SHORT-CUT TO GOD

SHORT-CUT TO GOD

 

After the Russian revolution, atheism proliferated, resulting in the destruction of places of worship. A poor old woman was found praying turning her rosary beads. She told one of the atheists calmly – everything in the Universe bears witness to the truth that God exists. You cannot extinguish the stars at night. If you ignore the Creator, then there can be no Creation.

 

God 'is'. We may be unable to see, hear, touch or understand God. But then it is like a child trying to empty the ocean by handfuls of water into his little bowl. This is because it is impossible to comprehend God and His ways through our mind.

 

Today emphasis is on the mind and the heart is ignored. There is belief in existentialism. Philosophers like Jean Paul Sartre say that life has no meaning. If that is so, then why live at all?

 

On the other hand, great souls of ancient times like Leo Tse, Gautama Buddha, Mahavir, Guru Nanak, Kabir – all speak of unending bliss and ecstasy in the divine. But for that we have to make God a reality. As the poet Tennyson says – Closer is He to you that breathing, nearer than hands and feet. God is not a distant being dwelling on a far off star. The mercy of God is such that like a parent or a friend we can share our innermost secrets without any reservations or fear. The malady of modern man is living in this excited agitated age of science overpowered by comforts and conveniences. But science makes man egoistic, specially the youth who feel that man can do all on his own. Thus civilization has become sick with passion for power, lust for fame and greed for gold.

 

Mental, moral, spiritual and physical health can only be restored when we look to God as the source and sustainer of life. We can know God and have contact with him by talking to Him with love and intimacy, feel Him constantly by our side. Hence it is the simple village folk who experience Him more than the apparently intellectual city dwellers who live in their minds.

 

To awaken our hearts we have to put in the efforts of cultivating longing and love for God, which in turn leads to love of fellow men and creatures. This way we can greet other communities and countries with love instead of bombs.

 

The ways to God are many but they will take several births. Hence the best short-cut to God is the way of love and longing, pinning for the Beloved. We should love God to distraction, to intoxication. To many God is like a shop-keeper with endless wares which we ask for incessantly. But in silence when you ask only for Him, then He will come unto you and reveal Himself.

 

We have several desires – the greatest being that of the ego or 'I'ness. With the ego, God cannot enter just like darkness and light cannot exist together. As Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa said: 'anything besides love will take you at best only to the outer gate of the Kingdom of God. Only love will take you to the innermost chambers of God.

 

God is the essence of love and draws us to Him by His very nature, but only if we open our hearts. We should pray from the bottom of our hearts to be granted the gift of the love of God. For this 10 practical suggestions:

 

1. Never try to show off. A true lover lives a hidden life in the hidden God. Exhibitionism is egoism. One should be humble and sincere.

 

2. Spend as much time as you can with God. One should attend to one's duties but not overwork. Two things can facilitate that: (a) Simple life drop the less important activities. (b) Try and get up early in the morning – Amrit Vela or Brahma Muhurta is the best time to communicate with Him.

 

3. Never react. If one is elf-willed, with an inflated ego, one cannot love. Any form of abuse will cause retaliation. One should remember what Jesus said about turning the other cheek.

 

4. Love is a gift of God which cannot be earned, but can be obtained by the Grace of God which comes by returning good for evil.

 

5. On waking up, one should breathe some aspiration or saying from any of the scriptures; e.g. In the Koran it is said: "Allah is in the East and the West. Wherever we turn is the face of Allah."

 

6. Let your day be of little turnings to God.

 

7. Whatever you eat, whatever austerity or charity you perform, do it as an offering to the Lord.

In every walk of life there are a hundred ways of doing the same thing, some right, some wrong. But the best is that which is done as an offering.

 

8. Rejoice in everything that happens, knowing the meaning of mercy in all. This faith will bring acceptance and closeness to God.

 

9. Hand yourself over to God completely with all your faults and failings, knowing that He will make you 'new'.

 

10. Help others. Lift the load of the less fortunate on the rough road of life. No man is an island.

 

Only giving happiness to others will make happiness flow into our lives.

 

As the Chinese proverb goes – if you want to be happy, go out and help others.

 

 

 

(Dada J.P. Vaswani in his talk on Short-Cuts to God on his 86^th birthday)

 

HALF A SHAWL ON LORD

HALF A SHAWL ON LORD

 

 

A disciple of Sri Krishna ventured out on a cold, wintry night. On the way, he found a beggar, without any clothes on his body.

 

"I am shivering in the cold," cried the beggar. "Will you not, in the name of Sri Krishna, give me a garment with which I may cover my body and save myself from this intense cold?"

