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Shri Sai Baba Mandir
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History of the temple
In good old days, Worli was only a fishing village; but with the development of other areas in Bombay, Worli has also grown. Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium, Glaxo and other Pharmaceutical laboratories, Pod
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ar Ayurvedic Hospital, T. V. Centre and Worli Dairy are the main land marks of Worli today.The B. D. D. chawls, which are also known as cement' chawls, have been standing in this area for a long time. These Chawls are mainly located round about the Jambori Maidan, which has recently been renamed as Gandhi Maidan. In the open space between: chawls nos. 21 & 30, which are on the south side of the Gandhi Maidan, there is a small Sai Mandir. As this is the only Mandir in this area, many Sai devotees frequent it very often. Shri Mohitebaba is the person, who contemplated of putting up the Mandir and saw that it was erected at the site.The full name of Mohitebaba is Gunaji Devji Mohite. He belongs to a village, known as Khopi, in the Ratnagiri District. During the First World War (1914 to 1918), Shri Mohitebaba was in War service. He that time visited Iran, Bagdad, Palestine, Greece and Austria. He continued his service up to 1947 and was demobbed in 1948, from which time he is residing at Worli. After Shri Mohitebaba was relieved from Military services he met Shri Pandurang Maharaj, a disciple of Saint Gadge Maharaj. This acquaintance grew further and Shri Pandurang Maharaj blessed Mohitebaba and initiated him. He also accepted him as his disciple and gave him Gurumantra. In this manner, Shri Mohitebaba was admitted to the spiritual world and he opened a fresh page in his life.Once Shri Mohitebaba went to Shirdi along with another Sai devotee. When he was taking a stroll all alone in the Lendi Baug, he found that one Saint was sitting in meditation below a Pipal tree in the garden. When Mohitebaba bowed down to the Saint, he at once blessed him and placed his hand on his head. Shri Mohitebaha immediately returned and came back to Lendibaug along with the Sai devotee; but he could not find the Saint below the tree. After some time when the devotee returned to his abode, Shri Mohitebaba again came back to Lendibaug and to his utter surprise, he found the Saint again below the Pipal tree in the same pose! Shri Mohitebaba believes that this Saint was none else than Shri Sai Baba, who wanted to give darshan to him all alone.After this incident, Shri Mohitebaba returned to Bombay and spent some years in meditation. He was that time sitting below the Pipal tree in the rear of the Glaxo Company or in the Worli cemetery. Because of this constant meditation, he got order from Shri Sai Baba and he decided to start the worship of Shri Sai Baba in Bombay. Shri Mohitebaba therefore got painted a portrait of Shri Sai Baba, similar to the one in Dwarkamai and started its worship with great devotion. In the beginning there was no shelter available on the site between B. D. IX Chawls No. 21 and 30 and hence during the monsoon and the cold season, Shri Mohitebaba was put to great hardship; but later on Shri Saibaba influenced the minds of the residents of the locality and they started co-operating with Shri Mohitebaba.With the monetary help given by the residents of the locality, Shri Mohitebaba put up a small Sai Mandir at the site in 1962. A beautiful marble statue was later on installed in the Mandir in 1969. Shri Vyankatrao Hire, the son of late Mr. Bhausaheb Hire, performed the ceremony. This statue is two feet and nine inches in height and it is installed on a high platform, which was constructed out of the donation given by Saraswati Shirke. Formerly Shri Mohitebaba used to beg for alms; but now-a-days he prepares Naivedya for Baba in the temple itself and subsists on the same. The statue installed in the Mandir was brought from Balsad. A trident and a pair, of tongs are kept by the side of the statue and oil lamps are kept burning on both of its sides. The temple hall can at present accommodate round about seventy five devotees at one time.Pooja, Naivedya and Aarti are performed regularly in the Mandir under the directions of Shri Mohitebaba. Gudhi Padwa, Ramnavami, Guru Pournima and Vijayadashmi, which are the main festivals at Shirdi, are also celebrated with great devotion in the Mohitebaba's Mandir. The Ramnavami festival is attended by a very large number of people and all the local people give complete co-operation in carrying out the festival successfully. Subhash Parte, Havaldar, Gawde, Arun Salvi, Balu Masurkar are some of the names of the active workers, who volunteer themselves to help Mohitebaba in every possible way in conducting any function related to the temple, Sri Chandrakant Samant, who is a Branch Manager of the LIC, is a staunch Sai devotee, and is therefore helping Shri Mohitebaba to carry out any job concerning the Sai temple. In order to expand the activities of the temple, Shri Mohitebaba, is always appealing to the young generation to donate generously towards the temple funds and take active part in the activities of the temple.Every evening at about 7 p.m, the Aarti of Shri Sai Baba is performed in this temple. This Aarti is really worth seeing and worth hearing too. When we see that all the people, old and young, sing here with complete devotion all the Aartis of Shri Sai Baba, we feel that Mohitebaba has done a great favor on the younger generation in yoking them in the devotion of Shri Saibaba from their young age. Those who get this initiation in the beginning of their life will remain Sai devotees throughout; their lives and they will win his favors for all the time. The Aarti on Thursday is performed here like a big festival.Mohitebaba has crossed seventy. He is a staunch devotee of Shri Sai Baba. His devotion is self-generated. He hardly knows to read and write. Hence, his devotion has not taken any shape because of his reading of Philosophical or religious books. However he has fully mastered the philosophy of the Bhagawadgita of believing in God and giving all the credit of his own actions to God. He says that the service to the poor is nothing but the service of God himself; but he also says that he is nobody and that Shri Saibaba does all the things. He is merely an instrument. Saint Mohitebaba is wedded to this service day and night and as that is his life's mission, he says that he would go on doing it upto the end of his life.Mohitebaba's Sai Mandir is attracting more and more crowd every day and it has become a place of attraction for all Sai devotees staying in the Worli area. As communication is becoming a more and more complex problem in the city of Bombay, travel from one place to another is difficult. This temple therefore provides a place of worship for the people staying in the Worli area.
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 LOCATION
 ADDRESS
shri sai baba mandir, c/o.shri.mohite baba, jambori maidan, worli, mumbai-400 019, maharashtra,india
 TIMING
Temple Timings :Morning Aarti--7:30 AM,Noon Aarti--1:00 PM,Evening Aarti--7:30 PM.
 CONTACT
not available
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