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- Herausgeber: Reichel Verlag
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
There is a tradition of Babaji that goes back thousands of years. Twice in the past hundred years, Babaji has appeared, lived and taught in the tiny village of Haidakhan in the Kumaon foothills of the Himalayas. In the 1890's, He built the temple on the top of the hill where the Ashram is located. During His ministry from 1970 to 1984, nine small temples and several more ashram buildings were built. His association with the village and ashram has given Him the name of Haidakhan Baba, among many other names. Babaji comes to teach humanity a way of life which He summed up in the words, "Live in Truth, Simplicity and Love and practice Karma Yoga." He taught that the whole of Creation is the manifestation of the Divine Energy and that humankind must learn to live in harmony and unity with all of the created universe. The Energy of The Divine is in every created element and all things must be treated with love and respect. Babaji said of Haidakhan: "Here in Haidakhan the old world has been destroyed. I am teaching you this: The New World begins from here! I want you to be happy and in peace."
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The book
There is a tradition of Babaji that goes back thousands of years. Twice in the past hundred years, Babaji has appeared, lived and taught in the tiny village of Haidakhan in the Kumaon foothills of the Himalayas. In the 1890's, He built the temple on the top of the hill where the Ashram is located. During His ministry from 1970 to 1984, nine small temples and several more ashram buildings were built. His association with the village and ashram has given Him the name of Haidakhan Baba, among many other names. Babaji comes to teach humanity a way of life which He summed up in the words, "Live in Truth, Simplicity and Love and practice Karma Yoga." He taught that the whole of Creation is the manifestation of the Divine Energy and that humankind must learn to live in harmony and unity with all of the created universe. The Energy of The Divine is in every created element and all things must be treated with love and respect. Babaji said of Haidakhan: "Here in Haidakhan the old world has been destroyed. I am teaching you this: The New World begins from here! I want you to be happy and in peace."
The author
Radhe Shyam was born in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1928. He was christened Charles Swan. His father became a Presbyterian minister, so Charles went to school in four Iowa and Nebraska towns where his father was pastor. He received a B.A. in history and M.A. in political science from the University of Nebraska. He taught history and English in a Presbyterian mission school in Tehran, Iran, from 1950-1953. Upon graduation from the University of Michigan Law School in 1957, Radhe Shyam started a career of work in the Office of Foreign Buildings in the Department of State in Washington, D.C. After 22 years in various positions in the Office of Foreign Buildings, Radhe Shyam retired in 1979. On a trip, early in 1980, intended to launch a consulting business, he met Haidakhan Baba - Babaji - in Vrindaban, India. Soon after, he abandoned the consulting career and his home in Washington, D.C., to live for five years in Babaji's ashram in the foothills of the Himalayas in northwestern India. Babaji gave Charles the name Radhe Shyam, one of the names of Lord Krishna. "I Am Harmony" is the story of Radhe Shyam's and others' experiences of life and spiritual growth in the presence of this unique Himalayan Master. In 1991, after publication of "I Am Harmony", Radhe Shyam went to Russia, where "I Am Harmony" was published in Russian. He lived five years in the city of Voronezh, south of Moscow, working with Association Peace Through Culture, U.S.A. to help create cultural, educational and business connections between Russia and the West. Since 1996, he has lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with Sita Rami, who is now head of the Adoptions and Foster Care office at the Three Rivers American Indian Center, and practices law. Radhe Shyam passed away in 2006. He was, the true epitome of the selfless karma yogi generously giving of himself and working until the end on this new edition of "I Am Harmony" and serving as Board member of the American Haidakhan Samaj. It was his last wish to publish this new and revised edition. He lives on through the book, which has touched the hearts of so many people around the world. His presence, generous spirit, and guidance will always be with us through "I am Harmony".
Radhe Shyam
I am Harmony
A Book About Babaji
"I bow to Thee, O Lord, Image of mercy; To Shiva, Who is affectionate to His disciples, Doer of Goodness, The Destroyer of sins and suffering; To Thee, the incarnation of compassion, I surrender always."
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
On the (1990) publication of this book, I need to make a number of acknowledgements for help without which this book might never have seen the light of day.
