1 3rd September, 2015 2 0 1 5 , I s s u e 3 Home, Sweet Home! – Nagu Parasu Last month, at the con- duce them to our way of ery brings many more Inside this issue clusion of a Pooja, the life. guests. The beautiful devotees were sitting cardinal, hummingbird, Home, Sweet 1 together with families Next time stop by the mockingbird and blue- Home and friends and dining. cow-shed. Let your kids jay to name a few. There After his daughters ate watch how we feed the are also rare plants like Upcoming events 1 their food and started cows. Let them observe turmeric and ginger. So in September playing with their when the cows are identify those to your friends, a contented milked. Or when a calf kids. Let them learn the Sai’s Kitchen 2 Sumit turned to me and is suckling. Don’t tell birds, plants and trees said “what a wonderful them that we worship around us. Temple Deities 2 atmosphere… feels as if cows. Let them experi- we are attending a wed- ence it and know why. Be a part of the temple. Sri Sai Satcharit in 3 ding in India”. That’s the Let them also learn that It’s your temple. So claim our daily life feeling I get when I visit milk doesn’t magically it. Get in the kitchen and our temple. Home! appear in the cartons in serve food. Prepare food. Word Search 3 the grocery stores. Cleanup. Take the trash What experience do you to the dust bin. Trim Jeopardy 3 seek when you come to Have you observed the some plants. Collect the temple? Of course developments going some flowers for the Panchatantra 4 the primary reason is to around the temple? Do Pooja. Water some worship and seek the you remember the plants. Pick some weeds. Answer Key for 4 blessing of our dear Ba- amazing Tulips in Clean the pavement. Ar- August edition ba. But you can do that spring? There are lots of range some chairs. Then Temple Services 4 from your living room trees being planted reg- sit quietly in the temple. couch. You come to the ularly. There are fruit You will feel it. The tem- temple to experience trees, flowering trees ple belongs to you. Not much more than that. and shady trees coming the other way around. U p c o m i n g You bring your family to up all around the tem- events in Sep- experience the divinity ple. And all the flowers - Come home to Sri t e m b e r : together. You bring your roses, sunflowers, hibis- Amrutha Sai Temple kids so that they can cus, etc., And Lord September 3rd: experience our culture. Krishna’s favorite - our heritage. You intro- Tulsi! All these green- Hayagreeva Ab- hishekam and Maha Saraswathy Puja September 12th: New batch for Yoga class starts September 16th: Ganesha Chathurthi September 26th: Bharatanatyam by students of Lakshmi Vadi, Apsaras Shool of Dance Sai Baba Ab- hishekam per- We welcome you to share your personal experiences in the form formed every of articles, poems, paintings etc. Please email us your articles, by Thursday 15th of each month, at [email protected] Sai Amrutha Jyothi http://srisainarayana.org http://sriamruthasai.org 2 Sai’s Kitchen - Sreelatha Parasu right? Mom: Well my dear child, Baba was a saint, and he lived on alms. But out of love and compassion for fellow human be- ings he wanted to feed the poor and the hungry. Since he was a saint and a fakir, people in and around his hometown visit- ed him for advice and blessings. They gave him dakshina, and he used that to buy the provisions to cook food. Since then Baba’s hospitality is continued through his devotees or through Sai organizations all over the world. Gopal: Mom can you tell me when Sai's Kitchen was opened? Gopal: Why do we have to buy food from the temple for Mom: Sure dear. In the later part of 19th century Sai Baba felt the urge to Five dollars? feed the poor and Sai's Kitchen came into existence. He realized that provid- ing food to the poor is very essential and was the best of all charities. And he Mom: We surrender our ego and our five senses to Baba commenced to cook and feed the needy. and we receive his blessings in the form of prasadam from Sai's Kitchen, at the temple. The prasadam gives us good Gopal: How and why did Baba do that mom, for he himself relied on alms, health to engage us to lead a healthy and prosperous life. Sridharamrutham — “Knowledge is something which you learn everyday and wisdom is something which you let go everyday “ Temple Deities — Kurma Narayana & Kurma Nayaki — Sarada Jammi In our temple, we have very unique and one