Sai Vichaar for Thursday , November 01, 2007

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Sai Vichaarwww.saibaba.org Thursday , November 01, 2007 :: Volume 10, Issue 25 (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 WEEKCONTRIBUTED ARTICLEDEVOTEES SAYPRAYER CLUBEXPERIENCE OF DEVOTEESQUOTATION OF THE WEEKQUESTION OF THE WEEKSAI ACTIVITIESFROM THE EDITORS KEYBOARDFEATURE OF THE WEEK: I Know You!In Sri Sai Satcharitha, the episode of devotee Sapatnekar is very interesting. The person who ridiculed Baba during his earlier days resorted to His feet in pursuit of peace of mind. He lost his only son to a disease and reached Shirdi to take Baba's darshan. When he went near and prostrated himself and placed a coconut before Baba with devotion, the latter at once cried out "Get away." How could Baba welcome him with such harsh words! Shri Hemadpanth well depicted the plight of Sapatnekar in earning Sainath's love. Did Sai really admonish Sapatnekar? Later, Sainath referred to him as His "Yaara", meaning lover? What a blessing for Sapatnekar! Baba knows past, present, and the future. His assurance that He would protect and care for His devotees is the perfect truth. Falling to the vice of myth, the disciple always feels that he chooses his guru. But, it may be noted that devotees who were not to be associated with Sai, could never do so. On the other hand, those who did not want to bow to His magnanimity were convinced to do so. One such example is Shri Upasani Maharaj. It may also be observed in the present day that those who were to find their association with other realized souls are not to be found with Sai, while those who were in His fold in the past could never really run away from Him! It is also to be noted that Baba said that the message is the same and the messengers are different. Those who think otherwise will eventually realize this truth.CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE: Some Stages in the (Spiritual) QuestThe experience of the mystic is the basis of all religion, but it illustrates only more sharply than the experience of ordinary men certain permanent and universal traits or needs in human nature. The mystic usually begins his career with a vision, with some kind of communication with the divine. This initial vision may be brought about by spiritual discipline, meditation or Yoga, or it may overtake him suddenly and without forwarding of any kind. The spirit floweth where it listeth, and it is impossible to say what stimulus is necessary to get us the vision of the mystic or even to make us mumukshus and jignasus, seekers of emancipation and knowledge. It is claimed for the practice of yoga that it can put this vision at our command. But one should in the first instance decide to practice yoga before becoming a yogin. The self is to be attained, says a famous passage in the kathopanishad, only by those whom It elects. In other words, only the grace of God can first put us on the definitive quest towards him. The initial vision or desire for religious experience is often accompanied by a transmutation of spiritual values, by a sense that one who is happy as the world goes in health, wealth, love and friendship and is free in conscience may yet find the sources of his happiness inadequate, that one may question the sufficiency of works' and look forward to never plans of experience. This initial phase, whatever form it takes, often leads to a consciousness of grace, and an assurance of ultimate peace.

But it is often followed immediately by a sense of loss, a feeling of estrangement from God. Much great poetry has been inspired by this state of separation between God and the bhakta. It leads generally to restlessness, and distracted attempts to be re- united with God. Some times nor being certain of the value of religious experience and longing still for the sources of happiness which it has sought to displace, men have sought to get away from it.It is doubt and hesitancy and the struggle that they give rise to have finely pictured as a present by God of the human soul. It is His grace that puts our feet on the road leading to Him and it is His grace that must lead us on the road leading to Him on that road. An English poet, Francis Thompson, has -described God as the Hound of Heaven, who hunts the run-away soul and compels it to surrender. The poet asks:

Ah! is Thy love indeed

A weed, albeit it an amaranthine weed,

Suffering no flowers except its own mount?

Such estrangement and separation from God mean a terrible spiritual agony for the mystic, a painful experience offer called the dark night of the soul. It is a state of desperate listlessness, and in it the mystic has achieve self-conquest and selflessness. Escape from this state is not through active effort, but through a wise passivity, thorough absolute confidence in and self - surrender to God. Waiting and acquiescent are essential in the life of the soul, and those who thus there comes sooner or later the bliss of fulfillment, of renewed union with God.

