Yogi Spencer’s vision of Sadguru Sainath of Shirdi on September 11, 1952 deals with the rhythm of life.
Peace, Harmony, Love - These form the rhythm of life

Peace, Love, Harmony - these form the rhythm of life. They are the vibrant factors which promote happiness. Peace is the antagonist of discord, war, hatred and bitterness feeling. Discard all that is bitter in your heart, forgetting and forgiving those who do evil in their life. No man can live in peace, unless he makes Virtue his spouse and Unselfishness his comrade in life.

Peace is the harbinger of love and love is the most sacred element in man. It is divine nectar. It is the soul of divinity, the parent of all virtues, the source of true happiness. Keep the fire of love burning in your heart. Love all, without distinction. Love is divine comradeship. It is the light of truth. It is the pattern on which God has woven His whole universe for the happiness and bliss of all His creatures.

Make your life a book of Love, from end to end. Let every page and every line be the mirror of God, reflecting His beauty, His mercy, His gentility, and above all His great love which lightens the forces in the universe harmonizing all Life which is ONE. Love begets love. Love your neighbor as you love yourself and God will love you with a treble force. Make love the corner stone of your life, the foundation of whole edifice, the fulcrum of all your activities, the symbol of perfection.

(from Shirdi Sai: The Supreme by Dr. S.P. Ruhela)
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Experiences of Devotees

Prasad Tipirneni, Cooma, NSW, Australia
I came here as permanent resident and got job in Westpac bank with the blessing of Sai . My wife Sahithi joined with me and she also got job in her field of study in Cooma with the grace of god . Our only child Yashwant immigration date expired on 22/6/98, Australian High commission authorities, New Delhi refused to extend the date for the child rather they suggested to apply separate sponsor application for the child . As god sent message through one of devotee Prasad Ithiraj suggested me to approach Immigration Minister office in Canberra. I had approached Phillip Ruddock Ministry office with due representation and sought his help for the immigration extension of my child . With the grace of Sai I got new job in Cooma, joined with wife and immigration extended to my son by conducting medical test . My son joined with us on 14th Apr 99 with the help of Sai through all the sweet heart people. I used to visit Shirdi Sai temple in Liverpool road , South Strathfield during my stay in Sydney. I thank Sai devotees Vijaya Kumar, Brinda Kumar , Hemachandra Rao , Rohini Sandilya, Mani Sandilya, Capt. Rana uncle for their service to the society of Sydney to reach the grace of Sai.
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Devotees say...

Gayathri
I am an ardent devotee of Shri Sai Baba for past 5 years. I would like to share my experiences with the other devotees through this. I have been sharing my experiences in the devotees forum. Is that enough or should I mail my experiences and prayer requests to some other mail address. Please clarify me.

In addition to being a feature on the Shirdi Sai Baba web site, Sai Vichaar is also circulated to over thousand readers and devotees all over the world. Publishing in Sai Vichaar is more accessible to readers and devotees. Postings on Sai devotion and devotees’ experiences on the web site are appropriately featured in Sai Vichaar with the intent of spreading Sai devotion and faith to those who are not in a position to access the internet but have access to their email. Devotees intending to share their experiences to the wider forum are kindly requested to send their material to Shirdi Sai Baba web site organization with a mention that the feature is intended for Sai Vichaar - Sai Vichaar

Alphanso
I really do appreciate the Sai Vichaar that is emailed to me regularly and I really want to say THANK YOU. The most meaningful & encouraging segment to me is the "Devotees Say... & Experience of Devotees."

Radhika
There is currently a phone scam going on, one of my friend's got a call from a man saying that he was calling from At & T and some testing was going on and to complete the final phase of the testing the user had to dial 90 followed by the # key. Being suspicious, my friend did not do this, but called AT&T instead to verify. The staff there told them that pressing 90# enables the other person to make long distance & international calls which will be billed to the user without their knowledge. So please be careful and do not do anything over the phone without cross checking & verifying.

Kishore Asthana, Muscat, Oman
Reply to an old query
Some time back there was an angry query from one of your readers who had lost the court case re his job. He had written earlier re the eye operation and subsequent passing away of his father. There had been no replies published re his irritated query and someone had asked in a recent Sai Vichaar as to why no one had addressed his problem.