First and foremost, I acknowledge Shri Shri Haidakhan Wale Baba, Mahavatar Babaji, Who, in 1981, instructed me to write this book and Who has, I think, inspired many of its pages.
I thank "Om Shanti Devi" and Sheila Devi Singh for a vast quantity of translation of Babaji's words from Hindi into English, without which I would have missed even more of the kaleidoscopic activity which took place in Babaji's presence. I am grateful to the many people who shared with me significant personal experiences which illustrate Babaji's teachings and His methods of teaching. Their experiences, the written experiences of people of 'Old Haidakhan Baba,' and my own experiences with Him form the major part of this book.
I owe many thanks to the generous hosts who arranged travel for Babaji and His followers to many cities in India, who housed and fed us, and whose functions provided opportunities to share experiences of Babaji, as well as stimulating new experiences. I thank the many devotees who lived in Haidakhan and acted their roles in Babaji's earthly play and to those who maintain some semblance of His presence there still.
I thank Swami Fakiranand for encouraging my use of his voluminous files and stories about Haidakhan Baba. I thank Vishnu Dutt Shastriji again and again for his comprehensive knowledge of the Vedic scriptures and of Babaji's message and teachings, for the beauty and clarity of his explanations and exhortations, and for his generous sharing of his knowledge and wisdom. And I thank Shri Trilok Singh - whom Babaji called "Muniraj," King of the Sages - for his steady and uplifting example, and for his constancy in service to The Divine.
In the United States, where this book was completed and published, I want to acknowledge and thank Brad Bunnin for sharing his comprehensive knowledge of copyright and publishing law; Bill Bowman, for his assistance in establishing the Spanish Creek Press; and Richard Baltzell for excellent advice on publishing and distribution of the book. I thank Elizabeth Weisiger for finding the Ringier America printing firm and brokering the contract for the printing of this book, and Virginia Masi for executing J.D. Marston's book cover design.
I am deeply obliged to friends for providing photographs which illustrate the chapters: to Robert Linn for the painting of Shri Babaji on the cover of the 1990 edition; to Paramananda; to Anton Waelti; to Rajendra Kumar Sharma; to Deborah Wood; to Ram Singh Sammal; to Arun Vora; to Roland and Gertraud Reichel; to Lisetta Carmi; and to Balbir Singh Sethi. I regret that I do not know who took the other photographs.
I bless Jackie for buying the book that gave us our first knowledge of Babaji. I thank my brother Arthur Swan for reading the manuscript several times and especially for a thorough and helpful critique of a near-final draft of the book. I thank Sita Rami for leading me to Babaji and for her constant support of this project. I acknowledge a great debt to Ram Dass (J.D. Marston) and Ramloti (Deborah Wood) for the growing experiences we shared in establishing an ashram in Crestone, Colorado, based on Shri Babaji's teachings, schedule and methods. And I thank all the members of the American Haidakhan Samaj and the Loving Relationships Training who participated to any degree in that experience.
Crestone, Colorado, July 1990
FOREWORDS
FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION
Since the first publication of "I Am Harmony", in 1990, the book has gone around the world with its account of Shri Babaji's most recent ministries and teachings on Earth. "I Am Harmony" has been translated and published in Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Slovenian and Swedish; it has been translated into Dutch and is awaiting publication; and it is in process of translation into Latvian and Serbian.
With the original printing exhausted, the American Haidakhandi Samaj has authorized and supported the republication of the book in a new format. The new format allows the inclusion of additional and different photographs from many people, most of whom are mentioned in the earlier forward or are unknown. I would like to thank Emam and Ramloti for their contribution of several of the color images in this new edition. The 2006 reprinting of "I Am Harmony" contains few other changes: the story of Shri Babaji's ministries in the past two centuries has not changed since "I Am Harmony" was published in 1990. For this edition, the first chapter of the 1990 edition was trimmed and moved to the last chapter in the current printing, and a few typographical and other errors have been corrected.
Thought was given to up-dating this edition to reflect what has been accomplished by Shri Babaji's followers since His Mahasamadhi, but that is a whole new story. You can learn some of that story by going to the listing of Babaji ashrams and centers around the world, which has been added to the information sections at the end of the book. Their websites offer a good deal of information.
FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION
Paramahansa Yogananda called Mahavatar Babaji the "Yogi-Christ of modern India." The Haidakhan worship service describes Babaji as "Supreme Guru, Lord of mercy", "King of sages" and "Lord of the universe."
This book is about Babaji1, a great manifestation of The Divine Who has a history of appearing in a flesh-and-blood human form throughout the course of human civilization to help humankind understand, experience and achieve its relationship to The Divine. The tradition of Babaji's manifestations is that He appears in remote places at varying intervals in time - especially when humanity is undergoing major changes and challenges that have a potential for purification and the elevation of the whole human race - and, by example and teaching, helps transform a few people who may be inspired to share the teachings and help humanity take a few more steps forward on the path toward conscious reunion with the Divine Source of this whole Creation.
His teaching is not sectarian, but is supportive of all religions that guide human beings toward a life lived in harmony with The Divine. The practitioner of any of the major religions of the world today can find inspiration and support in the life and teachings of Babaji. Babaji taught from the basis of the ancient, eternal truths, but He focused the teachings on present-day problems.
The experience of Divinity seems a rather rare thing in human lives these days. Many people believe that a relationship or communication with an aware Creator is impossible. But, unless we totally discredit the experiences and statements of thousands of saints and holy men and women of all ages and all religions, it must be acknowledged that some people have seen, heard, or otherwise experienced The Divine in some way.
There is a mythology of Babaji in the Himalayan regions that reaches back into very early human civilizations. Paramahansa Yogananda's "Autobiography of a Yogi"2, published in 1946, introduced the stories and experiences of Mahavatar Babaji to the West in a book which dealt mainly with people's experiences of Him between 1861 and 1920, in India. There are books written about a manifestation of Babaji as Haidakhan Baba in the period of about 1890 to 1922. And now there are books written about the manifestation of Babaji which was experienced by many thousands of people in the period from June 1970 to February 14, 1984. This book collects and shares some of the stories from the long history and focuses on the experiences people had of this latest manifestation of Babaji. People still encounter Babaji in various ways all over the world. These experiences are by no means limited to India or to that physical manifestation of Babaji which 'died' on February 14, 1984.
Babaji is a spiritual being who serves constantly as a link between the Formless Divine and the physical creation, between God and humankind. He states that He is a manifestation of Lord Shiva, one of the names India gives to The Divine - a form of God known as a renunciate, a helper, and the greatest of Teachers. There are a number of stories (some of them in this book) which attest to His ability to create forms - either astral or flesh-and-blood human - at will. On one occasion, He told a devotee who had knowledge of His having been seen and experienced in three widely-separated places in India on the same day, that He could be seen in as many as eight forms at the same time. Some people who have experienced one or more of the forms of Babaji have come to the belief that there are five forms of Shiva (see the frontispiece which gives one commonly-pictured form of the five-faced Lord Shiva) involved with Earth at any given time. One is usually to be found in Nepal in an "old" form and another in a "young" form; one is often present as Haidakhan Baba; one may be elsewhere in India; and a fifth may be in a spirit or astral form. And all of these forms come and go at will. Such is the experience and belief of many people in the Kumaon Hills.
Each of the forms, when encountered in the flesh, in dream, or in vision, has divine attributes. Always, Babaji appears to give some form of blessing or teaching. There are many experiences of people (some are related in this book) which give evidence of what we would call miraculous powers exhibited by Babaji. Even if you wish to discount or discredit such experiences, He remains an unusual and unusually powerful character who fulfills the predictions and declarations that He comes into human society to serve and to teach. He does not make an issue of His divinity. It helps in the transmission of His teachings if the disciple acknowledges that divinity, but He accepts any honest seeker of Truth who is ready and open to learning and spiritual growth.
People saw Him in many roles - as Lord Shiva, the Supreme Guru, purifier, friend, the Divine Child, the Divine Mother, Divine Father, Supreme Yogi, a healer, an Immortal. He is all of those things and we see in Him that for which we look. We also see ourselves in Him, for He mirrored each of us, so we could see where we were on our Paths and gain insight into ourselves and what we needed to work on. He is a great Teacher and Guide, working on each individual who is open to Him, while still managing to give a cohesive program to all who come to Him.
