Sai Vichaar 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.Disclaimer From the Editor's Keyboard... Sai devotee Sadashiv Kavthankar suggests the following "Question of the week" as Q. Name any one incident during The Life of Shri Sai Baba which has made a lasting impression on you? Humbly Yours, The Editor Back to Menu Disclaimer 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 saibaba.org is not responsible for the opinions expressed by individual contributors.
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Feature of the week:
Merge into Shri Sai!
To gauge or comprehend Shri Shirdi Sainath is very difficult and impossible for an average person. Whatever is known about Him is very little and that too mostly of the last eight or ten years of His life and stay in Shirdi. A few rare pictures that are available describe his majestic physical form. But his overall personality has to be understood through perception from the available stories about Him. After reading about Him, it could be said that either God descended in a human body or a man ascended to Godhead. Either way it is clear that the human body does hold the key to understanding the myth or truth about God. The influence of the personality of Shri Shirdi Sai did not end with his leaving the mortal coil. In fact today Shri Sai Baba has become a phenomenon and a household name in millions of homes across the globe. An entire nation has come in the grip of His aura. Today in India there is not a major city where a temple dedicated to Shri Sai does not exist. If this phenomenon was limited to a particular country, then it could be termed local or cultural, but it is not so. There are groups of self-motivated individuals in many countries who in their own ways and means are carrying out organized worship to Shri Sai. Some of these efforts have already culminated into temples outside India and more are on their way. By providing individualistic service to each of his devotee sometimes at great inconvenience to Himself and by forging a unique relationship with each which is highly emotive in nature, Shri Shirdi Sai exhibits a very complex personality. Shri Sai tried to break the man made traditions and fanaticisms that existed during his time and brought together the people of differing faiths under one fold. Love and compassion were His main weapons in dealing with all. With fairness to all and ever ready to listen and help, Shri Sai developed individual relationships with those who came to Him. He nicknamed all his favorite visitors. The personalities of His visitors changed to reflect a shade of His own personality, such is the miracle of Shri Sai. That phenomenon of transforming an individual by constant invisible yet certain companionship continues even today. Beginning to understand Shri Sai is to experience Him in one's daily life and chores. Mere reading will not suffice. Slowly but surely the great master will evolve the soul that comes into contact with Him, cleaning its impurities on the way and drawing it ever so close to Himself that eventually that soul will merge into His own personality.
Contributed Article: Miracles!
Miracles happen in every one's life on a periodic basis. Some notice it while others do not. Miracles come in various shapes, forms and the effect it has on the person who experiences or witnesses it. Miracles need to be differentiated from a magician's trick. For most people when they experience something out of the ordinary, it appears as a miracle, especially more so if that is tied to some religious or spiritual topic or subject.
For some, a life saved in the most adverse situations is a miracle! For some, things materializing out of nowhere are a miracle! In the early 1960s, western scientists performed controlled experiments on some Mediums (in this context, a medium is a person who can communicate with souls from other worlds using their clairvoyant skills) and noticed that a medium could call on external forces and have the furniture around them moved about or hang in mid air. (One can go on the Internet and read about the experiences of many such great Mediums.)
Witnessing something that seems impossible or out of the ordinary alone should not be labeled as a Miracle. The effect that the said miracle has on both the object and subject are equally important. Nature has in its fold many hidden attributes, properties and laws that we are not aware of. Human beings stumble upon these hidden aspect of nature periodically, discover and later apply them to use. These discoveries have been happening since time immemorial. What seems common like a cell phone or pager today would be a miracle for someone from the earlier centuries!
Miracles that tend to have materialistic aspects such as materializing objects or things are more geared towards satisfying the ego of a person who craves for influencing, seeing or observing something. It is either help from the other side as a medium or direct knowledge of the hidden laws of nature that are used to perform such miracles. Scientists agree that this universe comprises of atoms and sub atoms that are in constant motion. The whole universe is in constant motion! It is further said that single unbroken particles are rotating around their vortex. According to some Meta physicists, it is the speed at which particles are rotating around its vortex that makes it visible or not. For instance, take a table or mountain, it appears as a solid to the naked eye but deep within each particle is rotating on its vortex but at a very slow speed. On the other hand, consider gas or air, it is also composed of particles that are rotating at a very fast speed around its vortex. By slowing the speed of the vortex of particles one can make the particles appear to the naked eye.
