Shri Satpathyji's Diwali Message.mov

Experience of a Devotee

Today I read an inspirational story at beliefnet and wanted to share with you all. It touched my heart.An Angel in Disguise I have been a writer and a publisher of children's magazines for a decade. At one time, during the initial years, things were not so rosy. The bills were piling up, sales had stopped due to some political problem of which we knew nothing, and I was hard put to think of how to maintain my staff.

When I was absolutely on my last leg, I gave my personal God, who had got me through so many crises in my life, an ultimatum. "God," I said, "if you want to help me, this is just the time." Later that day, I received a call from a construction agency. My building had just sprung some leaks and I had been looking for an expert to help me fix the problem. The caller said that he would like to meet me that day. Pre-occupied as I was, I felt a strange urge to ask him to come.
As soon as the elderly gentleman arrived, he walked purposefully to the terrace, looked at the problem, and promised to send in a price quote for the repairs within a couple of hours. As we walked down the staircase, he casually asked me about the company. I mentioned the magazine and the fact that it was an educational effort, meant to promote values among children. As we reached the ground floor where my office was located, he asked, "May I have a look at the magazine?"

I invited him in, picked out a couple of back issues and handed them to him. He did not seem to be the kind who would have young children, so I thought he was just being polite to impress a prospective client. Imagine my surprise when he said, "I am on the board of directors of three schools. We are looking for books like these to promote general knowledge among children. Could I have a few?"

Suddenly getting interested, I asked, "A few? You mean, a few dozen?" "No," he said, "a few thousand."

My mouth fell open and my eyes must have popped out. I must have looked like a goldfish gasping for breath. I told him to give me the exact number he wanted.

Miracle of miracles! It was exactly the number we still had in stock. Then he said, "You can make the delivery within a week. Here is the cheque amount. You can cash it right away."

I had tears in my eyes as I accepted it from him. The amount covered the costs of every bill I needed to pay, with even a little left over to stash away. I made the delivery of the magazines within a day.

But, you know something? The man never ever sent the price quote for the repairs to my roof. I wonder sometimes whether that was on his agenda at all. Sometimes, I am convinced the Lord does come to us in strange ways, in strange shapes. If only we knew how to look.

Shipra Shukla, New Delhi
(http://www.heritageofshirdisai.org/)

IF YOU WANT HIS ANSWER

Whether He replies or mot,
Keep calling Him
Ever calling in the chamber
of continuous prayer.

Whether He comes or not,
Believe He is ever approaching
Nearer to you
with each command of your heart’s love.

Whether He answers or not,
Keep entreating Him.
Even if He makes no reply
In the way you expect,
Ever know that in some subtle way
He will respond.

In the darkness of your deepest prayers,
Know that with you He us playing
Hide-and-seek.
And in the midst of the dance of life, disease and death,
If you keep calling Him,
Undepressed by His seeming silence,
You will receive His answer.

By Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
From www.heritageofshirdisai.org

RAM NAVAMI MESSAGE OF SHRI C. B. SATPATHY

On one occasion, Shri Shirdi Sai Baba advised one of His devotees working as a Magistrate, to maintain 'probity' in personal and professional life. The word 'probity' means a high standard of moral behaviour or adherence to the highest principles and ideals or in short, uprightness. People from all walks of life, such as government servants like magistrates, revenue officials, tehsildars, mamlatdars, police officials to lawyers, artists, pilgrims, used to flock around Baba at Shirdi, seeking His divine blessings, help and guidance, both mundane and spiritual. Baba helped everyone as and when required, without any considerations of religion, caste, creed, temporal status or varied social differentiation.
Of all the advice that Shri Sainath Maharaj rendered, the most important and common advice was to maintain uprightness and honesty in all aspects of life religious, social, professional or personal. By asking the Magistrate to exhibit moral conduct in his profession, Baba gave the message that demonstrating the quality of righteousness in only one sphere of life, is not conducive to spiritual growth of an individual. It has to be practiced or adhered to in every sphere of life.
In our ordinary life, we come across many people, who demonstrate their quality of piety by donating lots of money to the temples, but shirk away in providing any such help to their poor domestic servant, even if he or she may be in dire stress due to any number of reasons such as the sickness of his or her child. There are others who spend lots of money and time on the rearing of their pet dogs, but do not think twice before hurling abuses and even beat up urchins begging on the street. Such examples are too numerous to be described within the limited space of this article. Such people show contradiction between their thought, intent and action, where they display virtuosity selectively, sometimes simply for their personal gains. Thus, the quality of uprightness, probity and honesty are applied as utilitarian principles. One need not be surprised at such examples, because to be successful in the worldly life, most people take recourse to such a formula. However, such an approach is not conducive for those desirous of their inner evolution. The formula that Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi prescribed, was upholding the qualities of tolerance, compassion, uprightness, sacrifice and non-attachment to be practiced resolutely in every station of life be it professional, personal, religious or social.
Those who followed Baba's teaching in letter and spirit gained spiritual progress much faster than those who did not follow. Shri Sai Satcharitra cites stories of many such evolved souls during Baba's lifetime, such as, Megha, who maintained his simplicity till his demise, Bala Saheb Bhate and Kaka Saheb Dixit who renounced worldly life entirely on the bidding of Baba, while Mahalsapati maintained his non-attachment to materialism. These exalted and noble souls, and many others, who never faltered in sustaining their qualities under the guidance of the Master of Shirdi, have been praised in Shri Sat Charitra and elsewhere.
Therefore, it behoves the true Sai devotees to consciously try to evolve the best qualities in them, in all the activities they undertake. No doubt, this is not at all easy to achieve, but steadfast love, devotion and unwavering faith towards Baba will gradually bring out the best qualities in them. May Shri Sai bless us all, to be able to follow the path of righteousness and uprightness.
C.B SATPATHY, New Delhi

