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SHIRDI SAI BABA

THE LORD
OFShirdi
HAPPINESS
Shirdi ccelebrates
elebrates tthe
he ssamadhi
amadhi
centenary ooff tthe
centenary he ssaint-fakir
aint-fakir wwho
ho
drew both
drew both HHindus
indus aandnd M uslims
Muslims
and hhealed
and ealed ttheir
heir bbodies
odies
aand
nd m inds
minds
 COVER STORY
SHIRDI SAI BABA

PTI

INNER CONNECT
Devotees offering prayers
to Sai Baba at the
Samadhi Mandir in Shirdi,
Maharashtra
h
48 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 21, 2018
 ALAMY

THE
LORD
OF
appiness
While strife in the name of religion torments the world, millions
of ardent devotees flock to Shirdi to sing praises of a saint-fakir
who preached oneness and attained samadhi a century ago
BY ANIRUDHA KARINDALAM/Shirdi  

OCTOBER 21, 2018 • THE WEEK 49

 COVER STORY
SHIRDI SAI BABA
sudden gust greeted us as we arrived
in Shirdi, the perennially busy pil-
grim town in Maharashtra’s Ahmed-
nagar district. The streets leading to
the shrine of Sai Baba were teeming
with devotees, some of them chant-
ing a simple mantra—Om Sai Namo
Nama, Jai Jai Sai Namo Nama—with
every breath they inhaled. At rows of
shops along the road, people stood
absorbed in selecting photographs
and statuettes of the saint-fakir who
attained samadhi in 1918. In the
scrum of the street, someone roughly
tapped me on the back, saying “Baju-
la vha [side please]” in Marathi. The
rustic in a hurry was leading a camel
carrying two foreign tourists on its
back. Hopping onto the pavement,
I nearly collided with three stray
dogs that were drinking milk from
pots kept by an old woman who sat
begging alms in front of a large pho-
tograph of Sai Baba. The dogs peered
at me calmly.
Up a narrow path to the Sai Baba
temple called Samadhi Mandir, a girl
was singing a devotional song on a
massive stage erected for the cente-
nary of the samadhi. The centenary
programmes, inaugurated by Pres-
ident Ram Nath Kovind a year ago,
will conclude on October 19. Passing
the stage, we joined the tail of a long
queue that snaked towards one of
the six gates of the temple, the line
moving and stopping in time with
the chime of puja bells emanating
from the temple.   the throng of chanting devotees, a
The devotees had come from far
50 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 21, 2018
and near to seek the blessing of their
god, who had lived here for years
like an eccentric mendicant under
a neem tree and in an abandoned
mosque. A god who, as a human,
ate from the same plate as stray
dogs, smoked chillum, wrestled with
pahalwans, wrested money from dev-
otees, threw tantrums and stones at
them, but healed their broken minds
and bodies. Many devotees avow that
he still heals. “Sai Baba came into my
life when I was very young,” said a
middle-aged woman called Sumitra,
who had come from Lucknow with
her friends. “I am surviving because
JANAK BHAT
of him. When I visit Shirdi, I feel
very active.” Sumitra lost her mother
recently. “I see my mother in Baba,”
she said.
Another woman, Reshmi Desh-
FOREVER GRATEFUL
pande, had come from Aurangabad,
Reshmi Deshpande's
home to the rock-cut caves of Ajanta husband received three
and Ellora. “Baba asked me to come transfer orders. "We believe
to Shirdi today, so I came,” she said. Baba cancelled my husband’s
Her husband, who works in the Ma- transfer orders, so that I can
harashtra tourism department, had come to Shirdi every week,”
received three transfer orders, all of said Deshpande (extreme left,
above). "I see my mother in
which were miraculously cancelled Baba," said Sumitra, who was
at the last minute. “We believe Baba bereaved recently (extreme
cancelled them for us, so that I can right)
come to Shirdi every week. Aurang-
abad is only 100km from here,” said
Reshmi.
Inside an enclosure in the Sama- themselves, kneeling, weeping and
dhi Mandir, a life-size idol of Baba shuddering. 
was furbelowed in a red shawl that A group of young priests sporting
covered even the head. Made of silky surplices performed aarti, while
white marble, the idol sat on a golden the devotees were guided, one by
chair befitting a king rather than a one, towards the idol. In front of the
fakir, and the eyes had an arresting idol is Sai Baba’s tomb—he was bur-
gaze, and the face was suffused with ied here. Two priests were engaged
empathy. The scent of fresh flowers in accepting flowers, garlands, fruits
in garlands permeated the air. Amid and shawls from the devotees and
returning the shawls after holding
couple from Tamil Nadu surrendered them close to the idol for a moment

