It takes more than a mere mortal put a tiny town onto the world map. But then Sai Baba of Shirdi wasn't your average mortal either.

Sai Baba, like most divine incarnates, remains an enigma to most people. Whose child was he? Where did he hail from? How did he arrive in Shirdi, of all places? Did he really perform the miracles people claim to have seen? The answers to these questions are almost irrelevant to the millions of devotees who throng his shrine at Shirdi seeking solace from the harsh realities of life. A multitude of fervent souls who know that the 'Baba' will answer their prayers. The moment the cymbals clash rhythmically in the shrine and the head priest begins to chant the words of the aarti, the Sai Baba Temple is enveloped in a shroud of cosmic energy. Most devotees have waited for hours in the early morning light, for this very moment. The aarti and a darshan of the Baba are all they've come here for. And no one ever leaves his temple disappointed.

Sai Baba was the first in a series of modern divine incarnates. He was a perfect model of the harmony of all religions. Nobody really knew his parentage, where he came from or which religion he practised. Caste, creed, position dogmas and doctrines were fundamentally unimportant to him. He is revered by the Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Parsis alike. he lived with the common folk as a penniless fakir, wearing a torn kafni, sleeping over a mat while resting his head on a brick, begging for his food. What's more,he claimed no possessions nor accepted any disciplines or gave any specific teaching. This anonymity lent a strange facet to his interaction with the people who came to him for guidance. To the Hindus he was an orthodox Brahmin, with a scared fire, enjoying the worship of many gods and the devout study of various Hindu scriptures. He lived in a mosque but always referred to it as "Dwarkamayi" (Lord Krishna's birth place is Dwaraka). To the Moslems he was a fakir living in a mosque observing the disciplines of Islam, uttering "Allah Malik" (God is the master) guiding Muslim seekers along the lines of their own religion. To the Parsis he was the sacred fire worshipper. His life was a giving manifestation of the Sermon of the Christ and of the Eight-fold path of the Buddha.

Sai Baba came to Shirdi purely by accident, stayed in a mosque and preached the universality of all faiths. His doctrine was very simple; 'There's only one God and he resides within you. People refer to him by different names, but He is one.' It's important to know a little about Sai Baba's history in order to appreciate the significance of the monuments in Shirdi, as well as understand the depth of his teachings. If you've always wondered how Sai Baba landed in a completely nondescript village like Shirdi, here's the local lore. According to the local tales, Chandbhai, the headman of a village called Dhoopkhede near Aurangabad once lost his horse and was looking for it. Suddenly he heard a voice say "You look tired. Come here and rest a while". He turned around and saw a young Fakir. The fakir smiled at him and said "What are you looking for in this jungle, Chandbhai". This surprised Chandbhai and he wondered how the fakir knew his name.

Slowly, he said "I have lost my horse. I have looked for it everywhere, but cannot seem to find it". The fakir told him to look behind a clump of trees. Chandbhai was pleasantly surprised to find his horse grazing peacefully behind those trees. He thanked the fakir and asked his name. The fakir said "some people call me Sai Baba."

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