My experience with Baba in America

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram,

 

I pray that you and venkatesh ji do get to visit Shirdi and that you come back

and share your experiences with us .

 

Today I would like to share the experience of the Pooja at my house.

 

After I went to Vizag after my first visit to Shirdi, I wished to have Sai

Bhajan at my home, but my father disagreed for his reasons I am not surely

aware of. So the second time I went to Shirdi, I prayed to Baba to allow me to

have a Bhajan at my home in Florida. On the 2nd of Jan, I had a wonderful

experience at Shirdi. I bought a lot of pictures of Baba to be able to

distribute it among people here hoping I could have a bhajan. That night, I

decided to get some Udi too, I wanted around 40 Udi packets. But at the window,

the person at the counter said that I could not have more than a maximim of two

packets. If I wanted more I had to get permission from some official at the

Mandir. I went up to the Mandir, and asked the sentry on guard to allow me into

the mandir's office, to which he refused and asked me why, when I said that I

needed permission for extra udi, he sent me to another offive and asked me to

get permission from an official whose name I cant recall. when I went there,

the officer had already left. So I went back to the sentry and pleaded with him

to let me in. He refused, I told him that I was returning to the states the next

day and needed to get some extra Udi to distribute, but he still refused. I then

made a silent prayer to Baba. I said to Baba that if he wills that I have a puja

at my home, he certainly will allow me to get some Udi. At that very moment the

sentry said that he would allow me to talk with someone inside the mandir

through a locked grill gate and if then the official gives me permission, then

he would allow me into the mandir. I agreed, and then spoke with someone, to

whom I explained that I wished to have Bhajan in Florida, and would like to

have Udi sufficint to distribute for 40 people. the person went in to ask

someone, and he came out followed by the temple priest. the priest said to me

that he would give me udi for 100 people and not just for 40 people. saying

this he sent a young man to get me some Udi. The person came and gave me the

Udi. I gave my thanks to Baba, the priest, the youngman and the sentry.

 

I decided to have the puja on the 18th of Jan, as it would be a weekend, and as

it would give me time to prepare for that. In the mean time I was looking for

someone who could help me with Bhajan. I started looking online, and found a

Sai temple at Inverness, Florida. I sent them an email, and sent some other

temple websites emails too. Surprisingly all the emails bounced back with some

reason or the other, most of them being that the email address was outdated. I

then called the temple at Inverness, and spoke with the priest, he gave me

anumber to call. I called that number and got the answering machine. I cried,

and said a prayer to Baba to help me. I slept and woke up. By the time I woke

up, Mr.Sridhar Rangaswamy, whom I called and left a message for, had returned

my call and left a message for me with my roomate who answered the call. She

gave me the message. I called him up and spoke with him for a while. He works

away from home, and generally does not check his home voice mail, and for some

reason it seems he called his home and checked his voicemail and had returned

my call. It was all Baba's Leela. Sridhar Uncle then helped me a lot in

organising the puja. He sent out emails to people he knew gave me phone numbers

of many people and helped me every which way possible. I then got in touch with

a Ms Sarala who lives in Gainesville. It happenned to be Baba's Leela again

that she was coming down to Ft.Lauderdale on the weekend of Jan 18th to see her

daughter as it was to be her birthday on the 19th. She and her husband offered

to do some Bhajan. In the mean while I also got in touch with Mr Durga Srinivas

Alahari from Orlando and he offered to drive down and do the Naama japa.

 

I was running low on money and was quite worried about the food and other

arrangements. The night before the Pooja, a Sai devotee from nearby called as

she saw a flyer that I put up at the Indian grocery store. She offered to bring

some flowers. She came with her husband and her son, with lots of flowers and

lots of fruit. I wanted to buy coconut laddoos but decided agaisnt them as I

was not sure if I could afford them. Mr Durga Srinivas Alahari's wife, Deepa

called on the day of the pooja to say that she was bringing some Pulihara and

some coconut ladoos. But she also brought some potato kurma and fried rice,

Jaishree aunty made Halwa, and Mrs Sarala brought some curd rice and

Chakkarpongali, a sweet dish. My friends had some samosas ordered.

 

The puja swent of well, people called from various parts of the country to wish

me well, people whom I did not know, people who came to know of the Pooja from

the Sai Vichaar, word of mouth and by Sridhar Uncle. It started in the morning

from the Kakad Aarthi and went on till the Shej Aarthi. The vishnu

Sahasranaamam was read, the Satcharitha was read, The namavali was read, my

friends who did not know about Baba were intrigued by his simplicity and open

mindedness and miracles. The naama japa was excellent. Lead by Durga Srinivas

Alahariji and his wife Deepa, devotees toke part in the japa with great

fervour. I myself was surprised by the devotion and how all things came

together that day. everyone present had a wonderful time, and went home with

Baba's udi, prasad and picture. I was happy that Baba allowed me to have the

Puja and allowed that to be a wonderful experience by bringing many of his

children together and to spend it in reciting his name, and reading his

glories.

 

I still have some Udi left, if anyone wish to have some please do write to me.

 

Sai Ram, Smita

http://www.geocities.com/smitaprasad

-

Nits

smita_prasad (AT) hotmail (DOT) com

Thursday, February 27, 2003 10:29 AM

Re: My experience of Shirdi

Smita, Sairam., When reading your miracle i could literally c u in shirdi and

feell shirdi here. I m also longing to go to shirdi , will go when he permits

me.. Sairam Nita

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