 

The disciple was wearing a shawl. "This shawl can be cut into two," he said himself. "One half of this I can give to this poor man, the other half is sufficient to protect me from this biting cold."

 

So thinking, he took of his shawl, tore it into two, gave one half of the shawl to the poor man and wore the other half himself.

 

On that very night, he had a dream, in which he saw Sri Krishna wearing only half a shawl.

 

Astonished, he asked, "Master, how is it that You have put on only half a shawl?"

 

Sri Krishna said to him, "This is all that you gave me!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

 

Can Prayers Heal?

Critics Say Studies Go Past Science’s Reach


From New York Times, October 10, 2004
By BENEDICT CAREY

In 2001, two researchers and a Columbia University fertility expert published a startling finding in a respected medical journal: women undergoing fertility treatment who had been prayed for by Christian groups were twice as likely to have a successful pregnancy as those who had not.

Three years later, after one of the researchers pleaded guilty to conspiracy in an unrelated business fraud, Columbia is investigating the study and the journal reportedly pulled the paper from its Web site.

No evidence of manipulation has yet surfaced, and the study's authors stand behind their data.

But the doubts about the study have added to the debate over a deeply controversial area of research: whether prayer can heal illness.

Critics express outrage that the federal government, which has contributed $2.3 million in financing over the last four years for prayer research, would spend taxpayer money to study something they say has nothing to do with science.

"Intercessory prayer presupposes some supernatural intervention that is by definition beyond the reach of science," said Dr. Richard J. McNally, a psychologist at Harvard. "It is just a nonstarter, in my opinion, a total waste of time and money."

Prayer researchers, many themselves believers in prayer's healing powers, say scientists do not need to know how a treatment or intervention works before testing it.

Dr. Richard Nahin, a senior adviser at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, said in an e-mail message that the studies were meant to answer practical questions, not religious ones.

"We only recently understood how aspirin worked, and the mechanisms of action of various antidepressants and general anesthetics remain under investigation," Dr. Nahin wrote.

He said a recent government study found that 45 percent of adults prayed specifically for health reasons, and suggested that many of them were poor people with limited access to care.

"It is a public health imperative to understand if this prayer offers them any benefit," Dr. Nahin wrote.

Some researchers also point out that praying for the relief of other people's suffering is a deeply human response to disease.

The 'Placebo Effect'

Since 2000, at least 10 studies of intercessory prayer have been carried out by researchers at institutions including the Mind/Body Medical Institute, a nonprofit clinic near Boston run by a Harvard-trained cardiologist, as well as Duke University and the University of Washington. Government financing of intercessory prayer research began in the mid-1990's and has continued under the Bush administration.

In one continuing study, financed by the National Institutes of Health and called "Placebo Effect in Distant Healing of Wounds," doctors at California Pacific Medical Center, a major hospital in San Francisco, inflict a tiny stab wound on the abdomens of women receiving breast reconstruction surgery, with their consent, and then determine whether the "focused intention" of a variety of healers speeds the wound's healing.

Two large trials of the effects of prayer on coronary health are currently under review at prominent medical journals.

Even those who defend prayer research concede that such studies are difficult. For one thing, no one knows what constitutes a "dose": some studies have tested a few prayers a day by individual healers, while others have had entire congregations pray together. Some have involved evangelical Christians; others have engaged rabbis, Buddhist and New Age healers, or some combination.

Another problem concerns the mechanism by which prayer might be supposed to work. Some researchers contend that prayer's effects - if they exist - have little to do with religion or the existence of God. Instead of divine intervention, they propose things like "subtle energies," "mind-to-mind communication" or "extra dimensions of space-time" - concepts that many scientists dismiss as nonsense. Others suggest that prayer may have a soothing effect that works like a placebo for believers who know they are being prayed for.

Either way, even many churchgoers are skeptical that prayer can be subjected to scientific scrutiny. For one thing, prayers vary in their purpose and content: some give praise, others petition for strength, many ask only that God's will be done. For another, not everyone sees God as one who does favors on request.

"There's no way to put God to the test, and that's exactly what you're doing when you design a study to see if God answers your prayers," said the Rev. Raymond J. Lawrence Jr., director of pastoral care at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. "This whole exercise cheapens religion, and promotes an infantile theology that God is out there ready to miraculously defy the laws of nature in answer to a prayer."
Prayer and Heart Disease

Proponents of prayer research often cite two large heart disease trials to justify further study of prayer's healing potential.

In one study, Dr. Randolph Byrd, a San Francisco cardiologist, had groups of born-again Christians pray for 192 of 393 patients being treated at the coronary care unit of San Francisco General Hospital. In 1988, Dr. Byrd reported in The Southern Medical Journal, a peer-reviewed publication of the Southern Medical Association, that the patients who were prayed for did better on several measures of health, including the need for drugs and breathing assistance.

