My Introduction to Sri Shiridi Sai Baba - Part-2- United Kingdom

Welcome to my blog and thank you for showing interest to read about my spiritual experiences.

This is in continuation to my first blog, although you can read it without reading the first one. In my first blog, I wrote about my experiences primarily in Bangalore, India. In this blog, I will write about more stronger experiences that I experienced in the United Kingdom.

Volunteering in the opening of Shiridi Sai Temple at Wembley, London

I arrived in the UK in the December of 2009 with a work visa. As I have said before, I am still only beginning my direction towards believing that Shiridi Sai Baba is God. One can always argue how a man can become God? Definitely it is true, Shiridi Sai Baba Himself never proclaimed him to be God, He always said that he is only a servant to God, nothing more than that. It is all of us who thought him to be God. After 94 years of entering the maha samadhi, people around the world still regard Shiridi Sai to be present among them and believe He is their saviour and God, answering to all their prayers. It is always debatable if you will ever believe a God who never realises any of your prayers and keeps them all un-fulfilled. Will you?  I will definitely not believe in such a God and that is trick in this : God grants us wishes so that we realised that He exists, so that one day we will be left out without any wishes( having received all that we have asked for) but alas, for many of us, this "one day" will never arrive. After the wish for job comes true comes the wish for promotion, after which comes the wish for on-site, after which comes the wish for car, house, family, and so on and so forth. It is practical experience that this wishes will never end and so will the fact that God is always there and exists!!!

When I came to UK in 2009, I didn't have a job in hand, but had some close ones and was very confident that I can squeeze into one within a few months.My Grandmother always keeps telling of one saying "Man proposes and God disposes", here is exactly what happened. Having 5 years of experience behind me, I thought I could land into a job straight away. But things did not happen so well. Initially when I uploaded my CV to the various famous job sites, I used to get lots of calls, I was mostly unprepared to answer the tricky questions, like how much salary you want, etc. As weeks passed by, the calls came down and when I ran into the first month, the calls almost came to nil. Still I had belief in myself and I cant think of God although I was reading Sundarakanda which my sister gave and my wife forced me to read everyday. I did that very diligently with the hope that God will give me a job, you can see the logic : It is purely a balancing act, I give devotion, You give me my wishes. That is how many of us interact with God on daily basis and pay visits to Tirupati, Shiridi, etc. We will stop believing in God the day our wishes are not granted , in other words, this is also a threat to God, You give me my wishes, or I will stop following You. But here I was not close to that also, as I still didnt believe 100% in Sai Baba, now how close I was to 100% is the trick , I was not 100% so, I could be 1% or 99%, you know the answer probably.

When I arrived in UK, I had a few friends (some are close hostel friends whom I stayed with for more than 2 years while I was doing my B.Tech), I pinged them on Orkut with the hope of finding a place to stay for a short time or some help with the job searches/references. I was in for a shock, as people avoided me like plague. I still dont know the reasons, as everyone I pinged knew that I was not the kind of parasite that they would avoid like plague. Everyone knew the kind of guy I was, but still people avoided me like plague. The only guy who helped me immensely was a colleague from the college in Gudlavalleru with whom I had very little acquaintance. I used to ping him once a while when I used to see him online in Yahoo, but not with the intention to keep in touch since I may need his help, but with a genuine interest in him. He helped me a lot during my initial days, but I was then on my own. During this time, he told me that there is a Sai Baba temple near Wembley( the place where the present temple is) where people gather once a week, offer prayers and go back since it was leased only for that single day in a week. I went there for the first 2 few weeks to find it closed but the third time, was lucky, it was open. I could not believe this as I could sing Aarti in the UK, wow, a true wonder. During the next couple of weeks, I came to know that the folks were planning to start a full time temple in the same place during the month of Jan 2010. They were asking for volunteers. 

                       During my entire 6 month/1 year visits to the temple in Dooravaninagar in Bangalore ( a short break, will come back to Wembley shortly) , I used to think if I could help them in the temple at the shoe stand because it is a place where people wont be that interested to do, but could not do as there were always enough people inside and moreover the place was a private affair. In this context, it is quite surprising that I have not realized that the temple in wembley is the second one that I participated in the opening. My wife and I participated in the Sai name chanting (1 crore names chanting Om Sai, Sri Sai, Jai Jai Sai) where you could contribute to the opening, we didnt do too many, may be 2000, but we did have the books that we wrote with the Sai namam beneath the Sai Baba idol that was installed in the temple in Bangalore(Dooravani nagar). So that was a brief break about Wembley, we will get back to our original story.

