Sai Vichaar for Thursday , July 10, 2008

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Sai Vichaar www.saibaba.org Thursday , July 10, 2008 :: Volume 11, Issue 9 (In its eleventh 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: Spiritual Oasis Sapatnekar was an elite lawyer who did not quite believe in Baba

until he had to face the calamity of losing his only son to disease. Disinterested in life and disturbed, he had to seek in refuge in Baba. Another well-known devotee Nanasaheb Chandorkar had his own questions about the all-pervasive nature of Baba. Baba revealed Himself to Nana through some of the divine experiences of the latter, and thus Nana was a part of Baba's court. Kakasaheb Dikshit, another ardent devotee of Sainath did not know about Baba for several years and Baba drew him towards Himself via peculiar circumstances. Hemadpant wrote that however scholarly might man's learning be, it just fades away in front of the one that realized the Brahman. Everyone one of those that approached Baba with a preconceived notion, either with the curiosity to know if He is really what He is being portrayed as or with the arrogance of learnedness had to bow in front of His humility, benevolence, compassion, and the magnificence. In case of all those learned men,

it was the surrender either due to the misfortune of a suffering or the providence of His grace that provided them with the means of enlightenment. It is true that however scholarly man's learning may be, it just fades away in front of the one that realized the Brahman. On this peaceful Thursday, let us contemplate on that realization only a Sadguru can give and nothing else the world may teach will. CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE: Strong Will to reach Baba The saying goes, "If there is a will there is a way". Human life is fulfilled when it reaches to God. Many fear that the path to God is arduous, filled with difficulties and an up uphill task. If we have strong faith, firm belief in Baba's words, patience and determination to reach, kindhearted Baba will give us His blessings and guide us. He descended on to Shirdi, in this age of Kali only to save men who are going astray. Some people came to see Baba out of curiosity; some came after hearing from friends, some directed by Baba through dreams. Few came to test the divinity of Baba but after seeing His glory and divine miracles, they became His disciples. All got elevated in their life whoever approached Baba, including those who came with enmity and suspicion. Let us resolve that our final goal is Baba's lotus feet and strive for it. (Contributed by Varaprasad) DEVOTEES SAY: LalithaShirdi Sai is our Ilavelupu. We were facing a financial crunch for the last one year. We tried our best to solve it but failed. Finally, we prayed our Sai in the month of December to solve our financial problems. Sai blessed us. We disposed our property last month for good amount and cleared all our debts. Now we are free of tension. Sai has several times shown His leela for us.

Last Saturday He permitted us to visit Shirdi and provided excellent darshan. How can I explain my happiness. It touched new skies after Sai darshan. SantoshDear Baba, thanks for all that You have given us. We are grateful to You, we are indebted to You. Please tell us our duties we will perform them to the very best of our abilities. Baba, thank you for getting my son a seat in a good school. Please see that he has a good character, good discpline, mannners, education, concentration success, good luck and good earnings from now on for ever. Please continue to shower Your blessings on us. As promised I have expressed my gratitude to You in this newsletter and promise to fulfill all our good vows. ArunThank you Baba, I was worried about my physics exam. You helped me to score what seems to be impossible for me. Please forgive my sins if I lost faith in between. Please give me strength to develop

strong faith and always be with me. Jai Sainath!! ReenaI have had the fortune (that too by Baba's grace) to witness His blessings on our lives. I do not know where to start from but from the time when I got a seat in MBA in 1994 to getting a suitable job in an IT company in India to marrying the person of my choice to moving to US and settling down here with my husband. His blessings and grace is unmeasurable. Everything that I have in my life now is because of His presence. There were very difficult times that I faced in my life which threw me into disappointment, discouragement and disheartenment, but all I knew I could do was to pray to Baba sincerely and with all my heart. But the emphasis was also on conducting properly in terms of duties and responsibilities, doing seva as Baba emphasizes, being true in heart and mind. The list goes on and even includes the time when I performed Sai parayan for seven weeks for conceiving. We

had been trying for 6 months already and my age is certainly not on my side in this (am in my early-mid thirtiees). Miraculously for me, I conceived in the 7th week of reading. But we lost it in the 4th month. We certainly have not lost the hope though. Baba will surely bless me and my husband and I sincerely remember Him now and thank Him for all the mercies he showered on our lives. All that we want now is His grace that we hold a baby soon in our arms. KasimThe day was February 16th 2008, it so happened that I was struck by some unknown fear which was killing me everyday. During that course of time I was not eating food, I hardly used to eat only two spoons of rice and leave the rest. This went on for 4 weeks and I became very weak. I have been to a counseller to ask what is wrong with me, he told me that I have to go to a psychiatrist and take some drugs to calm my restless mind. I thought of finishing my life. I just cried out

