Karma Yoga Divinity through work.Adjacent to the meditation hall isanother building which housesthe temple office and kitchen. Allof Baba's work in the temple andreaching out to devotees acrossthe globe is being carried outhere. During the event, thevolunteers in the basementkitchen incessantly fedthousands of devotees everysingle day, only with devotiontowards Baba and selfless servicewithout any thought of gain orreward. Such is the work doneevery week in the Baba's templefor years. The true path of divinitythrough service to mankind isreflected here.After having visited Chicago temple and having experienced this inperson, its is needless to say that in the background of all the events,there lied a powerful message of Guruji and Baba which peoplewould sooner or later start to realize more divinity as they revisit theChicago events in their mind in the months to come. For all who havenotyetvisitedShirdiSaiTempleofChicago,Ihopeyouexperiencethefour above realms when you do visit. - Houston, TX“Sadgurus are human beings who are in pure divine state, because they possess all the attributes of God in themselves.” Shri C. B. Satpathy ji
50 -Suvendu Dash Who is God? Most of us started hearing about God when we were kids.OurparentswouldintroduceustotheconceptofGod,andexplainusthat we should follow some traditions/rituals to make God orGoddess happy. Our job should always be to make Him happy or elseface the consequences. That's how we start becoming God fearingbeings. We grow into adults, start following some rituals (and don’tforget that some of these are really tough to follow) taught to us byour elders, and try to teach the same to our kids, and pass on the ageoldtraditions.Inthisprocesstheuniversalquestionalwaysremainsinourmind,andstaystillwedie-WhoisGOD?Howdoeshelooklike?What does he do? What can he do for me? Can he do anything for me?Is he going to punish me if I am not doing things I am told to do? Is hegoingtorewardmeifIfollowtherituals?Iamsureallofushavecomeacross these questions. Did we ever get an answer to those? I amgoing to start with saying - “No, I don't have an answer to thosequestions. And I don’t know if I would ever get an answer to those” IhavealwaysbelievedinGodfromthedayswhenIwasakid.Ihavealways been taught to work hard and be successful in life. I startedwith believing in - my destiny is controlled by me. God has given mealltheresourcesthatcanhelpmecreatemyowndestinybasedonthehard work I do. When I started growing up, what came to my mindwas all of the above questions which I started asking to myself? Do Ireally control my destiny? Being a Science student, I believed inpatterns and how we can deduce theories based on those patterns.The pattern of movements of Sun, moon and other celestial bodiesled us to know more about the universe we know right now. Thepattern of all objects falling down to the ground led us to the conceptof gravity. The more we study science and try to answer the questionof “how life came to existence” – the more questions we get ratherthan answers.
It’s like peeling the layers of an onion and it shows you more, themore you peel. The theory of fine tuning of the universe forces us tothink that the surprising precision of nature’s physical constants isnothing but most probably creation of a supreme power. Can weaccept this? The more I think, the more I conclude that God is nothing but theultimate truth, the ultimate source of energy we all come from. Weare part of the source and the source is a part of us. The universe wesee is a creation of what the supreme source of energy can do in aphysical form. Can we confine Him with the bounds of a physicalform? I don’t think so. We can never give God a physicalform/structure as we can’t confine the ultimate source of energy insomething which is a manifestation of its own energies. We can’tconfine Him with the five senses we have (that’s how we knoweverything in this world). May be when we evolve into a moresuperior being we could know/sense more about him, but can weever know him in totality? I don’t think there’s any way we thehuman race can ever get to the state where we can know the whole ofHim. How can a drop of water try to know the Ocean unless itbecomes part of the Ocean? And when that happens, does it have theidentity of being a drop of water anymore? I would end my thoughts today with – “Be simple with your life,havePatienceandhaveFaithonHimandhewouldalwayslookuponyou”. Who knows, a day would come when He gives you the eyes toseeHim(AsthesayinggoesfromthegreatEpicofMahabharata–“HeHare Murari, Give me the eyes of Sanjaya to see your leela”)? - Bellevue, WA
