Sai Baba of Shirdi, also known as Shirdi Sai Baba, was an Indian spiritual master who was regarded by his devotees as a saint, fakir, and satguru, according to their individual proclivities and beliefs. He was revered by both his Hindu and Muslim devotees, and during, as well as after, his life it remained uncertain if he was a Hindu or a Muslim. This, however, was of no consequence to Sai Baba. He stressed the importance of surrender to the true Satguru or Murshid, who, having trod the path to divine consciousness, will lead the disciple through the jungle of spiritual training.
When Sai Baba was sixteen years old he first arrived in the village of Shirdi in Maharashtra. He lived a very ascetic life, spending many hours in prayer and meditation. Some called him a saint; others were less impressed by this ascetic. He stayed in a Khabdoba temple, and later a dilapidated mosque.
Sai Baba strongly believed in uniformity of religion and he never distinguished anyone on the basis of caste, creed or religion. He always made it a point not to return empty handed those who had come to him in their hour of need and grief. He performed miracles to alleviate the suffering of poor people. On one occasion he restored the eyes of a blind elderly and in another occasion he lighted a lantern with water when there was no oil to burn it.
Sai Baba was a born to a Brahmin couple of Patri which was in the Nizam state of British India. Where his parents handed over him to the fakir. These were the words revealed by baba in his last days. But Date of birth is still unknown to the world. There are lots of communities who claims that Baba belong to their respective communities but none of them proven.
Devotee often says that. Shirdi sai baba gave darshan to them in form of lord rama, Krishna etc., Many stories were framed on shirdi of sai baba by his followers. They say that saibaba used to come in dream and gave them advice on what to do and what not to do.
In 1858 SaiBaba returned to Shirdi with Chand Patil's wedding procession. After alighting near the Khandoba temple he was greeted with the words "Ya Sai" (welcome saint) by the temple priest Mhalsapati. The name Sai stuck to him and some time later he started being known as SaiBaba. It was around this time that Baba adopted his famous style of dress, consisting of a knee-length one-piece robe (kafni) and a cloth cap. Ramgir Bua, a devotee, testified that SaiBaba was dressed like an athlete and sported 'long hair flowing down to his buttocks' when he arrived in Shirdi, and that he never had his head shaved. It was only after SaiBaba forfeited a wrestling match with one Mohdin Tamboli did he take the kafni and cloth cap, articles of typically Sufi clothing. This attire contributed to SaiBaba's identification as a Muslim fakir, and was a reason for initial indifference shirdisai with disciplesand hostility against him in a predominantly Hindu village. According to B.V. Narasimhaswami, a posthumous follower who was widely praised as Sai Baba's "apostle", recorded that this attitude was prevalent even among some of his devotees in Shirdi even up to 1954.