Shirdi Saibaba Prayer Center Inc., Twin Cities
Minnesota, USA
Volume 1 Issue 12
December 2003


Contents
Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma

Necessity of a Guru

Baba fixed the car!

Sai Sandesh

Quotation of the month

Did You know?

About Shirdi Saibaba Prayer Center

Sai Sandesh

Sai Sandesh is a Monthly Newsletter dedicated to the Life and message of Saibaba of Shirdi. Please send your contributions to hamaresai@yahoo.com. If you want to receive this newsletter please click here. Shirdi Saibaba Prayer Center, Twin Cities, MN is not responsible for the opinions expressed by the individual contributors.

About Shirdi Saibaba Prayer Center.

Shirdi Saibaba Prayer Center, Inc., Twin Cities, MN is registered as a Non-profit corporation in the state of Minnesota. The organization is funded by the voluntary contributions of Sai devotees. The Prayer Center is currently located at 725 NE Lake St. Apt. 139, Hopkins, MN, where regular Sai Satsangs are conducted and occasions of importance to Saibaba of Shirdi are celebrated. In addition to the Prayer Center activities, the organization is also involved with community service including "Meals on Wheels" and "Adapt a Family" programs. Please visit the Prayer Center and participate in its activities. Please write to hamaresai@yahoo.com for more details.

Activities

Sponsor “Adopt a family”!
Shirdi Saibaba Prayer Center is participating in “Adopt a Family”, a program designed to help people during times of need. This holiday season, the Prayer Center is working with “Kinship of Greater Minneapolis” to help a few needy children. The help will include fulfilling the family wish list consisting of items such as clothes, toys, small appliances and other gift items befitting the Holidays. The total expense per sponsor is less than $ 50. For more details and if you would like to sponsor, please write to hamareasi@yahoo.com.

New Year Eve Satsang
Please mark your calendar for the New Year Eve satsang at the Prayer Center. The event will include Sai Abhishek, Aarathis, Bhajans, MahaPrasad and Naam Jap. Details to follow…

Fortnightly Satsanghs
Shirdi Saibaba Prayer center conducts fortnightly satsanghs from 5pm onwards and the program includes Abhishek to Baba, Dhoop Arti, Bhajan/Kirtans, Naam Jap, Shej Arti and Maha Prasad. The next 2 satsanghs are scheduled on December 20, Jan 3.

Monthly Feature
Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma

Shri BV Narasimhaswamiji wrote the following in “Life of Saibaba”:
“Once a young man went out at night and under a tree saw an evil spirit, or ghost, and hastily returned. Baba the next day asked him what he saw. The young man answered, ‘I saw an evil spirit’. Baba said, ‘No, It was I’. The person answered again that he saw an evil spirit. Then Baba said. ‘Go to your mother and ask her’. The man went to his mother, and she told him that Baba (being God) is in every creature, evil spirit or good spirit, and, therefore, ‘Baba wants you to remember that He is in everything and that you need not fear anything.’ Similarly, when Baba passed away from his body in 1918, Lakshmi was praying, ‘Baba, should you not show yourself to me?’ and came out in the dark from the Mosque. On her way, there was a snake. At once she said, ‘Baba, if you come to me in this form of a snake, what am I to do?’ In spite of the terrible form of the snake, she was able to picture Baba within the snake and prayed to it. This is the practice commended by Baba even to those who are at the lowest rung of the ladder. Those who are capable of achieving the highest aim find that Baba’s advice or lesson is far more patent and easily achieved by yogic means. If you dip yourself by laya in God constantly, then you feel that you are part and parcel of God – “Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma” BG X1 (9) 22-23. Similarly, everything is part and parcel of God.

The dog, the snake, and everything is a manifestation of that sacred force which you call your God, and, if so realized, it will really react on you like God. Stand still before a snake. Worship it as God, and it will not bite you. Stand before an evil spirit, and say: ‘Thou art Brahman’. The evil spirit will not harm you. The very moment you are thinking that everything is God, your spirit is part of God, you cease to be your body and no harm can befall you. This is the most valuable teaching and training that Baba gave under this heading of Cosmic feeling of Godhood”.

