Human life cannot escape from the power of attraction of the things of worldly nature. Yielding to the stimuli of the world that is so "real" is a course that is only natural. The mind that rejoices over a positive response is the same faculty that repents over something that is not favorable. Those who once had the blessing of realizing self-surrender easily forget the initial resolve, backtracked, only to find them in the same position they have started originally! The staircase of spiritual progression gives away to the slippery mess of self-centered interests. The power of myth is such.

Sri B. Hanumantha Rao in "Sai Anusaranamu" wrote that situations such as the above help us to realize our limitations as human beings. They reveal our weakness in not being able to deal with the issues of worldly nature in the right manner. First, it starts with a thought, thoughts lead to further interest and proceed to strong wants. Accomplishing our wants fuel the ego, while the inability to accomplish leads to anger. More people fall to this trap. When we realize our mistakes, it is important to seek the divine grace. Sadguru is the guide that leads us towards this goal. Having faith in Sadguru is the most important requirement. One must constantly strive to build on the faith that they have in their Guru. While divine grace is accorded depending on one’s karma, faith in sadguru is entirely a human effort. Hence, it is important to hold on to the faith, for faith even if weak, is better than no faith at all. Sai Baba said, "Maya troubles even me, what to speak of others". Just like a small lamp can drive away the darkness, faith in Guru will slowly but surely lead to the perennial bliss.
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Experiences of Devotees

Laxman Kacheswar jakadi alias Nanumama or nanu Bhatt Poojari
December, 9, 1936, Shirdi

I have been doing Baba’s pooja and arathi of Sai baba all these years. I began it even in baba’s life time as assistant to Bapu Saheb Jog. It was in 1914 I came here. My sister’s husband Bapaji was here. I had occasionally visited him first. One night while I was at Sangamner, Sai Baba appeared to me in my dream and said, "Boy, are you sleeping? Do not stop here. Come to Shirdi. There is plenty of fun at Shirdi". In the morning, Bapaji’s father had come to our village and he invited me to go over to Shirdi to assist him. I went over to Shirdi and for a short time, stayed with him. I worked for my bread by touring into villages round about Shirdi with my Bikshuki service, and helping Bapuji in Sai Baba’s worship at the mandir. After some years (say 1 or 2) of free voluntary pooja of Baba I was appointed by the committee as the permanent poojari (at the Sai Sansthan).

Jayanti, USA
I would like to add this experience of mine in your newsletter. I came to US in July 1997. I developed a corn in my right foot in December '97 which was treated by US doctors for about six-months. This did not yield any relief. Later, I decided to apply Udi to it and did it for about fifteen days, I found that corn disappeared within no time. Sai... you are Great, I shall always abide by your teachings. "Om Sai Sri Sai Jai Jai Sai".
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Devotees say...

Dr. M.V.R. Prasad
I saw a question of a devotee as to why Bhagavan Sai Baba encouraged tobacco smoking. My understanding is that he never encouraged smoking tobacco. On the contrary, he discouraged smoking. He was not a habitual smoker. Occasionally He used the chilim as a spiritual exercise to relieve the ailments, apprehensions, doubts, and sense of insecurity of his devotees. This we can notice from the experience of Dada Saheb Khaparde who clearly stated in his diary that with one puff of the chilim offered by Bhagavan Sai, all his doubts and fears vanished leaving him in blissful condition. Similarly some of His devotees suffering from asthma and other diseases were cured of their ailments with one or two puffs of the chilim offered by Sadguru. Here the important thing is the will or Sankalpa of Bhagavan Sai, but not the puffs of smoke. He clearly stated that the tobacco of ignorance should be burnt by the fire of devotion to Sadguru (Guru bhakti) to attain bliss.

Soma Somalingam
Dear Editor and the Sai Vichaar Team

I could remember the very first issue of Sai Vichaar released a year ago. Since then Sai Vichaar has been my favourate and has had very interesting articles, essay competitions and recently released Question of the week program.
In the last weeks issue I found arround 90% coincidence of ideas in the articles written on the topic "Do miracles happen.." . The ideas like....everything is a miracle....children's attitude...and miracle happen to increase faith etc are some of the coincidence I was glad to observe. The people who wrote are living in different parts of the world. Each of them did not know what others are going to write, still there were many simmilarities. I wonder Is this a SMALL MIRACLE among the lot we are experiencing ?

Manish Saxena
Jai Sai Ram !

1. I would like to ask if just having faith in God is sufficient or going to the temple and reciting the poojas and slokas and offering sweets is important for ones belief in god.

2. Does anybody get things before his time. i.e does anyone get anything before his destiny or something which is not destined for him.

3. What happens after death ?
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Question of the Week

"What is the most challenging obstacle to one's spiritual growth?"