the name of Sai Baba and lo He came for my rescue that very moment I left to Shirdi as if Baba has called me. I went to Shirdi and sat in Dwarakamai asking Him only one thing what is wrong with me. I sat there for six full hours and in that time for every one minute I had His prasad which filled my hungry stomach that was starving for four weeks. It was like Baba saying to me, you haven't ate anything for these many days I am seeing you and I will feed you. Since then I have become normal without taking any drugs. After that Baba called me to Shirdi within a span of two weeks and I had His wonderful darshan. Sai, all my life is dedicated to You. The lord of lords You have come to save the life of this servent of yours. PRAYER CLUB: VijayalakshmiMy health problems are becoming severe. I am having bad reactions to medicines. Only with your Grace I can handle this.

Please give me faith to surrender at your feet. Let me not become anxious. Several years ago, I had similar problems and you guided me at every step. AlkaBaba, I have tried to be a good human being all my life and You have blessed me abundantly. But for the last 8 years all my endeavours to get my daughters settled have fallen flat inspite of having good looks and jobs. I am extremely frustrated at this stage in my life. I pray to you Baba to show your chamatkar and please help me to cross this bridge which is weighing very heavily on our shoulders as parents. We have reached retirement and our only wish is to see the girls settled in life. KiranHay Shree Sai Ram, please help my daughter to find a life partner (husband) with whom she can live her married life happily and peacefully. If she finds her life partner and gets married before end of December 2008, I will post my gratitude through Sai

Vichaar. Koti Koti Pranam to Shree Shirdi Sai Baba. SrinathBaba, please bless me for a prestigious employment immediately on a decent, comfortable remuneration which should offer me pride and recognition in society and my circle. Baba, you know my responsibility to care for the livelihood of my family. So I think I am not wrong with my prayer. SwapnaSairam, please help my daughter to concentrate on her studies, she talks about unwanted topic, not doing her class work and talk to her friends and she is incomplete in her work. Baba, please give my daughter good thoughts, study well, helping mind, soft nature and not to lie to parents. I am feeling very helpless and I surrender to Your Feet. Sai devoteeBaba, I am going through a difficult time now. The business is very very bad. Many expenses are not being paid as we are having lesser calls and client

coming to see us. I am going through sleepless nights. Baba, please be with me and help me to solve this problem. Only when we receive calls or client come to office we will not be able to get any business. Please Baba help me to go throught this difficult time successfully. Give me the strength. Be with me. MeenakshiOm Sairam Baba, please help me to solve the problems in my office. They are not at all taking to account. Please Baba help me to get money. I surrender to you. Baba help my children to study well and help me to show the way to start small a business. I don't know the way. Please show me the path. I am facing many problems. My sister problems regarding my brother's issues to slove. Kodi nameskaram to your lotus feet Baba. EXPERIENCE OF DEVOTEES: PradipNearly one month before, my wife complained about eye

problem. Her left eye was a little bit red and there was cyst in it. We went to ophthalmologist and he gave steroid for a week. He told that the redness of eye will probably go by the application of steroid but I am not sure about cyst. She did as per the doctor's advice and after a week, we visited the doctor again. He examined and said the redness had gone and advised three days one drop steroid. After three days, we visited the doctor to seek his advice on the operation of cyst. I was sacred of operation even then it was small. We were waiting in doctors clinic. I was massaging Baba's paada in my ring for nearly 45 minutes in doctors clinic and saying Om Sai Sri Sai Jay Jay Sai for 45 minutes requesting Him to avoid operation of cyst. Since I am Baba's sevak for nearly two decades I have in mind that Baba will listen to me and the doctor will say as the cyst has become too small , it will go on its own and there is no need of any treatment. After 45 minutes, doctor