Similarly Sri Sainathuni Sarathbabuji says, “ When we understand and are aware that what is in us is the same Chaitanya or Conscious that is present in everyone, a sense of equality among all is established. The Chaitanya in everyone begins to respond favorably to the Sankalpa, the intent of our Chaitanya. Even if someone is angry with us, we do not feel like harming Him. If we are in need of something, we receive cooperation from others”.

Devotees Experiences
About the Necessity of Guru

 Satya Bajjuri, Plymouth, MN
I bow to the lotus feet of our Sadguru Shri Sainath Maharaj. One of the stories of Sai Satcharitra, talks about the importance and necessity of Guru. Why does one need a guru? This is the question posed by Hemadpant on the very first day of his arrival in Shirdi. Hemadpant involved in this hot discussion with Balasaheb Bhate. And the sweet-leela of Sai goes on… Next day Kakasaheb Dixit went to Sri Sai Baba to take his permission to leave. In this conversation, Baba tells Kaka Saheb that there are many ways to go “High Up” and one of the way starts from Shiridi. “If he could take guide, which is meant Guru here, he will take you straight to your destination, avoiding wolves, tigers and ditches etc., on the way. If there be no guide, there is the danger your being lost in jungles or fall into ditches.” Hemadpant was present on this occasion and thought that this is the answer Baba has given to him. He noted that “Paramathma is possible only as the teaching of Guru, for getting self-realization and that the only virtues necessary for such progress are faith and patience”.

With Baba’s blessings, I am sharing here one of my experiences (this one and few other leelas in future.), how Baba is helping me in my temporal and spiritual affairs. Let me share one of the sweet-leelas of Baba in my life which exactly suits to the above Baba’s teaching, “Guru will take you straight to your destination”. This happened in August 2003. His Holiness Sri Ganapathi Satchinanda Swami ji visited Minneapolis, MN for the first time. And as part of his holy trip, there was a Music Nada Prasara program conducted by Sri Swami ji, organized on August 9, 2003 at Ted Mann’s Concert Hall in Minneapolis Downtown. I was very much interested to go to this program and I prayed to Baba, to bless me to attend this event without fail. The long-waiting day arrived and as I am not familiar with University campus/downtown roads etc, I thought, we should leave early enough (at least 1 hour early), so that I should not get confused with directions. However, as usual, I could not leave early as planned, and started 30minutes before the program. There was lot of traffic on Hwy 35N, and as I was afraid, I might get late, I was forced to take next exit. Now, I cannot afford to go back to highway and take the correct exit, because that was full of traffic. And the direction I was going on the downtown roads is opposite to where the hall is. I realized this and wanted to turn back. So I took a right onto another small road but that happened to be one-way and I cannot turn back. My frustration started! After few minutes of taking various lanes which ever came up on my way and somehow I got back to the main road. Again, I missed the next inter-section, which I am supposed to take as per the Internet directions. I was scolding myself in my mind, and took next exit with intention to turn back but which happened to be one-way again and took another road and then another… All the while, as I am driving, I was praying to Baba to take me to the event, as I wanted to be there right from the beginning. And I see my watch, only 2 minutes left to the program schedule and I was getting disturbed…

Then this miracle happened. I was thinking that I have taken all wrong intersections, and to my surprise, the lane that I entered has board at the entry of the road, and it mentioned Ted Mann Concert Hall. I didn’t even notice that in my frustration, but my wife looked at it and said the Hall is in the same lane pointing to the board. All this time I was thinking that I am ending up someplace where I don’t even know how to get back, taking turns on turns, and the miracle happened, What a wonderful leela of our merciful Sadguru, the destination is right in front of me. Look at the sweet leela here.. I have taken 4 to 5 turns without any knowledge and it happened to be my destination! Oh! I salute you “Sai”. Many times this is what I experienced; when we pray with “Total Saranagathi” the wonders take place. Generally, we think, that we have a perfect plan for our destinations or goals, put lot of effort, and think that we are taking wise steps and nothing could go wrong! But the fact is, things can go wrong! Sometimes it can be other way, when things are going bad, we pray to Baba and still doubt that it cannot be fixed, but miracles do happen if we have Sadguru’s krupa.

