the whole family with the child will go to Shirdi and pay their respects to Baba in person.' Very shortly after the vow was made, the child did recover, and so, she, her husband and the child went up to Shirdi. The lady had already a fairly good grounding of religious experience by contact with other Saints and her first impressions of baba are all the more valuable on that account. She faound the most prominent feature about Baba was his eyes. She says, `There was such power and penetration in the glance that none could continue to look at his eyes. One felt that Sai Baba was reading him or her through and through. Soon one lowered one's eyes and bowed down. One felt that he was not only in one's heart but in every atom of one's body. A few words, a gesture would reveal to one that Sai Baba knew all about the past and the present and even the future and everything else. There was nothing else to do for one, except to submit trustfully and to surrender oneself to him. And there He was to look after every minute detail and guide one safe through every turn and every vicissitude of life. He was the Antaryami – call him God or Satpurusha In Sahajasthithi or what you like. But the overpowering personality was there, and, in his presence no doubts, no fears, no questionings had any place and one resigned oneself and found that was the only course, the safest and the best course'. >From her first contact, she went on getting experiences of his power, his All-knowing and All-pervasive personality, and all his protecting care shielding her whereever she went at any time whatsoever. She had become Baba's Ankita, by complete surrender with full faith in him. For the benefit of strangers, she was kind enough to give some instances of Baba's Antaryamitva that she could vouch far from personal experiences or from that of some intimate friends. Shirdi was nototrious for being infested with snakes and is so even now after lighting arrangements are made. When she went there first, there was no street lighting and no village committee was working. She was walking about at night in the street. But suddenly it struck her that she should stop. There was no sight, no sound, nor object visible to account for her stopping. But somehow she felt she must and in a very short time, a light was brought. Then she saw that if she had taken another single step it would have been over a serpent that was lying there, quiet. Bur how she managed to stop then, and why the light came, were never explained to her. It was all Baba's grace, his protection and his ever watchful eye over his children. She says that, like this, `He saved her life again and again on several occasion, both before and after his Mahasamadhi. One very interesting instance of Baba's Antaryamitva that she gives was in respect of a leper, who came to Baba to take his darsan. The poor man's disease was very far advanced, and he had very little strength. he was stinking all over. It was with great difficulty that he could slowly get up the three steps of the Losque, and then like every visitor he had to go to the dhuni to pick upthe ashes and then give it to Sai baba, placing his head on baba's feet. This lady being fairly near, found that his prolonged presence and the intense stench he gave out, was very difficult to bear. At last he moved off, and then she felt relief and said within herself, `Thank god, He is off.' Sai baba at once looked at her, sending her a piercing glance. Of course he knew her thought. he ordered the leper to be brought back. The man came. Slowly he clambered up, full of his stench and bowed again.He was carrying a parcel in his hand – a very dirty parcel. Baba took it up and asked `What is this.' and opened it. It had pedas. Baba picked up a piece and gave one piece to the lady and put a bit into his own mouth. Baba said to the lady `eat'. There was no option but to obey and she had to eat it. Then the man was sent back with the rest of the pedas. This is what he wished, that is, that Sia baba should accept a part of the peda, and return the rest as prasad. baba satisfied him, though that man had not the courage first when he arrived there, to present the dirty packet to Baba. Baba used the occation to teach her valuable lessons in humanity, fraternity, sympathy, endurance and trust in Baba's supreme wisdom, which knows when there is danger and when there is none. She did not contact leprosy of course. She declares that whenever they had difficulties to get over, they had simply to stay or stand in baba's presence, without the necessity to utter a single word. Baba knew at once everything in the minds of his children, and would do the needful himself. She gives one instance. They had taken their servant with them, who was suffering from pain in the waist. as there was no hospitals at Shirdi, her husband went up and stood before Baba. At once Baba said, `My whole leg is paining. The pain is Great'. Someone suggested, `Why not do something to relieve the pain.' `Yes' said Baba `if green leaves are heated and applied over it, the pain will go away.' `What leaves, Baba?' the asked. Baba said, ` The green leaves near Lendi.' `Is it korphad?' somebody asked, `Yes' said Baba, and added, if that is brought, split into two, warmed over the fire and applied, it will do. Her husband knew at once that it was Baba's prescription for their servant and he took up korphad, warmed it over the fire, and applied it to his servant's waist. That man cured. Baba's saving her from the snake was not the only instance in which she found that Baba was present, invisibly keeping a watch over her