At the end of the paper, Dr. Byrd wrote, "I thank God for responding to the many prayers made on behalf of the patients."

In the other study, of 990 heart disease patients, Dr. William S. Harris of St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and his colleagues reported in The Archives of Internal Medicine in 1999 that the patients who were prayed for by religious strangers did significantly better than the others on a measure of coronary health that included more than 30 factors. Dr. Harris, who was one of the authors of a paper arguing that Darwin's theory of evolution is speculative, concluded that his study supported Dr. Byrd's.

In the experiments, the researchers did not know until the study was completed which patients were being prayed for. But experts say the two studies suffer from a similar weakness: the authors measured so many variables that some were likely to come up positive by chance. In effect, statisticians say, this method is like asking the same question over and over until you get the answer you want.

"It's a weak measure," said Dr. Richard Sloan, a professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia who has been critical of prayer research. "You're collecting 30 or 40 variables but can't even specify up front which ones" will be affected.

Dr. Harris corrected for this problem, experts say, but he then found significant differences between prayer and no-prayer groups only by using a formula that he and his colleagues had devised, and that no one else had ever validated. A swarm of letters to the journal challenged Dr. Harris's methods. One correspondent, a Dutch doctor, jokingly claimed that he could account for the results because he was clairvoyant. "I have subsequently used my telepathic powers to influence the course of the experimental group," he wrote.

Still, some religious leaders and practitioners of alternative medicine argue that because prayer is so common a response to illness, researchers have a responsibility to investigate it.
"We need to look at this with what I call open-minded skepticism," said Dr. Marilyn Schlitz, the lead investigator of the federally financed wound healing study and the director of research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, an alternative medicine research center near San Francisco.

Questions About Data

It was a former associate of Dr. Schlitz's, Dr. Elisabeth Targ, who first helped draw federal money into research on so-called distant healing. The daughter of Russell Targ, a physicist who studied extrasensory perception for government intelligence agencies in the 1970's, Dr. Targ made headlines with a 1998 study suggesting that prayers from assorted religious healers and shamans could protect AIDS patients from some complications related to the disease.

The findings, and Dr. Targ's reputation, helped win her two grants from the complementary and alternative medicine center at the National Institutes of Health - one for a larger study of distant healing among AIDS patients, another to test the effect of prayers by outside healers on the longevity of people with deadly brain tumors.

Both trials are continuing at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, which has a complementary medicine wing, but Dr. Targ is no longer running them. She herself died of brain cancer in 2002.

Shortly after Dr. Targ's death, her methods came under attack. An article in Wired magazine charged that she and her co-authors had massaged their data on AIDS to make the effects of prayer look better than they were.

Officials at California Pacific conducted an investigation of the study and concluded that the data had not been manipulated. Dr. John Astin, who is running the second AIDS study, said the biggest weakness of Dr. Targ's first trial was that it was too small to be conclusive.
But in a letter defending the study, the hospital's director of research also acknowledged that he could not tell for sure from the original medical records which patients had been prayed for and which had not been.

"Each subject's name, age and date of birth were blinded with what appears to be a black crayon," he wrote.

The quality of original data is also at the center of the controversy over the 2001 Columbia fertility study, which was reported by many newspapers including The New York Times. Dr. Kwang Cha, a Korean fertility specialist visiting the university, was the study's lead author. Daniel Wirth, a lawyer from California who had conducted research on alternative healing, was his principal research associate. In the spring of 1999, the two met at a Starbucks on the Upper West Side to exchange data, according to Dr. Cha, who provided details of the meeting through a colleague.

Dr. Cha had the pregnancy results with him, and Mr. Wirth had a roster of the women he said had been prayed for. The two had never shared the information before, and Dr. Cha was surprised enough by the results that he took them to a former mentor, Dr. Rogerio Lobo of Columbia, to make sure the study was done correctly.

In a recent interview, Dr. Lobo said that the study had come to him as a "fait accompli" and that he had interrogated Dr. Cha to make sure his study methods were sound. He decided they were and helped write the study.

"We had these results, we didn't believe them, we couldn't explain them, but we decided to put them out there," Dr. Lobo said.

In May, Mr. Wirth pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection with a $2 million business fraud in Pennsylvania. He is awaiting sentencing.

Dr. Lobo said he had met Mr. Wirth but knew little about him or about his contributions to the study. He acknowledged that the data could have been manipulated, but said he did not know how.

