Lendi Gardens

Lendi Gardens

At the end of 1999, Lendi Gardens was radically relandscaped, and the previously paved and tree-lined area turned into a lawn with waterfall and flower beds. Lendi is significant as a place which Baba used to visit every day. It contains some tombs, a shrine, and most importantly the perpetually burning lamp lit by Baba and placed between the two trees he planted. A few months before Baba’s mahasamadhi the land was bought by a Bombay devotee, M. W. Pradhan, and later presented to the Sansthan.

In Baba’s time, Lendi was an area of wasteland between two small streams, the Lendi and the Sira (now dried up). Baba used this area for toilet purposes. He would leave the mosque for Lendi around nine o’ clock in the morning accompanied by some devotees. However, none was allowed inside with him except Abdul Baba.

Apart from answering the calls of nature here, Baba seemed to enjoy going to Lendi and sometimes went several times a day. This was the place where he spent time in solitude. It was a particular characteristic of Baba’s the once he had started something, it became a strict and lifelong routine. For example, though initially devotees forced him out of the mosque into Chavadi because of severe rain, he continued the routine of sleeping there every other night as long as he was alive. Similarly, after his arm had got burnt in the dhuni, it was dressed and tended by Bhagoji Shinde. The wound healed and Baba lived for a further eight years, but the practice of Bhagoji changing the bandage every day continued until the end.