01The fakir of Dwarkamai
Sai Baba came to Shirdi as a young man, by the usual account in the late 1850s with the wedding party of Chand Patil, and stayed. Nobody knew his birthplace or his parents; he never told. He lived in an old mosque that he called Dwarkamai, kept a fire burning there day and night, and gave its ash, udi, to all who came. He begged his food from five houses, spoke in parables, and taught two words above all: shraddha, faith, and saburi, patience. Hindus and Muslims alike sat with him; aarti was sung to him in his lifetime. Govind Raghunath Dabholkar, whom Baba named Hemadpant, recorded his life and sayings in the Marathi Shri Sai Satcharita.
02The wada that became a samadhi
A rich devotee from Nagpur, Gopalrao Buti, was building a stone wada in Shirdi meant to house a murti of Murlidhar, Shri Krishna. Before the murti could be installed, Sai Baba left his body on 15 October 1918, Vijayadashami, and his body was laid to rest in the central hall of that wada. Devotees say that Murlidhar received Sai there after all. In 1954 a life-size marble murti of Baba, carved by the Mumbai sculptor Balaji Vasant Talim, was installed above the samadhi. The Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust runs the shrine, a hospital, schools and one of the largest prasadalayas in the country, feeding tens of thousands every day. Ram Navami, Guru Purnima and Vijayadashami are the three great festivals.
The life of this place
- c. late 1850sSai Baba arrives in Shirdi, by the usual account with Chand Patil’s wedding party.
- 15 October 1918Sai Baba leaves his body on Vijayadashami; his samadhi is made in the Buti Wada.
- 1954The marble murti by Balaji Vasant Talim is installed.
Shirdi has its own railway station and airport. Kakad aarti is at dawn and Shej aarti late at night; Dwarkamai and Chavadi are a short walk from the samadhi.