The goals that need lot of efforts from you can be achieved with no-hassle if we have Sadguru Shri Sai’s Blessings as explained in the above Satcharitha story and from the sweet leela that I experienced. The Sai Sandesh I learned from this my experience is “Pray with Faith”, and does Sampoorna Saranagathi and just keep watching, miracles will happen.

Bow to Sri Sai, Peace be to all. Shri Satchinanda Sadguru Sainath Maharaj ki Jai!

Baba fixed the car!

Ravin Gnanasambandam, Coon Rapids, MN

I want to share an experience happened several years ago. We were visiting Dallas on one of our trips. We were driving and it was busy hour traffic at the junction of three major highways with most traffic leading out into the suburbs. Since the exit I was supposed to take came on the left, I was traveling on the extreme left lane watching out for my speed and the exit. All of a sudden, I noticed another lane to my left that lead to the exit I am supposed to take. I immediately swirled leftwards into the exit in order not to miss the exit. During the sudden rush of events, I failed to notice a fast traveling vehicle on the left lane, which was a just few feet behind mine. Since it happened too fast for the driver behind to react, he hit my car on the rear bumper and fortunately for both of us, the driver was able to control the car and negotiate the curve we were approaching. I began to increase my speed in order to maintain the traffic flow and I realized that my car was making a huge noise at the rear, probably due to the broken rear bumper. It went on for a few minutes and by then I was totally shaken up and did not know what to do. I took the next exit and pulled into the first gas station I saw. We got out of the car and to our utter disbelief we saw the whole bumper hanging on the ground and was dragging all along! The agony got manifold because the new car we were driving did not belong to us!

I did not find any other damage to the vehicle, and we were physically safe. The vehicle following us went on, probably not wanting to involve in the mess. I am sure every car driving behind us saw the broken bumper and heard the noise! The incident happened on a bridge and we were driving just a few feet away from the concrete parapet wall. Praying to Sainath, as we always do at times of distress, slowly I drove around in search of someone who could help me fix the bumper and the rear indicator lights without which I couldn’t drive. I found an auto body shop that was right in the next street. The shop was open although it was late in the evening. After about 45 minutes, the damage was fixed and it was minimum. The bumper did not crack or break into two although it was dragged on the high way for some time and the small scratch it had was almost invisible. It was as if nothing had happened to the car! While so many things could have gone wrong that day, we believe that it was our God SaiBaba, who saved us from breaking into the wall and plunging down, or the driver behind who could have been hurt in the process, and the car sustaining from major damage. Our five-year-old son, who was amused and laughing at all these events, exclaimed in the end, "Baba fixed the car!"

Incidentally, we were going to the local temple and we wanted to reach before the closing hours of the temple. We could not make it to the temple that day. The next day, a Thursday was a blessing and we had a blissful visit to the temple. Lessons were learnt and Sainath showered His grace, once more.


Quotation of the Month

“Our own actions are responsible for our sorrows and pleasures. Have patience. Allah can only remove the sorrows. If you meditate on God, he will look after you. You have to give him your all-body, mind, wealth and surrender yourself completely. Then God will definitely protect us. God is the head of all of us. Allah Malik.
- Saibaba of Shirdi

Did you know?

Abdul, a Muslim devotee of Saibaba was in close proximity to Baba involving himself in washing clothes of Baba, sweeping the Mosque, the Chavadi and surrounding places. He used to sweep and remove dirt and excreta from the village streets where Baba walked. Baba used to call him, Halalkoor (scavenger) and “my Miriambi”.
– (Source: Life of Saibaba by Pujya BV Narasimhaswami ji).

Notice - Receipts for contributions

The receipts for devotees' monetary contributions shall be mailed to the devotee address that is printed on the check. Devotees are humbly requested to make sure the correct address appears on the check. If you have moved to a new address please strike the old address and print correct address. Please retain your receipts for tax benefits under section 501(c)(3) of IRS code. All contributions that are received after December 31st, 2003 will be accounted for calendar year 2004.

Federal tax-exempt status pending with IRS

Shirdi Saibaba Prayer Center has filed the application along with necessary documents for obtaining Federal Tax exempt status. Devotees will be notified about the IRS response as soon as it is received.

Om Sai! Please send your comments, suggestions, contributions in the form of features, quotations and experiences to hamaresai@yahoo.com. Please forward this to all who will be interested.