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Introduction
The Shri Sai Satcharita is a biography on the life stories of Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi. It is written by Shri Govind Raghunath Dabholkar alias 'Hemadpant', the name given by Sai Baba. On 26 November 1930, the first edition of the Shri Sai Satcharitra: The Wonderful Life and Teachings of Shirdi Sai Baba" was published in Marathi.
Contents
This holy work has been translated into English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati, Sindhi, Bengali, Kannada, Oriya, Nepali, Punjabi and Konkani languages. The English Edition was first published in 1944, translated by Shri Nagash Devastate (N.V.) Gunaji. Even this year a new English Edition has been published in New York. Goodreads.
History
In the year 1910, when Hemadpant first came to Shirdi, he saw Shri Sai Baba grinding wheat on the grindstone, only to have them dispersed around the borders of Shirdi village, which actually resulted in preventing the raging Cholera epidemic from entering the limits of Shirdi. It triggered an ardent desire and wish in his mind that he should document and chronicle the leelas of Shri Sainath Maharaj for the benefit of His devotees. He sought the help of Madhav Rao Deshpande alias Shama, who advocated his cause before Shri Sainath Maharaj. It was in the year 1916, that Sai Baba gave His consent, stating "You have my full consent to write my life history. Take notes and keep them. If my leelas are recorded, sins committed through ignorance will be dissolved. When my leelas are heard and/or read with love and devotion, the cares and troubles of worldly life will be forgotten." This story is mentioned in the second chapter of Shri Sai Satcharita. This event marked the beginning of Shri Sai Satcharita. i.e. the documented form of blessed stories of Shri Sai Baba.
Shri Hemadpant, wrote the Sai Satcharita at his residence Sai Niwas, located on St. Martin Road in Bandra, Mumbai. The Sai Satcharita consists of 9450 verses spread over 52 Chapters.
Hemadpant actually started writing the Shri Sai Satcharita in the year 1922 and he breathed his last in the year 1929 just after he had finished writing the 51st Chapter. The desk on which Hemadpant wrote the manuscript of the Sai Satcharita is still well preserved and is placed in the same room in Sai Niwas in which he sat and wrote the Sai Satcharita. Besides the desk, other memorable, such as Hemadpant’s turban, etc. have also been well preserved.