All these stages of initial dissatisfaction with the usually accepted sources of happiness and a partial attainment of God, of a sense of loss and estrangement from god of attempts to achieve a re-union, of passive waiting and reliance on God's grace, and of final assurance and fulfillment, mark the careers of most of the famous bhaktas and mystics of the world.(Contributed by Courtesy: Sai Sudha, February, 1944)DEVOTEES SAY: ArtiI was upset and my husband was moving from one job to another and so were the disturbances with the children but Baba blessed him with a job and he is with the family and at every step I find Baba is there to take care of my family and me. Today I do not take any decision but ask Baba to show me the way and He does!RaveenaThank you Sai for answering my prayers within 2 weeks, which I posted in the prayers club two weeks back. Especially, I am grateful to You, whenever I am in difficult situations; I feel Your presence more, than I am in normal situations. Thank you Baba for everything.ManavDuring last August end my project was getting over and next project assignment was getting delayed. Also there were many personal decisions need to be taken based on that. I prayed to Baba about this seriously and within a week next assignment was fixed. Dear all, this is a fact that Sai is always with us provided we have good faith in Him. Bow to Sai Baba and peace to be all.AshutoshAs promised I am contributing this article to Sai Vichaar. My headache, which lasted almost a month, has gone only because of Your blessings on me. Firm faith and perseverance has paid off. Please take care of us as always. Thank You Sai.TejaswiThanks Baba for giving me a good score on GMAT. I have scored 700, which is a very good score, please guide me through the rest of the application process and make me get through my dream colleges in US. Unlike last time, Baba I did not call anyone, I only believed in You. I only prayed to You, You helped me even during the exam, when I was distracted and when I remembered You; I felt I could concentrate better. Please be with me as You have always been.SrividyaJai Sai Ram. Baba my heartfelt thanks to You. One week back one night I got severe pain in my stomach due to acidity. Generally every time I get this pain, I have to go to hospital. This time I prayed to Baba and had put udi in my mouth. To my surprise my pain disappeared in less than 5 minutes. Thanks Babat. Keep your blessings on me and my family forever.PRAYER CLUB: ShivaBaba, you know the critical situation we are in. Please help us resolve the issue at the earliest possible, as we are innocent. Forgive me for the mistakes, if any, we did in this birth or previous birth. Please be with us always Baba. Om Sai Ram.AshokI plead with you for hope and stability. I know I need to be more patient but I am so weighed down that I am not able to function effectively. Baba, please show us the way out.PriyaBaba, please send a genuine buyer our way for the sale of the house. It's getting very stressing and frustrating. You know how desperately we require funds.ZankhanaBaba, I am also Your devotee please bless me with a child. If I have made any mistake knowingly or unknowingly please forgive me.MukthaBaba, you know my mother is suffering a lot from her own family. Baba, you know all the problems, please let everybody realize their mistake and treat her well.DobbyI told Baba that I was going to have surgery and must get rid of the infection in my gums, my tooth was hurting, and the herbs were not working. If He would please make the herbs work I would tell Sai Vichaar how He helped me. Sri Satchidinanda Sadguru Sainath Maharaj Ki Jai. Thank You Lord Sainath. Thank You Sai Vichaar. The herbs are working now.AmruthaBaba, I have been sending prayers week after week, hoping to see my prayer in the prayer column, because I feel that if my prayers appear on any of these Thursdays, then all the crisis I am undergoing now will be solved. Unfortunately, none of my prayers have appeared for the last one month or more. Baba are you angry with me? Please forgive me if I have done something wrong. Baba, You know how many problems I have from all the different sides, job is in a dilemma, husband doesn't have a job, property matters from my in-laws side, my husband and his relationship with his father and family, my parents health because they are worried about me. Swami the list is endless and I am restless, unable to concentrate on anything. Baba I beg you please solve these problems. Help me Baba, you have always been with me in my times of need, but Baba now why aren't You being with me and helping me, I need Your blessing very much.CatherineI have just returned from my annual pilgrimage to Shirdi. I have implicit faith in Him as He is my god, sadguru and my parent. I am single orphan from a very decent fly background middle aged going through a very trying phase in my career. I have seen a lot of sorrow, suffering, loss pain crisis situations. I need your prayers and guidance. Daily I offer my obeisance and prayers to my Deva by doing the namavalih, kakad aarti and Satcharita readings along with chantings. I have found immense inner peace and joy. Just that the current employment is very stressful and about to lose it, due to power politics. I need your prayers.SriniSaibaba, You know how much pain I am going through for the past three years. If I have done any mistakes unknowingly or knowingly, pardon me and give peace to me and to my family.

