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About Shri Sai Baba
Located in the Ahmednagar district in the Indian state of Maharashtra, Shirdi is one of the most vital pilgrim places for the Hindus. It is one of the richest temple organizations and fundamentally, widely renowned for being the home for popular late 19th century spiritual guru—Sai Baba, popularly referred to as Shirdi Sai Baba, or Sai Baba of Shirdi.
Such is the popularity of the pilgrim place that on an average, a crowd of 25,000 gather here as a part of their pilgrimage and during holiday seasons, the figure crosses half a million. It is quite often referred to as the “city of Sai.”
The main Shri Sai Baba Temple here is spread over a distance of 200 square meters, with separate allocations for darshan, Prasad, donations, canteen, etc. During festivities, the number of pilgrims here cross the mark of 1,00,000 on a daily basis.
Other than the Shri Sai Baba Temple in Shirdi, the rest of the prominent shrines here include the Khandoba Temple—a special place in the town where Sai Baba had actually acquired his name, the Gurusthan—which, as the name suggests used to be the spot where Shri Sai Baba would spend most of his time, meditating and being devoted to the spiritual supremacy.
According to theories, Sai Baba had also averred that the tomb of his own guru was under the Neem Tree in this Gurusthan, and if local lore is to be believed then there’s a secret passage, a tunnel right under the Neem Tree that leads one to Dwarkamai—a holy mosque located in Shirdi itself that also happens to be a famous place of tourists’ interest in Shirdi. Since Sai Baba was a firm believer of all religions, the mosque here too abides by Baba’s perspective and is freely accessible to all people regardless of their caste and creed.
The next in the list is the Samadhi Mandir, which is the place Sai Baba attained liberty from life. One can still feel Sai Baba’s omnipresent essence in the spot, making it a fond place for all the pilgrims who visit Shirdi. Right after this is the Chavadi, which is actually a village office now treated as a shrine for the tourists here.
Other than these, there’s the Lendi Gardens that too form a popular place of interest for the pilgrims, followed by some prominent temples like the Mahalaxmi Temple, the Hanuman Temple, the Jain Temple, and the Narasimha Temple.