I am Harmony

In Washington, D.C., I sat at my desk to prepare a report to my prospective clients on my findings on the business trip, but nothing came. Day after day I went to my desk, then wandered off, stymied and bewildered. I read through the Haidakhan aarati service morning and evening and almost always ended up teary and in confusion. I could not understand what had happened to me. After about ten days of this, words began to flow from my pen and in another ten days I had a good report in the mail to my prospective clients. I had a contractual obligation to my former office and I sat to complete work on that project and went through the same process of "nothingness," followed by a burst of work.

Margaret called from India to tell me that when Babaji re­turned to Haidakhan, His first question to her was, "Why did your friend leave without My permission?" A few days later, Babaji sent Margaret out of the ashram (for the third time in her three-month stay) and told her to "go to your home." She considered her home was with Babaji, so she went to another of His ashrams.

I was so upset, so 'incomplete' in my relationships with both Margaret and Babaji, that six weeks after my return from India I was back on a plane, bound for New Delhi and Haidakhan.

When I reached the top of the "108 Steps" at the Haidakhan Ashram, Margaret was standing in the door of Swami Fakiranand's office, cleaning a rug. I had left Washington so precipitously that I had not sent a telegram. Margaret almost fainted from surprise, but she recovered quickly and told me that Babaji was giving darshan by the temple and that I should wash before going to see Him.

Shri Babaji was sitting on His dais in the kirtan hall, the three-walled room whose open side faced the temple which housed the marble statue of 'Old Haidakhan Baba.' Babaji was talking with an Indian devotee, so I knelt and touched His feet and sat down. When Babaji finished His conversation, He turned to me and asked, "Why did you leave without My permission?" (I learned later that ashram protocol required that one have Babaji s permission to stay in the ashram and that one was expected to clear things with Babaji before leaving the ashram.) I told Him that I had needed to work on my new business proposal, and told Him how the work had gone and why I had re­turned. After a few minutes more of giving darshan, Babaji left His dais and took me to the bottom of the stairs leading to guestrooms in the largest building in the ashram. He told an Indian devotee to give me one of those rooms, and we took my luggage upstairs.

When I came back down, people were sitting down to eat the noon meal. Margaret started to sit apart from me and Babaji came over to us, told the person between us to move, and firmly sat us down together. He told me, "You can have her in your room, if you like," and walked away. Margaret was appalled and annoyed; ashram rules separated male and female sleeping arrangements. Be­fore Margaret had finished telling me I should not ask her to stay in my room, Babaji came back to us and said to me, "You can marry her, if you like," and then He went off to the room where He ate a few morsels of the food offered to Him. Margaret's indignation was great, but, even then, she recognized that she had surrendered her will to His; she would not deny anything He required of her. But, lawyer-like, she noted that in both statements Babaji had left the choice to me and she started working to make certain that I would not "exercise my option."

Babaji played with us for a week. We did share the guest-room, and we worked together, ate together, went together to talk to Babaji. On one occasion, at the temple near the hillside work project, as we knelt before Babaji, He took our right hands in His, pressed them together, and laughingly said, in English, "You're married! You're married!" and then quickly walked away, leaving us wondering if He were serious. We knew that He 'threw' people into situations to test them and help them grow through their problems and desires; but there was also the possibility that He really willed our marriage. So we began asking Babaji, "Is this marriage Your Will?," or was it my desire that Babaji was fulfilling? When Margaret asked that question of Him one day, Babaji responded that He was sup­porting my desire. When I asked on another occasion, I got a non­committal response.

After a few days of this, I agreed with Margaret that I had no desire to be wedded to a woman who didn't want to be married. I went to Babaji to tell Him so. I knelt before Him, touched His feet, and raised my head to speak. And Babaji got up and hurried away. Because He stopped talking about the marriage, we concluded He had stopped playing the marriage game with us. We decided that if He asked again, I would tell Babaji that there would be no marriage.

