Urus, Sandal Procession, Ramnavami Celebrations
Urus Celebrations
Gopalrao Gund, a great devotee of Shri Saibaba, was a surveyor in Survey Department in Kopergaon. He had three wives but no children. With Baba's blessing, a son was born to him. Gopalrao's joy saw no bounds so he wanted to commemorate the occassion and also spread his joy by some celebration. He got an idea to celebrate Urus in Shirdi - This is really extraordinary for devot Hindu to get an idea to celebrate a Muslim function. This could have happended only through the grace of Baba, without His wishes, the thought would not have come in Gopalrao's mind. In 1897, Gopalrao put forth this idea to his fellow Baba's devotee namely Tatya Patil, Dada Kote Patil, Shama and others. They were all happy with this suggestion and quickly sought Baba's permission. Baba, who came to bring together Hindus and Muslims together, gave His permission to proceed as per their plan. All the devotees were delighted and started preparing for the celebration.
It is very normaly for any new undertaking would have difficulties. So, there were some which came the way of the preparation. Initially, there was a scarcity of water in the village. There were two well - one become dry and the other's water become foul. However, when Baba was on their side, how could any difficult stop their efforts. Baba came to their rescue and put few flowers in the second well, turning the foul water into sweet nector. Nevertheless, the water was still scarce in the village, hence Tatya made the required arrangement to bring water from outside to fulfill their needs. The villagers approached the collector and local administrator for the required permission. However, the local Kulkarni (or Village Head) rejected their request but with Baba's blessing on their side, they kept trying and finally received the Collector's permission to go ahead with the celeberation. Finally, the day for celebration was fixed as Ram Navami after discussing with Baba - which itself was another sign for both Hindus and Muslims to come together for the celebrations.
On the day of the celebrations, temporary shops propped up all around the village of Shirdi, wrestling bouts were arranged for all the devotees visiting Shirdi. Gopalrao had a very close friend, Damu Anna Kasar from Ahmendnagar, who also was blessed with sons with Baba's grace. Gopalrao discussed with his friend to arrange for a flag for the procession during Urus celebration. He further successed in obtaining one more flag from Nanasaheb Nimokar. Both the flags were part of the procession and finally planted at both corner of Dwarkamai.
Sandal Procession
After some time, another great devotee namely Amir Shakkar Dalal, a Muslim Bhakh from Korhla, brought forth a idea to start a "Sandal" procession to be added to the current Urus celebration. This was to commemorate in the honour of the great Muslim saints. The procession inluded Sandal or Chandan paste are carried on plates with incense buring in front. The procession went through the village with lot pomp along with bands and music playing songs praising Baba. After going around the village, they would reach the Masjid where they would throw the content on the wall of masjid as part of celebration. The Hindu carried the flags and the Muslims carried the Chandan or Sandal in the two procession side by side across the village ending at the masjid. It was a delightful sight where both Hindu and Muslims were side by side without any resentment or problem from either side.
Every year, this became a tradition where both Hindus and Muslims came together to celebrate both flag and Sandal procession. This day became a very sacred and important day in Shirdi for the devotee of Shri Saibaba. Tatya Kote Patil took care of all the major preparation of the celebration while Radhakrishnamai, another great devotee of Baba took care of all the internal preparation like arranging the stay for the guests, arranging the needed equipments for the celebrations. She also cleaned and white-washed the masjid walls (which were darken by eternal flame of Dhuni). The cleaning was done while Baba used to stay in Chavadi on every alternative day. Many guest would stay at Radhakrishnamai's house and she would cook food and sweet at a large scale for everyone including feeding the poor. Everyone participated in these preparation whether they were poor or rich and contributed as per their ability.
Urus conversion into Ramanavami Festival Celebration
This continued every years but things changed in 1912. In that year, Krishnarao Jogeshwar Bhishm came to participate in the festivities along with Dadasaheb Khaparde of Amaravati. They were staying in Dixit Wada, where a thought arose in his mind that Urus was being celebrated on the birth of Shri Ram (Ramanavami) and considering it is a very important festival for all Hindus, he felt they should also celebrate the birth of Shri Ram. He shared this thoughts with others - Kaka Mahajan, who very much liked the idea and both of them immediately sought Baba's permission. Baba, who is omnipotent, knew the reason for their visit and immediately agreed to their plan to go ahead and arrange a Kirtan to celebrate the birth of Shri Ram. Considering there was just one day left for the festival, it was very short time to arrange for a Haridas for the Kirtan. However, this problem was solved quickly with Krishnarao taking this mantle. He informed others that he had Ram Akhyan (Componsition of Ram's birth) with him. Kaka Mahajan took charge of playing the harmonium while Krishnarao would sing the songs for the Kirtan. Radhakrishnamai took charge of preparaing the "Sunthavada" for the prasad.
