Allah-Malik - Sabka Malik Ek – Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi

The moment one hear words like “Allah-Malik (God is the Master), Sabka Malik Ek (Everyone’s Master is One) and Shraddha –Saburi (Faith & Patience) in India, a thin figure of a Fakir (a religious ascetic) wrapped in a loongi (dhoti loosely tied over waist) & loose kurta (Shirt) (a Sufi clothing) torn at places appears in the minds. People all across the religions, revere him equally. His name is Sai Baba of Shirdi. Shirdi (शिर्डी), is a place located in Rahata taluka in Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra and has assumed a prominent place on the world map being the home of the late 19^th century Indian saint Shri Sai Baba and where he took mahasamadhi (final resting place). The place is considered as holy as the temple town of Pandharpur in Maharashtra where the temple of Vithala & Rukhmai (Lord Vishnu & Maa Laxmi) stands.

Sai Baba, as per the accounts of villagers, as a young boy of sixteen years age had arrived in the village Shirdi. He was usually found sitting under a Neem tree meditating and led an ascetic life. Where he was born? Who are his parents? Which religion he belonged” nobody in the village had any clue and the boy was also not encouraging to discuss such matters. Almost all the time he was meditating alone and practicing penance without minding the heat or cold. He was a young boy but from his talks and behavior, he was seen as a matured religious and very intelligent person. This attracted the curiosity of the villagers and religiously inclined people like Mahalsapati, Appa Jogle and Kashinath who used to visit him regularly.  He lived there for about three years and one day he disappeared from the village suddenly without leaving any trace about himself to reappears again around the year 1858. Accordingly, his year of birth is assumed to be the year 1838. The Neem tree where the young Sai Baba was meditating was considered by Baba himself as the final resting place of his Guru (teacher).

There is a story about Sai Baba appearance in Shirdi. The headman of a village called Dhoopkede in Aurangabad district in Maharashtra, Chandbhai, a Muslim had once lost his horse and was looking for it.  Chandbhai was tired. He suddenly heard a voice saying “You look tired. Come here Chandbhai and rest a while”. Chandbhai turned around and found a Fakir sitting under a mango tree. The Fakir called Chandbhai by his name and asked him to take a little rest under the tree. Chandbhai was surprised as how the Fakir could know his name! During course of the talks, Chandbhai had told the Fakir that he has lost his horse in the jungle and was frantically looking for it. The Fakir told him not to worry and told Chandbhai pointing towards a direction to look for the horse there. The Chandbhai had earlier searched all the places and did not believe in his mind that he would find the horse there. But, just out of curiosity, he went there and to his utter surprise, he found the horse peacefully grazing there. He caught hold of the horse and came back to the Fakir. By this time Chandbhai had realized that he was not an ordinary Fakir but a God realized soul, a true saint. Chandbhai asked the Fakir his name. To this the Fakir replied that some people call him Sai Baba. Chandbhai requested Sai Baba to accompany him and come to his village as a guest for a few days.  Baba accepted the invitation and next day reached Chandbhai’s village. There he saw everybody in joyous and festive mood. There was a marriage function of Chandbhai’s wife’s nephew. The bride was from village Shirdi. Chandbhai invited Sai Baba to accompany him in the marriage party. When they reached Shirdi, the marriage party had camped in a field next to the Khandoba’s temple. Sai Baba went to the Khandoba temple to pray and after seeing him there with a radiating saintly face, Mahalsapati, the head priest of the temple called him and said “Yaa Sai” in Marathi (come Sai, Sai-an ascetic elder personality) In Shirdi again, sai Baba stayed under the Neem tree for few days and later was advised by Mahalsapati to stay in the Masjid (Mosque) which was then called Dwarkamayi. Sai spent his time meditating and discussing spiritual truths among people. Sai Baba used to beg for food from house to house whenever there was a need and used to distribute the surplus food to needy by his own hands. He used to actively organize and take part in village festivals, like Diwali and Dussehra. His miraculous story about lighting the Diwali lamps in the Mosque by filling with water is famous when he was refused sharing oil by a shopkeeper for lighting the lamps.

Sai Baba while staying in Dwarkamayi used to orgainse spiritual discourse, Kirtan and Aarti (worship) and used to share the festivities, joy and grief of village people. He also used to perform numerous miracles to spread the message of God and convince people about His existence. He helped the communities to live in unity and harmony. He said “Sabka Malik Ek”, One God is the Master of all but people call Him by different names. He advocated people to follow their own religions, Hindu, Muslim or other religions and seek the ultimate truth.

One day a millionaire named Booty from Nagpur came to Sai Baba and said to Sai Baba that he wants to construct a stone building for Lord Shri Krishna adjacent to the Dwarkamayi. Sai Baba agreed and offered him full support to plan the building. However, before the building was completed Sai Baba fell very ill. He breathed his last on 15^th October, 1918. As per Sai Baba’s last wish, he was buried in this building. The building later came to be known as Samadhi Mandir. A beautiful shrine was built over it later. People from all across the country and abroad flock to Shirdi throughout the year to pay their homage to Shri Sai Baba.

Many people all over India and abroad claim that they experience blessings of Sai Baba even today if they prays to Baba with pure heart. With the ever increasing numbers of Baba’s devotees world over, numerous Sai Temples have also come up in various cities and town in India and abroad. The temple activities at Shirdi are managed by Saibaba Sansthan Trust. The trust records value in thousands of crores rupees as collection from the temple offerings. The trust spends money on various beneficial works for devotees and conducts various charitable works. Sometimes, it seems as a great irony that when Sai Baba lived, he used to wear torn kurtas whereas today after his mahasamadhi, the people offer huge money and gold at his feet in devotion.

Shri Sai Baba, all along his life preached the importance of self realization. He saw God in everyone and in every creature. His teachings focus around universal love for humanity, following moral code of love, forgiveness, helping others, charity, contentment, devotion to the God and Guru and achieving inner peace. He used to say to the people he is always with the people to help them and will remain with them even if he leaves his body. He gave great importance to the need of a true Guru to lead the blind men of this world to achieve emancipation. He had deep knowledge of religious scriptures. Shri Sai Baba's life and teachings are well documented in a book titled “Sai Satcharitra” by Shri Hemadpant in Marathi which was personally blessed by Shri Sai Baba. Subsequently SaiSatcharitra has been translated into a number of different languages and is available world over. Many movies have also been made on the life and times of Sai Baba in various Indian languages like Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. The famous “Shirdi Ke Sai Baba” a 1977 Hindi Bollywood movie featuring Manoj Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha, Sachin Pilgaonkar and Premnath is very popular.