Guru Bhakti by Swami Chidananda

Guru Bhakti
God is an unknown entity. God is an unseen entity. However, with absolutely irrefutable logic, rational argument and reason, Vedanta establishes the fact of God. And through analysis we can infer, “Yes, there must be a God; it stands to reason. It is irrational to suppose that there cannot be such a thing as God. There must be.” And scriptures also tell us that He is a Being who is sacred, who is holy, all-pure, noble and sublime. But, nevertheless, God is still for us only a concept of the mind. We have not seen God. We have not touched, nor tasted, nor smelt Him. We’ve only heard about Him. We can only infer Him. We can only imagine Him.
But then, if we are able to see in a human individual manifestations of holiness, of sanctity, of purity, of sublimity, of nobility, of goodness, of loftiness of conduct, character, nature, sentiment, thought, feeling and action, if we see something out of the ordinary something extraordinary, something special, a manifestation of those qualities that we have been taught to associate only with God then we say: “If such a human being can exist, God must exist. Otherwise, from whence do these qualities come which we do not normally see in anyone?” When we see this divinity, this holiness, this sanctity, we begin to realise: “Yes, God I have not seen, but godliness I have seen.
All the qualities attributed to God by the scriptures, by saints and sages, in all religious contexts those I see in an unusual measure, in an extraordinary measure, in this being. Because I have seen this being and this being is known to me, I am assured that God is. I know there must be a God.” And in the Vedic tradition the guru is such a being. The guru becomes for us pratyaksha devaa, visible God. God reveals Himself through the guru.
The guru thus becomes the linking factor, a channel for putting the wandering, lost jivatma, the individual Soul, back into contact with its source, God, the Universal Soul. And just as the guru is a channel for the jivatma to re-link itself with the paramatma, even so, if we can create a channel between ourselves and our guru, then that channel will become the effecting means of receiving from the guru guru-kripa, all that the guru is, the knowledge of the guru, the sanctity of the guru, the purity of the guru, the spirituality of the guru.
And that channel is called guru-bhakti. That is why the significant verse in the Svetasvatara Upanishad: “yasya deve para bhaktih yatha deve tatha gurau, tasyaite kathita hyarthah prakasante mahatmanah.” If you have supreme devotion to God and the same kind of devotion to your guru, then to you, the essence, the subtle truths of the scriptures become revealed.” Thus it is that through guru-bhakti the sadhaka, the seeker, the disciple, creates an effective link, a connection, a channel, which enables the guru to share with the disciple what the guru has been endowed with from God.
So, we have to provide a way for the guru to give what he wishes to give. And that is through guru-bhakti, devotion, where there is no place for the ego. If the thought comes, “I have got great guru-bhakti,” then finished, that bhakti becomes cancelled, it is nullified. You yourself must become the very embodiment of that love, that devotion. There should be no awareness of some being, some person having that quality of devotion. Then it becomes a subtle spiritual ego. The very purpose of the existence of the guru is to remove the separatist I-consciousness, the conscious¬ness of being a separate being or entity, and if guru-bhakti becomes a means of boosting and sustaining that abhimana (ego), ahamkara (egoism), then it loses its purpose and becomes self-defeating.
Thus true guru-bhakti is egoless, nirabhimana (without ego), vinamra (humble). Sabari was bhaktisvarupa. She had great bhakti for Rama, but she was not conscious that she was a great devotee of Rama. Neither was Hanuman conscious that he was a great bhakta of Rama. It was his very nature. He was an embodiment of devotion for Rama. The gopis of Vrindavan did not know that they were great devotees of Krishna. They said: “All we know is that He is the one object to be adored. We don’t know anything else. We cannot do anything but adore Him. We are that adoration. It is our very self. We are not different from that. Take it away from us and we will die, we will cease to exist.” They were filled with that love, not with egoistical awareness of that love.
The greater the growth of devotion and the greater the reverence for the guru, the greater is the inflow of the guru's grace. The greater the desire to carry out the ideals and principles of the guru in life and the greater the keen eagerness and firm determination to carry out the instructions of the guru faithfully, meticulously, day after day, in one’s daily activities and life, the greater is the inflow of the guru’s grace. Gurudev was never tired of again and again reiterating: “Obedience is better than reverence.” And Vivekananda came down heavily upon mere sentiment and emotion. He said that this sentiment has ruined us. We have become backboneless; we lack a sense of purpose.