and other children in all places. She had other instances also proving the same. As regards her physical health – her eyes were giving her great trouble. She went and sat before Baba. the eyes were paining and water was flowing freely from them. Baba looked at her. Then the eyes ceased to pain and water ceased to flow. But tears were trickling down from Baba's own eyes. The accurate diagnosis of diseases take doctors much time and efforts, and to discover appropriate remedy takes more time and more efforts. In the case of Baba, the diagnosis, the remedy and everything was instantaneous. A deep-seated organic disease abruptly and suddenly got cured; and the power of drawing disease from her to himself by pure will power, was something marvellous and something uncommon. Few would care even if they have the power to draw disease to themselves. d. DIVINE GRACE Next time Baba saved a bull from a butcher's hand. Once it so happened in Shirdi that a bull dedicated to God Shivaji roamed about in the Village gardens and fields and destroyed the plants, standing crops etc. so people met together and decided to send away the bull to Panjra Pole (an asylum for old beasts) at Yeola and collected some fund for the purpose. They entrusted this work to Bhikhoo Marwadi of Shirdi, in all good faith; but the said Bhikhoo proved treacherous he did go to Yeola as directed, but instead of taking the bull to that asylum he sold it to a butcher for a sum of Rs. 14/-. Returning to Shirdi however he calmly reported that he had taken the bull to Panjra Pole and kept him there. Baba knew how the bull was dealt with, so He appeared in one Bayoji's dream and said, "You have been enjoying sound sleep of rest. Haven't you placed me in a butcher's hand?" Bayoji reported this to the village people, who growing suspicious of the bonafides of the Marwadi deputed Bayoji to Yeola for investigation. Bayoji went to Yeola Panjra Pole book full and complete search of it. Not finding the bull there, he went to the butcher's lane and looked about here and there. Fortuitously a this very time the bull had raised up its head above a butcher's compound wall; Bayoji saw this, he at once recognized the bull; so he approached the butcher and requested him to return the bull, but he would not part with it, as he had purchased it for Rs. 14/- cash. Bayoji thereupon got the bull released by paying to the butcher Rs. 14/- and then took him to the old beasts asylum and kept him there. On his return to Shirdi he acquainted the people with what Bhikhoo had done so to set a lesson to such sinful, faithless people as Bhikhoo, Baba inspired them to prosecute him and Bhikhoo had to rot in Jail for two months for his heinous act. These instances show that Baba had His benign protective eyes not only on the people of Shirdi but also on all creatures, large, and small bull, buffalo, lizard etc. of Shirdi. (By Swami Sai Sharan Anand in Shri Sai The Superman) e. Spiritual Spectrum: (EXTRACTS FROM PURANAS, MESSAGES FROM SATPURUSHAS) Hinduism – A Brief Sketch Swami Vivekananda - The first disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa Paper on Hinduism Read at the World's Parliament of Religions, Chicago 19th September 1893 (continuation from last week) The natural habits of a new-born soul; since they were not obtained in this present life, they must have come down from past lives. We cannot deny that bodies acquire certain tendencies from heredity, but those tendencies only mean the physical configuration, through which a peculiar mind alone can act in a peculiar way. There are other tendencies peculiar to a soul caused by its past actions. And a soul with a certain tendency would by the laws of affinity take birth in a body, which is the fittest instrument for the display of that tendency. This is in accord with science, for science wants to explain everything by habit, and habit is got through repetitions. So repetitions are necessary to explain the natural habits of a new-born soul. And since they were not obtained in this present life, they must have come down from past lives. There is another suggestion. Taking all these for granted, how is it that I do not remember anything of my past life? This can be easily explained. I am now speaking English. It is not my mother tongue, in fact no words of my mother tongue are now present in my consciousness; but let me try to bring them up, and they rush in. That shows that consciousness is only the surface of the mental ocean, and within its depths are stored up all the experiences. Try and struggle, they would come up and you would be conscious even of your past life. This is direct and demonstrative evidence. Verification is the perfect proof of a theory, and here is the challenge thrown to the world by the Rishis. We have discovered the secret by which the very depths of the ocean of memory can be stirred up- try it and you would get a complete reminiscence of your past life. So then the Hindu believes that he is a spirit. Him the sword cannot pierce, him the fire cannot burn, him the water cannot melt (or make wet)- him the air cannot dry. The Hindu believes that every soul is a circle whose circumference is nowhere, but whose centre is located in the body and that death means the change of this centre from body to body. Nor is the soul bound by the conditions of matter. In its very essence it is free, unbounded, holy, pure, and perfect. But somehow or other it finds itself tied down to matter, and thinks of itself as matter. Why should the free, perfect and pure being be thus under the thraldom of matter, is the next question. How