I've been very interested recently in reading up on, and generally finding out about, Babaji. Many interested in spiritual topics will know the name as he is described in Yogananda's famous book, "Autobiography Of A Yogi", and indeed he appeared to Yogananda. Babaji is widely considered to be the Mahayogi or Guru of all gurus in the yogi tradition. The impression many have (mistakenly) from Yogananda's book is that Babaji is some otherworldly figure who is virtually impossible to find or encounter, not inhabiting a physical form. However, while a few dispute it, generally it is now considered that the same Babaji Yogananda wrote of was also the Babaji who lived in the Himalayan foothills around the small village of Haidakhan from around 1860 to 1922. He just suddenly was there, and disappeared in front of followers in a flash of light in 1922.
But it's only in recent years I've known of the "new" Haidakhan Babaji. He was suddenly back there in a very youthful body in 1970, and lay down his body in "death" as he'd predicted to a few he would do, after 14 years in 1984. So he only manifested for 14 years. Again, it's widely believed that this was the same personage as the other two Babajis - and indeed he affirmed this and also proved it in many ways. Legally a court agreed that he was Babaji returned, so he inherited the rights to ashram buildings established by the "old" Babaji.
I've put this under "General - Faiths" as he came not to support Hinduism or any religion in particular, but Universal Religion: all of them, and Truth.
The 1970-1984 appearance of this great person is fascinating as from all accounts this was no normal human body. He came from no known family or parentage: suddenly, looking about 18, he was just there, in a cave, knowing about world affairs, able to play instruments, and extremely knowledgeable and wise about all religions and spiritual practices. It's not considered that this was a reincarnation; rather it's that Babaji can just manifest and then dematerialise bodies at will - and tri-located at times. At first this young "new" Babaji never ate, rarely drank fluid, didn't go to the loo, and could sit in meditation for over 40 days unmoving. Heat and cold didn't seem to phase him.
It was apparent to the many who followed him that he knew their thoughts at any moment and would respond to them. He rarely if ever slept. He was with and helping people up to 20 hours a day, every day. Though he sometimes slept in a tiny locked room, his chief priest and helper shared the room and at night would find himself alone - Babaji gone though the door was still locked from the outside. Personally he had no belongings - even his clothes would be given, he'd wear them, then pass them on after a day or two. His beard and hair never grew - unless he wanted them to. Sometimes he grew a moustache, but then it seemed to withdraw at will into his body again. (Once he did shave his hair off.) He had immense energy, designed buildings for his ashram, taught many hundreds of people in an amazing one-to-one manner, and his body was seen to swell in moments if he took on karmic burdens or "low vibes" from newcomers. There are accounts of him healing and even raising the dead. After pretending that he only spoke the local dialect for over ten years, from 1981, though he'd received no education, he would speak almost any language to people who began to come to him from around India and the world. All spiritual teachers, gurus, and yogis who met him acknowledged him as their superior. Even though they might be elders, and he at first looked only 18-22.
These are all just the physical attributes of a figure who changed enormously in appearance over the 14 years of his manifestation. The real story is in his teachings, his methods, and how he helped so many in their spiritual growth.
It's all been a fascinating story to get into, and still little-known in the West. (He gave up his body, it seemed, soon after he became wide-enough known that Westerners were arriving to him by the hundred.) I've found it best to read the two books, "I Am Harmony" on him by Radhe Shyam, and "Fire of Transformation" by Gaura Devi. But there are small websites, a Facebook page, some other books, well over a thousand photos of him (some on Google images) and a limited amount of movie footage.
Babaji was a truly remarkable Being, and all the more remarkable for being still so relatively little-known. An astonishing Being actually, and it's fascinating to read of his methods - often very Zen - of teaching individuals in their spiritual growth. He was often extremely subtle, but could overwhelm people with love or even hit them with his staff at a key moment. If he were still in that body today, I'm sure people would be flocking there in the hundreds of thousands. Certainly I regret not knowing of him at the time before 1984.
