Monthly Newsletter
Loving Sairams dear fellow devotees in this spiritual journey.
By the Divine grace of Lord Sai and all your support and encouragement Sai Times is now into our 6th year. This is our humble effort to spread Lord Sai’s messages and glory through value-based stories, experiences and Seva activities.
Hope you find this meaningful in your spiritual path. Looking forward to your continued support.
Shirdi Sai Gayatri
OM Shirdi Vasaya Vidamahe Sachidanandaya
Dhimahi tanno Sai Prachodayath
Om, Let me meditate on the God who lives in Shirdi,
Oh, God who is the ethereal truth and happiness, give me higher intellect,
And let that Sai illuminate my mind
Sai Leela
For next few months we will be sharing the experiences of the blessed devotees of Baba who were fortunate to be with Him physically when He was in Shirdi.
Devotee for this month- Balaram Dhurandar
Sai Mahabhakta Late Shri. Balaram Dhurandhar’s name is mentioned in Chapter 50 of Holy Shri Sai Satcharitra. He lived during the year 1878 to 1925 as per the information available in Holy Shri Sai Satcharitra.
Shri.Balaram Dhurandhar belonged to the Pathare Prabhu community, of Santacruz, Bombay. He was an advocate of the Bombay High Court and sometime Principal of the Governament Law School, Bombay. The whole Dhurandhar family was pious and religious.
Shri.Balaram served his community, and wrote and published an account of it. He then turned his attention to spiritual and religious matters. He studied carefully Gita, and its commentary Jnaneshwari; and other philosiphical and other metaphysical works. He was a devotee of Vithoba of Pandharpur. He came in contact with Sai Baba in 1912 A.D. Six months previous to his visit to Shirdi, his brothers Babulji and Vamanrao came to Shirdi and took Baba’s darshan. They returned home, and mentioned their sweet experiences to Balaram and other members.
Then they all decided to see Sai Baba. Before they came to Shirdi, Baba declared openly that – “Today many of my Darbar people are coming.” The Dhurandhar brothers were astonished to hear this remark of Baba, from others as they had not given any previous intimation of their trip.
All the other people prostrated themselves before Baba, and sat talking to Him. Baba said to them- “These are my Darbar people to whom I referred before” and said to the Dhurandhar brothers- “We are acquainted with each other for the last sixty generations.” All the brothers were meek and modest; they stood with joined hands, staring at Baba’s Feet. All the Satvic emotions such as tears, horripilation, choking, etc., moved them and they were all happy.
Then they went to their lodging, took their meals and after taking a little rest again came to the Masjid. Balaram sat near Baba, messaging His Legs. Baba Who was smoking a chillam advanced it towards him and beckoned him to smoke it. Balaram was not accustomed to smoking, still he accepted the pipe, smoked it with great difficulty and returned it reverentially with a bow.
This was the most auspicious moment for Balaram. He was suffering from Asthma for six years. This smoke completely cured him of the disease, which never troubled him again. Some six years later, on a particular day, he again got an attack of Asthma. This was precisely the time when Baba took his Mahasamadhi.
The day of this visit was a Thursday; and the Dhurandhar brothers had the good fortune of witnessing the Chavadi. Balaram saw the lusture of pandurang on Baba’s face and next morning at the Kakad-Arti time, the same phenomenon – the same lusture of his Beloved Deity- Pandurang was visible again on Baba’s face.
Shri.Balaram Dhurandhar wrote, in Marathi, the life of the Maharashtra Saint Tukaram, but did not survive to see its publication. His brothers published it, later on, in 1928. In a short note on Balaram’s life given in the beginning of the book, the above account of Balaram’s visit has been fully corroborated therein (Vide page 6 of the book).
http://saiamrithadhara.com/mahabhakthas/balaram_durandhar.
Sathya Sai Gayatri
Om Saieshwaraya Vidmahe
Sathya Devaya Dheemahi
Thanna Sarvah Prachodayath
We know Sri Sathya Sai as Supreme Divinity Incarnate
We meditate on this God of Truth
May Almighty God lead us to Liberation
Swami’s message
What exactly is the aim and purpose of all the sastras, the Bhagavatam, the Puranas, these discourses and the harikathas? It is to tell man the truth about himself. There is no plot to mislead you. That is not the desire of the Sages who wrote down these annals and their own experiences. You know only the present and what is happening before your eyes.
