d. 1918 · Shirdi, Maharashtra
The faqir of faith and patience
He arrived in the village of Shirdi as a nameless young faqir and stayed for sixty years, living in a crumbling mosque he called Dwarkamai, tending a sacred fire whose ash he gave as blessing. Hindus and Muslims both claimed him; he belonged to both and neither, teaching the oneness of the Lord of all.
His whole teaching fits into the two words he actually gave his devotees: shraddha and saburi — faith and patience. Trust the divine hand utterly, and let its timing be its own. Around those two words grew one of the most beloved devotional streams of modern India.
The practice associated with him is remembrance and surrender: holding the master and the one God in constant inner remembrance, meeting life's difficulties with patience as a spiritual act, and treating the guests and the poor at one's door as the divine visiting in disguise.