EXPERIENCE OF DEVOTEES: LorraineThis year in March, our youngest brother Jeff suffered a heart attack, (our oldest brother Mike died at the age of 29 of a sudden heart attack). Jeff managed to get himself into hospital, where he suffered a second heart attack. By this time I prayed to Baba, who is my everything, to take care of Jeff, to help him get well and to be with him whatever was to happen. The surgeons decided (after an angiogram) that he would have to have surgery to unblock two arteries. I prayed to Baba even more, as a year ago, we lost 3 young relatives and a friend suddenly and prayed to Baba, to not let us have to go through another fatality or sadness. On the way into theatre, Jeff's heart stopped completely, I received the call (as I work in the same hospital and was a phone call away from theatre, and went into shock but begged Baba to save and help Jeff. Received another call from the surgeon himself, 10 minutes later, to say, even though Jeff had died for 6 minutes, they had managed to resuscitate him and were proceeding to surgery. After 5 hours in theatre, Jeff had 4 blockages not 2 as originally thought. Our family prayed and stayed with Jeff through his recovery, I placed Baba's udi on Jeff (with him or the family not knowing as they are not Shirdi devotees) and blessed him quietly and continued peacefully to talk to my beloved Baba. Jeff was discharged from hospital after a week, he was told to not go back to work or do anything strenuous for atleast 9 months. Jeff started to walk and work again within a month of his surgery and is now back to his normal self. But for the grace of Shirdi Sai, Jeff is well. Thanks/Koti pranams/nothing nothing nothing means anything to me except You my beloved Shirdi Sai Baba. Please continue to shower Your grace and blessings on all the family. You are my everything my Shirdi Sai, please continue to be so, and thank you anyway. Thank you also for the beautiful darshan You just gave me from the moon picture.SaravananJai Sai Ram, being one among the thousands those who go through the green card process pain, ours started years back. Everything was happening at the last moment and we were patient and kept cool, as we know our Sadguru Sai will take care of everything. I kept reading Sai Satcharita everyday. We stopped both checking the status in USCIS website and the email from USCIS as there were no progress on the horizon. When it was time for EAD/AP renewal this year, we were little bit nervous, as there was a huge backlog due to date movements this year. I reached the middle of Sai Satcharita and saw the pictures of our Sadguru. Miracle of miracles, wonder of wonders, to our surprise on the same day we got our Green Card and welcome letter from USCIS. We were in tears and no words to express Sai's love to us. We humbly beg our Sadguru Sainath Maharaj to continue to bless us and have a healthy life.

QUOTATION OF THE WEEK: "Engage yourself in good thoughts and actions. Do your duties and surrender yourself, heart and soul, to Me".-Shri Sai BabaQUESTION OF THE WEEK: Q. Question is given below......A. by AchutaramaiahQ. We get to hear that whatever sufferings we undergo is due to the deeds of our previous births. To the contrary we also hear that whatever good or bad deeds we do, we have to experience the result in the same birth itself. Could anyone explain which is appropriate?