When one embarks on a spiritual journey and constantly practices meditation, one gains knowledge of lot of hidden treasures of Nature. A truly spiritual advanced soul will not use this knowledge for any personal gain. They may use these to aid in healing the sick and needy as the great Reiki masters do. On the other hand, Perfect Masters such as our Sadguru Shri Sai do not need to perform any miracles. They are in such a high state of consciousness that their mere wish becomes the command for Nature! Their mere glance satisfies and nourishes the hungry soul. Cheap miracles are not their calling cards! The biggest miracle Shri Sai performs is to change the nature of the person whom he attracts inside out and continue with it in life after life so that it attains perfection to the same state that He is in!
(Contributed by saibaba.org team)
Narayana Vish Ramkumar Lakshmi Bharani Sai devotee Soundarya Madhura Kanthy Radhika Mamata Mahalakshmi Ranjeetha Vasanthi Anandhi Praveena Rajiv
Quotation of the Week:
Q. What is the best way to worship Sai baba of Shirdi? What should be our routine? If we are non-vegetarian, is it OK? A. by Pratyusha Hemadpant has given us a novel form of worship. Let us, he says, use hot water in the form of tears of joy to wash the Sad-guru's feet, let us besmear His body with sandal-paste of pure love, let us cover His body with the cloth of true faith, let us offer eight lotuses in the form of our eight Sattwik emotions and fruit in the form of our concentrated mind; let us apply to His head bukka (black-powder) in the form of devotion and tie the waistband of Bhakti and place our head on his toes. After decorating the Sad-guru with all jewelry in this way, let us offer our all to Him and wave chamar of devotion to ward off heat. After such blissful worship, let us pray thus:- "Introvert our mind, turn it inward, give us discrimination between the Unreal and the Real and non-attachment for all worldly things and thus enable us to get Self-realization. We surrender ourselves, body and soul (body-consciousness and ego). Make our eyes Yours, so that we should never feel pleasure and pain. Control our body and mind as You will and wish. Let our mind get rest in Your Feet". If you have performed worship in this way there is no question of whether you are a vegetarian or non-vegetarian. Q. What is the best way to worship Sai baba of Shirdi? What should be our routine? If we are non-vegetarian, is it OK? A. by LV Subbarao Worship means performing Pooja, Archana, Service to GOD, Aradhana. Generally we conduct worship to different idols in different ways according to the prevailing custom to the region to which one belong to. In the case of performing worship of Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi, since there are devotees hailed from all over the world in view of HIS wide spread Glory people from various places conduct worship according to how they feel about His presence to them. In fact worship is nothing but Service to God. Sri SAI finds no particular restrictions of worship. Sri Shirdi Sai never prescribed any asan, regulation or any rites to His bhaktas. HE said to leave of all cleverness and always remember Sri Sai and when that would be so, all the shackles would be removed and be free, vide, Ch.10 of Sri Sai Satcharita. Also Sri Sai said, 'if you spread your palms with devotion before ME, I am immediately with you, day and night, vide, Ch.15 of Sri Sai Satcharita. Under Ch.11 of Satcharita, it has been said that Dr.Pandit was allowed to draw Tripundra (three horizontal lines) on HIS forehead, though HE never allowed any devotee to do it for the reason that Dr. Pandit believed HIM as his guru Raghunath Maharaj of Dhopeswar known as Kaka Puranik. In fact, I feel that the way of worshipping generates from the idea that comes from inner soul and it relates to the past janmas krupa and allows any way of worship when the devotee maintains unalloyed devotion to the God Sri Sai. HE corrects it through His mysterious ways where necessary if the devotee has to follow particular method alone in any particular instance. We should never forget that HE is our abode and residing in our heart, that is, our SELF alone. As stated in Ch.6 of Sai Satcharita, the determination to start and finish the pooja is the abandonment of all desires. Thus the intention to perform worship shall allow us to commence and finish it by the Grace of Sri Shirdi Sai.Hence, there would be no confusions in performing service to Sri Shirdi Sai. The routine thus goes as per our intention and desire to perform the worship. Evidently, food restrictions does not come in the way of worship of Sri Sai Baba. As one may feel whether to perform pooja before taking any food or sometimes in certain cases of individuals it may be inevitable to take in something even before commencing worship for many reasons. However being Sri Sai's devotee one should naturally go into satwick food habits. As devotion increases manifold, the Grace of Sri Shirdi Sai shall systemize all the habits.
Shirdi Sai Temple of Chicago and Suburbs, Illinois, USA Shirdi Saibaba Prayer Center, Minnesota Sri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple of Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas Shirdi Sai Satsang, Bay Area, California Sai Satsang, New Jersey, USA Shirdi Sai Satsang, Toronto, Canada Shirdi Sai Mandir, Scarborough, Canada
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