Shirdi Sai Thought!

[Dipika]

When a man takes a plunge into the sea, he gets the merit of bathing in all the Tirthas and sacred rivers. Similarly when a man takes refuge at the feet of the Sad-guru, he gets the merit of bowing to the Trinity, i.e. Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh and also Para-Brahma. Victory be unto Shri Sai the wish-fulfilling tree and the ocean of knolwedge, who gives us self-realisation. Oh Sai, create in us regard for Your stories. Let the readers and audience devour them with the same relish with which the chatak bird drinks the water from the clouds and becomes happy. While listening to Your stories, let them and their families get all the sattwik emotions, viz. let their bodies perspire, let their eyes be full of tears, let their prana be steady, let their minds be composed, let their hair stand on end, let them cry, sob and shake, let their hostilities and their distinctions, great and small vanish. If these things happen, that is a sign of the grace of the Guru dawning upon them. When these emotions develop in you, the Guru is most pleased and will certainly lead you on to the goal of self-realisation. The best way, therefore, to get free from the shackles of Maya is our complete and whole-hearted surrender to Baba. The Vedas cannot take you across the ocean of Maya. It is only the Sad-guru, who can do so and make you, see the Lord in all creatures.

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!

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

dipika duggal

[Dipika]

Shama and Vishnu-Sahasra-Nam

Shama was a very intimate devotee of Baba and Baba wanted to favour him in a particular way by giving him a copy of Vishnu-Sahasra-Nam as Prasad.

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!

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

dipika duggal

[Dipika]

Sai (Lord) was originally formless. he assumed a form for the sake of Bhaktas. With the help of the actress Maya, He played the part of the Actor in the big drama of the universe. Let us remember and visualize Shri Sai. Let us go to Shirdi, and see carefully the programmes, after the noon-Arati. After the Arati ceremony was over, Sai used to come out of the Masjid, and standing on its edge, distribute udi to the devotees with very kind and loving looks. The Bhaktas also got up with equal fervour, clasped His Feet, and standing and staring at Him, enjoyed the shower of Udi. Baba passed handfuls of Udi into the palms of the devotees and marked their foreheads with Udi with His fingers. The love He bore for them in His heart was boundless. Then He addressed the Bhaktas as follows:- "Oh Bhau, go to take your lunch; you Anna, go to your lodgings; you Bapu, enjoy your dishes". In this way He accosted each and every devotee and sent them home. Even now, you can enjoy these sights if you bring into play your imagination. You can visualize and enjoy them. Now bringing Sai before our mental vision, let us meditate on Him, from His Feet upwards to His face, and prostrating before Him humbly, lovingly and respectfully, revert to the story of this Chapter.

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!


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

dipika duggal

[Dipika]

"If you avoid rivalry and dispute, God will protect you"-Saibaba

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!

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

dipika duggal

[Dipika]

"Debt and enmity has to be atoned for".

Sai baba

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!

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

dipika duggal

[Dipika]

"By worshipping Sai Baba, we attain both the objects, worldly and spiritual, and are fixed in our true Nature, and get peace and happiness. Therefore, those who want to gain their welfare, should respectfully hear Sai Baba's Leelas or stories and meditate on them. If they do this, they will easily attain the object of their life and get Bliss".-Hemadpant - Sri Sai Satcharitha  

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!

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

dipika duggal

[Dipika]

"Ramathe Raam.. Aaaojee.. Aaaojee.. ..udiyaan ki goniyaan laaojee.."
(Oh Playful Rama.! .come on.., and bring with you sacks of udi.)

Baba used to sing merrily, whenever He was in a cheerful mood. The power and greatness of udi, the sacred ash, is well known. It is believed that udi confers upon the devotees, health, prosperity, freedom from anxiety, and many other worldly gains.

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!

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

dipika duggal

[Dipika]

Bow to the Kind Sai Who is the Abode of Mercy and Who is affectionate towards His devotees. By His mere darshan, He does away with their fear of this 'bhava' (samsar) and destroys their calamities. He was first Nirgun (formless), but on account of the devotion of His Bhaktas, He was obliged to take a form. To give liberation - self-realisation to the Bhaktas is the mission of the saints, and for Sai - the Chief of them, that mission is inevitable. Those who take refuge in His Feet have all their sins destroyed and their progress is certain. Remembering His Feet, Brahmins from holy places come to Him and read scriptures and chant the Gayatri mantra in His presence. We, who are weak and without any merits, do not know what Bhakti is but we know this much, that though all others may leave us, Sai won't forsake us. Those whom He favours get enormous strength, discrimination between the Unreal and the Real and knowledge.

Sai knows fully the desire of His devotees and fulfills the same. Hence they get what they want and are grateful. So we invoke Him and prostrate ourselves before Him. Forgetting all our faults let Him free us from all anxieties. He who being overcome with calamities remembers and prays Sai thus, will get his mind calmed and pacified through His grace.

