Saranagati

[OmSaiRamNowOn]

Dear Sai Bandhus,

Om Sai Ram. I hope that you will like the following.

There are two interesting species who care for their young in different ways. One is the cat and the other the monkey. The kitten doesn't move even one inch on its own. It just goes on meowing and it is the mother cat, who with gentle love and affection lifts the kitten by holding its neck with its teeth (not hurting it at all) and goes from place to place and deposits the kitten wherever it wants.

The monkey presents an interesting contrast. The baby monkey holds firm to the underside of the belly of its mother and the mother moves from place to place sometimes even jumping from branch to branch of trees at great height. The baby monkey just holds firm its mother and doesn't let go even when the mother jumps at great heights from tree branch to tree branch. Even if the baby is bruised in the process, it doesn't let go since instinct tells it that death is certain if it relaxes its grip.

Thus in both cases, the mother carries the baby. But what a contrast? In the case of the monkey, it is the baby which is responsible for holding on. In the case of the kitten it is the mother cat which takes the responsibility to hold its baby.

These two are usually used as illustrations to represent the relationship between the devotee and the God. (In Sanskrit, they are known as Marjala Kishora Nyaya and Markata Kishora Nyaya). In the case of the devotee who is not fully free of ego, it is his responsibility to hold on to his Ishta Devata in spite of any troubles (which are to test his steadfast devotion). But once he makes contact with his God and starts getting benefit, and his ego dissolves, the devotee becomes like a kitten and it now becomes the responsibility of God like the mother cat to take care of the devotee.

Thus while both the baby monkey and the kitten are good models for devotees to follow, the kitten represents the true Saranagati, i.e. a devotee who has totally surrendered himself to God.

So let us all become kittens or if that much change is difficult, let us start by being baby monkeys and hold on firmly to God.

Om Sai Sri Sai Jai Jai Sai.

Sai Bandhu

-Sri S V SWAMY
( from Saidarbar)



OM SAI RAM !
OM SAI SRI SAI JAYA JAYA SAI !!

-Anju

[Dipika]

OMSAIRAM!WOW!

Anju ji,just loved the article.
so Let's clong on to SAI BABA like a baby.


Sai baba let your holy lotus feet be our sole refuge.OMSAIRAM

dipika duggal

[OmSaiRamNowOn]

Jai Sai Ram.

Dipika dear, I am certain Baba Sai led me to put Sarangati content here.

Saranagati means surrender. We surrender to the Lord. This means we surrender to the order of the law of the Lord - the universal law of dharma and the universal law of karma. Every time we chant, we surrender to the law of karma meaning whatever happens in our lives will take place according to the law of karma alone. So we must never refuse or resist to accept karma phalam or the fruit or result of our actions. Whatever happens in our lives is Iswara prasadam. Vibudhi is not to be looked upon as useless ash and pongal is not to be looked at with relish. We must accept both with the same attitude - that it is Iswara prasadam. There must be no dwesha (hatred, aversion) towards vibudhi and no raga (liking, attachment) towards pongal. We welcome everything we encounter in life.

Welcoming experiences in one thing. Accomodating experiences is another thing, particularly with respect to family. We must accept our family members -- husband, wife, children, etc. -- as they are. If our child is slow or dull or retarded, we accept it as Iswara prasadam. The acceptance of everything as karma phalam is saranagati. The result is shanti or peace.

Om Sai Ram.


OM SAI RAM !
OM SAI SRI SAI JAYA JAYA SAI !!

-Anju

[OmSaiRamNowOn]

Jai Sai Ram.

You must have seen the beautiful sight of young Lord Krishna playing His flute. Even when He is not playing it, it is safely tucked in His waist band, never leaving Him. Be at play with the gopa boys or minding the cows or picnicking by the Jamuna, He keeps His flute always by His side.
Do you know what Lord Krishna’s flute stands for? The flute in Lord Krishna’s divine hands stands for each one of us. The flute has eight holes, using which divine music is brought out by the player. So too, we have eight parts of our personality - the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin (at the level of the body), the mind and intellect and the ego (which makes me think that I am different from others). So we can be compared to a flute, of which God is the player. If we do only what we want, without thinking of what is right and wrong and what God likes, our ‘flute’ will only produce harsh noise, not music. But if we surrender our lives to the Lord, and empty ourselves of negative qualities like anger, dishonesty, and hatred, then the Lord will lift us up as His dear flute, and play divine music through our lives. Great saints and sages became the Lord’s flute and hence were able to bring so much of joy to others’ lives. Let us all learn to become Lord Krishna’s flute and He will ever keep us with Him.

