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 FROM SHRI C.B. SATPATHY'S MESSAGE
……“An incarnation, even
after He has left His human embodiment, one aspect of His
mission continues in which He guides people in a subtler form.
That is the role of Sadguru. Sri Krishna as an incarnation
changed the social order through Mahabharat but thereafter,
His role remains till today as a ‘Sadguru’ in Geeta. While
following Geeta millions of Hindus are following the path
laid down by the Sadguru aspect of Sri Krishna. Similarly,
through Bible, Koran, Guru Grantha Saheb, Christ, Prophet
Mohammed and the Sikh Masters continue their divine roles.
The followers of these religions don’t worship numerous deities,
they only pray to God, the Almighty and follow the path prescribed
by the Prophets or Sadgurus and their preachings. Search of
God, search of self and peace need not necessarily be a difficult
or complicated process. The Incarnations/Sadgurus have always
tried to offer the simplest path to humanity.
The easiest way to spiritual
evolution is:
1. To believe that the
Sadguru is the divine incarnation to lead people towards temporal
and spiritual development.
2. To follow the path
laid down by him, as reflected in his earthly conduct and
preachings.
3. To understand that
no man how ever he strives, can evolve in the spiritual field
beyond a certain limit without the help and kindness of a
Sadguru. Even incarnations like Sri Krishna and Sri Rama,
in the process of experiencing the God state in them, had
to be helped by Sandeepani and Vasishta, the Sadgurus of their
time.
4. To focus the entire
spiritual consciousness on the Sadgurus, both in Sakara (formed)
or Nirakar (formless), and worship them.
5. To believe that the
Guru is the repositor of all divine powers and therefore,
He alone should be made the mainstay of one’s life. All needs,
worries and questions should be projected towards him.
Experience has shown that
the people devoted to Sadgurus, evolve faster in the spiritual
field than those following other methods, because such devotees
believe in surrender to divinity which is the ultimate requirement
for spiritual evolution.
Every devotee of Shirdi
Sai, therefore, on this New Year, should decide whether he
wants to hold Baba as his ‘lshta’ - the only one to be prayed,
worshipped and called in time of need. Personally, for me
Sri Sai is the only one and the ultimate. I don’t seek anything
from elsewhere. Who would like to join me?”…….
FROM
"LIFE OF SAI BABA" BY NARASIMHA SWAMI
……“The ordinary
man has to remember that his gentle plant of devotion has
to be grown and tended and hedged with considerable care and
for that purpose the regular forms of worship and the usual
directions for the growth of devotion by attending pujas,
Bhajanas and other ceremonies must be followed for a long
time before attaining full fruition of Bhakti. Especially
the nine modes of worship mentioned in the Bhagavata and stressed
by Sri Sai Baba often have to be attended to and followed.
In setting out those nine forms, one can see how the external
and internal are inextricably interwoven and combined and
how one gradually progresses with lower and external forms
till his inner kernel of devotion attains maturity and perfection.
The nine modes are,
Sravana
Listenging to accounts of the deeds of God, his Avataras and
Saints.
Kirtana
of Vishnu, reciting these or repeating God’s names and praise.
Smarana
constantly recalling these, especially uttering God’s names.
Padasevanam
falling at the feet of God and Saints.
Archana
formal worship, for example with flowers, water, food, scents
and all the 16 upacharas.
Vadana
prostration before God and the saints.
Dasya,
for example service, doing every work for God or Saint.
Sakhya
remaining in the company of God or Saint.
Nivedana
that is, surrender of the self that is forgetting oneself
entirely in the contemplation of God after formally offering
the self as a gift to God.”……
ARTICLE
''IT
WAS WELL DONE THAT IT WAS NOT WELL DONE''
While treading through
the concepts of the eternal journey of an Individual Soul
(Jeevatma) and its ultimate goal of regaining the consciousness
that it is part of, the Supreme Soul (Shivatma), one finds
that the Individual Soul passes through different bodies or
forms during different births or incarnations, gradually updating
and re-updating its consciousness. Somewhere in its eternal
pilgrimage, the Soul gets guided by another experienced one,
who has already attained the goal and beyond and filled with
extreme level of compassion, takes the responsibility to guide
the others in the desired path. This surely can be described
as the most compassionate act in the whole universe. Probably
for the Guide, the motto is "the Soul must go on......."