came, made the detail examination, and advised the cyst has become too small, it do not need any intervention. Now the cist has gone. Baba did listen to my prayer. HariniBecause of our son's school, we decided to sell it since over a year. Although, I had full faith in Baba about scope of our home being sold, probably He wanted to test our Saburi and because of sloppy real estate market, there were not many showings happening. still I was hanging in there looking fwd for His daya. In January 2008, we moved out to a apartment to market our vacant home. Our home was very close to major employer Dell; they started mass layoffs too, early part of this year, which added to existing real estate woes. This led more homes in market and limited buyers interest in that area. So things started feeling edgy and I got little restless. I was confident that Baba surely will take of us but to shun my anxiety, I sought help from Baba for some kind of

indication about when we will get through this worry? Some time around end of March or beginning of April 2008, I prayed with full heart and asked for reply from a book in Telugu called 'Baba- prashnalu javabulu'.To my surprise, the message I looked at from the book has gist 'your work will be done in 2 months' and remaining part of message I don't recall as I write at his moment. That message made me feel much relieved and I was very sure Baba would certainly make this happen by selling our home by June. Although confident, do not know why but I did not share this with anyone including my spouse. We had to re-list the home with new price adding more incentives to motivate buyers. Still nothing much happened. But, in month of May one prospective buyer from California was keen on that house. My thoughts were neutral about this new development, as we heard of many happening where buyers back out on closing day too. Everything happened smoothly with Sai's grace where buyer

had no financial problems and our home got closed successfully on May 31st 2008. We had to sell with chuck of loss but, I am more than sure in this bleak market, this amazing event would not have happened without the intervention of Sai. QUOTATION OF THE WEEK: "Knowledge, preaching, bhajan are of no avail unless these are accompanied by bhakthi".-Shri Sai Baba QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Q. Anger burns oneself and others as well. How can we take control over this? A. by Rupali Baba always advocated that one should tolerate. He always supports the ones who tolerate. Anger is a vice, which is disliked by Baba. Whenever I feel angry, I remind myself the following, if I let anger overcome me, I will fall in the eyes of Baba. All my efforts to

please Baba and get His blessings will be futile. So is it really important for me to be angry on some one or something? Or it is important for me to not to fall in the eyes of Baba. I get what I deserve. Due to my past and present karmas I may suffer. I should not blame any one but me. On the other hand, Baba has said that by tolerating, one burns the effect of a particular bad karma. So I should not let anger overcome me. Baba loves the ones who tolerate and so He will be pleased if instead of retaliating, I tolerate. There are 3 gateways to hell. This is written in Bhagvad Gita. They are lust, anger and greed. Baba dislikes these negative qualities. So we should try hard to stay away from them. Baba will help us when we surrender in His feet. If our love for Baba is true, we will avoid doing anything which He did not like. Anger should be the first in our list. Om Shri Sainathay Namah! SAI ACTIVITIES:

Gurupournima at Shirdi Sai Temple, Chicago and Suburbs, Illinois, USAGurupoornima celebrations will be held in Shirdi Sai Temple, Chicago from Thursday, July 17th through Saturday, July 19th 2008. Program highlights: Maha Abhishek, Aarthis, Satcharita parayan, Sri Sai Satyanarayan Pooja, Sri Datta Moola Mantra Homam, Palaki procession and more. For program details please visit the temple website www.saibaba.us or contact the Temple office at 847-931-4058. Gurupoornima Celebrations - Sri Saibaba Mandir, Minneapolis, MNSri Saibaba Mandir in Minneapolis, MN will celebrate Gurupoornima 2008 from July 17-19. The program includes traditional Sai arathis, Sainaama jaap, Parayana, Sri Sai Gayathri Havan, and Sri Sai Satyavrata. Please visit the mandir website www.hamaresai.org or call 612-789-7729 for more information on mandir activities, events and other information. Sri 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, everyday. Gurupoornima Celebrations in Sydney, AustraliaShree Shirdi Sai Sansthan Sydney invites you to with family and friends to join and celebrate Guru Poornima on 18th July 2008 at 420 Liverpool Road, Strathfield South, NSW 2136, Australia. For more details contact contact Sansthan's Info-Line 0433 959 360 or email: events FROM THE EDITORS KEYBOARD: Please note that Sai Vichaar is only yet another global platform on the electronic medium for sharing information on the life and message of Sadguru Sainath of Shirdi. Sai Vichaar does not profess to endorse any particular thought, nor will judge or reflect the opinions expressed by individual

contributors. A Sai devotee suggested the "Question of the week" for this week as follows: Q. When and how one can control his or her Ego? Humbly Yours,The Editor ABOUT 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, or3. 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

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