Fwd: Sai Vichaar for Thursday , September 27, 2007

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Sai Vichaarwww.saibaba.org Thursday , September 27, 2007 :: Volume 10, Issue 20 (In its nineth year of publication.) Sai Vichaar is a Weekly newsletter distributed every Thursday and is devoted to the life, philosophy and teachings of Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi. Feel free to forward this newsletter to your interested associates in its original form.IN THIS ISSUE:FEATURE OF THE WEEKCONTRIBUTED ARTICLEDEVOTEES SAYPRAYER CLUBEXPERIENCE OF DEVOTEESQUOTATION OF THE WEEKQUESTION OF THE WEEKSAI ACTIVITIESFROM THE EDITORS KEYBOARDFEATURE OF THE WEEK: Deification of Sri SaibabaIs Sri Saibaba a Sadguru or God? There have been many Sadgurus, the Perfect Masters, in the past and there will be more. Then, why is that there are no temples or worship of Sadgurus similar to that of Sri Saibaba? Does this mean that Sri Saibaba is "more" than a Sadguru? Debates aside, those who are devout to Sri Saibaba would say that He is the unknowable source of supreme power that guides and takes care of those that took refuge in Him.

The deification of Saibaba, the ascent of an ordinary looking Saint to that of a deity worshipped by millions, is the rarest of phenomenon. An apparently ordinary human being that has ascended to the state of Godhood and revered as the concrete form of the God, and all this happening in less than 100 years is unheard of before. A careful observation of spiritual history would reveal that it took several centuries for the existing popular faiths to develop into a form of structured religions. The movement of Saibaba of Shirdi, or "Saism" for the lack of other words has propelled itself into a huge force with its roots well spread all around the world. The growing numbers of places of worship of Saibaba of Shirdi all over the world stand testimony to this phenomenon.Giving extreme reverence to the Omniscient God as the sole doer, living a life intoxicated with love of God and with His expression of love towards all, Sri Saibaba might appear to be a Sufi saint. However, some of his other actions were not consistent with those of Sufis, to cite an example, his apparent living with everyday dealings with the people of Shirdi and not as a recluse. His ways are indeed inscrutable! Sri Saibaba has not leant towards a particular religion, or it would probably be right to say that he was a proponent of all religions. He stood in all of them as well as beyond. He gently and subtly untangled those superstitiously religious while His guidance was more vocal to those mired in orthodoxy. He broke all existing baseless fallacies of those days in the name of customs and he declared that His traditions or different. He said He was not the Guru that blew incantations into the ears of the disciples, yet with those who longed for nothing except Saibaba He stood in His words to their left, right, front and back. Fortunate are those who see the deity in Sri Saibaba, and abide in Him, the manifestation of whatever that exists the supreme power that makes impossible possible, unnatural natural and revere Him as the Original source worthy of longing to know, feel, experience, and rest.CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE: Panchadasi- 10th Chapter Nataka Deepa (continued from last week)10. The witness, like the lamp in a dancing hall, reveals all these as 'I see', 'I hear', 'I smell', 'I taste', 'I touch' as pieces of knowledge.

11. The light in the dancing hall uniformly reveals the patron, the audience and the dancer. Even when they are absent, the light continues to shine.

12. The witness-consciousness lights up the ego, the intellect and the sense-objects. Even when ego etc., are absent, it remains self-luminous as ever.

13. The unchangeable witness is ever present as self-luminous consciousness; the intellect functions under its light and dances in a variety of ways.

14. In this illustration the patron is the ego, the various sense-objects are the audience, the intellect is the dancer, the musicians playing on their instruments are the sense-organs and the light illumining them all is the witness-consciousness.

15. As the light reveals all the objects remaining in its own place, so the witness-consciousness, itself ever motionless, illumines the objects within and without (including the operations of the mind).

16. The distinction between external and internal objects refers to the body and not to the witness-consciousness. Sense-objects are outside the body whereas the ego is within the body.

17. The mind seated within goes out again with the sense organs. In vain, people seek to impose the fickleness of the mind illumined by the witness-consciousness on the latter.

18. The streak of sunlight coming into the room through an opening is motionless; but, if one dances one's hand in the rays, the light appears to be dancing.

19. Similarly, the witness-consciousness, though really fixed in its own place and neither going out nor returning within, yet appears to move owing to the restless nature of the mind.20. The witness-consciousness can neither be called external nor internal. Both these terms have reference to the mind. When the mind becomes fully tranquil, the witness exists where it shines.

21. If it be said that (when all mental operations cease) there is no space at all, we reply: let it have no space. It is called all-pervasive, because of the mind's creation of space.

22. Whatever space, internal or external, the intellect imagines, is pervaded by the witness-consciousness. Similarly will the witness-consciousness be related to all other objects.