JANAK BHAT
“Baba gave me darshan in my dreams.
I took a job in Pune to visit Shirdi often.”
SHIVAPRIYA KAUSHIK, IT professional
Baba
& Me
PRIYA DUTT
Congress MP
I lost faith in God when my
mother [actor Nargis] died.
I was only 13 then, and was
bitter about everything. It
was then that I bonded with
Sai Baba. My relationship
with him is something
special. He is my father,
grandfather, everything.
Some years ago my pet was
seriously ill. My pets are like
my own children. This one
was having surgery, and I
prayed to Baba. You won’t
believe me, I actually saw
Baba there at the hospital.
He told me, “Don’t you have
faith in me?”Immediately
after that, the doctor came
out and said the surgery was
successful. 
I believe your faith in the
Almighty should not be out
of fear. We live with so much
of fear. We forget the beauty
in the relationship that we
share with our gods. 
OCTOBER 21, 2018 • THE WEEK 51
 COVER STORY
SHIRDI SAI BABA

in mechanical movements. At the

end of the aarti, a priest bellowed on
a mike: “Sri Satchidananda Sadguru
Sainath Maharaj ki jai!” The devotees
repeated it with more fervour.  
A photograph of Sai Baba had been
kept on the tomb until the idol was
installed in 1954. The temple priest
Upendra Pathak recounted the daily
routine at the Samadhi Mandir: “The
temple opens at 4am and the idol is
bathed with hot water. The first of the
four aartis is performed at 5am. After
11pm, when the temple is closed, we
put a mosquito net around Baba.”
The idol is symbolically offered
breakfast, lunch and dinner, and its
clothes are changed four times a day,
before each aarti; its shawl and scarf
are more frequently changed. Baba is
adorned with a silver or gold crown
for aarti, and the tomb covered with
a white cotton sheet. Every morning,
the mosquito net is removed, Baba is
JANAK BHAT

woken up and incense is offered. A

glass of water is kept next to him. 
Hindu devotees believe that Baba
is an incarnation of the lord Shiva
or the lord Dattatreya. Thousands of
Muslims also venerate the fakir who
intoned the words Allah Malik all his
life and lived by the dictum Sabka
Malik Ek—meaning there is only
one God, a theological thread that
bound contemporary philosophers
who inspired social reformation in
several parts of India in the 19th cen-
tury. Muslim devotees see the Sufi
tradition in him, and Hindu devotees
worship him as they worship other
gods, some holding him more impor-
tant than any other god. Ardent faith
has made Shirdi the richest temple
in the country in terms of income,
after the Balaji temple in Tirupati in
Andhra Pradesh.
Around one lakh people visit
the Shirdi temple every day during
festivals. “Last year, more than 1.5
crore devotees visited Shirdi. This
year, in six months, we had about
1 crore people. We expect 2.5 to 3
crore devotees by the end of the
year,” said Rubal Agarwal, CEO of the
TEACHING ONENESS
A painting showing Sai Baba
and a close follower, the poet
Das Ganu, talking to devotees
in Shirdi
Shirdi Saibaba Sansthan Trust, which
administers the temple. “Donations
to the temple touch 0580 crore a year.
The expenditure is 0300 crore and the
profit 0280 crore.”  I am a firm believer in Sai Baba,” he
Agarwal said the trust had Rs
21,000 crore in bank deposits. “We
spend 0100 to 0200 crore every year
for the development of Shirdi,” she
said. “Around 030 lakh per month is
given to the municipal council.”   there, I have come across Sai Baba’s
Sadashiv Lokhande, MP from
Ahmednagar who is a Shiv Sainik,
said, “The town will develop further,
as per Baba’s vision.” Congressman
Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, leader
of the opposition in the legislative
assembly, has been the MLA from
Shirdi for the past 25 years. “Sai Baba
has blessed me all my life,” Patil said.
“If you stand in front of his idol in
Shirdi, you get an amazing experi-
ence. It is something you will not
experience anywhere else. Everyone
in my family, from my grandfather’s
time, has been a devotee of Sai Baba.” 
Nationalist Congress Party leader
Namdeo Kadam said he became a
Baba devotee when he was 11. “Now
I am 53. I hardly believe in God, but
said. “Different people have different
kinds of experience visiting Shirdi.
People across Maharashtra walk to
Shirdi from wherever they are. I have
visited Pakistan four times. Even
devotees. His popularity has no
boundaries.” 
Kadam recalled that Shirdi was a
small hamlet in his childhood. Patil
said it was after the Manoj Kumar
film Shirdi Ke Sai Baba (1977) that
Baba’s popularity increased. “In the