I have been following this case from the beginning. I read the gentleman's annoyed reaction at the way things had turned out. In his email he had sarcastically challenged Sai Bhakts to tell him what to do now that everything was failing despite Sai Baba.

I did not feel that that was the right time to say anything. When a person is so incensed that he does not even listen to himself, what is the use of others wasting words on him. However, I do know that the person who had raised the question had a history of Sai Bhakti in his family and once caught in this fold, it is difficult to escape. I realized that given sufficient time, he would start listening to the Sai in him. Then, perhaps, he could vibe with the Sai in me, too. Perhaps such a stage has come, and I reply to his question as follows :

Sai Baba can do miracles. However, you must deserve them, too. Just a verbalization of prayers is not enough. Look inside your heart and see what Sai Baba saw, when he decided not to help you at just that time. I will not presume to pre-judge what you find. Is it lack of real, really real, faith? Is it your lack of patience? (remember, shraddha and saburi - faith and patience - are two pillars of a successful relationship with Sai Baba). Is there something else the matter? Is there something in your own conduct to which you might have been blind? If it is none of these, surely there is some other cause for the plight you find yourself in, for our Sai does not act in an arbitrary way.

Sit down and analyze what has passed. Do it in a spirit of self-evaluation. None of us are Sai yet. We make mistakes. The trick is to learn from these. See where you were, where you are and how you got here. Then try to determine where you want to go. Remember, success comes to those who help themselves, not keep sitting back and blaming Sai Baba or another isht devata for letting them down. Remember, the only one who can let you down is yourself.

The Universe is at your disposal. It is you who have to make the best of it. Yes, teachers like Sai Baba are always there to support you and to listen to you. However, do not expect miracles to happen if you have not deserved these. And, learn to recognize miracles. Let me tell you a story in this connection which was emailed to me recently. It may be a bit of a digression, but it is an interesting story : A very devout man was stranded on the roof of his house in a flood. He kept praying to God fervently and was absolutely certain that God will make a miracle to save him. Suddenly he saw a friend of his pass by in a boat. He refused the friend's offer of help, as he said that God will save him. Then he saw a rescue helicopter hovering above him. He waved it away, too, muttering the same thing. The water rose and drowned him. When he was brought in front of God, he started berating God by saying how he had devoted his life in worship and that God could not make a simple miracle to save his life. God let him speak, and then said, "What could I do? You did not use the boat and the helicopter which I had sent!"

The moral of the story is, self-help is essential to success. Everything you do, your very life, is a miracle, were you but to realize this. View your life in this light, do what you can for yourself and others sincerely and honestly, without the carrot of a reward, and keep faith and patience. How can Sai let you down if you do this? May Sai be with you, always, till you are One with him.
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Prayer Club

S K Shah
I would like all Sai Devotees to Join Hands and pray for my colleague at work Helen Gillgilan to get better and let peace be on Earth

Karishma
Swami please help us, we looked around for help, believing blindly in others and they let us down and took us for a very expensive ride, where we paid a lot for pain and misery. We need your blessing, grace and guidance to help through this difficult period of time that we are facing. Swami please open some doors for us, we are trapped. Please protect your children from any further mistakes please show us the right path.
Sai devotees please pray for us.

Mamta, India
Dear Mr. G.D. Sharma: We will surely keep Aditya in our prayers and please have faith in Sai.
He has taken care of your son's illness since 1997 and will take care of him now also. I am sure Sai will surely heal your son's illness. May Aditya have a long and happy life ahead.

Aymee Minaya
I will like for all of you to pray for me. I recently sent Sai Baba a letter with a friend, expecting an answer, but he did not send me one. I know that I am here for a reason as many things have happened to me in the last few years. I made the resolution that I was going to leave everything on my Lord's hands, if it was up to him good things will eventually happen. As per the world, we can only pray for those who are now fighting for our country, and for those who are sick.

