When Sai Baba first came to Shirdi it had of no basic facilities. There was a well put only in name. It had no natural spring water and if ever there had been one, it must long ago have dried up. Water had to be fetched from a distance. When, therefore, Sai Baba gave his permission to the villagers to celebrate the Ram Navami Fair, (Baba’s Birthday) the big problem facing the organizers was one of water supply. So What should they do but go to Sai Baba with their problem? “‘Oh yes,” said Sai Baba, ‘so you want plenty of water, do you? Here, take this and drop it in the well and wait and see.” “‘This,” turned up to be a platter of flowers on which some prasad (blessed food) had been placed along with the remnants of alms Baba had received earlier in the day. The villagers had no qualms about doing as they were did. Their faith in Sai Baba was total. No sooner had that platter of leaves been dropped in the well, it is said, water rose from the bottom as if by divine command and completely filled it. And great was the rejoicing of the people.
One report has it that word had spread that the 3-year old daughter of a poor man called Babu Kirwandikar had fallen into the well and had been drowned. When the villagers rushed to the well they saw the child suspended in mid-air as if some invisible hand was holding her up! She was quickly pulled out. Sai Baba was fond of that child who was often heard to say : I am Baba’s sister!” After this incident, the villagers took her at her word. “it is all Baba’s Leela”, the people would say philosophically. They could offer no other explanation.