52 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 21, 2018

 1970s, only the local people visited
the temple,” he said. “Today, we
see people from all over the world
coming to Shirdi. I have seen many Baba
Muslim devotees in Shirdi, though in
fewer numbers than Hindus.” 
Sudhir Dalvi, who acted as Sai
& Me
Baba in the Manoj Kumar film, said
it was a challenge enacting the role.
He was then in his thirties and a
non-believer, too. “What attracted
me was the fact that Baba was a so-
cial reformer. I read a lot about him
before enacting the role and tried to
do whatever he had done. The par-
ents of our music director had seen
Baba walk and talk, and they told me
about his mannerisms.”
Dalvi was acclaimed for his perfor-
mance: “Even the great Manoj Kumar VIVEK OBEROI
told me that I look exactly like Sai Actor
Baba,” he said, beaming with pride. Sai Baba has been of a deep
He went on to act in many more films influence in my life and
and television serials. “But I will nev- my family’s life. In a world
er forget the experience of portraying filled with complexities, the
Sai Baba,” he said. “A part of Baba will tradition of worship in Shirdi
always be with me.”  is a sharp contrast, with its
openness and simplicity. Your
caste and community do not
matter. All that matters is
faith. This country needs to
invoke the spirit of Baba. 
When you look at his face,
there is a sense of everything
being fine. The more you
have faith, the more his
blessings on you. I have seen
people go to Shirdi crying,
and coming back happy.
PTI

“Baba’s life is an example of convergence of all

religions, castes and communities.
At Shirdi everyone feels some kind of connect.”
K.M. CHANDRASEKHAR, former cabinet secretary
ALAMY

OCTOBER 21, 2018 • THE WEEK 53

 COVER STORY
SHIRDI SAI BABA
Baba
& Me
JANAK BHAT
PRITHVIRAJ CHAVAN
D
Former chief minister
Sai Baba is a modern
phenomenon. People a
generation ago had interacted
with him and seen him walk
and talk. The interesting thing
about Sai Baba is that there
is no religious connotation
attached to him. People
belonging to all religions,
castes and creeds worship
him, though the rituals are
mostly from Hindu religion. I
am not a religious person. I
am not a huge follower of Sai
Baba. But I must admit that
one observes a comfort level
at Shirdi. Many who have
gone there have encountered
miracles.  to worship Sai Baba as he was just a
ALAMY
54 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 21, 2018
uring his lifetime, Sai Baba
cured many people of their
ailments, with a mere touch
or a look. He gave them udi, holy ash
from a fire he lit, as medicine and
prasad. The sacred fire still burns
at an old mosque by the side of the
temple, and udi from it is distributed
even today. He lived in a corner of
the mosque, which he called Dwar-
akamai, and the rock he sat on can
be seen there.
How could he call the mosque by
the Hindu name Dwarakamai, asked
the Shankaracharya of Dwarka,
Swaroopanand Saraswati, a few years
ago. He was appalled that Union
Minister Uma Bharti had announced
her devotion to Sai Baba. The
Shankaracharya asked Hindus not
Muslim fakir who ate meat.
No one knows for sure whether Sai
Baba was born Hindu or Muslim; he
walked the earth as an unpredict-
able mendicant who practised the
customs of both religions. There is no
authentic record of his birth, and he
made confusing statements about his
parentage. He told a close follower,
a temple priest called Mhalsapati,
that he was born to Hindu parents
but was given to a Muslim family. At
the same time, he told several others
UNTIRING SERVICE
Dr Ram Naik, thoracic
surgeon in Sainath General
Hospital, does 30 surgeries a
day. The hospital offers free
treatment for all
that a Muslim couple had left him in
the care of a Hindu guru. There is no
confusion, however, about the core
of his spiritual philosophy, which is
based on shraddha (faith) and saburi
(patience).
It is said that Sai Baba arrived in
Shirdi when he was 16. After three or
four years, he disappeared for a while
and then returned for good in 1860.
There are apocryphal stories that he
took part in the first war of independ-
ence in 1857, as an ordinary soldier
in the army of the rani Lakshmibai of
Jhansi.
Much of what the world knows
about Baba’s life has come from the
Marathi book Sai Satcharitra writ-
ten, at his command, by his follower
Govind Dabholkar under the pen
name Hemadpant.
Writes Hemadpant: “Sai Baba did
not mix and speak with people. He
only gave answers, when he was ques-
tioned. By day he sat under the neem
tree.... Baba’s paraphernalia consisted
of a chillum, tobacco, a tin pot, a long
kafni, a piece of cloth round his head,
and a satka (short stick), which he al-
ways kept with him. The piece of white
cloth on the head was twisted like
matted hair and it flowed down, from
the left ear, on the back. This was not
washed for weeks. He wore no shoes,
no sandals. A piece of sack-cloth was
his seat for most of the day.”  Navami and Eid.
K.M. Chandrasekhar, who was
cabinet secretary to prime minister
Manmohan Singh, has retraced his
footsteps to Shirdi many times since
his first visit, with his parents, in the
1960s. “My mother had discovered
a Sai Baba temple in Mylapore in
Chennai,” he said, “and I was attract-
ed by Baba’s words, ‘Why fear, when
I am here’.” He has visited many Sai
temples, the most fabulous of them in
the interiors of Sikkim, at Assanthang
in Namchi.
Chandrasekhar finds strong ele-
ments of non-duality in Baba’s teach-
ings, as in Sufism and Advaita. “To-
day, a lot of people are talking about
JANAK BHAT
“Faith in Sai Baba keeps me going.
I am confident that my son will be all right.”
SAVITA LONDE, with her son Sidharth Sachin, who has brain tumour
non-duality in different parts of the
world. Here is a man who preached
non-duality in the early 20th century,
when one considered one’s religion Baba
very important. His life is an example
of convergence of all religions, castes
and communities. At Shirdi, every
& Me
person, irrespective of his religion,
feels some kind of connect,” he said,
noting that Baba celebrated both Ram
Just outside the Samadhi Mandir is
the tomb of Abdul Baba, a confidant
of Sai Baba, who cared for him like a
father and made him recite the Quran
in his presence. “Allah sent Sai Baba
into this world for us,” said Abdul
Baba’s grandson Hamid Baba, who
manages the tomb today. “Sai Baba
tells his devotees to visit my grandfa- ANANDKUMAR
ther’s tomb as well.” They pray at the Filmmaker
tomb just as they pray at the Sama- I talk to Sai Baba all day. He
dhi Mandir. Legend has it that when is part of my life. Without
Abdul Baba arrived in Shirdi, Sai Baba him, I don’t exist. I don’t
exclaimed “Mera kauwa aaya (My know why, but all important
crow has come)” in sheer joy.  things happen to me on a
Next to Abdul Baba’s tomb is Lendi Thursday [Sai Baba’s day]. All
Baug, the garden that Sai Baba plant- five films I did were because
of him. I grew up in Delhi.
When I came to Mumbai,
the first thing I did was visit
Shirdi. I sat there, looked
at him and told him that he
should look after me like
a father in Mumbai. I have
my father in Delhi. And I
have another father close to
Mumbai, in Shirdi. 
ALAMY
OCTOBER 21, 2018 • THE WEEK 55
 COVER STORY
SHIRDI SAI BABA

