Autobiography of a Yogi
shall she look . . . after me-in vain!” What frustration of search
by a frantic universe for an absolute omission!
Christ expressed his freedom in another way: “And a certain scribe
came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever
thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the
birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to
lay his head.” {FN33-1}
Spacious with omnipresence, could Christ indeed be followed except
in the overarching Spirit?
Krishna, Rama, Buddha, and Patanjali were among the ancient Indian
avatars. A considerable poetic literature in Tamil has grown
up around Agastya, a South Indian avatar. He worked many miracles
during the centuries preceding and following the Christian era,
and is credited with retaining his physical form even to this day.
Babaji’s mission in India has been to assist prophets in carrying
out their special dispensations. He thus qualifies for the scriptural
classification of MAHAVATAR (Great Avatar). He has stated that
he gave yoga initiation to Shankara, ancient founder of the Swami
Order, and to Kabir, famous medieval saint. His chief nineteenth-century
disciple was, as we know, Lahiri Mahasaya, revivalist of the lost
KRIYA art.
The MAHAVATAR is in constant communion with Christ; together they
send out vibrations of redemption, and have planned the spiritual
technique of salvation for this age. The work of these two
fully-illumined masters-one with the body, and one without it-is
to inspire the nations to forsake suicidal wars, race hatreds,
religious sectarianism, and the boomerang-evils of materialism.
Babaji is well aware of the trend of modern times, especially of
the influence and complexities of Western civilization, and realizes
the necessity of spreading the self-liberations of yoga equally in
the West and in the East.
That there is no historical reference to Babaji need not surprise
us. The great guru has never openly appeared in any century; the
misinterpreting glare of publicity has no place in his millennial
plans. Like the Creator, the sole but silent Power, Babaji works
in a humble obscurity.
Great prophets like Christ and Krishna come to earth for a specific
and spectacular purpose; they depart as soon as it is accomplished.
Other avatars, like Babaji, undertake work which is concerned more
with the slow evolutionary progress of man during the centuries
than with any one outstanding event of history. Such masters always
veil themselves from the gross public gaze, and have the power
to become invisible at will. For these reasons, and because they
generally instruct their disciples to maintain silence about them, a
number of towering spiritual figures remain world-unknown. I give
in these pages on Babaji merely a hint of his life-only a few facts
which he deems it fit and helpful to be publicly imparted.
No limiting facts about Babaji’s family or birthplace, dear to the
annalist’s heart, have ever been discovered. His speech is generally
in Hindi, but he converses easily in any language. He has adopted
the simple name of Babaji (revered father); other titles of respect
given him by Lahiri Mahasaya’s disciples are Mahamuni Babaji Maharaj
(supreme ecstatic saint), Maha Yogi (greatest of yogis), Trambak
Baba and Shiva Baba (titles of avatars of Shiva). Does it matter
that we know not the patronymic of an earth-released master?
“Whenever anyone utters with reverence the name of Babaji,” Lahiri
Mahasaya said, “that devotee attracts an instant spiritual blessing.”
The deathless guru bears no marks of age on his body; he appears to
be no more than a youth of twenty-five. Fair-skinned, of medium build
and height, Babaji’s beautiful, strong body radiates a perceptible
glow. His eyes are dark, calm, and tender; his long, lustrous
hair is copper-colored. A very strange fact is that Babaji bears an
extraordinarily exact resemblance to his disciple Lahiri Mahasaya.
The similarity is so striking that, in his later years, Lahiri
Mahasaya might have passed as the father of the youthful-looking
Babaji.
Swami Kebalananda, my saintly Sanskrit tutor, spent some time with
Babaji in the Himalayas.
“The peerless master moves with his group from place to place in
the mountains,” Kebalananda told me. “His small band contains two
highly advanced American disciples. After Babaji has been in one
locality for some time, he says: ‘DERA DANDA UTHAO.’ (‘Let us lift
our camp and staff.’) He carries a symbolic DANDA (bamboo staff).
His words are the signal for moving with his group instantaneously
to another place. He does not always employ this method of astral
travel; sometimes he goes on foot from peak to peak.
“Babaji can be seen or recognized by others only when he so
desires. He is known to have appeared in many slightly different
forms to various devotees-sometimes without beard and moustache,
and sometimes with them. As his undecaying body requires no food,
the master seldom eats. As a social courtesy to visiting disciples,
he occasionally accepts fruits, or rice cooked in milk and clarified
butter.
“Two amazing incidents of Babaji’s life are known to me,” Kebalananda
went on. “His disciples were sitting one night around a huge fire
which was blazing for a sacred Vedic ceremony. The master suddenly
seized a burning log and lightly struck the bare shoulder of a
chela who was close to the fire.
“‘Sir, how cruel!’ Lahiri Mahasaya, who was present, made this
remonstrance.
“‘Would you rather have seen him burned to ashes before your eyes,
according to the decree of his past karma?’
“With these words Babaji placed his healing hand on the chela’s
disfigured shoulder. ‘I have freed you tonight from painful death.
The karmic law has been satisfied through your slight suffering by
fire.’
