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History of the temple

During His stay at Shirdi, Shri Sai Baba gave inspiration to His various devotees to construct different structures. The stately Samadhi Mandir, which is a favorite place of worship of all Sai devotee

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s, got erected by Bapusaheb Buti. Similarly He inspired His other staunch devotees Kakasaheb Dixit and Hari Vinayak Sathe to build Wadas in order to provide accommodation for the devotees visiting Shirdi. Those who are conversant with Shri Sai Satcharita need not be informed these things. They know them fully well; but the following incident is especially noteworthy because it illustrates how Shri Sai Baba is still looking minutely at the likes and dislikes of His devotees staying at long distances.In the Swargate area of Pune city, at a distance of about five minutes walk on the North side of the S.T. Depot, there is a spacious and stately Sai Temple. The story of the inspiration for erection of this temple is quite interesting, and it should be known by all Sai devotees as it throws light on the greatness of Shri Sai Baba.Shri Narayan Dattatray alias Bhausaheb Lombar, who was the owner of the Sainath Math at Swargate, is known not only in Pune, but he was also known to Shri Sai devotees at other places outside Pune. Shri Bhausaheb was born at Kolhapur in 1907. In his family, the worship of Shri Dattatraya and the Bhawani Devi of Tuljapur, was being done for a long time. This practice is so old that it cannot be said when exactly it started. This devotion to God left a deep impression on the mind of Shri Bhausaheb and he became a devotee of the God in his early age. He visited Shirdi for the first time in 1920 at a very tender age of only thirteen years. He was a dealer in gold and silver; but because of the order of Shri Sai Baba, he left that prosperous business and entirely performed the worship of Shri Sai Baba. As days rolled on, the devotion of Shri Bhausaheb towards Shri Baba went on increasing and he started feeling the acute need of a Sai temple in the Pune city. Shri Bhausaheb then wanted to find out a suitable place for erection of the Mandir. In 1952, he therefore started an "Anushthan" in the Aranyeshwar temple in Pune. On the tenth day, he got a dream in which Shri Sai Baba told him, "Why are you sitting here? Now you may go home. On your way you will find that your steps are sinking in the earth. So you should think that it is the proper place for erection of my temple".According to the above order of Shri Sai Baba, Shri Bhausaheb started for home. On his way, his steps got stuck up at the present site of the temple. In view of the dream, Shri Bhausaheb at once thought that this was the site hinted at by Shri Sai Baba in his dream.He therefore rested under a nearby tree for a moment, when the plan of the temple immediately came before his eyes as a vision. When the plan of the temple was thus ready, Shri Bhausaheb started making further preparations of the temple. The first thing was the purchase of a suitable plot. A plot measuring 18,000 sq. feet was immediately purchased by Shri Bhausaheb at the site indicated by Shri Sai Baba. In those days there was nothing else but jungle at the site and the place was infested with reptiles; but due to his staunch devotion to Shri Sai Baba, Shri Bhausaheb put up a tent at the site even under those adverse conditions and hung a photograph of Shri Sai Baba inside the tent. No sooner this was done, than a sweet fragrance filled the place and five serpents appeared on the scene all of a sudden. Shri Bhausaheb knew that it was Shri Baba's Leela and hence there was nothing to be afraid of. He was therefore calm and quiet and by the grace of Shri Sai Baba, the snakes also subsequently disappeared without harming anybody.Three or four days later, Shri Bhausaheb had a further dream in which he was directed to deposit the thing at the place where he would get it and it was really a wonder that when the foundation of the temple was being dug, the laborers came across a wooden box about seven feet in length. When the box was opened, another surprise awaited Shri Bhausaheb. It contained the bones of a human being and the skeleton had a saffron coloured loin cloth at the proper place. Seeing these strange contents of the box, Shri Bhausaheb did not know what to do. He thought of throwing the bones in a sacred river as per the usual custom, as the bones were of a human being. He therefore put them in a gunny bag and kept them in a corner; but this created another trouble. One cobra came and sat on the gunny bag and would not allow anybody to touch it. The existence of that cobra ultimately reminded Bhausaheb of the order of Shri Sai Baba and when he expressed his desire aloud to preserve the bones at the site as per Shri Baba's orders, the cobra silently disappeared and did not come back thereafter.After surmounting all these difficulties, the construction work of the temple started in 1951 and immediately in the year 1955, the Padukas of Shri Baba were installed in the Mandir at the sacred hands of Saint Dasganu Maharaj. One Parsi devotee of Shri Sai Baba, Shri Sukhiya, who is the owner of the Apollo Theatre at Pune offered to donate the statue of Shri Sai Baba for the temple. An order to cast the statue was therefore placed immediately with S. K. Dongarsane and sons from Kolhapur. A statue of Shri Sai Baba, in a sitting posture and four and a half feet high cast out of an alloy of nine metals, was finally ready and it was installed in the temple in 1956.The plan of this temple is almost similar to that of the Samadhi Mandir at Shirdi. There is a cellar measuring about 10' x 10' just below the statue of Shri Sai Baba. The bones referred to before, which were found while digging the foundation of the mandir, have been preserved carefully here. By its side is the bed of Shri Sai Baba. Shri Bhausaheb used to sit for "Anushthan" at this place and only he and his sons had got the access to that cellar. Outside the mandir in an enclosed place, the Dhuni is located and it is kept burning permanently since 1952.The daily worship of the mandir was attended to by Bhausaheb himself with the help of his son, Shri Shyamrao. In the year 1949, Shyam was a boy of four. At that time once it so happened that he lost his eyesight all of a sudden. The pupils in his eyes disappeared and two balls of flesh appeared in their place. Blood and puss used to ooze out from his eyes and consequently he was unable to see anything. All eminent doctors tried their medicines; but no treatment was found to be effective. Shri Bhausaheb therefore then thought of trying some spiritual remedy and one day when offering his prayer to Shri Sai Baba, he said, "Baba, you are all powerful and merciful. You know the condition of my son Shyam. In this condition his whole life will be miserable. If you favour him by recovering his eye-sight, I promise to dedicate him to your service for the rest of his life."Shri Bhausaheb was a devotee of Shri Sai Baba for a long time and he was therefore sure that Shri Sai Baba would listen to his sincere prayers. The merciful Sai Baba did Shri Bhausaheb Lombar and his wife really listen to the prayers of Shri Bhausaheb and what a wonder! Within a period of two to three years, Shyam recovered completely and got back his eye sight.The present age of Shyam is thirty years and he is always busy in the worship of Shri Baba. Shashikant, the eldest son of Shri Bhausaheb looks after his business of Riksha and his daughter, Mrs. Sheela Lanjekar, is well versed in singing. She has given her program at Shirdi before Shri Sai Baba and was applauded by all, who heard the program.In the rear of the Sai Mandir, there is a small room where Shri Bhausaheb used to take rest. On every Thursday, Shri Bhausaheb distributed Prasad and Udi to the devotees and gave them advice on various matters. In this room there is an imposing Oil painting of Shri Sai Baba painted by Shri B. D, Tade, and a painter of the Prabhat film company. This painting is over six feet in length and more than four feet in breadth.In this painting Shri Sai Baba is seen begging alms in the Shirdi village. The painting is lifelike and the eyes thereof are espec

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