23. Whatever form the intellect imagines, the supreme Self illumines it as its witness, remaining Itself beyond the grasp of speech and mind.

24. If you object 'How such a Self could be grasped by me?' our answer is: Let it not be grasped. When the duality of the knower and the known comes to an end, what remains is the Self.

25. Since Atman is self-luminous in its nature, its existence needs no proof. If you need to be convinced that the existence of Atman needs no proof, hear the instruction of the Shruti from a spiritual teacher.

26. If you find the renunciation of all perceptible duality impossible, reflect on the intellect and realize the witness-consciousness as the one witness of all internal and external creations of the intellect.

For us, the Baba's children Sai is the Illuminator or Lamp of our Body-Mind-Intellect equipment. More we be the fortunate ones more we derive the light from Him. That is why Saibaba recommended the reading of Panchadasi (Concluded).

May Saibaba's Divine Light of compassion ever fall upon us! (Ref: Swami Tejomayananda, Chief of Chinmaya Mission, Swami Swahananda, Ramakrishna Mission)(Contributed by Syamasundar Davuluri, Houston, TX)DEVOTEES SAY: RaveenaSai Deva, please forgive me whole-heartedly for what I did. Please give me strength to bear this terrible situation. I am praying You from bottom of my heart to help me to come out from this difficult phase.PujaI prayed you last time for my marriage. You bless me so nicely. He and his parents are very good people. At present, I am very happy with my husband. Please help me to have a peaceful happy married life.KrithikaI am pregnant and was suffering a lot from naushea and I prayed to Baba and started reading a chapter from Satcharita daily to overcome the naushea problem and as I started reading my health was really improving and I am completely feeling alright. Baba, please shower Your blessings on us to have a safe pregnancy and healthy child. Om Sai Ram.PrashantDear Editor, yours is an excellent site for me to learn about Saibaba and I take this opportunity to thank you for giving us such a beautiful platform. May Baba's blessings be with you always. I have a small suggestion, though. Could you please introduce a separate section for 'Thanksgiving'? Although the sections 'Devotee's Experiences', 'Devotee's Say' and 'Prayer Club' do give us a forum to express our thoughts the 'Thanksgiving' section would be dedicated to express our gratitude to Baba and enable us to quickly identify the section we want to contribute to. I know this will probably put higher demands on your time and effort but Baba will be there to help you cope with this extra load. If there is any way I can help, all the way from India through electronic means, I would be glad to do so.PrasadDear Sai devotees, I was in search of a spiritual master, two years ago, as a spiritual mentor for my Reiki Healing process, and my (OBE) Out of Body Experiences. With a little knowledge of the all ascended masters, such as Sri Ramakrishna Parahamsa, Sri Ramana Maharishi, Jesus, Buddha, Usui, Kuan Yin, I was in total confusion of whom to call for help. That night, Sri Shirdi Sai Baba appeared in my dream and asked me "Am I not your Master". With no hesitation, I surrendered myself to Him, and accepted Him as my Spiritual Mentor. After two days, my wife returned from her vacation to India and joined me at Qatar. The very first thing she removed from her baggage was a beautiful laminated image of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba, with a book of Sri Sai Satcharita. Her high school teacher whom she had met after so many years in Chennai, by chance, gave this to her. My acceptance to Baba was acknowledged by my Guru, that He also has accepted me as His devotee. From thereon, every healing process of mine was guided by the Supreme Master and every healing request attended, did manifest perfect and complete healing. I am no Doer, but He is. Shirdi Baba is with every devotee and ever meets their requirements as per His promises.PRAYER CLUB: Sai devoteeBaba, tomorrow I have bank interview. I humbly pray to give me the strength and courage to face the interview and bless me so that I can get the job.SumaBaba, only by Your kind grace we are able to buy a house and nothing had materialized within the last one year. I know it is all Your blessing. You had been with us always in all the good times and bad times. I kindly and heartfully request You to be with us in our hearts and home always and let us not deviate from Your path.RahulI am very ashamed for my thoughts I started having in last few days. Baba, please bring enlightenment to my confused mind. I am grateful to You for saving my daughter from any major injury despite of the fact that whatever happened was due to my fault. I really want You to bless her with good health especially during my journey.KarthikDear Saima, with Your blessings, I have attended 4 rounds of interviews with the UK based company after mailing my prayer to You in the prayer club and I got through successfully. Waiting for the offer letter. The VP from Hong Kong has come now. I pray to You that my offer letter to be received this week when the VP is in India. Kindly shower Your graze on me. I trust You that you will definitely offer this job to me. SheebaYou helped me and my family so many ways. For that I am very greatful to You. As You know all our