In the April 26 issue of Sai Vichaar, I wrote a response to the question of the week concerning my own understanding of a Guru's successors. In describing my beliefs, I stated that, if a devotee of Sai Baba has a desire to meet a living Guru, Baba will send one, and that he will be of a pure unbroken lineage. Using a male gender to describe this belief was inadvertent. I wish to apologize to Mahadevi, the creative female aspect of the Universe residing in all nature. Women have held extraordinary roles in all religious and spiritual traditions. The sacrifice and burden that mothers bear is the cornerstone of humanity. With this in mind, I am honored to have the opportunity to call to memory, four extraordinary women who loved Sai Baba of Shirdi very deeply. With folded hands, my mind offers fragrant flowers of love and gratitude to Bayajabai, Lakshmibai, Hazrat Babajan, and Godavri Ma.

Bayajabai is the mother of Tatya Kote, a close devotee of Babaji. During Baba's youth, he went into deep states of meditative samadhi. He would seat himself somewhere in the surrounding area of Shirdi. Bayajabai loved Baba deeply and would roam about in search of him, in order to bring him nourishment. At times, due to his deep samadhi states; in fear of his health, she would cradle him, and hand feed him like a baby. With folded hands, I offer her fragrant flowers of love and gratitude.

Lakshmibai was a close personal attendant of Gurudev, who was one of the few devotees, allowed to perform seva in the masjid during the evening. Before Babaji's passing, he handed her nine rupees. These rupees are said to represent the nine forms of bhakti (love and devotion) she attained through serving her Gurudev. With folded hands, I offer her fragrant flowers of love and gratitude.

Hazrat Babajan of Poona was a fully enlightened spiritual Master who lived during Baba's time. She and Babaji loved each other deeply. She referred to Sai Baba as her brother and acknowledged him as the one with the key. Her motherly kiss on the forehead of Meher Baba, catapulted him into a state of God-intoxicated madness for nine months. With folded hands, I offer her fragrant flowers of love and gratitude. Godavri Ma was the heir to Upasni's ashram in Sakori. Although she was just a young woman when brought to serve Upasni Maharaj, she became a cornerstone of grace and love for all devotees of Sai Baba of Shirdi. With folded hands, I offer her fragrant flowers of love and gratitude. With folded hands, I offer fragrant flowers of love and gratitude to Sri Mahadevi, residing in all women, and in all creation. Aum Sai Ram!

(Contributed by Robert Kirk, New York)
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Contributed Article: Bhakthi - BHAKTI -SIDDHO BHAVATI, AMRUTO BHAVATI TRUPTO BHAVATI

When Bhakti reaches its complete fulfillment by faith and patience, the devotee obtains fulfillment satisfaction and immortality. If devotee completely is dissolved in the deity or guru, he worships, by full faith and surrender; he will attain fulfillment and finally attains immortality by dissolving himself into his guru or deity he worships. THe fulfillment is not fulfillment of one's desire but fulfillment of life's destiny, which is self-realization. By practice of yoga and constant attention to God, one attains certain siddhis or powers like power of controlling another etc. However, this is not a proper desire. These siddhis go away as they come and also are frequent obstructions to the final goal of devotee becoming a guru an intense total absorption is what should be aimed at. Bhagavadgeeta mentions that those desiring fulfillment of desire, those who seeks of Guru's and God's full swarupa and even those who seek knowledge of the meaning of the word God are all good bhaktas, Thus one may start approaching Guru/God for fulfillment of earthly desires but finally will only pray for merger with Guru/God. Repetition of His name, reading about Him, doing pooja to him continuously will remove all impurities in us and finally lead to immortality.

(Contributed by MRK, Phoenix, AZ, USA)
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Experiences of Devotees

Rajesh Wattal
I am hereby sharing my experience with all of you. I have an important meeting on 16 of May 2001. I was very desperate to visit SAI BABA Temple before this meeting. I tried my best to find out SAI BABA Temples around my place but could not find one .I knew of a Temple in El Paso, TX, but was not sure. Then one day I saw an article in SAI Vichaar that one woman visited SAI BABA temple in Houston, TX. It gave me little hope .I started sending mails to people I know in Houston and started searching Internet to get its address and to know more about it but without success. I was demoralized and thought this time Baba does not want me to see him. I lost my hope of visiting Baba's temple.

Everything was done for the meeting and all the documents were ready except one. I had to go to Indian Consulate to get it and it will take approximately 1-2 months to get it.