You do not know that the present is related to the past and is preparing the course for the future. It is like the head-lines and titles of a film on the screen; as the letters gleam one after the other, you read them and pass on to the next that comes to view. Each new letter or word wipes out the one already before your eye, just as each birth wipes out the memory of the one already experienced.
– Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Story Time
Value: Devotion
Sub-Value: Discrimination, Mindfulness
Aman was guarding a large herd of sheep. He sat on a small mound and drove away all the wolves that tried to approach the herd, even when the wolves were at a great distance.
The evening set in.
The man thought to himself, “throughout the day, I could deal beautifully with the wolves; not one could ever come anywhere near the herd. Nothing would happen at night either. The wolves might not come at all. Even if they come, I would deal with them properly.”
Night fell.
Whenever the wolves howled near the herd, the man would scream at the top of his voice and imagine the wolves had run away. But throughout the night, the wolves were busy carrying away several sheep.
When the sun rose again, the man discovered that more than half the herd had been taken away from him. He became wiser and while the sun was shining the next day, he gathered enough fuel and lit a very big torch which he thought would drive the wolves away.
In the blazing light of the torch, he was able to see clearly, and thus, kept the wolves away.
Learning
This is akin to us, sadhakas. So long, as we live in the presence of the sun- the brightness or the wisdom of our guru/ teacher and satsang or good company; we will be able to guard sheep of our good qualities, values, and samskaras from being devoured by the wolves of vices.
However, the deluded and misled mind thinks that as we have learned enough and now can manage on our own without even truly grasping the teachings of our teacher. For example, we imagine that we are able to guard sheep of vices by just repeating a few lines or messages of the teacher without actually experiencing or grasping them.
But, when the darkness of ignorance manifests in the absence of the guru near us, we lose many of our virtues. Silently, the wolves of vices, against which we ourselves had been shouting all the time, enter us and rob us of the greater part of our virtues. It is then we realise our folly and return to the guru by God’s Grace.
Therefore, we must become wise and soak in our lives the knowledge of the Guru, thus, while we are in the living presence of our Guru, we light up the torch of discrimination. When this torch is lit, darkness does not approach us at all, and the wolves of vices do not trouble us anymore. The light of the guru shines forever in and through us.
A story from the ‘Parables of Sivananda.’
Podcasts–Sai Prem– Podcast for spreading the human value stories. We have over 300 plus podcasts now.
Please subscribe podcasts on
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/sai-prem/id1541103439
Spotify:
Follow us on our Instagram page
Saiprempodcast
INDIVIDUAL SADHANA AND SEVA OPPORTUNITIES
Akhand parayans– Sri Shirdi Sai Satcharitra, Sri Sathya Sai Satcharitra Tapovanam , Sri Sathya Sai Kalpadruma group parayans online as well as being part of the weekly whats app group parayans
Tapovanam Mahaparayans-Devotees from all over the globe are invited to join this parayan and also to help in coordination
LA CASA- (Home to Love All Care for All Serve All) helping out migrant workers for meals, medicines and other needs in Singapore and other education, medical and water projects in India
Translation Seva- Human value stories, Sai literature being translated in different languages.
Sai literature-Blogging on Sathya Sai Speaks, Sai Vahinis- essence of vedas and Upanishads by Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
Glory of Sai– Spreading of the message of Universal love through stories, interviews, articles- Seva- Administration of social media pages, blogs, IT help, audio visual, transcription etc
Experience Sharing- Devotees can share their written experiences on the parayans, transformations by different seva activities, Sai leelas especially after Baba’s Mahasamadhi.
Our website and blog sites
https://premaarpan.wordpress.com
http://saibalsanskaar.wordpress.com
https://lacasacs.wordpress.com
Our Youtube video channel
Sai Seva Sadhana
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx8VJPutJgfaIFvdyq_e50A
Seva Channel
LACASA
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoRPMzyjooKJMVhBIROpyLA
Contact us @ gloryofsai9@gmail.com
Samastha Lokaha Sukhino Bhavantu
May All the Beings in All the Worlds Be Happy
Premaarpan 