Shirdi: During the 3 day Hindu

festival of 'Guru Purnima', a day of

honouring teachers and mentors,
the famed shrine to Hindu saint Sai
Baba at Shirdi collected more than
Rs 30 million as donation.

According to Shri Eknath Goenkar,

Trustee Member of Shri Saibaba
Sansthan Trust,
the Sansthan received donations of
more than Rs.3 crores (30 million)
in just 3 days,
 mainly because of the fact that
more than 5 lakh devotee's flocked
to Shirdi for Baba's darshan on
Gurupurnima.

The Donation received by the

organization includes Cash,
Gold and Silver and other
items.
“In the Cash box here, we have
got Rs.1,92,35000 ($
412,648.15) in Rupees &
Foreign Currency.
Beside that we have got 277
gram of Gold and 2818 gram of
Silver.
And from the Cash receipts, we
 have got the amount of
Rs.1,20,55000 ($ 258,542.78)
as donation,” said Goenkar.

The Cash donation was so much

that the Sansthan had to use Note
& Coins Counting Machines, apart
from a 100 of its employees.

Mumbai-based devotee Shri Rajesh

Shetty offered a pure Gold &
Diamond studded Wall Clock
costing Rs.11.50 lakhs.
This clock can been seen shinning
on the Wall of the Temple's
Sanctum Sanatorium.
It has the word "SAI" embossed on
its Dial, while all the numbers are
studded with real Diamonds.

Another Devotee donated Golden

Charan Padukas worth Rs.4.50
Lakhs.

One Muslim devotee from

Karnataka got Saibaba's Wooden
Chariot (Rath) completely Silver
Plated,
at a cost of approx Rs.33 lakhs,
with approx 140kg of Silver,
while another Muslim devotee from
Hyderabad got this Silver Chariot
completely Gold Leafed,
at a cost of approx Rs.45 lakhs,
 with approx 350grams of Gold.
And at around 09:00pm, Baba's
Palkhi was taken out on this very
Golden Chariot (Rath) around
Shirdi.

One devotee, anonymously

donated a 1140 gram Gold
Necklace, studded with 250 real
Diamonds/Ruby's
and costing approx Rs.40 lakh. And
on Gurupurnima itself, this
Necklace was adorned on Baba.

Maharashtra medical and higher

education minister Rajesh Tope
and
Shirdi Sansthan Trust Chairperson
Jayant Sasane performed
mahapooja of Shri Saibaba on the
occasion.

~~ VIDEOS ~~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT4a3Hiw6bc&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYH6Yp6AjV0&feature=player_embedded