I was really upset and decided to go to Houston myself. Before leaving I again searched the Internet and found a site where somebody had mentioned Hindu Temples in Houston. I mailed the information to a friend asking if he knows about it. He replied that his friend might know about it and gave me his phone number. I was excited by this mail and started calling that person but to my disappointment, I could not catch hold of him. I left numerous messages but there was no reply. I was determined to go there so I left Tuesday night for Houston. We reached there early morning. It was 8am and we were at the Indian Consulate office. We knew it would open at 9 AM, still we went upstairs. In front of the office was a girl standing and waiting. It was almost one hour for the office to open so my wife started to talk to that girl. Initially, we though she was also a visitor but we came to know she was an employee of the consulate and had come earlier that day. She was the one whom we were supposed to meet for our work. We discussed our problem with her. She did not commit anything but promised to help in every best manner as her boss was the one supposed to issue us the document which by normal course would take 1-2 months. After the office was open, we went to her filled our forms and she spoke to her boss. To her and our surprise not even once her boss showed any reluctance. He told that our work will be done and asked us to wait for some time. We were overjoyed, thanked her & SAI BABA for their help. Within one hour our letter was ready .We could not believe it has happened to us .I once again thank that girl for her timely help from bottom of our heart & may SAI BABA bless her family. NOW BEGINS BABA'S MIRACLE!

To the employee that helped us, we asked same question we were asking everyone that if she knew SAI BABA Temple's address. To our surprise, she said she does not know exact address but it is at HillCroft Road, which was nearby. In fifteen minutes, we were able to find it. Seeing SAI Baba's Murti, tears started rolling from my eyes. He is great. He got our work done in no time and fulfilled our wish of visiting his temple before 16 May. Requirement of the document and coming to Houston was just an excuse. There was an old lady in temple that was sweetest person I have ever met in my life. She is the one who runs this temple. After meeting us she forced us to have lunch with her as if BABA told her that we were hungry since last night. She was having so much of food that many people could have had it. We were hungry and thought it is Baba's wish to have food with him in his temple. So we could not refuse and had lunch there with her. She really treated us like her own children. That experience was out of world. Her Name is Laxmiben B Thakkar .One can visit site www.shirdibaba.org for more details, address, directions etc. Everyday in evening, they do evening Arti in Marathi and especially on Thursday there is SAI Bhajans from 7 - 9PM it ends with evening arti. Since I stayed back and attended it on Thursday, there were around 100 -125 people and food was served to all after arti. I was waiting for it by grace of SAI BABA and help of few people I was able to experience it. I want all SAI Devotees to pray for my meeting, which is on 16 May.
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Devotees say...

Prasad Mulukutla
I was not a Sai devotee until I set my foot on Shirdi soil with my family. I felt the presence of Sai maa when we went to Dwarakamayi for Kakad Arthi. The mental peace I got there is beyond expression. People singing evening arathi in chorus was a thrill to watch.

Few days after our Shirdi trip, one of my very close friends came to me and asked me if I can accompany him to distribute his brother's wedding cards. Since that was the last working day for my college before summer holidays and I had no work in college, I went with him to distribute wedding cards. It is important to mention here that in our college exams start after summer vacation. Sometime in the afternoon time, we relaxed in a Cafe and were discussing our plan for the rest of the day. Suddenly something crossed my mind (to this day I wonder how I got it) and I told my friend that we would go to college for a while and then resume our work for the day. When we went to my department, the typist-clerk was typing our attendance for the semester to send it to the university and when I approached him to say hello, I noticed that my attendance was wrongly typed as 8% instead of 68%. I told him that he mistyped my attendance but since the master copy given by the professor was also showing 8%, the clerk denied changing it. I then took him to the professor who was just leaving for home and explained the situation. The professor corrected my attendance putting his initials. After all this was over and when we came out of my department, I was wondering what would have happened had I not come in time. I would have been detained for the semester due to lack of attendance in that subject and there is no way that I could have known about it until the day of my exam and nothing can be done just before the exam. I started realizing that it was not me who got the idea of going to college but it was Sai maa who told me "son go to college there is something more important you have to care of". My devotion for Sai increased day by day as I began to experience many such incidents. All good things that happen to me happen on Thursdays. I do not say that not all the other days are good for me but Thursday is always something special to me.

