When I congratulated Dr Dattatreyudu Nori for his Padma Bhushan award, the third highest civilian honor in India, he said humbly, “It is all because of Baba’s blessings.” He was in Hyderabad in South India, in connection with a cancer hospital he has set up there, when the awards were announced on January 25, the eve of India’s Republic Day.
Even as he reached the acme in his profession as radiation oncologist in America, he wanted to serve his motherland, and has been appointed cancer care adviser in Andhra Pradesh, and the state carved out of it – Telangana.
I have known Dr Nori also as an ardent devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba, who has built two Sai Baba temples in New York and New Jersey. What has inspired a medicine man’s dedication and devotion?
In Dr Nori’s telling, Sai Babaʼs teachings contain a gist of Indian religious scriptures, are simple and apply to everyone of every religion, caste, and creed. He elaborates, “Sai Baba did not preach or prescribe elaborate rituals. He says just have Shraddha (faith in God/devotion) and Suburi (patience) and you can lead a peaceful life. He would celebrate Hindu festivals as well as Muslim festivals. Universal love and universal peace make Babaʼs teaching all‑inclusive.”
Sai Baba’s appeal
Yes, there is something to Sai Baba’s appeal that over a hundred years of his passing in a small town named Shirdi in Maharashtra, temples with him as deity keep springing up spontaneously in India and abroad. Explains Dr Nori, “I tell my devotee friends, have you seen any church, where Hindus go and pray? No. Any mosque where Hindus or Christians go and pray? No. Sai mandir is where Christians come, Muslims come, Hindus come. Religions should not be an issue. It is bhakti, devotion that was promoted by Baba without even preaching. Just being in his presence makes you feel tranquil.”
This is how Dr Nori relates his own story of coming into Sai Baba’s orbit. “In the mid-1960s, during my medical school in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, I used to frequent Baba’s mandir there, which was probably the first in South India. It was on the banks of the River Tungabhadra. I used to find peace and tranquility there. I’d pray for good grades and my wish would be granted.
“Then, I started reading books about Baba. The more books I read the more I got attracted to his teachings. More so as his teachings are relevant for what is going on in the world today — teachings such as tolerance, universal love, oneness of God in all religions.”
So, when Dr Nori came to America and established himself as a top oncologist, he wanted to build a mandir for Sai Baba. But it took him a long time to realize his dream.
“Sai Baba of Shirdi performed miracles to bring you to focus on God. Divine beings do this not to show off but to bring you in God’s fold.”
~ Dr Dattatreyudu Nori
Founding America’s first Sai temple
The story of how he finally opened Americaʼs first Sai mandir in 2001 is no less than a miracle. Recalls Dr Nori, “I looked for a place for 10 years in New Jersey and New York without luck because the requirements were not met. So, one Thursday, Baba’s day. I challenged him in my morning prayer, ʻI am giving up. Maybe I am not the right person to build your mandir.’” At work, that day, a cancer patient he had cured came for a follow up. She turned out to be the owner of a real estate company. Dr Nori told her about the kind of place he was looking for. She suggested a place in Baldwin on Long Island. It belonged to Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service order. He acquired the property and transformed it into America’s first Sai temple.
Devotees started coming to the Baldwin temple from New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Boston and even Washington DC. Around 2007, on the pleas of devotees from faraway places, Dr Nori started work on the second temple in New Jersey. It was again a Knights of Columbus building in Iselin on Oak Tree Road, the little India. The Shirdi Sai Cultural & Community Center there was opened in 2008. “It is a huge project and has become like a pilgrimage place,” says Dr Nori. The temple undertakes many community welfare activities and promotes Baba’s primary principle of inter‑religious harmony and universal brotherhood.
Dr Nori says that his temples (the Baldwin temple has since moved to a bigger location in Plainview) have only an informal association with the Shirdi Sai Sansthan, which runs the Shirdi temple and complex in Maharashtra, which has become one of the worldʼs most visited pilgrimage sites. He adds, “I am also the chief scientific adviser for all Shirdi hospitals including the 1,000-bed hospitals in Ahmednagar and Loni. The Shirdi Board of Trustees are always supportive of our mandirs.”
Dr Nori insists that he takes no pride in the temples raised by the Nori Foundation USA Inc, started by him and his wife, Dr Subhadra Joshi. “Because without Babaʼs vision and blessing I could not have done it.”
Meaning of miracle making
Dr Nori often relates miracles in his life and those of other Sai devotees. I ask him about the message of miracles Sai Baba is known for, such as curing a leprosy patient, lighting lamps with water when oil could not be found. He explains, “Sai Baba performed miracles to bring you to focus on God. Divine beings do this not to show off but to bring you in God’s fold.”
Shraddha and Saburi are the crux of Baba’s teaching, as the two Hindi words are always emblazoned near Baba’s idol in every Sai temple. Is that all? Dr Nori clarifies, “Not really. Even Sai Baba encouraged devotees to read religious and spiritual books to improve their devotion to God. He used to ask them to read the Gita and Ramayana. With such study and concentration, the ideas to solve the problems will come to you. God can make miracles, but your faith and devotion in God will help.”
Baba’s teaching for you or your understanding of it depends on what spiritual level you are at, Dr Nori opines. “Doing puja, meditation and yoga can take you to higher levels, which will help to change the outcome of what you expected to some extent. Yet, for a wish to be fulfilled, the time has to be right. Sometimes what you want may not be what God has in store for you, or it may not be good for you in the long run. So, you must wait for the time when God wants something to happen for you.”
That the saint who had no name or wealth and who was always looking out for his devotees and doing miracles for the sake of bringing devotees to the divine path with love and made such a profound influence on millions of people in the world is not by chance, insists Dr Nori. “You do not become a devotee unless you feel the experience, feel Baba’s presence. Since I became a devotee, I have noticed changes in myself. It has brought tranquility to my mind.”
Ultimately, all the positive changes and blessings you receive are meant to take you to the source of divine life, concludes Dr Nori.
About Dr Dattatreyudu Nori
World-renowned oncologist Dr Nori has been bestowed Padma Bhushan award by India in the Medicine category. He is cancer expert with five decades of service, treating nine types of cancer. He has developed multiple new techniques for cancer treatment and helped establish cancer treatment centers in several countries. Earlier, in 2015 he was recipient of India’s Padma Shri award. In 2014, her received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which recognizes significant contributions by immigrants to the United States while maintaining their heritage.
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