ed and watered from a well he dug

there. Devotees believe the water dis-
pels ailments. Over the past few years,
Baba the garden has turned into a beautiful

& Me lawn with waterfalls and flower beds,

and the evenings are resonant with
devotional music in the air. 
The Sai Museum near Abdul Baba’s
tomb has preserved Sai Baba’s beg-
ging bowl, water pot and grindstone.
The upper part of the grindstone, his
followers say, represents bhakti and
the lower part represents karma. The
sins of one’s karma, they say, can be
ground finely by one’s bhakti.
Mohan Yadav, public relations
officer of the Sansthan Trust, said Sai

JANAK BHAT
Baba has devotees in 147 countries.
“We have 80 Sai temples in the United
States. In a Muslim country like Ma-
laysia, we have 22 temples. There are
RATI AGNIHOTRI nine Sai temples in Australia and six
Actor in the United Kingdom.” He said the to pay is ten rupees, for an OP card.
Baba is omnipresent in my Trust had no stake in other Sai Baba “Patients can buy medicines free of
life. He is in my happiness, temples: “It is the devotees who col- cost from our pharmacy. Surgeries
and in the highs and lows of lect money and build their temples. are also conducted free of cost,” said
my life. He is my constant The Trust only gives its blessings.”    Dr Maithille Pitambare, the medical
companion. The fact that A few kilometres from the temple, superintendent. 
you are talking to me on the Sainath General Hospital offers Opened in 1964, the hospital
a Thursday makes me so free treatment—all that a patient has moved to its present location in 2004
happy, because I feel Baba
connected me to you.
Thursday is Baba’s most
important day and every
Thursday he talks to me. 
Sai Baba is so human. You
can relate to him at a human
level. He is a friend, who is
there for you always. I have
a life-size statue of Baba in
my home. He gives answers
FOTOCORP

to all my questions, even the

most inane questions. I talk
to him 500 times a day.
“Even the great Manoj Kumar told me that I
look exactly like Sai Baba.
I will never forget the experience
of portraying Baba.”
SUDHIR DALVI, who acted in the Hindi film Shirdi Ke Sai Baba

