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man. In that sense itself Sai Baba’s life which evoked faith and devotion in the minds of the faithful
presents an argument and inspiration for leading the good human life.
Sai Baba’s birth and life have become to millions a symbol of a life free from individual attachments,
religious commitments and ideological constraints. The very first fact of freedom was his freedom
from a name. This was no small fact. For in India in the late 1800’s and early1900’s a name was
the multiple marker of identity: place in social hierarchy, status, occupation, caste, religion etc. Sai
Baba, even before he came to be recognized as a saint, was not identified by any such reference
to his family, social heritage etc. He was Indian and he was a human being. This however led to no
identity crisis but to a life in which the early years were spent like a yogi in gaining self realization
and the later years were spent in imparting such knowledge of the self to his devotees. There exists
very little verifiable information about the early life of Sai Baba about his individual identity, his
parentage, family, caste, region or religion. In contrast a relatively larger corpus of information is
available about his life in Shirdi especially after 1910. The most important source of information
about the life of Sai Baba of Shirdi is Sri Sai Saccarita a devotional biography in Marathi by Govind
Raghunath Dadholkar. This book pertains to events and miracles which the author witnessed himself
in the last eight years of the saint’s life in Shirdi, that is, between 1910 and 1918. What is most
important about this text is that its preparation began with the full approval of Sai Baba who himself
blessed the undertaking. The book was published eleven years after Sai Baba died that is in 1929.
The English translation of this book with the title Sri Sai Satcharita was published much later in 1944.
There is some dispute among scholars as to whether this book is a verbatim translation of the earlier
work though it claims to be so. The Shri Sai Satcharita clarifies that Sai Baba suddenly appeared in
Shirdi at about the age of sixteen and stayed there for three years. After that he disappeared for some
time. He reappeared in Aurangabad and came to Shirdi again with the marriage party of Chand Patil
when he was about twenty years old. He stayed in Shirdi after that for about sixty years and took
mahasamadhi in the year 1918.
The years in which he lived were years in which the Indian politics was both, colonized and, internally
divided along lines of caste, creed and religion. Perhaps the second fact of Sai Baba’s freedom came
from being a saint without a clear commitment to any one organized religions. Baba, it could be
said fairly, was free of any commitment to an organized sectarian religion for it was impossible to
say if he was a Hindu or a Muslim. The 1961 census of India reported that “no one knew whether
he was a Hindu or Muslim”. [1] He lived in a mosque and spent most of his life sitting by its wall. His
mantra was Allah Maalik or God is the Master. On the festival of Id he permitted Muslims to say their
prayers at his mosque. Once he permitted the keeping of the tabut [2] at his masjid for four days during
a Mohurrum festival. He got it removed without demur on the fifth day. He distributed food to the
poor as prasada. In this exercise called a bhandara he himself cooked and served non vegetarian
and vegetarian food to members of both religious groups. Yet he discoursed on the Bhagavad Gita
as noted above. He advised his devotee Kaka Saheb Dixit to read daily two works of Shri Eknath:
Bhagawat and Bhavartha Ramayana. In terms of his discussions with orthodox Hindu followers he
seemed to possess considerable knowledge of Vedanta. In his leelas he is recorded as frequently
referring to the karma of past lives and the transmigration of souls. Sai Baba was adept at many yogic
practices. He was well versed in six processes including Dhauti (stomach cleaning), Khandayog
(separating his limbs and joining them again) and Samadhi (meditation) etc. He had a dhuni or
sacred fire burning at all times in the masjid. He did various things contrary to the Muslim religion:
blowing of the conch and bells, oblation in the fire, singing of bhajans, giving of food as prasada
to devotees, and permitting devotees to worship him at his feet by means of water (arghya) etc. He
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