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Sai Vichaar 1. Feature of the Week: A Devotee's Life Experiment 2. Sai Activities 3. Devotees Say 4. From the Editor's Keyboard From the editor's keyboard..... Amazing is His grace. Now we have over 700 subscribers to Sai Vichaar who receive it every week via the electronic mail. The messages are His grace and the mistakes our faults. This week's feature of the week is contributed by devotee Mr. Somalingam. Thanks for your participation, Mr. Somalingam. In addition, Mr. Somalingam has also composed an excellent material on religion, which will be featured starting from next week. This is a write up prepared in simple language that should serve as a useful reading material for people, especially younger devotees, who want to know about different religions, their origin, faith and practices. Devotees of Sadguru Sainath are aware of the religious tolerance Sainath has preached. This is evident from the way Sai Baba treated His devotees, Hindus and Moslems alike. He has discouraged devotees professing a narrow-minded vision in the name of religion and we have examples in Sri Sai Satcharitha to prove this. Sainath pricked the bubble of orthodoxy by asking one of His Hindu devotees to taste the food considered to be forbidden according to his religion. We have the account of Haji Sidik Falke who was not allowed to step inside His abode because Sidik Falke, a moslem, was proud of his Haj pilgrimage. Perhaps Sai Baba's contention was that although following a religious ritual might help to bring in discipline to life, one should be aware of the certain type of subtle ego that religion might bring in. Sai Baba always said that one can choose whatever path he wanted to, but he must always remember that God is one implying that all religions help the same objective. It might be helpful to know more about different religions and one of the ways one could develop love and respect towards a particular faith is by knowing more about it. In this context, Mr. Somalingam's articles on several religions are immensely useful. Please look forward to The Religions of the World, a series starting next week. Humbly yours, The Editor |
Feature of the week: A Devotee's Life Experiment Man walks from "EVERYTHING" to "NOTHING":- The inward journey from the "world's everything" leads one to find the "soul's nothing". In NOTHING he suddenly finds he has EVERYTHING. The inward journey to find our soul results in the bliss where we find "everything", "The happiness". There are two choices in this world. 1. Getting higher positions, high qualifications, more money or 2. Living with what we get, following the chosen path, loving and serving others. The first choice will boost our ego. The second choice will give us holy ash. Now, the choice is ours... Love All Serve All:- God gets expressed in us, when we are loving and serving others. Other times He does not get expressed in us because we are busy thinking with our ego about our selves...So we cannot blame God for not being with us at those moments.. Unity in Diversity (A logical investigation):- Sai Baba says he is inside everybody. So, "you" (your name for example, Shanthi., .Ganesh., Peter, ..George, ...Chang, ..Mohamed. .etc) are inside every body else. If you see YOUR SELF in the EYES of people you meet everyday... then you are very closer to Swami. LOOK FOR THE LOVE OR SEARCH FOR THE LOVE.. INSIDE OTHERS EVERY DAY.....this is the first most important step in finding Sai Baba. You will definitely find "Baba" in people you meet. Initially it might be a difficult task, may be even frightening! But, you will become used to meeting Baba wherever you go. Sai Ram.. Sai Ram...Sai Ram (This week's Feature of the week is contributed by Mr. Soma Somalingam, New Zealand.
Mr. Somalingam can be reached at saiprema@hotmail.com)
Sai Activities: Guru Purnima this year falls on the 9th of July, 1998. Guru Purnima is one of the most important festivals celebrated in the glorification of Guru. It is an occasion to reflect on the guidance that Guru has bestowed upon us and thank Him from the bottom of our hearts. Guru Purnima celebrations are carried out in Sai Mandirs across the globe. Please send us the details of your mandir, Guru Purnima celebrations and the schedule. We at Sai Vichaar feel blessed to share your Guru Purnima activities with the world. Devotees say... Is it a part of our schedule or should it be a priority? An expert on time management was speaking to a group of business students. To drive home a point, he used an illustration as follows: |
As this man stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said, "Okay, time for a quiz." Then he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class said, "Yes." Then he said, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. Then he asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?" By this time the class was onto him. "Probably not," one of them answered. "Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" "No!" the class shouted. Once again he said, "Good!" Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?"
"No", the speaker replied, "that's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all." The above was a story passed on to me by one of my friends. What are the "big rocks" in our lives that need the priority? love? career?, faith?.. Our priorities during times when going gets rough seem to be different than when we have things under control. Faith and self-realization is not just a squeezy part of our schedule, but they are a priority. If the big rocks go in first, everything else will get in well. Time and tide wait for none and lives are nothing but a lease ticking out, minute by minute, literally so ! Bow to Sri Sai Peace be to all. Ravin Gnanasambandam, Arkansas, USA
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