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Why Saibaba is worshipped as a deity in Hindu temples? Does Hinduism allow saint or sages to be worshipped too? If yes then why other Hindu saints are not worshipped?

I have seen people performing Aarti of saibaba and having prasad too. Are Saints and sages deities?

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    why other Hindu saints are not worshipped Well, at least in Maharashtra there are many examples of saint who are worshipped like God, for example: Sant Gajanan Maharaj, Sant Gyaneshwar, Sant Tukaram. Their birthdays are also celebrated with Aarti and other rituals. So, Sai baba are not unique in that sence
    – AADHinduism
    May 23, 2016 at 11:26
  • @ParthTrivedi You probably need to use more relevant tags.
    – Say No To Censorship
    May 23, 2016 at 12:16
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    Also to add on @WhisperingMonk list There are two great Vedanta Acharaya's whose birthday is celebrated as Jayanti Adi Shankaracharya and Bhagwad Ramanujacharya, and both jayanti's occur in same month of Vaishakha in shukla paksha.
    – Yogi
    May 23, 2016 at 13:00
  • See my answer i have answered ur Q partially there: hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/26127/4732
    – Rickross
    Mar 20, 2018 at 16:21

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Yes. Hinduism allows the worship of sages and saints. In fact, we deify gurus and not just worship them, we worship their slippers (pAdukAs). Examples of sages and saints worshipped in temples:-

  1. Mantralaya Raghavendra Swami (madhwa saint and guru)

  2. Nrsimha Saraswati

  3. Akalkot Maharaj

  4. Manikya Prabhu and others in the Dattatreya Sampradaya.

  5. We worship at the shrines of previous acharyas in the Sankara mathas.

  6. We worship the sankara pAdukAs in Sankara mathas.

  7. Sankaracharya himself

  8. Saint SantRam in Nadiad

  9. Bapa Sitaram in Kathiyavad, Gujarat

Shirdi Baba was worshipped in Hindu tradition even while he was alive. After he left his mortal coil, the worship continued in the same fashion. I suspect one of the reasons that Shirdi Baba is worshipped in Hindu temples is due to the government's Endowments Department which noticed Babaji's following and seized the business opportunity. They started placing navagrahas and other idols in Babaji's temples so that they can claim the temple's earnings. So, basically Hindus took over Baba and not the other way around. I do not have sources to back this up except hearsay.

Personal note: I am an ardent devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba.

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  • And, I thought you had something against saints :P
    – Amit Saxena
    May 23, 2016 at 13:48
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    @TheDestroyer You can worship guru for dharmic materialistic desires because they are the stepping stones to moksha. Keyword is dharmic. But you are largely correct.
    – user1195
    May 25, 2016 at 14:34
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    @sv. Mods didn't hijack the answer. They added source and improved the answer. Otherwise it would remain undeleted.
    – Sarvabhouma
    Mar 2, 2017 at 18:22
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    @SreeCharan Well, I think they were trying to undelete it somehow. One mod trying to please another when the answer was perfectly alright to begin with, without needing any more citations. If you look at my edits, I kept most of the mod's edits.
    – Say No To Censorship
    Mar 2, 2017 at 20:12
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    @sv And the citations made are irrelevant too :-)
    – user1195
    Mar 4, 2017 at 13:25

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