Sairam,

I would like to share my experiences on sai's punyathithi 9th oct 2008. We had invited 6 families for the puja. Since it was a working day only the ladies were able to come as we have scheduled it in the morning. Just couple of days before the puja 3 of my friends called and said they will not be able to participate in the puja due to the so called forbidden days. I was little upset and was telling Sai, sai I planned to perform this puja with your permission. Now I don't understand where the mistake is whether I had any bad intentions in my mind/ego and so on. I told about this to my husband he said don't worry u don't need to worry about the counts u just need to do the puja with full devotion and faith. I accepted his statement as I too know that baba needs faith and devotion.

On the day of the puja I told sai, sai I will not be reducing the quantity and will be cooking prasad for 6 families as per scheduled you need to come with devotees and participate in the puja and bless us all.

What a miracle!!! my neighbour who was to come back from vacation on 9th eve came on 8th eve itself, and my long time wish is to get cooked brinjal dish with curd -(mentioned in sai satcharitra )from a resident of Pune , by the grace of baba I happened to meet on 8th aft a friend (whom I got to know a couple of months ago.) I was checking with her abt the recipe and she happily said she herself would come and cook on 9th morning, I told her abt the puja she was so happy as she has newly come to U.S. she was very happy abt attending puja, and told me that her sis is sai devotee. three of my friends who could not participate in the puja they had sent their husband to collect prasad so it became 8 families.

My husband was not in town on that day and I have two sons ages 7 and 3 yrs . I was tellg baba, you have to give me a helping hand to perform all my work in time so that we could do the puja without much delay. My friends they all came well before the time, each one did their best. We performed the puja and everything went on well. Including my friends kids there were 4 little ones 2-3yrs old they were all so good and watched the puja. Infact there was a 30days baby too.

In fact in the afternoon looking at the prasad my friends were saying why did u cook so much who is going to finish all this. I said sai, will send devotees, its okay if it is excess. Exactly u can't just imagine I just had one spoon of each dish of prasad to save for my husband who was to land on 10th night and all the dishes got exhausted except sweet. One of my friend she came with her family at 10.30 night to have baba's darshan and had prasad . I was thinking I was not able to go to temple just then my neighbour came to us saying they are going to temple , I was so happy and packed some prasad and sent with her.

I was still not getting any clue of sai participating in the puja and I did not get sleep until 12 clock night and did not switch off the light and did not put my sai also to sleep. Whenever I get such doubts I write to sai and so I wrote chits to sai, the chit said that sai participated in the puja. Just then i wanted to give pill to my little one when i opened the medicine pouch I found sai Dwarakamai photo was so happy seeing still I wanted one more clue .

Then I told myself okay sai don't know how u came today u r not giving me any clue let me atleast put u to sleep. Just then I found a colored printout of sairam with the headiing SAIVRATAKALPAM which was brought by my friend and she gave the same to me to make copy if I need . As soon as I saw the printout I started shedding tears, "OH SAI YOU HAD COME IN THE MORNING ITSELF IN THE FORM OF PRINTOUT THAT TOO THE SAME VRAT WHICH WE HAD PERFORMED AND IT WAS ME WHO DID NOT REALISE SAI’S ARRIVAL. I carried the printout and hugged and wept and felt so happy and then I went to sleep.

What else we need from SAI than such a blissful day, HAIL TO SAIRAM, SAINATH MAHARAJ KI JAI.

sairam.
AshaLatha