Early in this visit to Haidakhan, I had gotten a case of diarrhea and Shri Babaji had told me to rest and eat carefully. Late one morning, a week after my arrival, I had taken a nap and I was awakened by the sound of the temple bells welcoming Babaji back from the work sites across the river. I heard Babaji's laughter and felt pulled to go to His presence. When I got to Him, He was seated on the wall outside His room and about twenty devotees, including Margaret, were standing and sitting around Him. I knelt before Him and as I rose up, Babaji asked, "What do you want to say?" With my mind stilled by sleep, I had nothing to say; but what came out of my lips was, "Baba, we just want to do Your Will." And Babaji replied, "It is My Will that you marry." And, without further ado, Babaji married us on the spot - literally tied our hands together, sent us to the temple to make our pranams, had rings produced for us to exchange, and told us to arrange a wedding feast for the next day!

The next day I had a mundan - a complete head shave, hair and mustache gone. Shri Babaji sometimes recommended mundans for healing, or for helping a person work through a spiritual block (like attachment to one's established looks and identity), or simply as a symbol of one's submission to his or her guru. I think it was the latter thought that prompted my request to Moti Bhagwan, the ashram barber, for the mundan.

In the late afternoon, Margaret and I went to the garden where Shri Babaji was directing the evening's work. He tenderly led us to a log and sat us on it so we could look down the lovely valley. A few days before, Babaji had given Margaret the name Sita Rami. Ram was the first of the great "human" forms of The Divine in the Hindu experience, and Sita was His wife, so perfect and so devoted to Lord Ram that she is still held up to Indian girls and women as the ideal of womanhood. The name Sita Rami combines both the male and female energies and aspects of God. Babaji asked if I had any other desire. I laughed and said that now that I had a new wife and a mundan, I would like a new name. Without hesitation, Babaji said my name was Radhe Shyam (or Radheyshyam). A devotee explained to me that Shyam is one of the many names of Lord Krishna and Radha was His most devoted female follower; in stories and pictures, Krishna and Radha are linked. So Babaji gave both of us powerful names that link the male and female energies of The Divine.

We stayed in the ashram for about a week after our marriage. Babaji blessed us in so many ways that we were dizzy with it. We came from heaven. We were made for each other in heaven. The gods smiled on our marriage; even the birds of the valley were rejoicing. He had never seen a more perfect couple. We began to think that maybe He was serious about this marriage.

Early in May, Babaji sent us back to the United States. We asked when we could return to Haidakhan. He gave us the charge of sending money for three more temples to be built on the right bank of the river; that would cost "three or four lakhs of rupees" - about $50,000 at that time. When the money had been sent, we could return, "if you wish."

As we left the ashram, Shri Babaji told us that our names, repeated together - Sita Ram, Radhe Shyam - constitute a mantra. And His last words to us, as we started down the 108 steps from the ash­ram to the riverbed, were "Be happy, children!"

By coincidence or otherwise, everything we turned to in the United States went well. We sold our house very well in an awful real estate market. Mortgage rates fell from 18-19% in May to 11% in July, and after our contract was signed on July 4, rates climbed again to 18% by the end of the year. We were able to send Babaji $50,000 for the three new temples in less than four months after our return. In four more weeks, we managed to give away the rest of the proceeds and officially terminate my stalled effort to start the consulting business. At the end of August, we applied for visas to return to India.

Our lives had been totally changed by our encounters with Shri Babaji. Our thoughts were very much focused on The Divine and on service to the whole of Creation. Religion, or spirituality, had an immediate, practical, moment-to-moment relationship to our lives. We felt the 'pull' of Babaji's love, joy and wisdom and wanted further to experience His presence and teaching. We had much to learn and wanted to have Him be our guru, wanted Him to accept us as His disciples. So, late in December, 1980, when our visas came, we went back to India to be with Babaji again, to sit at the feet of the Master and learn about and from Him.

"There is a great saint, an ocean of all qualities, Whose beginning and end nobody knows," From the Haidakhan Aarati.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made." John 1: 1-3 (King James translation)

"Creating all things, he entered into everything. Entering all things, he became that which has shape and that which is shapeless; he became that which is conscious and that which is not conscious; he became that which is gross and that which is subtle. He became all things whatsoever; therefore the wise call him the Real." From the Taittiriya Upanishad

CHAPTER II

PREVIOUS MANIFESTATIONS OF BABAJI

Some Experiences of Yogananda's Line

There is a belief in, a tradition of, and there are published re­ports of earlier manifestations of Babaji. The traditions extend back to prehistory; the written reports start with the second half of the 19th century - or go back to the early centuries A.D., depending on how you choose to interpret a scriptural prophesy.