And what have the Upanishads put before us to illustrate true devotion? One disciple came to his guru as a young boy and the guru told him that it was his duty to collect firewood daily for the havan. He went on doing it without questioning. He was not allowed to cut green trees; and so the whole day, with great difficulty, he searched for and cut dry wood, put it on his head and returned only in the evening. The guru never gave him any spiritual instructions or teachings. Years went by. The disciple forgot time, until one day he realised he had become old, his hair and beard had become silver-white. Suddenly he burst into tears: “What is my fate? My whole life has passed away and the guru has not yet given me brahma-jnana.” He had become old. He had served his guru without question ever since he was a young boy. That was his devotion.
Another disciple was asked to take the guru ‘s cattle to pasture. He had to be with the cattle all day. The guru did not ask his wife to prepare any lunch for him, and he did not have permission to drink milk from the cows. So the whole day he went hungry, only quenching his thirst with water. Days, months, years passed this way.
And one disciple was asked to irrigate the guru ‘s fields. He had to let the water into the fields and make sure that it did not leak out. After working the whole day, one evening he discovered a leak in one of the earthen walls. He tried to plug it with some clay. It kept leaking. He tried all methods to repair it, and finally not knowing what else to do, he decided to plug it with his own body. So he lay down, curled himself into a ball and stopped the leak. After nightfall, when he had not returned, the guru became anxious and so with several of his disciples went searching for him. Finally they found him in his curled up position stopping the leak.
That was the type of guru-bhakti they had. It was not mere sentiment. It was true guru-bhakti. It had iron behind it. It had immense strength behind it. It had determination, sattvic determination, behind it. These are a few towering examples of guru-bhakti in our scriptures. There are many others. They come from all traditions. They are all sanketa matra (indicators) of the stuff that guru-bhakti is made of. It is divine power, it is divine force, not merely silly human sentiment, not merely emotion.
When such guru-bhakti is there towards the guru, such obedience, such great desire to carry out his behest, biddings and teachings, then illumination automatically descends from the guru to the disciple. The illumination in which the guru is established comes like a spark flying from one end of an exposed wire to another. For when the weeping old disciple was taken by the guru’s wife to the guru and explained why he was weeping, the guru replied: “What! What do you mean, you have no illumination!” Immediately, the disciple became illumined. Why? Because of his total self-effacement, total dedication, his un¬questioning carrying out of the behest of the guru, because of the exemplary type of devotion that filled his heart: “I have come to a guru. I must serve him. This is my greatest good fortune.”
Thus the most effective way of deriving maximum benefit from the guru is to create a channel of lofty, sublime devotion to the guru, heroic guru-bhakti. And it is that heroic guru-bhakti where there is the greatest love and reverence combined with the highest obedience, the highest desire to please the guru by carrying out his instructions, that becomes the great channel for the inflow of guru-kripa. In that way, spiritual vision dawns and you "see" Reality, you “behold” Reality.
That is the tradition. That is the true inner dynamics of the guru sishya relationship through which the disciple is able to benefit in a maximum measure from the guru. Thus we have known from our scriptures, from our ancient bhaktas, from the narratives of ancient disciples, their relationship to their gurus. Thus we have learnt this great secret. May we all be benefited.
May the grace of all the brahma-vidya-gurus, from ancient times up to the present, be upon you. May you ponder deeply, reflect deeply, upon what an ideal disciple should be, what constitutes real discipleship, and become benefited thereby.
Swami Chidananda

Prayer of RepentanceGiven by Meher Baba on 8 November 1952

We repent O God most merciful, for all our sins;
For every thought that was false or unjust or unclean;
For every word spoken that ought not to have been spoken;
For every deed done that ought not to have been done.
We repent for every deed and word and thought Inspired by selfishness;
And for every deed and word and thought inspired by hatred.
We repent most specially for every lustful thought,
And every lustful action;For every lie; for all hypocrisy;
For every promise given, but not fulfilled;
And for all slander and backbiting.
Most specially also, we repent for every action
That has brought ruin to others;
For every word and deed that has given others pain;
And for every wish that pain should befall others.
In your unbounded mercy, we ask you to forgive us, O God,
For all these sins committed by us;
And to forgive us for our constant failures
To think and speak and act according to your will.

Sri Paramahansa Yogananda on Patience

Do not look for a spiritual flower everyday. Sow the seed, water it with prayer and right endeavour. When it sprouts, take care of the plant, pulling out the weeds of doubt, indecision, and indifference that may spring up around it. Some morning you will suddenly behold your long – awaited spiritual flower of realization.