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Sai Vichaar 01.Feature of the Week: PEACE, THE NEED OF THE HOUR AND SAI SATSANGH 02.Contributed Article: Does God forgive? 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... At www.saibaba.org, the web site maintenance and network upgrade is currently underway. We regret the inconvenience caused due to the interruption in services but it became necessary to do the work during weekdays because we can get support from our vendors and providers only during workdays. The necessary changes have been done and it usually takes 48 to 72 hours for the changes to be propagated to the other servers. Once again we regret for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience. We seek your continued support and patronage in the future. Sadguru Sainath Maharaj's Mahasamadhi day (the anniversary of Sai Baba's mortal demise) is approaching in a few days. Sai Vichaar requests all Sai centers to share the program schedule with fellow Sai devotees by publishing in Sai Vichaar. Please send the particulars to Sai Vichaar and please mention "Mahasamadhi" in the subject area. The "Question of the week" for this week is, What is death? Discuss death and immortality. Humbly yours, The Editor
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Feature of the week:
PEACE, THE NEED OF THE HOUR AND SAI SATSANGH
Om Shanthihi Shanthihi Shanthihi! This Vedic proclamation means that peace should prevail at any cost. For harmonious coexistence of people of different faiths, for the prosperity and sustained growth of any society, peace is necessary and peace should prevail at any cost. Peace favors a constructive society for the welfare of humanity. But when one looks at the happenings of the world one unfortunately perceives the opposite of peace. Let us ponder seriously on this issue. Any external manifestation has its cause and source at the nucleus level. The projections and happenings at the macrocosm level find the cause at the microcosm level. Talking in simple terms the individual's goals, ambitions, conflicts, and contradictions all are the nuclear forces that release the external energy; which can be either constructive or destructive to the society. In a theatre as a big picture on the screen finds its real image in the small film that rolls in the projector, the happenings in the society find the foundation causes in the core of an individual. Thus, an individual singly or collectively (sometimes) contributes to the external shape of the society. A positive nature in the individual manifests a positive society and a negative nature similarly manifests a shattering society. This is a time tested Truth. Without Ravana, there was no existence of Ramayana and without Duryodhana, there was no Mahabharatha! The boiling turmoil consciences of Ravana and Duryodhana brought the great wars in Ramayana and Mahabharatha. Therefore, for a prospective society one should be refined, positive, constructive, and human at the core level either as an individual or as a group. Always there is a time lag for external manifestations to take shape, for example the medicine of a patient takes it's own course of time to benefit the patient and so are the qualities of an individual that bring a positive or negative transformation of a society. To achieve this most important objective one should be at peace internally. This state can be achieved either through individual's sadhana (practice) or group sadhana. Satsangh is nothing but the group sadhana to achieve this noble goal. The word satsangh means the association with the reality, the truth, the Guru or God. In satsangh, one tries to be in association with God by chanting His names, His glories etc. Satsangh is like a refreshing shower to the mind and spirit. The fluctuating moods, the conflict of values, the winds of doubt, the weeds of disbelief and the rock demands of life of the individual all try to shatter the clear vision of the Godhood. This is a practical problem to all the seekers and here comes the importance of satsangh. For Hindus satsangh is an age-old practice. The puranas say that the rishis used to do satsangh in the woods of Naimisaranya. Listening to the glories of the Lord is the backbone of any sadhana. Great saints Valmiki and Vyasa wrote the immortal epics Ramayana and Bhagavatha respectively and spread the divine leelas far and wide in those days. Those epic stories conquered even the hearts of the illiterate so deep as they became light posts in solving their day-to-day problems and realizing their life goals. Baba assured His devotees that He would look at them if they look at Him with an eye of devotion. But keeping this constant faith is not that much simple as said. Compared to an individual's effort, in Satsangh one finds more strength in one's sadhana. Now let us look at the ways of conducting satsangh. At least ones a week the like minded devotees should join at a particular place, a temple or a house and start the satsangh by performing pooja/worship to Saibaba's photo or moorthi (idol) by lighting lamps and burning incense sticks, thus creating an atmosphere of peace and tranquility (Always it is not possible to find Baba's temple nearby, but one should feel that each heart is a temple. In the beginning, one can start with his/her family members and Baba takes care of the rest). The program should start with Guru/Ganesh prayer followed by Ashtotthara sata namavali. Then one should read the leelas of Saibaba with apt attention for about half an hour and continue the satsangh by doing bhajans for another half an hour, all the times focusing attention on Baba, reminding His leelas. More and more people to be involved in reading or singing the bhajans and this is not a music competition. Devotion should prevail at any cost. Some time should be spent on exchanging the individual's experiences and doing prayers for the needy. Then the devotees should maintain silence for few minutes enjoying the peace thus derived. Children too should be encouraged in these proceedings by telling some interesting stories of Baba. Baba's arathi is a better conclusion for this satsanngh. Saisatsangh helps in spreading the leelas of Baba and reinforcing our faith in Godhood/Saihood. Baba likes the bhavana (attitude) more than the melody. Baba shed tears of joy listening to the trembling verses/song of an old man and at one time, He rebuked an egoistic singer stating that He likes Jnana (wisdom) rather than raga (melody). One should conduct the satsangh in a way that it is rather an inexpensive gathering and even ordinary people can afford it. A day, preferably Thursday to be fixed for the group gathering at a particular place. If somebody likes satsangh to have at his place, some other day may be fixed for that .By conducting regular satsanghs devotees gain peaceful experiences and thus become enthusiastic. A serious devotee should spend at least 2 hours a week in these satsanghs and renew his faith and energies in this path of spiritual education. Because of the great strength derived in satsanghs, saints like Namadev, Tukaram, Chaitanya prabhu etc promoted these spiritual gatherings. Satsangh has great importance in Christianity and Muslim religions too. The temples find their purpose in conducting these group worships and prayers. Sai is omnipresent. To seek Sai one should make satsangh as part of his spiritual practice apart from their regular parayana (reading scriptures), namajapa (reciting God's name) and dhyana (meditation). Thus conducting in a spiritual way we can contribute to the world peace at our humble level comparable to the service of a tiny squirrel in Ramayana. Jyothise Jyothi jalaathe chaloo..
