Life of Sai Baba — Volume 1, Chapter 3: Baba’s Earlier Years at Shirdi

The chapter

When Sai Baba first lived at Shirdi, he was still an obscure fakir whose name was not known beyond the village. He had no home, no fixed arrangements for food and no desire for comfort. At the Khandoba temple he remarked that the quiet place would suit a fakir, but Mahlsapathy objected to a Muslim entering the shrine. Baba did not argue. He withdrew to the neem tree and later made the dilapidated mosque his shelter.

A fakir among the people

Ganapat Rao Patil Kothe and his wife Bayaji Bai were among the first to care for him. Baba gradually began collecting food from a few houses and sleeping in the mosque, yet he never turned away from the village into complete isolation. At the Takia he sang songs of Kabir and Persian and Arabic devotional songs, sometimes tying tinklets to his ankles and dancing with absorbed joy. His worship was largely inward: he meditated on Allah, Hari and the inner Self, while remaining in close contact with ordinary people.

When villagers were ill, Baba gathered herbs or obtained inexpensive medicines and treated them without accepting payment. The chapter attributes to him remarkable cures, including cases of snakebite, leprosy and diseased eyes. He also cleared common land, created a flower garden and carried water for the plants on his own shoulders. The flowers and leaves were freely given to Hindu temples and Muslim holy places alike. In Baba’s conduct, distinctions of caste, creed, position and learning had no spiritual weight.

The lamps lit with water

A turning point came when the oil merchants, who had previously supplied oil for the mosque lamps, mockingly told Baba that they had none. Returning with an empty oil container, Baba drank the little oil left in it, filled the earthen lamps with water and lit them. To the astonishment of the merchants and onlookers, the lamps burned through the night.

The frightened men expected a curse, but Baba corrected them instead. He asked them to admit their falsehood, warned them that untruth displeases the God of truth, and rebuked their pleasure at imagining another person suffering in darkness. He reminded them that God is like a mother who cannot be pleased when her children hurt one another. The incident changed the villagers’ attitude: the “mad fakir” was now regarded as a holy man, and people began bringing flowers, sandal paste, food and other offerings.

Worship, opposition and unity

The new worship created tension because Hindu devotees were worshipping Baba inside a mosque. When Muslim opponents tried to prevent Mahlsapathy from entering, Mahlsapathy invoked Baba on the mosque’s compound wall and performed the worship there. Baba then called him inside, struck his satka on the ground and made it clear that no one would harm him. The opposition withdrew, and Mahlsapathy completed the puja.

Baba’s life also brought together Hindu and Muslim spiritual strands. He had received the influence of the Hindu saint Gopal Rao Deshmukh, or Venkusa, and later spent about two months serving Jawar Ali Maulana at Rahata, learning Islamic religious literature and carrying out the humble duties of a disciple. Baba accepted both devotion and discipline without treating them as barriers. Even when worshippers honoured him as Guru or God, he followed the rule that a realised person should avoid honours and welcome humility.

What this account invites us to reflect on

The early Shirdi portrait is of a fakir whose spirituality became visible through service: feeding the hungry, treating the sick, tending flowers, respecting every place of worship and answering hostility with instruction rather than revenge. The chapter shows how an unknown ascetic gradually became the centre of a community that crossed religious boundaries.

Editorial note: This page is a concise paraphrase for web presentation and does not reproduce the complete chapter. Please consult the original PDF for the full account and wording.