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| Planning a pilgrimage to shirdi ? If you have 30 minutes ,read the below feelings of this ordinary little servant of shirdi sai baba ....What to do when you travel to any shirdi sai temple , spiritual journey ? Tips for travelling,accomodation in shirdi provided inbetween article. You can also see ShirdiHotelsOnline.com What shirdi saibaba expects from his true devotees during their shirdi trip ? Saibaba is the sweet saint who resides in our heart and he really is the crown jewel amoung saints because he fulfills a devotees materialistic and also spiritual needs. He treats every devotee based on their likes and dislikes and guides them based on their past karma, charecter and understanding of life. Why i always mention him as "Shirdi" saibaba because to me shirdi saibaba is the sadguru ( True Guru -its very personal attitude ). I decided to write this article for shirdi saibaba devotees who wish to travel to shirdi. Everytime i travel to shirdi, my experience has been different but i had felt the presence of shirdi sai always in my heart which means one has to remember what sai said " Let the world go topsy turvy, You be where you are and remember me alone" . So when you are in shirdi also, please surrender all your senses under sai's feet, drop all your desires,wishes,worries and pains in life along with the single rupee of coin you drop in dakshina box. Thats it. Just remember sai sai sai...... When you are back from shirdi, there must be a trasformation in your heart. Your faith unto sai must have increased thousand folds . How can you expect a change in your life if there's no change in your mind. sai lives in your mind. Hence i wrote this article. Please read further about the feelings, emotions and love of this little servant of sai for this beautiful saint saibaba of "shirdi"... Forgive me for any mistakes...what ever i wrote is very personal. Only sai and i can understand the love we share. - Venkat Raman Shirdi - Our saibaba selected this small village and it became a garden of divinity : " Shirdi " What a beautiful name ? . Every time i speak about sai to a stranger , i add the word shirdi and say " I love shirdi saibaba " He is my Sadguru,sweet heart,friend, philosopher,guide and life itself. Shirdi saibaba is a way of my life. In 1854 a boy was found meditating under a Neem tree at an aprox age of 16. When a little boy of 16, has chosed to go to a very small village in the indian state of Maharastra in Ahmednagar district , little did the shirdi people realized that he is going to pull millions of devotees every year to this village in the years to come. I read somewhere that when sai first went to shirdi, it was a village with just 80 mud huts. The boy sat meditating under a Neem tree and practiced yoga and penance not minding the weather conditions. Why should a little boy suffer so much ? Now a days shirdi sai devotees sometimes get angry on baba even if something they prayed for doesn't happen. Why should we always see baba in the form where he looks old. Imagine a 16 year old boy who later turned out to be saibaba of shirdi. Saibaba has sacrificed his life right from childhood : To become the saibaba of old age whom we respect , adore and depend on for our own welfare, this little boy has worked right from his birth and childhood. Sixteen is really young for someone to have started his spiritual journey. Am sure this little boy has practiced more right from his birth than the first time he was seen under a Neem tree in shirdi village. You would have seen little boys working in hotel ,workshops and factories.Some times i feel pity for this little kids. Simililary saibaba of shirdi has started working hard, hurted himself by practicing meditation, clean habits,keeping his mind pure etc right from his child hood. Why should this little boy lead a perfect life and later known as saibaba pull millions of devotees to him and bless them with good health, peace and prosperity. There are people who say 100 stories about what sai did before he was 16. Just one clarification. Its easy for us to do research and discover past of sais life or tell stories that you imagine but sai himself din't liked to reveal what he was accept for one fact that he revealed when Nandadeep ( a place in shirdi where 5 lamps were burning under the surface - now there are 2 trees and a lamp burning 24 hours to signify the importance of babas gurus place ) was dug, sai accepted its his Gurus place where he practiced and learn a lot from his Guru for 10 years. From 1854 to 57 , the kind hearted boy who loves gardening carried water pots from a well on his own shoulders , near the Neem tree ( present site of samadhi mandhir ) , for creating and tending a garden. Saint Gangagir Maharaj, on seeing him at his work, said that shirdi was blessed with the presence of this gem. In 1857, the boy disappeared from shirdi village and re-appeared to remain there permanently, with the marriage party of chandbhai's nehew. The priest of Kandoba temple was the one who first welcomed him as "Aoa Sai "..meaning welcome sai.Hence the boys name became "saibaba". Shirdi - Sai lives every where and his samadhi mandhir is in shirdi : The 16 year old boy would have chosen any other villages .Why did
he chose shirdi ? Is it a holy place or does the boy know that invisibly
its a spot where three holy rivers are merging ?. I always get this
thought in my mind. Why did this little boy choose Lets remember what baba has said . "Don't think this body of 3 cubits and six feet is all what i am.I will be present everywhere in this universe and when a devotee calls me with pure love, i appear infront of him in some form and bless him. I need no doors to enter.l lived in insects, ants and dogs. " I changed the quotes as above is what i remember now but basically lets understand though baba lives everywhere, his samadhi is in shirdi and since sai babas holy feet has touched and kissed the soil of shirdi, going to shirdi and staying there is the most beautiful thing that can happen to shirdi sai devotees life.