                As I have wished for in Bangalore, I got the chance to help in the Shoe stand of the temple opening in January, 2010 in Wembley, wish I had in Bangalore, Sai Baba found that this is the right time. So, that was little about the little help that I rendered in the opening of the temple. During this, I was having the hope that I will very soon land in a job so that service I rendered was not without a hope for something in return. Still way to go Satya.

                 As on today, we daily try to read a chapter in the Sai Sachharitra book (the red book from Shiridi Sanstaan) without fail, but at that time in 2010, I didnt feel that the book was that important, so I didnt have anything with me, all the books were left at home with my wife in India. But, in 2010 when I arrived in UK, I didnt have the book with me, so I used to read Sundarakanda, which was a wonderful book to read with the entire story of Hanuman in Lanka in the story of Ramayana.

Securing the first job in the UK

                   So, I was slowly nearing 2 months after my arrival into the UK with still no job in sight. I was getting desperate since I wanted my son and wife to be with me ASAP as I missed them very badly. My son was already showing signs of missing me as he was getting naughty, doing strange things which he never did before. Then I heard from the company whom I was having a large hope on in securing a job. In the mean time I used to frequent the Job Centre Plus applying for other odd jobs now and then. All the odd jobs are normally taken by people who have references, but since I had none in the UK, I rarely found one, but I was desperate in landing into some job so that I could bring my family quickly into the UK. I applied for a job at Bakkavor.. Bakkavor with a General Tier-1???? Ridiculous, but I needed a job quickly as it was nearing 2 months I entered the UK and I was blowing up my hard earned money in the £55 a week paying guest in Wembley sharing a home with 10 people and 1 bathroom.I applied at Bakkavor believing firmly in Baba as I am not the kind of person who will do "any" job or money. I had my own convictions. I dont believe in betting , dont believe in lottery, dont eat /touch meat, etc.  I still applied in ladbrokes, William Hill, but did not get a call back. Baba did not let me do something which I didnt like.1 Week later, I got a call from Bakkavor and also a call from a very big consulting firm (into telecom and loads of other stuff). Both the interviews were on the same day, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. I over-dressed for the Bakkavor interview in a neat suit, as I had to leave for the telco job interview later. Did well at the Bakkavor interview and they even made it quick for me as I told them that I had to leave for another interview.  Dont know about the outcome of the interview at Bakkavor but headed to Central London in the Tube (for the first time since I arrived in the UK , 2 months later I took the tube not because I wanted to but I had to) . The interview was a mixed one, they said they will come back to me and mailed me the next day that they are not looking for me. I got this call from Bakkavor. Since I had to be in night shifts, I had to take the interview from the night shift manager. So I took the bus at 12:30 in the night to the Bakkavor office where I had been only once before. All went well and I got the job. On my way back, at 2 AM in the night, I found an old man, possibly a mentally -challenged man who was struggling in high winds at Wembley Central to light a cigarette. Satya, helping anyone with a cigar??? Never, but I pitied him and lighted the match for him and the cigarette, which of course was in his mouth (no, i will never stoop to putting the cigar in my mouth). I am still not sure who that old man is as I didnt see him in the next 2 months I stayed at Wembley. Who was he??????????????????? or who was He?????

Wembley Temple Card at Bakkavor

In Bakkavor,  which is like mini India, since almost 99% of people working on the night shifts are Indians, now who says that there are no jobs in the UK??? Only people want them easy...  1 week in to the job, a fellow worker asked me how I got the job and whom I knew in the company? This was over our tea break and we were sitting on a particular table. I told him that I knew none for which he laughed? He asked me again "Dont you know anyone here??You must be joking....."  .. I kept on thinking , Do I know anyone here??? The only person I begged for this job was Baba, as I wrote my M.Tech degree on a Bakkavor application which is ridiculous. I left for work and came for lunch break later that night and landed on the same table where I was at tea break.   Can you believe what I found on the table? A visiting card for Shiridi Sai Baba temple at Wembley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it again???? Now I got the answer whom I knew in Bakkavor.. It was HIM!!!!!! Yes, you can see that the seeds are sown now!!! It has to be noted that Bakkavor being a food company, there are very strict rules of what you can have in your pocket, so all personal things are left in the lockers which is done at the beginning of the shift and no one normally visits the lockers again until the end of the shift.

