He popularized the saint in South India, and between the 1940s and 1960s held yearly conferences on Shirdi Sai Baba.Īccording to the Sai Satcharitra, the young Sai Baba led an ascetic life, stayed aloof from the people, and meditated under a neem tree day and night. The most influential is the Shri Sai Satcharitra, written in Marathi in 1916 by one of Baba’s devotees, Shri Hemand Pant Dabholkar, then adapted and translated into English by N. There are two main biographies of Shirdi Sai Baba. The experience of this devotional evening inspired us to look further into the life and present-day worship of this saint whose popularity is on the rise. It was a Thursday evening, and dozens of devotees had gathered for bhajan, worship, arati and prasadam before a life-sized statue of the saint that had been installed in this small Ganesha temple. Hinduism Today’s editors have long been aware of Shirdi Sai Baba’s popularity, and last year personally encountered the movement at the Sri Siddhi Vinayaka Cultural Center in Sacramento, California. There is no worldwide or even India-wide organization of devotees driving any of this-it is all at the inspiration of local devotees.
Shrines for the saint have been installed for worship both in Vaishnavite and Saivite temples in India and elsewhere. He has hundreds more temples not only in India but in the UK, Malaysia, Germany, France and the US. Today those who worship him number in the millions, and the Shirdi temple’s income is second only to Tirupati. During his lifetime, he gained a local following among Hindus and Muslims. The villagers called him Sai Baba, but the holy man was of unknown origin and even religion-he dressed like a Sufi, but his teachings were more Hindu than anything else. He returned again in 1858 and remained in Shirdi for the rest of his life. He took up residence under a neem tree, meditated almost continuously and remained for three years before leaving as unexpectedly as he arrived. According to the traditional account of his life, Shri Sai Satcharitra, he was an ascetic. In 1855 a young boy thought to be 16 years old arrived in the town of Shirdi. The great Maharastrian saint whose austere, miracle-filled life changed all who came in contact with him is attracting an ever-growing devoted following today
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