Here, we would not discuss
more about the journey of the Soul. Rather, we would discuss
about the relationship between the Guide and the Pilgrim as
mentioned above, going through some incidents from the lives
of some able Masters (Guide) and their great Disciples (Pilgrims).
Here, we would try and delve into the nectar filled intricacies
in their relationships, the eternal longing for each other
and the greatest milestones set by them for others to look
up to.
Saint Sarmad used to be
a well-to-do Parsi business man, visiting various parts of
northern India for trade. Once while in Bihar, he saw a very
good looking young man and was spell bound by his charm. It
automatically struck him ‘If the creation of God can be so
beautiful, how beautiful the God himself would be?’ Then Sarmad
wandered in search of the most Beautiful God and after some
time, he met the great saint ‘Bhikha’. The Pilgrim had found
his Guide, or rather the vice versa…
After his companionship
of the gross body with the Master was over, Sarmad wandered
in the streets of Delhi, praising his all compassionate Master.
Sometimes he used to utter verses, expressing sheer joy and
ecstasy at the thought of the Master; sometimes praising the
glory of the Master; and at times pensively longing for the
Master.
For many he was a revered
one and yet for some, a mad man. On this, in one of his Rubaiyats,
Sarmad said, ‘they say that my life was not well done; but
I say it was well done that it was not well done.’ Thus he
had aptly justified that if he had put himself into the mundane
chores of the world, then he would have missed the most important
companionship of his Master. Once, condemning the worldly
contacts and looking up to the Master’s compassion, Sarmad
said, ‘For my misdeeds, I bow my head in shame. I pass my
life in worries and doing what I should not. But O’ Master,
your reputation for grace and mercy is at stake; not my reputation
for misdeeds.’
Such was the intensity
of love and longing ness of Sarmad for his Master that at
times Sarmad used to utter words of confrontation, challenging
the Master to prove wrong, Sarmad’s own conviction of the
supreme greatness of the Master. In one Rubaiyat, Sarmad said,
‘Tell me the cause of my broken-heartedness; Tell me how long
I shall endure this pain; I know I am a sinner and a supplicant
at the door of your grace; And if you can not forgive me,
lead me then to the door of another one more compassionate
than you.’
With the passage of time,
when Sarmad’s popularity grew as a holy saint, the priests
and the advisors of Aurangjeb, the then mogul emperor became
jealous and charged Sarmad with the act of blasphemy of Islam.
In Islam, idol worship is strictly prohibited, yet Sarmad
was going on and on with worshipping and praising his Master.
When Sarmad was confronted with this charge of idol worship,
he said,
‘Why do you seek His abode
in the chapel or the mosque? Can’t you see His creation above
and below? Wherein does He not abide? The whole universe made
by Him recites His tale. He alone is wise, who for Him is
mad….’
‘I am an idol-worshipper
and not among the believers. I go towards the mosque, though
I am no Moslem…’
Thus, Sarmad, amidst all
the chaos of the mundane world, kept on praising the glory
of his Master and eventually when Sarmad left his gross body,
none other than his Master appeared before him to greet him
into the other world.
As the disciple longs
for the Master, the Master also longs no less for the disciple.
The relationship between Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi and probably
His greatest disciple Shri Upasani Maharaj is an apt example
of the same.