V
A Film Star Meets Bābaji
Shammi Kapoor, the great Indian film star, acknowledges his first meeting with Babaji in 1974 was a rather unusual and powerful experience. He was unaccountably nervous. He made his pranam to this young Babaji and then retreated to the far corners of the room, even went behind curtains, and looked at Babaji through the telescopic lens of his camera – and took photographs. Every time he focused, he found Babaji looking at him with piercing, X-ray eyes. One of the photos Shammiji took has a clear Om symbol on Babaji’s forehead.
But he prided himself on his clear, rational thinking and was not about to ‘surrender’ to Shri Babaji. His wife and children wanted to invite Babaji to come to their home. Shammiji had no objection to this, but the custom was for the whole family to go to where Babaji was staying and tender the invitation as a united group – and this Shammiji refused to do. Babaji was to be invited to their apartment on Monday and the family wanted to go on Sunday to offer the invitation. Shammiji had a busy work schedule and Sunday was his only free day and he insisted on his right to have his customary Sunday lunch and beer, followed by a long nap in his air-conditioned bedroom.
Shammiji says he told Neela, his wife, “Babaji is welcome to come; He can have my home, but I will not go to invite Him. I am going to have my beer, my lunch, and my nap!” So the family went off to see Babaji and Shammiji had his lunch and beer.
As Shammiji was getting ready for his afternoon nap in his big bed, Neela and the family knelt before Shri Babaji to ask Him to come to their home. Babaji asked Neela, “Where is your husband?” Unwilling to say that he had stayed home to enjoy his beer and nap, and not wanting to lie, Neela stammered that Shammiji was not really well and had stayed at home.
At that time, Shammiji stretched out on his bed for his nap – and suddenly Babaji was standing before him at the foot of his bed! Babaji laughed at Shammiji and said, “Oho! So you are sick? You stayed home and had lots of beer and lunch.” Babaji jumped to the right of the bed and teased and laughed at Shammiji, then jumped over the big bed to the other side. Back and forth, to the top and bottom of the bed, Babaji jumped and laughed and teased. For two hours, Babaji kept up this ‘game’ and Shammiji sat in his bed in a sweat, wondering what in God’s name to do with this Baba.
When Neela came home from Babaji’s afternoon darshan, she went into the bedroom to wake up the sleeping Shammiji; but she found him sitting on his bed, drenched in sweat, and trembling. A very shaken Shammiji told Neela of his experience with Babaji.
When Babaji came to the apartment the next day, Shammiji related his experience to Babaji, who laughed at Shammiji with twinkling eyes.
- From “I Am Harmony: A Book About Babaji” by Radhe Shyam
Hi V - nice to have you back!
That's really interesting. Amazing we haven't heard of him in the West. Perhaps the time wasn't right then?
Hi Caroline,
Certainly only those heard about him, I think, who were intended to. Almost from the beginning, if he traveled around India, hundreds flocked to see him. But this was before the days of the internet, and a few Westerners just heard of him in early years by word of mouth. He sustained himself and was fine so long as followers were fairly pure and devout, and not in overwhelming numbers. He served immensely, because even if hundreds came to his ashram, he had an amazing way of knowing perfectly just what every individual needed for their development, and so even if it was just in a few momentary meetings in each day, everybody was given instruction, tasks to do, and care tailored to them, by him. (If anyone wasn't responding, or not ready, he just said, "You go!" - they had to leave next day :eek:)
But a book on him came out in, I think, 1983, in Europe. Hundreds of Westerners suddenly did find their way to his remote ashram, hours away from any road; and close followers were concerned that he couldn't sustain the burden his body took upon itself from these raw "recruits". He couldn't have sustained that level of service to so many new people, and he must have known that from the beginning. He dropped hints from the beginning that he wouldn't be around after 1984.
Really interesting to read those two books on him, and Google images has a wealth of photos under "Babaji". (A few are of different people as Babaji simply means "revered father".) He was at first very youthful, and rarely spoke; then he transformed into someone with more weight on him, and who was continually active and interacting with people. Remarkable - even his character would transform within a second to deal with each different person. It's as if no human personality such as we think of it was there - he was a Being who mirrored what everyone else needed to receive.
