ShegavichaRana

There is nothing wrong in fasting for Shirdi Sai Baba. Perhaps you do not know his greatness or refusing to accept it!

If Sadguru has to take all the sins of his disciples, he would be too sick to leave his bed! Let me ask you one quesetion, after becoming a disciple, have your all troubles, physical, mental, financial or from any other sphere of life have vanished altogether? Not quite, I suppose, that is you are still paying for your Prarabdha Karma. If all of your Prarabdha Karma is burnt up by making a Sadguru, you should be the most blissful man on earth. I am sure, this is not the case. Yes Sadguru does help you when you are passing through the phase of your bad Karmic reaction period, by way of keeping your mental equilibrium and peace intact and by way of getting some sort of help to you, to see that you overcome the worst period. Did not Arjuna make the Lord his Sadguru and get all the knowledge, but still had to face many troubles, even after the war was over? He was defeated and killed by Babruvahana, his own son from Chitrangada and was resurrected by the Lord Himself? So making a Sadguru does not mean, automatically passing on all the bad Karmic rections to him.

is nothing but the result of most of your Karmic reactions from the previous birth. Not only this body, your mental make-up, your desires, way you behave with others and so on, are all a chain that continues from the previous birth. Since, this body you have got is the result of your Karma and desires to enjoy this material comforts, God does not come in your way of doing so! Yet, there is something known as free-will is also given to human beings, which can be properly utilised (in singing the glories of the Lord) by us to progress in this path. But that is what we do not do. Those who have reached the level of thinking that the Lord owns his/her body and he/she is an instrument in the hands of the Lord are SAINTS.

It is said that the fear of death is essential for the spiritual growth of a human being. If this fear constantly haunts you, that means there is some awakening in you, that your body is not eternal. That is the first step in realising the ephemeral quality of material world and everything in it.

is ephemeral, it will not lost forever. Moreover, the people under the influence of material energy will lose sight of their true nature, as there will be constant demand for more and more creature comforts, which will take away the devotion to God. Subsequently, God Consciousness will decline and then things will spiral downwards. Unless, every individual, takes to devotion to God (thro' any faith, I feel), things will worsen.

as what Hindus and Hinduism calls as Eternity of the Soul and Transmigration of the Soul. Slowly and steadily people from West would understand that the "land of snake charmers" has much more to offer than they could ever think!

How can anyone find out about the past lives by using a software? It sounds ridiculous to me. Everything becomes a commercial activity in the Western countries. Until recently, they strongly refused to believe in rebirth and now when they started to believe in it, softwares are flooding market to 'know' one's past lives. Is it that easy? Only true saints can tell about our past lives and no other can do it. We do not have that vision, which comes after severe austerities (Sadhana). Shirdi Sai Baba told a devotee his past 75 births and 7 births of another devotee. While walking a slushy wooded area, when he saw a frog caught hold by a snake, he addressed both of them by human names. When the perplexed devotees asked him about it, he sat there and told the entire story of the past lives of those two souls, where one had stolen the land of the other and both of them continued their fight in the subsequent birth. At last, their Tapasi Guna became so prominent that they took birth as snake and a frog and continued their hatred towards each other. Saibaba did not 'use' any software to tell all these events.

You said it all!! All these things are meant to impress the impressionable minds. Sanatana Dharma has been on earth since eternity. The loop holes that the layman or an outsider finds in Sanatana Dharma are nothing but signs of his/her own ignorance about the scriptures and their true meaning.

--Tirupati( tirumala) is a commercial center where anything goes for money. The more money you pay, the sooner your darshan will be. Thats what I call commercialisation ( It exists in all temples).-- You are wrong. How do you think should they run Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam, where crores of devotees gather every day? Keeping the huge temple, the surroundings clean, offering daily worship, providing salary to a huge no. of workers, making all arrangements for the devotees' stay, free food, all types of celebrations held frequently, keeping the serpentine long coridor for the devotees to move clean, making ornaments for the Lord? Just for free? Tirumala is a town in itself with several chaultries for the stay of devotees. Remember, if you are a true devotee, you do not need to pay a single paisa as there is always Sarvadarshana which is totally free and once you finish darshan, you get some Prasad too for free. Now where is commercialism here? If you want to provide Prasad to all your near and dear ones, how can TTD provide you with tens of Laddus for free? No devasthanam can do that. So these Laddus are sold, where is commercialism involved in this? In fact, you should feel happy that all the necessary arrangements are made so that the devotees can enjoy their stay. TTD charges money for those, who do not "sufficient time" for the Lord. This allegation that TTD is a commercial centre is not true, I feel. You are giving a wrong picture of our temples to foreigners, who are waiting to run down Hindu Gods.

