Sai Vichaar for Thursday , October 25, 2007

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Note: forwarded message attached.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sai Vichaarwww.saibaba.org Thursday , October 25, 2007 :: Volume 10, Issue 24 (In its tenth 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: Dussehra MessageOften during my visit to the temples of Shirdi Sai Baba and also in the functions relating to Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi, I at times observe certain types of conduct of devotees of Baba as also the general visitors to the temples, which to my mind does not seem appropriate for the place or the occasion. Far to speak of higher spiritual senses and sensibilities, even the common sense of an ordinary man dictates that certain dress and behavioral codes are required to be adopted in a certain situation. Let us think of a few such situations i.e., a marriage party, an official conference, a funeral procession and a golf tournament. Can any one think of attending a marriage party in attire meant for playing golf or an official function in attire befitting a funeral procession? The dress codes prescribed for each of these occasions are different. Such dress specifications have evolved gradually over a long period of time in our civilization, because they are appropriate to the occasion. The idea is to keep the environment comfortable and non-intimidating for everyone and take into consideration the sensitivities of other human beings around. Since to be civilized means to make compromises to accommodate the human sensitivities and sentiments of others, it is essential that while in a place meant for group activities one must be dressed appropriately.Now let us examine the way the devotees of some religions dress or conduct themselves while in a religious congregation. While in the church the Christians are fully and appropriately dressed. So also is the case of Sikhs, Muslims, and Buddhists etc. When inside the temple premises, devotees are supposed to concentrate all their faculties for a definite purpose and in a certain manner i.e., eyes (through which they concentrate and meditate on the image of the deity), mouth (through which they recite mantras or aartis and bhajans in praise of the deity), ears (through which they listen to mantras, aartis, discourses etc.), nose (through which they smell the sweet smell of flowers and incense offered to the deity) and skin (through which they touch the feet of the deity). One can imagine the serene atmosphere of a temple, which gives a feeling of expansion of the thought horizons and a sense of ecstatic upliftment of the soul. The most desirable situation in the temple is where one can listen to the prolonged euphoric notes of somber mantras, there is no hustle bustle, no high pitched and abusive ruckus mingled with diatribes with choicest invectives. It should also not give a picture of a depressed and melancholic place with tearful devotees with sulking faces. Such devotees sulking in the temple due to non-fulfillment of their purely material desires spoil the pleasant and peaceful atmosphere of the temple. It needs to be a place of unison of minds and souls of devotees, while focusing on a deity, in chanting mantras and also singing the aarti together. When the purpose, the thoughts, the sentiments and the activities of the devotees are merged in a prayer in invoking the deity or the master, the love of the master or deity flows down to the devotees. This then is the method and the purpose of going to a temple or a religious congregation.FEATURE OF THE WEEK: Message continued.....On the other hand, imagine for a moment, when such a pristine atmosphere is about to raise the souls of the devotees to a state of sublime ecstasy, impropriety in dressing and conduct such as talking or laughing loudly by a devotee may knowingly or unknowingly disturb the other devotees and vitiate the atmosphere. The focus is shifted from the deity, in our case, the holy image of Shri Sai Nath Maharaj of Shirdi towards such individuals. Then the whole purpose of visiting a temple is defeated. Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi was never in favour of his devotees and workers wearing such clothes. Once poet Dasganu the famous ballad singer on Baba and other saints came to Baba on his way to a religious function, where he was supposed to give a rendition of songs on Baba. He was donned in dazzling and colourful attire, which Kirtankars and Kathavachaks usually wear in Maharashtra and elsewhere. Baba asked him not to decorate himself in such lavish style and attend the function in the simplest possible dress. In the light of what has been explained above, it is desirable for the Shirdi Sai devotees to worship Baba in the temple or to participate in a congregation of Sai devotees in modest and simple attire. Baba's teachings show that lavish display of material aspects of life including dazzling dresses never impressed Baba. Shri Sai Baba the Fakir with the torn clothes perhaps finds it more comfortable to be with simply dressed but truthful people.In this context I have also observed many devotees trying to wear clothes in the style and manner of the Master, wearing Kafnis (long flowing cloth covering the entire body) and patka (headgear). Some of them carry a satka additionally in their hand. The famous Gurugita asks the devotees not to copy the look or the behaviour of the Master. And this is the accepted rule of law, in the master-disciple relationship in the spiritual world. Even the famous Shri Vivekananda never imitated the attire of his Guru, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa. Although some Sai devotees tend to dress like Baba out of ignorance and simply as a feel good factor, there are other fraudulent ones who try to impress the gullible devotees in order to extract money and other advantages. It is therefore correct on the part of the temple trust to surely but politely impress upon the visitors to the temple to be properly attired and behave while in the temple premises.

