DEVOTEE'S EXPERIENCE By Cody D. Grundy

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sairam,

I read your mail and felt happy the way baba pulled you towards you. Please don't consider that your message as invaluable. Anything and everything in the name of sai is precious. Wish sai be with you and guide you always.

Sairam.--- On Wed, 3/12/08, swamy mahadevan <mahadevanvnswamy wrote:

swamy mahadevan <mahadevanvnswamy DEVOTEE'S EXPERIENCE By Cody D. Grundy , , saibabanews , "Manisha" , "" Cc: "" Wednesday, 3 December, 2008, 9:46 PM

 

 

DEVOTEE'S EXPERIENCE By Cody D. Grundy HOW SAI BABA CAME INTO MY LIFEAlthough I don't consider my story to be particularly valuable, I have been invited to share it with other Sai devotees so here goes.I just turned 57. Sai Baba came into my life around the time I turned 20 years old. At that time I lived just south of San Francisco. Since the year was 1967 and I was in college I was probably what you would call your typical hippie. I had been introduced to "eastern" thought and meditation through Maharishi and was meditating with his "transcendental meditation†technique. I had my mantra.I worked in downtown San Francisco part time while I went to college. A record store on the same block as my employment started carrying pictures from India. I bought four of them for $1.00. One was of Laxmi, two I don't remember and one was of this fellow sitting on a rock, his name was in Hindi and I couldn't read it. I mounted

the four pictures on four pieces of cardboard and put them on my dresser with candles and incense burning and that is where I did my meditation. The fellow on the rock I referred to as the "guru". After a couple of weeks of doing this I found a book called “The Incredible Sai Baba†by Arthur Osbourne. Now I had a name for my "guru". I also found out about his life and that he had died almost 50 years earlier (this was 1967). I devoured the book more than once. I still have it. In the front it makes reference to the books by Swami B.V. Narasimhaswami published by the All India Sai Samaj at Madras. I was hungry for moreinformation on Sai Baba so I wrote to the only address that I had: All India Sai Samaj, Madras, India. It is a bit amazing that with this brief and rather incomplete address it arrived at its destination. I got a letter back and a list of books that were available. I believe that I spent $7 and got Life of Sai Baba, Charters and

Sayings, Devotees Experiences and many other books. They must have taken a month to arrive, but I got them.I am not Indian and had never been to India, let alone Shirdi. At this point my only connection with India, Shirdi, and Sai Baba was through the All India Sai Samaj. I was so excited when I heard that Sai Baba was alive - having returned. I heard of a record producer in Los Angeles that knew of it so I wrote to him and found out about Satya Sai Baba. Something told me that I had to beware so I wrote to the All India Sai Samaj and got back a very long single spaced typewritten letter. It explained that God might incarnate as Rama, he might then incarnate as Krsna and he might incarnate as others like Sai Baba. God incarnates, he doesn't reincarnate i.e .Krsna didn't come back. This was enough for me.Unfortunately for me, not being in India, I don't have a Sai Baba temple here to go to. I heard of a house in the same town that I live

in that had bhajans on Thursday nights. The first time I went of course they wanted to know why I was there. Once I explained this, I was accepted as part of the group. Unfortunately, for me, their devotion of Sai Baba included both and I am sorry but Shirdi Sai is the one for me and no others.I have a shrine on a dresser in my bedroom with a number of statues of Sai Baba and pictures. There may not be a large group of people here but I see him and think of him often during the day.I do not believe that anything happens by accident. Especially important things like this. I firmly believe that Sai Baba called to me more than 35 years ago. I am sure he calls many people. Those who have ears to hear his call and to listen to his words are the lucky ones. I consider myself one of the lucky ones. I heard his call and listened.His picture is posted in my car and occasionally friends will ask about that "guy in the turban". I patiently

explain that he is my guru who died many years ago. Whether they believe me or not, I don't know, nor do I care. I know the truth. Om Sai Cody D. Grundy

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