Light a lamp from one to another and spread the love of Sai to one and all! (Contributed by Syamasundar Duvuluri, Houston, TX)
Contributed Article: Does God forgive?
In a public library, among children's books, I once found a book, which
tried to briefly summarize teachings of a few well-known religions of
the world to children of 4 - 8 grades. Out of curiosity, I read it. It
said that Hindus believe that one must suffer the consequences of one's
Karma, there is no escape from it and that God does not forgive anybody
for anything. I was surprised to see that because at the end of any
prayer, Vishnu Sahasranama, Hanuman Chalisa, etc., there is a
phalashruti, which invariably says "For sure, because of doing this
prayer, the devotee's sins of all past lives will be destroyed, that the
devotee will be blessed not only in this life, but after death will go
the Lord's Home (Vaikuntha or Kailasa, etc.)" Usually we pray to God to
relieve us from the consequences of bad Karma but we are always
encouraged to ask the Lord to relieve us from all Karma, both good and
bad because that is what gives us permanent liberation. Since the author
of that book was not a Hindu, I thought that the author did not
understand Hinduism.
But recently, I find that some of us interpret "God who is the same as
Atma is the Sakshi" to mean that God is merely a witness, therefore
simply observes the results of all actions take their course and
therefore never forgives. Descriptions of God as nirvikara, nishkriya,
etc. are also understood by some the same way. A frequently used example
is that electricity enables a fan to rotate, an electric bulb to light
but that electricity itself does not rotate nor undergo any change, and
that without electricity neither the fan turns nor the bulb lights. What
this example conveys about God is all true. Without God, the world does
not function. Also, God is the only observer of whatever happens in the
world because God alone is conscious and nothing in the world can
observe. Body, mind, intellect, etc. are all dumb. However, because this
is just an example, it cannot describe God's ability to intervene in the
world's course when He thinks necessary, namely that God takes a
physical body and comes into this world, to protect good people and
punish the bad (as told in Geeta). We also know many many stories of the
Lord, for example, stories of Gajendra and Draupadi, where the Lord
rescues them from troubles when they appeal to Him. He was not a mere
witness of what was happening in these stories. To understand this
aspect of God let us consider the following more modern example. Now
days, we use computers to do so many tasks for us. We increase
automation in corporations means replace people with computers to do
their jobs. The computer follows the Karma principle strictly. What
output it produces depends on what the input is and what program (stored
in its memory) is being run. While the computer is performing its task,
the operator is merely an observer. But, the operator can interrupt the
computer anytime at will, and change the running program with another.
While the second program runs the operator is again only an observer and
is not doing anything. Still, the operator has control over the computer
in the sense that he can stop it or, change the program in anyway he
wants to. So, Hinduism does not say God does not forgive. God forgives
when one sincerely repents and never does the same wrong again. God also
knows whether the repentance is sincere or not and there is no cheating
God. However, God does not forgive our sins because Jesus Christ already
suffered on the cross as some Christians say. Once one truly surrenders
to God either in the name of Jesus or in any other name he/she will not
commit sins any longer.
(Contributed by Syamala Hari)
Sriram Rachakonda, Singapore
Kumar Balabhadra
Rama Nagpal
Madhvi Wattal
Sridevi Jammalamadaka
A Sai devotee
Chelvy
Sunil Malhotra
Mala Rajendran
John Lee
Usha Sastry
The Avatar awakens contemporary humanity to a realization of its true spiritual nature, gives Liberation to those who are ready, and quickens the life of the spirit in His time. For posterity is left the stimulating power of His divinely human example -- of the nobility of a life supremely lived, of a love unmixed with desire, of a power unused except for others, of a peace untroubled by ambition, of a knowledge undimmed by illusion. He has demonstrated the possibility of a divine life for all humanity, of a heavenly life on earth. Those who have the necessary courage and integrity can follow when they will - Meher Baba 
Back to Menu Q. "WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NANDADEEP AND NANDANVAN IN SHIRDI?"
Towards the northeast of Lendi Bagh, Baba used to keep a lighted lamp.
He started this in the year 1890. He dug a small pit in the ground, kept
the lamp inside, and covered the pit with basket. As time passed by, the
lamp continued to burn and two trees, one neem and another banyan, were
planted on each side. Even now, devotees go round the trees and the
lighted lamp (Nanda Deep). Most of the devotees believe that by going
round the Nanda Deep, there will not be any quarrels among wife and
husband and they would lead a happy life with the blessings of Baba.
SAIDARBAR CANBERRA, Australia
A Sai devotee
Sai Satsangh in Houston, TX
Sai in Vidyadhanam, Saidarbar, Hyderabad, India
Sri Shirdi Sai Kalyanam Trust, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India
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