Check out Google images 🙂
V
Edit to add: Hmm but I just looked, and it's pretty confusing which images are or are not him. A number are the artist's rendition of how Babaji was described by people in Yogananda's time, back in the early 1900s. In young or more weighty form, he's the one with the markings on the forehead.
Very nice posts V and pleased to see you back. Look forward to more intersting and quaint posts of yours
Thanks, jnani. Quaint? :p
Here's a nice four-and-a-half minute music contemplation on the different appearances new Haidakhan Babaji took on in just the first ten years of the fourteen he appeared for:
[url]Babaji Mahavatar - the descent of Eternity into Time - YouTube[/url]
V
Thanks, jnani. Quaint? :p
Here's a nice four-and-a-half minute music contemplation on the different appearances new Haidakhan Babaji took on in just the first ten years of the fourteen he appeared for:
[url]Babaji Mahavatar - the descent of Eternity into Time - YouTube[/url]
V
Quaint only as in sweet.
Hi V,
So good to see a dear friend back here! :grouphug:
I have Yogananda's "Autobiography Of A Yogi", which is absolutely fascinating, especially (as you can imagine with me), the chapter "The law of miracles". I must go back now and re-acquaint myself with whom Babaji was. There were so many remarkable yogis described there.
Thanks for what you've shared - to me it all points to how the belief of matter as being something solid (rather than just thought) is breaking down.
Love and peace,
Judy
Hi Judy,
In terms of Yogananda, a classic figure, Babaji was the Guru of the guru of Yogananda's guru. 🙂 In other words Babaji taught Lahiri Mahasaya the science of Kriya Yoga among other things, and he taught Sri Yukteswar - though Sri Yukteswar also met Babaji. Sri Yukteswar was Yogananda's teacher, though Yogananda also met Babaji. Yogananda didn't realise, however, that while Babaji could "miraculously" appear to people, he was also at that time in a "body" which could just about always be found, near the village of Haidakhan.
Babaji is interesting because he was clearly not "just another" guru: all spiritual teachers of all traditions who met him instantly recognised something extraordinary in him. Put it this way: I actually believe he was in a resurrected body, personally. That's been my conclusion after reading what I could about him.
And laying down one body doesn't mean he's "gone": I know someone who met him just a few years ago: it was that testimony that got me interested.
V
Thanks for the explanation V!
I looked him up in the book and it says that he would return and always stay in the same physical body, but only be seen by a small number of selected (and I guess receptive and spiritually minded) followers. Of course, that would leave the skeptical people saying, "but then you have no proof", it's all anecdotes. That doesn't matter to the genuine spiritual seeker, but it's frustrating coming up against the world's solid belief in the limitations of matter and non-existence of Spirit!
It struck me when reading the book, that it was written through a desire to reach out to the Western thought, as there are so many passages from the Bible in it.
Love and peace,
Judy
Hi Judy,
A few topics there. On a Western approach, that was Yogananda's mission, to bring yoga and specifically kriya yoga, to the West. "New" Haidakhan Babaji of 1970-1984 also didn't appear as a Hindu but came to teach the "eternal wisdom" behind and at the core of all religion. So for example, Christmas was always a big day of a whole day of celebration (music, plays, food) at his ashram in the Himalayan foothills: this was a marvel to the poor people of the region who all went and attended.
Surprisingly, Yogananda didn't understand or get told that Babaji was more accessible than he thought. But it seems people really only got to know where Babaji was, including in the 1970s, if "called" - such as by a vision, in a dream, or by a "meant to be" word-of-mouth telling. If all readers of Yogananda's book, maybe in the millions, had known Babaji was in a specific location from 1970, he'd have been besieged as would the tiny village nearby.