M.N.Reddy,
Sai Ram, I am new to Sai Vichar family and let me first thank Sai for showing this forum which I am really enjoying. I would like to humbly express my opinion on 'Prayer Club' of Sai Vichar. I noticed several times from our Sai family members asking others to prey Sai for His grace and help them/friends in their problems.
What I understood from Sadguru Sainath teachings is, we will get what we deserve and must happily accept anything that comes in our life as 'prasad'. Everything happening under the sky has a meaning and a purpose. What we 'deserve' depends on our 'Karma', By asking Sai's intervention in our problems, Sainath, the merciful Lord will certainly help us but we have to undergo our karma and for that we may have to take another birth to suffer. But again Sai gave us an assurance that, "One, who will have faith in Me, will gain proportionately and One who throws himself on my mercy, always benefits". Sai Krishna also said, "Even he with the worst of Karma who ceaselessly meditates on Me quickly loses the effects of his past bad actions. Becoming a high-souled being, he soon attains perennial peace. Know this for certain: the devotee who puts his trust on Me never perishes!"
By asking something, we are actually suspecting Sai as he knows what to give and what-not to give. If we have to ask anything, let's ask for Sai itself, let's ask Sai to remove our ignorance, let's ask Sai to give us strength to overcome the 'Maya' and help us in Self Realization and God Realization. Let us try to earn the qualifications for Sainath's grace. Let us stop asking materialistic gains.
This is my personal opinion and I may not be entirely correct, I request Sai family members to send your comments and suggestions to mnreddi@hotmail.com if you have any.
Sai Ram
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Question of the Week

1. "What is true service?"

Aymee Minaya
Service is the willingness to give without expecting anything in return. To provide each and every one who needs you with the necessary help. Not look at the wrong actions of people as we are not here to judge. People have different ways of viewing life, and it is up to us to try to understand these different ways. Not everybody is same or think the same way.

2. "What is contentment?"

Alphanso
To me a spirit of calm contentment is the deep peace that comes from deep trust in Sai's loving-kindness that is not destroyed even by the worst of circumstances, for those everlasting warm arms always cradles us. We are always "under His Mercy." The reason for one's displeasure comes down to a single root: discontent, which includes "wicked lusts for forbidden things and complaining". Everything about which we are tempted to complain or be discontent with, may be the very instrument whereby Sai intends to mould us into the perfect loving devotee.

We ought to learn even to be content for any weakness itself, for "Power comes to its full strength in weakness." I make this my prayer when I do feel any discontentment

O merciful Sai, be Thou unto me a strong Tower of defence, I humbly entreat thee give me grace to await thy leisure, and patiently to bear what Thou doest unto me; Nothing doubting or mistrusting Thy goodness towards me; for Thou knowest what is good for me better than I do. Therefore do with me in all things what Thou wilt; Only arm me, I beseech Thee, with Thine armor, that I may stand fast, above all things; praying always that I may refer myself wholly to Thy will, abiding Thy pleasure, and comforting myself in those troubles which it shall please Thee to send me, seeing such troubles is profitable for me; and that I am assuredly persuaded that all Thou doest cannot but be well;

Kishore Asthana, Muscat, Oman
(An engineer, MBA working in Oman for the last 22 years. Originally from Lucknow, India)

A child wants ice-cream. He gets the ice-cream he wants. He feels contented. If you ask him 'What is contentment' at the point at which he tastes the ice-cream, he will say - contentment is getting ice-cream. Someone a bit more mature will generalize and say, contentment is getting your desire fulfilled. However, as per this definition, contentment is a passing phase. You drink water when you are thirsty, you feel contented. Then you feel hungry and want food and are in a state of discontent till you get food.
Then there is something else - recognition, children, larger house, better car and so on. Till desires exist, permanent contentment is not possible. (That is why we say that Ganesh, the embodiment of the wise person, rides on a rat, which is the symbol of the greedy and ever-hungry senses.)

How then, can we define true contentment? If we extend the analogy of feeling contented by getting something to its logical end, we would feel permanent contentment if we irreversibly had everything in the universe - including all the wisdom available in it. Even better, if one were to actually BECOME everything, rather than merely possess everything, what would be left to desire?. This is not as far-fetched as it sounds. One is already everything. All one has to do is to realize (REAL-ise?) one's true self and then one feels that there is naught else. No other living beings, apart from the Self, no inanimate objects. When One becomes All, what is left to desire? The contentment this One would feel, would be permanent.

It is easy to see why this would be so. You cannot crave for something which is You. And since everything is You, there are no cravings possible. You cannot fear losing something if everything is You. Who would take it away from you, if none Other exists? Yes, decay is possible, but then you are not in want - one tree dies, another takes its place and you are the tree which died and the tree which was born. Not only that. You are the soil which was enriched by the dead tree, and the soil which gave birth to the new one. You are the bee which sucks the honey from the flower of the tree which you are, and you are the flower and the honey, too. When you get that feeling, it is real contentment.

