Guruvaar Prarthna
Our Beloved Sadguru Sainath, please accept our humble prayers on this Holy Day of Guruvaar. Baba, We thank you for giving divine opportunity to have Your darshan at Shirdi. While reaching near You, we felt little inconvenience of rush and squeeze of our body among fellow devotees. We understand this is a symbolic teaching of You that anyone who wants to come near You, they must have to undergo some sort of inconvenience and troubles. Baba, like this You are giving plenty of experience on every walk of our life and molding us as Your true devotee. On this holy day we start our prayers by reading your divine guidance in Shri Sai Samartha Satcharitra.
"I have heard that whenever people have insurmountable problems, they come to you for help and you immediately protect them.
Therefore, I have come here to meet you, with great hopes and seek a boon at your feet. Please do not turn me away, Maharaja ".
Then Baba said to him: "You have taken a long time to come here. Give me whatever dakshina you wish. Then your objective will be fulfilled" .
Whoever came for darshan and bowed at his feet, whether a Hindu, Muslim or Parsi, he would ask dakshina from him.
Even that was not a small sum. It could be a rupee or two, or fifty or hundred, or thousand or lakh or more depending on how much he could afford.
Even if it was given he would ask for more. If he was told there was nothing left, he would say take a loan; and when it was impossible to get a loan, he would then stop asking.
And he would say to the devotees: " Do not worry at all. I will give you plenty of money. Sit near me without any care.
In this world, everybody has somebody or the other; but nobody belongs to me. Allah and only Allah is mine.
If someone loves me more than life, I need such a person. If such a person gives me something, I give to him a hundred fold ".
Even if there was a millionaire, Maharaj would order him to go to a poor man's home to ask for dakshina for him (Baba).
Sai did not distinguish between the very rich and the poor; the humble, the miserable, the indigent. One was as good as the other.
The person would obey his orders, bow his head and would go to the homes of the poor and beg on behalf of Baba, giving up pride.
The essence of all this was that, under the pretext of dakshina, Baba would teach humility to his devotees.
I bow down to Sree Ganesh
I bow down to Sree Saraswati
I bow down to the Guru
I bow down to the Family Deity
I bow down to Sree Sita-Ramachandra
I bow down to Sree Sadguru Sainath.
Sarveshaam Svaastir Bhavatu
Sarveshaam Shaantir Bhavatu
Sarveshaam Poornam Bhavatu
Sarveshaam Mangalam Bhavatu
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanteeh
-(from Shri Sai Samartha Satchrita, Chapter 14, Ovi 87 – 99)
