LENDI BAGH

LENDI PROCESSION (Left TO Right : NANA SAHEB NIMONKAR WITH HIS GRANDSON, BABA SAI, BHAGOJI SHINDE (HOLIDING UMBRELLA), GOPAL RAO BUTTI AND CHOPDAR

A BRIEF ABOUT LENDI

Lendi was the name of a little stream on the outskirts of the village. Hence the land nearby was called 'Lendi Bagh' by Baba. Baba was rather rigid in this routine, and everyday He made His rounds in the morning and afternoon to Lendi Bagh, often accompanied by His Bhaktas, Butti, Bhagoji and Nimonkar but He entered the garden alone and spent sometime. This Lendi garden was purchased by Moreshwar Pradhan. A few years before the land was purchased, Baba took Pradhan and the two sons of Chandorkar to Lendi Bagh. There Baba dug small holes in the earth and gave some corn to Pradhan to put in the holes which He covered with earth and asked Pradhan to water them. Pradhan gave wonderful relevance to this incident as being the first seeds of thought in his mind to buy this land for Baba's use.

1.NEEM TREE 2. NANADADEEP 3.PEEPUL TREE

1.NEEM TREE
To the left of the Nanda Deep are two Neem trees. These were planted by Baba

2. NANDA DEEP
When Baba went to Lendi Bagh daily He lit the 'Nanda Deep'. At that time it was placed in a pit and Abdul Baba looked after it. Abdul states that Baba sat with His back to the 'Jyoth1 and from there the lamp was not visible to Baba. Abdul brought pots of water and placed them near the Nanda Deep and Baba poured *ater in various directions (Ref. DE, p. 144). In 1942 Galwankar built a par over which was placed the Nanda Deep and now it is contained in a marble pillar and shielded with glass and protected from the elements.

3.PEEPUL TREE
To the right of the Nanda Deep is this holy Peepul tree. Baba went daily to Lendi Bagh and spent two to three hours below these trees (Neem and Peepul). This Peepul tree began to dry and Baba gave life to it and made Navgriha installation in this tree, as a mark of which the stem of this tree has nine large branches and nine roots. There is also a Ganesh formation on this tree.

Baba's Well

It is situated straight ahead of the floral canopied entrance, by the side of the western compound wall. Baba Himself with the manual help of His devotees both rich and poor dug and built this well (Ref. SSB, Pradhan, p.48). The water of this well became famous in the vicinity, for driving away fevers and other ailments. Previously devotees used to take water from this well, and then it gradually dried up. In 1983 A.D. Shinde deepened this well and water was found in abundance. There were two wells in Shirdi in those days, one in Lendi Bagh and the other behind Baba's Samadhi. Devotees throng to this well and take Darshan of it as it was dug by Baba Himself.

DATTATREYA MANDIR

In front of the Nanda Deep, a little distance away is this Dattatreya Mandir. This temple was built by two local devotees of Baba. The statue was installed with due formalities by the Sansthan in 1976 August. There is a small Audumbar tree behind this temple.