Start of the worship of Sai Baba

Soon after the first miracle of Sai Baba that of lighting the lamp wicks soaked in water, was noticed by the villager’s of Shirdi. The pagal (mad) Fakir was was visited by many. Not because of His miraculous powers, but the compassion that goes along with. The miracles of  Sai Baba, were and are never meant for amusement purpose or for the display of powers. They happened purely for compassion. The compassion that Sai Baba had for the devotees and human kind. The miracles are for guiding the devotees on the path of spirituality, truth and bringing an end to the miseries created by devotees own deeds present or past.

Before this Mahalsapati and his two friends Tukaram Darji and Appa Bhil were the only trio that used to recognize Baba’s divinity and worship Him. Now other people also started flocking to the divine compassionate Dwarkamai and start worship of Sai Baba, with waving of lamps, pouring of flowers and colored rice over Sai Baba’s head, offers of fruit, sandal, money, camphor, attar etc. This was resisted much by Sai Baba, to the point that Sai Baba would get angry and throw away the dish containing articles to worship Him.

But then owing to the love and devotion of devotees he allowed them. Sai Baba in the beginning was much known as a Muslim Sufi Fakir. A Muslim devotee once was thinking about the Hindu ways of Worship that Sai Baba accepted was against Islamic rules. Sai Baba the instant knower of everybody’s thoughts looked at him and said, “Jaisa desh, vaisa bhesh.” , which meant do as Romans, while in Rome. Baba further said that He himself was devotee of Allah. But if Hindus were pleased with the devotion to God in their own way, there was no need to stop them.

All that is needed is devotion of heart, the ways of Worshiping Sai Baba or the Divine Infinite One “Sabka Malik Ek” does not matter much.

When ever we worship that One indivisible, infinite and formless divine, much love towards the divine is needed. The intensity of love, is what that matters most. When saints, sages and avataras are worshiped it the divinity in them that is worshiped. The real lovers and worshipers see and feel the divinity in idols and pictures. For others, they appear just dead statue.

read more articles on Sai Baba's earlier years in Shirdi

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Contemporary devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba.

Please note : clicking on the image of the devotee with the link will take you to the blog post with stories of that particular devotee of Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi! As the blog develops all the pictures will be linked to comprehensive collection of stories of these devotees from this blog and Shirdi Sai Baba.

Most that we know about the life and stories of Sai Baba is from the contemporary devotees of Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi.

Those many devotees and non devotees who were graced by Shri Sat Chit Anand Sai Baba. Many of those were fortunate to spend much time with the embodied Sai Baba and witness and be part of Sai Baba's divine play.

Ganesh Shrikrishna Khaparde used to mantain a diary of daily events that occurred in his life, along with the date. His long stay in Shirdi has also been recorded and Shri G. S. Kaparde dairy has also been published by Shri Saibaba Sansthaan Shirdi. Hari Sitaram Dixit ( known as Kaka Saheb Dixit) and Langda Kaka as lovingly called by Sai Baba, also wrote a diary of many leelas (divine play) that happened with him and other devotees. The diary was published in the Sai Leela magazine in the early 1920's.

There is a wonderful book called Sai Vaani written by a dedicated devotee Vinny Chitluri. Many leelas and parables told by Saibaba recorded in 'The Dixit Diary' have been written in this book, which is a great gift to all Sai Baba devotees from the autor and the hard work she put for the same with the grace and divine love of Sai Baba.

Below are the pictures and names (Links to the name follows to the page or post containing to the stories related with that particular devotee.

Also Sai Baba lovingly called many devotees by the pet names he gave to them which had also a deep meaning. The name which were given by Baba are given in ( ). While female devotees were usually called as 'Mai' (mother) Or Tai (sister) or Bai or Mousi with respect.

please note : clicking on the image of the devotee with the link will take you to the blog post with stories of that particular devotee of Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi!

Madhavrao Despande (Shama) (Shamya)

Shri Abdul Baba ( Halalkar)

Anna Babre

(Hemad ) Govind R. Dabholkar

Bala Saheb Dev (Chindi Chor )

Baijabai Kote

Appa Kulkarni

Bhagoji Shinde

Balasaheb Mirikar Bhau Dhumal (Bhau)

Dadasaheb Khaparde (Bapusaheb Tapsun Dada)

Bhaumaharaj Kumbhar

Chotubhaiya Paralkar

Dadasaheb Purandare

Damodhar Rasne

Dasganu

Gopalrao Bapusaheb Buti (Buttyaa)

Justice Awasthi

Kakasaheb Mahajani

Kashiram Bala Shimpi

Laxman Mungi

Laxman Nulkar

Laxmibai Shinde

- - Bhagt Mhalsapati Stories
------------Mahadev Sapatnekar---------Megh Shyam Rege------------Mhalsapati

- -
-----------Moreshwar Pradhan---------------Nanasaheb Chandorkar-----------Nanasaheb Kharkar

- -
------------------Nanasaheb Rasne----------------Nandu Marwadi--------------Parvatabai Sapatnekar

- -
---Pillai (Andhoji Pillai)-------------------Radhakrishna Swami------------Rajubhaiya Naik

Sagun Meru Naik (Naik Takki(deceiver))

Ramakrishna Walkar

Sadubhaiya Naik

Tatyakote Patil (Kothayacha Godmukhya)

Swami Sharananand

Sunderrao Navalkar

Trimbak Rasne

Yashwant Galwankar

Y . R. Sukher