Sai Vichaar for Thursday , October 11, 2007

[Guest guest]

Sai Vichaar

www.saibaba.org

Thursday , October 11, 2007 :: Volume 10, Issue 22

(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 WEEK

CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE

DEVOTEES SAY

PRAYER CLUB

EXPERIENCE OF DEVOTEES

QUOTATION OF THE WEEK

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

SAI ACTIVITIES

FROM THE EDITORS KEYBOARD

 

FEATURE OF THE WEEK: Sai Baba's Sacred words to Abdul

Abdul was amongst Sai Baba's close devotees and lived with Sai Baba in Shirdi

for a continuous period of twenty nine years before Sai Baba's Mahasamadhi and

then remained in Shirdi for a further thirty six years until his own samadhi in

1954. Abdul wrote down some of Sai Baba's utterances and explanations and over

the years these notes accumulated into a small volume. After Sai Baba's

Mahasamadhi, this old notebook manuscript became very precious to Abdul as he

made use of it, according to Sri Narashimaswamy, as a 'Book of Prophecy' through

which Sai Baba's message and guidance could be obtained. Thanks to the efforts

of Dr. Marianne Warren, Abdul's notes have been fully translated and published

in her book - " Unraveling the Enigma - Shirdi Sai Baba in the Light of Sufism "

published by Sterling Publishers, India. In foreword to the book Dr. N.K.Wagle

of University of Toronto says: " Dr. Marianne Warren's work is the first

scholarly attempt to provide a historical context

to Sai Baba's teachings. An equally original point argued convincingly by Dr.

Warren concerns Sai Baba's knowledge of Islamic Theology. Dr. Warren has

translated the Saibaba manuscript in which Sai Baba gave discourses on Islamic

history and thought to his pupil, Abdul, his personal attendant, whose tomb

rests near Sai Baba's shrine " . For Devotees who want to advance spiritually, and

are looking for gems to collect as Baba used to say, these sayings are

invaluable and should be taken as word personally spoken to each one of us

without any prejudice, argument, discussion or controversy. Abdul's notes on

Sai Baba's teachings:

Page 12: The religious emotion is purely spiritual. Only secondarily it relates

to the material world. O Parvardigar! - Universal Sustainer. O God! O Habib! -

My Beloved! What we see in this material state is not real because you cannot

understand it through the intellect or by inference. Those who consider the

spirit as without beginning, this opinion is incorrect because thinking itself

is not permanent. And life is the real thing. The body is subordinate to it...

Page 14 : To understand the true form of God is difficult. In the Qur'an, it is

forbidden to picture God with form. If you walk on the path of righteousness,

then you will not feel the need for it. It requires great effort to walk on the

path [of righteousness] i.e. tapas. When a person practices taps (riyajat),

divine insight (ma'rifa) will automatically come. A sura from the Qur'an says

something to this effect, Ajjain jahidu fina tabulana riyajat - He who performs

tapas, I regard him to be on the path. It would not be proper to give him full

knowledge about it. But before you proceed on the path of Allah, you must

discipline the mind. It is strategic to strengthen the defenses, with

fortifications. If an army does not move how can the war of righteousness be

fought. O dear friend! Know this that the body is the kingdom of the heart. Do

not think that the heart has many armies. The Qur'an says: Maya alam rabbuk

janud ilahu - The army of Allah, do not think that it has

to besiege the mind/heart. The heart is created for the realization of God. To

find the way to attaining a vision of God is a man's true task. For the vision

of God, divine sight is necessary. FEATURE OF THE WEEK: Sai Baba's Sacred words

to Abdul (continued....)

Page 20 : [similar to page 12 but longer and written at a different time]

Religious emotion in full is purely spiritual. It is not material. Secondly it

means that you will see the world as material or only relatively real (until you

have a vision of God). Parvardigar! O Dear One!., O Dear One! the material

(relative state) world is unreal. There is no place for intellect and inference.

Those who regard the spirit as without beginning, this is not true. It is wrong

to address the spirit because it is dependent on others. The real form of man is

prana - life force. The body is under the control of prana. The people who

equate the spirit with the body are wrong. The body is impermanent. Animals also

have a spirit, which is also impermanent, called dil or heart, which seeks the

mercy of God. (Source: Unraveling the Enigma - Shirdi Sai Baba in the Light of

Sufism by Dr. Marianne Warren)

 

CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE: Ramzan

Baba's views on the unification of religions are of eternal nature. His

universal message of brotherhood beyond the religions is well depicted in Sri

Sai Satcharitha vide Chapter VI in the English version where an account is given

on how Baba permitted both Ram Navami, a Hindu festival and Urs, a Muslim

celebration to be celebrated together. On this holy month of Ramzan, let us take

a moment to observe and respect Sainath's values on religious harmony. Let us

know about the significance of Ramzan the values of which are fundamental to

other religions as well. The holy month of Ramzan is very auspicious and

significant to the Muslims all over the world. It is celebrated on the day after

the crescent moon (Idd ka chand) is sighted during the 10th lunar month of the

Islamic calendar. The Muslims are ordained to observe fast for 30 days starting

with the sighting of the new moon and end it after seeing the new moon a month

later. Holy Quran is believed to be compiled during

this month. Prophet Mohammad who compiled this was an illiterate person. But he

was chosen by God to be His messenger. He would get " Vahi " (inspiration from

God), and would speak out spontaneously. All these utterings were written down

by His disciples and during this month they were compiled in the form of the

holy Quran. It is believed to be a message from God to the mankind. Ramzan is

considered as a period signifying discipline and declaration of subservience to

the laws of God, enumerated in the holy Quran. A Muslim is told to give Sadaqa

(charity) and Fitra (alms given during Ramzan) to the poor before the Idd

prayers and recite Quran intensively during the holy month. The last 10 days of

Ramzaan are more important as the faithful watch for Lailathul Qadr (the Night

of Power) during which the revelation of the book to the Prophet was completed.

Observers keep awake all night praying or listening to sermons by Ulema or the

high priest. The fasting during Ramzan is

mandatory for all healthy adult Muslim men and women. Those who cannot fast,

have to arrange to feed at least one needy person in lieu of the days one missed

out on fasting. Fasting is practiced by followers of all religions in one form

or other. It is said to enable one to understand the privations of hunger and

thirst and be kind to the poor and the needy. Ramzaan is a month of brotherhood,

compassion and festivity and the rigor of fasting ends with the celebration of

Idd. (Contributed by Sai Vichaar team)

 

DEVOTEES SAY:

Rajnish

Baba, You always help us in our hard times. Your blessings relieved me and my

family from all the problems, which makes us worried from last so many months.

First with Your help I got such a nice job and working for such a good company

and now finally my wife new H1 also got approved and she started from October

1st. You know how much tensed we were when her office send the wrong application

for H1 and the application got rejected and when they send the correct

application on 20th Sep. then we prayed in front of you to get H1 approved

before 1st October or else our family loose all the Medical and other Benefits

if she didn't start a new Job from October 1st, but like all other devotes

whenever we pray/request something from you, sooner or later you always listen

to our pray and help us from our problems. Your miracles in our life helps us

builds more and more faith on you also it makes me and my family having more

trust on you. Baba please be with us Always and always

shower your blessings on us.

Venugopalan

Do not have words for your continues blessings, Baba. We have full faith in You

and were waiting with patience for Your blessings. My daughter is much better

now; she is out of crisis now. I have seen whenever there is delay in receiving

Your blessings, there is reasons for it - most of the time - to make us

stronger.

Prakash

Thank you so much Baba, whatever we (me and my family) are now it is all Your

blessings Baba. By your blessings my contract has been extended for two years

miraculously. I am privileged to write this to You. I have experienced so many

miracles in my life and this is one among such instance. I really don't know how

to thank You, please continue to shower Your blessings on all of us and keep us

at Your lotus feet always. Thank You Baba, Thank You so much.

Sirisha

Throughout my pregnancy I had some or the other complication and was always

worried. I always prayed to Baba because I had a very strong feeling that He is

there with me and my baby. I read Sai Satcharita everyday. It's a miracle that I

delivered on Thursday and baby is in good health. Baba please be with our family

always and please forgive for any mistakes of ours. Please bless my child with

good health and I am waiting for my husband to come to India. Please see to it

that we get our passports in time for my husband to travel. Koti pranam's to

Baba. Have strong faith in Baba and he will help us.

Parthasarathy

We got married in 1997. No Kids till date. My friend asked us to read Sai

Satcharitra [to make a sapthaga] in August 2006 and told to go to Shirdi. We

read the Satcharitra in August 2006 itself and went to Shirdi in February 2007

and prayed to Baba. He showered His blessings due to which my wife is in fifth

month of pregnancy. Baba, please continue to shower Your blessings on us to have

a safe pregnancy and healthy child. We both surrender your Lotus feet. Koti

Pranam Sainath.

Bidhan

I am really grateful to You for blessing my seven months old daughter. She has

been suffering from constipation for 7 days. I prayed to Sai Baba to solve the

problem, and if He solved the problem hence I am sharing my experience in Sai

Vichaar.

Sai devotee

Om Sairam!! Thank you Saibaba for having blessed my grandchild with a very happy

and a wonderful school environment and making her enjoy every moment at school.

Also thank you for having blessed her with excellent and god loving people to

take care of her. Thank you once again.

Sathya

Baba, thanks for blessing me with a new project on the last day of my previous

contract. Really, You alone knows how much I was worried about the job and as

promised You showed me with a real good one with revised package as well. I feel

Your presence on every single moment in my life. I am posting this in Sai

Vichaar as said. Please show Your blessings so that I will work well in my new

project.

Parvathy

My sister who lives in California was pregnant. But she had severe stress at

work that she had to take shots during her 32nd week for the baby to grow inside

in case they had to deliver the baby early. I had prayed to Baba that if

everything went smooth and the baby was delivered in the 9th month, I would

submit my thanks prayer in Sai Vichaar. My sister delivered a baby girl on 18th

with 6 lbs as the baby weight. Both the mother and baby are doing fine.