For those of you for whom the opportunity has not come yet, I prayed baba when it wrote this article, to accept everyone who reads this article with pure mind as if they are now in shirdi and they are touching your feets in samadhi mandhir and entering your dwarakamai and chavdi. So friends, theres a shirdi in your heart. So remember sai sai sai and read ahead. sai will accept it as your presence in shirdi and bless you whole heartedly. Vibration and purity of shirdi is in our own heart - If mind thinks sai sai sai - shirdi will be a paradise of blessings : Baba, i love shirdi so much. Its my gift that in August 2007, i was fortunate to meet relatives of few people who lived with sai. I also like to talk to people living in near by villages of shirdi. like puntanbe. They are very kind hearted. I gave saree, bangles to few elderly Marathi women, fell in their feet and got ashirwad because my mom always says its really worth to get blessings from women. We must thank this little boy who selected shirdi as his place to live rest of his life because irrespective of the commercial impacts that shirdi is facing today, a devotee who remembers sai sai and sai alone will certainly see only sai in shirdi. Shirdi sai temple is the best thing that can happen in my life.The colourful shops selling baba statues, baba photos, stickers , baba calenders,sai books,Dvds, big hotels,affortable to costly foods and devotees from all over the world etc can't distract a true shirdi sai devotees heart. Shirdi is really powerful. The vibration in shirdi will remain the same for a sincere sai devotee whos heart thinks only sai sai and sai. Remember sai sai sai during the time you spend in shirdi : When you go to shirdi, don't be distracted by the maya of shops,hotels and other devotees looks,talks etc. When a holy place gets enormous numbers of devotees it becomes a tourist spot than a pilgrimage. You can't expect all who come to shirdi to behave properly and politely. Thousand things will happen in a crowded place but let your body,mind and speech be surrendered to sai , sai and sai alone. Sai is a light. His form as statue in samadhi mandhir is to fill your heart with the happiness of darshan but the real sai is residing in your own heart. So please realize the sai who lives in your own heart. sai himself has said "My abode is your heart ".