"I didn't actually conduct the study, so I can't know for sure," Dr. Lobo said.
Mr. Wirth's lawyer, William Arbuckle, said his client was not available for comment.

'This Is No Routine Paper'

One study that many people believe could either bolster prayer research or dampen interest in the topic has been completed, but has not yet been published. Dr. Herbert Benson, the cardiologist who founded the Mind/Body Medical Institute, began the trial in the late 1990's with $2.4 million from the John Templeton Foundation, which supports research into spirituality. The Mind/Body Institute, according to its Web site, is a "scientific and educational organization dedicated to the study of mind/body interactions."

The study included some 1,800 volunteers, heart bypass patients at six hospitals. They were monitored according to strict medical guidelines and randomly assigned to be prayed for or not. One doctor who has seen a final version of the study said it was the most rigorous trial on the subject to date.

Other experts say they wonder whether the study will be published at all, and what is holding it up.

"He's got nothing, or we would have seen it by now," Dr. Sloan of Columbia said, referring to Dr. Benson.

In an interview at his office, Dr. Benson acknowledged that at least two medical journals had turned down the study after asking for revisions. He said that the study was currently under review at another journal and that talking about the results could jeopardize publication.
"This is no routine paper," he said. "What you're looking at obviously is not a typical intervention, not at all. We are at the interface of science and religion here, and there are boundary issues that you would not have for almost any other paper."

Dr. Benson, who has studied the links between spirituality and medicine for many years, declined to answer when asked if he himself believed in the effects of intercessory prayer, saying only that he believed in God.

"We know that praying for oneself can influence health, so that's what led us to this topic," he said.

If researchers are struggling to prove that intercessory prayer has benefits for health, at least one study hints that it could be harmful.

In a 1997 experiment involving 40 alcoholics in rehab, psychologists at the University of New Mexico found that although intercessory prayers did not have any effect on drinking patterns, the men and women in the study who knew they were being prayed for actually did worse.

"It's not clear what that means," said Dr. William Miller, one of the study's authors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/health/10prayer.html?ex=1098356761&ei=1&en=e775d3e928261c5a

FOUR LITTLE WORDS

FOUR LITTLE WORDS

 

"Prayer activates either our will or God's will. It took me a long time to learn this, and in the interim, I got myself into some pretty tough scrapes. But believe me, my world has changed since I discovered the power in those four little words. 'Thy Will be done."

 

This statement was made by Tom Vlahos, who went on to tell the following story.

 

One day Tom's four-year old son Victor began limping slightly. "I noticed it," Tom recalls, "before I went to work one day. "Oh" I said to myself, "he has only strained a muscle." But then my wife telephoned me at work. My boy was very ill."

 

Later Tom and his wife learned that little Victor had polio and was in a critical condition. Tom, of course, was heart-broken.

 

"I had prayed before whenever I needed help, "Tom explained. "But many times it seemed that answers to my prayers had a way of backfiring. I usually got what I prayed for, all right, but so often it turned out not to be the solution after all. I had become almost afraid to pray, but I knew I had to pray now. Prayer was my last resource to help the son I love so dearly."

 

Actually, Tom learned to pray when he was a young boy. "I always prayed for something," Tom said, "or I explained to God just what I wanted Him to do and how He was to do it. I had a clear picture of what I thought I wanted, and how I thought it should be accomplished. What I should have had was a clearer picture of the true nature of God.

 

" I began praying in the only manner I knew. Then one night after everyone else was asleep, I seemed led to go to the place in the house where I first noticed Victor limping, Kneeling there, I realized I had come to that point of helplessness known as despair. In the darkness I opened my lips to pray, but there came only the sound of cry.

 

"I continued to kneel, with the quietness all around me. Suddenly a great peace came to me; and more than this there was a surging feeling of the presence of infinite power and kindness. In this presence O felt very humble, and I suddenly knew how to pray. "Thy Will be done," I said."

 

These four little words are common enough, and they hardly betray any unusual power. But to Tom Vlahos they are essential power.

 

"When I spoke these words, that night," he recalled, "I was prompted by a sudden clarification of the true nature of our heavenly Father.

 

"Somehow I realized that it was not the Father's will for my son to be sick and crippled throughout his life. I realized that Jesus had a duel purpose in healing the sick. He wanted to ease suffering of course, but He also wanted to reveal the nature and will of God. He did His Father's work. Why else did Jesus heal, and also command His followers to heal, unless sickness is opposed to God's will?

 

"As these thoughts went through my mind, I understood that God had made my son perfect, and that through Him Victor could continue to express this perfection. I understood, also, that He had given me faith to believe this, so I said, ''Thy Will be done."

