Bhagawan Sri Satya Sai Baba Passes away

It is with great sorrow and heavy heart that I share with you the most shocking news of the departure of Bhagawan Sri Satya Sai Baba at 7.40 pm today to his heavenly abode. He was 86 years old and was admitted to Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences at Puttaparthi of Anantapur district of Andhra Paradesh. He was admitted to hospital on March 28th suffering from respiratory problems. 

Millions of devotees across the world were praying, conducting uninterrupted Bhajans, Yagyas, prayers ardently for His recovery. Our family was also praying for him. We all were convinced that He will be safe-nothing will happen to Him. Some where a small hope burned alive like a small lamp, even in the gloom of despair, that He will not leave us. 

There is what is called Law Of Nature. Though this has been established by God Himself, He too follows it scrupulously. There is a Rhythm, there is a discipline in Nature. Every thing that takes birth has to die. So God also adheres to it. Even the Avtars (incarnations of God) Rama or Krishna left this world when they accomplished their missions. 

When God wishes He appears on the earth as incarnation or what ever form He wants and withdraws at his will. The great souls like Shirdi Sai Baba, Vivekananda, Ramkrishna Parmahamsa etc visit this earth and take birth here to accomplish great missions as per the directions of God. Such great Souls or Masters are sent on to the earth to educate us, lead us and guide us spiritually as per God's wishes. They know about God's wishes. That is why some great souls have Ichha Marnam or death at their will-like Bhishma. 

Baba waited till today. Why? Because today is the most auspicious day-Sunday, Sapthami(7th day of our calender), Poorva Aashadha  star, Siddha Yoga- Planet Sun in Mesha(Aries) all these make it a favourable time for leaving His physical body on a divine journey. He knows it all, who are we to question Him?

But for us, we don't have any say in our births or deaths. We are all guided by our actions(Karma) and its affect. We can only come out of this Chakra or cycle by following the spiritual path as per Guru's guidance.

How can people like us who are spiritual illiterates know about great souls or their missions. We attach ourselves to what we see with our eyes and the physical body or presence. 

Now Bhagawan meaning God as people believe Him to be, always used to say that He is beyond birth and death. His body is not His but for our sake which we worship and follow with great devotion. 

The greatest spiritual Guru of modern times, he has crores and crores of disciples not only in India but from various countries of the world. He spread the message of Love, Peace and Service. He and his Trust do a lot of charity work, support educational institutions, hospitals and many more across the world.

As I am writing all this I am crying and all my family and friends are shocked. After all Baba was like our, mother, father, guru, friend and God all rolled into one. As long as His physical presence was there, we felt that he was there to safe guard us. 

One thing we have to remind ourselves is He is not just an ordinary human. He is a great soul and He will always be there with us. In our thoughts, in our actions, in our words, in everything we do-He is always with us. If we call ourselves His followers, His devotees then we have to adhere to what he taught us through his messages. Love all-serve all;Help ever, Hurt never.

Baba always taught us about Prema or Love-The Universal Love. This is the time when there is so much strife, so much unrest, so many calamities-that we need to spread His message of Love and Peace. Even if we begin this at our homes, our relatives, our friends and with those whom we come into contact, it is more than enough. We should follow Baba and lend a helping hand to those around us who need it the most. It need not be big, it need be colossal-just a small something; a hug, a smile, a pat on the back, a shoulder to cry, a warm handshake...small things which mean a lot to someone.

So come let us all take a Pledge that from today we will follow His Messages, spread Love and Peace, what little we can do to serve others we will do. we will always chant the name of God and Baba. 

He is definitely with us around us and in us.......we just need to call Him SAI RAM...

OM SAI RAM...............

Meera-Prem Diwani -I

                                                    

Lord Krishna

India is the land of saints, seers, sages, poets. So many great souls who gave so many great messages. They not only stood as role models on the spiritual path but left back a great legacy of great thoughts, wisdom, philosophy, poetry, writings and sayings. One just needs to tap those to follow the proper path to Godhead.

In Hinduism there are many paths of devotion. One can choose a convenient path to reach the Lord. Female saints like Meera, Andal, Akkamahadevi and many more kept the spiritual knowledge and the paths of the ancient seers alive. One common factor amongst these three women was that they accepted the Lord as their husband or bridegroom and devoted their lives to Him.

One of such great souls was Meera or Mira also known as Meera Bai. She was the exponent of Prem Bhakti-spiritual love or devotional love. She was a great devotee of Lord Krishna, loved Him intensely and took Him to be her husband and Lord. She wrote beautiful love poetry or rather songs set her own tunes. She sang them melodiously immersed in her love for her Lord. Such was her power of singing and her songs that whoever listened to her were mesmerised. 