Cut away the darkness of maya and light the lamp of this sweet saint shirdi saibaba in your heart. My friend, you can't go to shirdi just because you got tickets . It is sai who wants to see you.So he has called you. Living in your heart, sai has given you a desire to go to shirdi. See how beautiful this sweet saint is. See how much he loves you that he wants to see you. For all that sai has done to pull you to shirdi, let us do a simple thing as a gift to sai. Sai doesn't want your money or clothes .Sai doesn't need your donation. Sai doesn't need your status. Poor or rich, educated or uneducated all are same to sai. The only thing sai wants as gift from his true devotees is "rememberance" - Please please please....don't hurry that you must stand in que, do this ,do that, buy statues, don't be wavering, don't involve in unnecessary talks with your parents and friends, relatives. You can speak and joke but let it also be good talks which might even enterntain sai. Even if you get into worldly affairs or your own worries, try to come back to remembering sai sai and sai alone. How to Remember shirdi saibaba during your entire shirdi trip : Simple. Chant sai sai sai...sai sai sai....sai sai sai.....it takes
a little more than one second to say it three times "sai sai
sai" . Imagine how many thousands or lakhs of times you can
chant "sai sai sai" if you start chanting sai sai sai
right from the moment you start your journey to shirdi. Its ok if
you want to make fun with friends or family members but make sure
you never hurt anyone. "aum sri sri sai jaya jaya
sai" How can you let your mind get distracted either with wordly affairs or with your own pains and worries. Try your maximum to remember sai sai and sai alone in shirdi. Switch on the chanting box in your heart : I recommond chanting " sai sai sai"....sai sai sai...sai sai sai.....because its simple , easy and even when you are distracted , don't wory about it. There's a button for sai in your mind. Just simply switch on that button and it will start to chant sai sai sai Sai has assured that when ever his devotee with pure mind says "sai sai sai" and surrender all his senses to him, his/her past sins will be burnt like ashes in the dhuni and they will be free of debt for the sins they did in past births. Gradually their bad time will go away leading them to good times when shirdi saibaba's blessings will reach them. Vow.....Cummon....isn't this a simple solution for all of us shirdi
saibaba devotees. Simply saying sai sai sai..... Listen to saibaba Bhajans,Saibaba songs in any shirdi sai temple : When ever you go to any shirdi Sai temple , Sai mandhir please have the habit of singing saibaba bhajans, listen to sai bhajans and try to imagine saibaba in your heart,shirdi saibaba songs ,saibaba arathi or easy method of chanting sai sai sai.My only request is never have pride that you have ability to sing babas songs.If you surrender your ego to sai, sai will keep you like his own eyes You have rights to expect from shirdi sai but sai has rights to make use of your time and life for welfare of humanity : I really feel pity for people like me who say they always remember sai but theres no change in their life. just imagine what i must be doing in 2007 when am going to be 29. Should i not be working somewhere and make my parents happy. On the other hand , the past 3 - 4years my life itself is all about printing posters of sai with good quotes of humanity, distributing it as gift to good sai devotees i see in temple, where ever i go, when people say me their problem, i ask them to give food to anyone poor, give clothes, light as many lamps as possible.........why am i doing all this. I am sure sai knows when to take and when to give. All these years baba has "taken" from me and i always believe a time will come when he "gives" a gift for the little that i have done. I don't expect anything from anyone because when sai is there and when i am his child why should i care about life. I know my life is safe in babas hands. What ever change happens in my life must come directly from this sweet saint shirdi saibaba who is my love, light and life. The reason i wrote about me in above para is that not all of you will have situation ,parents and sister who are supportive irrespective of my being parents worried about me, their love for me lets them leave me in sais path. Some of you might be worrying a lot why sai hasn't helped even after so much of pure devotion. Try this one simple remedy. Always whole heartedly chant "sai sai sai" no matter where you travel or what you do. If your mind is totally surrendered to sai , sai will surely fulfill your basic needs. Habit of "giving" to poor during shirdi pilgrimage : Many thousands of devotees donate to shirdi saibaba someway or other. Its one way to clear our previous lifes debt. Remember, if you have donated a lot , don't be proud of it. You have so much of sins to clear off. Thats why sai made you do it. My personal belief is to "give" directly to poor people whom you can see in villages. All of us are living a fast life where shirdi trip means just a one day stay at shirdi. So many sai devotees can't catch up with my habit. My habit is , to buy few sarees,bangles, print few shirdi saibaba photos and give it to village people who live near shirdi and get their ashirwad. You can give anything as per your ability. Make sure it will satisfy needs of village people. You can get some note books, pens etc and give to kids. All you have to do is search for someone who deserves it. You must spend atleast half a day to go to right place and meet right people who will accept your gifts whole heartedly. There are lots of people near dwarakamai and chavdi .You can give them but imagine..how happy sai will be if you take 2 hours to travel or go in auto 2-5 kilometers, speak to some village people and tell them you have 5-10 sarees, note books,pens whic you wish to give to the kids there...I don't know if its practically possible for all of you. By babas grace, i was able to do it when ever i go to any temple i love....Sometimes i give saree to poor women sells lamps and flowers,sometimes i get permission from elderly women , give it traditionaly, get ashirwad from them. All i can say is, When ever you go to any good temples, purchase atleast for 1000 rupees ..something worthy to give to people in need. It will gain you enormous blessings. Trust me, don't think "Giving" is easy. Sometimes, when i have given baba photos to sai devotees , they will think am selling it and show angry face to me. I try maximum not to get hurted .Make sure you choose right village women to give saree and get blessings. Don't make a crowd to gather around you near temple complex...When ever you want to give stuff, choose to travel to deep villages.Only village people might be poor and they will have needs of your gifts.
