From the
Satcharitra.

Chapter 5 — The lamps that burned on water

Sai Baba was fond of lighting many lamps in the masjid and the village temples each evening, borrowing the oil daily from the village banias (shopkeepers). One day they conspired to refuse him, denying that any oil remained.

Baba returned to the masjid, took the empty tin pot containing only a few drops of oil, added water to it, drank some of the mixture and then poured it into the lamps. The lamps burned through the night. The banias, who had followed to watch, repented and asked his forgiveness.

Shri Sai Satcharitra, Ch. 5.

Chapter 5 — “Welcome, Sai”

The Satcharitra records that the name “Sai” was given to Baba on his arrival in Shirdi with the wedding party of Chand Patil. As the young fakir descended from the cart at the foot of a banyan tree, the devotee Mhalsapati greeted him with the words “Ya Sai” — “Welcome, Sai.” The name remained.

Shri Sai Satcharitra, Ch. 5.

Chapter 7 — The hand in the fire

In 1910, on a Diwali holiday, Baba was sitting near the dhuni and pushing logs into the flames. A moment later, instead of a log, he pushed his own arm into the fire; it was scorched immediately. Madhavrao Deshpande (Shyama) ran to him and dragged him back, asking why he had done such a thing.

Baba answered: “The wife of a blacksmith at some distant place was working the bellows of a furnace. Her husband called her; she forgot that her child was on her waist and ran hastily, and the child slipped into the furnace. I immediately thrust my hand into the furnace and saved the child. I do not mind my arm being burnt, but I am glad that the life of the child is saved.”

For the remainder of his life, the burn was dressed daily by the leper devotee Bhagoji Shinde, who massaged it with ghee and rebandaged it. Baba never allowed a doctor to treat it.

Shri Sai Satcharitra, Ch. 7.

Chapter 7 — Bearing the plague

Mrs. Khaparde was staying in Shirdi when her young son fell seriously ill with bubonic plague. She came to Baba in fear and asked his leave to return to Amraoti. Baba spoke gently to her: “The sky is beset with clouds; but they will melt and pass off and everything will be smooth and clear.”

He then lifted his kafni to the waist and revealed four fully developed plague bubos, as large as eggs, on his own body. He said: “See, how I have to suffer for my devotees; their difficulties are mine.”

Shri Sai Satcharitra, Ch. 7.

Chapter 15 — Cholkar’s sugarless tea

A poor man named Cholkar, after hearing Dasganu’s kirtan in Thana, secretly vowed to Baba: if he passed the departmental examination, he would visit Shirdi, fall at Baba’s feet, and distribute sugar-candy. To save the expense of the trip, he gave up sugar in his daily tea.

He passed the examination and travelled to Shirdi with sugar-candy. Baba did not address him directly. Instead, he turned to Bapusaheb Jog, who was hosting Cholkar, and said: “Give him cups of tea, fully saturated with sugar.” Cholkar understood: his private vow had been entirely known.

Shri Sai Satcharitra, Ch. 15.

Chapter 15 — “Look to me”

In the same chapter, the Satcharitra records a sentence Baba spoke to devotees who were carrying a quiet burden: “If you cast a glance at me, I shall cast a glance at you.”

The phrase — an economy of attention — is reported in similar wording by many devotees and is one of the most reliably attested of Baba’s sayings.

Shri Sai Satcharitra, Ch. 15.

Chapter 18–19 — The two pice of Baba’s own guru

An elderly woman named Radhabai Deshmukh came to Shirdi from Sangamner and resolved to fast unto death until Baba accepted her as guru and gave her a mantra. After three days, Shama interceded. Baba sent for her and, instead of giving a mantra, told her his own story:

“I had a Guru. He was a great Saint and most merciful. I served him long, very long … He first got my head shaved and asked Me two pice as Dakshina. I gave the same at once. … He never cared for coins. His two pice were (1) Firm Faith and (2) Patience or perseverance. … Nishtha (Faith) and Saburi (Patience) are like twin sisters, loving each other very intimately.”

Baba added: “I resorted to My Guru for 12 years.” Radhabai gave up her fast.

Shri Sai Satcharitra, Chs. 18–19. This passage is the canonical source for the central pairing of shraddha and saburi in Baba’s teaching.

Chapter 19 — On welcoming whoever comes

In the same chapter the Satcharitra records a longer passage of Baba’s direct advice on daily conduct:

“If any men or creatures come to you, do not discourteously drive them away, but receive them well and treat them with due respect. Shri Hari (God) will be certainly pleased, if you give water to the thirsty, bread to the hungry, clothes to the naked, and your verandah to strangers for sitting and resting. … Let anybody speak hundreds of things against you, do not resent by giving any bitter reply. … Allah Malik — God is the sole Proprietor.”

