BayjabaiG.Kote Patil

Bayjabai Ganpat Kote Patil was the mother of Tatya Kote Patil, and one of the first people in Shirdi to recognise Baba's greatness. In his early years Baba often wandered in the forest and did not come to the village for food. Bayjabai would set out every day with a basket of bhakri and vegetables on her head, searching through the thorny bushes until she found him. She would not rest or eat until she had fed him with her own hands.

Baba never forgot this love. He called her his sister and treated her son Tatya as his own nephew, saying he was bound to their family. In later years, when Baba was honoured by rich and famous devotees, he still spoke tenderly of Bayjabai's service in those hard early days.

The Satcharitra holds up Bayjabai's devotion as an example of selfless service: she asked for nothing, and gave her time and food every day for years. Her family's bond with Baba continued through Tatya, for whose sake Baba is believed to have given up his own body in 1918.