Om Sai Ram.


OM SAI RAM !
OM SAI SRI SAI JAYA JAYA SAI !!

-Anju

[OmSaiRamNowOn]

Jai Sai Ram.

http://www.shirdi-sai-baba.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9061

Om Sai Ram.




OM SAI RAM !
OM SAI SRI SAI JAYA JAYA SAI !!

-Anju

[deepa]

SaiRam Dipika

Just visit this website if you have time.

http://www.saidarbar.org/swamypage.htm

deeps

om sairam.

om sai sri sai jaya jaya sai

[Ramesh Ramnani]

JAI SAI RAM!!!

Deepa dear long time no see.  Thanks for wonderful link.  Do drop in regularly.  OK thanks once again.

OM SAI RAM!!!

[SS91]

Saranagati (Surrender)

Self-sacrifice and renunciation will lead you to nobler and higher spiritual pursuits and take to the pinnacle of spiritual glory and fame.

The doctrine of Prapatti or absolute-surrender to God is also spoken as Saranagati. God is the devotee’s sole refuge and only saviour. Six items are recognised in Prapatti: (1) Acquisition of virtues which would make one a fit offering to God; (2) Avoidance of conduct not acceptable to God; (3) Faith that the Lord will protect him; (4) Appeal to the Lord for protection and mercy; (5) A feeling of one’s own littleness; (6) Total surrender. The first five items are means to the attainment of absolute self-surrender.

Sadhana when done in the right spirit and with right Bhava cannot entertain the ego subtly. It is meant for the annihilation of Ahankara. Even in the path of devotion the aspirant has to do the self-surrender himself. God will not do this for you. The flute-bearer says: “Come unto Me for shelter with all thy being. Surrender yourself to Me. Then alone you will obtain My Grace. Then alone I will liberate thee.”

Every individual can work out his own salvation by dedicating himself to the Lord. The surrender must be sincere, complete and unreserved. This is the secret of success in the path of devotion. Personal contact with a developed saint till the aspirant is established in devotion is necessary. Then alone worldly nature can be changed and old vicious Samskaras can be overhauled thoroughly.

A mob of 10,000 persons came out to stone Mary Magdalene, the Roman prostitute. Lord Jesus addressed the mob with these words: “He that is not without a sin amongst you, let him cast a stone at her.” The mob was silenced at the utterance of Lord Jesus. Mary Magdalene became next moment a saint through the grace of Lord Jesus. It is extremely difficult to say when, on whom and how the Grace of God will descend. Lord Krishna says in the Gita: “They who take refuge with Me, O Partha, though of the womb of sin, women, Vaishyas, even Sudras, they also tread the highest path.” Dear friends, what reason, then, is there for despair? Nil desperandum. Be up and doing. Struggle. Exert. Practise. Plod on. March courageously. Do sincere Sadhana. The all-merciful Lord will surely crown your efforts with success. Even the vilest of us can attain salvation. Lord Krishna has given us the word of assurance.

The Lord knows what is good for you infinitely better than you do. To resign absolutely to His will is even a higher form of worship than visiting his temples and shaking the bell, etc., and doing all sorts of ritualistic ceremonies.

He is standing with out-stretched hands in your heart to embrace you with His sweet love and mercy. Lift up your face. Approach Him with child-like simplicity, innocence and frankness (Arjava.) Speak out your heart to Him. Do unconditional total self-surrender (Atma Samarpana) or Saranagati.

If you do willing, unconditioned, unreserved absolute surrender, then all your duties and responsibilities are over. God will take care of you in all respect. You need not make any effort in Sadhana. God will do everything for you.

Unconditional surrender to His Grace in every act of your life seems to be the only hope. But when it comes to action (Anubhava), your egoism predominates. Self-assertion comes in. Try to overcome this.

Here are some Mantras or formulae for effecting ungrudging and total surrender. Repeat them mentally several times daily With Bhava: “O Lord, I am Thine. All is Thine. Thy will be done. Thou art everything. Thou doest everything.” This practice will remove egoism and mineness and the idea of agency also.

The devotee says unto the Lord: “O Lord, I am Thine. Thou art everything. Thou doest everything. Thou art just. I am an instrument in Thy hands. I am nothing. I can do nothing. I have nothing”, and thus he destroys his egoism and does self-surrender unto the Lord.

The ten senses, the mind, the intellect and the Pranas have no independent existence. They have no power of their own. They derive their power and energy and light from the Lord. Therefore give up your vanity and egoism. Do not think: “I have done this great work. My intellect is very powerful. I am very intelligent. The Lord does everything. These are all His instruments. If you remember these points, you can free yourself from egoism and bonds of Karma. You can do perfect self-surrender.