 

"The doctors were doubtful that Victor would ever be able to get out of bed again. 'Daddy' my son asked, 'is it true I'll have to stay in this old bed from now on?' drawing to me all the courage I had garnered from my new type of prayers, I said, 'Son, you'll be up and out of there before you know it.' However, Victor was not ready to attempt to walk again until nearly two years later.

 

Tom explained what took place on that occasion. "Doctors and nurses stood around quietly. I could tell they did not have much hope that Victor would walk again, although there were praying. Victor got up slowly from his bed and with help placed the crutches under his tiny arms. Gradually he began to take steps. Suddenly the crutches dropped into the floor. Victor wavered. I held my breath and was on the verge of crying, for I expressed to see my little boy tumble to the floor. But Victor walked without crutches!"

 

At that moment Tom remembered the many times during the preceding two years when, during the night, he had arisen to pray. "I had always remained at my prayer post," he said, "until I received the first conviction that all was well, and that I was praying to the greatest power of all. Then I would softly pray, "Thy Will be done," for I knew that His will is the best and the most constructive and kind thing. By praying, 'Thy Will be done,' I got out of His way and stopped interfering with His work.

 

There was a time when my prayers were long tales of woe to God. I never use a long-drawn-out one any more, and I laugh to think I ever did. Can anyone tell God about a situation? After all, He already knows more about it than the person who is praying. My prayers now are something like this: "Our Father, You see the situation in all aspects. To us, Your children, You are all. Thy Will be done."

 

Does Tom feel that by saying these words he is letting God do the work, thus completely freeing himself from any responsibility? Absolutely not! "It increases my responsibility," he claims, "for it is impossible truly to pray that God's \will be done and at the same time refuse to do it each day. It is the will of God, for example, that we love one another, that we forgive one another, that we seek ways to be of service. God's Will is harmony, and Jesus made it clear that God's Will is our duty.

 

"How can I pray to God with any measure of faith that His will be done in every specific case if I do not see to it that His will is upheld by me in general? I can't. I know, however, that if I do His divine will each day as I understand it, it will be the same as storing up treasures of good in the kingdom of heaven, the store house for all the raw materials of our earthly blessings.

 

"I feel that I can speak with some authority, for since this method of prayer helped to heal my son, I have used it to solve many other problems. It has always proved successful."

 

Our instructions from God are dual: "Cast your burden on the Lord" (Thy Will be done), and "if any man would come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me" (Do the will of the Father). These go hand in hand. Anyone who follows these instructions will find that the answers to his prayers, though they be only four little words, "Thy Will be done," will far exceed his fondest hopes or dreams.

 

 

(Source: J. R. Goggins in Mira)

 

PRAYER QUOTES

Prayer requires more of the heart than of the tongue. ~Adam Clarke

God always answers our prayers, but sometimes the answer is no. ~Author Unknown

God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer. ~Mother Teresa

There come times when I have nothing more to tell God. If I were to continue to pray in words, I would have to repeat what I have already said. At such times it is wonderful to say to God, "May I be in Thy presence, Lord? I have nothing more to say to Thee, but I do love to be in Thy presence." ~O. Hallesby

Your prayer can be poetry, and poetry can be your prayer. ~Noelani Day

Whatever a man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer reduces itself to this: "Great God, grant that twice two be not four." ~Ivan Turgenev

Most people do not pray; they only beg. ~George Bernard Shaw

Prayer draws us near to our own souls. ~Herman Melville, Mardi and A Voyage Thither, 1849

To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do. ~Victor Hugo

What we usually pray to God is not that His will be done, but that He approve ours. ~Helga Bergold Gross

We must move from asking God to take care of the things that are breaking our hearts, to praying about the things that are breaking His heart. ~Margaret Gibb

We cannot ask in behalf of Christ what Christ would not ask Himself if He were praying. ~A.B. Simpson

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us. ~Socrates

Just pray for a tough hide and a tender heart. ~Ruth Graham

God tells us to burden him with whatever burdens us. ~Author Unknown

You know I ain't never prayed before
'Cause it always seemed to me
That prayin's the same as beggin' Lord,
I don't take no charity.
~Steve Earle, "Tom Ames' Prayer," 1994

Before we can pray, "Lord, Thy Kingdom come," we must be willing to pray, "My Kingdom go." ~Alan Redpath

Some people think that prayer just means asking for things, and if they fail to receive exactly what they asked for, they think the whole thing is a fraud. ~Gerald Vann

Who rises from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered. ~George Meredith

God has editing rights over our prayers. He will... edit them, correct them, bring them in line with His will and then hand them back to us to be resubmitted. ~Stephen Crotts

Be thankful that God's answers are wiser than your answers. ~William Culbertson

Prayer is the language of a man burdened with a sense of need. ~E.M. Bounds

Prayer is exhaling the spirit of man and inhaling the spirit of God. ~Edwin Keith

When you are unwell, you must cough, sneeze, and ache prayer. ~Carrie Latet

Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth. ~Philip James Bailey

Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden. ~Corrieten Boom

CHILD’S PRAYER ANSWERED

CHILD'S PRAYER ANSWERED

 

Baba said, "Those devotees, who are attached to Me, heart and soul, will naturally feel happiness" in Sri Sai Satcharitra, ch.III.