You must listen to this story which brought tears to my eyes. After Shri Swamiji took samadhi, his name and fame spread everywhere. There was a old prostitute in a remote village in Andhra. Due to her living style, she got a terrible skin disease, resulting in a foul smell all over. People from the village shunned her and ordered her to leave the place. There was no cure to her disease. She was pained and did not know what to do and where to go in her old age. Someone told her about Shri Swamiji at Mantralaya. One fine day, she covered herself in a shawl and left the village and visited Mantralaya. She paid her obeisance to Shri Swamiji with great devotion and respect, however, she did not know how to pray. Her pure devotion moved Swamiji, who appeared in her dream and showed (in dream) some herbs near her cottage (in Mantralaya itself) and asked her to apply the paste of the same. She faithfully followed his instructions. Slowly her skin disease got completely cured, no foul smell emanated from her body and her skin glowed. The time came for her to return to her village, when she started to wonder, what could she offer to such great, revered saint! That night, Swamiji appeared in her dream and asked her to offer the shawl to him in which she had wrapped her foul body. She was stunned, however, next morning she met the priest of the temple and told him about her dream and the offering of the shawl. The priest was wild with rage and scolded her. She went back and decided to return to her village next day after the moring darshan of Swamiji. Next day, while was standing in the queue, waiting for darshan, the same priest came running and told her that Swamiji had appeared in his dream and told her to spread her shawl on Vrindavanam. The woman broke down with devotion. Promptly, the shawl was washed, dried and offered on the Vrindavanam fulfilling her desire to offer something to her benefactor, her sadguru. Now tell me, who is at fault? it is the followers and not the founder who must be blamed for the degeneration of the true values. So long as you have pure devotion for Shri Swamiji, whether you touch the golden chariot or not, he will grace you with his blessings!!!

Looks like you are a great Mithunda fan! I could not stand him.

Your post brought back the memories of an incident that my brother narrated to me when he was in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. His friend told him this. In the nearby tribal region, the "converters" were busy doing their job. One poor tribal man was on his way home and the way was deserted and remote from the town. Suddenly he saw a jeep and a few conerters in it, who promptly stopped there and asked him to board the vehicle. He was very happy to get a lift. A few minutes later, suddenly the jeep came to a halt and the tribal man was perplexed as they were far from reaching their destination. The driver ("converter") turned back and murmured that there was some fault in the jeep. AFter some thought, he asked the tribal man (a Hindu) to recite the name of 'his God'. The poor man, not knowing such tricks, promptly, started to recite, Devi, Shiva, Krishna etc. but the jeep did not budge. The converter declared that, the tribal's Gods were useless as they could not start the jeep. Then he declared saying that, he would recite the name of "his God", saying so, he recited few lines simultaneously taking off his foot from the break. And lo! the jeep started! Another poor helpless man was converted that day! Will God forgive such people? We were told that this is just one such trick, there are many more!

Please follow this link, http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/download/download.htm#afterdeath I am sure you will like this book, it gives all the information that a sadhaka like you are looking for.

They were truly enjoyable quotes!!!

I have read this story with a different version but same inference. I liked it thouroughly. The inferences are, 1) We cannot perceive the various ways God wants to help us which we ignore due to our egotism, and 2) and if God is present everywhere, then He is also present in the hearts of those boatmen, who volunteered to help the man. All in all, God's ways are mysterious and inscrutable.