56 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 21, 2018


UNIFYING FORCE
The tomb of Abdul Baba, next
to the Samadhi Mandir. “Sai
Baba tells his devotees to
visit my grandfather’s tomb
as well,” said Hamid Baba
and attends to 1,000 patients a day.
“We have patients coming from Mar-
athwada and Vidarbha regions,” said
Pitambare. There are 300 beds for
in-patients, and a free bus service to
pick up and drop off the bystanders.  “That is how I came here,” he said.
Huge portraits of Sai Baba adorn
every corner of the hospital. “All the
doctors here worship Sai Baba,” said
Pitambare. “It was not as if we were
forced to believe in him. Once we
started working, we realised how
important Sai Baba is in our lives. He
keeps us going.”  palpable at the Prasadalaya, the
It is faith that keeps Savita Londe
going, too. Her five-year-old son,
Sidharth Sachin Londe, was di-
agnosed with brain tumour two
years ago, and surgery is due soon.
“I am confident that he will be
all right,” said Savita, who is from
Mumbai, “because we have Baba’s
blessings.” Afrina Amid Sheikh, a
24-year-old expectant mother in the
Baba
& Me
SURESH WADKAR,
Playback singer
Before I start singing, I
gynaecology ward, exuded the same remember Baba, my mother,
confidence. “I feel Baba is looking af- father and sister. Baba
ter me,” said Afrina, whose husband gives me strength. I could
is a labourer in a sanitary napkin
sing properly and win so
factory in Ahmednagar. many awards only because
Dr Ram Naik, the hospital’s thorac- of Baba. Whatever I asked
ic surgeon, does 30 surgeries a day. from him, he gave me
He starts work at 8am and winds up lavishly. When I am disturbed
at 2am. “It has been 16 years since and remember him, he
I joined the hospital,” said Naik. helps me. I always feel his
He had plans to serve in the Army,
presence while travelling.
which required that he work as a
Recently, I was travelling
general practitioner for six months.
through a jungle, and
suddenly I felt his presence
“But I did not go back.”
there. It was as if he came
Naik said he did not feel tired
and hugged me.
working 18 hours a day. “I feel some-
body else is doing half the work for
me,” he said, looking at a portrait of
Sai Baba. 
Untiring energy and devotion were
dining hall that serves free food to
70,000 people every day. Built on 7.5
acres and opened in 2009, the dining
hall is said to be the largest in Asia. It
ALAMY
can seat 6,000 people at a time and is
open from 10am to 10pm. The San-
sthan Trust spends about 015 crore
annually on running the Prasadalaya.
The kitchen has 30 paid workers,
who have help from volunteers,
OCTOBER 21, 2018 • THE WEEK 57
 COVER STORY
SHIRDI SAI BABA

but much of the work is done by

machines like the one that makes
21,000 chapattis in an hour. There are
huge vegetable cutters, rice washing
machines and a grain grinding unit.
The entire kitchen is run on solar
power, and the vegetables, bought
from local farmers, are stored at 10
to 14 degrees Celsius. “We have a
lab where quality assurance is done
before food is prepared,” said the
superintendent Vishnu Thorat.
There is a separate section for
making laddoos for the temple. The
Shirdi laddoo is known for its unique
taste. “We have maintained the taste
of the laddoo. The demand is so
much that we have restricted it to two
packets per devotee,” said Prakash
Kothale, who is in charge at the lad-
doo section. Around 20,000 packets
of laddoos are sold every day at the
temple, and 50,000 packets of boondi
are given free to devotees.
Food from the Prasadalaya is also
served at the Sai Ashram, which has
more than 1,500 rooms for visitors.
Built on 14 acres with an amphithe-
atre that can seat 1,000 people, the
Ashram charges 0500 a day for an
air-conditioned room and 0200 for
an ordinary room.
The Ashram is so popular that it
has cut into the profits of the hotel
industry in Shirdi, which has 300
star-rated hotels. “I don’t think that
is completely right. Many devotees
prefer the star hotels,” said K.V. Ram-
ani, 68, a Chennai-based industrialist
and co-founder of Nasscom, who do-
nated 0112 crore to the Shirdi temple
trust seven years ago for building the
Ashram.
Ramani became a Baba devotee 40
years ago when a relative of his fell ill.
“I kept visiting temples and praying
for him. Suddenly, Sai Baba ap-
peared before me,” said Ramani. He “We have helped in building 450 Sai
later formed the Shirdi Sai Trust in
Chennai, sold two of his companies temples in India.”
and put 80 per cent of the money K.V. RAMANI, co-founder of Nasscom, who donated Rs 112 crore to
into the trust. “We have helped in the Shirdi temple trust to build rooms for visitors
building 450 Sai temples in India,” he
said. The trust, he said, gave scholar-