S.V. Swamy, Hyderabad, India
The story of Heera was touching indeed. Sai the infinitely kind Sadguru that He is, always tried to bring His errant children on to the true path. Page 40 of Sai Satcharitha has this to say: Baba said to Smt.Kashibai Kanitkar, " This is a Brahmin, a pure Brahmin, this is a Brahmin's Masjid....." Here, Baba was not referring to the caste but to Brahman. One of the six main streams of Hindu religion is dealing with Kumara, i.e. Subrahmanya, the son of Siva and Parvati. Subrahmanya literally means One Who Knows the Brahman Well. True and sincere repentance is the best offering that a disciple can offer His Master. The vision of the Chennai Bhajani Mela Head is another such inspiring story. More such stories of sinners getting benefited by repentance and thus obtaining the grace of Baba will be useful in SAI VICHAR, since "EVERY SAINT HAS A PAST AND EVERY SINNER HAS A FUTURE". To get the grace of Guru, God's grace is essential and to get God's grace, Bhakti is the 'easiest' path. The Saudagar, who wants to progress, has to collect the nine balls of stool passed by the mare.
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Prayer Club

Dominic D'Souza
I am from Pakistan, and a firm believer of Sai Baba. I pray very devotedly to Him and He has blessed me a thousand folds. I write to you for a reason and that is to pray for a close family friend her name is Nahid or Pushpa, she is known by both names. She suffers from tumors in her head n cancer stage 3 in her breasts n spine and I suppose many other places where we do not know. By Gods blessings and Sai Baba's love for us, he has heard our prayers. She is much better now but still cannot walk on her own but needs a lot of support to walk. Please pray and ask all Sai devotees and if possible her name be mentioned in His Holy Shrine and my faith tells me that she will be completely healed. I will be very grateful if you could do me this favor. May Sai Baba bless you and keep you in His care always.

Usha Sastry
Please bless my sister's children and see they are happily married soon without any obstacles. Bring some peace into my mother's house. Bless me in my new job, which I will start next week. Take care of my husband also. He is trying hard to get a job. We have our responsibilities to fulfill and we need jobs to do that. Show correct path for my son in his studies.

Mala Saravanan
Sai Ram ,I am confused in life. Lots of things happening at the same time, we got a baby with Baba's blessings, I had sent an article in the prayer club some where last year in march, and I have a baby today, Sai Baba my father is great. After wards, we bought a house and lots of confusion in the family, I do not know if this is a punishment for me for my sins or what. I have no peace of mind, tensions worries etc. Baba pleases help me come out of this tension, I am sorry for any sins I have done. Baba please blesses good health for my baby. I know my father will test his children for a while and always bless them peace. Please help me Baba, you know my worries, and you also know, you are the only one who can bless me out of this.

A Sai devotee
Sai Ram. Please help me get my health problem cured which has been there since birth. I know I am paying for my bad karma and only your grace can forgive me. Baba, Please help me overcome my depression. I pray you to bless me with a good job and a nice wife. I am at the crossroads of life and badly in need of your help. Hope you are listening to my prayers and will bless me. Sai Ram.
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Quotation of the Week

My Sircar says "Take, take," but everybody comes to me and says 'Give, give.' Nobody attends carefully to the meaning of what I say. My Sircar's treasury spiritual wealth is full, it is overflowing. I say, "Dig out and take away this wealth in cartloads, the blessed son of a true mother should fill himself with this wealth. The skill of my Fakir, the Leela of my Bhagwan, the aptitude of my Sircar is unique. What about Me Body earth will mix with earth, breath with air. This time will not come again. I go somewhere, sit somewhere the hard Maya troubles Me much, still I feel always anxiety for My men. He who does anything spiritual endeavor will reap its fruit and he who remembers these words of mine will get invaluable happiness." - Saibaba of Shirdi

