Shirdi Sai Baba Temple – The Great Shirdi Temple
The mythological, historical, social and cultural importance associated with Nashik, has helped create a unique personality of its own but it is incomplete without mentioning Shirdi Sai Baba.
As we aptly say “Welcome to Nashik The City of Pilgrimage!!” Located on the banks of river Godavari in Maharashtra, Nashik is a major Hindu pilgrimage city.
An old Legend goes”No harm shall befall him, who steps on the Holy soil of Shirdi”.
This detailed article to help you know everything about Shirdi and sai baba of Shirdi.
Table of Contents
- About Sai Baba
- About Shirdi Temple
- How can you reach shirdi?
- About Shirdi Sai Baba
- Places to Visit Near Shirdi
About Sai Baba
Baba visited a village called Shirdi in Maharastra at the age of 16 for the first time. No one knows from where he came from but it was an era of the 18th century.
People of Shirdi was in a stage of wonder seeing a boy at a very fragile age doing profound meditation sitting in asana under a Neem tree, even without any diet and even water for several days.
This started to get lots of curiosity around young baba.
Bayajabai, occasionally enquired about the welfare of the Sai Baba in his childhood, she was a wife of a village chief
Slowly she 
started bringing meals to Baba.
As the days passed baba started treating her as his mother.
Mhalspati, the village leader and a priest, he was said to be possessed by lord khandoba, said that there is a holy spirit here tending towards the Sai Baba.
at that time Sai Baba pointed towards the neem tree and requested to dig it to roots.
The villagers followed the advice of Baba and began digging it.
As the layers of land passed on, they found a part made of stone, oil lamps shining without any oil and air too, Which was totally adverse to science.
In the same area, they found a container which is in the form of cow mouth on a wood table.
Baba explained that this is the spiritual place where his guru had done penance.
He also suggested that instead of worshipping me(sai baba), worship the tree and leave it untouched. Till today no one touched it. This tree is the first stop of a pilgrim in Shirdi
Baba was a novel character who earned huge attention towards him, in the day time he was not affiliated with anyone and not afraid of anyone.
Some people believed that he was crazy and even try hurting him physically by throwing rocks at him.
Initially, Baba spent about 3 years at Shirdi.
After this, for a time of one year, Sai Baba left Shirdi and very little was known about sai baba during that period.
as per historical books, He met many saints, fakirs and even worked as a weaver.
In the year of 1858, Baba returned to Shirdi to never leave.
For about five years of time, Baba took his stayed under the neem tree.
Very often Baba used to wander in the jungle near Shirdi, He uses to spend most of his time in meditation.
Gradually Baba shifted his location to a nearby mosque.
Hindus and Muslims were visiting Sai Baba.
In the mosque, Baba maintained a sacred fire which was called dhuni. Baba gave sacred ash to the entire visitor.
People believe that ash is the best medicine to heal for all health issues.
Baba was god for all and used to believe, “Sabka Malik Ek ” (“One God governs all”). he used to participate in all religious festival.
even today as time passed on the volume of visitors to Shirdi gradually increased.
About Shirdi Sai Baba Temple
Shirdi has Located 122 km’s from Nashik City which is the Holy abode of one of Maharashtra’s most revered saint —Sai Baba of Shirdi. People know Shirdi because of Sai Baba.
The town falling under the jurisdiction of municipal council popularly known as Shirdi Nagar Panchayat, located in Rahata Tahasil in Ahmednagar district in the Indian State of Maharashtra.
It is accessible via Ahmednagar – Manmad State Highway No.10 approximately 83 km from Ahmednagar and 15km from Kopargaon.
Every activity at Shirdi revolves around the vast temple complex dedicated to Sai Baba.
How can you reach shirdi?
Shirdi has located approximately 296 km from Mumbai, capital of Maharashtra in India. It is called the Land of Sai. The closest and most highly connected city from Shirdi is Ahmednagar city.
Shirdi By Rail
Shirdi now has a new railway station called “Sainagar Shirdi“, which became operational in March 2009.
Reaching Shirdi By Road
Railway stations and locations to and from Shirdi. Shirdi can be reached by bus from any of the following cities in Maharashtra State Buses and taxis ply from these: Ahmednagar, Pune, Nashik, Mumbai, Thane, Akluj, Dhule, Nagpur, Aurangabad.