Shri Sai Satcharitra, Ch. 19.

Chapter 24 — The grains in the sleeve

On a Sunday bazaar-day, Shama noticed grains of gram stuck to the sleeve of Hemadpant’s coat. When the puzzle was placed before Baba, Baba teased Hemadpant gently for “the bad habit of eating alone” — chewing grams on the way. Hemadpant protested that he had not been to the bazaar. Baba then offered the real lesson:

“Do you remember Me before eating? Am I not always with you? Then do you offer Me anything before you eat?”

Hemadpant adds his own gloss: that any object of the senses, when first offered inwardly to the guru, loses its hold; and that this is the practice Baba was teaching through a small piece of theatre.

Shri Sai Satcharitra, Ch. 24.

Chapter 33 — Udi, the ash from the dhuni

Baba kept the dhuni burning continually for over forty years and gave a pinch of its ash — udi — to anyone he sent away. The Satcharitra interprets the gesture: the ash is a teaching about transience. “All the visible phenomena in the universe are as transient as the ash. Our bodies … will fall down, after all their enjoyments are over, and be reduced to ashes.”

The same chapter records the Jamner miracle: when Nanasaheb Chandorkar’s daughter Mainatai faced a near-fatal childbirth one hundred miles from Shirdi, Baba sent a devotee, Ramgirbuva, with udi and an arati. Ramgirbuva arrived at Jalgaon station at 2:45 am with only two annas in his pocket. A mysterious peon and tanga, apparently sent by Nanasaheb, met him, took him through the night to Jamner, then disappeared. Nanasaheb later confirmed he had sent no one. The childbirth proceeded safely.

Shri Sai Satcharitra, Ch. 33. The Jamner episode is also documented in B. V. Narsimha Swami’s Devotees’ Experiences, Part III.

Chapters 43–44 — The Mahasamadhi

Baba left his body at Shirdi on 15 October 1918, the day of Vijayadashami. In the days before, he asked Mr. Vaze to read Ramavijaya to him, first once over the week, then again in three days. Two or three days before his passing he stopped his usual morning rounds and remained in the masjid.

That afternoon, after the noon arati, he asked Kakasaheb Dixit and Shriman Booty to return to their residence to eat. A handful of devotees stayed: Laxmibai Shinde, Bhagoji Shinde, Bayaji, Laxman Bala Shimpi, Nanasaheb Nimonkar, and Shama. After giving nine rupees to Laxmibai Shinde, Baba said he did not feel well there and asked to be taken to the stone wada of Booty — “where He would be alright.”

“Saying these last words, He leaned on Bayaji’s body and breathed His last.”

Bhagoji noticed the breath had stopped; Nanasaheb Nimonkar poured water into Baba’s mouth, but it came out. Baba opened his eyes once, said softly “Ah,” and was gone. He was interred in the central portion of Booty’s Wada — the same building that became, with him, his samadhi mandir.

Shri Sai Satcharitra, Chs. 43–44. The exact direct quotation above is from Hemadpant’s narrative; “Allah Malik” was repeated by Baba throughout these last days and is among the phrases most associated with this period, though the literal final spoken words in the text are those concerning the move to Booty’s Wada.

Chapter 43–44 — The 72-hour samadhi of 1886

Thirty-two years before his Mahasamadhi, on a Margashirsha Pournima day in 1886, Baba suffered a severe asthma attack. He told his closest companion Bhagat Mhalsapati: “Protect My body for three days. If I return, it will be alright; if I do not, bury My body in that open land and fix two flags there as a mark.”

Baba fell, his breathing and pulse stopped. Mhalsapati sat with Baba’s body in his lap for three full days, refusing the villagers’ demand for an inquest. After three days, at 3 am, Baba returned to the body.

Shri Sai Satcharitra, Chs. 43–44.

Throughout the Satcharitra — “Sab ka Malik Ek”

Across many chapters, when devotees asked Baba about religion, identity, or sectarian division, the phrase that recurs in his answer is the same: “Sab ka Malik Ek hai” — “There is one master of all.”

He lived in a masjid he renamed Dwarkamai. He celebrated Hindu Rama-Navami and Muslim Urs in the same courtyard. He kept the dhuni burning, allowed Hindus to perform arati, and permitted Muslims to pray namaz there. The Satcharitra returns to this point again and again.

Shri Sai Satcharitra, recurring; especially Chs. 7, 14, 22, 47.