Guest guest Posted June 8, 2004 Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Messenger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 9, 2004 Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 sai ram sivanandham garu i dint get the message just the subject can u plz forward it to me . thanks a lot arun> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Messenger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 9, 2004 Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 Dear Saibandhu Sivanandamji, Please send me the text of this message.I just got the heading. Thank you very much. Om Sai Ram. Gopal Nair ignair (AT) msn (DOT) com n sivanandam <vasuki_mahal > wrote: Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Messenger Sri Satchidananda Sadguru Sainath Maharaj ki Jai !!!Baba Bless us all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 9, 2004 Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 LOVE IS FAR SUPERIOR THAN RITUALS There is no doubt that Shri Sai Baba was the apostle of love and his predilections lay more in the direction of the bhakti way to salvation. Not once but several times did he emphasize the great value he attached to devotion and surrender. " I am the bond slave of my devotee. I love devotion. If one ever dwells on me in his mind and will not even taste food before offering it to me, I am his slave- so also if hungers and thirsts after me and treats all else as unimportant." Such was the illuminating language in which the sage gave predominance to the function of Love. Shri Sai Baba's followers, therefore, have so to elevate their understanding as will enable them to realize the living beauty of love, its Divine energies, its health-giving properties, its power to demonstrate immortality. The Master revealed himself to be a true and sensitive psychologist, in that he always recognized that the need and the desire to adore is inherent in man. Bhakti is a natural state of the human heart; one does not have to acquire it or be initiated into it. It is there, and to ignore it is to ignore one of the most vital traits of human nature. Like any other innate gift, however, bhakti has to be developed and chiseled into the right shape before it can yield any creative results, before it can effect an opening for the Divine to enter. Baba did not in any sense belittle the supreme value of knowledge. At the same time, he did not make it incumbent upon every sadhaka to grasp the subtleties of fundamental truths with the intellect. It was enough if a devotee earnestly inspired in the silence of his heart to become one with the Lord. To such a one is given infinite protection and guidance, and ultimately the bhakta necessarily becomes a jnani too. Knowledge comes of itself by an instrument that is far more potent that the mind. Bhakti brings in its wake knowledge that is both spontaneous and effortless. Those seekers who have a purely intellectual bias sometime wonder why Shri Sai Baba tolerated and even fostered external forms of worship. But Baba deliberately encouraged rituals and ceremonials and held them to be the outflowing expressions of the inner devotion. Symbols are the very source and support of life. Man thinks in terms of symbols. Why then should there not be symbols in the adoration which man seeks to express for the Divine? Besides, the mass of men do need physical and concrete outlets for their emotions. They cannot realize anything except through visible and tangible symbols. The symbol of the crucifix and the attendant ceremonials commemorating the life and events of the Christ are powerful assets of the Christian faith. They have a dynamic appeal to man's imagination, and as such they play no small part in keeping the religion alive and potent; so do many of the colorful religious rituals of the Hindus. Certainly, the danger of rituals and ceremonials being misused and even abused has to be reckoned with; but for all that, one cannot deny them their value, nor their significant place in the religious impulse of man. So long as these external expressions of worship were an index to the inward spiritual aspiration, Baba treated these with respect and allowed the devotee to pursue unhampered all the outward forms of worship which were dear to his heart. But whenever the sage found that these pujas and ceremonies were just subterfuges used in order to conceal false pretensions of piety, or when Baba felt that they were just empty customs practiced through sheer force of habit, then he either ruthlessly destroyed them or discouraged them . (Source: Sai Baba The Saint of Shirdi by Mani Sahukar)Indira Nair <ignair (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote: OM SAI RAM, Dear Saibandhu Sivanandamji, Please send me the text of this message.I just got the heading. Thank you very much. Om Sai Ram. Gopal Nair ignair (AT) msn (DOT) com n sivanandam <vasuki_mahal > wrote: Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Messenger Sri Satchidananda Sadguru Sainath Maharaj ki Jai !!!Baba Bless us all Sri Satchidananda Sadguru Sainath Maharaj ki Jai !!!Baba Bless us all Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Messenger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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