family members are Your devotees except my son, please make him also the sense and be good in his studies and health. As you know Baba he is away from us and alone. Please take care of him. You know the present crisis in our family. Please Baba help us to come out of the crisis. Bless my daughter with a healthy child. Help my husband to solve his problems. You know Baba my sas is a cancer patient and she is not well. Please help us. I will keep my promise. Please be always with us and guide us. Thank you Baba.SunilMy mother is sick from the last 20 days. I pray to Sai Baba to kindly bless her so that she could stand and walk on her own legs. Hai Sai Baba, kirpanidhan, please give Your blessings to my mother and all my family members. PriyaSai Baba, please build up the pure love and affection between me and my close friend and help us in removing our differences. It is almost 2 months we are not in good terms. Please help Baba.EXPERIENCE OF DEVOTEES: SirishaYesterday, Baba saved us from a dangerous situation. I picked my son from day care and came home in the evening and by that time; my husband was boiling eggs in a pressure cooker. Usually my son and me will be in the kitchen during that time to prepare a snack for him but that day I gave him banana in the car as soon as picked him and thought that he can wait sometime to have another snack. We went out to see our husband who is in the backyard and as soon as we entered the kitchen, cooker came towards the other side forcibly spraying the food all over the kitchen. It traveled at least 10 feet. If my son were standing in that, way I could not imagine what would have happened. It's just that saved us from that danger making us change the snack schedule. And this happened on Thursday. I am so thankful to Him and I do not have words to say how I felt about Baba. We love you Baba.SanjeeviMy wife was suffering from kidney stone. She was treated successfully. But subsequently she developed urinary infection with E.Coli. She received more than adequate medical treatment for this. Yet this E.Coli infection continued to recur. Only this morning we received a test report, which gave a all clear, signal. We are very much relieved. This cure has been possible only by a miracle of Sainath. Even yesterday evening we went to the Shirdi Baba Termple in Mylapore and prayed very fervently. We were blesed by Shri Sai and we are very grateful to the Satguru Shri Sai Nath.MohitI was blessed by Baba to come over to Shirdi in June this year with my friend and family. I was a not a Sai devotee that time. But the experiences over there filled my life with happiness and joy. I felt content and since that day, I started to read Shri Sai Satcharita everyday. To my wonder, all good things started to happen on Thursdays. Baba in one way or the other made his presence felt. My life changed for good. I migrated to Australia and was looking forward to marry soon. But due to my ignorance, I was not able to read Shri Sai Satcharita for few days. The devil of ego again enveloped my thoughts. And I hurt my best friend out of no reason. I said things, which I never intended to say. And the day was Thursday. Since then I am in remorse and pain. Perhaps Baba chose the day to make me realize that I was forgetting something and put me on right path again.SridharI suffered from unsatisfactory job as well as major health problem 6 months back. I determined to visit Shirdi and fall on the feet of Baba in His samadi. Fortunately, I did so at the earliest, and within reasonable time, I got a job to my expectation in a big company, and my health was reasonably improving. When I was in Shirdi Baba's Samadhi, out of love and affection on Baba, I burst into tears, and fell in front of Baba's Samadhi and did sashtanga namaskaram. I truly believe that Baba saved my life from the fatal health issue and gave a good job. What I always suggest anyone if they come across a problem, is to pray for Baba's Aashirwada. I am undergoing an important medical test very shortly. I pray and have a big confidence that Baba stays with me and saves me through his protection ring. The best I can say to anyone in the world is "Believe Baba, and Pray with full Confidence and Love sincerely". Then it can be taken for granted that you are definitely blessed by Baba.ParthasarathyThis happened almost one and half months ago. My friend Sunil parked his bike in his aunt's place by 9 pm in Indranagar [bangalore] and forgot to lock. He came back after five minutes and got a shock as his bike was not there. Somebody has stolen the bike. He lodged a FIR and was running pillar to post. As soon as he said the matter to me, I told him that I will pray to Sai baba and did that whole-heartedly. A fortnight went. Nothing happened. Again on one Thursday after the Shej aarthi was over I prayed once more to Baba. After five days, he came running to me and told that he got a call from local police station and got his bike. Only the number plate was changed and no parts were stolen. I asked him to join me to Baba temple for doing Pada seva on a Thursday and he came and he also prayed and did the Pada seva. Only Sainath alone can found the lost article---that too a bike in this modern era; lost and found means I cannot find wordings to describe his leelas. Baba, Due to your krupa only he got the bike.QUOTATION OF THE WEEK: "So as long as our senses are sound, we should, minute my minute, practice this Sadhana. All other Gods are illusory; Guru is the only God. If we believe in Sadguru's holy feet, he can change our fortune for the better. If we serve Him nicely, we get rid of our Samsar. We need not study any philosophy like the Nyaya and the Mimansa. If we make Him our Helmsman, we can easily cross over the sea of all our pains and sorrows".