The Lendi Baug Nanda Deep is the earthen lamp Sai Baba lit with his own hands, and it has not been allowed to die since. Thousands of pilgrims finish darshan at the Samadhi Mandir and leave Shirdi without ever walking the five minutes to see it. That is a pity, because the garden holds the quietest and most personal corner of Baba’s daily life. This guide covers what the lamp actually is, how devotees worship there, and which popular claims about it do not survive a check against the temple trust’s own records.
shirdisansthan.org.in is an independent pilgrim guide. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or the official website of Shree Saibaba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi. We take no bookings, donations or payments of any kind. For darshan, aarti, pooja and accommodation, use the official portal at online.sai.org.in only.
Lendi Baug Nanda Deep at a Glance
Here are the essentials on the Lendi Baug Nanda Deep before you plan the walk across.
- What it is: a perpetually burning oil lamp, also called Akhanda Deep, meaning the lamp that never goes out.
- Who lit it: Sai Baba himself, who later told Abdul Baba to keep it burning.
- Where it stands: between a neem and a bodhi tree that Baba planted side by side, inside Lendi Baug.
- Entry fee: none. The garden sits inside the temple complex and stays free for every visitor.
- Booking: no ticket, no pass and no online seva exist for this lamp.
- Time needed: roughly 20 to 40 minutes if you want to sit quietly rather than rush.
What the Lendi Baug Nanda Deep Actually Is
The Lendi Baug Nanda Deep is a continuously burning oil lamp placed between two trees Sai Baba planted in his garden at Shirdi. Baba lit it during his lifetime and instructed his attendant Abdul Baba to keep it fed. The Shree Saibaba Sansthan Trust maintains it today inside a marble lamp house, and the flame has never been ritually extinguished.
The name carries its own meaning. Nanda Deep translates roughly as the lamp of bliss, while the second name, Akhanda Deep, simply means unbroken lamp. Devotees use both terms, so you will hear them interchanged by guides and priests.
The setting was far humbler in Baba’s time. According to the trust’s own account of the temple premises, the lamp then sat sunk in a small pit, shielded from the wind by zinc sheets and later by pieces of cloth. Those cloths formed a rough tent with the flame at its centre. Only afterwards did the Sansthan build the stone structure and pave the surrounding area.
How Sai Baba Lit the Lamp and Who Kept It Burning
Baba’s fondness for lamps runs right through his life at Shirdi. He begged oil from village shopkeepers to light lamps in the mosque, and one famous incident in 1892 involved him filling lamps with water when the shopkeepers refused him oil. The lamps burned all night anyway, and word of it spread fast.
The Lendi Baug Nanda Deep belongs to that same habit. Baba dug a small pit in the ground, set an earthen lamp inside it, and lit it. Later he handed the duty of tending it to Abdul Baba, the one devotee allowed to enter the garden with him.
That detail matters because the responsibility was personal, not institutional. Abdul Baba was a young Muslim attendant who served Baba for decades, and his samadhi now lies at the entrance to the same garden he once looked after.
The Two Trees Beside the Nanda Deep
Here is the first correction worth making. Many travel pages say the lamp sits under a neem tree, or between a neem and a banyan. The Sansthan record is specific.
Baba planted a neem and a bodhi tree side by side. The Lendi Baug Nanda Deep stands between them.
A bodhi tree is the same species Indians commonly call peepal or ashwattha, so those two names are not a contradiction. Banyan, though, is a different tree altogether. If a guide tells you banyan, they are repeating a copied error.
The trees have a story of their own. They stayed thin and refused to grow at first, until one day Baba shook them. From then on both flourished, and devotees now walk pradakshina, the clockwise circuit, around the trees and the lamp together.
Why Baba Sat With His Back to the Lamp
This is the detail almost no competing page carries, and it changes how you understand the place. Abdul Baba recorded that Baba would sit on the ground close to the lamp, yet deliberately in a spot from which he could not actually see it.
Since the flame was covered by cloth and zinc anyway, Baba clearly was not using it for light. The trust’s own text admits the obvious conclusion: what Baba was doing there remains veiled from us. That honesty is rare, and it is worth more than a confident invented explanation.
