Puja Pillar

Puja pillar

Just in front of the dhuni, on the right as you face it with your back to the portrait, you will see a painted wooden supporting pillar; the silver padukas are at the bottom of it. This pillar played a small but significant part in the history of Sai worship. H. V. Sathe has described how there were no Gurupoornima celebrations until the day that Baba sent for Dada Kelkar and said, "Don't you remember that today is Gurupoornima?" Pointing to the pillar in the mosque, Baba told him, "Go and bring puja material and worship that post!" From then on, according to Sathe, the practice of celebrating Gurupoornima by worshipping Baba was continued.
The correlation of the pillar, which is essential to the construction's stability, and the guru, is a pertinent one for devotees. Today when we look at this post it appears so ordinary and unremarkable, yet it stands in Baba's mosque, and is a reminder of the early days of a most extraordinary and remarkable movement. From our own experience, we can imagine the keen emotions of those early devotees, eager to offer worship to their beloved gurudeva, yet at the same time, uncertain of how Baba would receive it and whether he would allow it. Remembering this, looking at the pillar today may evoke a feeling of affinity with and appreciation for those early pioneers along the path of Sai.