Yearly Shirdi trip experiences from my best Sai friends family

Sairam friends,

Being surrounded by wonderful sai devotees as close friends is one of the gift i got in this birth. We all have our own negatives, positives etc but one thing in common amoung us is “Love for Sainath”.

One of my best sai friends are Renuka Mohan’s family…Though i have never met most of my sai devotee friends, i could visualize everyones bhakti whole heartedly. I wish to share their 2011 Shirdi Trip experiences here.

Planning to go shirdi Pilgrimage :

October 02, 2011

Sai Ram Friends

By Sai’s grace every year we go to shirdi in Sept / Oct. Last year, we could go in Nov. only

We are planning to leave for shirdi on the 7th October (Friday) early morning. that day we will be going to Kolhapur, have Maa Lakshmi’s dharshan/ stay there, next morning, start to Shirdi, will reach Shirdi that evening. Baba has to be with us through out. Should come back to Bangalore by 13th night.

Mohan’s Birthday is on 9th Oct. He wanted to be with Baba  on that day. so we have planned accordingly.

I request you all to post your Prayer requests in this same link.

I will pray for you all in shirdi.
Sai bless us all
Sai Ram

Renuka

October 14, 2011 – Sharing beautiful divine experiences after coming back from Shirdi trip

Sai Ram Friends,
How are you all
By Sai’s grace, we had a good trip & we came back home last night.
We had been to Kolhapur, shirdi, Shani Shingnapur & Pandarpur.
We had good experiences this time too in shirdi.
But before writing all that, I want to share some of my thoughts with you all here.

Friends, I know many of you are living in far off countries. You might not have visited Shirdi for years now.

I swear upon my Sai, Sai is more vibrant, alive & responsive in our pooja places in our homes than in shirdi.
I tell you this from my own experiences, if this is not right may sai pardon me.
Shirdi is crowded beyond imagination. After waiting for more than three hours in the queue for samadhi Mandir dharshan, one is pushed out by Securities as they do in thirupathi. The Securities are very very rude.

Things have changed like anything in shirdi. this is the 7th consecutive trip to shirdi for me. & how was it in the 1st year & how was it in this trip. I can write an essay on it.

Maharashtra schools are closed for dhasara/Diwali vacations, so the crowd is touching 3 lakhs per day, they say.
Poor Sai must be feeling real, real tired, I feel.

Some things which I enjoyed the most in this trip are:

We were in shirdi for 5 days. Daily EArly mornings, I used to get up at 3.30, take bath & was sitting & singing Kakad aarthi in Dwarkamayee, then see Abhishekam & sit & recite VSN in Chavadi, go to gurusthan, hanuman, shani, ganesh & shiva temples & them come back to our room. Tis was a fantastic experiece. Very very blissful. I never knew that they play VSN in the temple there. As abhishekam is done, VSN is going on there. The Security lady would allow me to sit inside chavadi & recite VSN there.

Mohan had wonderful experiences this time too.
Let me put all that in my next thread.

Friends, wherever you are, just keep your eyes closed & say Sai Sai Sai. It is our shirdi. No need to feel bad that you can not go there.I promise Sai is with you in your home, dont worry.I prayed for each & every one of you sitting in Dwarkamayee.

Sasi called up the next day to tell shailaja’s reunion with her husband. ( we are sai devotee friends who care for each other and closely follow others life too ) I felt very happy & thanked Sai Bow to Shirdi Sai Maharaj
Sai ram

Sai Ram

Sweets and flowers from shirdi saibaba:

It was Mohan’s Birthday. We were standing in the queue in Dwarkamayee. As we were touching the dhuni (It is completely closed now) & were heading to have dharshan of Sai(Shamrao Jayakar ji’s photo), a priest came from somewhere & handed over four sweets to Mohan ( I was standing before him & a gentle man behind him, the queue was very long. He never even looked at others, he just came, smiled at Mohan & gave him the sweets. We were stunned.

He said in the hotel that he wanted 9 flowers from samdhi mandir, he didnt get any till night. But before we could go back to our room, when he went for dharshan in the special queue, he was given a bunch of roses, ofcourse there were 9 flowers in it.

Before we could start to Bangalore, he went in side to have samadhi mandir dharshan (previously they would allow me to go along with him, now even physically challenged persons are not allowed with out passes, they have to go alone only), for a fraction of a second, Sai bent his head as if to look at him, he said. He was very happy & almost crying at this unique experience.

On his birthday, a small boy came running to Mohan & opened his right hand& placed a pocket of sugar candies & ran away.

In Khandoba temple, we could do complete aarthi to Khandoba raya & sai nath ( all the 4 of us) & they gave him jilebis .

So these were Mohan’s experiences.

Beautiful Shirdi Saibaba Cooking statue :

When me & my daughters were walking in Dwarkamayee road, suddenly I saw an idol of sai (the cooking posture) a very big marble idol it was. I felt that I shd get a sticker atleast in that handi / cooking posture & wanted to place it in the pooja place that I have made in my Kitchen. I was asking Charanya to take a photo of that idol & give me. she sadi we will search for stickers of that pose. We searched in  a shop, but he said it is not there in  any of the shops.

Just as we came out of that shop, a lady came running towards us selling Sai’s ssmall photoes put in asmall frames. Ashu was so happy to see the first phot handed over to her, yes ofcourse it is Sai’s cooking posture. This morning I placed Him in the teepoy in my kitchen & started the day with Naivedyam to Him.

Thank you Sai nath, be with us always Sai Deva

Bow to Sri Sai: Peace be to all

Sai Ram

Renuka Mohan

To be continued…