3.1- Baba’s Earlier Years at Shirdi

Baba’s earliest years at Shirdi were passed in complete obscurity. He was a poor fakir; his name itself was not known. Sai Baba being merely a term of respect applied to wandering hermits of the Muslim faith. Therefore, very few incidents of this period of his life are known. Thus known incidents are all significant as proving that Baba was a real fakir of sterling merit. Baba himself has observed that fakirs also are now seldom dispassionate, that is possessed of vairagya and it is hard to find a good fakir. Baba had no home. Fakirs have none. Hermits are, therefore, to reside either at a tree-foot or chavadi or temple or other public places. When he came into Shirdi, Baba visited Khandoba temple at the outskirts of the village. He was astonished to see such a solitary and calm place. He exclaimed, ‘What a nice place this, for ascetics like me to live in’. Mahlsapathy, the man then in charge of the temple objected to this and said that no Mohammedan would be allowed to put his foot into the Khandoba temple. He was evidently thinking that Baba was a Muslim and that he would break the images and defiles the temple. But Baba was just the opposite. He had the same regard for temples and mosques, always wanted people to carry on their religious faith in their accustomed ways, and would never hurt the religious susceptibilities of any person. Baba, noticing Mahlsapathy’s attitude, left the place, and went to the gode neem tree, which he used as his halting place off and on. He went about the village and the surrounding lands and had no particular arrangements for food. Luckily the village head, Ganapat Rao Patil Kothe and his wife Bayaji Bai, were greatly attracted by Baba’s personality, and from the very beginning of his stay there, they undertook to feed him even when he was running about.

Gradually he gave up roaming and then went about the streets, halted at four or five houses and from there collected whatever food was given to him. For his stay and sleep, the decaying mosque of the village was the only place, and it soon became his residence. He was not in the habit of deserting society and living in mountain caves and deserts.