Sai’s arrival to Minneapolis

Ramnath Varadarajan, California

Om Shri Sachidananda Sadguru Sainath Maharaj Ki Jai.

I am putting together a small collection of real life incident, which are my humble experiences with Sai. It was the month of April 2001, my wife was 8 months pregnant, and my in-laws were coming from India to Minneapolis. My father-in-law is an ardent devotee of Shri SaiBaba. He was very sad that he would be missing the Guru Poornima festival that year, as he will be in Minneapolis. He thought since the number of Indians were way too less and he has never heard of Sai temple in Minneapolis, he would miss the Guru Poornima function. He was reluctant to come here. Even though I was in Pune for nearly 10 years before coming to US, I never went to Shirdi. I never had much exposure to Baba. My thought was that some body is trying to take advantage of people's faith. I never like when people play with other's religious faith and take advantage of it. So many instances came when my relatives and others asked me to come to Shirdi, but some how it never happened. Since I never had any faith, Baba never allowed me to come to Shirdi. My in-laws came during the last week of April 2001. My wife delivered a baby girl on May 3rd. We named her Atmika.

During this time, my father-in-law convinced me to learn Vishnu Sahasranamam. We used to practice it every evening. After four weeks, a flier comes stating that there are Sai Satsangs that have been started and that interested people should contact the given numbers. My father-in-law was way too excited. He wanted to find out more, so he called one of the numbers given in the flier to get more information. He was told that Baba's murthi was coming to that day afternoon. His joy knew no bounds; he was ecstatic, as he couldn't believe that his Sai would come to Minneapolis along with him. He informed all of us that we would be going to this person's house in the evening to see Baba/ We all went to this person's house at 7:00 pm. We came to know this person Ravindranath and his wife Sunitha. We also met their two kids.

I was very happy to meet this couple. I also felt very good when I looked at their prayer room. Baba's statue was very beautiful, I felt very peaceful. My father-in-law and I recited the Vishnu Sahasranamam in front of Baba. Since I was learning at that time, he corrected me once or twice. Ravin and his wife were amazed that Baba arranged for some one to come and recite the Sahasranamam on the same day he came to Minneapolis. They had no words to express their astonishment. I was very surprised at their love towards Baba and the way they fed him dinner and took care of him. We had a nice time at their house and came back home. I started to put things in place and my curiosity started to grow. Thus, Baba not only satisfied my father-in-law's thirst for Him but he also sowed the seeds of faith in me.

I wanted to learn more about Baba... My father-in-law was involved in translating the original Satcharitra in Marathi by Hemadpant to Tamil. He has in-depth knowledge of Sanskrit and the Satcharitra was more Sanskrit than Marathi. He would ask me to translate some words, which were in Marathi for him. Meanwhile the Sai devotees in Minneapolis were preparing for Gurupoornima. I was having my summer semester of my MS program, so I couldn't join the group to help them in planning the Guru Poornima function. The day of Guru Poornima was my last day of the semester. So after my class in the evening I went to the Hindu temple to attend the function. I was amazed to see nearly 350 people that day. Ravin introduced my father-in-law V.Mani and a gentleman named Mukund Raj, who had come from Chicago to every one in the temple. Baba satisfied my father-in-law's request to attend Guru Poornima function not just in a simple way but also in a grand manner. He was truly a very happy person. After this incident, my faith in Baba grew more as I was seeing the way things are happening. I came to know about the website on Saibaba.

I visited the site and started to read the life history of Baba by Ammula Sambasiva Rao, as I wanted to learn more about Baba. In the mean time we were informed about Baba's chitra yatra was done every week in each of the devotee's house. My father-in-law requested Ravin to schedule one before his departure from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. We were asked to have Baba's Satsang on August 24th 2002. We invited every body we knew and we had a very nice Satsang that day. At the end of the function, one of the Sai devotees was talking to me; we were having a general discussion when he enquired about the house and when we moved in. I told him that we moved in on 24th August 2001. He immediately reminded me that Baba came to my house on the 1st year anniversary. I was amazed at the miracle and the way he reminded me about Baba's arrival. Later I informed my father-in-law about this event. He said "you take one step He takes 10 steps". Thus, Sai arrived to my house

Sai, Our Saviour

Raghu Chandra, Richa, Connecticut

By reading the devotee experiences in Sai Sandesh, We know the Sai leelas, mahima and how Baba is taking care of devotees. I would like to share my own experience.

 I came to Newhaven, CT from Hopkins, MN on a project. We were happy for couple of months by the grace of Baba. On a Friday, while coming from office to home, I met with a chain of accidents on highway.  My car's Air bags opened up.  I did not get hurt and did not get even a small scratch. My car was totaled; the car value was depreciated by the Insurance Company. I suffered a financial loss because of that. We all took it positively with faith on Baba. We felt happy for not having any injuries.  We managed without car for couple of months. Later, we moved to Irvine, CA on a project, which was a contract-hire position.

I was able to shift family easily as there is no car. The CA project scrapped because of funding problems, so we came back to Newhaven, CT as easily because I didn’t have to deal with moving with the car. What ever I lost due to totaled car, has been compensated by less expensive relocation. We are in a deep depression due to the scrapping of project; we came out of depression by putting faith on Baba. There are many small incidents, which saved our lives just by the belief on Saibaba. We visited Saibaba temple in Baldwin, NY couple of times.

During our Guru poornima visit, we got a copy of SAI SACHARITA as a compliment from one devotee. From then onwards, we are reading the Sai leelas. By letting of our ego, we can change enemies into friends. We made our time memorable by making friends.

As a consultant and with family, we are facing many difficulties, but by just surrendering to Baba; we are bold and confident in our daily life. We thank all Sai Mandir, Hopkins, MN devotees and families for their association by which we started praying, believing and chanting Baba's Name.

Om Shri Sachidananda Sadguru Sainath Maharaj Ki Jai.

Know your Sai Satcharitha!

1. Who was traveling with Shri Kakasaheb Dixit when he left his mortal coil in 1926?

2. Who said the following to whom at what occasion:  "You must enjoy the fruit - good or bad - of your past actions; if the enjoyment be incomplete, suicide won't help you. You have to take another birth and suffer again; so instead of killing yourself, why not suffer for some time and finish up your store of the fruit of your past deeds and be done with it once and for all?"

3. What was the strange recipe Baba gave to Bala Ganpat Shimpi for relieving his fever?

4. Who was the person that got relieved from suffering of asthma after he smoked chillum offered by Baba?

5. Who did Baba address, "Well, bridegroom! Where are you going dressed so beautifully like this?"