58 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 21, 2018


SACRED PATH
Sai Baba’s padukas (foot-
wear) being taken in a pro-
cession during Gurupoorni-
ma celebrations
ships to 3,000 students and medical
help to 40,000 people a year.  Not every devotee who can afford
On one of his visits to Shirdi,
Ramani saw poor devotees sleeping
on the floor, as the guest house of the
temple trust, Bhakth Nivas, was over-
crowded. “It was then that I thought
of donating an ashram for devotees,
where they can stay at a nominal
rate.” He has also donated ambulanc-
es, buses and medical equipment
to the trust, and has been donating
80 per cent of his earnings to his Sai
Trust in Chennai.
Shirdi’s economy is dependent
on the temple and its visitors, and
there is an air of harmony all around.
“Shirdi is a peaceful town,” said the
police inspector Arvind Mane. “Yes,
it gets very crowded at times. But,
thankfully, there has never been any
Baba
major law and order issue here. There
are a few cases of theft once in a while,
that’s just about it.” 
Devotees say Sai Baba appears in
& Me
their dreams and gives them advice
on mundane matters. They serve him
by doing Sai Seva (social work) and by
following his philosophy. Many of the
faithful donate part of their income
to the Sansthan Trust every month.
A few have made Sai Baba their busi-
ness partner and send half the profit
to the Trust. 
The family of Santosh Ghade sur-
rendered 18 acres for the airport in
Shirdi, happily accepting 03 lakh an
acre as compensation from the De-
SUBHASH BHAMRE
Union minister 
vendra Fadnavis government. “It was
not a loss for us,” Ghade said. “The I don’t believe in miracles,
land was for Baba. So none of us had but I like Baba’s simplicity.
an issue giving it away.” Besides the Each time I went to Shirdi,
compensation, Ghade got a licence to I felt a sense of belonging
run a cab between the airport and the there. Baba has shown
temple. He drives the cab himself. people how to lead their
Situated 15km from the temple, lives. People have to be
the 1,300-acre airport is owned by harmonious and do their
duties selflessly.  
the Maharashtra Airport Develop-
ment Company, which built it at a
cost of 0350 crore, of which 050 crore
was contributed by the temple trust.
Opened a year ago, the airport has
flights to Mumbai, Delhi and Hyder-
abad and will soon be linked to  Ben-
galuru, Indore and Chennai.  
air travel would take a plane to Shirdi.
Vanam Chandromouli, a business-
man, walks every year from Chennai
to fall at Baba’s feet. “The first time, I
walked alone. Now a number of peo-
ple walk with me. It takes us a month
to cover 1,460km from Chennai to DILIP VENGSARKAR
Shirdi,” he said. “I had some financial Former cricketer
problems in 2016, but after visiting I get good vibes in Shirdi and
Shirdi, everything turned out fine. have visited the temple a few
Some miracle happens to us after we times. In most temples you
visit Shirdi.” get peace, and at Shirdi it is
Another devotee, Sona Sethi, of no different. People who go
Pitampura in Delhi, flew in. “I always to Shirdi have strong faith
wanted a Sai Baba temple close to
in Sai Baba and go there
where I stay. I was not in a position to
frequently.  
come to Shirdi that often,” she said. “I
kept requesting Baba to come close
OCTOBER 21, 2018 • THE WEEK 59
 COVER STORY
SHIRDI SAI BABA
to me. And, you will not believe,
recently, a Sai Baba temple was built
in Pitampura. From my room, I can
hear the aarti at the temple.”
Shivapriya Kaushik, an IT employ-
ee from Chennai, became a Baba
devotee while in school. “He gave
me a darshan in my dreams,” said
Kaushik, who was on her 363rd visit
to Shirdi. An MTech from Vellore
Institute of Technology, she accepted
a placement offer from Tata Motors
in Pune, only to make frequent visits
to Shirdi. She said she was active in
social causes and would donate her
kidney to the temple trust. 
Most devotees would relate
amazing stories of miracles that
Baba worked in their lives. Abu
Dhabi-based orthopaedist Dr K.
Gangadharan, who took a flight to
Shirdi the day the airport opened,
said he became a devotee after a
whitish patch appeared on the face
of someone very dear to him. He
took her to a paediatrician and then
a dermatologist, both of whom said
it was leucoderma. “They gave us
tablets and told us not to expose her
to sunlight,” he said.
Days later, he saw a picture of Baba
at a friend’s car workshop. “He gave
me a Baba necklace and told me not
to worry,” Gangadharan said. “We
continued the medicine, but prayed
to Baba and visited Shirdi after six
months. When we returned to Abu
Dhabi I found, much to my astonish-
ment, that the white patch had disap-
peared from my dear one’s face.”
Chandrasekhar, the former cabinet
secretary, spoke of a miracle of a
different kind. He said, “To me, the
real miracle is that a personage who
never left the confines of Shirdi and
its neighbouring villages, who never
accumulated money except to give
it away, had no possessions, created
no institution, wrote no book and
begged food, left such a powerful
impact that a hundred years after his
death millions of people still flock to
what was once a dusty little nonde-
script village in Maharashtra.”
60 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 21, 2018
■ GUEST COLUMN
By Vishwarath Nayar
The Sai gospel
SAI BABA shed his mortal coil in
Shirdi on the auspicious day of Duss-
hera on October 15, 1918. His life
and teachings are documented in the
book Sai Satcharitra by Annasaheb
Dabholkar, who wrote under the pen
name Hemadpant. This scripture is
an interesting blend of philosophy,
anecdotes and vedantic wisdom.
Baba’s universal message of faith
(shraddha) and patience (saburi)
and his emphasis on Advaita (non-
duality) make the book eternally
relevant. His sojourn on this planet
was for neutralising the divisive
forces of communalism unleashed
by the colonial rulers. Baba is
more relevant today than ever, as
communities are intolerant and lack
forbearance.
Dabholkar, who had retired as res-
ident first class magistrate in Bandra
in 1916, was inspired to write about
his experiences with Sai Baba after he
saw Baba grinding wheat in the quern
and asking people to throw the flour
at the border of the Shirdi village to
ward off a cholera epidemic in 1911.
He watched the various divine acts
of Baba and listened keenly to the ex-
periences of others. He jotted down
all these, as Baba had instructed, and
commenced penning the book at his
Nayar is a senior journalist based in Navi Mumbai
residence in Bandra in 1922. He was
at that time a member of the Shirdi
Sansthan Management Board.
After completing a few chapters in
Marathi verse, he took them to Ram-
chandra Atmaram, alias Babasaheb
Tarkhad, who was so impressed that
he contributed 0500 and decided
to serialise it in a monthly maga-
zine from April 1923. Thus Shri Sai
Leela, the Shirdi Sansthan’s official
magazine, commenced publication.
Dabholkar wrote 52 chapters and
died on July 15, 1929. Balasaheb Deo
completed the 53rd chapter that
summarised the book and published
it as a holy text in 1930. The book has
9,309 verses.
It was S.N. Kharkar, who was editor
of Shri Sai Leela, who persuaded
Nagesh Vasudev Gunaji to undertake
an English translation. It was pub-
lished in 1944. The book has since
been translated into a dozen other
languages.
Sai devotees consider it their
gospel and refer to it as Pothi or
Granth. There is a room in the Shirdi
shrine exclusively for its ritualistic
reading. During festivals such as Ram
Navami, Gurupoornima and Baba’s
Punyatithi, the Granth is reverentially
taken around the town.
 ■ INTERVIEW