can the perfect soul be deluded into the belief that it is imperfect? We have been told that the Hindus shirk the question and say that no such question can be there. Some thinkers want to answer it by positing one or more quasi- perfect beings, and use big scientific names to fill up the gap. But naming is not explaining. The question remains the same. How can the perfect become the quasi-perfect; how can the pure, the absolute, change even a microscopic particle of its nature? But the Hindu is sincere. He does not want to take shelter under sophistry. He is brave enough to face the question in a manly fashion; and his answer is: "I do not know how the perfect being, the soul, came to think of itself as imperfect, as joined to and conditioned by matter." But the fact is a fact for all that. It is a fact in everybody's consciousness that one thinks of oneself as the body. The Hindu does not attempt to explain why one thinks one is the body. The answer that it is the will of God is no explanation. This is nothing more than what the Hindu says: "I do not know." Well then, the human soul is eternal and immortal, perfect and infinite, and death means only a change of centre from one body to another. The present is determined by our past actions and the future by the present. The soul will go on evolving up or reverting back from birth to birth and death to death. But there is another question; Is man a tiny boat in a tempest, raised one moment on a foamy crest of a billow and dashed down into a yawning chasm the next, rolling to and fro at the mercy of good and bad actions- a powerless, helpless wreck in an ever-raging, ever-rushing, uncompromising current of cause which rolls on crushing everything in its way and waits not for the widow's tears or the orphan's cry? The heart sinks at the idea, yet this is the law of Nature. Is there no hope? Is there no escape? –was the cry that went up from the bottom of that heart of despair. It reached the throne of mercy, and words of hope and consolation came down and inspired a Vedic sage, and he stood up before the world and in trumpet voice proclaimed the glad tidings: "Hear, ye children of immortal bliss! Even ye that reside in higher spheres! I have found the Ancient One who is beyond all darkness, all delusion. Knowing Him alone you shall be saved from death over again." "Children of immortal bliss"- what a sweet, what a hopeful name! Allow me to call you, brethren, by that sweet name- heirs of immortal bliss- yea, the Hindu refuses to call you sinners. Ye are the children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings. Ye divinities on earth- sinners! It is a sin to call a man so; it is a standing libel on human nature. Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion, that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter. Thus it is that the Vedas proclaim not a dreadful combination of unforgiving laws, not an endless prison of cause and effect, but that at the head of all these laws, in and through every particle of matter and force, stands One "by whose command the wind blows, the fire burns, the clouds rain, and death stalks upon the earth." And what is His nature? He is everywhere, the pure and formless One, the Almighty and the all- merciful. "Thou art our father, Thou art our mother, Thou art our beloved friend, Thou art the source of all strength; give us strength. Thou art He that beareth the burdens of the universe; help me bear the little burden of this life." Thus sang the Rishis of the Vedas. And how to worship Him? Through love. "He is to be worshipped as the one beloved, dearer than everything in this and the next life." This is the doctrine of love declared in the Vedas, and let us see how it is fully developed and taught by Krishna, who the Hindus believe to have been God incarnate on earth. He taught that a man ought to live in this world like a lotus leaf, which grows in water but is never moistened by water; so a man ought to live in the world- his heart to God and his hands to work. It is good to love God for hope of reward in this or the next world, but it is better to love God for love's sake, and the prayer goes: "Lord, I do not want wealth, nor children, nor learning. If it be Thy will, I shall go from birth to birth, but grant me this, that I may love Thee without the hope of reward- love unselfishly for love's sake." One of the disciple of Krishna, the then emperor of India, was driven from his kingdom by his enemies and had to take shelter with his queen in a forest in the Himalayas, and there one day the queen asked him how it was that he, the most virtuous of men, should suffer so much misery. King Yudhishthira answered: "Behold my queen, the Himalayas, how grand and beautiful they are; I love them. They do not give me anything, but my nature is to love the grand, the beautiful, therefore I love them. Similarly, I love the Lord. He is the source of all beauty, of all sublimity. He is the only object to be loved; my nature is to love Him, and therefore I love. I do not pray for anything; I do not ask for anything. Let Him place me wherever He likes. I must love Him for love's sake. I cannot trade in love." (to be continued) f. Baba's Help: Baba's cures with udhi are really cures by his divine powers. in several cases, he did not use even udhi, but effected cures by word or glance. For instance, in the case of Mahlsapathy's wife, Baba told him one day that his wife, who was in a distance village, had a tumour near her throat, which nobady could cure especially as in a village surgeons capable of treating throat tumour were not to be