This is a generalized question. In my opinion, the most challenging obstacle differs from person to person. Basically, there are two factors, which influence anyone in this world. 1. Money 2. Attraction to opposite sex. One forgets himself/herself before these two factors. Because of these two, one becomes selfish. So all the negative qualities arise out of this. Two countries fight because of land. War arises because of desire for land. For some person, attraction to money is more than that of attraction to opposite sex. For some others, it is vice versa. Therefore, on the first level we can say that if one has transcended these two he is more prepared for the spiritual kingdom.
The other obstacle I think is recognizing love. What I mean to say is understanding unconditional love. Most of the people does not know what love is. Love is often mistaken with physical interaction. In fact, love in west is categorized into two types. One is physical love and another is mental love. All these divisions are funny. Accepting love is another great task, which needs more maturity and understanding. Love is not a bias nor blind but divine. It is godly in nature as what Sai shows on us. Love is a fact and not a fiction same as Sai.
In general, mind is the obstacle in spiritual growth. Thoughts are the obstacle in spiritual growth. I feel that if there are no thoughts then there is total freedom. However, whatever it is, if Sai thinks to free us, then it is not even one crorth of a second for us to be freed. In no time, we will merge in him. That is dependent on Him and Him alone.

Avneesh
I am writing using myself as an example and generalizing for the common man. I think, (1) developing unquestioned faith, in the almighty and the path-to-him laid down by the prophets/saints, and (2) detachment from the material world are the two most challenging obstacles in a human's quest for attaining spiritual bliss. I guess if he/she overcomes these then his/her path to get closer to almighty is much easier. This, I think is more of an honest rather than an intelligent attempt to answer your question. Taking my own example, (which is definitely not the most ideal one) - I say I love Sai but I have seen myself faltering from the faith in times of challenge. I guess this I guess this is being human and to have resolute faith in the almighty which will never diminish even with the most fatal of blows, I have to rise, by being slightly above a common human and get into the group of true disciples of Sai. This is not fictional - I am sure there are many such disciples in the world including many who contribute to this forum regularly.

The second challenge is that of detachment, I think I pray to Sai more out of an objective to gain happiness for me and my own happiness in the form of money, career and good health for me and my dear ones. I think this is what inhibits the faith from growing in me. Again, I would say this is being human. To have desires is human. Detachment from these things makes me feel will take away the sole motivation of living on this earth.

I will conclude by telling you what a common man like me seeks to achieve given my weaknesses. I will be happy if I develop unquestioned faith and remain in the path of goodness (to the best of my understanding) which is why I think god made himself known (and came to live in different forms amongst us) to us in the first place.

Venugopal, A., India
Spiritual growth is attained by believing in HIM solely and thinking that what ever happens, happens for our good. HE had stressed in the great book SAI SATCHARITA about the two qualities that one should have. They are Shradda and Saburi. Shradda means that a person should be devoted to HIM and think that he is going to guide us through all the ups and downs of our lives. Shradda also signifies the belief in HIM as all our ancient people used to show to their guru when they went to learn from them. Saburi is the thing that signifies that one should have patience and keep waiting for HIM to shower his blessings. We have an old saying in Hindi that says " Safar ka phal bahut meeta hota hai " which means the same as above.
The answer to your question is the same. Spiritual growth is achieved at by believing in HIM. After a strong feeling of belief is made in one's mind, it leads to non-attachment, which is the root cause of Spiritual Growth. Therefore, the main challenge to one's spiritual growth is attachment. This attachment could be to any person, be it either one's parents and to one's sons or to some other persons. Just think that they are send by HIM and they have to do the work that is assigned to them as you are doing the work assigned to you. We have to think that we are the actors on this stage and that HE is the sole director of the play of which we are the actors. Any one born has to leave one day. If you believe in this philosophy, you will not cry when a person leaves this world. In fact, we should be happy that he has left us and was lucky enough to go to HIS place.
There are some persons who are attached to worldly things. What happiness does one get by these worldly things? He has to mediate on GOD for one week and see the difference he attains in this week. He attains what no one has achieved till now. We have to realize that our main aim is to good and reach HIS sricharan and not to become rich and be roaming about in dozen cars and such things. Be as simple as you can and try to follow HIS principles. Try to feed all the needy and by this I mean that u do not do away with all your property. What I mean is that you just give a beggar a 1/10 part of your share. Or give a person some advice, which he needs. However, do not develop the attachment to a particular person and mind you this is the root cause for the spiritual growth.
I end saying that, attachment to any thing is harmful and is the root cause that prevents from Spiritual Growth.

Mekala Srinivasa Rao
In response to question of the week, 'best example of Sai Baba's humility'. If we observe kids: for example class I or II, they are very much confident of their level of knowledge in mathematics. If suppose 'Einstein' appears in front of them. These kids do test him like this: If you are really great, let me know how much is 16x9? This behavior exactly resembles the way we test Him (GOD). Are we really qualified enough to test GOD. When we do that every time, It's an obstacle for spiritual growth and the humility that he suffers with respect to us. As such there is no word like 'humility' in his (GOD's) dictionary because there is no word as 'respect' since he considers all human beings as 'vasudeva' i.e. a form of himself. So respect & humility are colors of our glasses through which we see other human beings as well as GOD. I believe again this spiritual growth & humility are interlinked because when we talk humility of God, first of all we are considering God on par with human beings. This is true after getting known 'SAT' i.e. truth in Hinduism or enlightenment in Christianity. So I conclude we can talk of God's humility.
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