Kakasaheb was extremely lucky to have spent time with Shri Sai and along with the highest form of blessings he received some articles, all of which except one are with the family.

Kafni

Baba had given one of his kafnis' to Kaka Saheb Dixit with instructions to wear it while performing the daily pooja. It some how disappeared from the Dixit Wada in 1946.

Silver Miniature Padukas

Baba also gave him a miniature silver Padukas kept in a small silver dabbi. As per Baba instructions, Kaka used to always carry them in his pocket. The casket (dabbi) has Hanuman carving on the cover top.

Wooden Padukas

Baba always used to say that one must follow all the rituals given in the Shashtas. Kaka Saheb wanted to keep Baba's paduka in his Dev Ghar. However as per the Shashtras' leather articles are not allowed in the pooja ghar ( prayer room.)

Baba used to always wear leather Padukas (foot wear). Kaka therefore got one pair of padukas made of Shisham Wood and asked Baba to touch it and give him back with blessings. Baba did as per Kaka's wishes and this pair of blessed padukas is still with us.

Sai Baba's Portrait painted by the Famous Painter And Sai Devotee Late Shri Shyamrao Jaykar.

Sai Baba did not permit anyone to take his photographs. If anyone dared to do so without his permission the Frame would be either blank or without Baba. Saibaba on a rare occasion permitted Shri Shyamrao Jaykar (an eminent Painter of those times) to paint His Portrait.

The Late Shri Shyamrao Jaykar normally used to paint portraits of royal family members and British Lords, and in 1913 Rao Bahadur Moreshwar W. Pradhan requested him to visit Shirdi for making Baba's portrait.

Baba was not so famous at that time. Even Mr. Jaykar was unaware about the power of 'Fakir' and during his journey to Shirdi was thinking that the visit is going to be futile. Had been to some royal place, he would have earned a handsome amount.

After reaching Shirdi they went to Dwarkamai for Baba's Darshan. The first sentence Baba uttered was why he was in Shirdi. He should have gone to some royal place and painted their portraits. What was the use of taking out a portrait of a humble fakir like him?

However on Shyama's intervention Baba finally decided to sit in front of Jaykar and allowed him to paint three portraits one after other. After finishing his first portrait Shri Jaykar took it to Dwaraka Mai to show it to Baba, who asked him to present it to Kaka Saheb Dixit on Baba's behalf.

This unique portrait of Sai Baba has been in our Pooja Room since 1913. It may be noted here that only Shri Jaykar got rare honor of painting three portraits of Sai Baba by making him sit in front of him. All other paintings have been made after Baba's samadhi, based on either these paintings or Baba's photographs of the painting.

Shri Pradhan bought the remaining two paintings and they were lying with his family members in the folded canvas form for a very long time. Amazingly, around 1970, Shri Pradhan's son and grandson, both, got the same dream in the same night. Baba appeared in their dream and instructed them to deliver the portraits to our house. And thus we got one more blessed portrait of Baba. It is displayed on our home page of our website.

ACTIVITIES OF OUR TRUST

At present the trust carries out three fold activities – Spiritual, Social and Charitable.

SPIRITUAL ACTIVITIES:

Every Thursday Baba's Aartis are performed twice, in the morning (8.30 am) and in the evening (6.30 p.m.). Both the Aartis are attended by large number of devotees who come even from far off places. A small Sai prayer extracted from the Kakad Aartis that is performed in the Shirdi Temple follows evening Aarti. This is followed by a discourse on one of the adhyas of Shri Sai Saccharitra or on the life of one of the close devotees of Shri Sai Baba.

Prasad is distributed to all the bhaktas who are present. Annually bhaktas gather on occasion of Ram Navmi, Guru Purnima and Dassera on which Aarti's are performed. Either Bhajans or Kirtans follows this. The function ends with distribution of Maha Prasad.

On 2 November 1909 Late Shri Kaka Saheb Dixit had his first darshan of Shri Sai Baba in Shirdi, and in memory of that every year, 2nd November is celebrated as Guru Samparpan Diwas by us in a big way.