For Gods sake, don't get irritated as soon as you get down the bus in shirdi. A guide will follow you for 2-3 minutes asking if you need help in accomodation. If you think, he speaks well, accept his offer or just walk to any one and ask where is "sansthan office". Shirdi saibaba sansthan is professional as far as i know. They guide devotees properly. The shirdi saibaba sansthan maintains few dormitaries and sansthan hotels where you can stay for 48 hours and more than that by permission. I am not sure about their tariff. I once stayed in dormitary where they charged 200 rs for 2 days and gave back 180 rupees. For Rooms, it could be more say around 100 to 300 rs ( am not sure ).During season times, its hard to get sansthans rooms and dormitary. There are various hotels .All you have to do is walk a little in the roads away from chavdi and near prasadalaya. If you have less baggages better walk and chose a lodge by yourself. If you dont like, never feel shy to choose a better one. Its 2007 when i write this and now the tariffs during non-season range from 300 Rs - 400Rs - 600 Rupees most common and upto 3000 . During season times some lodges which charge 400 rupees per day will charge you 2000 rupees perday for same room. Its a commercial world and shirdi too is not an exception. High season could be during December end, Summer holidays etc. Pray shirdi saibaba to guide you and help you find peaceful accomodation, and bless you with good food : I just want to guide devotees as many worry too much since they feel its new place. I always say them Never fear that its new place and you dont know language. Just light a lamp in your house or near by temple asking shirdi saibaba to help you travel and stay at shirdi peacefully, surely sai will help you. When i went to shirdi first time on march 30th 2006, i went from Mumbai in a bus. As soon as i got down at 3.45 am early morning, few guides asked me to come along with them. I stood there blinking for few seconds. Don't know what made me walk away.I just saw few devotees walking towards a road, bend down to shirdi soil, applied it on my forehead and just walked behind them. I dont even know where they were going. Suddenly i saw sansthan office , enquired a security and asked them for dormitary. They said office will open little later..I directly kept all my bags in a cloack room, took bath and went to Kakad arathi. I sat little far from babas samadhi but i never expected that i will make it to kakad arathi being a new comer to shirdi . The best part is i never worries about bags in cloak room. I visited dwarakamai , chavdi and then cooly took bags, got accomodation in sansthans dormitary and stayed there 2 days. see its all in faith. If you love sai and want to see baba, he will take you happily, keep you happily in shirdi and come with you to your home and leave you at your place safely.
Just select a good hotel or lodge based on your ability, try to
stay there atleast 3-5 days. Everyday do what ever you wish to do.
You can either go to samadhi mandhir once or twice and visit dwarakamai
, the mosque where sai lived and chavdi once and then sit in good
place to read sai satcharita or speak about sai, light lamps which
baba loves most, sit near Nandadeep and meditate or if you are young
walk 2-3 kilometers in pimpalwadi road to see sivanesan swamiji
ashram. Always try to remember sai., chant sai sai sai and say all
your worries to baba and speak to him whole heartedly in your mind.
