Why Sai baba chose Shirdi? Shirdi a place unknown to the world, lying away from the fertile banks of the Godavari river, a sacred river that has given shelter and nurtured many a saint and seer from ancient times. In a district that’s cradling the Puntamba town, where Changdev, the great, is taking his eternal rest. Newasa town where Sant Gyaneshwar lived and wrote holy and illustrious work on the Gita and many other towns and villages were there in Ahmednagar better known and holier than Shirdi, that had no history whatsoever to seek or boast of and nothing to connect her with any Sant or Saint. Shirdi the scholars say, is a corruption of Sheeladhi, meaning a strong mind or a strong heart was ruled by a Yadav king when, it was simply a large cemetery. But then Baba did prefer Shirdi to other places that were better known and renowned as spiritual centers. Why did Baba not prefer Trimbak or Nasik, Paithan or Puntamba and a host of other holier places? For it was here in Shirdi, the nameless place, that there grew a tree that sheltered a grave the holy tomb of a holy saint, whose Name Sai Baba has not disclosed. He was Babas guru a realized soul that had taken its eternal rest. And there under in Samadhi lay centuries since, a soul that Baba had himself previously served as a faithful disciple of the divine master.
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