(d. 1918) Hindu
ascetic and religious teacher whose devotees hailed from Hindu, Muslim, Parsi,
and Christian religious organizations.
His beginnings are unknown, since he merely appeared as a
sixteen-year-old lad in the Maharashtra town of Shirdi in 1872.
He was dressed as a Muslim faqir (religious mendicant or
beggar), but claimed to have forgotten his hometown and relatives.
A local priest banned him from staying in a Hindu temple
because of his attire, so he moved into a small, empty mosque and stayed there
for the rest of his life.
He maintained a perpetual fire going in a fire pit, and he
practiced both Muslim and Hindu religious ceremonies.
He was most well-known for his supernatural abilities, which
included healing (for which he often fed people ash from his fire pit),
foretelling the future, multilocation (the capacity to be in two locations at
once), and appearing in dreams to lead his followers.
His ability to respond to people's urgent needs made him
renowned throughout much of India, but he insisted that the objective of his miracles
was to draw people to spiritual life.
He eventually garnered followers, and the town of Shirdi has
grown in importance as a regional pilgrimage destination since his death
(tirtha).
Despite the fact that he named himself Sai Baba, he is today
known as Shirdi Sai Baba to differentiate himself from Sathya Sai Baba, another
religious leader who claims to be Shirdi Sai Baba's reborn form.