We distribute free copies Shri Sai Saccharitra pothies in English, Marathi, Gujarati and Hindi languages published by Shirdi Sansthan of Shri Sai Baba,

We also publish 'SAI ANANTA' a Marathi quarterly magazine.

We plan to setup a meditation center along with a library and a Prayer room at our existing premises.

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

Every year, around Ram Navmi day, more than 40000 Sai Bhaktas undertake 8 to 9 days pad-yatra from Mumbai to Shirdi. They begin the yatra on Gudi Padwa day and reach Shirdi on Ram Navmi. Two years ago, some of the Pad Yatris, who have been participating in the Yatra for number of years, approached us with a request to make some arrangement for drinking water at two critical spots. The first spot is about a kilometer before the crossing for Kasara station.

From Karadi there is steep and long climbing stretch till this point and in this entire stretch drinking water is not available. Second spot is the place where some of the palkhis turn towards Kasara village and camp there for afternoon halt for pooja and lunch.

Honoring this request, we started providing not only water but also some light snacks and fresh Limbu Sharbat at these spots. Near the Kasara Village we also station two water tankers so that the Yatris can take bath there. We also organize free medical check-up camp from time time for Sai devotees.

We have also started taking Sai Devotees to excursions to the places, which are connected to Sai Baba or his close Devotees and whose name are mentioned in Shri Sai Sacchritra.

We have good collection of religious books including on Sufism and we also subscribe to many periodicals on Shri Shirdi Sai Baba. All these books and periodicals are available for the interested Devotees.

CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

In a small way we have started some charitable activities like providing financial helps for education and medical assistance to poor people.

GURU SAMARPAN DIWAS

There is an interesting story behind starting of celebrating 2nd November as Guru Samarpan Diwas. Once in the first half of the year 2003, I had an honor of accompanying Shri Satpathiji (Guruji) to Shirdi. After attending the evening Aarti, as we were passing near Dixitwada (presently the Museum). Guruji suddenly stopped there for a moment and asked me to give him details regarding following two events/subject.

The date on which Kaka Saheb had his first Darshan of Shri Sai Baba in Shirdi and where in Sai Saccharitra is it mentioned that Sai Baba once told Kaka Saheb that in his next incarnation Baba would appear as a child of 8 years. I very promptly agreed to provide these details to him at my earliest, but later on I realized that it was going to be a big research project for me and I may have to churn a number of books to get the required information.

I have no hesitation in admitting that my knowledge regarding Shri Sai Saccharitra was very shallow despite having an old copy of the same in our Devghar. We were also having a book 'Sainche Sat Chhritra" Written by Col. Nimbalkar in our house, which was presented to me by him in the year 1996. It appears that Col, Nimbalkar fully knew my disinterest in reading books and therefore on a small paper he noted down the page numbers on which Kaka Saheb's name was mentioned.

He must have wanted me to at least read those pages. These were the only two bools on Si Baba in our house to start my research project. Reaching Mumbai from Shirdi I became extremely busy with my routing office work and totally forgot about the project. I am really very lucky person to always get sleep as soon as I lay down in my bed.

But after about two weeks latter from my Shirdi visit, once I was unable to get any sleep till 2O'clock in the night. And suddenly I remembered about my promise to Shri Guruji. I got up from my bed, entered our Devghar and decided to make a beginning to Herculean task of my research work. Our Devghar is always full of positive vibrations mainly due to presence of a unique and live portrait of Shri Sai Baba painted by Late Shyamrao Jaykar in the year 1913; I bowed before Sai Baba and sought his blessings. The first book that I picked up on that night was the same one, which was presented to me by Col. Nimbalkar. I sat in front of Baba's portrait and once again bowed before him to get his blessings.

It was a great surprise that I opened the book from the last page I saw a chronological tabulation of events that took place in Shirdi. It only took me a minute or so to get the date on which Kaka Saheb Had his First darshan

of Shri Sai Baba. That day was 2nd November 1909. I never expected that the first part of my research would get over so easily and quickly. I thanked Baba for that, went to bed and got very sound sleep that night.