Job in Reading 

I worked at Bakkavor for 3 months as the time was for the initial contract, then could not take it any longer as it was tough. In the mean time I got my wife and 4 year old son from India and we started living in a small house at Harrow. Life is not easy still, I used to get odd calls and I blew up 2 interviews. Now it is beginning of May and I still dont have a proper job. I can survive on the Bakkavor job as my visa will not extend on that salary and I will have to go back to India, which is a disaster. During this time, we also performed a Sai Satyavrata Pooja at our home but I still didnt get the initiation to beg Baba for a job, making him the only saviour. My wife kept on insisting that I pray to Sai Baba truly and our times will get better. So one thursday I picked up the Red Book and started reading it with a true mind. The same week I saw an advert for a Network Support Engineer at a company in Reading, the product of theirs being what I worked and broke (as a test engineer of course) 6 years ago in the US in Plano. !!!  It is so true that my colleagues at that time used to joke that I apply for a job in the company and I will get it immediately as I knew the product in and out. I wrote the names of 2 guys whose names, I could still remember 6 years later in the covering letter. I only realized after joing the company that they are big shots and they too had a good corner for me possibly.

Now the important story starts :

1) Telephonic Interview - Thursday - All went fine . Called for a personal interview on ...... no guesses, the next thursday

2) Personal Interview - Thursday

3) Offer : The next Thursday., 

Yes, all thursdays , very famous as the day for Shiridi Sai as thursday in గురు వారం (Guru vaaram) in telugu which is dedicated to the Guru.

Now for the biggest trick of the whole scenario.

The day of the personal interview, I travelled to Reading and struggled and finally reached the office of the company. I stepped inside and was told to wait in the lobby and I was going through some certificates there on the wall. There was one certificate which was issued by a company called ................................................................  SAI GLOBAL  .......................................................................

On the day before, I was reading as part of my daily reading of 1 chapter from the Red Book, a chapter where Baba tells Syama that he will arrive at Gaya before Syama even goes there as part of his trip.He did the same thing to me as well. He arrived before I could go to Reading (now for the pronunciation problems, Reading is a town in Berkshire county (pronunced Barkshire)

Exactly 1 year later, when my Full Time Contract at Reading was about to end, Baba offered me another job in Swindon where I am based currently. I applied for number of jobs before that, but no responses.

Even to this day,  every Thursday, I see some new living creature in my home, which arrives from no where and disappears to no where, be it an ant/spider/dog/etc...... Yes, it happens every Thursday.

Experience in Reading

I once asked Baba for an experience in Reading, I wanted to see Him in some way which I can recognize. The moment I stepped out of my home as part of my morning walk, (not for leisure but to the office, as I used to walk to the office then which was a mile from the home, I have graduated now, I now use the Cycle) I found an African origin man waiting at the bus stop, mid twenties, carrying a bead garland which looked like a rudraksha garland) and counting the beads. I didnt have the guts to look straight at him and simply walked past him very happy with the experience.

I wanted to write more , but I will stop for the moment. I will write on more contemporary items in my next blog.

Coming Shortly

1) Satya's Invention - The Time Machine 

2) The home in UK without at TV.

3) Does God exist? Why not show Him to me?

4) Experience in Reading - When the lady at the bus stop told me to go back to my country because I was speaking Telugu with my son.                           

My Introduction to Sri Shiridi Sai - Part-1

I am writing this on Jan-2-2012 probably 3 years after this story happened. I do not remember when exactly I got introduced (or may be re-introduced) to Shiridi Sai in 2009, but here is the long story. This would a good started for anyone who wanted practical proof that God existed. I myself tell many time, that God does not exist and it is all in the mind, how you train the mind and how the mind accepts things, but now I am a completely different person. I dont claim to have seen the highest number of proofs from Shiridi Sai or anything of that sort, but just to tell you that if an idiot like me can experience this much, then how much will you experience (of course it is not derogarotory that you have to be more worse idiot to experience more .... with Shiridi Sai, nothing follows a pattern, He does not care who you are completely, by reading the Shridi Sai Baba Sat-charitra, I only understand that you can not experience Him at your will, but only at His will only...   Read On.................