Such things are not common to India alone, though the caste system is prevalent in India. Such types of misbehaviour, ill-treatment happens to a particualr group in most of the coutries under different names. In India, it is the caste-system. You can substitute the term "Minorities" in place of "caste-system" for other countries. You must not be knowing what was originally called as VarnashramaDharma. The present caste-system is a degenerated for of this good Varnashrama Dharma. Surely, you can find such umpteen examples all over the world, India is not the exception. These things are highlighted here, as India is a third world country. Your pilgrimage should concern with your own spiritual upliftment. If you are really interested in purifying your soul you can surely go ahead!

to convert the whole India for the last 2000 years, but have not succeded yet! But they are still hopeful!!! They do not know that, God's ways are mysterious and inscrutable. Pressent trend is one such step in the same direction. People should read India's sociopolitical history of last 1000 years carefully. If read, it would be observed that, during these 1000 years, from east to west and south to north, a lot of true saints were born and preached people and kept Sanatana Dharma in its place. Why? God willed it that way.

Slowly but surely, westerners are getting to know about reincarnations, eternity of the soul etc., which are the two basic tenets of Sanatana Dharma. People will now realise that, what they thought (and termed) of India as the country of snake-charmers, has much more to offer to them, than the "devloped" nations.

for thousands of births, you were used to living and enjoying in it. In fact, you thought, this was the only way to live and enjoy. The outer serene and pious living was unknown to you (till now). Now, in this birth (due to your good, meritorious deeds done in some distant past birth), you have realised that the purpose of this human birth is more than living like an animal and is meant for God Realisation. NOw this forest is appearing to you a scary place. This is a good sign. It will take quite some time and chanting before your mind becomes steady in the devotional path. Once that stability comes, all the doubts would vanish like morning dew.

These doubts, dirty tendencies and accumulated bad habits are like poinous serpents hiding deep inside our minds. What happens when hot water is poured into the holes where, serpents are taking shelter? the serpents come out. Exactly, that is what happens when you chant the holy mantra. The pious vibrations of these mantras, make these age-old impressions to come out and go. One should consider this as a sign of the positive progress in the spiritual path and not shy away from chanting. So continue chanting more vigorously.

you are going through were caused by you to somebody at someother times in you past births. You must undergo them, NONE, I repeat NONE can take your sufferings, as they are your own making. Take this as a cleansing process of your soul, as God has seen that you have focussed your mind towards HIM. When you do this, God wants your accumulated Karma to be exhausted rapidly, thus you (or many othes too) find, a torrent of difficult times come to you. Instead of running away from these difficulties, you face them with HIS support and faith. Surely you would come out unscathed.

As per your post, Duryodhana reached heavens as he died in the war and in a holy place. However, as per BhagavadGita, heavens are not a permanenet abode for any soul, and the soul must return back to earth, when the accumulated virtues are exhausted in the heavens. Does this mean that Duryodhana and all the soldiers who died there in the war, would take birth again on earth? I want to know from TarunPrabhuji, who was Aryama and what was his role?

Had Pandu not shot the deer and got the curse, how would the world get to see the great five Krishna Bhaktas? The five Pandavas were destined to be born of Kuntidevi's womb, but of five demigods, so God had to arrange all that. Kuntidevi was just 16 yrs when she chanted the mantra that would help her to beget a son of SUN, without knowing its implications, out of curiosity. In Dwapar Yuga, people up to 40 yrs were considered still young (and were truly innocent, unlike in this KaliYuga!). It is her maidservant who forced her to abandon the child, though, she wanted to keep the child, but still did not know how to do it. Kuntidevi is another great devotee of Lord, who asked Him to put her in troubles constnatly, so that she would remember Him constantly. Is this not her greatness?

that you are a soul! You cannot say, "do I have a soul?" as, it would mean, there is something or somebody, other than soul, or even powerful than soul, that owns your soul. Obviously this is not true, because, other than soul, you have a material body, which is perishable, due to diseases and death. It is definitely true that, Maya, is the whole cause of our trouble, which covers the true nature of our soul, and from behind the veil of this Maya, everything appears completely different than what it actually is!

you have to develop a very pure mind that does not harbour thoughts of passion. A continuous thought of passion will lead you to take the action to fulfil the desire. By not marrying you might disobey your parents, but by marrying someone without any liking for the marriage and the lady in question, one would make her life much more miserable, thereby sinning further. It is best to convince parents why he/she does not want to get married, than enter into marriage for their sake. Many of the true saints in India were bachelors.