|
Sai Vichaar Jul 09, 2009 Volume 12, Issue 09 (In its twelfth year of publication) 01.Feature of the Week 02.Contributed Article 03.Experiences of Devotees 04.Devotees Say 05.Sai Activities 06.Prayer Club 07.Quote of the Week 08.Question of the Week 09.Subscribe to Sai Vichaar 10.Email Newsletter to a friend 11.Submit Articles to Sai Vichaar 12.Un-Subscribe Sai Vichaar 13.From the Editor's Keyboard 14.Back Issues 15.Disclaimer From the Editor's Keyboard... Sai Vichaar has learnt that several have received their weekly email into their unwanted email folder due to the email filter function of the respective email providers. Please check your email folders before deleting to make sure Sai Vichaar is not delivered into Spam mail. In the true spirit of Sai devotion, contributors are requested to remember to suit the content, language, style, and presentation, appropriate to a worldwide readership. It should also be noted that when a section from any material other than their own is quoted or referred to, it is the authors' responsibility to acknowledge the source appropriately. Sai Vichaar requests the devotees to continue to submit to Sai Vichaar using the pages intended for various sections of Sai Vichaar. Sai Vichaar gratefully appreciates the patience of its readers during the past few weeks of revamping of our database. A Sai devotee suggested the The "Question of the week" for this week as,, Q.What did Baba say regarding the need of a Guru in one's life? Humbly Yours, The Editor
Disclaimer Sai Vichaar is devoted to the philosophy and teachings of Shri Sadhguru Sai Baba of Shirdi, and will take every measure to avoid topics or themes contradicting the same. Sai Vichaar team or saibaba.org is not responsible for the opinions expressed by individual contributors.
|
 Feature
of the week:Gurupournima Message
God descends on this earth in different forms from time to time. He came as a king in the form of Rama, as a devotee in the form of Hanuman, as an annihilator of the oppressors in the form of Parasurama and even in the form of persons in the lowest rungs of society. The God that manifests in the form of the guru is the same God that manifests in the form of a devotee. When a devotee is paying obeisance at the feet of a guru, God is a giver as also a receiver of the obeisance. Therefore, God and his devotee or the guru and disciple are complementary to each other. The guru and disciple together achieve the form of divinity and one without the other cannot reflect divinity. If the devotion of the devotee and the acceptance of the master were not working in the same frequency, then there cannot be a relationship. The universe created by God is broadly ruled through two principles or systems. The first principle is the "Law of Justice". It works like the Newton's Law of Motion of Matter, which propounds that to every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. This physical law can equally be applied to the world of meta-physics and spiritualism, although in a subtler way. Such subtler principles of action and reaction taking place perceptibly or imperceptibly in the metaphysical world are generally not understood by human beings due to the limitations of their cognitive faculty and brain capacity. While holding that every action would necessarily have an equal and opposite reaction, Newton did not say that the reactions to such actions would necessarily be instantaneous. The reactions to such actions can be potentialised to be kinetized later. It is similar to winding a coil, which stores potential energy and releases it in the form of kinetic energy later. This mechanism of potentialization and kinetization of the impact of the actions of human beings is guided by certain invisible principles of nature. In Hinduism, this Principle of Justice is stated as Sanchita-Kriyamana-Prarabdha theory of Karma. The Prarabdha Karma are like a debit in a Chartered Accountant's book. These are supposed to be the reactions to the actions (bad, good or neutral) done in previous lives. However, the total quantity of such actions carried forward from past lives cannot be mitigated in one life. This total quantity of 'carry forward' is known as Sanchita. It may further be mentioned that the reactions to all the past Karmas cannot be measured in terms of the total volume of past karmas. Such Karmas of past life mitigate item-wise. Since each and every action has to generate an equal and opposite reaction, it has to be highly specific in nature. Let us examine the reactions to two actions such as murder and ingratitude. A man who has murdered someone will be killed by the same person in one of the ensuing lives. Doing harm to a person who has done good is like double jeopardy in law. The first part is that the good done by that man will not be repaid and second part is the harm that we are doing in addition to the ingratitude. Human beings also commit good or evil deeds in the current life when suffering the reaction of past lives' karmas. This 'karma-syndrome' is very complex and nobody has been able to understand it completely. As a result, human beings go on having an incalculable number of life cycles. To save human beings from a cyclical fate, God created another principle of nature, namely the 'Principle of Compassion'. God is the ultimate reference point in the universe. A state of being a master or a guru is a state of perfection to which human beings aspire to evolve. The Law of Compassion is the principle under which mothers give birth to children and rear them. All the so called devatas (deities) in Hinduism work through the Principle of Justice as stated