When Upasani Maharaj came
to Shri Sainath for the first time in Shirdi, Shri Sainath
was already waiting for the arrival of Upasani Maharaj. When
Shri Sainath asked for ‘Dakshina’, Upasani Maharaj gave Shri
Sainath a coin, which was no longer valid. Immediately, with
all love and compassion, Shri Sainath gave a hint about Upasani
Maharaj’s future. Shri Sainath said, ‘You have given me this
coin, but I will give you the most precious one.’ This kind
of strange behavior did not impress Upasani Maharaj much and
he wanted to leave Shirdi as soon as possible.
Before leaving Shirdi,
when Upasani Maharaj asked for Shri Sainath’s permission,
Shri Sainatn said, ‘You will return to Shirdi in eight days.’
And thus happened, on the eighth day, Upasani Maharaj reached
Kopergaon, a place just eight miles away from Shirdi, to his
utter confusion. He realized that during the nine days, he
had actually lost his path and was roaming around Shirdi.
At that moment, Upasani Maharaj understood the ‘What’ and
‘Why’ of Shri Sainath’s words. Filled with insurmountable
love for the Beloved, he returned back to Shirdi. The ‘Guide’
had found His able ‘Pilgrim’ and the journey of Upasani Maharaj
towards the pinnacle had just begun to end.
Upon Shri Sainath’s instructions,
Upasani Maharaj started living in the Kandoba Temple, just
adjacent to Shirdi. Shri Sainath seldom used to meet Upasani
Maharaj physically. Through many visions and mysterious instructions,
Shri Sainath carved a Perfect Master, the highest of the high,
out of Upasani Maharaj, in just about four years!
Under the active observation
of his Master, Upasani Maharaj started the final phase of
his pilgrimage, practicing greatest levels of penance and
other spiritual practices. On one occasion, sitting amongst
some devotees, Shri Sainath declared with divine love for
Upasani Maharaj, ‘For me, the whole world is one side and
Upasani, the other.’ That is probably the greatest level of
performance evaluation any disciple can never even dream of
from his Master.
When Swami Vivekananda
met with Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa for the first time,
Shri Ramakrishna abruptly started crying like a child. Tears
of the pleasure of finding a missing one were rolling down
his cheeks incessantly. The disciples of Shri Ramakrishna
remained dumbfounded at the site. Then to add to everybody’s
surprise, Shri Ramakrishna said, ‘Where had you been? I have
been waiting for you for so long?’ At that point of time Vivekananda
did not quite understand what the Master had said. It took
him some time to understand that actually at that very moment,
the Guide had found His long lost Pilgrim.
Once, Shri Yogananda was
sitting with his Master Shri Yukteshwar Giri. There was something
in Yogananda’s mind, that he had kept to himself for long,
to be expressed to the Master. On this occasion, Yogananda
could not restrain himself any more and asked the master,
‘Master, till now, never ever have you told that you love
me.’ Hearing this, Shri Yukteshwar Giri remained silent for
some time and eventually expressed His unfathomable love for
the disciple by saying, ‘But why do you wish to bring the
warm feelings into the purview of the coldness of vocabulary?’
Upon Yogananda’s insistence, the master eventually said’ ‘so
let it be; I love you Yogananda.’ Then filled with gratitude,
Yogananda said, ‘Ah Master that is my ticket to heaven.’
The above incident subtly
describes the feelings the Master and the Disciple hold deep
within their souls for each other. Those are never expressed
and always understood and experienced with no words uttered
and no questions asked.
The Master of the great
Bullah Shah was revered Shah Inayat. Bullah Shah served the
Master with great zeal and assiduousness. Complete surrender
and service to the Master with a life bubbling with renunciation
and unswerving devotion, gained for him the grace of the Master.
With the passage of time, Bullah Shah, unable to control his
joy, began expressing his divine experiences before the uninitiated.
That displeased Shah Inayat and for a time, Bullah Shah was
expelled from the hermitage of the Master.
