Sai Leela -175- Baba helped me in getting my Lost Job
Sai Dhwarakamai
Leela -175- Baba helped me in getting my Lost Job
By : Suman
My name is Suman and I live in Bangalore. I am a software engineer and ardent devotee of Baba. Recently I lost job as my company is shutting down its India operations. This news came in a Town hall meeting even with out any prior rumors and clues. After this news broke out and I didn't sleep for few days and my father is retiring in July 2014 and so they want me to get married soon. Another point is we were searching for a girl since a year and not able to find a match, I think Baba knows about loosing the job and thus he dont want me to be in bad position if I loose job after marriage. I am almost 30 now. My parents are diabetis & thyroid patients. So, I didn't inform my parents about the job due to health issues and just kept bothering about the job; completely believing in Baba that he will show the way. When I asked Baba about the same (Baba's answers for devotees questions), in the book I got these words "Ticket koni railu ekkinchi ninnu gamyastanam cherustanu" - This is telugu version, meaning "Will buy a train ticket and will make sure you board the train which takes to your destination", I felt relaxed. Believe it or not word by word has literally happened. My TL in current organization was impressed with my work and so with out even informing me he spoke with the group head of the other company where he got an offer and told about me, group head got impressed and informed my TL to forward the profile, please observe that till this point I don't know that my TL has spoken about me in the new company (Baba bought a ticket for me) and then my TL asked to send the profile to him and he forwarded the profile to the new company group head; then interview got scheduled and Baba has attended the interview being in me and He cleared the interview and I got an offer in the new company with Promotion(Reached destination). Then I informed about my current situation to my parents and as I got an offer they too were happy for Baba's leela.
There are so many incidents to list about Baba's leelas, if we have firm faith in Baba every instance and second by second we can feel the presence of Baba. I am in-debt to Baba for many lifes' of me. My request to Baba is drag me to his feet in every life and he will only enlighten us to leave this chakra (wheel) of life & death.
Bow to shri sai, piece be to all.
Keep firm faith in Shirdi Sai Baba, everyone will feel the presence of Him.
Sai Dhwarakamai
Leela -176 - We discover our Kuladeivam by Baba's Inspiration
By : Lakshmi Subramaniam
My husband has been working very hard to raise funds for a mega project since 2009 and this has taken a toll on my whole family. While we are facing challenges, I have had some beautiful spiritual experience that I am about to share. I know that God sometimes gives us pain so that we can value the beautiful experience with Him. I am a religious person but have never been a devotee of Sri Shiridi Sai. My sister in law who is a Shirdi Sai devotee had been telling me for sometime that I should go to Sri Shiridi Sai Mandhir in Chennai and it will bring a change in my life. With all the problems we were facing, I decided to go to the temple on May 13th 2009. We had to make a payment and we had no idea how we were going to raise money to make the payment. I had no idea about the timings of the Mandhir but wanted to go to the temple early to beat the terrible traffic in Chennai. When I entered the Mandhir it was exactly 6 a.m. and the Kakada Aarthi was carried out. It made me feel good and wanted and that Sai Ram was welcoming me into his hands. There were not many people there and there was a queue to the Sai Ram idol which I followed and prostrated before Sai Ram. I was given Udi as Prasad and I held that in my hand. As I was going around the temple, I was looking for a piece of paper to hold and pack the Udi for my husband but I could not find any. So I told myself I will hold it until I reach the car where I shall pack it. I prostrated once more before I left the temple.
Just outside the temple there was a bald old man wearing a beige jibba and dhoti . He came towards me very fast and told me to wait for a while as he went into the temple. He went up to the altar and took something from the back of the idol of Sai Ram. Then he came towards me and showed a piece of paper and asked me to empty the Udi I had in my hand and packed it for me and gave me. He said that he always has pieces of paper outside for this and today he did not and that is why he asked me to wait. He told me that I will lead a happy life and went away. I was blown off. Nobody could have known that I was looking for a paper to pack the udi as I did not ask anyone. To me that man was Sai Baba himself and I thanked Baba for his omnipresence and went on to tell my husband the experience. Meanwhile an investor who was wanted to invest in my husband’s plan agreed sooner than expected and made investment.