above. Only Sadgurus, Qutabs, Perfect Masters, pirs or fakirs are the embodiments of this Law of Compassion. That is why we surrender to them and worship them. May Shri Sai bless you all. A Message by Sri C.B.Satpathy) Contributed Article: Nirakara and Sakara Shirdi Sai God is formless. No words can describe Him. He is Sathyam Sivam Sundaram. If one can meditate on the formless he should do it, but how could one comprehend an entity without any form? This is very difficult for most of us. This involves utmost sincerity and constant contemplation. God takes shape in form of avatar, guru and saint. In Geetha, God declares He is in the heart of realized souls apart Himself coming down as avathars. Baba himself told us to contemplate on form as it is very difficult to contemplate Him as formless and merge in Him. We are every second surrounded by forms, our own bodies, other bodies and the world. With our impure minds, it is difficult to keep up our mind surrendered to formless and it is easier to concentrate on Guru by namajapa, puja etc. Meera, Andal attained glory of Krishna and Narayana by contemplating the forms. Bhakta Ramadas and Tukaram attained Rama through their bhakti. Thyagayya attained His grace by singing His glory. All of them merged in God in contemplating God in form. Pujya Narasimhaswamiji, stayed in Ramana ashram contemplating God in formless form but took to Shirdi to seek the God in human form for his surrender. Hence, when Guru's grace is obtained, it will not be impossible to contemplate on nirakara Brahman (Contributed by Sai Vichaar Team) Contributed
Article: Guru Charanam..Sadguru
Charanam In the word 'GURU', 'GU' stands for ignorance and 'ru' stands for removing that. Who is the real Guru? Real 'Guru' is God only. Sloka says "Brahmanandam Paramasukhadam Kevalam Gnanamurthim, Dwandwadeetham gaganasadrusam Tatwamasyathi Lakshyam. Ekam, Nityam, Vimala machalam Sarvathi Sakshi bootham, Bhavatheetham Trigunarahitham Sadgurum tham namami." This verse is really attributed to Sri Samartha Sadguru Sri SaiBaba. He is the embodiment of bliss, Wisdom originated, above the twin pair of Opposites, like vastness of sky, above all He is the witness of everything, beyond all bhavas and three qualities.. ie:-Satwa, Rajas, and Thamas. He is the Real Guru. He never craved for wealth or fame. He never feared for anything. He is our 'antharyami' (The dweller within our Heart). All these attributes come to the Lord Sainath. Sainaath is the treasure house of all knowledge, wealth, power of the universe. Still he behaved like an ordinary man by begging his alms. He sat in the open courtyard without fear of anything. He is the Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omniscient God. Faith in God being within the heart, faith in his Constant presence & Constant Guidance-these will confer courage, virtue and realization of the self. Bhagavat Gita says that if you give up all Dharma and take refuge in God alone, then He will save you from sin and wipe your tears. We have to give up the egoism that the 'doer' of all deeds and confirmed in the faith that God is the doer of every deed. Shri Sai Baba declared "Aham Atma hi Chandorkar, Sarva bhutasaya Sthithah- ie;-O, Chandorkar I am in the hearts of all creatures. There are no special ways to approach Baba. You can call Him as Saima, Saipitha, Saisahodara, saidosth. According to our faith He will manifest. Satha Koti Pranams to the Holy feet of Sri Sadguru Sainath Maharaj who is form and formless. (Contributed by K.G. Ramaswamy) Usha I had a strange dream that night. Baba took me through the pages of the assignment and showed me the errors .The dream was so vivid that He showed me each paragraph and line where I had made mistakes and miscalculation. Sunday morning I opened the written assignment again and went through each and every paragraph Baba had showed me the other night. Tears rolled down my eyes. Oh! there were so many mistakes in the assignment and even after going through it several times I could not figure out them. Baba was watching all this from within and as I was ready to submit it soon, He had to guide me and show me the way to success. I had a whole day on Sunday to make corrections and finalize the paper, with Baba in my mind I did it and submitted it on Monday well before the dead line. You will be surprised to know that (though Asian) I was the only student who was able to get the highest mark in that subject.. Of course, I offered the marks to my Baba. I am very grateful to my Sai because it is He who takes care of every thing in my life. Thank You Baba, thank You so much.. Sanv Sai devotee Devotee Sai Devotee Devotee Devotee Devotee Saikrishna Quotation of
the Week: Q. What did Baba say regarding the need of a Guru in one's life? A. Your answer can go here.
Sri Shirdi Sai Temple of Chicago and Suburbs, Illinois, USA Sri Saibaba Mandir, Minneapolis, MN Sri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple of Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas Shirdi Sai Temple of New England, Boston Area Shirdi Sai Center in Bay Area, CA Shirdi Saibaba temple, Los Angeles, CA Saibaba Temple, Columbus, Ohio Shirdi Sai bhajans every Thursday at Maitland, Florida Sri Shirdi Sai Temple of Austin, TX Shirdi Sai Mandir, Dulles, VA Shirdi Sai Mandir, Toronto Shri Shirdi Sai Baba Sansthan, Canada -Toronto Sai Mandir, Baldwin New York Shirdi Saibaba Temple, Iselin/Edison New Jersey Shirdi Saibaba Temple, Flushing New York Sri Sai Amruta Narayana Sarveswaraalaym, Richmond, VA You may subscribe to receive the newsletter by e-mail. |
© 1996-2009 by saibaba.org, all rights reserved.