The next day, the entire Masjid was decorated and a cradle (arranged by Radhakrishnamai) was setup in front of Baba's seat. Once everything was ready, Kaka Mahajan and Krishnarao got ready to start the Kirtan. Just then, Baba saw the cradle and called on Mahajan for the explaination on placing a cradle in Masjid. After initial hesistation as they were worried that Baba would pull back His permission and stop the entire festivities, he explain the reason of the cradle that Ramanavami celebration have started and the cradle was part of the celebration. Baba took a garland from the Nimbar, placing it around Mahajan's neck and gave another for Krishnarao. Soon, the Kirtan started and it went without any hurdles. At the end of the Kirtan, everyone celebrate the successfull completion with songs, music and throwing Gulal on eachother. Accidently, some of the gulal powder fell in Baba's eyes. Baba immediately become enranged and began to shout and scold everyone. At time like these, no one has the courage to stay in front of Baba so everyone scatterd around. Only those who were very close to Baba and who understood Him, stayed at their place and received the scolding in the same way as they normally receive His blessings. They felt that it was normal for Baba to enranged as it was the Birth of Shri Ram, who had descended to kill the evil Ravana. Also, it was usual for Baba to be enranged whenever a new custom or trandition was getting introduced. However, Radhakrishnamai was scared that Baba would break the cradle so she requested Maharajan to remove the cradle from the Masjid. Baba did not allow the cradle to be removed and after some time calmed down and allowed the rest of festivities to be completed.
Later the day, Mahajan wanted to remove the cradle considering the celeberation were completed and sought Baba's permission. However, Baba refused stating that the celebration for Ramanavami were not completed. The next day, another Kirtan was arranged along with Gopal Kala cermony, which was to curd rice put in a pot tied up high that would be broken after the Kirtan similar to Shri Krishna and gopala's, who used to break the pot tied above high. While the Ramanavami celebration were ongoing, the Urus or Flag Procession and the "Sandal" Procession were conducted in the village. Thus making the Urus celebration being converted into complete Ramanavami celebrations
Ramanavami Festival Celebration
From 1913, Ramanavami celeberation started to increase year on year. Radhakrishnamai started Naam-Saptha (Singing the glory of God's names for seven straight days). Everyone participated in this program with Radhakrishnamai, herself joining in the early morning. The difficulty of getting a proper Haridas was getting difficult every years considering that there was a huge demand for Haridas during these times. In 1913, luckily Mahajan met a Haridas (named Balabua) just before the festivities and immediately got Balabua to perform for that year. in 1914, Balabua could not come due to plague in his village, hence with Baba's blessing, the responsibility was picked up Kakasaheb Dixit. The problem of getting a new Haridas was finally solved by Baba when He gave the responsibility permantently to Das Ganu.
Ramanavami was celebrated from 8th to 12th in Chaitra month. From its inception in 1912, it started to grow rapidly year after year. There were many more shops which started coming up in Shirdi during these festivities. Also, for the entertaiment of the visitor, wrestling bouts were arranged. Annadanam or Feeding the poor and needy was arranged. Radhakrishnamai managed the entire arrangement with ease and through her sheer hardwork turned Shirdi into a major Sanstham. Soon, there was horse, palanquine (or Palaki), Chariot, and many costly items like silver items, utensils, pictures, mirrors etc were provided for the celebration. Though these were available, Baba never cared for any of these items and continue to stay simple and humble as ever. Irrespective of whether it was the arrangement of Urus or Sandal Procession or Ramanavami celeberation, both Hindus and Muslims worked equally hard and contributed to its success. Initially there used to be around 5000 to 6000 devotee who would gather for these celebrations. Very soon, these numbers increased to around 75,000 devotees. Nevertheless, there was no outbreak of any epidemic (who was common in those days) nor any riots due to religious divide in the community. This could be only possible due to the blessing and grace of Shri Shirdi Saibaba.