 

Mrs. Vimala Kaiser, Hoffman Street, Darmstad, West Germany, had a daughter by name Meenakshi who was eight years old. Since birth the child suffered from a skin ailment which would become worse in the summer months due to the presence of pollen. The family are devotees of Sai Baba.

The child's condition became worse in 1984, Mrs Kaiser's sister who lives in Bombay, sent udhi for application. With the application of udhi, the condition became better. But after some months, the allergic condition spread all over the body. Hence the family from Germany comprising the husband, wife and the child and Mrs Kaiser's sister, went to Shirdi in December 1986 and prayed before Baba. Since then the skin condition began to improve.

 

The summer months, of 1987 approached. The child desired to visit her grandparent's house in Germany and go for horse riding there. Mrs Kaiser was not sure how the child's condition would react in view of the child being allergic to animals and pollen. So she asked her child to write a prayer to Sai Baba. The child wrote from her heart in German, to put an end to her allergic skin condition and asked the priest to place this letter on the Samadhi of Sai Baba in Shirdi. Mrs Kaiser translated this letter to English and sent the same to Shirdi. The child immediately put the udhi in her mouth, and prayed to Sai Baba to cure her ailment and enable her to go for horse riding. Since then the child's skin condition became completely cured.

 

In July 1987, the summer vacation in Germany, the child went to her grandparent's house, and enjoyed herself to the full. There was no skin reaction inspite of summer and inspite of contact with the animals.

(From the book 'The Eternal Sai')

YOUR MONEY IS EVER YOURS

YOUR MONEY IS EVER YOURS

 

Baba said, "I take nothing from anybody" in Sri Sai Satcharitra, ch. XXXVI.

 

Sri R. Subramaniam, Lakshmipuram colony, Villivakam, Chennai, and his friends visited holy places of North India and Nepal in March 1986. The group comprising ladies and gentlemen, purchased sarees, electronic goods, other items at Nepal which were cheaper than in India.

 

On their way back from Nepal at Sowali, Gorakpur District Customs Authorities verifying the purchases made, charged a duty of Rs. 4000.00 on the items. Sri Subramaniam who happened to be the only Hindi knowing person in the group pleaded with the authorities to reduce the duty, which was reduced to Rs 1000. But the group members out of greediness or out of ignorance of law said that they could pay only Rs 500 in total.

 

Sri Subramaniam who had not made any purchases, but was only pleading for his friends was aghast at the adamancy of his groups. Unless the duty is paid, the Customs authorities would not allow the bus to proceed. Sri Subramaniam was embarrassed to meet the Customs officer to say that the group would pay only Rs 500/- as duty. Sri Subramaniam silently prayed to Sai Baba to get him out of this embarrassing predicament.

      At this time an officer arrived in a jeep and entered the Customs office. Sri Subramaniam was called inside the Customs office. This officer told him that he is a Supervisory Customs Officer for Gorakhpur District, that he is a Sai devotee and that he had seen Sri Subramaniam in the Shrine at Shirdi on 2^nd and 3^rd February 1986. The officer apprised of the predicament being faced by Sri Subramaniam, suddenly produced from his pocket and asked him to pay the Customs duty and obtain receipt. He even said that "this Rs 500/- is your money, you had given me earlier." Sri Subramaniam was perplexed, as he had not met this gentleman earlier, much less paid him Rs 500/-. The officer on special duty got into his jeep and was off. The Customs officer now became very cordial and said that his boss usually does not visit on Sundays!

When Sri Subramaniam reached Chennai at the conclusion of the trip, his landlord handed over to him an envelope from Sri D Sankaraiah of Hyderabad, which contained receipt for Rs 500/- which money was earlier collected by Sri Subramaniam and sent to Sri Sankaraiah for Akhanda Sai Nama Saptaham. Sri Sankaraiah had mentioned that since he did not know the addresses of the individual contributors, he had requested Sri Subramaniam to pass on the receipts on his behalf.

At this it flashed to him "Remember you had given me Rs 500/-. This is your own money."