With the separation, the
whole universe fell crashing down on Bullah Shah. His state
of mind was no better than a mad man, not having any control
whatsoever over his behavior. He did not have any sense of
pain and pleasure; the feeling of agony and joy were the same
for him. During this period he once wrote, ‘What was my fault
that you forsook me and went away? I pass my nights and days
in tears. More tense and brutal are the shafts of love than
the canon shots and swords. None is cruel like love, it is
very deadly and painful……’
Completely ignorant about
what is to be done about the problem, and filled with unquenchable
thirst of love, Bullah Shah started learning traditional dances
of a dancing girl to impress the Master. Soon, after he became
proficient in it, disguised as a dancing girl, he went to
a congregation of Sufis held at Shah Inayat’s place and melodiously
sang the following:
‘My Lord, my Guru has
left me, what shall I do? He has left me, I must pursue Him.
The flames of the fire of separation are leaping without sight
of Him. Without my preceptor, I have lost both my worlds…’
The melody of the voice,
the depth of the meaning and the piercing agony of separation
made Shah Inayat recognize His disciple Bullah Shah, despite
the attire of Bullah Shah’s disguise. And when the Master
interrogated, ‘Is it Bullah?’, the disciple answered, ‘Not
Bullah but Bhullah (meaning literally ‘the erring one’).’
An embrace followed and once again Bullah Shah and Shah Inayat
were together.
From the above one understands
that once the Disciple finds the Master or vice versa, there
is only room left for divine love and longing for each other.
Irrespective of the physical proximity, both the emotions
remain there till the Disciple and the Master become one and
the same. For the Master, the divine welfare of the Disciple
is the priority and for the Disciple, the Master prioritizes
over the mundane world. All barriers with regard to the society,
religion, custom and so on and so forth are of no relevance.
Thus amongst and irrespective of all the chaos and anarchy,
the Disciple is all concentration upon his Master. As the
Disciple progresses in the path of love shown by the Master,
his judgment towards the worldly life remains – ‘It was well
done that it was not well done…’
Debabrata
Satpathy
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DEVOTEE'S EXPERIENCE
I am 17 years old and
I live in Malaysia. I would like to share with you my experience
with Shirdi Sai Baba. A few months ago, I used to have an
unbearable stomach ache. I had to visit the clinic thrice
a week. On two occasions I was admitted to the Medical Centre.
At times I felt very shy to see the doctor because I kept
falling sick. One day, my friend’s father, Mr. Rajaram, who
is a Baba devotee, prayed for me to Shirdi Sai Baba because
I missed school and tuition classes almost for two months.
After praying he asked Baba “What shall I do”, and Baba told
to apply Udi (ashes from the Dhuni) to your forehead. Everything
will be fine. So, on 20th July 2006 when I was going to school,
his wife gave the Udi. I applied a bit of it on my forehead
and kept the remaining Udi in my pocket. After recess, I my
stomach started aching again and I felt like vomiting and
both my legs started shivering. So, I decided to call my mother
to take me back home. I needed some coins to use the public
telephone. I put my hand inside my pocket, and instead of
coins the Udi came into my hand. I was very surprised, and
applied the Udi on my forehead and prayed to Baba. It was
a miracle….. immediately the pain stopped and in few minutes
I was fully alright. Since that day I never had the pain again.
My faith in Baba started from that day onwards.
Thank you so much Baba…..
Navena Subramaniam,
Malaysia
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DEVOTEES' FORUM
An Essence……
A little girl and her father were crossing a bridge. The
father was kind of scared. So he asked his little daughter,
“Sweetheart, Please hold my hand so that you don’t fall into
the river.” The little girl said, “No, Father. You hold my
hand.”
“What is the difference?” asked the puzzled father.
“There is a big difference,” replied the girl. “If I hold
your hand and anything happens to me, chances are that I may
let your hand go. But then, if you hold my hand, I know for
sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand
go.” I will be safe.