found, and that he would cure her. The lady was absolutely poor and had no means to pay either for the doctors or for medicine. But Baba said, `I shall cure her', Mahlsapathy was not even aware of this tumour. But much later, he got a letter a letter from his wife had such a tumour and that was cured. Similarly, when H.S. Dixit was with Baba and got a letter that his brother at Nagpur was seriously ill, Dixit regretted his inability to go and help, and told Baba, `I am of no service'. Baba said, `I am of service'. The significance of that could not be made out at the time, But Dixit learnt later that a sadhu appeared at Nagpur when Baba was speaking with him and, using the words `I am of service', cured his brother, and saved him. Baba's ability to cure by pure will-power is nothing strange when people study the way in which our nervous organisms and our brain react upon the diseased condition of the body. in some strange way, Baba is able to effect cure, and the best illustration we can give of Baba's means and methods will be the latest case of this sort that was reported in the September issue of `Sai Sudha', 1953. Mr. Champaklala Chamanlal Mankewala, B.A., L.L.B., a practicing lawyer of Ahmedababd, of 12 years standing, at Relief Road in Ahmedabab, developed gastric ulcer and his body swelled and weight increased to 300 pounds and heart beat and pulse could not be felt by the doctor. he was vomiting blood. This condition remained for several months, and the doctor finally declared the case hopeless. By that time Mankewala had begun to believe in baba and to pray to him. he kept Baba's picture in front of him. After the doctor declared his case hopeless, baba gave him Sakshatkar, came in person and walked into the room where Mankewala and his mother were present. He told them not to have any anxiety, but simply to send the elder son of Mankewala to Shirdi, and added that as soon as they received a telegram from him, improvement in Mankewala's health would begin. The doctors thought that the whole thing was a hallucination, and the relatives thought it was foolhardy to send away the elder son, just at the time when his presence would be needed in case of death for doing the funeral ceremony. But Mankewala and his mother had full faith in Baba, and so sent the elder son to Shirdi, and when the son's telegram was received, Baba's way of operating was noticed. Mankewala's bady was placed upon a stool chair, and he went on purging. For twenty-four hourshe had motions, and he was passing urine also abundantly. As the motions and urine left him, his body dwindled so that at the end of twenty-four hours, the weight of his body, was reduced from 300 to 75 pounds. Meanwhile, the doctors who had pronounced the case hopeless, came up and noticed what was happening. They were surprised that there could be any treatment for such a case, and that without any medicine purging and urination could go on to such an extent. Finally at the close of 24 hours the heart-beat and pulse were found to be normal, and thereafter steadily the patient improved. After two months he was all right, and again fir for practice. He went on pilgrimage, and Baba sent him from Adayar to Mylapore(Chennai) in August 1953, and in the All india Sai Samaj, before His Highness Pujyasri B.V. Narasimha Swamiji and other devotees, he gave a statement of the above facts. So, people would notice what marvellous ways Baba has of operating upon minds and bodies of persons, and to pull out of a patient from the jaws of death. this is only one of many cases which have occurred. Readers of the `Sai Sudha' and of books on baba would have noticed that, long after Baba's Mahasamadhi, his udhi used with full faith, has helped in easing delivery pains and saving people in various serious conditions. Baba's saving people from accidents has occurred not merely before his Mahasamadhi but also after. When Nachne prayed that the child over whom Noel's car has passed should be saved, her life was actually saved. In Madras similarly in front of the General Hospital, a jutka ran over a body, and by Baba's grace, the child escaped injury. Publisher's Note: THE SOLE PURPOSE of this newsletter is to present Sai messages and other spiritual messages to the interested devotees on Thursdays. Feel free to forward this newsletter to your interested associates. In this newsletter, wherever the sources of the articles not mentioned, please consider these items are taken from H H Pujyasri B V Narasimha Swamiji's books. Mailing Address: Vasuki Mahal Shri Shirdi Saibaba Trust, Vasuki Mahal Compound, Gandhi Nagar, Edayar Palayam, Coimbatore 641025, India. e- mail to: essgee. To Subscribe Sai Service Newsletter for receipt by Email please contact us in our above e-mail address. Members of website: / will receive this newsletter regularly. If you are subscribing the newsletter for your friend or a relative, we request that the person concerned may be notified about receiving the newsletter and the willingness to receive the newsletter is confirmed. To Un-Subscribe receipt, reply to the mail and write `un-' in subject column. To make a contribution to any of the sections of Sai Service, please submit Articles to Sai Service through our e-mail address. It should be noted that when a section from any material other than their own is quoted or referred to, it is the authors' responsibility to acknowledge the source appropriately. For any questions or more information regarding this e-mail, please send an e-mail to us and your inquiries will be attended to promptly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.