 

(from the book 'The Eternal Sai')

THE GREATEST MIRACLE

THE GREATEST MIRACLE

 

Baba said, "Wonderful is the story. How were you blessed? I would like to know everything in detail from you, so tell Me all about it" in Sri Sai Satcharitra ch. XVIII, XIX.

 

Have you slowed down to realise how blessed you are that you can feed yourself?

 

Are you thankful that you can see?

 

Can you walk?

 

My beloved grandson. David Harris De Betty, was helpless from a forceps' injury at birth. A brain operation at John Hopkins when he was two years old, excruciating pain, and crushing disappointments could not defeat him.

 

Inability to skip or to play hide-and-seek during childhood, or later to accept five scholarships, or to write a nuclear physics theory, or to move his feet and head on the bed while he reclined flat on his back without a pillow in order to breathe, were insuperable obstacles which seemed only to empower him.

 

When David was five years old, he would sit on the lawn and clock his cousin Boo while his fleet playmate practiced running around the house. Later, when his ten-second cousin competed in contests, David also raced – though vicariously – as he yelled: "Go, Boo, Go!"

 

Imagine having constant continuous double vision. Think of not being able to brush away a biting mosquito from your face, or to turn a page."

 

When David was a little boy, he asked eagerly, "Mother, if I am healed, do you think it would be all right for me to play football?"

 

But there was never the first complaint about anything. He cheered his husky, athletic friends from the sidelines, encased in a brace, unable even to clap his hands.

 

David prayed for these buddies, for relatives, for strangers, for everyone. We heard him whisper: "Thank Thee, Holy Father, for giving us so much of your time."

 

After twenty-seven years of indescribable perseverance, David's Triumph was revealed in his prayers. More than once he prayed these words: "Holy Father, if we thanked Thee every breath throughout eternity, we could never thank Thee enough."

 

That August day David said to his mother, sitting on the side of his bed, "Do you remember, when I am a little boy, Mother, you said to me, "David, if you are ever kidnapped, do not be afraid because the worst thing that can happen is death – and what would be more wonderful than to be with Jesus?"

 

A few days later, David said, "Mother, if I should go to heaven with this sickness, please don't go into a depression."

 

The next night in the Palm Beach Hospital his parents beside his bed. His mother prayed and then said, "Goodnight, angel, go to sleep in Jesus's arms."

 

David whispered, "Goodnight, dear." He went to sleep and to heaven – cerebral thrombosis.

 

I know that such inexplicable peace and joy and miracles.

 

If David could will himself to live happily, anyone CAN.

 

 

 

(Written by: Ms. Harris Lowery)

ACCEPT AND REJOICE

ACCEPT AND REJOICE

 

"Whatever happens, it is divinely ordained and it is hence good for us" –Sri Sai Satcharitra, ch. XX

 

As you draw closer to God, you will realise, more and more, that there is a meaning of mercy in all that happens. God is All-Love and He is All-Wisdom. He is too loving to punish, too wise to make a mistake. Therefore, let me not seek to escape from any experience which comes to me from God. Let me not submit passively to the experience but let me move on to greet it, knowing that it brings me a message from the Lord – a message which will enrich my life. Let me accept and rejoice!

 

Sir Henry Lauder's only son was killed in world War I. He said to a friend: "When a man comes to a thing like this, there are just three ways out of it – there is drink; there is despair; and there is God. By His Grace, the last is for me."

 

Many things happen in life: we are unable to understand the why of them all. Suddenly, our dear ones are snatched away from us; suddenly a calamity befalls us; suddenly, a misfortune overtakes us. Instead of wasting our time and energy in enquiring why such a bitter experience entered into our life, let us move forward to greet every incident and accident, every illness and adversity, every misfortune and calamity, with the words: "I accept! I accept!"

 

In the Divine Providence, nothing happens but happens for our good. Nothing comes a moment too soon or late; everything comes in its own true time. God's clock is never too slow. We do not see the Providence at the time. Not until afterwards may it be revealed to us that our disappointments, hardships, trials, and the wrongs inflicted on us by others are part of God's good Providence towards us, full of blessing. Everything that happens to us comes to bless us and lead us onward in our way. Therefore, wherever God keeps me, let me remain; wherever He sends me, let me go! Let me seek refuge at His Lotus-feet, surrendering all my problems to Him, knowing that in God is a solution to every problem. Let me greet every happening with the words: "I accept! I accept!"

 

Everything that happens to us comes to bless us and lead us onwards in our way.

 

Rubbi Buman once picked up a pebble from the ground, looked at it, and put it back exactly where he had found it, and said: "He who does not believe that God wants this pebble to lie in this particular place, does not believe at all."