First Experience

This happened right after my wife and I got introduced to Shiridi Sai by my sister at Eluru. We heard of some stories of experiences from her and were very excited to start learning more about Him and worshipping him. Well, this is what I at least acted to the outside, I never believed anything of this sort in my mind actually. So here I am , just like many of you reading this article looking for practical proof that God exists. So, armed with the Jeevitha Charitra of Sai Baba, (called Sai Baba Jeevitha Charitra by Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja garu) which my sister gave to my wife, we returned to Bangalore by train. Did you hear about a mahima yet??? No.... here it comes.... We came home from KR Puram Station to home in Dooravani Nagar (of course shedding Rs 50/- for the < 2Km journey) We got down from the auto and what do we see?? At the entrance of the house is a A4 sized picture of Shiridi Sai Baba that our house owner put up when we were at Eluru (so Baba was moving stones at Bangalore while we were at Eluru) Ok for the "actor" of me (as everyone sees me), I saw that it was spectacular, but inside, I didnt still believe 100%. Why did the picture come up at the same time when we started learning about him and thinking of experiencing him is a question which can not be answered. For many, this is still a coincidence... Those who think that this purely coincidence, read on.... to the next incident.

Journey to Shiridi and Money!!

Now ever since my wife got the book, she was reading the life story of Shiridi Sai Baba and she was awed by the un-believeable real stories (yes, there are a different class of people who want proofs for Rama, Krishna stories and all of our mythologies are based on stories which were passed on from generation to generation but with no record of them in the history. History, yes as viewed by the west. Although I learnt it from my mom who taught history at NAAC A* accredited in Eluru that almost all of our history is written by the British during the colognial rule and the history was twisted, changed and altered to make us believe that Indians are a bunch of losers. Many great facts were never recodred in the history. Although I can not state real facts, you can google them out possibly, so if someone does want the Gods as recorded in history,  you should ask which history???)

Now coming to my journey to Shiridi , here is the story.

My wife developed an extreme liking of Shiridi Sai Baba and wanted to go to Shiridi for a long time. We could never get tickets since from Bangalore Karnataka express is the only train that can lead us till Manmad/Kopergaum but since it goes to Delhi, it was always full. So, I finally decided to absond from office without informing my manager and only inform upon return.  I tried for a long period, and finally got hold of tatkal tickets via IRCTC to Manmad and return.  Now as you know tickets for 3 in Tatkal is a bit costly affair with Rs 200/- additional per ticket. I was not unhappy about the cost, since we wanted to go for a long time but did mention that the tickets were about Rs 3000/- by waking up my wife early in the mornign and telling her that they cost Rs 3000/-. My wife scolded me that I should not be thinking about money when thinking about Sri Sai. I was not happy receiving the scoldings as I was not at all unhappy with the "purchase".  

Now the miracle, I took out my son on my Honda Activa that day later in the morning (being in UK , I still cant believe how kids are allowed to ride like that in India as it is very risky, but that will be a different blog) . I always take my son on the same route and I was not wearing  something different that day, just the regular shorts. On return from the small shopping, I found that my wallet (purse) was gone!!!!!!!!!! It had about Rs 1500/- in cash and my 2 credit and 2 debit cards. Aaaaaaargh!!!!! I was pissed off.. I never lost my purse even while travelling on Bus # 500 in Bangalore which had the highest number of pick pocketing incidents reported... So.. unhappy, went back and searched, but some lucky soul got hold of it before I could locate it .... so called up the banks and blocked the cards and ordered for new ones. ( I only found that I actually had one of the ATM card at home only and that had to be ordered at a price, the rest came free of cost withing 2-3 days....) Now for the money , the hard cash that I had actually lost, there could be a reason for it, but I still dont know what it is.

What I know is that Shiridi Sai is completely against money, he never cared for money never had money and even Shiridi eventually developed to be one of the greatest piligrimage centres just because of Him, when he died, he only had Rs 9/- with him, which he donated to Lakshmi Bai Shinde for the care she gave to him and that number 9 has a great significance . Anyone reading the books of Shiridi Sai will read more material on that.

I might have learnt a lesson from Baba that I might have had a pinch for the cost of the tickets.. Baba has a very significant teaching : Never borrow money  to go to Shiridi.. if you cant go, just pray for him and it is all enough.. I didnt borrow but may be didnt spend all the 3000 whole heartedly.. so got the punishment...