A few days passed there after and again on one night the thing of not getting the sleep up to 2 o'clock repeated. I thought it to be the alarm for starting the second part of my research project.

All rituals performed in earlier occasion were repeated. However this time I had to use some logic to get the answer. I thought that the mention of next incarnation would be mostly in tone of those Adhyays, which are related to his Baba's nirvan. And therefore I picked up Hemadpant's Sai Sacchritra and started glancing from Adhyay 42.

It took me about 5 minutes to locate the required information in Adhayay 43 ovi 139. Here it is mentioned that Baba had once told that in his next incarnation he would appear as a child of 8-year age. For a moment I was happy that I got the answer but next moment became unhappy, as the name of Kaka Saheb was nowhere mentioned here.

Immediately I decided to see the interpretation (tika) of this Ovi in Col. Nimbalkar's book and he has given reference of page 2 of Preface (upodhvadhat) of original Sai Saccharitra written by Hemadpant.

Here it is mentioned by Kaka Saheb that once Baba told him that in his next incarnation he would be born as an 8-year child. I never expected that the research would get over so quickly and so easily. It is for the first time I realized the meaning of Shraddha and Saburi.

However I could not sleep in anxiety to convey the results of my research to shri Guruji .In the same morning I contacted Shri Guruji on telephone at about 8 o'clock. Shri Guruji responded with the following words; 'So Bhau, you have now started reading books on Shri Sai Baba. Please keep it up. I want you to take lead in getting this day of 2nd November celebrated every year at Vile Parle as GURU SAMARPAN DIWAS.

It is quite obvious that he knew both the answers and the basic objective were to drive me towards Saism by reading the available literature. I accepted his command of celebrating 'GURU SAMARPAN DIWAS' conditionally and the condition was that he would be present and preside the function every year.

BHIVPURI

Bhivpuri village has the rare honor of having the first ever temple of Shirdi Sai Baba. Bhivpuri Road is a central railway station near the Karjat (kalyan Pune track).

Late Shri Keshavrao Pradhan was working in a commercial firm of Bombay. The Firm had a good business in the Nasik, Kopergaon and Ahemadnagar area. Shri Pradhan used to frequently tour these areas for collecting outstanding amounts. One of the friends of Shri Pradhan was a close devotee of Sainath Maharaj and he used to make frequent trips to Shirdi for Baba's darshan. Many time he used to request Shri Pradhan to come with him to Dwarkamai in Shirdi for Sai darshan. Since Shri Pradhan was agnostic, he uses to always ignore his invitation.

Once both of them were in Shirdi and Shri Keshavrao's friend went for Sai Baba's darshan whereas Keshavrao remained in his room. Baba asked his friend to call Keshavrao. Shri Keshavrao agreed to accept the invitation on one condition that he would not bow before Baba (for nanaskar).

The very first site of Baba made tremendous impact on him and he forgot everything and went on steering Baba. Baba asked him to give him all the money, which he was carrying as Dakshina to him. He had Rs. 2000, which he had collected from his firm's clients. He, without any hesitation, gave the entire amount to Baba.

He had no money to purchase his return ticket to Bombay. But some stranger readily agreed to help him. Shri Keshavrao's assured him that he would return back the money to him by Money Order and noted down the stranger's address. After coming back to Bhivpuri he had no courage to attend his office as he had no money to deposit the collected amount in his office and therefore posted a sick leave application to his office.

After some days the office deputed one of his close friends to visit Keshavrao's house and enquire about his health. The friend found that Keshavrao was in normal health and asked him the reason of not attending the office. Keshavrao gave him all the facts about not attending the office.

At that time, to Keshavrao's surprise, his friend told him that the amount of Rs. 2000 had been deposited long back by someone. This strengthened Shri Keshavrao's faith in Baba and he became an ardent devotee of Shri Sai Baba. The Money Order to the stranger's addresses was also returned back with a remark that there is no such person on the address given.

