The Samadhi Mandir

The Samadhi Mandir

"Do not think I am dead and gone. You will hear me from my samadhi and I shall guide you."
--Sri Sai Baba 

These moving and inspiring words, spoken by Sai Baba, have played their part in ensuring that the Samadhi Mandir (also known as the Sai Baba Temple, although technically it is a shrine rather than temple) is the most important site in Shirdi, and the main focus of Sai worship and devotion. For it is here that we find the samadhi (tomb) of Sai Baba, with the compelling statue above it. 

Baba has famously pro-mised, "I shall be active and vigorous even from the tomb," and it is perhaps in the mandir that we can most fully experience the phenomenon of Sai Baba and the remarkable way he has touched the hearts and lives of millions of people from all over the world. At any given point, the shrine will be full of devotees eagerly queuing up to have Baba's darshan. People will be holding flowers, garlands, sweets, or fruit to offer Baba at his samadhi. Some may have a personal item - such as a shawl, book, key to a new possession, etc, which they have brought here to obtain Baba's blessing by offering it at his feet and having it touch his tomb. Some people may be chanting,"Sri Satchidananda Sadguru Sainath Maharaj ki jai!" (Hail the great sadguru, Lord Sai, who is being-consciousness-bliss!) and others may be singing bhajan or whispering prayers. At busy times, especially during festivals, the queue for darshan used to stretch for hundreds of metres through the village streets; with the recently constructed Queue Complex, this is no longer the case. People may wait up to eight hours just for the opportunity to pay brief homage to their Lord. The atmosphere of fervent and one-pointed devotion reaches its zenith here. "Attention one and all!" commands the noon arati psalm, "Come, come quickly and make obeisance to Sai Baba!" This is exactly what the devotees are hastening to do, and to be part of this torrent of emotion is a powerful experience.
Concerning the significance of Sai Baba's tomb and the response that devotees experience there, Sri Babuji was once asked whether there was any difference for the devotees between now and when Baba was in his physical body. He gave the following reply:
"Baba was never confined to his physical body even before 1918, because he himself said, 'My murshid (guru) has already freed me from this body. Whoever thinks that this body is Sai Baba, hasn't seen Sai Baba at all.' His devotees need some means of interacting with Baba, and because his body had already been released, it was actually a tomb - a small, moving, limited tomb that was capable of interacting with a number of people. Then, because he is so loving and he wanted to cater to the growing needs of the people, he had to change. So he changed his tomb - from that tomb to the present tomb, which is an extension of the one he had before, and is a form of Baba's body. That is why he said, 'My tomb will speak, my tomb will move, my tomb will answer,' just as his physical body had been answering."
In this form, thousands of people a day are able to take Baba's darshan and do namaskar to him.
The shrine which houses Baba's tomb was originally constructed as a wada (large private house) during Baba's last years in his physical body. It is built on some land which Baba had tended as a garden. Sai Baba seemed to like growing plants and in his early days he cleared and levelled this land which had been used as a dumping ground. Using seeds that he had brought from Rahata, he planted it with jasmine and marigolds. For about three years Baba would water the plants every day and distribute the flowers to the local temples. Now that his tomb is here and Baba is receiving so many devotees, it seems that he is nurturing plants of a different nature - and still sowing seeds.
The shrine was built by a wealthy devotee from Nagpur, Gopalrao Booty. The Sri Sai Satcharitra describes him as a "multi-millionaire". He was introduced to Baba by S. B. Dhumal about ten years before Baba's mahasamadhi.