In Shirdi146;s Shadow

THE Sai Baba temple at Shirdi now has company8212;of its own kind. A replica of the Shirdi temple has come up just 150 kms away from it in a village called Shirgaon.

Though there have been replicas of the Sai Baba idol, this is the first instance of the entire temple being replicated. Many feel the Shirgaon temple wants to piggyback on Shirdi8217;s fame. The Shirdi temple receives about 25,000 visitors every day. The number touches a lakh on special days.

The Shirgaon temple is curiously being called the Shirdi Temple too. Handbills issued by its trustees say that Sai Baba had migrated here along with all his vaibhav prosperity.

Where Shirgaon scores is in its proximity to Pune and Mumbai. And so the trustees8217; sale pitch: 8216;8216;Those who have no time to travel to Shirdi can just visit here.8217;8217;

Some people see a commercial overtone to this endeavour. 8216;8216;Shirdi is a rich temple and it is not difficult to sway the devotees to a namesake if you play a psychological game on them,8217;8217; says Tapan Choudhury, a regular visitor to Shirdi.

A Pune based politician and chief trustee of the Shirgaon temple, Prakash Devale, says the temple came up within nine months after he got a 8216;go ahead8217; from the saint himself last year 8212;in a dream though. He followed it up with a visit to the original Shirdi temple with an architect and an engineer. A series of photographs, video shooting and measurements were taken and work began.

The temple opened to the public this July and was inaugurated by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Curiosity to see the new temple has already attracted nearly three lakh devotees in just two months. Says Girish Warlekar, priest of the Shirgaon temple: 8216;8216;A few days ago, we had a family from Kashmir. There are many who have come from north India. Some of them go to Shirdi first and then come here. When I asked them, how did they know about this place, they said they read the news when the vice president inaugurated it and were curious to see it.8217;8217;

According to Usman Shaikh, one of the trustees: 8216;8216;On Gurupoornima we had 70,000 visitors. And on Thursdays and Sundays, there is a crowd of at least 10,000.8217;8217; And if devotees come, can donations be far behind? Says Devale: 8216;8216;This temple has been erected and work is still in progress thanks to generous donations from Sai Baba devotees. Soon we will be having a dining hall like the one in Shirdi and 50 more rooms. These should be ready in the next four months.8217;8217;

However, trustees of the original Sai Baba Temple in Shirdi, which has a turnover of Rs 70 crore annually, are not amused. Says Bhausaheb Wackhaure, chief executive officer of the original Shirdi Temple: 8216;8216;Yes, I have heard about the Shirgaon temple but have yet to visit it. I cannot comment any further except that you cannot replicate the aura of the sanctum sanctorum. You can replicate only the physical form.8217;8217;

Trustees of the Shirgaon Sai Baba Temple also claim a higher spirituality. They say devotees at Shirdi were fed up with its commercialisation and found peace in Shirgaon. But as you see endless jeeps ferrying passengers to Shirgaon, you wonder how long that peace will last.