BABAJI, THE YOGI-CHRIST OF MODERN INDIA
The northern Himalayan crags near Badrinarayan are still blessed by
the living presence of Babaji, guru of Lahiri Mahasaya. The secluded
master has retained his physical form for centuries, perhaps for
millenniums. The deathless Babaji is an AVATARA. This Sanskrit word
means “descent”; its roots are AVA, “down,” and TRI, “to pass.”
In the Hindu scriptures, AVATARA signifies the descent of Divinity
into flesh.
“Babaji’s spiritual state is beyond human comprehension,” Sri
Yukteswar explained to me. “The dwarfed vision of men cannot pierce
to his transcendental star. One attempts in vain even to picture
the avatar’s attainment. It is inconceivable.”
The UPANISHADS have minutely classified every stage of spiritual
advancement. A SIDDHA (“perfected being”) has progressed from the
state of a JIVANMUKTA (“freed while living”) to that of a PARAMUKTA
(“supremely free”-full power over death); the latter has completely
escaped from the mayic thralldom and its reincarnational round. The
PARAMUKTA therefore seldom returns to a physical body; if he does,
he is an avatar, a divinely appointed medium of supernal blessings
on the world.
An avatar is unsubject to the universal economy; his pure body,
visible as a light image, is free from any debt to nature. The
casual gaze may see nothing extraordinary in an avatar’s form but
it casts no shadow nor makes any footprint on the ground. These are
outward symbolic proofs of an inward lack of darkness and material
bondage. Such a God-man alone knows the Truth behind the relativities
of life and death. Omar Khayyam, so grossly misunderstood, sang of
this liberated man in his immortal scripture, the RUBAIYAT:
“Ah, Moon of my Delight who know’st no wane,
The Moon of Heav’n is rising once again;
How oft hereafter rising shall she look
Through this same Garden after me-in vain!”
The “Moon of Delight” is God, eternal Polaris, anachronous never.
The “Moon of Heav’n” is the outward cosmos, fettered to the law of
periodic recurrence. Its chains had been dissolved forever by the
Persian seer through his self-realization. “How oft hereafter rising
shall she look . . . after me-in vain!” What frustration of search
by a frantic universe for an absolute omission!
[Illustration: BABAJI, THE MAHAVATAR, Guru of Lahiri Mahasaya, I have
helped an artist to draw a true likeness of the great Yogi-Christ
of modern India.—see babaji.jpg]
[Illustration: One of the caves occupied by Babaji in the Drongiri
Mountains near Ranikhet in the Himalayas. A grandson of Lahiri
Mahasaya, Ananda Mohan Lahiri (second from right, in white), and
three other devotees are visiting the sacred spot.—see cave.jpg]
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.’
{FN33-5}
“‘Be it so,’ Babaji said solemnly. ‘I will never leave my physical
body. It will always remain visible to at least a small number of
people on this earth. The Lord has spoken His own wish through your
lips.’
“As I listened in awe to the conversation between these exalted
beings, the great guru turned to me with a benign gesture.
“‘Fear not, Ram Gopal,’ he said, ‘you are blessed to be a witness
at the scene of this immortal promise.’
“As the sweet melody of Babaji’s voice faded away, his form and
that of Lahiri Mahasaya slowly levitated and moved backward over
the Ganges. An aureole of dazzling light templed their bodies as
they vanished into the night sky. Mataji’s form floated to the cave
and descended; the stone slab closed of itself, as if working on
an invisible leverage.
“Infinitely inspired, I wended my way back to Lahiri Mahasaya’s
place. As I bowed before him in the early dawn, my guru smiled at
me understandingly.
“‘I am happy for you, Ram Gopal,’ he said. ‘The desire of meeting
Babaji and Mataji, which you have often expressed to me, has found
at last a sacred fulfillment.’
“My fellow disciples informed me that Lahiri Mahasaya had not moved
from his dais since early the preceding evening.
“‘He gave a wonderful discourse on immortality after you had left
for the Dasasamedh GHAT,’ one of the chelas told me. For the first
time I fully realized the truth in the scriptural verses which state
that a man of self-realization can appear at different places in
two or more bodies at the same time.
“Lahiri Mahasaya later explained to me many metaphysical points
concerning the hidden divine plan for this earth,” Ram Gopal
concluded. “Babaji has been chosen by God to remain in his body
for the duration of this particular world cycle. Ages shall come
and go—still the deathless master, {FN33-6} beholding the drama
of the centuries, shall be present on this stage terrestrial.”
{FN33-1} MATTHEW 8:19-20.
{FN33-2} JOHN 11:41-42.
{FN33-3} The omnipresent yogi who observed that I failed to bow
before the Tarakeswar shrine (../chapter 13).
{FN33-4} “Holy Mother.” Mataji also has lived through the centuries;
she is almost as far advanced spiritually as her brother. She remains
in ecstasy in a hidden underground cave near the Dasasamedh GHAT.
{FN33-5} This incident reminds one of Thales. The great Greek
philosopher taught that there was no difference between life and
death. “Why, then,” inquired a critic, “do you not die?” “Because,”
answered Thales, “it makes no difference.”
{FN33-6} “Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying
(remain unbrokenly in the Christ Consciousness), he shall never
see death.”-JOHN 8:51.