It was a very different experience from anything I had ever encountered. Since then I have been going to Sai Mandhir whenever I can. We have been troubled by so many problems that we feel that God is not looking. Whenever I feel that way Baba comes to me and shows that he is carrying me. In Sep 2010 I had another experience of Baba’s omnipresence. My husband came across a Guru who had said that all our problems were there because of our ignorance of our family deity (Kuladeivam), This came as a shock to us as we had always known Karukurichi Sastha as our Kula Deivam and have been going to the temple at least once every year and have been making offerings. The Guru had asked us to bathe in the sea and visit him on a Friday morning. We did as we were told and the Guru said that our ancestors were from a village called Thenur (near Madurai) and had the Devi as our Kula Deivam and was also in charge of the temple. At one point because of some financial crisis they apparently had taken some jewels from the temple and had left the temple totally and after that and had disregarded the Devi. The Devi was angry and she needed to be appeased. He told us to bring a garland of fruits and offer rice and dhall and Rs 100 to the priest and pray that the jewels will be replaced once things work out for us. He did not give us any clear direction as to where the temple was but just said that we will find it when we reach there. He told us not to do more than that as the Devi had to accept us first.
On hearing this, my husband and I were totally confused. We did not know if it is right for us to go look for a new Kula Deivam when we had always regarded Dharma sastha as our Kula Deivam. I googled for a Devi temple in Thenur but came up with no results. Our friend in Madurai was not aware of any Devi temple there as well. We realized that Thenur itself was a very small village. My husband wanted to go to Thenur to see it out anyway as per the Guru’s words. He booked us a flight to Madurai the next day (returning same night) and booked a car to pick us up from the Madurai airport. In my mind I was filled with a lot of questions and prayed to Sai Baba to show us a sign that we were on the right track.
It was Vinayaka Chathurthi day the next day and we left Chennai early in the morning after performing the Ganesh puja at home. We reached Madurai by 7.30am. We took the car and immediately started off for Thenur. When we entered the village, the driver got down and asked someone whether there is a Devi temple there. She said she did not know. Next we went further into the village and stopped at a Ganesh temple there. My husband asked me to go into the temple and ask someone there. So I got out of the car and went into the temple. A man was just coming out of the temple and I asked him about a Devi temple. He told me that there is a Devi temple just around the corner and gave me the directions. Then he asked if I was going there. I said I was and he asked me to go in the car and wait there and said that he was the priest of the temple and it was locked and he will bring the key from his house and open it for us.
I said OK but it was weird. The first person that I asked about the temple is the priest of the Devi temple himself (Note he is not the priest of the Ganesh temple). So we went according to the man’s direction and found a temple. It was totally run down and badly maintained. We waited and the priest came with the key and opened up the temple. The temple deity Devi was Sundaravalli Amman and it used to be the temple where the popular Madurai Chittirai Festival starts from before King Nayakkar of Madurai moved the Festival to Madurai. That is why the Deity also has an alter in the Kallazagar temple in Madurai but somehow for ease and popularity the festival had been moved to the Madurai Meenakshi temple. Apparantly before this move was done the king gave a lot of land, jewellery and property for this temple. Somehow that was squandered and now the temple only has one puja on Fridays and is locked for the rest of the time. All Brahmins from this village left around the same time and hence the temple pujas have been conducted by non Brahmins. We, being Brahmins, do not know whether this story had anything to do with our ancestors but we did as were told by the Guru and started off.
Then the Sai Baba leela happened. The priest said we came all the way and we should see the Sai Baba temple that was just built a year ago about 2km from there. He said he will come in the car and show us the way. He came with us and stopped at a place called Thiruvedagam where I saw the most beautiful Baba temple. It was a large temple with 2 halls. One had the pictures of the Sai Baba Leelas and then there was a footwash below a flight of stairs which leads people to the prayer hall where Sri Shiridi Baba sat with his smile. I had tears rolling out to see his kindness and his ability to reassure me. It was a very very beautiful temple. I would not have even dreamt of a temple that beautiful and clean and well maintained in the middle of such villages. We came back after that experience and I am now totally in the hands of Baba. All our problems have not been solved but one thing I know for sure is that he is with me and he will not let me down.
My husband, son and I are making a trip to Shiridi on March 15th. It is my way of recognizing and appreciating Sai Ram and more importantly believing that he is there carrying me. He has the way to bring people to him like the birds tied to a string. I am just one of such persons. I have come a long way on my belief since my first contact with Baba on May 13 2009. Dear Baba, thanks for being there for me and my family. I believe in you and please keep blessing us with your miracles so that we will only believe in you more. I really want what I experienced to be experienced by my husband and son as I feel sometimes that they are not fully in your hands. Only you can help them and only you can make them experience it. Open their eyes and bless us. There is nothing that can harm us when you are with us. Om Sai Ram.