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Sunday, September 11, 2011

Dwaravati - Shri Shirdi Sai Baba Information & Research Centre, Wembley, United Kingdom.

Aum Sai Ram

By Baba’s grace, Mr Dhiren Badiani, an ardent devotee of Baba residing in Harrow, Middlesex offered a double storied building on lease for a nominal rent of £15 per year to SHITAL for storage purposes. The lease term was for 3 years and SHITAL gladly accepted the generous offer without visiting the site at this stage.

In September 2010, when The Shirdi Sansthan decided to visit London for the Royal Albert Hall programme, there was a clear demand for extra space in our Temple.

The Dwaravati building is located on 85 Wembley Hill Road, HA9 8BU, opposite Wembley Stadium & Wembley Plaza Hotel and it is a beautiful modern office building, i.e. very well furnished.

Dwaravati Opening

On the morning of 19th September 2010, at 11.00A.M., the Chairman of Shri Sai Baba Sansthan Trust, Shri Jayant Sasane opened the building formally in the presence of the Sansthan’s trustees: Capt. Vasudeva, Smt. Urmila Jadhav, Shri Shailesh Kute and Executive Officer of Sansthan Mr Kishore More, the senior priest of the Sansthan-Shri Sulakhe Shastri and Mr Jitendra Shelke - a prominent resident of Shirdi, along with the SHITAL team.

The name Dwaravati: We named this beautiful building Dwaravati. In Chapter 22 of Shri Sai Satcharita Baba says to Shri Balasaheb Mirikar “This Dwarkamai, Dwaravati or Masjidmai (its presiding Deity) is very merciful, she is the mother of the simple devotees, whom she will save in calamities.”

The description of Dwaravati by Baba, is exactly what we want to replicate by making this building the centre of all charitable activities, whilst the Temple fulfils the worship part.

To See Complete set of 8 Snaps of this Album visit:




We have listed below some of the plans that we hope
will be implemented in Dwaravati in the coming time:

Information
Research
Library
Services
Meditation
Reading Room

Information

We hope to provide information about Shri Shirdi Sai Baba to anyone interested, including all relevant travel information on pilgrimage to Shirdi. We also aim to provide information on SHITAL and its upcoming activities locally and, in the future, extend Dwaravati branches globally and serve the Shirdi Sai community.

Research

Unfortunately it has been noted that there is not a lot of information available to devotees on Baba apart from what is featured in the Shri Sai Satcharita.

We should note that the author of Shri Sai Satcharita visited Shirdi during the later years of Baba’s bodily form; hence not all of Baba’s life was covered in Shri Sai Satcharita. While Baba’s Satcharita always serves as the base for our research, what we would want to achieve is a detailed version of Baba’s life in its totality. If so much is known about Lord Rama & Lord Krishna, which is from thousands of years ago, then what happened 100 years ago should not be very difficult to ascertain by His grace.

SHITAL would recommend the topics and fund the research to certain extent, but it would rely mostly on volunteers to achieve this. We are in the process of appointing a panel of Judges to assess the researched topics and their authenticity.

Library

Part of the first floor in Dwaravati has been converted into a dedicated Library. Here, we have collected the books published by Sansthan, All India Sai Samaj etc. We are also in the process of collecting all of the books that were recommended by Baba to His devotees in the Sai Satcharita.

Whilst the books published by the Sansthan are blindly trusted, books by other private publishers are carefully selected to avoid any conflicting information about Baba. We will take the opinions of Shirdi Sansthan, Shirdi residents and our judges’, before displaying such books.

Apart from the hard copies, we intend to have them electronically available to read online. At this stage, we are in the process of approaching the relevant publishers/authors to obtain any permission wherever needed.

Services


Every action of Baba, in fact every second of Baba’s life was an action of charity. He lived and is continuing to live for us. At some point of time in our life, we should think about what we can give back to Him. Materially not much is possible as we all know Him, but we could, to some extent, pay Him back by being charitable in our actions.

If you are a professional, for example, a Doctor, Solicitor, Accountant, Dentist, Physiotherapist, Psychologist, Police officer, Teacher, IT professional, Recruitment Consultant, Motivational speaker, Health & Safety officer, HR manager etc please feel free to contact us. Whoever you are, if you think your knowledge could help someone, please get in touch with us. We will send your details to our devotees and arrange a platform in Dwaravati for both sides to meet and learn from one another. At the same time, we are asking our devotees to contact us if they find any help is not reachable or affordable to them. In short, we are requesting all these professionals to voluntarily contribute an hour every month as Baba’s devotees.

Meditation

Part of our second floor is dedicated to a Meditation Hall. A serene atmosphere is created to focus on Baba and meditate upon Him. Please note that we are not teaching any Yoga here.

Reading Room

Part of the second floor will also be used as a Reading room. All the necessary arrangements will be made as per any public reading room. Presently, this is just a short overview of how Dwaravati will be used. Our aim is, by Baba’s grace that it should become a global resource centre for all of the information on Shri Shirdi Sai Baba and serve as a global platform to promote the life and ideals of our beloved Shri Shirdi Sai Baba.

Additionally we would also like to inform you that there is no parking facility inside the premises so devotees who wish to travel by their personal vehicles, we request them to look for parking on their own. For devotees travelling by public transport the nearest bus stop is Wembley Stadium and nearest underground/tube station is Wembley Park Station.

Slide Show of the Photo Album

To See Complete set of 8 Snaps of this Album visit:

Temple Address
DWARAVATI
85 Wembley Hill Road
Wembley, London.
HA9 8BU

Telephone
0208 7950 684

Website

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