Even today her songs known as Meera Bhajans are very popular and sung with great devotion.

It is difficult to write about her details exactly as there are many stories, many versions, and some facts and may be some fiction. I have tried my best to give as accurately as possible from the available information.

She was born in 1504 AD at Chaukari village in Merta a small state in Marwar District of Rajasthan. Some say she was born in Kurki in Plai district in 1498. It is difficult to give the exact year and place as there seems to be no historical evidence.

The place was ruled by the Rathores. Her father’s name was Rana Ratan Singh. She lost her mother at an early age and was raised by her grandfather Rao Duda.

Rathores were great devotees of Vishnu. Like in any Rajput families, her education included knowledge of Vedic scriptures, music, and also war fare. She grew up amidst an atmosphere of total Krishna bhakti or devotion, which was responsible in moulding her thoughts to complete devotion towards Lord Krishna.

When she was just four years of age, she happened to watch a marriage procession. She asked her mother innocently, "Mother, who will be my bridegroom?" Her mother, half in jest and half in earnest, pointing towards the idol of Lord Krishna replied, "My dear child, Lord Krishna - Neela Megha Shyama-this handsome black one – will be your bridegroom". This was etched on Meera's tender mind and heart. 

As Meera grew up, her desire to be with her Krishna grew intensely day by day and she firmly believed that Lord Krishna would marry her. As time went by, she was firmly convinced that Krishna was to be her husband. She was completely devoted to lord Krishna.

Meera was very gentle, soft spoken and was gifted with a melodious voice. Since she was from a religious family, she would sing in praise of Lord. She was one of the most extraordinary beauties of her time and the fame of her beauty spread far and wide to many princely states. Many kings and princes vied to marry her.

Rana Sangram Singh(Rana Sangha), the powerful King of Mewar, approached Rao Duda for MiraBai’s hand in marriage to his son Bhojraj (also known as Rana Kumbha or KumbhaRana). 

Rana Kumbha had seen Meera and fell in love with her beauty and wanted to marry her for her beauty, pious nature and divine intent. Rao Duda also agreed to it. However, Meera could not bear the thought of marrying a human being as all along she considered Lord Krishna as her husband. She pleads and argues. But her family forces her to the marriage as it was by then very difficult to guard a beautiful daughter against the princes and kings who wanted to marry her even by waging a war.

She agrees to the marriage out of her respect to her grandfather. She marries Rana Kumbha in 1518. She was hardly 14 years of age. But child marriages were common in those days and 14 was considered to be much older age.

She leaves for Mewar(Chittorgarh) with the Rana Kumbha her husband. She discharges all her duties to her in laws and her husband as any wife would. 

                      To be continued........

Bhagawan Sri Satya Sai Baba hospitalised

Bhagawan Sri Satya Sai Baba was hospitalised on 28th of March. Since then all his devotees across the world are anxious. Just this afternoon it was announced that his condition was serious. But now hospital sources say He is responding to treatment.

Crores of his devotees across the world are conducting Akhanda Bhajans, chanting mantras  etc praying for his recovery. We all are worried about him. Such a great soul who has helped the society and still helping in many ways. We did not celebrate Ugadi much because He was unwell.

All the South channels have been tracking His condition for the past two days or so and more so today. But is the North media sleeping? I have not seen any of the channels even mention about His ill health. The media that catches up and flashes the news when Sharukh sneezes or Katrina Yawns, does not feel this news news worthy at all. What a shame what a shame. Such a great soul He is and many devotees would be interested to know about Him.

Those of you who follow Him please pray. We all have been praying for His recovery. Such people can do more service than all of us put together. So I do pray to God Almighty that Bhagwan recovers.

Temples Of India-3

SRI BALA BALAJI TEMPLE-APPANA PALLE-2

Tale of two sisters Vinata and Kadruva:

Now here we have to know the tale of two sisters Vinata and Kadruva (wives of Sage Kasyapa) as this is related with this site. 

Vinata and Kadruva, wives of  Sage Kashyapa wanted male children. So they requested their husband for sons. Kadruva wanted thousnd sons with long shining bodies. Vinata wanted two sons stronger than those of Kadruva. Sage Kashyapa performed Putra kamesti Yagyam- a special ceremony for be getting children. 

As a result of that Yagya, both Vinata and Kadruva became pregnant. Kadruva got one thousand eggs and Vinata got two eggs. After some time, the eggs of kadruva were broken and 1000 snakes including Aadi Seshuvu, Takshaka, Vaasuki etc. came out of the eggs with long and shining bodies.

