Shirdi Sai Baba Samadhi Temple

About

The Samadhi Mandir at Shirdi, in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, enshrines the burial place of Sai Baba of Shirdi (c. 1838 – 15 October 1918), the saint revered by both Hindus and Muslims and known for his teachings of "Shraddha" (faith) and "Saburi" (patience). Sai Baba lived for over six decades in a dilapidated mosque he called Dwarkamai and took mahasamadhi on Vijayadashami day in 1918; his body was interred in the Buty Wada — originally being built as a Krishna temple by the wealthy devotee Bapusaheb Buty — which was then re-consecrated as the Samadhi Mandir. The temple complex covers over 200 acres and includes the Samadhi Mandir (housing Sai Baba's tomb and a 1.5-metre tall white-marble idol sculpted by Balaji Vasant Talim and installed in 1954), the Dwarkamai mosque, the Chavadi (where Baba slept on alternate nights), the Gurusthan (the neem tree under which he first appeared in Shirdi), Lendi Bagh (his garden), and the Khandoba Mandir. The mandir's silver-railed sanctum, gold-plated throne and main hall accommodating roughly 600 seated devotees were added in successive renovations. The shrine and the village are administered by the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust (Shirdi), constituted in 1922 and reorganised under a 2004 Maharashtra Act. The trust runs free Prasadalaya meals, the Sai Baba Hospital, two pilgrim accommodation complexes, an online darshan-pass and aarti-booking system, and funds charitable programmes across Maharashtra. Daily attendance averages 60,000 and rises to over 300,000 on Ramnavami, Gurupurnima and Vijayadashami (Punyatithi). The four daily aartis — Kakad, Madhyana, Dhoop and Shej — are televised live and streamed online.