Success is not final, failure is not fatal.
It is the courage to continue that counts.
Winston Churchill
Success is not final, failure is not fatal.
It is the courage to continue that counts.
Winston Churchill
Love exists for love’s sake and nothing else. It is spontaneous and spreads delight Everything is permeated by love. Love can conquer anything. Selfless, pure, unalloyed love leads man to God. Selfish and constricted love binds man to the world. Unable to comprehend the pure and sacred nature of love, man today is a prey to endless worries because of his attachment to world objects. Man’s primary duty is to understand the truth about the Love principle. Once he understands the nature of love he will not go astray.
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
I do not believe in short violent cuts to success. However much I may sympathize with and admire worthy motives, I am an uncompromising opponent of violent methods even to serve the noblest of causes. Experience convinces me that permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence.
Mahatma Gandhi
I am proud to welcome my latest guest, Author and Sai Baba devotee Anita Bacha to my blog. Anita has a truly wonderous story to share with us….. over to you Anita.
Anita Bacha was born in 1948 in Mauritius. She studied law in London and trained as a Barrister. She is a also a former Public Prosecutor and Senior Magistrate. From 1988 until 2004 she joined the Executive as the President of the National Adoption Council, set up by the Government of the Day to put a stop to the sale and traffic of children in Intercountry Adoption. Henceforth she worked as Legal Secretary in the family firm ‘Bacha and Bacha Chartered Accountants and Auditors’ in Bond Street, London. In 2005, she was called upon by the newly elected Prime Minister of Mauritius, Dr.Navin Chandra Ramgoolam to chair the Central Authority for Intercountry Adoption. She came back to Mauritius to assume her new responsibilities. She is, at this day, still holding office. In March 2008, she was elevated to the rank of Commander of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (CSK) on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of the National Day Celebrations by Sir Aneerood Jugnauth, the President of the Republic of Mauritius and in recognition of her valuable contribution in the field of child protection and in community work. She is married, the mother of four grown up kids and the grand- mother of five. In 1978, she unexpectedly discovered the Spiritual Master ‘Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’ and that encounter marked the true start of her spiritual life. She was inspired by Sri Sai Baba to write two books- THE MAKER OF MIRACLES (2006) and MY JOURNEY WITH GOD (2008) where she gives detailed accounts of her experiences of spiritual life as a follower of Baba. She joined the Sai Fold in 1978 as an active member of the Sri Sathya Sai Centre of Curepipe in Mauritius, a voluntary association based on the spiritual teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. In 2007, she was selected as Ladies Convener and Executive Member of the Centre. She is nowadays actively engaged in spiritual, social and community work.
“MIRACLES ARE MY VISITING CARDS” Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba.
We often hear stories about the miraculous healings and cures of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Most of them sound absolutely out of this world. In her book ‘The Divine Leelas of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’, Srimati Purnaiya, a long-time devotee of Baba, wrote ‘to save the life of a man, Baba operated on him with His bare hands and without anesthesia’. This sounds most incredible and utterly impossible to those who have never personally experienced such a miracle. I was one of them until approximately six years ago when my life was saved by the divine intervention of Baba.
In June 2004, I was living in Mauritius. As far as my memory goes, it was icy cold that winter. I woke up at four in the morning for prayers and meditation. After the recital in my prayer room, I returned to my bedroom for meditation as it was far too cold for me to meditate in there. In my bed, I lay down in “dead man” posture for meditation. I had read in one of the books of Charles Penn, an American devotee that Baba had advised him to do so after he had complained about waking up in the early hours of the day and not being to fall asleep again.
So there I was in my bed and in meditative pose when I felt a long finger poking deep into my left breast. At the same time, I heard a voice calling to wake me up- Heeeeeeeeh! I opened my eyes and lo! Baba was standing by my bedside and smiling at me! Next moment, he was gone…disappeared into thin air.
I forgot all about the incident in the coming days but my heart kept telling me to go to London. I am British and my son Yogen lived and worked in London.
Finally, in January 2005, I arrived in London. I immediately started to attend to my personal matters which included my mail. I found a letter from NHS inviting me for a routine mammogram which is addressed to all women over 35. The appointment date had expired, having been fixed to a date in June 2004. Nonetheless and by the Grace of God, when I phoned the X-ray department, they agreed to give me a new appointment for the following week. I went for it.
One week after the mammogram, a letter arrived from NHS inviting me for a second one. Puzzled but fearing the worst, I decided to have a second X-ray. This was followed by an appointment for a medical review at hospital. There I was examined by two lady doctors. They inquired about my general health and then asked whether I had a lump in my breast. Which breast, I asked. I was feeling on top of the world and had no problem with my breasts at all. I was told that the X-ray had showed a small lump in my left breast. Hand examination was followed by a scan and finally I was asked to lie on a couch, half naked for a needle test of my left breast. As the needle pierced my skin and flesh, I realized that Baba had poked my left breast with his finger at that very spot.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery a few weeks after. The cancer was found to be very small in size and had not spread to other parts of my body. Matter of fact, only a ‘lumpectomy’ was done to remove the tumor; my breasts were saved.
I recovered very quickly from the trauma and went back to work.
I am ever so thankful to Baba for saving my life! I would have hated to die of cancer knowing the irreversible damage which the disease does to women. The All- Compassionate and Merciful Lord had stopped the growth of the tumor and guided my steps to London, opening one door after another until my final recovery.
– Anita Bacha –
Anita’s pages on Amazon:
He is forever free who has broken out of the ego-cage of I and mine to be united with the Lord of Love. This is the supreme state. Attain thou this and pass from death to immortality.
Bhagavad Gita (chapter 2)
The five elements each have a characteristic that affects and attracts one of the five senses. The ether as sound fascinates the mind through the ear; air as touch draws the mind to itself through the skin; fire as form manipulates the mind in its favour through the eye; water as taste enslaves the mind through the tongue; and earth as smell intoxicates the mind through the nose. The senses interact with the external world and produce experiences which yield joy or grief. Falsely identifying himself with the senses, man suffers in the coils of attachment. He does not realize that he is neither the body nor the senses, that he is Brahman (Godhead) himself.
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Throughout the dramas of our many lives, only God remains as our closest friend. He watches our progress and patiently waits for us to turn toward him. He watches and provides us with opportunities to develop love and wisdom. He encourages us to cast off desire and attachment to fleeting objects. He alone is our lasting treasure; all other possessions are like the wealth of a dream. We find no true rest until we return to him.
Jonathan Roof
Go within the Self, closing the door of the senses and their involvement with the restless world, and God will reveal to you all his wonders.
Paramahansa Yogananda