Question of the Week

Q."How do spiritual pursuits help material contentment?"
A Sai devotee, Vancouver BC, Canada
Jai Sai Ram! Prayers to all! Human wants (essentials, needs and luxuries) become a part of human life right from birth and eventually such desires engulf humans with misery since it is impossible to attain contentment through material acquisition. Starving humans look out for food. Once hunger is satisfied, we look for clothing and shelter. Thus satisfied, we look for better quality food, clothing, and shelter and for other material attractions, such as means for mobility, additional property, entertainment etc. Our pursuit for material contentment is due to the influence of our senses towards the pleasures of this unreal mundane life. Causes are many and include: - infatuation for wealth, women and wine - ego and thoughts of "I" and "Mine" - fear, anger, anxiety and hatred - jealousy, back-biting and fault-finding That the solution to material contentment is through spiritual pursuits is proven time and again and clearly from the lessons that we can draw from Sai Satcharitha. While there are a number of such events described in Sai Satcharitha, the way Sai enabled Das Ganu understand the correct interpretation of Isha Upanishad is an interesting one. Sai suggested to Das Ganu that understanding Isha Upanishad is not much of a problem and that the maid servant of Kaka (Kakasaheb Dixit) will solve his doubts. Das Ganu who trusted Sai completely believed that what Sai says must come true and obediently went to Kakasaheb's place. There, Das Ganu heard a song sweetly being sung by a poor girl. The girl was expressing happiness for her nice colorful sari, finely embroidered with beautiful ends and borders etc. Das Ganu found that the song was being sung by Kakasaheb's servant maid and she was actually wearing an ordinary and torn sari. Later when Kakasaheb gave a dhoti to Das Ganu, he requested that the maid be also given a sari. Following day, the maid wore that new sari and her joy knew no bounds. The next day, she returned with her torn sari, but was still very happy. Thus, Das Ganu realized that all our feelings of pain and pleasure depend upon the attitude of our mind. We ought to enjoy whatever God has bestowed on us in the firm conviction that He besets everything and that whatever is bestowed on us by God must be for our good. Such a spiritual pursuit, as stated in Isha Upanishad, is the only and perfect answer for attaining material contentment. Through spiritual pursuit and faith in Sai Baba, a gentleman from Goa recovered Rupees 30,000, stolen by his trusted cook. Mrs. Aurangabadkar who had no issue for 27 years after marriage was blessed with a son by Sai. Similarly, Sai also blessed Mr. and Mrs. Saptnekar and Damu Anna with children. By consulting and abiding by Sai's advice not to indulge in grain-dealing speculations, Damu Anna was saved from severe losses. Likewise, apart from the spiritual implication of Udi, it had also material significance. It conferred health, prosperity, freedom from anxiety, and other worldly gains. Some incidences conferring health include, a friend of Narayan Motiram stung by a scorpion; Mainatai, daughter of Nanasaheb Chandokar, suffering from serious labor-pains; Dr. Pillay suffering badly form guinea-worms; Shama's sister-in-law attacked with Bubonic plague; and a number of others. Jai Sai Ram!
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Sai Activities

Sai Utsav 2001 - Sydney Australia
Sai Utsav, an event commemorating the life and teachings of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba is being organized over the Queen's birthday weekend in Sydney, Australia on June 9th and June 10th. The event comprises of traditional Pooja and arathis offered to Baba in Shirdi vidhi, discourses by Guruji Shri Chandra Bhanu Satpahtyji and many other items. Registrations are free for the event. There will be a special Bhajan concert by renowned singer Shri Manhar Udhas on June 9th. Entry passes are required for the concert. Help will be provided to devotees attending the Utsav from outside Australia. For complete program details, registration forms or further information, please contact sydsaisansthan@mailexcite.com.au in Sydney, Australia or saiutsav@saibaba.org.

Hitendra Desai, Phoenix, AZ
I just wanted to start something like SAI DARBAR OR get together to do Baba Arthi at my place on Thursday. Those who are interested in North AREA (Phoenix, AZ) to do so, let me know. It will be great if someone can contact me at my mail ID or telephone. I do Kakad Arthi every Thursday at my place in the early morning at 5.05am. Contact: hitendra_desai@msn.com

Mary Maldonado, Miami, FL
Om Sai ram! My name's Mary, and I need the information on Sai Baba center, in the city of Miami (USA), I want to receive the blessing.

Venumadhav
Jai Shirdi Sai Baba. I wanted to know if there is any Sai Baba temple in the Bay Area or even Los Angeles. If not, why don't we start doing something about building one? I am sure Sai Baba would assist us as we go along. Please let us all communicate through this wonderful site and exchange ideas and views to make it happen. I remain at Baba's lotus feet.

Mala Saravanan
Sai Ram Shrisha, I will be interested in Thursday Arti. I live in Bay area. You can call me at 510-797-6259.

SivaKumar
Sri Vidya Narayana Thirtha (Dwaraka Badarikasram), a traditional humble monk who believes in simplicity, satsang, and preaches Shirdi Sai Baba's teachings to common people in many places in India and a regular visitor to the West. He is visiting USA during 24 June - 24 September. His family members have been followers of Baba from 1909 and follow the preaching of Baba in practical form. You can receive peace, bliss, and essence of Sai teachings through this simple monk. For details, please contact Vathyam@lucent.com and milanthakar@hotmail.com.
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