The second advent of Baba at Shirdi, around 1858 was interestingly quite different from the first. This time he came with a marriage party and lived there for sixty years till his Mahasamadhi in 1918. On the arrival at Shirdi, he was immediately recognized by someone as the same anonymous saintly personality who used to be seated under the neem tree a few years earlier and, greeted Him as "Ya Sai" - Welcome Sai.He lived a simple life in a dilapidated mosque. He never accumulated wealth. He advocated faith in God and tolerance towards all as the basic tenets for religious life.Baba stated that his mission is to "give blessings", and he proves it in myriad ways: healing the sick, saving lives, protecting the vulnerable, averting accidents, granting offspring, facilitating financial gain, bringing people into harmony with themselves and each other and, above all, in effecting the spiritual evolution and transformation of those who come to him.

As Sri Babuji observes in Arati Sai Baba, "Not identifying himself in totality with any religious community, by steering along an unbiased middle path of transcendence, seems to be the constant leitmotif of Baba's lifestyle. The popular notion is that Baba expressed himself as a Hindu to Hindus and as a Muslim to Muslims. However, in most cases Baba acted vice versa, insisting that the Hindus should accept him as a fakir and the Muslims as a Brahmin!"
He was the common man's God. He lived with them, he slept and ate with them. Baba had a keen sense of humour. He shared a 'chillum' (clay pipe for smoking) indiscriminately with them to write off the cast superiority and orthodoxy in their minds. He had no pretensions of any kind .He was always very playful in the presence of children. Baba used to feed the fakirs and devotees and even cook for them.