-Sri Sai SatcharithaQUESTION OF THE WEEK: Q. How to remove Fear and unwanted Sentiments?SAI ACTIVITIES: Shirdi Sai Temple of Chicago and Suburbs, Illinois, USAShirdi Sai temple is open daily from 7:00 a.m to 9:00 p.m (Summer hours). Daily program includes Kakad Arathi at 7 a.m. followed by Abhisek. Madhayana Arathi at 12 noon, Dhoop Arathi at 6 p.m. and Shej Arathi at 9 p.m. Archana, Homams, Sahasranama and sponsored poojas continue in between the Arathis. To request a pooja for yourselves, your friends and family, please call. Devotees can request water (Abhishek Jal) from the Holy bathing of Baba by sending us an email or by phone. Temple is located 25 minutes drive west of Schaumburg on intersection of IL Route 47 and Plank Road in Hampshire, IL. For more information please call 847-931-4058 or send email to maildrop.Sri Saibaba Mandir, Minneapolis, MNSri Saibaba Mandir is located in Minneapolis, MN at 1835 Polk St NE, Minneapolis, MN 55418. The mandir is open 7 days a week in the evenings from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm and during morning hours from 9 am to 12:30 pm, except Mondays. Satsangs are conducted every Sunday mornings, 9 am to 12:30 pm. Please visit the mandir website www.hamaresai.org or call 612-789-7729 for more information on mandir activities, events and other information.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 Center in Bay Area, CAShirdi Sai Center is located 897-B East Kifer Rd, Sunnyvale, CA 94086. For more information please call 408-705-7904 or 408-564-6704 or send email to saibandhu. You can also visit our website is www.Shirdisaiparivaar.org.Shirdi Saibaba temple, Los Angeles, CADevotees in Los Angeles area are informed about Sri Shirdi Saibaba temple in Los Angeles area. The temple is located at - 144 South 4th Street, Montebello, CA 90640. For more information please call Krishna Samantula at 949-679-9938 or visit www.shirdisaila.org.Saibaba Temple, Columbus, OhioDevotees in Columbus and surrounding Ohio locations area are informed about Sri Shirdi Saibaba temple in Metro Columbus area. The temple is located in a leasing space at 7674 Sawmill Rd, Dublin, OH 43016. Please attend daily Aaratis and Thursday bhajans. For more information please call Panditjee at 614-799-8411 or visit www.saibaba.cc.Shirdi Sai bhajans every Thursday at Maitland, FloridaDevotees are invited to participate in Sai study and bhajans on Thursdays between 7-8 pm at Meditation Gallery, 219 E Horatio Ave, Maitland, FL 32715. For more details please contact Bonnie at 407-830-1276.FROM THE EDITORS KEYBOARD: Sai Vichaar is an open forum for those interested to share their experiences, views and ideas on Sai devotion and their experiences with Saibaba of Shirdi. Readers are requested to note that Sai Vichaar is not responsible for the opinions expressed by individual contributors. The "Question of the week for this week is suggested by a Sai devotee as follows: Q. How to remove Fear and unwanted Sentiments?Humbly Yours,The EditorABOUT THIS EMAIL:This newsletter is not sent unsolicited. This newsletter is e-mailed to you because of at least one of the following reasons:1. You have d through our on-line page, 2. You have visited our web site and shown interest in the Sai topics and asked for information, or 3. You have been gifted a subscription by a friend or a relative.To Subscribe Sai Vichaar for receipt by Email please visit the URL http://www.saibaba.org/newsletter.html and select the option from the menu. 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 be confirmed. To Un-Subscribe receipt of Sai Vichaar, please visit the URL http://www.saibaba.org/newsletter.html and select the option from the menu. If you have problems accessing the web page due to network problems, please send an e-mail to support with the words "Un Sai Vichaar" in the subject line. To make a contribution to any of the sections of Sai Vichaar, please visit the URL http://www.saibaba.org/newsletter.html and select the Submit Articles to Sai Vichaar option from the menu. Back copies of HTML version of Sai Vichaar can be accessed by visting the URL http://www.saibaba.org/whatsnew.html. For any questions or more information regarding this e-mail or our web site, please send an e-mail to maildrop and your inquiries will be attended to promptly.Thank you,The webmasterFrom and Editor:Shirdi Sai Baba Web SiteShirdi Sai Baba Sanstha(A non-profit organization)Mail:12N950 State Route 47 Hampshire, IL 60140, USAEmailmaildropPhone847-931-4058Fax847-931-4066© Copyright 1998-2006 saibaba.org, Shirdi Sai Baba Sanstha - Sai Vichaar Weekly may only be redistributed in its unedited form. Written permission must be obtained to reprint or cite the information contained within this newsletter. Sai Vichaar is devoted to the philosophy and teachings of Shri Sadguru Sai Baba of Shirdi, and will take every measure to avoid topics or themes contradicting the same. Sai Vichaar team or the Shirdi Sai Baba web site is not responsible for the opinions expressed by individual contributors.