and the performance of the ritual known as Shatachandi.On this occasion much was given away to charity by the devotees of Maharaj. The ceremonies in Benares were concluded by the celebrations of Ramjanmotsava.

After the return of Maharaj to Sakori, the devotees of Maharaj began to beg him leave to accept some service from them. Maharaj said that he did not want anything from them, but when he saw that the enthusiasm of his devotees was genuine, he allowed them to erect suitable buildings in the area for the convenience of the growing number of persons, who owing to their devotionals for Maharaj frequently came to Sakori to participate in religious celebrations. The erection of these buildings was throughout helped by personal labor offered by ladies and gentlemen, who forgot their worldly status and distinctions in their desire for selfless service. The villagers also voluntarily cleared up the burial-ground, in which Maharaj used to stay, by removing undesirable trees.

At Sakori, Maharaj got a special wooden cage prepared through a carpenter and got himself interned in it on the 21st December, 1920. The cage was just sufficiently long to allow him to sleep and had no doors or windows to get out. When the devotees discovered this, they felt very much for the hardship which life in a cage must necessarily involve; and they asked Maharaj to explain why he had got into the cage. Maharaj did not give any explanation beyond saying that it was God's will, and he asked his devotees to carry on their usual spiritual pursuits and look after those who came to Sakori for spiritual purposes.

Bapusaheb Jog, who used to perform the Arti of Sai Baba at Shirdi, was one of those who had settled at Sakori. He inwardly felt strongly that Sai Baba and Maharaj were one; and he had been entreating Maharaj to allow his devotees to perform his Arti. After Maharaj had got into the cage, the devotees made themselves bold and began to perform the Arti of Maharaj in the cage, since the Sankrant celebrations. A new development in the Sakori life took place when some lady devotees offered to be engaged in non-stop namasmaran (taking the name of God) in the temple, day and night, in small batches, which were periodically renewed. Once this program was sanctioned and begun by the devotees, it aroused such enthusiasm that it went on from day to day; and though later at night the batches of lady devotees were replaced by batches of male devotees, the program was kept going, year in and year out, with the result that it continues even to this day.