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Namaste All, I am invited to a Shirdi Saibaba temple Friday night. I am looking forward to it however I am a bit confused. I read what I could about Sri Saibaba and from what I can gather he espoused Islam, Hinduism and also a bit of Buddhism. I understand that he is considered by some to be a deity. Would he be considered one of the "minor" deities or aren't all the deities the same? Does it really matter where I worship as long as it is a temple???
Thank you Aum
Sri matre namah
Please visit the temple, meditate/pray and feel the difference
Dear Friend,
Please note: "If and only if", you really are interested in Sanathana Dharma, here is a reply which will clear your confusion
There is a huge difference between being a "Good Human" and "God"....please understand very carefully....
There are a lot of Good Humans on this planet who do charity in large scale, who work for the poor and needy, who devote their lives to help, support and service the needy..
in-fact some big corporate guys like Bill Gates, Tata, etc donate billions in charity[and this is their own money..not collected from others]....
Now these are Good Humans and some of them are Great Humans...but that doesn't mean they are Gods or Deities...
The concept of God is actually not very clearly understood by most of the people ....the main problem for this confusion is the introduction of man made religions...
these man made religions have introduced fear in the heart of innocent people...they have introduced confusion...they have actually made people fear God
and not love God....now, many people become so desperate in their lives that any small ray of hope for them is like finding an oasis in the middle of a desert....
time and again there are some humans who try to trick such people, take advantage of them and become the so-called popular "New Gods, Gurus, Divine Personalities"...
sadly people with low spiritual intellect[which is a result of their previous sinful actions] fall for these tricks and a "New" so-called God or Universal Guru is born overnight....
If you really want to pray to Paramathma, then you need not even go to any temple as He is always situated in your heart...
Paramathma is not a miracle making magician .... He is beyond our understanding...He is beyond this Universe...He cannot be simply explained in words...
I ofcourse cannot explain you who is God in a single reply here :)
but ofcourse a temple definitely helps you to focus on Him...Please visit any temple which does NOT having a human being as a shrine inside, you will reach Paramathma for sure....
Namiste Sanathana Dharma, thank you so very much for your guidance. I especially like the example about Bill gates in that he is one of my favorite Philanthropist but he is not God. Sometime as a convert I keep my questions to academic or theological subjects so as not to offend or seem to be insincere in my quest for Paramathma (sometime questions can be seriously misunderstood). I was feeling in my heart what you verbalized but I guess I just needed to have it affirmed.Quote:
Originally Posted by SanathanaDharma
Thank you again
Aum
Namaste,
I concur with most of what SanathanaDharma has written.
There are many, many sects/temples in which God himself has been put aside and a better than average person, a mere mortal nevertheless, has taken on the center stage for all pujas and reverence. For whatever reasons, if some people want to go that route, I would let them but would not follow them. Visiting a temple in which I don't have reverence for the deity is like visiting a tourist spot with no spiritual benefits. Having said that, there is no harm is visiting the Sai Baba temple, if nothing else, just for the experience of what it feels like to be in that environment and to pay respects to another saintly person.
This is an often repeated advice, but if we search ourselves, we find that we are not that spiritually evolved and do need the association of other devotees to make progress. And the place to have such association is a temple. So, ordinary souls like us DO NEED to visit temples. The advice given above is for evolved souls and is meaningless for us who are on the lower rungs of spiritual evolution.Quote:
Originally Posted by SanathanaDharma
Pranam.
Vannakkam All: Yes, there has been some clear deification of saints and Gurus by their followers, especially in the last few hundred years. Still, many of these organisations do wonderful social work, and devotees find a home there. It's not for me personally, at least the worship angle. The service side is another matter.
If we go further back in history, we find the theme of anthromorphising of Gods, which is similar, but in the opposite direction. In the middle there somewhere we find debate as to which was the case. (The history of Ayappan comes to mind.)
I've been to several of these kinds of temples, and to Guru shrines, and never quite felt the same as when the enshrined deity is God, and has been God for a very long time.
Best wishes on your visit. Please explore a few more if you get an opportunity.
Aum Namasivaya
Dear FriendQuote:
Originally Posted by Believer
You just proved my thought to be correct...while I was writing that line, a thought came to me that this line may be a little mis-leading while reading :)...and
that exactly happened....the reason I also wrote "Please visit any temple...." was keeping the same thought in mind.. i apologize for not putting it correctly...
Opportunity to visit a temple is what I consider as blessed "phala"[result] for some "su-karma"[good action] that I had done in the past....at every given opportunity
I make sure I visit a Temple to find that peace of mind which every soul is looking for...forget ordinary souls, even spiritually highly evolved souls like Ramanuja-Acharya
Shankara-Acharya and others have established many temples, visited them frequently and even stayed in a few.....so thats how important a temple visit is....
Having said that, I still wrote that line keeping those in mind who do not have temples located near their places but have the thirst to seek and see Paramathma..
so, again Please visit Temples of Paramathma and take it a step further ...involve yourself in the activities of the Temple according to your capacity....give donations
to Temples where "Annadaana" [Food is given as charity] is done...we are very fortunate that even in this Kali Yuga we have the opportunity to visit Temples...
Namaste Hdf
I had shared this in a different thread as well.
http://haribhakt.com/hindus-open-you...e-god-exposed/