Millions of people all over the world have read about Mahavatar Babaji in Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi11,which was first published in the United States of America in 1946. Yogananda's guru's guru, Lahiri Mahasaya, began talking and teaching about Babaji in the 1860's and his disciple Shri Yukteswar - Yogananda's guru - wrote a book in 1894, under Babaji's instructions, which gave some information about Babaji.

Yogananda, passing on information obtained by Lahiri Ma-hasaya, Shri Yukteswar, and himself, in conversations with Shri Babaji, stated that Mahavatar Babaji gave yoga initiation to the great Shaivite teacher, Shri Shankara (788-820 A.D.) and to the poet-saint Kabir (1440-1518), as well as to Lahiri Mahasaya.12 There are no facts relating to birth or family in any of His manifestations.13

Yogananda's spiritual line's experience of Babaji began in the autumn of 1861, when Shyama Charan Lahiri was 33 years old.14 He was then an accountant in the Military Engineering Department of the British Raj in India, a married man with four children. A telegram from the head office directed his transfer from his post in Danapur, a town near Benares, to Ranikhet, in the Almora District of the Kumaon Hills in modern Uttar Pradesh state (renamed Uttaranchal in 2000). After thirty days of travel by horse and buggy, Lahiri reached his new office. His duties were not demanding and he was able to spend many hours roaming the hillsides. The area has been known, since before written history, for the saints who live and wander there, and Lahiri felt a strong desire to see them.

One afternoon, on Dronagiri Mountain, he heard a distant voice calling his name. He followed the voice and found a smiling young man who welcomed him and took him to a cave which contained some woolen blankets and some water bowls. The young man asked Lahiri if he remembered these things. In English, the young man said that it was apparent that his telegram had taken effect. When a baffled Lahiri asked what he meant, the young man said that he referred to the telegram that directed Lahiri to transfer to Ranikhet. He himself had put the suggestion into the mind of Lahiri's superior officer. The young man said that when a person feels unity with all of humanity, he or she can work through anyone's mind.

Since Lahiri remained bewildered by all this, the young man tapped him lightly on the forehead and suddenly Lahiri began remembering his previous life. He recognized Babaji, the cave, the blankets and water bowls and recalled the years he had spent in this cave in his last incarnation.

That night Shri Babaji initiated Lahiri into kriya yoga in a spectacular palace created by Babaji to satisfy a desire of Lahiri, from some long past life, since all desires must be attained and fulfilled before one embarks on this last high spiritual climb. When the initiation rites were completed, the palace disappeared, but Babaji and the disciples who accompanied Him remained with Lahiri on Dronagiri Mountain. During another seven days, Lahiri, in an unbroken state of bliss, attained Self-knowledge.

On the eighth day, Lahiri fell at Babaji's feet and implored Him to let him stay always in the wilderness with Shri Babaji. Babaji told Lahiri his duty was to serve in the city as an example of the ideal yogi-householder; people burdened by ties to work and family would take inspiration from him. Babaji said the family man is not barred from attaining the highest yogic growth; one who faithfully pursues a spiritual path can attain enlightenment.

The next morning, when Lahiri knelt at Shri Babaji's feet for blessing, Babaji told Lahiri that there was no separation between them; that whenever Lahiri called on Him, wherever Lahiri was, Babaji would come to him.

Soon after Lahiri's return to his office in Ranikhet, a letter came from the head office saying that his transfer to Ranikhet had occurred by error and that he should return to Danapur. On his way back to his post, Lahiri stopped to visit friends in Moradabad. His high spirits compelled him to share the tale of his miraculous experiences and his friends were incredulous. In his enthusiasm, Lahiri said that if he called Him, his guru would appear. He was immediately put to the test. Lahiri went into a windowless, quiet room and told his friends to wait outside until he called. Lahiri went into meditation and asked Babaji to appear. The room filled with a glow from which a luminous figure of Babaji appeared.

