Major Festivals
Gurupoornima
Gurupoornima ("poornima"
means full moon) is the day on which disciples and devotees honour and
felicitate their guru and seek his or her special blessings. Although it is not
a major festival for everyone in India, it is of great importance in Shirdi,
being the only festival which Baba asked devotees to celebrate. It falls on the
full moon day of the month of Ashad in the Hindu calendar (June-July).
The festival originated in the
Buddha's time when the monks used to take diksha (instructions on their spiritual
practice) at the beginning of the annual four-month rains-retreat. The practice
was then borrowed by the Jain tradition and later by the Hindus.
According to H. V. Sathe,
Gurupoornima celebrations in Shirdi were started one year when Baba called Dada
Kelkar (probably in 1910) and said, "Don't you remember that this is
Gurupoornima? Come on, go and worship that post there." That post is in
the mosque. Later Dada Kelkar told others, and so everybody thought that Baba
gave importance to Gurupoornima; thus the tradition started.
Vijayadasami
Vijayadasami is a major festival celebrated throughout India under different
names and with regional variations, as the victory of good over evil. It is
also known as Dusserah and is the culmination of the nine days of goddess
worship. For Sai devotees, it is venerated as the holy day that their beloved
gurudeva attained mahasamadhi (also known as punyatithi) and is a big festival
in Shirdi. This was also the day on which the statue of Baba "came to
life" and was inaugurated in the Samadhi Mandir. For devotees of Sri
Sainathuni Sarath Babuji it is a day imbued with additional significance and
joy as it is the same day he took birth in 1954.
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