"ESISTE UN'AUTORITA' PREPOSTA A STABILIRE LE REGOLE DELLA DISSOLUZIONE UNIVERSALE: QUEST'AUTORITA' E' CHIAMATA SHIVA" (LINGA PURANA)
When Shirdi Sai Baba went for the first time at Shirdi, he use to live in Khandoba Temple.
This small local temple of Shirdi village is located on Ahmednagar – Kopergaon Road, near State Transport Bus Stand.
The deity of this temple is Khandoba, one form of Lord Shiva. This temple has the honour of welcoming Sai in Shirdi. The priest of this temple, Mhalsapati, called out the nameless fakir with the words ‘Welcome Sai’, as He stepped on the soil of Shirdi.
In last few years Shri Sainath Hospital has come up on the adjoining land of Khandoba temple.
Many saints, including Shri Upasani Maharaj of Sakori, stayed in this temple for long for their spiritual evolution.
Who is Khandoba Shiva?
Legends of Khandoba generally tell about the battle between the deity and demons Malla and Mani.
The legend tell of the demon Malla and his younger brother Mani, who had gained the boon of invincibility from Brahma, creating chaos on the earth and harassing the sages.
When the seven sages approached Shiva for protection after Indra and Vishnu confessed their incapability, Shiva assumed the form (Avatar) of Martanda Bhairava, as the Mahatmya calls Khandoba, riding the Nandi bull, leading an army of the gods.
Martanda Bhairava is described as shining like the gold and sun, covered in turmeric, three-eyed, with a crescent moon on his forehead.
The demon army was slaughtered by the gods and finally Khandoba killed Malla and Mani. While dying, Mani offers his white horse to Khandoba as an act of repentance and asks for a boon. The boon is that he be present in every shrine of Khandoba, that human-kind is bettered and that he be given an offering of goat flesh. The boon was granted, and thus he was transformed into a demigod.
Malla, when asked by the deity if he asked for a boon, asks for the destruction of the world and human-flesh. Angered by the demon's request, Khandoba decapitates him, and his head falls at the temple stairs where it will trampled by devotees' feet.
The legend further describes how two Lingas appeared at Prempuri, the place where the demons were killed.