A. The question is very appropriate. Do we have to suffer for things done in the past life and be done with it? Yes we think of Sai when we suffer bad things but that is not enough. He can at best soothe the sufferings but cannot totally undo it. Sai himself brought out this point to people like Amir etc. On one occasion he tells of a man suffering untold miseries decides to kill himself by jumping into a well. By chance he meets a friend who gives him a book of ' Akkalkot ' saint - wherein a story is told of a man jumping into a well to drown himself to get rid of his sufferings. Well the saint (his guru) himself appears and pulls him out and guides him saying " Why do you want to commit suicide now because your sins will catch up in the next birth. So son why do you not bear the sufferings in this birth and be done with it!" The incident opens his eyes and he becomes willing to suffer his fate in this birth. Baba guides him and it is said the man died a peaceful death with Baba remarking that he will not be born again. The underlying fact is that man has to undergo sufferings because of past life but it also teaches one to carry on doing good in this present life and spent more time in the company of saints and God.SAI ACTIVITIES: Shirdi Sai Temple of Chicago and Suburbs, Illinois, USAShirdi Sai temple is open daily from 8:00 a.m to 9:00 p.m (Winter hours). Daily program includes Kakad Arathi at 8 a.m. followed by Abhisek. Madhayana Arathi at 12 noon, Dhoop Arathi at 6 p.m. and Shej Arathi at 9 p.m. Archana, Homams, Sahasranama and sponsored poojas continue in between the Arathis. To request a pooja for yourselves, your friends and family, please call. Devotees can request water (Abhishek Jal) from the Holy bathing of Baba by sending us an email or by phone. Temple is located 25 minutes drive west of Schaumburg on intersection of IL Route 47 and Plank Road in Hampshire, IL. For more information please call 847-931-4058 or send email to maildrop.Sri Saibaba Mandir, Minneapolis, MNSri 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, except Mondays. Satsangs are conducted every Sunday mornings, 9 am to 12:30 pm. Please visit the mandir website www.hamaresai.org or call 612-789-7729 for more information on mandir activities, events and other information.Sri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple of Dallas/Fort Worth, TexasSri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple of DFW Metroplex is located at 2109 West Parker (Parker Plaza), Suite 212, Plano, TX 75023. For temple hours and activities please call the temple office at 469-467-3388 or visit the website www.shirdisaidallas.org.Shirdi Sai Center in Bay Area, CAShirdi Sai Center is located 897-B East Kifer Rd, Sunnyvale, CA 94086. For more information please call 408-705-7904 or 408-564-6704 or send email to saibandhu. You can also visit our website is www.Shirdisaiparivaar.org.Shirdi Saibaba temple, Los Angeles, CADevotees in Los Angeles area are informed about Sri Shirdi Saibaba temple in Los Angeles area. The temple is located at - 144 South 4th Street, Montebello, CA 90640. For more information please call Krishna Samantula at 949-679-9938 or visit www.shirdisaila.org.Saibaba Temple, Columbus, OhioDevotees in Columbus and surrounding Ohio locations area are informed about Sri Shirdi Saibaba temple in Metro Columbus area. The temple is located in a leasing space at 7674 Sawmill Rd, Dublin, OH 43016. Please attend daily Aaratis and Thursday bhajans. For more information please call Panditjee at 614-799-8411 or visit www.saibaba.cc.Shirdi Sai bhajans every Thursday at Maitland, FloridaDevotees are invited to participate in Sai study and bhajans on Thursdays between 7-8 pm at Meditation Gallery, 219 E Horatio Ave, Maitland, FL 32715. For more details please contact Bonnie at 407-830-1276.FROM THE EDITORS KEYBOARD: Some of the contributors are continuing to post multiple messages, that is, several copies of the same message. They are sincerely requested not to post multiple messages. This also happens when you repeatedly submit the same message. There is no need for this as submitting once should be enough to get to the editor's review. Kindly consider the inconvenience this will cause to the editing process. Thanks.

A Sai devotee suggests the Question of the week for this week as follows: Q. In Sai Satcharitra, 25th Chapter, Hemandpant says that not everybody's wishes and prayers are answered. It is like not every flower becomes a fruit. Thinking like this really breaks me. How do I tackle with this? How do I cope up with the fact that Baba will not listen to me?Humbly Yours,The EditorABOUT 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, or 3. 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 about receiving the newsletter and the willingness to receive the newsletter be confirmed. To Un-Subscribe receipt of Sai Vichaar, please visit the URL http://www.saibaba.org/newsletter.html and select the option from the menu. If you have problems accessing the web page due to network problems, please send an e-mail to support with the words "Un Sai Vichaar" in the subject line. To make a contribution to any of the sections of Sai Vichaar, please visit the URL http://www.saibaba.org/newsletter.html and select the Submit Articles to Sai Vichaar option from the menu. Back copies of HTML version of Sai Vichaar can be accessed by visting the URL http://www.saibaba.org/whatsnew.html. For any questions or more information regarding this e-mail or our web site, please send an e-mail to maildrop and your inquiries will be attended to promptly.Thank you,The webmasterFrom and Editor:Shirdi Sai Baba Web SiteShirdi Sai Baba Sanstha(A non-profit organization)Mail:12N950 State Route 47 Hampshire, IL 60140, USAEmailmaildropPhone847-931-4058Fax847-931-4066© Copyright 1998-2006 saibaba.org, Shirdi Sai Baba Sanstha - Sai Vichaar Weekly may only be redistributed in its unedited form. Written permission must be obtained to reprint or cite the information contained within this newsletter. Sai Vichaar is devoted to the philosophy and teachings of Shri Sadguru Sai Baba of Shirdi, and will take every measure to avoid topics or themes contradicting the same. Sai Vichaar team or the Shirdi Sai Baba web site is not responsible for the opinions expressed by individual contributors.