On the day of Mahasamadhi of Baba, I invoke Shri Sai Baba's blessing for the devotees and readers in helping them to evolve in the spiritual path.

Message by Shri C.B.SatpathyCONTRIBUTED ARTICLE: Baba's mantra!Baba said to Radhabhai Deshmukh, "Oh mother, My Guru never taught Me any mantra, then, how shall I blow any Mantra in your ears?" Does it really mean that Baba didn't give any mantra to anyone? When the great devotee Sri Tatyasaheb Noolkar was on the deathbed desirous of obtaining some mantra from Baba, it is said that Baba did give him a few words to recite and repeat which Sri Noolkar did. Is there a way to explain Baba's action, other than saying that His ways are inscrutable and His methods are unique? Shri Hemadpant wrote eloquently, "He incarnated Himself in this form and if any devotee meditated on Him day and night with complete self-surrender, he experienced complete union (without any difference) with Him like sweetness and sugar, waves and sea, eye and its luster. He, who wants to get rid of the cycle of births and deaths, should lead a righteous life, with his mind calm and composed. He should always engage himself in good actions, should do his duties and surrender himself, heart and soul to Him. He need not then be afraid of anything. He who trusts Him entirely, hears and expounds His Leelas and does not think of anything else, is sure to attain Self-realization.Baba asked many to remember His name and to surrender to Him, but to those, who wanted to know who they were ('Who am I' enquiry), He advised Shravanam (study) and Mananam (meditation). To some, He advised remembering God's name, to others hearing His Leelas, to some worship of His Feet, to others reading and studying Adhyatma Ramayan, Jnaneshwari and other sacred scriptures. Some He made sit near His Feet, some He sent to Khandoba's temple, and some He advised the repetition of the thousands names of Vishnu and some the study of Chhandogya Upanishad and Geeta. There were no limit, nor restriction to His instructions. To some, He gave them in person. To others by visions in dreams. To one addicted to drink, He appeared in his dream, sat on his chest, pressed it and left him, after he gave a promise not to touch liquor anymore. To some, He explained some Mantras like `Gurur Brahma' in dreams. To some devotee, who was practising Hath-Yoga, He sent word that he should leave off Hath-Yoga practices, sit quiet and wait (Saburi). It is impossible to describe all His ways and methods".(Contributed by Sai Vichaar team)DEVOTEES SAY: SrinivasJai Sai Ram, I lost my job few months back. Prayed to Baba, please show me the perfect job to get success in my chosen field. Baba, you proved one more time if anything happened i.e. good for future. I got new job soon in very good organization. Baba, you are with me for each success step in this company. I learnt lot of very good stuff compared to previous job. Now they like my work and took me as a permanent employee in the same organization. Because of Baba's blessing now I have strong confidence in my field. Thank you Baba for helping me in the difficult situations.NavaneethaMy daughter's fingers which got jammed in the car door and we thought her fingers were cut and were very frightened, but at the same time we saw a Sai mandir very near by and we prayed to Baba who solved the problem in 5 minutes as though nothing had happened. No words to express my gratitude to Baba.MadhaviI would like to share my experience with all the Sai devotees. From the day we started our green card processing, we suffered a lot mentally but, by Saibaba's grace all our sufferings are over. He carried all our burdens on his shoulders. I request all the Sai devotees not to loose hope and pray to Sai Ram. He will definitely pull you out from your sufferings. I promised Sai Ram if He pulls me out through the difficulties I would post my experience.PrabhaBaba with Your blessings my daughter's marriage went off well without any hitch. Thanks to You for taking care of everything. Bless the couple and let my son-in-law settle well and get the job he desires. My daughter is doing her final year studies and is stressed out a lot. Please be with her and guide her and let her finish her studies without any problem. Bless our family and please help my son to settle well and become responsible.NikhilaWe were awaiting news about our EAD and fingerprint notification as a part of the Green Card procedure. All our friends received information except us. My parents told me that probably we might hear on Thursday and exactly on Thursday morning we got the notification. I prayed to Baba that He should bless us and help us through the testing phase and as always He keeps his word. I beg Him to forgive me for all the mistakes and I pray sincerely that He keeps blessing us with good health and happy life.PRAYER CLUB: RamadeviI am unable to bare this back pain, along with it, the tensions like medical insurance, my job, my husband's job contract and about children is bothering me a lot. I am feeling that, I am facing all these because of previous karma. I know you will always be with us, please give me the strength to face these issues with peaceful mind.RajaniBaba, I am very stressed out with our family problems. I would like to see my Mother happy. She always has to undergo lot of tensions in her life. Please take care of her Baba. I am very concerned about her health.SarojaYou are the only Malik of our destiny, so why delay in giving the kripa prasad to your daughter who is childless for 9 years. Baba please do some miracle in our life.ChaitraTomorrow