All of us wish to walk the path of life, holding Baba’s
hand. But when difficulties occur, we might stumble and lose
the hold. SO let us pray to Baba here and now that HE should
rather hold our hand forever, for then we will be safe on
every bridge of life. Even if we stumble and falter, He will
be there with us always. All we need to do here is to stretch
out our hand to our SADGURU with love and
intense trust in eyes and with the Heart of a
Toddler. For the essence of trust is
not in its bind, but in its bond.
Pallavi Shankar
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Devotees’ Forum
READER'S REFLECTION
Thanking you for sending me wonderful and peaceful messages
at the time I am my family are going through hard times .
We wish by THY GRACE OF GOD SAI BABA to remove all the obstacles
in the life we are at the moment experencing. We are great
devotees of GOD SAI BABA and SAI BABA shall manifest in one
form or the other to HELP US. BOW TO SAI BABA PEACE BE TO
ALL.
OM SAI RAM
Manfred, Vimla and Meenakshi KAISER
I am very
thankful for receiving "Heritage of Shirdi Sai"
magazine and Sai Heritage E-Zine sent to me by some one who
is so kind and loving. By getting Heritage of Shirdi Sai I
feel like I am being blessed by Shri Sai Baba for showering
his kind divine mercy and love on me. I also would like to
thank each and everyone who is working so hard for this excellent
web site. Please keep up the good work and may Sai Baba’s
blessing be on you all in this world and the next. Please
pray that I can soon do the darshan of Sai Baba in Shirdi.
Thank you.
Pritam, Canada
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Reader's Reflection
NEWS OF
SHIRDI SAI
ACTIVITIES
SAI
KA AANGAN, GURGAON
As inspired by Shri C.B.
Satpathy, Vasant Utsav is an annual feature of Sai Ka Aangan
in Gurgaon. It is celebrated with customary gaiety and a riot
of colours and festivity including cultural events and Mahaprasad.
This is to inform all Baba devotees that the Vasant Utsav
will be celebrated in Sai Ka Aangan on the 23rd of Jan 2007
for which all are welcome. You can contact us on 0124-4041378.
SHIRDI SAI BABA
SANSTHAN, CANADA
THE RESOURCE CENTRE
Shirdi Sai Baba Sansthan,
Canada is pleased to announce the establishment of it's first
Resource Centre in Woodbridge, Toronto. All visits are by
appointment only. Shri Sai Satcharita is available in all
languages. The Resource Centre is open Mon to Friday between
10:00 - 5:00PM. Location: Maple Crest Private School - 28
Roytech Rd. Woodbridge, On L4L 8E4 Ph: 905 - 652-6666 For
other Details call 416-294-4804 or visit http://www.shirdisainath.org/
SHIRDI SAI MANDIR, TORONTO, CANADA
The Shirdi Sai Mandir located at 2721 Markham Road, Toronto,
Ontario, M1X 1L5 (Intersection of Markham and Nashdene) is
open through out the day on Saturday, Sunday & holidays
and in the morning and evenings on all weekdays. Baba's Kakad
Aarti, Abhishek Puja, Madhyan Aarti, Dhoop Aarti, Satcharita
Reading & Shej Aarti are performed everyday. Bhajans &
Sai Naam Sankirtan in evening on Thursday & Saturday.
For daily schedule, temple activities & events information
please visit Mandir's website : http://www.theshirdisaimandir.com/
or send an email to info@theshirdisaimandir.com
or call 647-444-4724.
PERSATUAN SHIRDI SAI BABA SELANGOR, MALAYSIA
I belong to the Shirdi Sai Group (registered as Persatuan
Shirdi Sai Baba, Selangor), Malaysia. Sai Ram everybody. This
to inform the Baba devotees in Malaysia and Singapore that
every Thursday we conduct prayers in the morning at 9.00 am
and bhajans and satsang in the evenings 7.30 pm onwards. Anyone
who is interested in joining us may please contact SP Kannan
at 012-2739486; or Usha at 012-2392911; or Res: 03-33717540.
Also if you come across any Malaysian devotees, please direct
them to us. Thank you and Sai Ram.
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