Shirdi Sai Baba temple receives Rs 5.97 crore in donations

Mumbai: The Sai Baba temple in Shirdi, Maharashtra, has received donations worth Rs 5.97 crore at the end of the Sai Baba samadhi centenary celebrations.

A whopping amount of Rs 2.52 crore contributed by devotees in India and abroad has been received from inside donation boxes kept at the temple premises during the three-day celebrations from October 17 to 19, said  the chief executive officer of the Shri Sai Baba Sansthan Trust, Rubal Agrawal.

Additionally, Rs 1.46 crore in cash has been received at donation counters in the temple located in the Ahmednagar district of the state, Ms Agrawal said. The temple also received Rs 1.41 crore via online donations, debit cards, cheques and demand drafts, she added.

Devotees have also donated gold and silver items worth Rs 28.24 lakh and foreign currencies worth Rs 24.55 lakh, Ms Agrawal said.

Apart from these donations, the temple trust has earned Rs 78 lakh through paid darshan and online passes, and Rs 28.51 lakh through the distribution of laddoos, she said.

Nearly three lakh devotees from across the country and the world visited the shrine during the three-day festival which concluded on Friday, Ms Agrawal informed.

Sai Baba, a widely revered saint, is believed to have taken samadhi in Shirdi on October 15, 1918.