Shri Keshavrao had a strong desire to invite Baba to his Bhivpuri house and once in Shirdi he was, like a small child, insisting Baba to come to his house Baba used to live in Shirdi only and never used to go beyond Nimgoan and Rahata. In order to pacify him Baba gave him his own statue of Plaster of Paris. Baba told Keshavrao" Go back to your home, construct a temple near your house and install this statue there. I will always remain near you. and please do not come back to Shirdi."

Keshavrao came back to his village but he was not satisfied, as he wanted Baba's physical presence there and not his statue. He made another trip to Shirdi despite Baba's instructions of not to visit Shirdi. On seeing Keshavrao Baba told him to go back but also promised him that he would visit him at mid night of a particular day. Baba kept his promise and appeared near the house of Shri Pradhan on that midnight and fulfilled the desire of Shri Keshavrao.

It was in 1916 that the temple was constructed in Bhivpuri and the statue given by Baba was duly installed there. The Place where Baba appeared in the midnight now is occupied by a Tulsi Brindavan to keep the sanctity of the place.

DHUPKHEDA

Dhupkheda is a small village where Shri Sai Baba had spent almost 6 to 8 years of his life. It is located a small distance in the southwest direction from Aurangabad (Paithan Tehsil); Chand Patil was the village head of Dhupkheda.

He had the rare honor of witnessing first recorded miracle of Sai Baba. Once while going to Aurangabad, Chand Patil lost his mare. His search for the mare continued over a period of 6 to 8 weeks without any success. He then decided to return to his village. He was carrying the saddle on his shoulders.

After he covered a distance of 12 to 14 miles from Aurangabad, he saw a young fakir sitting below a mango tree Fakir was wearing a cap, a kafni and dhoti. He had a satka and chimta with him and was preparing chillum (earthen pipe). Fakir called him and asked him to take little rest. Fakir also asked him reason for carrying the saddle. When he told fakir about his lost mare, he directed him to go to near by nallah and search there.

When Chand Patil began his search near the nallah he was surprised to see his mare grazing there. He returned to the Fakir with his mare and thanked him profusely. The Fakir then asked Patil to accompany him for smoking the chillum, which he had already filled with tobacco. Two more things (fire to start the process of burning and water for wetting the filtering cloth) were required for the chillum smoking and neither was available.

To Chand Patil's surprise the fakir inserted his chimta in the ground and pulled it out a lit coal. He then placed it on top of the filled chillum and simultaneously his satka on the ground and water gushed out. Chand Patil immediately realized that fakir was not any ordinary person but a man with extra ordinary powers.

He invited fakir to stay with him in his village Dhupkheda. Thus The Fakir who was none other than Baba spent some of the years of his life in Dhupkheda. Today in Dhupkheda one can see Chand Patil's Mazaar, the neem tree under which Baba used to seat. It has also has a Sai Mandir and a dilapidated structure belonging to Chand Patil's family.

SHRI R. B. PURANDARE

Late Shri R.B Purandare from Bandra was a petty clerk with an income of Rs. 30 per month with which he had to support a family of five members including his mother, wife, brother and child.

What he heard about Sai Baba from Das Ganu and others moved him very deeply and decided to visit Shirdi. On the day of departure his child was unwell and every body including his mother advised him not to undertake take risk of taking a little child with fever to a very great distance – Bombay to Shirdi. But Purandare had full faith and love towards Baba.

Baba justified his faith and his love by completely curing the child immediately after reaching Shirdi and thus compounding Purandhare's faith in Baba's omniscience and omnipotence.

Baba not only forced Purandhare to acquire a piece of land and get his own house constructed but assured him to guard it as it was located in an isolated area, prone to theft and robbery. Purandhare initially thought this type of investment to be beyond his means. This is a strange instance of Baba's love forcing a man to get a bungalow when he could hardly afford it.

Once, Purandhare's mother requested Baba to look after her son. To which Baba's replied, "I have known him for generations. I have guarded him from his infancy in front and behind. I will not eat even a bit of food without him." Benefits conferred on Purandhare were innumerable, and they varied in their character. All of them were founded upon Baba's wonderful, unseen guardianship and exercise of superhuman powers of guarding his dear ward or devotee from all troubles