@ Shiridi

Finally the day of going to Shiridi came near. We planned to go on Friday night, reach there by Saturday afternoon, have the darshan and come back on the Sunday afternoon train. Now the mircles will start.

The day before our journey, our Son fell sick, he had a huge vommiting and diarrhoea also...We felt very bad and thought that we can never make the journey with him in that condition. We all slept in the night and I thought of cancelling the tickets only after checking him again in the morning and if he does not have any more till afternoon/evening. Mircale, our son got well by mornning no further vommitings/diarrhoea, didnt have much food, was looking weak but since he was ok, we decided to make the journey and take some good food for him to eat in the train.

We took the train and landed in Kopergaum. We met a Kannada family who were also travelling to Shiridi and they offered to take us along in their auto rickshaw.  Enroute on the train, our son had nothing, was looking weak, but ok. On the next morning, he saw some somosas on the train and wanted them... Samosas?????? on the train.....???????? with his condition, NO way.. but had to buy them since he was crying... he had one of it and was fine after that... isnt that a miracle??

Jokes apart we reached Shiridi and went for the evening haarati (or aarti), spectacular, i didnt understand a bit, but it was so wonderful to be there. Finished the aarti and returned to the hotel. There was a Udupi Hotel, and being a natural fan of Kannada people and the Sagars in Bangalore, we had "Oota" or Lunch/Dinner there.  The food was not great but ok.  Returned to hotel to rest.  My wife and sun fell asleep, but I spent the time between 2 - 5 in the morning visiting the bathroom some 10 times ------ Food poisoning !!!!! It was UP and DOWN (as lame people call vommiting and diarrhoea) I became terribly weak and went back to sleep, which my wife had no clue of and only came to know in the morning when I told her.  Many of the modern day Facebook/Twitter users will feel this ridiculous but I still believe that this was the punishment of Shiridi Sai Baba, Baba was famous of punishing people in various ways , in fact many thought that he was mad in the begining. There is no possible science/theory explaining this, but this is very true. 

How will a person who had 10 vommitings and diarrhoea in the night be in the morning? Normally should be in the hospital,  but I was fine... a bit weak but fine...  Unlike my dad advices me to take Roxid/Oflaxacin for a sore throat or motion, I normally leave it to the body to react and fight any problem , try natural remedies like ginger-tulasi boiled water for sore throat, black pepper etc....  but this experience was different...

My son's experience at Shiridi

As a person who always wanted practical proofs for everything and not believe a single thing until experienced, especially spirituality, I wanted to ask Baba for something for coming all the way to Shiridi (typical materialist behaviour). At that moment, God did give me many things and I didnt know what exactly to ask, but one problem that was bothering us at home was my Son's "head-banging" on the floor (hard concrete floor) when ever he is answered anything in a NO or DONT. (he was 1 1/2 years old at that time), he used to bang so hard that it used to sound many times.  Tellign this to the doctor didnt result in anything as he said that many kids are like that now a days (but my kid was different, not no fizzy drinks/crisps or other junk, always had proper home food..), so decided to ask Baba to give a proof of his existence by stopping him to do the head-banging. After returning out from the temple the next day, my son was playing inside the temple premises when he suddenly fell down and banged his head on the back (he only banged his head on the forehead normally, so this could have been a different experience for him), he cried for 5 minutes and was ok after that.

None of us really thought of this as a matter to be taken notice of. We made our purchasings (the most valuable one being Shiridi Sai Sachritra, in telugu the official documentation of the life of Sai Baba ) and returned to Bangalore later in the day by Karnataka Express.  It was only a week after we returned to Bangalore that I realized that our son stopped banging his head on the ground , and he never did afterwards. Now, does God exist????? Yes, HE does.

Experience at Manmad Station
We returned to Manmad station to catch the train and had to wait for about 2 hours. During that time, a mysterious man dressed exactly like Sai Baba came to us, he was talking probably in Marathi, and we did not understand anything what he said / asked. He did not look normal, may be he was a man who dwelled there daily and others at the station who are regular may not take a notice of him, but I still cant debate if Sai Baba himself did not come to us in that manner on that day. Yes, it is debatable, but ..... this is just the silver lining.

To be continued .... in part 2 .

In Part-2, I will write about true experiences after my move to to the UK in 2009, true stories, which can run a chill down your spine, more to come.