holy place where we have the one and only Yagnam, Sri Kurmanarayana blesses one of a kind vigraham of Sri Kurma Nayaki sa- temple in India for Lord Vishnu in the form of and all with all prosperity. metha Sri Kurmanarayana Swamy. As you Kurma Narayana. According to puranas, in this form Lord may know, Kurma (turtle) represents the 2nd Vishnu negotiated with the Rakshasas and avatar of Lord Vishnu. This vigraham was This beautiful vigraham has both Sri Kurma Devathas to work together to churn out specially prepared in per Guruji’s design and Narayana and Kurma Nayaki, facing front and “Amrutham”. During the churning, first was made by skilled artisans from Tirupati, back respectively, expertly hand carved in a Halahalam(Poison) comes which is taken by for a Mahayagnam performed in Srikurmam, single piece of wooden block, and shows ex- Siva, then Kamadhenu, Sankhu, Chakram, Andhra Pradesh in 2006. Srikurmam is the quisite details. It is designed in a such a way Celestial Dancers, even Mahalakshmi and Amruthanarayana who has the pot of Am- that the lower part of the idol is in turtle rutham in the form of Mohini have come out shape and the head portion shows the from this churning of the ocean. face of Kurma Narayana/Kurma Nayaki (representing the male and female ener- Incidentally, our temple has lot of associa- gies). In addition, the vigraham also has tion with Kurma Narayana, and that is the Garuda and Anajaneya on either side of reason we got him as our first vigraham. We the Kurmam, and along the base you can strongly believe that “Kurmam” is the base see the Dasavataras (10 incarnations) of for our temple. In fact the topography of our Lord Vishnu, and in the middle of the temple land is in the shape of Turtle. The base it has Lord Vishnu resting on Sesha back is where our present temple, which is talpam. The tiruvachi (the arch) of the slowly curving down to the North east with vigraham has beautifully carved Ashta the face in the pond. Also, when we started Lakshmis on both sides. ground work for the “Bhoomi Puja”(ground- breaking ceremony), we were not sure After conclusion of the Mahayagnam in where the Yagna Kundam could be con- Srikurmam in 2006, His Holiness Sri.V.V. structed. Prophetically we found a turtle in Sridhar Guruji graciously gave the vigra- the spot where we built our current ya- hams to pandit B. Rajagopalan. As he gnashala. And again, we have our main dei- gave Guruji asked him to take it to USA ty, Sri Amrutha Sai Narayana located where while Mama was living in Toronto, Cana- we had the second appearance of the turtle da at that time. With lot of difficulty after in 2008. a year of struggle the murthy finally left India in September 2007 after mama Ours is the only temple outside of India moved to the USA and the temple land which has Kurma Narayana vigraham. Pray- was acquired and the ground breaking ing to Lord Kurma Narayana helps one to ceremony was performed. This was in obtain very good negotiating skills which is fact the 1st vigraham to have come to very essential for leading successful career our temple. Carved in teakwood, being at work. Also, Amrutha Narayana is prayed the Pradhana Murthy in the Sri Kurmam for good health and prosperity. http://srisainarayana.org http://sriamruthasai.org 3 Sri Sai Satcharit in our daily life - Sankar Kumar Before embarking creator, protector and destroyer! I will be on this sacred with those who never forget me .” On task, Hemadpant hearing this, Hemadpant decided at once narrates how that Baba is his savior and surrendered at Baba showered His feet. He requests all the readers to pay His love on him close attention to these stories, which will like a mother help them immensely and relieve all wor- shows on her ries. child . On his re- tirement he went Bow to Sri Sai! Peace be to all! to Shirdi and with the help of Anna LIFE APPLICATION: Cinchanikar got 1. Know that reading or listening to Sai Om Sri SaiRam the blessings of Baba and was included in satcharit will fulfill all our desires and His darbar. save us from troubles. CHAPTER 3 There was a man called Rohilla who used to chant the Holy Quran in loud voice which 2. Bad habits attach ourselves firmly and While giving His approval to Hemadpant to write was disturbing the villagers’ sleep. When one should strive by any means to get HIS life events, Sai blessed him and said as fol- they went to complain about him to Baba, rid of them.