The Sai Baba Movement

By Author: Srisairam Subhayatra
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The Sai Baba Movement

Sabka Malik Ek

Baba understood the important aspects of Islam and Hinduism and also the blind customs in both. Having been brought up by Roshan Shah who was a Sufi saint, and later by Venkusa (devotee of Lord Venkateswara) who being a Hindu, used to take Baba to the Samadhis
of great persons of both the religions and explain their teachings and theories in detail.

So Baba’s teachings combined elements of both Hinduism and Islam, thereby, trying to achieve communal harmony between both these religions. He shunned any kind of regular rituals in both the religions,
but allowed the practice of namaz, chanting of Al-Fatiha, and Qur’an readings at Muslim festival times. Occasionally reciting the Al-Fatiha himself, Baba also enjoyed listening to Moulu & Qawwalis accompanied with the Tabla & Sarangi twice daily. He also wore clothing reminiscent of a Sufi fakir. Sai Baba also opposed all sorts of persecutions on religious or caste background. Sai Baba was also an opponent of religious orthodoxy – both Hindu and Muslim.

In 1897, Gopalrao Gund proposed holding ...
... the Urus, as in expression of his gratitude to Baba. Baba gave his permission for the celebration and fixed the day for Ramnavami. This was an ingenious touch of Baba’s. Urus is a Muslim festival honoring a Muslim Saint and by holding the Urus on the day of a Hindu festival, the two communities were brought closer tighter, in a natural yet remarkable way.

Hindu & Muslim influence was seen in his life also. He lived in an abandoned mosque which was rechristened as “Dwarakamai”,
which means Mother Dwarika (Birth place of Lord Krishna)
and begged for alms till his last day. By appearance he was a Muslim fakir and wore a tattered kafni (long robe) and wrapped a cloth around his head with a large knot. But his ears were pierced which is a Hindu sign. He had intimate knowledge of both the Hindu Sciptures & the Quran. He regularly recited Hindu and Muslim prayers and encouraged his disciples to follow the holy books of their religion. He took Mahasamadhi on 15th October`1918 at 02.30 pm, when the Hindu Festival “Dassara” & the Muslim Festival “Muharram” fell on the same day.

So Baba used to celebrate Hindu festivals like Rama-Navami, Guru Purnima etc and also permitted the “Sandal” procession of the Mohammedans and on Id festivals, he allowed Mohammedan’s to say their prayers (Namaz) in his masjid. Once in the Moharum festival, some Mohammedans proposed to construct a Tajiya or Tabut in the Masjid, keep it there for some days and afterwards take it in the procession through the village. Sai Baba allowed the keeping of the Tabut for four days and on the fifth day removed it out of the Masjid without the least compunction. He allowed all devotees to celebrate festivals at Shirdi, according to their preferences and religious adopted by them.

The Sai Baba Movement

The Shirdi Sai Baba movement began in the 19th century, during Baba’s lifetime itself, while he was staying in Shirdi. A local Khandoba priest, Mhalsapati is believed to have been his first devotee. However, in the 19th century Sai Baba’s followers were only a small group of Shirdi inhabitants and a few people from other parts of India. It started developing in the 20th century and even faster in 1910 with the Sankirtans of Das Ganu, who spread Sai Baba’s fame to the whole of India.

Since 1910 numerous Hindus and Muslims from all parts of India started coming to Shirdi. During his life Hindus worshipped him with Hindu rituals and Muslims revered him greatly, considering him to be a saint. Later (in the last years of Sai Baba’s life) Christians and Zoroastrians started joining the Shirdi Sai movement.

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