Also from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh from where maximum pilgrims reach every day and year to seek blessings from Sai Baba.
Currently, four-laning of State highway Nagar-Manmad highway is in progress on BOT basis Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation has been assigned to execute the works of internal roads in Shirdi.
There are several people who visit barefoot to Shirdi from Mumbai, Nashik, Pune and other location know as Sai Palkhi, In fact, NMC (Nashik Municipal Corporation) has planned a separate lane for palkhi on Nashik-Shirdi road.
Shirdi By Air
Shirdi Airport is being constructed at Kakdi (Kopargaon Taluka), 14 km south-west of Shirdi. Recently Nashik AirPort Started its operation Which is connected from Pune, Mumbai and Delhi.
[showad block=1]About Shirdi Sai Baba
Shirdi Sai Baba Temple
Sai Baba of Shirdi also referred to as Shirdi Ke Sai Baba, (Popularly known as the ‘Child of God’), was a spiritual master who’s considered as a saint, a fakir, a satguru along with an incarnation avatar of Lord Shiva.
Sai Baba preached tolerance towards all religions and the message of universal brotherhood.
Devotees start queuing up in the early hours of dawn to catch a glimpse and seek the blessings of the life-size statue of Sai Baba.
Thursday is marked by special pujas and darshan of the Sai Baba statue. Around 60,000 people visit the temple every day and the number goes up to about one lakh on weekends.
During special festivals, at least two to three lakh devotees visit the famous shrine.
HISTORY OF SHIRDI SAI BABA TEMPLE
Shirdi Sai Baba Temple located in the Shirdi Village of Ahmednagar District was built over the samadhi of Shri Sai Baba in 1922 during the 19th Century.
It was the year 1917. Devotees kept coming to Shirdi in very large numbers. Shirdi temple was established to carry out the services of Shri Sai Baba.
THE SAMADHI TEMPLE
A visit to Shirdi is a very special occasion for the millions of devotees of Sai Baba.
At Shirdi Temple, the day starts very early with the daily morning aarti which is held every day at 5:30 am followed by the ‘holy bath’ of Sai Baba.
Regular darshan starts at 7 am for which devotees start forming queues as early as 4 am at the temple entrance.
The Sai Baba temple complex has four gates and the queues for darshan into the Samadhi temple begins only at gates 2 & 3. With thousands of energetic pilgrims all around, you feel surrounded by a tremendous sense of energy.
As the line of the queues moves ahead, people get overwhelmed by the passionate sloganeering of the hajis shouting, ‘Jai Sai’, ‘Om Sai’ among other such slogans.
The darshan is a quick one owing to the thousands waiting behind you and after that, you’re ushered hurriedly into the temple complex.
The Samadhi Temple
Apart from the Samadhi Temple, which is actually Sai Baba’s shrine, the Sai Baba Temple complex consists of:
- The Khandoba temple, the spot where Baba acquired the title ‘Sai’.
- Gurusthan, where He spent most of his time under the neem tree
- Dwarkamai, which is actually a mosque and where Baba lived. It was here that Baba also worked as an Hakim and performed most of the miracles attributed to him.
- Chavadi, where Baba spent his alternate nights and
- Lendi Garden that houses the Nanda deep sited between a neem and a bodhi tree that Sai Baba planted himself. It is said of the Nanda Deep that the lamp has never been extinguished.
and not forget the mega kitchen of Shirdi, which is 100% powered by solar energy.
SAI BABA AARTI TIMING
There are five Sai Baba Aarti in a day :
- Bhupali Aarti (04:15 AM)
- Kakad Aarti (04:30 AM)
- Madhyan Aarti (12:00 PM)
- Dhup Aarti (At Shirdi Sunset)
- Shej Aarti (10:30 PM)
Places to Visit Near Shirdi Sai Baba
Apart from places to visit in Nashik, There are several other locations you should try to give a visit when you are in Shirdi.
- Shani Shingnapur (Nevasa – Ahmednagar))
- Muktidham -Nashik
- Kalaram Temple (Panchavati – Nashik)
- Pandavleni Caves – Nashik
- Ramkund – Nashik
- Ellora Caves (Aurangabad)
- Daulatabad (Aurangabad)
- Coin Museum – Nashik
- Trimbakeshwar – Nashik
Despite being the part of Ahamadnager, most of the people visit there are either from Mumbai or Nashik.