This book examines Sai Baba of Shirdi from the standpoint of Islamic mysticism - the Deccani Sufism of 19th century Maharashtra - in order to resolve the mystery surrounding the saint. Two new pieces of work are used in this book. First, Dr Warren elucidates the English translation of part of the works of some 17th and 18th century Maharashtrian Sufi poet-saints. Secondly, she includes the English translation of the previously untranslated Urdu notebook, jotted down by Abdul - Sai Baba's faqiri pupil - from teachings based on the Qur'an given to him by his pir Sai Baba. Both of these contributions allow us to look into a world hitherto closed, and expand our awareness of the famous miracle-worker of Shirdi.

This is a research-based book on the divine life, teachings, spirit messages, and contributions of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba (18381918), the renowned Sufi saint of India. It highlights his importance as the 'Jagat Guru (Universal Master) whose teachings and messages elevate all people spiritually and morally and unite them. His main teachings are Allah (God) is one who is the sole master of all; the same 'atma'(soul) is in every creature; everyone is linked to others according to ones past actions and Rinanubandh (bond of give and take), and so one must be kind, compassionate, and helpful to all those who come in this life. He is now the supreme ascended master. He appears before people who earnestly remember him, in their dreams or in any other person's form to guide, inspire, save, and help them to solve their problems instantly. His Dwarka Mai masjid (mosque) and samadhi Mandir temple in Shirdi are well-known to billons of people of all regligions and cultures and are visited by thousands of people daily and by even more than hundred thousand pilgrims from all lovers of the world to seek his grace. This book was written by the devotee author as desired by the spirit of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba communicated to Sri Lakshman Swami, founder, Adi Sankarachrya and Dattratreya Adhyatmic Bhakti Mandli, Bangalore in 1992 and was blessed by Shivamma Thyayee of Roopen Agraha, Bangalore, who was then the only surviving 102-year-old contemporary devotee of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba and by Sri Shivnesh Swami of Shirdi. It has been one of the most popular books on Sri Shirdi Sai Baba since then. This revised and updated new edition provides valuable information on prominent Shirdi Sai temples, organizations, journals, and websites in the world. It will enlighten and spiritually uplift the readers belonging to all religions, cultures, and nations.

Sai Baba of Shirdi is a phenomenon. In all of India s history, there has never been another like him. He is no conventional saint, he wrote no critique of any holy work, made no ashram or peetham, yet he had profound insight into both Hindu and Islamic scriptures. He performed miracles but in no manner or means to impress anyone, devotees or otherwise. Sai Baba in every way remains unique. He came in his late twenties to Shirdi, an insignificant Hamlet in Ahmednagar District where he spent fifty years of his remaining life. Shirdi is no longer an obscure village. Today it is a centre of pilgrimage for lakhs of Sai Baba s devotees. This book translated into Hindi is a complete account of his life and mission.Hindi Rs. 95 / Telugu Rs. 125

This book is based on in-depth research that triangulates information from several primary sources, to provide hitherto unknown facts about Sai Baba, village Shirdi and some of the people who visited it during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It not only adds to the repository of knowledge about this great saint of India and the role that he played in the context of protecting his devotees during India’s struggle for freedom, but additionally provides new insights by raising questions and seeking answers through analysis of rare documents drawn from the National Archives, police records and diaries pertaining to that time as well as reviewing personal documents and literature in different languages. Written in Chicago-style Citation, it contains nine chapters dealing with different aspects of Sai Baba’s life in Shirdi. The book has several rare documents and photographs of Shirdi Sai Baba and his devotees as well as compositions of Shirdi of that time. A glossary is provided at the end of the book for ease of reference. The book will be a valuable asset not just for all those who are devotees of Sai Baba and other Sadgurus, but also for students and academicians who have an interest in India’s culture and history and in the means used by the British to understand and control developments in different parts of the country.

Nearly a century after his death, the image of Sai Baba, the serene old man with the white beard from Shirdi village in Maharashtra, India, is instantly recognizable to most South Asians (and many Westerners) as a guru for all faiths—Hindus, Muslims, and others. During his lifetime Sai Baba accepted all followers who came to him, regardless of religious or caste background, and preached a path of spiritual enlightenment and mutual tolerance. These days, tens of thousands of Indians and foreigners make the pilgrimage to Shirdi each year, and Sai Baba temples have sprung up in unlikely places around the world, such as Munich, Seattle, and Austin. Tracing his rise from small village guru to global phenomenon, religious studies scholar Karline McLain uses a wide range of sources to investigate the different ways that Sai Baba has been understood in South Asia and beyond and the reasons behind his skyrocketing popularity among Hindus in particular. Shining a spotlight on an incredibly forceful devotional movement that avoids fundamental politics and emphasizes unity, service, and peace, The Afterlife of Sai Baba is an entertaining—and enlightening—look at one of South Asia’s most popular spiritual gurus.

