India has always been a land of spirituality and it has been blessed to be the land of birth of a number of saints and elevated souls that walked the earth. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Saibaba of Shirdi, Swami Chinmayananda, Mata Amritananda mayi etc; are a few of the prominent modern day saints that India has produced.

The advent globalisation has the world shrink like never before and become a much smaller place. Indians heartily embraced this phenomenon and set sail to distant lands. The great Indian Diaspora can now be seen in over 150 countries across the globe.

The saying goes “You can take a man out of India but you can’t take India out of a man”. Be they the indentured laborers that the British took to work on the rubber plantations in Malaysia or the “Girmitiyas” of Fiji, regardless of who they were and under what circumstances they left the shores of the motherland, Indians have always carried with
them two things that they hold extremely dear-Their distinctive food and their spiritual/religious traditions.

Indian cuisine like the Indian Curry, Roti, Dosa, Idli, Saambaar, Chicken Tikka etc; have for long tickled the taste buds of a global clientele. So much so that items like the curry have been adopted by the British as their very own.  A quick glance across Auckland is testimony of the ever increasing popularity of the Indian Cuisine.


By the same token the fairly large number of temples and other places of worship are a testimony of the Indians’ penchant for taking their religious traditions with them to foreign lands.

On a balmy afternoon in February of 2007 a group of friends sat chatting in an Auckland
suburb. All of them incidentally were ardent devotees of Shri Saibaba of Shirdi. Gradually the conversation veered to religion and spirituality when one of them lamented the absence of a Saibaba temple in New Zealand. One thing led to another and before long an anonymous donation of a reasonably large sum found its way into the hands of one of the devotees. That was catalyst enough to charge the group and the Shri Shirdi Sai Sansthan of New Zealand Inc. of New Zealand took off literally on a wing, a prayer and an anonymous doner!

The group then started meeting every Thursday at devotees’ residence for satsangs. Soon the gathering out grew the homes of the humble devotees and the Satsangs were then shifted to a number of places like the Bharitiya Mandir, Balmoral Temple etc. Currently the weekly satsangs are being held at the Mount Roskill war Memorial Hall on May
road.

The sansthan’s objectives primarily are to propagate the teachings of Sai Baba of Shirdi;

To serve the community at large in meaningful ways that would add value to both individuals as well as the community. To promote spirituality and foster community spirit and expose our children to the rich cultural and spiritual traditions of India. The sanstnan also conduct aarti’s at devotees residence.

With the quantum growth in devotees at the weekly satsangs the need to have a dedicated temple for Saibaba was felt and a concentrated effort to build the temple has begun with the purchase of a plot of land for the purpose at brick street in Henderson.The sansthan also has spread their wings beyond Auckland and have conducted aartis successfully at
Pukekohe,Tauranga,Hamilton & Wellington.

Interested persons may visit their website: www.shirdisaibaba.org.nz or contact the sansthan at Secretary@shirdisaibaba.org.nz

To lend in New Zealand, the banks need to borrow from offshore markets. The long term money costs more to borrow than for short term. ANZ is charging 5.50% fixed for 12 months and 7.50% fixed for 60 months. It is offering 4% on term deposit of 12 months and 6% on term deposits of 60 months (Rates for deposits in excess of $10000 as on 10th May 2009).

Rates of different banks may vary a little but my point is that the difference in deposit and lending rates is same i.e. 1.5% in both the cases. Assuming that the banks are offering same deposit rates here in New Zealand as is their offshore borrowing cost, it is clear that it costs more to banks to borrow for long term. Basically there are two
reasons for this.

First, international investors are expecting the inflation to pick up when economies pick up. The interest rates in that scenario will move up. Second, the risk premium for longer term is always higher. In difficult economic conditions, few people want to commit funds for long term and those who are committing for long term want higher returns. In future, the risk of long term rates moving even higher is there, particularly when the economy picks up and there is more demand for funds from all quarters.

As stated in the last issue, consumers should consider all pros and cons before fixing the term of their mortgage. For larger loans, split policy i.e. fixing some portion for shorter term or leaving the same on floating and fixing the rest for long term will be advisable.