Shridi Saibaba ashram in Shirdi to be inaugurated soon



The Shirdi Saibaba ashram being built in Shirdi would be completed by October and President Pranab Mukherjee has been invited by both the Shirdi Sai Sansthan and the Maharashtra government, to inaugurate the new facility. 

The ashram spread over 12 acres of land is being built at an estimated cost of Indian rupees 140 crores (14 million rupees) and will have  192 big halls and 1,536 rooms which could accommodate 15,000 devotees. Chennai based K V Ramani, a Shirdi Saibaba devotee, has donated Indian rupees of 100 crores and the Shirdi Sai Sansthan has invested Indian rupees of 40 crores to complete construction of the Saibaba ashram.

Saibaba temple to auction gold, silver donated by devotees in October 2012 - cancelled after High Court Stay

 

The Shirdi Saibaba Sansthan Trust has announced that in October they will be auctioning of a part of the gold, silver and diamonds donated by the devotees. According to Sansthan's executive officer Kishor More, there was 280 kg of gold and 3,000 kg of silver with the trust, of which 37 kg gold and 516 kg silver had been sent to Mumbai for melting. Some of the remaining gold and silver along with diamonds would be auctioned. The details would be available on the temple's website.


Update:
Shirdi (Maharashtra), Oct 16 (IANS) The auction of offerings at the Saibaba Temple here, scheduled in three phases starting Thursday (Oct 18), has been cancelled after the Bombay High Court stayed the process, a temple trust official said.
"The Bombay High Court has stayed the proposed auction and accordingly it has been cancelled until further orders of the court," said an official of Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust (SSST).
The official declined to give more details of the cancellation of the auction, which had generated tremendous enthusiasm among Shirdi Saibaba's devotees in India and abroad.
Now, it will be conducted at a later date after the permission of the high court, the official added.
Valuable gold and silver crowns, statues, garlands, padukas, necklaces, coins, diamonds and precious stones and other articles offered at the Saibaba Temple by devotees were due to be auctioned this week onwards at the temple premises.
The proposed auction - the third of its kind in the past decade and the second in five years - had included 32 kg of silver offerings, 18 kg of gold offerings and 52 precious stones or articles studded with precious stones.
 

Union State Minister for Railway, Mr. K.H.Muniyappa at Shirdi temple

Union State Minister  for Railway, Mr.K.H.Muniyappa offering his prayers at Shirdi Shri Saibaba's Samadhi.

Shirdi Sai Paduka in Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam

There were news reports that in an unprecedent move, on Wednesday, Feb 1, 2012, the TTD trust board chairman Bapiraju personally carried the padukas of Shirdi Saibaba inside the Venkateswara Temple.  

Read more: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/hyderabad/row-erupts-over-shirdi-sai-paduka-tirumala-389

TTD Trust board chairman Kanumuri Bapiraju carrying the padukas of Shirdi Saibaba inside the Tirumala Temple.

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is caught in yet another controversy with TTD trust board chairman Kanumuri Bapiraju carrying the padukas (footwear) of Shirdi Saibaba, represented by the Shirdi Sansthan, inside the Tirumala temple on Wednesday.

A huge entourage from Shirdi Sansthan accompanied the ritual. Various public, political and religious groups objected to taking the padukas of Shirdi inside Tirumala temple, saying that it would be a sacrilege of the 2,000-year-old ancient Hindu temple tradition.

It may be noted here that as per legend, even Lord Venkateswara himself left behind his footwear at Alipiri Padala Mandapam before going to Tirumala.

Saint Ramanujacharya had trekked the holy Tirumala hills on his knees. The TTD had also prohibited wearing footwear in the temple streets at Tirumala.

This being the case, the footwear of Shirdi Sai was taken in a procession along the temple streets.

View the video (1:26 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wue_hEBUyWQ
View the video with interviews (12:39 minutes) http://www.ap7am.com/lv-55966-tv9-shirdi-sai-paduka-darshan-at-tirumala-turns-controversial.html

For more photos visit http://saibabadwarkamai.com/forum/index.php?topic=5298.0