TEMPLE OF FORTUNE
Shirdi has the second highest
income of all temples in India
(behind the Balaji temple,
Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh)
Suresh Haware
Chairman, Shri Saibaba
Sansthan Trust
0580 crore per year
Donations

0300 crore per year Science needs faith

Expenditure
BY ANIRUDHA KARINDALAM

021,000 crore
Fixed deposits in banks
1,00,000
Visitors every day during festivals
A FORMER nuclear scientist, Suresh Haware quit his job at the
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai to run his family’s realty
business and later entered politics and contested elections as a BJP
candidate. The Fadnavis government made him chairman of the Shri
Saibaba Sansthan Trust in 2016 and, in June this year, accorded him
the rank of minister of state. Excerpts from an interview with Haware:

1.5 crore+
Visitors in 2017
0100-0200 crore a year
Aid to Shirdi municipal council
050 crore
Contribution to build Shirdi
airport
2,000+
Shirdi Sai Baba temples
around the world
450
Temples are outside India.
80 in the US; 22 in Malaysia; 9
in Australia; 6 in the UK
How relevant are the teachings of
Sai Baba today?
The essence of the teachings of Sai
Baba is shraddha (faith) and sa-
buri (patience). Faith and patience
are of utmost importance to every-
one. Nothing comes instantaneously
in life. You should have faith and
patience in everything you do. Baba’s
fundamental teaching is: Sabka Ma-
lik Ek Hain. His teachings of brother-
hood are very important today. Baba
preached community service and
that is what we need the most. Baba
talked about swachatha then. We
follow that here. We should nurse the
needy people and take care of them.
The centenary celebrations are
concluding this month. What was
planned over the past few months?
It was a five-point programme. We
had religious programmes during
Dussehra, Guru Purnima, Ram
Navami. Then there was the social
part, the health camps. There were 10
health camps every month. 
After that was the paduka darshan.
We took Baba’s footwear to each and
every district of Maharashtra and to
all states in the country. Thousands
of people worshipped it. Cultural
programmes were held across the
nation. At Shirdi, we organised cul-
tural events every day. Last, we had
discourses by important people.
Sai Baba is known for miracles. You
were a nuclear scientist. How do
science and faith match?
Devotees have faith in Baba. I believe
miracles were performed by Baba.
There are limitations of perception
and common sense of human beings.
Everyone has the right to believe or
not to believe in God. Science has its
own faith. There are certain things in
science which cannot be explained