I am going with a photocopy for valuation, please let me get the positive result please be with me Baba.VishaalBaba, please help me to come out clean from the court case. Baba help me to defeat my negative feeling. Please call me to Shirdi in the month of December 2007.GitaYou have always showered Your love and blessings on us. Please help my sister and show her a way out of her misery.SaipriyaBaba, if I do not get a job it will be very difficult for us to manage. Please bless me with a good job. I am totally dependant on You. Help us Sai.ShailendranathPlease shower Your blessings on this humble servant of yours and me in solving all my problems. Koti pranams to You my dear Sai.PraveenaSairam! I wholeheartedly pray to You and seek Your blessings for my husband who is searching for a job and is suffering with emotional and mental stress. Baba please bless him with a job.EXPERIENCE OF DEVOTEES: RajelakshmiMy sister got pregnant last year and the doctor told her that he suspected fibroid. My sister started crying and I told her that I would do Sai parayan for 7 days and she will be fine and that her pregnancy will go smooth. I did the Sai parayan for her and during her next visit the doctor told her that she was fine. We all were very happy that Sai baba had taken care of her. The next miracle happened when she delivered the baby. At the time of delivery the baby was fine but the next day he got an infection. Everybody was very tensed I prayed to Sai baba to take care of the kid and my sister and did Sai parayanam for the kid at the end of the 7th day I called her as the blood results would come out and that day with baba grace it was written that the infection didn't grow at all and that the baby was okay. Thank you baba for taking care of my sister and her child. Baba please forgive me and my family for all the mistakes and please be with us throughout our life. Thank you baba for everything.VidyaI was taking IELTS test and was seated at the last row of room. The first section was listening, were a tape would be played and answers need to be given after listening to that. Above me was an air conditioner vent, which was making a huge noise, which if continued, would have made listening to tape impossible. I prayed to Baba that the nose should stop. By His miracle just before commencement of the test the noise stopped and I could do the test well. Just saying Thank you Baba would limit my gratitude so I will not do that, as we can't thank Him enough.RamJai Sai Ram! Past one month has been very tough on our family. My father has been suffering from cancer and Baba has been very kind on us for getting him out of this tough phase by showering His blessings on him. He is still weak and some other health problems are still going on, but we have strong faith that Baba would remove all his sufferings and make him healthier as he was earlier. Jai Sai Ram!SirishaFirst I need to be grateful to the Sai Vichaar, for providing a common platform for Sai devotees for sharing their ideas. I really wait for this mail every Thursday. Thanks a lot Baba for providing my husband a job with a lead position, bless him to do well in his new job. And even thanks a lot for blessing my bhabi with pregnancy. Please Baba, be along with her throughout her pregnancy and let everything go well. As promised, I am presenting this in Sai Vichaar, I am sorry for the delay. Please let me get through my pregnancy safely. Please do show mercy on our family in all times Baba.QUOTATION OF THE WEEK: "What I say, happens".-Shri Sai BabaQUESTION OF THE WEEK: Q. Question of the week is given below.....A. by VipulQ. We get to hear that whatever sufferings we undergo is due to the deeds of our previous births. To the contrary we also hear that whatever good or bad deeds we do, we have to experience the result in the same birth itself. Could anyone explain which is appropriate?

A. We talk about sufferings because we feel it by physical existence. But if we talk about our Atma it has no sufferings! Why we all are trying to get Moksha. Sufferings are nothing but feelings of your mind. It is because of thousands of years layers of our wrong thinking that our body is everything, but as said in Gita take out all these layers and then you will see that your Atma is everything. God. Aatma does not have good or bad feelings. Atma is out of all these things. "Sukh ki kaliya, Dukh ke kante, Sub man ka Aadhar". Some people with small problem are frightened and some are facing serious problems with smile. In fact, if we really believe and trust Sadguru Sri Sainath Maharaj then we do not have to worry for all these small things and try to follow Him to get moksha, so you will be relieved of all such questions.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: Some of the contributors are continuing to post multiple messages, that is, several copies of the same message. They are sincerely requested not to post multiple messages. This also happens when you repeatedly submit the same message. There is no need for this as submitting once should be enough to get to the editor's review. Kindly consider the inconvenience this will cause to the editing process. Thanks.

The Question of the week for this week is suggested by a Sai devotee as follows: Q. We get to hear that whatever sufferings we undergo is due to the deeds of our previous births. To the contrary we also hear that whatever good or bad deeds we do, we have to experience the result in the same birth itself. Could anyone explain which is appropriate?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.