Egoism develops through Karmas (I have done good works), Varna-Ashrama (I am a Brahmin. I am superior to everybody. I am Sannyasi, I am a pure man), possession of physical strength, wealth, intelligence, beauty, moral virtues, etc. If this egoism is destroyed through spiritual Sadhana, true self-surrender to the Lord can be done.

By-Sri Swami Sivananda.

JAISAIRAM.
.

subhasrini
OM SAI SRI SAI JAYA JAYA SAI!!!
Let us pray at the feet of Sai Baba who is the incarnation of all gods and protector of all, to show mercy on us, and increase our devotion towards him.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Sai Baba, the sage of Shirdi, has been pouring out his divine love and blessings to thousands and hun­dreds of thousands since 1845. The unending stream of devotees at Shirdi day in and day out is but a manifestation of divine Love, Compassion and Pitv. Sai Baba is the most powerfull sage, who bears all the burdens of humanity.

Like all great teachers Sai Baba has rightly been claimed as the Mother of all virtues. Baba often told his devotees ''Your servant's servant l am. lam your debtor". I am purified by your darshan. It is a great grace on your part to have given Me the sight of your feet".

Lord Sai Baba often preached that the attitude of "I" and "Mine'' are the result of ignorance. The right attitude born of knowledge is that God is the Master and that all things belongs to Him - Once Rama asked Hanuman "How do you like on me? Hanuman replied. "0 Rama, as long as I have the feeling of "I", I see that you are the whole and I am a part, you are the Master and I am you". Thus the first step in the life of a devotee is humility.

Self surrender marks the next step of a devotee. A devotee has to surrender to God himself wholly and exclusively, including his five senses-Then he beco­mes a personal servant of God. The entire responsi­bility for his Maintenance and protection is taken up by the Lord. In BHAQVAD GlTA Lord Kriehna said "0 Arjuna. take refuge in Me. I shall deliver you from all sins". Lord Sai Baba also said, "Cast all your burdens on Me and I shall bear them',. Also as prea­ched by Lord Krishna to Arjuna, Baba also said, "Do your duty and leave the rest to me" Because once the devotee becomes free from sin and misery, as all his actions are performed as divine duty without a thought for the result. Let all the works be God's works all the thoughts, words and deeds are centered in God. Everyone should see God in every thing and every thing in God, loves all beings in the universe as manifestation of God. Thus, the natural results of this self surrender are intense devotion towards God and love towards all beings in the universe, such a devotee has no disappointments in life and has no fear of death.

BABA often used to say that once a person has faith in God, he has achieved everything. There is nothing greater than faith. The devotee's heart is full of virtues like forgiveness, spirit of non-vio­lence, Compassion and love. Thus, these are the virtues of the hero and the characteristic of a true devotee is a courageous patience or Saburi as Sai Baba has put it. Sainath said "surrender yourself comp­letely your body and soul to God.'' One, who has abundant faith (Nishta) and courageous patience (Saburi), will achieve anything what they want through the attainment of God Sai Baba. Hence, Faith, Patience and Love are the ways to fulfill our Material goals as well as to reach 'Moksha'

[OmSaiRamNowOn]

Iswara Pranidanam ( surrender to God) is looking upon every experience in our lives, favorable or unfavorable, as God's will because every experience we undergo is the result of our past actions. This is called karma-phalam and can be pleasure or pain. Behind every karma-phalam is the law of karma and behind the law of karma is the Lord. The Lord is invisible, the law of karma is invisible but when the Lord and the law of karma function, the result is a tangible experience. So we accept every experience without resistance. And the mind is free of negative emotions and thoughts. This acceptance is called Iswara Pranidhanam or saranagati. An inability or unwillingness to do so will produce unhealthy thoughts in the mind and lead to bitterness, anger, frustration, hatred etc.

[OmSaiRamNowOn]

Om Sai Sri Sai Jai Jai Sai

Aum Sai Ram !
SAI SAI SAI SAI SAI
SAI SAI SAI SAI
SAI SAI

-Anju

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Saranagati?.....Just go in!

A small story.... It is just a story, but full of meaning and juice.
 
When God created the world, he used to live in the world. But he became tired, because from the morning on, everybody would start coming with complaints: somebody has no child, somebody's child is sick, somebody's child has died; somebody has fallen in love but the parents are not allowing him to marry the woman.

.. and millions are the problems. And just one poor God! And those who could not get him in the day would torture him in the night -- he was unable even to sleep.