The more you remember and be in shirdi with thoughts of sai, the
better your life will be after shirdi visit. A dream vision about Future of Shirdi and fame of my sweet saint saibaba of shirdi : On january 1st 2007, i got a dream about how shirdi will be 100 years from now. Trust me , one third of the world population will atleast have a photo of shirdi saibaba in their house. Thats what baba showed me in that dream. Now you can calculate the changes shirdi is going to face in the years to come to welcome and accomodate several lakhs of devotees each and everyday. What i write might be wrong for the time being but to me sai's dreams are words from himself and i trust it as reality. The first day of year 2007, i got a dream from sai. Its october 9th 2007, trust me, i din't achieve anything professionally all this year. I spent all this year coming around temples in the name of serving sai ....he he . What can i do ?. I don't know what else to do and sai also seems to say "Venkat. Just be with me, i will take care of your future " This is how my life goes and today finally i wrote about the little village my sweet saint has chosen to live. Baba i love shirdi and i love you more for selecting shirdi as the place of your life and samadhi. Thanks to shirdi saibaba sansthan priests and staffs : Its a gift to listen to the priests singing Arathi in Baba's samadhi
Mandhir,Babas face will be vibrant , expressive eyes and a very
very beautiful smile as if a Mother is happy when she meets her
loving child after a long time, Baba's face
glowing with five wicks lamp and their voice singing Arathi merges
hearts of devotees with sai's soul.. Trust me, its sai himself in
reality. Baba let shirdi saibaba sansthan Priest, staffs and securities be blessed souls . Let them serve you with truth and honestly like what they are doing past several years. We all must thank the shirdi sai baba sansthan for maintaining shirdi saibaba mandhir complex cleanly and beautifully. For the crowd that comes to shirdi, their hard work must be appreciated. With so much of love on shirdi soil which my sweet saint's holy feet has touched ! I love to go to shirdi as many times as possible in this birth
baba. Be a deserving devotee of shirdi saibaba : When you come back from shirdi, if your friends asks what did you
offer to sai. Make sure you deserve to say the following words Star sai is the relationship between
the SUN and STAR The king of shirdi is calling you. Pack up and get lost in his thoughts.
Always in the feets of shirdi saibaba C.Venkat Raman 9:10:2007 Two years after writing above article by sai grace made ShirdiHotelsOnline.com Back to home page of starsai.com
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| Places to see in shirdi : Samadhi mandhir of shirdi saibaba : To go to samadhi mandhir, you have to stand in a long que.Some times during high season , you might have to wait hours. Dont feel bored. Chant sai sai sai...think about babas leela and stories. surely your time will pass soon. The Kaakad Arathi is approx at 5.30 Am, Noon Arathi at 12 approx , Evening arathi for baba is approx 5 to 6.30 Pm and shej arathi is at approx 9 to 9.30 PM. I have seen thousands of devotees always concerned about going to Samadhi mandhir, few of them to dwarakamai and Chavdi and fewer to Nandadeep. Please remember all places in shirdi are as important and worth worshiping as saibaba's samadhi mandhir. Dwarakamai of saibaba : Saibaba lived in this small masjid for over 60 years during his life time in shirdi. Baba calls it as "Dwarakamai ". Sai says the one who sits on her lap will be free from all calamities. Baba used to collect dakshina from devotees in this dwarakamai .Imagine those beautiful days during babas life time when devotees would have came to see him,they can touch his feet, do abishek to him,show arathi to him and get Udi - sacred ash from his powerful hands itself. The best thing i love about sai is the Dhuni ( ever burning sacred fire ) kept in Dwarakamai. I had come around dhuni in Nagasai mandhir several lakhs of times the past 3 years. So i love dhuni soooooooooooooo much. May be thats why i love to light lamps also. You can drop ghee in Dhuni in dwarakamai.When you do a offering in dhuni remembering God, it directly reaches God. Spiritually, it also means you are burning your unwanted desires, bad thoughts, bad attitudes, bad habits , ego,pride ,lust etc inside the sacred fire and sai also burns your past bad karma and blesses you with good health, peace and prosperity. Chavadi of Shirdi saibaba : Baba used to stay alternate nights in chavadi. Its a