The desire which drew Nanasaheb Dengale to Sai Baba also inspired Gopalrao Gund, Revenue Circle Inspector of Kopargaon, who, though he had three wives, had no son. He got a son by Sai Baba’s benediction and naturally became attached to Sai Baba. At one time, he thought of rebuilding the dilapidated masjid and stored a sufficient heap of stones for the purpose. But Sai Baba refused him permission to rebuild the masjid, because that service was reserved for some future devotee. The stones collected by Gopalrao were, by the desire of Sai Baba, utilised in renovating the temple of ‘Sham God’ and other temples of the village. Sai Baba was mindful of preserving all the places of worship in the village. He got rebuilt and extended the Maruti’s temple and also took care of the Muslim Turbaf of the place. It is mentioned above that Sai Baba at times used to sit under a nim tree on the outskirts of the village. Sai Baba once said that there was a ‘Turbaf of a Pir underneath that nim tree. People therefore dug up the earth there, and were surprised to discover that. On that day, Sai Baba was taken out in a procession accompanied by music and singing. As regards this Turbaf Sai Baba once told Kakasaheb Dikshit that that was the place of his ancestor, and that it would be conducive of great good to those that would burn incense thereon every Thursday and Friday.
Once Gopalrao Gund thought that an annual fair (Urns) should be held in Shirdi in honour of Shri Sai Baba. He communicated his idea to Tatya Patil, Dada Kote Patil, Madhavrao Deshpande, etc. of the village who readily fell in with the view, and began to raise funds for the same, but the then Kulkarni of the place opposed the idea, with the result that an order from the Collector was issued disallowing the holding of the fair. But Sai Baba had given his clear benediction for the holding of the fair and therefore, the protagonists of the fair again applied to the Collector, who cancelled his first order and gave the permission, at the desire of Sai Baba that fair was fixed for Ramnavami day. It is being held every year on the Ramnavami day since that time upto now.
Devotees from all over India began to pour into Shirdi steadily and three such Utsavas were celebrated in Shirdi during Sai Baba’s time; 1st the Ramnavami Utsav, 2nd the Guru Pournima Utsav, 3rd the Gokul Astami Utsav and these were added to by the 4th Utsav (after Sai Baba’s Samadhi on the Vijayadashami (Dussera) day in 1918) i.e. the Punyatithi Utsav on the annual Dussera Day. The Shri Shirdi Sansthan Committee of Sai Baba which has been entrusted with carrying out the scheme sanctioned by the District Court of Ahmednagar, has, after mutual deliberations inter se, entrusted the management of the Ramnavami Utsav to Hari Bhakta Parayan Das Ganu Maharaj, the well-known modern poet and kirtankar, who has been attending to it with zeal and energy worthy of admiration.
The second utsav fell to the lot of the late Gopal Mukund alias Bapusaheb Buti, the well-known millionaire of Nagpur C. P. and whose magnificent edifice of black stone costing over a lac of rupees is now the Samadhi Shrine of Shri Sai Baba. The sons of the late Bapusaheb Buti attended to this utsav till 1940, and since 1941, the Sansthan has been attending to this utsav, the sons of Buti are now contributing Rs. 100/- as part of the expenses.
The third utsav of Gokul Astami has been entrusted to the villagers of Shirdi headed by Tatyaji Ganpatrao Kote Patil, one of the special favourites of Sai Baba. The Shirdi people upto this day make it a point to make this utsav successful.
The last and the 4th utsav, the Punyatithi utsav came to be entrusted to Sai Baba’s devotees outside Shirdi especially to those on the Bombay side; and upto this day this utsav has also been attended to with all possible zeal and devotion all round. Be it said in passing, that the present permanent fund of the Sansthan has been started from the savings of the collections of spontaneous contributions for the first Bhandara on the 13th day after Sai Baba’s Samadhi in 1918A.D.