Scepticism will always be there. Babaji of 1970-84 certainly existed! In that modern time, it was possible to take innumerable photos of him. Still before the era of widespread webcams etc though, there are just some grainy movie shots of him maybe totaling an hour, on YouTube. But it's impossible to "prove" utterly that he was also the former Babaji of up to 1922, or later appearances. He seemingly just "appeared" in a cave in 1970 - but one or two did seem to think they'd known him in the area in the 1960s, from when he appeared to be about 12. That's all a bit unclear. Yogananda's organisation, Self-Realization Fellowship, discount new Haidakhan Babaji as being the same Babaji as in Yogananda's book - but this just makes me smile as it's not only typical, but a "given" that religious organisations behave this way. (To have aknowledged the Babaji of from 1970 would have meant he'd have had claim to lead their organisation, and large religious organisations, I've found again and again, just don't allow that or relinquish power ......)
..... if Jesus Himself came back in a body today, I am certain the churches themselves would deny and not acknowledge him: IMHO that's a given. It's how political/organisational power works.
But in India itself, new Haidakhan Babaji traveled around, proved himself, and got back under his wing the ashrams and temples dedicated to him up to 1922. In that body of up to 1922, he had given secret mantras to individuals, telling them he'd return, or given objects to them to keep for him: when he was back after 1970, he recited these personal mantras with a twinkling in his eye in private one-to-one meetings, or took back the objects only the owners knew were from him (such as rosary necklaces). There are many such humorous incidents of how Babaji proved himself. More than I could cite here.
I'll put below one interesting anecdote I just read today..... indicating his bi-locating and appearing after the latest known body was given up. (He always said it wasn't really his body in a normal sense, and that he was elsewhere.)
V xx
From the book "I Am Harmony" by Radhe Shyam:
---------------------------
A story narrated by Naveen Joshi :
Shri Babaji was visiting Bombay every year and mostly staying at Shammi Kapoor’s Vallabh apartments. There were several devotees living there and I am not sure if Babaji was staying with Dr. Clerck, Suresh Bhai or Sardharji in that year 1978. It was around 6 o'clock in the evening Babaji was taking rest and was going to give next darshan at 8 o’clock.
There was a ring at the door and a very tired looking, shabby, bearded old man was at the door and politely requested to see Shri Babaji.
He was told to come for evening darshan at 8 pm down in the tent.
He insisted and said that he had came from very far from Mecca Medina in Saudi Arabia where Babaji had told him to come and meet HIM in Bombay.
I was seated on the couch in the living room heard the conversation, jumped up and asked this man to come in.
He did’nt wanted to speak a lot and looked very tired. He even refused to eat or drink anything and said that He just wanted to meet Babaji and have His darshan, He said that he had met Shri Babaji in Mecca and further added that every few years there is a meeting held of Muslim Saints in mountains not far from Mecca- a very secret meeting in which Babaji also attended many times.
Everybody in the room knew well that Shri Babaji had never left India in His physical form and listened with skepticism to this man. However it seemed sincere and when it was time Babaji was woken up with a tea and the news of this man was relayed to Him. He immediately requested to have him called in the room. After a greeting in Arabian language everyone was requested to leave the room so they could have privacy. After half an hour this man came out happy, energized, greeted every one in the room and left. Shri Maha Muniraj ji who was also present in Bombay when this happened, confirmed the truth of this story 2 weeks ago.
Nobody knew who that man was, what this was all about. Through the years Babaji spoke well of Pir's which are sufi saints but no details were ever recorded.
In the year 1986, Sheikh Nazim came to Babaji's Ashram in Switzerland. He said, on his arrival that Babaji had sent him there and mentioned later on a few occasions that Shri Babaji was heading a counsel of great masters and sheikhs in the Sufi world.
All very intriguing but reason enough to be reminded that the Divine has mysterious way and resides everywhere in so many forms.
Hi V,
Thanks, interesting story. I can just see him with Sufi saints. :p
And you're so right with this:
..... if Jesus Himself came back in a body today, I am certain the churches themselves would deny and not acknowledge him: IMHO that's a given. It's how political/organisational power works.
Mary Baker Eddy would agree with you there!:
If that Godlike and glorified man were physically on to-day, would not some, who now pro‐fess to love him, reject him? Would they not deny him even the rights of humanity, if he entertained any other sense of being and religion than theirs?
(Science and Health 54)
Some things never change, hey>
Love and peace,
Judy