 For four to five years Baba lived under a neem tree and often wandered for long periods in the jungle around Shirdi . His manner was said to be withdrawn and uncommunicative as he undertook long periods of meditation . He was eventually persuaded to take up residence in an old and dilapidated mosque and lived a solitary life there , surviving by begging for alms , and receiving itinerant Hindu or Muslim visitors . In the mosque he maintained a sacred fire which is referred to as a <unk> , from which he gave sacred ashes ( ' <unk> ' ) to his guests before they left . The ash was believed to have healing and apotropaic powers . He performed the function of a local <unk> and treated the sick by application of ashes . Sai Baba also delivered spiritual teachings to his visitors , recommending the reading of sacred Hindu texts along with the Qur 'an . He insisted on the indispensability of the unbroken remembrance of God 's name ( dhikr , japa ) , and often expressed himself in a cryptic manner with the use of parables , symbols and allegories . 