 

The man who surrenders himself to God, the Heavenly Father, is taken care of at every step, in every round of life. He knows that his Father is in charge and so nothing can ever go wrong. A botanist saw some rare flowers at the foot of a cliff. He couldn't think of any other way to reach them but to tie a rope to his small child's waist and lower him until he could pick the flowers.

 

"Aren't you afraid, little one?" the child was asked.

 

"Why should I be when my father is holding the rope?"

 

Acceptance is not passive submissiveness: acceptance is active participation in working out God's plans. Sadhu Vaswani said: "Not unoften, God upsets our plans to set up His own." And God's plan are Perfect. Let us do our best to achieve goals in view. If, inspite of our best efforts, we do not succeed, we must not grieve not shed tears, but adopt the friendly attitude: "Whatever has happened, has happened for the best. Whatever will happen, will happen for the best." When Henry Ford was seventy five he was asked the secret of his life. "The secret," he answered, "is a three-fold one. I do not overeat. I do not worry too much. And if I do my best, I believe that what happens, happens for the best." Not my will, but Thy Will be done, O' Lord! I accept! I accept! Tell me what thou wouldst have me do next!

 

Norman Vincent Peale, in one of his illuminating books, gives us a story of the famous Danish sculptor, Thorvaldson. He had finished a clay model of Christ with face looking towards heaven and arms extended upward.

 

Thorvaldson looked with deep satisfaction at the imperious figure of a conqueror. That night, sea mist seeped into the studio of the Sculptor. The clay relaxed, the head and arms dropped. Thorvaldson was bitterly disappointed, as he saw the figure the next morning. But as he looked again and again at the face of Christ, something happened to him. He found Christ looking down with love and compassion. This was surely a greater conception. That statue, Come Unto Me, became immortal.

SIMPLY ADD BABA IN YOUR LIFE

SIMPLY ADD BABA IN YOUR LIFE

 

Baba said, "Come what may, leave not, but stick to your Bolster and ever remain steady, always at-one-ment (in union) with Him" in Sri Sai Satcharitra, ch. XXVI.

 

One rich man owned 19 horses when he died. In his last will and testament he had written that upon his death, half the horses he owned should go to his only son; one fourth to the village temple and one fifth to the faithful servant.

 

The village elders could not stop scratching their heads. How can they give half of the 19 horses to the son? You cannot cup up a horse. They puzzled over this dilemma for more than two weeks and then decided to send for a wise man who was living in a neighbouring village.

 

The wise man came riding on his horse and asked the villagers if he can be of any help to them. The village elders told him about the rich man's last will and testament which stated that half of the (19) horses must be given to his only son, one fourth must go to the temple and one fifth to the faithful servant.

 

The wise man said he will immediately solve their problem without any delay whatsoever. He had the 19 horses placed in a row standing next to one another. Then he added his own horse as the 20^th horse. Now he went about giving half of the 20 horses – that is ten horses to the son. One fourth of 20- that is 5 horses were given to the temple committee. One fifth of twenty- that is 4 horses were given to the faithful servant. Ten plus five plus four made 19 horses. The remaining 20^th horse was his own which he promptly mounted, spoke a few inspiring words, and rode back home.

 

The villagers were simply dumbfounded, full of disbelief and filled with admiration. And the parting words of the wise man were inscribed in their hearts and minds which they greatly cherished and passed on to their succeeding generations till today.

 

Similarly in our daily lives, in our daily affairs, we must simply add Baba with our life and then go about facing the day's happenings. Ever come across problems in life that are seemingly impossible? Like the villagers, do we feel that such problems cannot be solved?

 

Add the Principles of Baba as outlined in Sri Sai Satcharitra in our daily lives and the problems will become lighter and eventually will disappear. In the manner of the ice which, with the addition of the heat principle will turn into water, and that will eventually evaporate as steam and disappear.

 

And how do we add Baba in our daily lives? He is already within you, see what He said to us, "My abode is in your heart and I am within you" (SSS Ch.XV), just reaffirm your faith on His stay within you by prayers, filled with true love and devotion with sincerity of purpose and dedication, that only total faith can bring about. Without purity of mind and true love, all our devotion is null and void, it remains like a boat without water. It is not difficult to push a boat that is floating in water, but extremely hard to drag the same boat on dry land. In the same way, if our life's boat floats on the waters of pure mind, true love and sincere devotion, we can sail easily in it. The principle of love of Baba and devotion with total faith, (like water) makes easy the voyage of our lives. When the mind is pure and the heart full of simplicity and holiness, such a devotee becomes an instrument in the service of our Sadguru Sai Baba of Shirdi.

 

 

OM SAI SRI SAI JAYA JAYA SAI.