Dadasaheb Purandare

Raghuvir Bhaskar Purandare came from a Brahmin family of Kelva Mahim in Thana district and worked as a clerk with the G.I.P. Railway, living in Bandra. He heard of Baba in 1909. Soon after, Baba appeared to him in a dream and called him to Shirdi. He went with his wife, his sick baby daughter and his mother, though his mother objected. By the third day the child had recovered.

Baba kept him in Shirdi for thirteen days and told his mother that he and Purandare had been connected for seven centuries. "I will not forget him," Baba said. "I will always remember him, even if he is more than two thousand miles away." Baba often asked him for two rupees as dakshina, explaining that what he wanted was nishtha (firm faith) and saburi (patience), not money.

Once Purandare's wife fell seriously ill with cholera. Following Baba's instruction in a vision, he gave her udi and tirtha, and she recovered within half an hour. On a salary of only 35 rupees, he built a house in Bandra with a small loan, and he believed Baba himself guarded it. After Baba's Mahasamadhi, Purandare served as joint treasurer of the Shirdi Sansthan and said Baba continued to guide him in that work.