History of Shirdi Sai Baba Ji

Have faith and patience – I will be always with you wherever you are. Sai Baba Ji

Shri Sai baba of shirdi is treated as god of all. Shirdi is considered as a sacred place for hindus and muslims. In the recent past all religious people including orthodox Christians, zoroastrains started worshipping Sai Baba of Shirdi.

Childhood of Shirdi Sai Baba

1. Shri Sai Baba was born in the year 1835 to a Brahmin couple of Patri who was in the Nizam state of British India.
2. Where his parents handed over him to the fakir, when he was 5 years old, these were the words revealed by Baba in his last days. But the date of birth is still unknown to the world.
3. There are lots of communities who claim that Baba belongs to their respective communities but none of them are proven.

INTRODUCTION

Shri Sai baba of Shirdi is considered similar to the god by his devotees. Nowadays, we can find lot of small and big temples of Saibaba all over the world. This was happened due to the sincere bhakti and utmost faith kept by the devotees on Saibaba. During his lifetime, Saibaba had performed lot of miracles in the lives of his devotees, healed their diseases, played with the small children like their friends, got angry with the people like a small child, scolded his disciples like their affectionate mother, and hugged his devotees like their dearest father.

Still now, most of the Sai devotees, whenever they receive or if they make any call to anyone over their mobile phones, instead of telling Hello, they used to tell to them, as “SAIRAM”, Good Morning, “SAIRAM”, Good Evening, like that. This shows their sincerity over the Saibaba, and they express their love and affection on Baba in various forms. Some lonely people used to consider Saibaba as their near and dear one, and used to talk in front of his picture. Devotees are also making lot of donations to Shirdi Baba Temple, and the Saibaba Temple located at Shirdi is considered as one of the richest temples in India.

Shirdi is considered as a sacred place for Saibaba devotees, and Saibaba is liked by everyone, irrespective of their caste, creed, community and religion. Though he appeared like a Muslim Fakir, but he participated in the Rama Navami and Shiva Rathri festival Celebrations, and after the completion of puja, he himself served the Holy Prasad items on his own hands to the Shirdi people.

CHILDHOOD

It is believed that Shri Sai Baba was a born in the year 1835 to a pious Brahmin couple in Patri village, which was ruled by the then British Government.

At his young age itself, his parents were handed over him to a Muslim fakir, and it is believed that this information was told by baba himself during his final days. But still there are lot of controversies regarding his childhood, and about his date of birth.

LIFE AT SHIRDI

Sri Sai Baba visited Shirdi at age of 16 and as soon as he entered the village, he began to sit under a big Neem tree, and was doing severe meditation on the almighty. The People of Shirdi were very much surprised about the condition of Saibaba, since he was in deep state of meditation for several days even without taking food and water. A pious lady Bayajabai, who was the wife of the village head, felt pity on Saibaba, and she started serving food to Baba like his mother. Saibaba also considered her like his own mother, and he used to tell it to others also. Mahalspati, the disciplined priest, who served in the Khandoba Temple, considered Saibaba as a holy avatar of Lord Dattatreya, and showed great respect to him.

After meditating under the Neem tree for some years, Baba then began to reside in a mosque. He was visited by many Hindu and Muslim devotees. In the mosque, Baba made the holy fire to burn, and it is called as Dhuni. And Baba used to give the sacred ash to everyone who visits him. Still now, the holy ash acts as a good medicine for all types of health issues.

Due to the significance of Saibaba, more number of his devotees began to visit Shirdi, in order to get his darshan.

RELIGION

Baba accepted all the religions like Hinduism, Christianity and Muslim as alike, and he also behaved equally with everyone.

CHARITY

Baba was very much interested in doing charitable activities, and he felt lot of happiness while doing charity works. He insisted his devotees to serve food to everyone, in order to relieve their hunger. He used to provide food even to birds and animals and would call them affectionately by keeping pet names, and would talk with them like their dearest friend. According to him, bad karmas of the people would be removed from them only by doing good activities in their life. For some of his devotees, he has taken their own diseases on his body, and relieved them from their diseases. He is such a great saint, and he has incarnated in this earth in order to do goodness to the people.

DISCIPLES

Mahalsapati who served as a priest in the Kandoba temple was the sincere disciple and devotee of Saibaba.

Some of his disciples are Upasani maharaj of sakori, Nana Saheb Chandorkar, Ganapath Rao Sahasrabuddhe, Tatya Patil, Baija Mai Kote Patil, Abdul Baba, Madhav Rao Deshpande, Govindrao Raghunath Dabholkar,Mahalsapati Chimanji Nagare, RadhaKrishna Mai and they were considered as the best disciples of Saibaba, who had got the opportunity to move closely with the great saint.

MIRACLES

Sai baba performed many miracles during his life time, and still he is actively doing from his Samadhi Shrine at Shirdi. There are innumerable miracles performed by Shirdi Saibaba. People believe that reading his life history known as, Sai Satcharitha is a good remedy for all types of problems in their lives, and also the holy book acts as a best medicine to get a speedy recovery from the illness. This book is available in devotional book shops, Saibaba temples and also is available in the online platform.

Shirdi Sai baba also gave darshan to his sincere devotees in the form of Lord Rama, Krishna etc.

SAMADHI

During August 1918, Shirdi Sai Baba had informed to some of his followers, that he would be “leaving his physical body”. Likewise during the month of September, he had suffered from severe illness and he didn’t eat food.  He stopped breathing on 15th October 1918, which was supposed to a  Vijayadashami festival day. After he attains Samadhi, his mortal remains were kept in Shirdi, and a temple is also built, which is popularly known as Shirdi Sai Baba Temple.

Till today, lot of pilgrims are visiting the sacred Shirdi Temple, and they consider it similar to the holy Pandharpur and the sacred Kasi Viswanathar Temple. The Sai Baba temple in Shirdi is administered by Shri Sai Baba Sansthan Trust.

Sai Baba of Shirdi is mostly worshiped in the states of Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh,  Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, and also he is worshipped in some foreign countries. Most of his devotees used to keep a framed picture of Saibaba in their puja room, and also they would keep a small picture of Baba in their purses, bags and also in their pockets, as a token of expressing their love and affection on the great saint.

MOVIES

Some movies were also taken by the film producers, and those movies received good recognition from the public and from the Sai Devotees. These movies were taken in order to promote the “SAI BHAKTI” amongst the masses.