So when you read that Baba “meditated gazing at the eternal flame”, treat it as devotional writing rather than record. The eyewitness account says the opposite.
The Water Ritual Few Guides Mention
One of Abdul Baba’s daily duties was to keep two buckets of water beside the lamp. After sitting, Baba would take that water and throw it in all four directions around the Lendi Baug Nanda Deep. He did this in a fixed, ritual manner every time.
The devotee-biographer Narasimhaswami suggested Baba was blessing devotees in each direction while warding off dangers threatening them. The Sansthan presents this openly as conjecture, not as established fact, and we repeat it the same way.
Knowing the ritual changes the visit. When you stand at the marble enclosure, you are looking at the exact spot where that daily act took place for years.
What Else Stands in Lendi Baug
The lamp is the heart of the garden, although it is far from the only thing to see. Baba bought nothing here himself. A Mumbai devotee, M.W. Pradhan, purchased the land a few months before Baba’s mahasamadhi and later presented it to the Sansthan.
| What you see | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Nanda Deep and the marble lamp house | The lamp Baba lit and Abdul Baba tended |
| Neem and bodhi trees | Planted by Baba; focus of pradakshina |
| Datta Mandir | A small shrine with a marble Datta murti |
| Samadhi of Shyam Sunder | Baba’s horse, who outlived him |
| Baba’s well | Dug with devotees to water the garden |
| Devotee samadhis at the entrance | Include Abdul Baba and Tatya Kote Patil |
The garden looks nothing like it did in Baba’s day. At the end of 1999 the Sansthan relandscaped Lendi completely, replacing the paved, tree-lined ground with lawns, flower beds and a waterfall. Older devotees still remember the earlier layout, so do not be surprised if their descriptions differ from what you find.
How Devotees Worship at the Lendi Baug Nanda Deep
Worship here is simple and unstructured. There is no queue, no priest calling names and no ritual sequence to follow. Most devotees do a slow pradakshina around the lamp and trees, stand briefly with folded hands, and then sit somewhere quiet in the garden.
Sitting is really the point. Because Baba used this place for solitude rather than display, silence suits it better than loud chanting. Many regular pilgrims read a chapter of the Sai Satcharitra on a bench here after darshan.
You cannot pour oil into the lamp yourself. Sansthan staff maintain the flame, and the enclosure keeps the wind out, so devotee handling is not permitted. If you wish to contribute oil or ghee, do it through the official donation counters inside the complex.
Is There an Official Lendi Baug Nanda Deep Pooja?
No. The Shree Saibaba Sansthan Trust lists exactly three bookable poojas, and none of them takes place at Lendi Baug. Anyone selling you a “Nanda Deep seva” or a “Lendi Baug lamp booking” is not authorised by the trust.
| Official pooja | Venue | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Shree Sai Satyavrata Pooja | Satyavrata Hall, behind Shani Temple | ₹100 |
| Abhishek Pooja | Mukhdarshan Hall | ₹100 |
| Vehicle Pooja | Outside Gate No.4 | ₹51 two-wheeler, ₹151 four-wheeler |
Both the Satyavrata and Abhishek poojas cost ₹100 per ticket and need registration one day in advance, either online or at the Sansthan office. Fees and slots change from time to time, so confirm the current figures on the trust’s official pooja page before you travel.
Treat any site demanding an advance “processing fee” for a Lendi Baug ritual as a scam. The genuine portal is online.sai.org.in and nothing else.
Lendi Baug Timings and Your Darshan Day
The trust does not publish a separate opening time for Lendi Baug, which is why you will find figures ranging from sunrise-to-sunset to 5 am-10 pm scattered across travel sites. None of those numbers comes from an official source. In practice the garden follows the rhythm of the temple complex around it.
The Lendi Baug Nanda Deep burns through all of it, day and night. Meanwhile the published daily programme gives you a reliable frame to plan around.
| Event | Time |
|---|---|
| Temple opens | 4:45 AM |
| Kakad Aarti | 5:15 AM |
| Darshan begins at Samadhi Mandir | 6:25 AM |
| Mid-day Aarti | 12:00 PM |
| Dhoop Aarti | At sunset |
| Shej Aarti | 10:00 PM |
Because the aarti hours pull the whole crowd towards the Samadhi Mandir, the garden empties out at exactly those times. A visit at 12 noon or just after sunset therefore gives you the quietest few minutes you will get. Confirm the current schedule on the Sansthan’s daily programme page, since festival days shift the timings.