Balkrishna Pandey’s Sai Baba’s 261 Leelas is a handy compendium or, as he calls it, an aide-mémoire of 261 miracles of Shirdi Sai Baba, intended for the devotees. Culled from a number of sources, he has obtained stories from the often hard to find books like Narasimha Swami’s biography of Sri Sai Baba, and decades-old copies of the Sai Leela journal. The author does not try and interpret the miracles but lets the reader realise the universal message for himself. In today’s busy world, this work offers a shortcut for daily devotion, offering the reader a quick manual to peruse, ponder or meditate upon Sai Baba’s micraculous leelas while waiting for a bus or to fill any spare moment --- Dr Marianne Warren ,Author of Unravelling the Enigma: Shirdi Sai Baba in the Light of Sufism This book puts together the authentic and pithy miracles of Sai. All that was verifiable within the first twenty years of the 20th century, directly related to the Saint’s life has been arranged under scintillating titles, all 261 of them. The readers cannot but be deeply moved by the sentiments of devotion projected by Balkrishna Panday in his writing titled Sai Baba’s 261 Leelas.

This book is a collection of the sayings and teachings of Baba, that are highlighted in the experiences of the devotees as they interacted with Him. Thriugh direct intervention in their lives, ans the use of parables, He led them to spiritual growth. Like the caring parent that He is, He used love and humour to help His devetees understand profound philosophical and spiritual ideas. These ideas were expressed in simple language, and often seen in Practice in their ordinary day-to-day experiences, so that devotees were unaware that they were acquiring bodha paddhati. Bodha is instruction, or perception, and paddhati is protocol or steps of a ritual.

The Sai Baba movement, centered on the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba (b. 1926), today attracts a global following from Japan to South Africa. Regarded as a divine incarnation, Sathya Sai Baba traces his genealogy to Shirdi Sai Baba (d. 1918), a mendicant in colonial India identified with various Sufi and devotional genealogies. The movement, thus, has “roots” in Shirdi Sai Baba but as it globalizes, it has developed conjunctions with other religious traditions, New Religious movements, and New Age ideas. This book offers an account of the Sai Baba movement as a pathway for charting the varied cartographies, sensory formations, and cultural memories implicated in urbanization and globalization. It traverses the terrain between social theories for the study of religion and cities ---themselves a product of modernity---and the radical, creative, and unexpected modernity of contemporary religious movements. It is based on ethnographic research carried out in India, Kenya, and the US.

There have been, in the past, many books on Shri Sai Baba, but this volume is distinguished for the stress on authenticity. Every chapter speaks for the incisive approach adopted by the author who has made a study of Shri Sai Baba a lifetime mission. All aspects of Shri Sai Baba’s life and work are inquired into, as also the nature of his functions and powers. Sai Baba was a unique and rare blend of all faiths; for him there were no barriers of religion, sect, race, sex, caste, creed, language and nationality. What is remarkable is that Sai Baba founded no new sect of his own nor did he establish any seat or peeth, nor leave any spiritual heir. Frankly, it is a monumental study in patience, hard work and total devotion to the subject on hand. This book is a testimony to Shri Kher’s pursuit of Truth. It invites – and surely deserves – Sai Baba’s blessings. From The Foreword

"“The Eternal Sai Phenomenon” attempts to unravel the nature of Sai phenomenon primarily in the context of the timeless Shrimad Bhagavad Gita. Sai path has been analysed from the standpoint of various yogas, like Karma yoga, Gnana yoga, hyana yoga and Bhakti yoga. Anecdotes from Shirdi Sai Baba’s life have been narrated to bring home the unique confluence of universal truths of world religions in the teachings and conduct. Shri Nanda has brought in the eternal nature of the unique phenomenon of Sai linking it to the earlier prophets and Sadgurus. The appearance of Shirdi Sai, the events in His lifetime and after His Mahasamadhi in 1918 have been recorded in the chronological time period with due acknowledgement to the sources. The historical recording starts from 1854 and comes up to year 2009. Arrangement of selected events year-wise is expected to familiarise the readers to the unfolding of Sai phenonomenon in an orderly historical perspective. This book could serve as a reference document for Sai devotees, researchers and students of spiritual themes, who wish to explore further the nature of Sai Phenomenon and Sai Consciousness.