It is a state of calm and of wonderful joy - not the joy of the body one feels on getting ice-cream, but the joy of the soul, deep, peaceful and immensely satisfying. The difference is the same as that between a cup of water and the whole sea. I wrote a few lines on this feeling some time back :

In deep sleep
I shall peep
At your self and mine
Both equally divine

And newly born
In the morn
I'll be the knower
And the known
The painter and the sign
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Sai Activities

Sai Sandesh
Dear Sai Bandhus,
Two web sites are created exclusively for the spiritual enlightenment and benefit of Sai Bandhus on INTERNET. To enable new SAI devotees to access these sites, site addresses are furnished once again in this letter. SAI SANDESH featuring once a month is aimed to keep Sai Bandhus informed about the activities carried out during the month. In fact one may wonder and come out with a logical question as to why these sites are required afresh when already similar sites are available on the NET. The main idea behind creating sites of this nature is to spread SAI'S PHILOSOPHY and his ELEVEN ASSURANCES to his devotees scattered all over the World. These sites are named as "Shiridi Sai Baba Leelamrut Bhandagar" and "Shiridi Sai Darbar". Certainly the message of universal love and greatness of the eleven assurances of Sai cannot be spread by one man alone. It is in this context I humbly request my fellow Sai devotees to come forward and actively participate in this onerous task. The web site addresses are:
1. www.angelfire.com/ma/shirdi
2. Homepages.infoseek.com/~dwarakamai/chavadi.html

E-Mail and visitor book facilities are also introduced. People visiting these sites can offer their valuable suggestions and comments for continued improvements.

The activities for the month of March 1999 are listed below:
1. TELE-SATSANGHS were conducted with devotees in Hyderabad-INDIA and USA.
2. Devotees residing in USA, UK, CANADA and NEWZEALAND have conveyed their encouraging and valuable opinions.

3. Mr.A.P.Talpade from India and Mr.Craig Hamilton from England have extended technical help for which I convey my heart felt thanks to both of them.

4. Two experiences of SAI BANISA were released during the month of March 1999 under the feature titled "EXPERIENCES OF SAI BANISA WITH SAI". Two more experiences will be added to this series in the coming month.

5. It is proposed to introduce a new feature on these two web sites titled as "Question and answers session on Sai's Life History". SAIBANISA Gopala Rao Ravada will answer questions. SAI BANDHUS are therefore requested to send their questionnaire to Gopala Rao Ravada. To know more about how Sai's Eleven Assurances and Philosophy will help us in our daily life, you may talk on phone or E-mail to SAI BANISA. Phone No.091-40-7123926 (During 18.00 to 21.00 Hrs Indian Standard Time) grravada@hotmail.com saibanisa@yahoo.com

6. It is felt that extracts from SAI BANISA'S diary on Sai's Philosophy, his experiences, and the eleven assurances featuring every Sunday must have given sufficient insight into the aspect as to why we should worship SAINATH

SAI SANDESH FOR THE MONTH
Now a days it is observed that couples are encountering marital disputes often. Self efforts and prayer are the only tools through which they can overcome them. External interference will lead to inviting more Problems and unnecessary headaches. Seeking divorce and legal separation will multiply the miseries of the begotten children and amounts to doing grave injustice to them.

With best regards and in the service of "LORD SAINATH OF SHIRDI"
SAI BA.NI.SA Gopala Rao Ravada, Hyderabad, India.

Sri Shirdi Sai Sansthan Sydney
Devotees of ‘Sri Shirdi Sai Sansthan Sydney’, are starting a joint parayan of the Sai Satcharitra to seek Baba’s blessings for expediting the building of a Sai temple in Sydney. We are starting from this Thursday, the 22nd April. Some of us will be doing the weekly parayan and others will be doing ‘one chapter a day’, according to their convenience. We would be grateful if our Sai bretheren, from all over the world, can join us in our endeavour.
The power .of Satsang and joint parayan will certainly facilitate the construction of our temple in Sydney. Devotees who are interested in joining us are requested to let us know at the following address- rsai@nettrade.com.au

We will be distributing joint parshad on the 13th June , as we meet every Sunday for Bhajans.
May Baba’s blessings reach all of us.
Om Sai Ram
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