52 BABA Then & Now - Shammi Chopra Through the journey of life, we may have many experiences. But one spiritual experience in that journey changes yourlife. Earlyinthatexperienceyoumaynotrealizesomethingis changing in you, all one feels is a state of confusion. This is exactly how I felt. After Shri Sai Baba made His presence in Canada 2002 (which again was a greatest blessing bestowed upon us, and will share this experience in the another time) , I got really interested in learning about the life and teachings of Baba. I started searching for articles on the internet, joined a lot of discussion groups and subscribed to many newsletters and websites. While searching on-line about Shri Shirdi Sai Baba, I came across messages of Guruji Shri C B Satpathy Ji, and many other devotees. Upon reading Guruji’s message , I felt somewhat good and different. I felt the urge to forward those messages to other devotees who came in contact with me. Without a second thought, I would simply email those messages to other devotees who joined after Baba made His presence. Sometimes while reading Guruji’s messages , I would think of meeting Him, for reasons unknown. Then one fine day, Ravi, my husband asked me if I wanted to go to India. Myreplywasadefinitive‘Yes’. Igotmyreservationdoneand the very next day I left for India. I went to visit Sai Baba of Shirdi during that trip, stayed there for five or seven days and observe ongoing rituals, aartis, pujas etc. On the last day when I went to see Baba at the Samadhi Mandir, one Pandit ji, who I had not met before said, “BABA KA KAAM KARTI HO. DIL KHOL KE KARO. BABA TUMHARE SAATH HAIN”\" You work for Baba. Do it wholeheartedly. Baba is with you\"
Thursdaymorning IreachedDelhiandItoldfamilyfriend, Iaddressher didi, that I have never missed spending time with Baba onThursdays. IdidnotknowofanyBaba’stempleinDelhibutwaslongingto visit Him. To which she mentioned Baba’s Chattarpur Mandir. We both went to the temple. Evening Aarti was going on when wereached and after the Aarti everyone went to the basement. I alsofollowed. On enquiry, someone said that Guruji was in the basementand that is why devotees are headed that way. Hearing that, I joined toseewhothisGurujiwas. FewminuteslaterGurujicameoutofHisroomwhere He was meditating and walked through the crowd talking tosome devotees, but He never looked towards us. And this happenedevery time He would come out of his room. We felt that Guruji talks toonly a selected few , mostly whom He personally knew. My Didimentioned that perhaps She knew Guruji from the past when Gurujiwas posted in Dehradun working in the Indian Police Service. But shewas not sure. All the while, I kept wondering how a police officer canbecome a Guru. As it was getting late, I asked Didi to leave as I wanted tostay a little longer to witness the proceedings. Somewhere deep down in my heart, I had a hope to meet thismysterious Guru. With the strong urge to meet Him, I went to thetemple office and asked the volunteers sitting there to note my nameand give it to Guruji. To which their reply was prompt ” He knows whoHehastomeet,Hedoesn’tneedyourname” Ifeltreallybadandthoughtthey were rude. How can Guruji know that someone like me waswaiting to meet Him ! At that point in time, I had no idea that Guruji isthe same person whose messages I have been reading and forwardingto other devotees. I came back where other devotees were sitting andreciting Naam Jaap. There were lot of pictures of Sai Baba and Hisdevotees on the walls of the room.
54 IlookedatBaba’spictureandtoldBaba,“Idon’tneedanyapproach.If you think He is your true devotee who would lead me on Your path, thanYoumakethearrangementtomeetHim”. Lobehold! Iheardmy first and last name being announced. Now as I approached the entry to Guruji’s room, two boys standing at the door reiterated that the person called was Rashmi Chopra ,and not Shammi Chopra ! “How was it possible that I would hear Shammi being called and you would hear Rashmi”, I questioned. One of them opened the door to ask Guruji, who he had called for. Reply came “Let her come in, she has come all the way from seven seas to meet me !”. As I crossed the threshold to get into the room, I could feel the presence of a powerful energy. AsItouchedGuruji’sfeet,HeplacedHishandonmyHead.Itis hard to express in words what I really felt at that very moment. He thenaskedme“ BabakoMilneGayithi?”(DidyougotomeetBaba?).I replied “ Ji Guru ji! “ ( Yes, Guruji). Then He said “ BABA KA KAAM KARTI HO” ( You work for Baba). I expressed my concern that most of teh literature available on Baba are either in Marathi or Sanskrit, which I do not understand. Guruji Said, “LOOK UPTO THE MASTER, HE IS SITTING THERE AND HE WILL TEACH EVERYTHING HIMSELF”. “JAISA KAR RAHI HO THIK HAI..DIL KHOL KE KARO” ( Whatever way you are doing, is right. Do it wholeheartedly) I was happy and felt blessed as I headed out only to realize later the words He spoke were the exact words I had heard from the Panditji a few days ago at Samadhi Mandir at Shirdi. Needless to mention that he also knew my name and the fact that I had come from Canada, as I had not introduced myself to anyone after arriving at the Chattarpur temple ! Thus was the start of my real spiritual journey with my Sai Baba and my Guruji , my Baba. - Markham ON, Canada.
“The ongoing experience of human souls, life after life, is to experience thattimeless reality which we call God. Only the compassion of the PerfectMaster can evolve us to experience such a reality. Therefore, we should alwayspray to Sai Baba, the incarnation of the Age, to show and lead us in thatpath.” Shri C. B. Satpathy ji
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