The Temple
 
Background
OMSAIOMShirdi Sai Baba’s devotees of Rourkela, the Steel City of Orissa, were worshipping Baba in their houses since long. But when Gurujee, Sri Chandrabhanu Satpathy, came to Rourkela for the first time in 1990 in a marriage party (like Saibaba visited Shirdi) many devotees met him and put forth the idea of having a Temple of Baba at Rourkela. Gurujee advised them to perform Aarati in groups in common places – this went on for many years. Then in 1999, he telephonically addressed a group of devotees who had assembled at Basanti Pathagar and was pleased to know that the momentum was gaining speed. However, he still did not encourage them to build a temple - he was probably testing the patience of the devotees. He came to the Steel City again in 2001 and was pleased to see that thousands of devotees had gathered to meet him.  He finally gave the green signal for a temple in Rourkela.

Some of the devotees started searching for land. It was a difficult task as Gurujee never encouraged building of temples on unauthorized Govt. land or on land with any litigation issues associated. The devotees scoured the entire city and approached all the high officials like M.D. Rourkela Steel Plant, Collector, R.D.C. Sambalpur, Member of Parliament and so on but nothing worked. Finally two devotees donated about half an acre of land. It was formally registered in the name of the Trust and Gurujee was pleased to allow the devotees to go ahead with the Temple project.
 
He categorically assured that


There will be no dearth of money for the Temple. He instructed devotees not to request for donations for the temple and assured that money would flow in automatically
There will be no hindrance in the construction of the Temple
It will be one of the best temples in India
It will be seen by many people from all over India as they travel by train and on the National Highway
In times to come the temple will get the patronage of a large number of devotees, and the temple may seem small for them all
To our utter surprise his forecast is coming true
The foundation stone of the Temple was laid by Gurujee on 8th May, 2004 and was followed by a scintillating spiritual programme at Amar Marriage Palace. This was attended by devotees from allover India.For three and a half years, every Thursday evening, "Aarati" was performed under the open sky at the temple site and about 1000 devotees participated in it. By Baba's grace, it never rained during the "Aaarti".

Finally The "SHIRDI SAI SANSTHAN, ROURKELA" inaugurated The Shirdi Sai Baba Temple on 20-October-2007. During the inauguration devotees from all-over India (from different temples established by Gurujee) came and participated in the ceremony. About 100000 people came during the two days long programme for which elaborate arrangements were made. About 150 volunteers worked round the clock to make it successful.
 
 
 
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