Babaji sternly rebuked Lahiri for calling Him for a trifle. Truth, He said, is not for the person of idle curiosity. Spiritual truths are dis­covered by people who overcome their skepticism. Babaji agreed to remain, but told Lahiri that from then on He would appear to Lahiri only when he needed Him, not always when he called.

The door was opened and the friends stared in disbelief. One laughed; saying this was a case of mass hypnotism, since no one could possibly have entered the room without their knowledge. Babaji smiled and let each one touch his warm, solid flesh, and they all prostrated before him. Babaji asked that a simple, sweet dish - halva - be prepared and talked pleasantly with them while it was being made. After they had eaten, Babaji blessed each one, then disappeared in a sudden flash of light.

Lahiri Mahasaya, after his initiation by Shri Babaji, became a great teacher and saint. There are recorded incidents of miraculous healing attributed to him; of restoring at least one person to life the day after his death; healing the blind; disappearing from sight in the presence of people; simultaneous appearances in two places; and, the day after his death, appearing to three disciples in three different cities at the same hour, in the flesh.

After his initiation, Lahiri Mahasaya met Babaji several times in unexpected circumstances. One of these incidents illustrates a point which seems to run through all of Shri Babaji's manifestations. At a khumba mela15 in Allahabad, Lahiri was astounded to find Babaji kneeling before a matted-haired renunciate. Lahiri asked Babaji what He was doing. Babaji replied that he was washing the feet of a renunciate, that he would then clean his cooking utensils; He said that He was practicing the virtue of humility.

Shri Yukteswar, who was Yogananda's guru, was perhaps the greatest of Lahiri Mahasaya's disciples. He, too, was a miracle-worker. During his lifetime, he met Shri Babaji three times. On the first of these occasions, Shri Babaji set Yukteswar on another of the themes which Babaji has pressed in recent times. Babaji said that East and West must establish a middle path of activity and spirituality. India had much to learn from the West in material development and India could teach the methods by which the West would be able to place its religious beliefs on the foundations of yogic science. Babaji said there were potential saints in America and Europe who were waiting to be enlivened.16

On a later occasion, Shri Babaji instructed Yukteswar to write a book showing the underlying unity between the Christian and Hindu scriptures. This work resulted in Yukteswar's "The Holy Science."17

Shri Yukteswar's outstanding and most beloved disciple was Paramahansa Yogananda. While Yogananda was a babe in arms, Babaji informed Yukteswar that He would send him a disciple to train for dissemination of yogic knowledge in the West. In 1920, when Yogananda was committed to going to the United States of America to start this work, but experienced concern about leaving his native land for the materialistic West, Shri Babaji, in answer to hours of Yogananda's prayers, knocked on his door and came to confirm to Yogananda that he was the disciple sent to Yukteswar for this task, and to give His blessings on the venture.

Scriptural References

There are indications of Shri Babaji's manifestations long be­fore the events described above. There are two books of religious prophesy - one ancient and one modern - which 'foretell' the appearance of Lord Shiva in a 'human' form during Lord Krishna's incarnation, at the end of the Dvapara Yuga and the beginning of the Kali Yuga, with the implication that this form will continue to assist man­kind through the Kali Yuga (the Iron Age; also translated as the Age of Strife, Conflict or Darkness).

The older book is the Shiva Purana, which was put into its present form in (perhaps) the fourth or fifth century A.D., but which contains written and oral material from a far more distant past. There is the following statement concerning one of the many incarnations of Lord Shiva to carry out His worldly activities.

"In the twenty-eighth aeon of Dvapara, there will be... born... Krishna... as the foremost of the sons of Vasudeva."

"Then I [Shiva] too shall be born with the body of a Brahmacarin and the soul of by means of Yogic Maya to the great surprise of the worlds."

"On seeing a dead body forsaken in the cremation ground I shall enter into it and make it free from ailments by means of Yogic Maya... Then I will enter the holy divine cavern of Meru along with you [Lord Brahma] and Visnu. O Brahma, I shall then be known as Lakulin."

