Paani Baba temple is a temple at Nachiapuram village, which is located en route Karaikudi - managiri at about 12 km from Tirupattur, in TamilNadu, South India. The presiding deity of this temple is Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi, fondly called as ‘Sai’ or ‘Baba’ by his devotees.
The Village nachiapuram is located closer to major South Indian temple tourism landmarks like Pillaiyarpatti, Madurai, and Rameswaram, adding to the convenience of all tourists to stop by Paani Baba temple. People from all over the world flock to this temple, to receive the divine blessings of Sri Paani Baba.
Sri Shirdi Sai Baba is one of the greatest saints of India who is worshipped as a God incarnate. During his lifetime and years after leaving the Earth, Baba is continuing to touch and progressively transform innumerable lives of his ardent devotees.
In Sai’s words : I look at all with an equal eye.
People from various faiths, religions, communities, and walks of life are equally blessed by the love and grace of Baba.
The idea of the Paani baba temple was being contemplated over two decades in Dr. Muthaiah’s mind. Over the years, he fondly recalls that there have been subtle indications as wellness stories of his patients who were Baba devotees, that piqued the curiosity of knowing more and more about Sri Shirdi Sai Baba. The doctor started reading a lot of books about Sri Shirdi Sai and the trust within him became stronger day after day when he placed the medical treatment efforts at Baba’s feet and his patients got cured either from his treatment or that of his referrals. He also came across many people sharing their experiences about Sri Shirdi Sai Baba that pivoted the seed of building a Sai temple in Dr. Muthiah’s mind. Sai Baba idols, small and big, have been presented to him over the years by friends and well-wishers, which he considers, as a sign of Divine approval to his inner calling of building a temple.
Dr.Muthaiah’s friend Mr.Venugopal & friend Engineer Devakumar, teamed up to make the idea a reality at the earliest. As the first step, they visited Shirdi, Maharashtra to take the graceful blessings of Shri Sai Baba for the temple work. As soon as they came back, they visited the ancestral land area which Dr. Muthaiah had in mind to start the temple construction work. At the site full of uncleared dry weeds from years of inactivity, the trio were trying to finalize the spot where they would place the deity. Suddenly, they saw an uncommon, strong whirlwind in a specific area of the land, which lasted for about a few minutes clearing the area off all the weeds. Dr.Muthiah took this as a message from Sai Baba as the spot where the idol should be placed.Following this, he and his friend travelled to Jaipur, the land of arts and marbles in India, to hand-pick the most divine sculpture of Sri Sai Baba.
Sai Baba, in his lifetime, had always been very kind to all around him and had always given food to those around him. Paani Baba temple has a standing sculpture of Sai Baba making food in an enormous pot signifying the most revered Annadhanam, which is to distribute food to the devotees who come to the temple for Sai’s blessings. Ravi Vankar, a chennai-based sculptor made this exquisite fibre sculpture for Paani Baba temple.
The construction and consecration was completed on December 9th 2018. What started as a very notional thought of bringing Sai to the village of South India benefiting those who cannot travel Northward to Shirdi, is now a glorious place of worship, with Sai adorning the magnificence and grace of the temple.The 80 x 40 area of the Paani Baba temple has been built on Dr.Muthiah’s family property in Nachiapuram.
Tourists from different countries all over the world are visiting Paani Baba through the information they find online and by word-of-mouth. The temple committee has started the work on constructing accommodation facilities for the tourists. Mini buses ply from the nearest towns to Paani Baba temple, while the temple is arranging for more transport facilities to the temple.
The devotees who visit this temple are given a chance to perform the holy abhishekam (religious ritual of offering something by pouring) to the Sai idol with water or ‘Paani’ as they call it in Hindi. From that day forward, the village Nachiapuram, once known for its water scarcity up to the point of drought in summers, has got adequate rainfall, much to the relief of the farmers and farm animals in the agricultural village. The water table has considerably risen and the Temple Well, fondly called ‘Raasathi’ well, on an average has at least 25 to 30 feet water throughout the year which was once unheard of in the village. The village praises the grace of ‘Paani baba’ in gratitude for this gift of rainfall and healthy water table levels.
Location, contact, donation, website, travel, accommodation can be included as part of the website and links can be added here.