Walking Route From the Samadhi Mandir
Lendi Baug sits within the temple premises, roughly five minutes on foot from the Samadhi Mandir. After you exit the darshan queue, walk past Dwarkamai and turn towards Gurusthan. The garden entrance lies a short distance further along.
Baba himself never took the shortest route. He kept to one fixed path from the mosque, pausing at a corner where he would stand facing a small Vittal temple. A shrine with padukas now marks that spot, so you can trace part of his walk if you have the time.
If you plan the full circuit in one morning, pair this with the Thursday Chavadi procession and read our darshan queue guide first so the timings do not clash.
Insider Tips Most Shirdi Guides Skip
- Go after your Samadhi darshan, not before. The queue is unpredictable, while the garden never has one.
- Photography rules differ across the complex, so look for the posted boards rather than assuming.
- Leather is restricted at the darshan shrines. Check our yatra rules and dress code guide before you pack.
- Weekday mornings outside festival season give you the calmest garden by a wide margin.
- Carry your own water. Facilities inside the garden stay deliberately minimal.
Health and Comfort Notes
Shirdi gets genuinely hot from March to June, and the walk between shrines happens largely without shade. Elderly pilgrims, pregnant women and anyone with a heart or breathing condition should carry water and any regular medication. Sit down the moment you feel light-headed, because the marble paving reflects a lot of heat.
Devotees hold that the udi and the sacred flames of Shirdi bring healing, and that belief is a matter of faith and tradition. It is not a substitute for medical treatment. If you are unwell, see a doctor, and note that the Sansthan itself runs hospitals in Shirdi for exactly this reason.
Before You Go
The Lendi Baug Nanda Deep rewards patience rather than speed. Give it half an hour instead of five minutes, sit for a while, and the garden does the rest. Remember the three things competing pages get wrong: the trees are neem and bodhi, Baba sat where he could not see the flame, and no bookable Nanda Deep pooja exists. Verify timings and pooja fees on sai.org.in before you travel, since the trust updates them without notice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I book a Lendi Baug Nanda Deep pooja online?
No. The Shree Saibaba Sansthan Trust offers only three bookable poojas: Satyavrata Pooja, Abhishek Pooja and Vehicle Pooja. None is held at Lendi Baug. Any website or agent selling a Nanda Deep booking is unauthorised.
How long has the Lendi Baug Nanda Deep been burning?
Sai Baba lit it during his lifetime at Shirdi, and he took mahasamadhi in October 1918. The Sansthan has maintained the flame ever since, so the lamp has burned for well over a century.
Is there an entry fee for Lendi Baug?
No. The garden lies inside the temple premises and entry is free for everyone. You need no pass, ticket or prior registration to walk in.
Which trees stand beside the lamp?
A neem and a bodhi tree, both planted by Baba side by side. Bodhi is the same tree many Indians call peepal or ashwattha. Pages that say banyan are repeating an error.
Can devotees offer oil to the Nanda Deep?
Not directly. Sansthan staff maintain the lamp, and the enclosure protects the flame. Offerings of oil or ghee should go through the official donation counters inside the complex.
What are the Lendi Baug timings?
The trust publishes no separate timing for the garden. It follows the temple complex, which opens at 4:45 AM and closes after Shej Aarti at 10:00 PM. Confirm on arrival, since festival days differ.
Whose samadhis are in the garden?
Devotee records place the samadhis of Abdul Baba, Tatya Kote Patil, Bhau Maharaj Kumbhar and Nanavalli near the entrance. The samadhi of Shyam Sunder, Baba’s horse, also lies within Lendi Baug.
Is Lendi Baug worth visiting after darshan?
Yes, particularly if you want quiet. Because most pilgrims skip it, the garden stays calm even when the Samadhi Mandir queue runs long. Allow 20 to 40 minutes.