"The physical incarnation thus and the holy Siddha centre will be greatly renowned as long as the earth lasts."18

It is an historical fact that there was a great religious figure in India named Lakulish (a form of the name Lakulin, which means "one who carries a staff"). Tradition states that he lived at the time of Lord Krishna.19 Lakulish settled in a place called Kayavarohan, in modern Gujarat state, which is said to have been established as a religious teaching center by Maharshi Vishwamitra in the still earlier era of Lord Ram. Lakulish is credited with formulating and propagating the Pashupatmat form of Shaivism and establishing twelve "Jyotirlingams" (special phallic forms symbolic of Lord Shiva's creative energy) around India. The administration of these jyotirlingams and the learning centers associated with them lasted for about a thou­sand years. The lingams and their temples still exist. Haidakhan Baba frequently walked with a heavy staff, and Mount Meru is another name for Mount Kailash, where Lord Shiva has performed thousands of years of tapas. When Babaji visited Kayavarohan in 1980, He was greeted and worshipped as Lakulish and Lord Shiva.

The present text of the Shiva Purana was compiled some time later than Lakulish's era and it is now impossible to determine whether the prophesy in the Shiva Purana was contained in the earlier written versions or oral traditions, or was written at a later time to exalt Lakulish's Pashupatmat sect. Whether Lakulish represents the first appearance of Shri Babaji in a human form or not, a tradition among Shri Babaji s followers is that He has been in and out of physical worldly activities in an identifiable 'human' form (but not limited to one form only) at least since the end of the Dvapara Yuga, the time of Lord Krishna.

The modern book referred to is "Shrisadashiv Charitamrit"20, a divinely inspired book published by Shri Vishnu Dutt Shastri in 1959. The first chapter of this book relates the visions given to Shri Vishnu Dutt of a discussion among the ancient, fabled sage Narada and the gods, concerning the need to send someone to the earth to help and guide humankind. All concerned agreed that only Lord Samba Sadashiv (a subtle form of The Divine as Shiva, Who is believed to have interacted with the created universe since the beginning of Time) has the qualities needed for this task. Therefore, they went to Lord Samba Sadashiv and prayed that He go to the world and help it in its miseries. The Lord responded with this statement:

"I will very soon come to the world. In the Treta Yuga, I will come with Rama as a brahmachari and clean the world of non-knowledge. In the Dvapara Yuga, I will enter and give knowledge to all those who will open their hearts to me. Vishnu then will enter into me as a swan and the people of Kumaon will begin to call me Paramhansa [the Supreme Swan; the swan is a symbol of knowledge] and Brahmachari [a brahmachari is a dedicated, celibate student, a seeker of knowledge]."21

Vishnu Dutt Shastri understood this prophesy to have reference to Babaji. Babaji is believed by many to be a manifestation of the earliest forms of the Formless Divine (like "the Word" used in the gospel of John) and, in early and recent manifestations, is associated with the Kumaon Hills of Uttar Pradesh, where one of His many names is Brahmachari Baba.

"Shrisadashiv Charitamrit" also contains chapters relating to other earthly manifestations of Shri Babaji. Chapters V and VI deal with the period of Lord Ram. In a later chapter, Lord Shiva glorifies Ram to Lord Vishnu and concludes with the statement, "My heart is always filled with Ram's glory. As an incarnation of devotion, Ram is everything."

Another chapter deals with Lord Samba Sadashiv's appearance in Vrindaban in Lord Krishna's time. It describes Samba Sadashiv having darshan of the baby Krishna and the later worship of Shiva by Lord Krishna. Shri Babaji, in His recent incarnation, mentioned on a few occasions that He was one of the teachers of Jesus Christ during His years between the ages of twelve and thirty, on which the New Testament is silent. And, as stated above, Shri Babaji said that, some centuries later, He also had initiated Shri Shankara and the great religious poet Kabir into yogic practices. He told others that He lived in Tibet as the great Buddhist saint Milarepa in the eleventh and twelfth centuries AD.