This Sai - the ocean of mercy, says Hemadpant, favoured him and the result of this, is the present work - Sai-Satcharia. Otherwise what qualifications had he and who would undertake this enterprise? But as Sai took all the responsibility, Hemadpant felt no burden, nor any care about this. When the powerful Light of knowledge was there to inspire his speech and pen, why should he entertain any doubt or feel any anxiety? Sai got the service in the form of this book done by him; this is due to the accumulation of his merits in the past births and, therefore, he thinks himself fortunate and blessed.

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!

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

dipika duggal

[Dipika]

Punjabi Ramalal of Bombay

Once a Punjabi Brahmin of Bombay named Ramalal got a dream in which Baba appeared and asked him to come to Shirdi. Baba appeared to him as a Mahant (Saint), but he did not know His whereabouts. He thought that he should go and see Him, but as he knew not His address, he did not know what to do. But He Who calls anybody for an interview makes the necessary arrangements for the same. The same happened in this case. The same afternoon when he was strolling in the streets, he saw a picture of Baba in a shop. The features of the Mahant, he saw in the dream, exactly tallied with those of the picture. Then making enquiries, he came to know that the picture was of Sai Baba of Shirdi. He then went soon after to Shirdi and stayed there till his death.

In this way Baba brought His devotees to Shirdi for darshan and satisfied their wants, material as well as spiritual.

Bow to Shri Sai - Peace be to all

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!

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

dipika duggal

[Dipika]

The last wish or thought that a man has at the hour of death, determines his future course. Shri Krishna has said in Gita (VIII-5-6) that "he who remembers Me in his last moments, comes verily to Me, and he that meditates otherwise at that time goes to what he looks for." We cannot be certain that we can entertain a particular good thought at our last moment, for, more often than not, we are more likely to be frightened and terrified by many causes. Hence constant practice is necessary for enabling us to fix our mind on any desired good thought at any or the last moment. All Saints, therefore, recommended us to always remember God and chant His name always, so that we may not be puzzled when the time for departure comes. The devotees on their part surrender themselves completely to the Saints, fully believing that the all-knowing Saints would guide and help them in their last moments.

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!

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

dipika duggal

[Dipika]

My treasury is open but no one brings carts to take from it. I say, “Dig!” but no one bothers.

My people do not come to me of their own accord; it is I who seek and bring them to me.

All that is seen is my form: ant, fly, prince, and pauper

However distant my people may be, I draw them to me just as we pull a bird to us with a string tied to its foot.

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!

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

dipika duggal

[Dipika]

Whoever makes me the sole object of their love, merges in me like a river in the ocean.

Look to me and I will look to you.

I stay by the side of whoever repeats my name.

If anyone offends you do not return tit for tat.

What God gives is never exhausted, what man gives never lasts.

Be contented and cheerful with what comes.

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!

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

dipika duggal

[Dipika]

Baba said to him - "The path of this place is not so easy as the teaching of the Kanarese Saint Appa or even as the buffalo-ride in the Nhane Ghat. In this spiritual path, you have to put in your best exertion as it is very difficult". When Thakur heard these significant signs and words, which none else than he knew, he was overwhelmed with joy. He came to know, that the word of the Kanarese Saint had turned true. Then joining both hands and placing his head on Baba's Feet, he prayed that he should be a accepted and blessed. Then Baba said - "What Appa told you was all right, but these things have to be practised and lived. Mere reading won't do. You have to think and carry out what you read, otherwise, it is of no use. Mere book-learning, without the grace of the Guru, and self-realization is of no avail". The theoretical portion was read from the work `Vichar Sagar' by Thakur, but the practical way was shown to him at Shirdi

http://www.saibaba.org/satcharitra/sai21.html

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!

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

dipika duggal

[Dipika]

nine forms or types of Bhakti, viz., (1) Shravana (Hearing); (2) Kirtana (Praying); (3) Smarana (Remembering); (4) Padasevana (resorting to the feet); (5) Archana (Worship); (6) Namaskara (Bowing); (7) Dasya (Service); ( Sakhyatva (Friendship); (9) Atmanivedana (surrender of the self). These are the nine types of Bhakti. If any of these is faithfully followed, Lord Hari will be pleased, and manifest Himself in the home of the devotee. All the sadhanas, viz. Japa (vocal worship), Tapa (penance), Yoga practice and studying the scriptures and expounding them are quite useless unless they are accompanied by Bhakti, i.e., devotion. Knowledge of the Vedas, or fame as a great Jnani, and mere formal Bhajan (worship) are of no avail. What is wanted is Loving Devotion. Consider yourself as the merchant or seeker after the truth and be anxious and eager like him to collect or cultivate the nine types of devotion. Then you will attain stability and peace of mind".

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!

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

dipika duggal

[Dipika]

Looking to the future history, we think that Baba’s word (calling Mr. Dabholkar by the name Hemadpant) was significant and prophetic, as we find that he looked after the management of Sai Sansthan very intelligently, kept nicely all the accounts and was also the author of such a good work "Sai Satcharita", which deals with such important and spiritual subjects as Jnana, Bhakti and dispassion, self-surrender and self-realization.

JISKE SIR UPAR TU SAI WOH DUKH KAISA PAAYE!

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

dipika duggal