“On another occasion Babaji’s sacred circle was disturbed by the
arrival of a stranger. He had climbed with astonishing skill to
the nearly inaccessible ledge near the camp of the master.
“‘Sir, you must be the great Babaji.’ The man’s face was lit with
inexpressible reverence. ‘For months I have pursued a ceaseless
search for you among these forbidding crags. I implore you to accept
me as a disciple.’
“When the great guru made no response, the man pointed to the rocky
chasm at his feet.
“‘If you refuse me, I will jump from this mountain. Life has no
further value if I cannot win your guidance to the Divine.’
“‘Jump then,’ Babaji said unemotionally. ‘I cannot accept you in
your present state of development.’
“The man immediately hurled himself over the cliff. Babaji instructed
the shocked disciples to fetch the stranger’s body. When they
returned with the mangled form, the master placed his divine hand
on the dead man. Lo! he opened his eyes and prostrated himself
humbly before the omnipotent one.
“‘You are now ready for discipleship.’ Babaji beamed lovingly on
his resurrected chela. ‘You have courageously passed a difficult
test. Death shall not touch you again; now you are one of our
immortal flock.’ Then he spoke his usual words of departure, ‘DERA
DANDA UTHAO’; the whole group vanished from the mountain.”
An avatar lives in the omnipresent Spirit; for him there is no
distance inverse to the square. Only one reason, therefore, can
motivate Babaji in maintaining his physical form from century to
century: the desire to furnish humanity with a concrete example
of its own possibilities. Were man never vouchsafed a glimpse of
Divinity in the flesh, he would remain oppressed by the heavy mayic
delusion that he cannot transcend his mortality.
Jesus knew from the beginning the sequence of his life; he passed
through each event not for himself, not from any karmic compulsion,
but solely for the upliftment of reflective human beings. His
four reporter-disciples-Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John-recorded the
ineffable drama for the benefit of later generations.
For Babaji, also, there is no relativity of past, present, future;
from the beginning he has known all phases of his life. Yet,
accommodating himself to the limited understanding of men, he has
played many acts of his divine life in the presence of one or more
witnesses. Thus it came about that a disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya was
present when Babaji deemed the time to be ripe for him to proclaim
the possibility of bodily immortality. He uttered this promise
before Ram Gopal Muzumdar, that it might finally become known for
the inspiration of other seeking hearts. The great ones speak their
words and participate in the seemingly natural course of events,
solely for the good of man, even as Christ said: “Father . . . I
knew that thou hearest me always: but BECAUSE OF THE PEOPLE WHICH
STAND BY I SAID IT, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.”
{FN33-2} During my visit at Ranbajpur with Ram Gopal, “the sleepless
saint,” {FN33-3} he related the wondrous story of his first meeting
with Babaji.
“I sometimes left my isolated cave to sit at Lahiri Mahasaya’s feet
in Benares,” Ram Gopal told me. “One midnight as I was silently
meditating in a group of his disciples, the master made a surprising
request.
“‘Ram Gopal,’ he said, ‘go at once to the Dasasamedh bathing GHAT.’
“I soon reached the secluded spot. The night was bright with moonlight
and the glittering stars. After I had sat in patient silence for
awhile, my attention was drawn to a huge stone slab near my feet.
It rose gradually, revealing an underground cave. As the stone
remained balanced in some unknown manner, the draped form of
a young and surpassingly lovely woman was levitated from the cave
high into the air. Surrounded by a soft halo, she slowly descended
in front of me and stood motionless, steeped in an inner state of
ecstasy. She finally stirred, and spoke gently.
“‘I am Mataji, {FN33-4} the sister of Babaji. I have asked him and
also Lahiri Mahasaya to come to my cave tonight to discuss a matter
of great importance.’
“A nebulous light was rapidly floating over the Ganges; the strange
luminescence was reflected in the opaque waters. It approached
nearer and nearer until, with a blinding flash, it appeared by the
side of Mataji and condensed itself instantly into the human form
of Lahiri Mahasaya. He bowed humbly at the feet of the woman saint.
“Before I had recovered from my bewilderment, I was further
wonderstruck to behold a circling mass of mystical light traveling
in the sky. Descending swiftly, the flaming whirlpool neared our
group and materialized itself into the body of a beautiful youth who,
I understood at once, was Babaji. He looked like Lahiri Mahasaya,
the only difference being that Babaji appeared much younger, and
had long, bright hair.
“Lahiri Mahasaya, Mataji, and myself knelt at the guru’s feet. An
ethereal sensation of beatific glory thrilled every fiber of my
being as I touched his divine flesh.
“‘Blessed sister,’ Babaji said, ‘I am intending to shed my form
and plunge into the Infinite Current.’
“‘I have already glimpsed your plan, beloved master. I wanted to
discuss it with you tonight. Why should you leave your body?’ The
glorious woman looked at him beseechingly.
“‘What is the difference if I wear a visible or invisible wave on
the ocean of my Spirit?’
“Mataji replied with a quaint flash of wit. ‘Deathless guru, if it
makes no difference, then please do not ever relinquish your form.’