beautiful small place where devotees are allowed to sit for few minutes. So i love this place so much. Gurusthan - The Neem tree where baba first appeared : I feel really touched to see the same Neem tree where baba sat in 1854 which is still alive in 2007 ......vow...its the only "LIFE" which still can happily say, i have see "saibaba" . Gurusthan is just behind samadhi mandhir . Its the same Neem tree ( Margosa tree ) where baba appeared in shirdi as a 16 year old boy. Theres a padukas of sai installed in this place. Now the sansthan has beautifully renovated Gurusthan. Lendi baug - Garden & well : This is the Garden which sai maintained during his life time. There is a well in this Garden where sai used to take water for the plants. Nandadeep : Little Dattatreya temple and Samadhi of the horse shyam karna Please please please.....In evening time, Get lamps from a women who sells lamps opposite to Dwarakamai, bring it into temple complex, ask where is Nandadeep, theres a tray where you can light lamps. So light lamps because baba loves it. Nandadeep is a place where you can see two trees and in the centre theres a small temple inside which Lamp will be glowing all through the year forever. . During babas life time, shirdi people discovered a hole, dug it and found a celler where 5 lamps were burning. Baba told them its his Gurus place where he practiced penance for 10 years and asked them to take care of the place. Theres a small Dattatreya temple and samadhi of babas favourite hourse Shyam karna. In the temple complex you can also get blessings from Samadhi of Baba's devotees Abdul Baba , Nanavalli , Bhau Maharaj and Tatya. Kandoba temple : Lord Kandoba is the village diety of shirdi people .It was there even before babas arrival.Its Lord shivas form.Its a bit away from Temple complex. Please visit this place.You can go by 5 minute walk. The speciality of Kandoba temple is that, its the first place where baba returned to shirdi and while he got down from bulluck cart, the priest of kandoba temple welcomed him "Aao Sai" "welcome sai" .Thats how my sweet saint got his name as "Sai baba" where Sai means saint and Baba means Father. Walk in Pimpalwadi road : The above places are must visit. But have you seen shirdi as village when baba lived. You cant see it now because it has become a big town crowded with thousands of devotees. Here comes a tips from Venkat....He he he......No one will ask you to do it but i wish youngsters who stay ion shirdi for more than a day try to walk atleast 2 kms in pimpalwadi road from shirdi...The reason i love to walk in this road is that we can feel how sai would have walked , talked and laughed to shirdi people. I don't know how long the scerinity of shirdi will be preserved but lucky us .In 2007 i am still able to see some grenary. Baba let there be some trees and plants in shirdi. We dont need just hotels and shops . We also need to feel your holy place as it was when you lived......Thats my request to sai. Location of Shirdi - How to reach Shirdi : Shirdi is a town situated in Ahmednagar - Manmad State Highway No.10. In olden days the Ahmednagar Manmad road has been very busy.Its in Rahata tahasil of Ahmednagar district in Maharastra state in india Travel to Shirdi by Train : Click here for details about travelling from chennai ,Bangalore to shirdi by train If you want to reach shirdi by train, you can book tickets to a railway stations in following places.once you decided , search for indian railways official website and see trains which runs from the place of your choice to the following railway stations. 1. A town called Kopargaon situated 16 kilometers
from shirdi. Train stops very few minutes here and quota to reserve
tickets to kopargaon and from kopargaon might be less as its a small
station.There are trains from bangalore , solapur etc which halts
in shirdi for few minutes.I am not sure about exact details.Please
have a look at the indian railways official website. Click
here for details about travelling from chennai ,Bangalore to shirdi
by train Return journey from shirdi : C.Venkat Raman 10 :10:2007 |
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Written permission is required before using the contents for sevice
.Sai ram ki jai .Please understand all the words of this site came
from years of over affection i had on my sweet saint shirdi saibaba.
so i treasure it a lot.Shirdi Saibaba ki jai , Sai is my love , life
and everything !!! Saibaba websites of starsai network :Starsai.com , Starsai.net , Shirdisaiheals.com, Shirdisailight.com, Shirdisaichant.com , Saisaraswathi.com, Saimahalakshmi.com |