My First Shirdi-Shani Shingnapur Trip Experiences

Sai Baba

 Whenever I asked anyone about the places I should visit in and around Mumbai, their first answer would be the holy place Shirdi. Most of the Mumbaikars are great devotees of Sri Sai nath and they visit Shirdi almost every year. After hearing their deep belief, I too decided to go to Shirdi. I was planning Shirdi trip since past two months but for some or the other reason, it didn’t get materialize. Finally we got a call from baba and were able to get his darshan on this weekend only. I just felt like sharing my experience with you all. I would be very happy if this could be of any help in planning your trip to Shirdi.

The distance between Mumbai to Shirdi is approximate 260 km. You can travel by your own vehicle or even can hire a cab or taxi. There are plenty of all kind of buses (A/c, non-a/c, state, luxury) also that run from Mumbai to shirdi on daily basis throughout day. It takes around 8 - 10 hours to reach there. If you are not comfortable in travelling by bus like me, you can take train instead. Recently, a direct train service has been started from Dadar, Mumbai to Sainagar Shirdi. It has really made Baba’s darshan very convenient and easy. This Sainager Dadar exp leaves from Dadar at 9.45 and reaches Shirdi at 4.00 o’clock in the morning. You can also go by other trains that stop at nearby stations, Manmad and Kopergaon located at a distance of 53 km and 13 km from Shirdi.

Samadhi Mandir

I booked our (me and my husband) train tickets in advance as there is no availability in the last moment. We boarded our train on Saturday at 9.45 PM, Dadar and reached Shirdi at 4.30 A.M the next day. Being first timer; we were clueless as how to proceed. When we stepped out of the station, we saw many auto rickshaws, shouting “mandir-mandir”. One autowallah himself approached us and offered to get us a good hotel. We agreed as we couldn’t see any other option. Within 10 minutes, we reached in the Mandir area. Though this autowallah took us to a hotel but we didn’t like it and asked him to drop us near Mandir only. It was little difficult to find a good reasonable place in this dark hour of the day but by Baba’s grace, we landed in a good clean hotel. Here, I would like to give you a tip that don’t settle for the price hotel person asks; there is a scope of some bargaining. If you don’t intend to stay at night and looking for a room till evening only, then they will lower down the rates by 300-400/-. The hotel person quoted 1300 but settled for 900/- till 7.30 in the evening. 

While coming to hotel, we already had a sight of long queue and huge crowd for darshan. We did bathe and got ready as soon as we could. You have to leave your mobiles and cameras at your accommodation place as they don’t allow them inside the Mandir. We took our puja thali, rose flowers and joined the line of large crowd at 6.00 AM. The person who was standing just before me, told me that it being the Ram-navmi day, there is much more crowd than any other day. The herd of people was moving very slow. It took almost 3 hours to get us in front of the main idol of Sai baba. It felt immense good from within to be near Baba, but because of the large crowd, authority guys were pushing people fast and in less than a minute we got out too. After Samadhi darshan, we went to Dwarkamai and Chavdi mandir inside the campus only. 

By 10.30, we came out of the temple premises. Had our breakfast and then looked for to go to Shani Shingnapur. Many people say that Shirdi pilgrimage is not complete until you visit Shani Shingnapur. We found two options to go there; auto or a big vehicle like bolero/sumo. My husband decided to go by bolero only as it was scorching heat at the day time and we had to travel around 70 km one way. They charged 120/- per person and carried around 12 people. I and my husband sat in the front with the driver (it was much better than adjusting with 5 people in the back seat). The bolero guy took us through highway, then took left to narrow road along small village shops and houses. I was thrilled to see sugarcane linings on both sides of the road. In fact, the driver stopped at one place on the way for having sugarcane juice. There were many sugarcane juice wallahs. It was so amusing to see that they were using an Ox to extract the sugarcane juice. The ox’s horns were decorated with beautiful colors. I had two glasses of cool, refreshing sugarcane juice. 

Ox extracting sugarcane juice

 Though it was harsh sun, but I fully enjoyed my one and half hours ride to Shingnapur.

God Shani's Idol

At Shani Shingnapur temple, there were not much crowd and we could do darshan nicely. We went near idol too. I had learnt that there were different queues or gents and ladies and ladies were not allowed to go near idol. Gents had to take bath and then they could worship the idol. But this all has changed now. No bathing is required and even ladies could worship. 

We finished our darshan in half an hour and started our return journey. On the way back too, the driver stopped at the same juice wallah guy. We were sipping water all along the way and there was no room for anything else. We reached Shirdi back at 3.30 afternoon. As it was so hot, we decided not to go anywhere else but to rest at our hotel room. 

At 10.25 P.M., we had our train back to Mumbai from Sainagar station only. In the evening, we just roamed little around temple area and had our food. Shirdi is a small place with tiny roads. What I didn’t like was poor lightening of roads. There should be good and proper street lighting system. Staying in Mumbai, I am habituated of travelling through illuminated roads even at nights. As I don’t like to travel in the dark, we decided to go to station much before the time. As soon as we finished our dinner, I asked my husband to look for an auto. 

At 8.25 P.M, we were at Sainagar station for going back to Mumbai. There was 2 hours time to train to arrive. So for the next two hours, I was watching people on the station, observing their behavior while my husband chose to stick to his galaxy note (despite my disapproval). 

The Train came on time, we boarded and settled ourselves. Slept comfortably all night and woke up only after someone screamed, “Dadar aa gaya” at 5.30 AM. Got down from the train and thanked god for this short but beautiful journey and hope to make many more like this with Baba’s blessings. 

Jai Sai Nath!!!

Om Sai Namo Namah,

Sri Sai Namo Namah,

Jai Jai Sai Namo Namah,

Satguru Sai Namo Namah