OCTOBER 21, 2018 • THE WEEK 61

 COVER STORY
SHIRDI SAI BABA
JANAK BHAT
DIVINE TOUCH
Devotees queue up in
front of Sai Baba’s portrait
outside Samadhi Mandir in
Shirdi
by human beings. Like solar system.
Science says it was formed due to
Big Bang. If you believe in Big Bang,
[I would say] science demands
repeatability of a process. If 2 + 2 =
4, it should always be 4. Nobody can
reproduce Big Bang.  to 60,000 to 70,000 people every day.
There is no conflict, as far as I am
concerned. Science needs faith as a
fundamental path. 
Sai Baba is revered by Hindus and
Muslims. Do many Muslim devo-
tees visit the temple?
There is no conflict. Baba had chosen
his own rituals. There were disputes
62 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 21, 2018
after he attained samadhi. But they
were solved amicably. Not just Mus-
lims, even Christians and Sikhs come
to Shirdi. In Malaysia, which is a
Muslim country, we have 22 temples.
Sai movement is the largest religious
movement in the world.   that has 1,500 rooms for pilgrims
How are the donations utilised?
All the money goes to welfare activ-
ities. We have two major hospitals,
where services are free of cost. The
Prasadalaya gives food free of cost
More than 3 crore people take food
from there every year. 
You now have an airport in Shirdi.
It is very useful. Night landing facility
will be installed in Shirdi soon. We
will have flights from Bengaluru and
Chennai. We gave 050 crore for the
construction of the airport.  Chennai
BEYOND RELIGIONS
Hindu devotees believe that Sai
Baba is an incarnation of Lord Shi-
va or Lord Dattatreya. Thousands
of Muslims also venerate the fakir
SOLDIER TO SAINT?
There are apocryphal stories that
Sai Baba took part in the first war
of independence in 1857 as a sol-
dier of Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi
IN POPULAR CULTURE
It was after the Manoj Kumar film
Shirdi Ke Sai Baba (1977) that Sai
Baba became more popular. The film
starred Hema Malini, Sudhir Dalvi,
Manoj Kumar and Shatrughan Sinha
GENEROUS IN FAITH
K.V. Ramani, 68, a Chennai-based
industrialist and cofounder of
Nasscom, donated 0112 crore to the
Shirdi temple trust to build an ashram
PILGRIMAGE VIA AIR
The Shirdi airport, opened a year
ago, has flights to Mumbai, Delhi
and Hyderabad and will soon be
linked to Bengaluru, Indore and
 COVER STORY
SHIRDI SAI BABA
■ GUEST COLUMN
By Shamshaad Ali Baig
Unification of faiths
SAI BABA said, “I pull my devotee as
one pulls a sparrow with a string tied
to its legs.” It is purely on Baba’s lov-
ing call that a devotee reaches Shirdi
or starts revering him.
Baba treated everyone alike. He,
like saint Kabir, worked for Hin-
du-Muslim unification. He said,
“Sabka Malik Ek” (God is one), and
taught people to love and respect
all. Whether a devotee is a Hindu,
Muslim, Sikh, Parsi or Christian, they
have found a place in Baba’s loving
fold.
Baba lived in a takia (resting place
for fakirs), and later in a mosque and
a chavadi. He called the mosque
Dwarakamai. This could possibly
have a reference to Dwarka of the
lord Krishna. ‘Mai’ means mother.
In Dwarakamai, he kept the dhuni
(fire) alit. The clanging of bells,
blowing of the conch, offering of rice
in the dhuni, bhajan and distribution
of food (anna-daan) were some of
the rituals at Dwarakamai. Baba also
nurtured a beautiful Tulsi Brindavan
there.
A family of devotional singers from
Chennai—a man, his wife, daughter
64 THE WEEK • OCTOBER 21, 2018
and sister-in-law—on hearing that
Baba was magnanimous towards
artistes, halted in Shirdi in 1916 to
perform in front of Baba. They were
of the Ramadasi sect. Only the wife
was devout, the rest were greedy.
Seeing her devotion, during a noon
aarti, Baba gave her darshan in
the form of lord Ram. Tears rolled
down her face and she clapped
with happiness. Others did not
understand why she was so joyous,
as they could not see Ram.
Later in the afternoon, she
narrated her experience to her
husband. But he said she must have
conjured up the image of Ram. At
night he had a strange dream: He
was in jail in a big city and Baba
was standing outside his cell. He
cried out, “On hearing of you, I
came to you. Why then am I in jail?”
Baba replied that it was his karma.
The man reasoned, “The karma
should have been destroyed in your
presence like dry grass near fire.”
Baba asked him whether he had
strong faith. The man then heard
Baig is an author, healer and intuitive guide
a loud thud and saw a policeman
on the floor, bleeding profusely.
Frightened, he begged Baba, “There
is no saviour except you. Please save
me.”
The man then saw himself
standing next to Baba outside jail. He
fell at Baba’s feet. Baba asked him,
“Is there any difference between this
namaskar (salutation) and the earlier
ones?” The man replied, “Earlier the
namaskars were offered with greed
for money. But, now it was offered
to you as God. Earlier I had no faith
in you; I bore a grudge, because I
thought you were a Muslim and were
harming Hindus.”
Baba asked him, “Don’t you have
devotion towards Muslim deities?”
The man said, “No.” Then Baba
asked, “Don’t you have the panja
(iron hand representing five holy
men) at home, which you worship
in taboot (bier)? You also propitiate
Kaad Bibi (a deity worshipped by
some Muslims) during weddings and
other festive occasions.”
The man said, “Yes.” Baba asked
him what more he wished. The man
expressed a desire for the darshan of
his guru, Saint Ramadas. Baba asked
him to turn around, and when he
did, he saw Ramadas in front of him.
The man woke up and realised the
profoundness of his dream.
Baba had disciples from all
religions. Of the many, Nanavali
and Abdul Baba have their mortal
remains enshrined in Shirdi.
Baba is worshipped ritualistically
according to Hindu traditions. In
spite of it, devotees of different faith
visit Shirdi. Even today, Ram Navami
and Urs are celebrated together in
Shirdi, with Baba’s blessings.
Baba stood for oneness. He is
the epitome of love, support and
compassion. Hence, even 100
years after he left his physical form,
he comes running at the call of a
devotee.