Finally, he asked his advisor, "What should I do? These people will kill me! They don't allow me rest, and they bring a thousand and one problems. They should solve those problems. I have given them every capacity, intelligence, to solve all their problems but they want to throw all responsibility on me, thinking that `Why should we bother? Why did you create us in the first place? If you created us then take care of our problems."'

The advisor whispered in his ear, "There is a place where these people will never go."

He said, "Just show it to me."

And he said, "You just hide inside these people themselves. They will go searching for you all over the world but they will never go inside. You can rest, relax." And he is resting and relaxing there.
If you want to know whether the story is true or not, go in!

[SS91]

"Always Chant and Think of Me" - the Future is Secure

Devotee: So I have to free myself from all cares of future, for myself?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Faith should be there, that if I´m working rightly, then my future is secure. That is the reason I have taken to this path for going back to home, back to Godhead. So if I am doing nicely,according to the instructions, then why bother about the future? If you are concerned, just do as Krishna says, "Always chant, think of Me." So why don´t you do this? Krishna assures, "You will come to Me." There is no doubt. If you do exactly according to the rules and regulations then your future is guaranteed. A devotee thinks, even if it´s not guaranteed, still I shall do my duty, still I shall go on. That is pure. Why you should worry about the future? You should bother about whether you are doing rightly or not. That should be your interest. Otherwise your future is assured by Krishna. Why are you doubting? Then you don´t believe in Krishna. You have to see whether you are doing rightly, what Krishna says. That is your duty. Do your duty as Krishna says, as the spiritual master says, then everything is all right. There is no question of doubt. Ours should not be a bargain that I will only serve with this assurance. A devotee thinks even I may go to hell, it doesn´t matter, still I will serve. That is nice. Krishna is assuring that we will go back to Him, but even if for some reason or other Krishna doesn´t bring me back, still I shall serve.
   



subhasrini
OM SAI SRI SAI JAYA JAYA SAI!!!
Let us pray at the feet of Sai Baba who is the incarnation of all gods and protector of all, to show mercy on us, and increase our devotion towards him.

[OmSaiRamNowOn]

Jai Sai Ram.

Surrender is not giving up all that you have. You don't have to give up your properties. Don't judge yourself based on your properties, relationships, name and fame, friends. You are far more than all these things. If you internalize these things, they will continuously be pushing and pulling you. You will not have you as your Being. You cannot be divided by these categories. They cannot determine who you are. You are beyond all of these. The moment you wake up to this one idea, you have surrendered. The trouble is, you worry about how to surrender. You have nothing to surrender. You just do what Existence itself is going to do.
Like a bubble in the wave in an ocean, you can only exist for that long. Even though we claim our individuality, we will return to Existence. Even though you think you are an individual, you are God. Suddenly in one moment, you are God. When I say surrender, just wake up and realize you are God. Thinking you are anything else is an inferiority complex. Whatever idea you have will always be lesser than God. Just drop all the ideas you have about yourself. Just know that you are God.

Aum Sai Ram !
SAI SAI SAI SAI SAI
SAI SAI SAI SAI
SAI SAI

-Anju

[Ramesh Ramnani]

JAI SAI RAM!!!

You all must have heard about our great Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore. I am reminded about him.  Once He was continuously thinking about beauty, what it is. A poet, naturally, is interested in beauty. His mind was meditating on what beauty is. One full-moon night, he was in his boat and the night was just majestic: the full moon in the sky and the silence of the river and the forest around. And he was alone in the boat. Just once in a while a bird might call -- that was all -- and then the silence would become deeper than before.

But Tagore was pondering over the question: What is beauty? And he was looking into an ancient scripture. He had only a small candle burning in the cabin. Tired, in the middle of the night, frustrated, because even in that old scripture he could not find something real about beauty, just words and words and words... he blew the candle out and he could not believe his eyes.

Suddenly, as he blew the candle out, from the windows, from the door, the moonlight immediately came in.

He was transplanted into another world! He rushed out. He looked at the moon, at the silence of the night, and the moon reflected in the river, and the whole river silvery, and the deep dense forest on the bank... and THIS WAS BEAUTY!

But he had been looking into the book -- and beauty was waiting for him, just waiting by the door. But that small yellow candle-light was preventing the splendor of the night. And he had become so much engaged and occupied with the thoughts of the scripture that he had forgotten completely that this was a full moon night.

He threw the scripture into the river, and that was the last day he ever thought about beauty. He said: Thinking won't help. Beauty is there -- we have to be available to it. He said: We have to blow out the candle, the small candle of the ego, then God comes in in many ways, and the beauty penetrates you.

OM SAI RAM!!!