Faith and Patience :Shradha Aur Saburi of Sai Baba of Shirdi

The two keywords that Sai Baba would repeat to all his followers seem to be finally coming home to me.

Shradha means patience and saburi means faith. All my life I have never been religious for the simple reason that my parents have a mixed marriage.

My father is a Maharashtrian Hindu Kshatriya and my mother is a Parsi Zoroastrian.

They had a love marriage and for both of them religion never made a difference. They preferred being good human beings to being idol worshipers.

So I grew up in a house where a line of gods from all religions sat on the altar, which incidentally was dusted everyday, but not prayed before everyday.

For any special occasion such as a birthday or anniversary or any religion’s major holiday we would gather before the altar and light a diya that would last twenty four hours. Then the gods would be forgotten till the next big event in the house. In fact unlike other kids who tell stories of standing and praying before the altar before exams, I never did.

My mother believes that each one of us has a “hot line” to God and if we want something we must ask him directly. There is no need for a pandit or priest to help us and nor is there a need for special prayers.

Anything that comes directly from your heart will be passed on to Him. So I used to sit with my study books and look at the problem which I could not solve and mentally tell God, don’t let this one come in the exam. Worked like a charm most of the time.

I knew that if I wanted something badly enough it would happen, but I did not have the Shradha and Saburi (Patience and Faith) to believe that it would happen. Of late that has changed. I recently have rediscovered a number of people on the internet whom I had given up hope of ever seeing again.

One such school friend came down to Agra on business and wanted to catch up. So we decided to meet at a popular coffee house and when I was on my way I got stuck in the worst grid lock ever, something that would not clear up for at least a few hours.

I had my child with me and my friend was waiting. I felt that it was the worst idea I had had in a long time. Then just like that I decided to test Sai Baba, I told him that the grid lock must clear in the next ten minutes as I can’t be stuck here with my baby for hours.

I looked at the clock at the dashboard and kept inching forward as best as I could. Finally we did clear it and when I saw the clock it was just thirty minutes past the time I said I want this grid lock to clear. So maybe my faith was not strong enough but it was strengthened.

Then last light while putting the layers of quilts on my child and myself I felt my diamond ring slide out of my finger. I put the lights on and started shaking the layers but it would not come out. I then noticed that the light of the diya in front of Sai Baba was not burning. It is something that I relight every time it goes off.

So I went and stood before him, said a short prayer to find my ring, lit the diya and returned to the bedroom. I saw the ring twinkling up at me from the carpet at the foot of the bed. My saburi was rewarded and now I have a lot more patience when I ask him for things.

If it works for me and my family it will work for you. It is based on the “Law of Attraction”. You can attract what you want to yourself, you only need the perseverance, patience and faith to do it.