      Sons of Kadruva and Kashyapa

Vinata was jealous that her sister begot sons before her. She became impatient and broke one of her two eggs. Out of it emerged a man with strong half-grown body-only up till waist. His name is Aruna. He was very angry with his mother as she was responsible for his handicap. He advised her not to break the other egg till it hatched by itself. He went away to become the charioteer of  Surya- the Sun God.


Vinata heeded her son's words, started taking good care of the second egg and waited for it to hatch...


Here we have to leave these sisters for a while and go to the story of Samudra Manthana where the Devas and Asuras churned the Khseera Sagara for the Amrutham.....


Read this in my next post......

Temples Of India-2

SRI BALA BALAJI TEMPLE-APPANA PALLE-1

  

SRI BALA BALAJI TEMPLE-APPANA PALLE

The Bala Balaji Devasthanam or Temple at Appana Palle or Appana Pally is perhaps not so famous but a very ancient site. It is a temple of Lord Balaji or Lord Venkateshwara. Bala Means child. Here Lord Balaji is worshipped in the form of a child.

This is popularly known as Konaseema Tirupathi. Konaseema -kona means corner seema means region -the rich delta region of East Godavari District surrounded by River Godavari  and Bay of Bengal. It is full of tributaries and aqua ducts. The silt soil brought in by the River Godavari and its tributaries makes the region very fertile. One can find acres and acres of lush green Paddy and Sugar Cane fields, Coconut, Cashew, Mango and Plantain Orchards. The region has a rich cultural heritage with many famous laureates-Vedic scholars, astrologers, poets, musicians, philanthropists etc. There are many ancient and well known and not so well known temples in this region. My humble attempt is to introduce you to as many such places as I can an provide you with as much information as I can to the best of my knowledge.

One of these temples is that of Sri Bala Balaji Temple at Appana Palle.

LOCATION

APPANA PALLE is a small village in Mamidi Kuduru Mandalam of East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. Its situated on the banks of River Vainateya a tributary of River Godvari. 

                                     River Vaineteya-Tributory of Godavari

The legend of how Appana Pally got its name:

Appana Palle was originally known as Arpana Palle. Arpana means sacrifice and Palle means a place or village. The meaning of Arpana Palle is a place where a sacrifice was made.

Now who made the sacrifice and why? For that we need to go into very ancient times. Read on.....

Legends related to the site

Sage Kashyapa

Kasyapa was one of the ancient sages or Rishis and is one of the Saptha Rishis or the seven sages. He was the son of Marichi- who was the son of Lord Brahma (the Creator). That is Kasyapa was the grandson of Bramha. 

Kashyapa had thirteen wives- Aditi, Diti,Vinata, Kadruva, Danu, Arishta, Surasa, Surabhi, Tamra, Krodhavasa, Ida, Khasa and Muni -who were the daughters of Daksha Prajapathi and were sisters to Sati -Consort to Lord Shiva. There are some variations in the names of some of the wives and also the number and names of the offsprings they begot. I am not going to discuss that here. But broadly I will give the details.

He had many sons from these wives as follows:

	Name of the Wife	Sons/daughters   known as	Details of Sons/daughters
1	Aditi Eldest wife very virtuous  and  kind	Devatas (Gods)  and 12 Adityas (Suns)	Gods –Indra, Agni etc  and Aṃśa, Aryaman, Bhaga, Dhūti,  Mitra, Pūṣan, Śakra, Savitṛ,  Tvaṣṭṛ,  Varuṇa, Viṣhṇu , Vivasvat or Vivasvan *
*These started the Surya Vansham or Solar Dynasty. Later on this was known as Ikshwaku Vansham (dynasty) after King Ikshwaku and after that Raghu Vansham (dynasty) after King Raghu. Lord Rama belonged to this dynasty
2	Diti	Daityas (Demons)	Hiranyakashapu Hiranyaksha and daughter Sinhika
3	Danu	Danavas (Demons)	100 sons Viprachitti.
4	Kadruva	Nagas (Serpents)	1000 serpents (Adi Seshu, Vasuki and Taksha etcare well known) from whom the  reptile clan started
5	Vinata		Garuda and Aruna or Surya
6	Surabhi	Cows and Buffalos
7	Surasa Or Samras	Dogs
8	Muni  Or Manu Or Pradha	Apsaras (Devine Maidens)
9	Khasa  Or Vishva	Yakshas, (Demi-Gods)
10	Krodha Or Khrodhavasa	Rakshasas
11	Arishta	Gandharvas (Male nature spirits possessing musical  skills)
12	Illa or Eda	Trees
13	Tamra	Daugters	Six daughters who started the line of animals and birds

In the next post know about the Tale of two sisters-Vinata and Kadruva and how it is related to this site........So follow my posts on this blog......