His chief concern is with the human spirit or soul - that in humankind which is closest to The Divine, which carries the spark of The Divine. He teaches that the Creator and all of the Creation is One: He sees the whole Creation as the Manifestation of The Divine. Gods, demons, humans, animals, plants, rocks - all are 'built' with the building blocks of the divine Creative Energy. The Divine at rest is formless, chaotic Energy; when It is moved to create forms, the Conscious Energy moves in accordance with Divine Law to shape sub-atomic particles, which combine to make atoms, which combine over and over to create, over aeons of time, the universes we humans eventually see. All created forms, then, are aspects of The Divine, Which experiences Itself in action through all of these forms throughout the whole period of Creation.
Babaji taught that these myriad forms which make up the Creation function best when they function in harmony with The Divine and with each other. Because the times require it and have prepared the way for this knowledge, Babaji extended Christ's message of "love thy neighbor" to a message of concern for harmony among all created forms. All forms - human and other - are so tightly interrelated that we cannot abuse one form without disrupting the rest. That interrelationship is so close that beneficial actions offered by one created being to another have beneficial results throughout the whole universe. The very vibrations of our emotions or being have effects throughout the Creation.3
To be in Babaji's presence was an opportunity to gain an understanding of this principle. His Presence transformed and uplifted the atmosphere of any room or area into which He walked, and each person in His Presence felt the enlivening of the spark of The Divine within him / herself and a quickened sense of harmony with the people and other life around them. Babaji seemed to literally vibrate a feeling of love and harmony with a force that brought those around Him into a sympathetic, harmonious level of vibration. The concept of unity and the need for harmony within the Creation has a very profound effect on human responsibility for the Earth on which we live, and for the universe beyond Earth's atmosphere.
Babaji seeks to bring humankind back to an awareness of its unity with The Divine and with all other created forms in the universe. Both His words and His actions focus on the need for harmony among all elements of Creation. He pointed to human abuses of Nature and warned of coming catastrophic reactions of Nature, which can be mitigated by focused, conscious, disciplined human action taken in harmony with the Divine Law.
Babaji comes not to espouse any particular religion (He says all religions lead to The Divine), but to show and teach a way of life. Babaji called this way of life Sanatan Dharma - the Eternal Way (or Law or Truth). He indicated that the Creation was manifested and is extended and maintained in accordance with the Sanatan Dharma; that humanity's deviations from this Law of Life create imbalances and disruptions in the harmonious operation of the Universe; and that He comes - again and again - to help restore balance and the Sanatan Dharma. He teaches people - and shows by His example - that leading lives based on Truth, Simplicity and Love can restore to the individual, to societies, and to our whole world the inner peace and balance on which alone world peace and social justice can be established.
The great spiritual Masters throughout the ages of human civilizations have all shown a valid Way to different peoples at different ages in different cultures, emphasizing what their people needed to learn at that time to advance them on the Way and bring them into closer harmony with The Divine. Each way has been tested and has led people to "God-realization" and each has developed great saints. The important thing is for a person to focus on and follow a path that is suitable and inspiring for him or her. To wander aimlessly, tasting the fruits of this and that interesting philosophy or ritual is likely only to lead one in circles, rather than to a clear goal. Discipline - of mind and body - is an essential element of Babaji's teaching; without discipline and hard work, nothing valuable is achieved.
Following a Path of discipline is no easy thing for a human being distracted by the lure of many pleasures, as we particularly are in this age. The Bhagavad-Gita, a truly inspired Indian scripture, describes one's mind and senses as a team of twelve strong horses hitched to a chariot. If the charioteer (the individual soul) cannot tame and control his team, he is off for a wild ride through life; but if he can exercise control over his team, he controls great power and speed in action. One's religion or philosophy- whatever shapes one's way of living -is the most important factor in life; but that factor is useless if it leads to no practical end or output. Babaji looked not only to one's inner spirit but to the results, the products, of people's lives. He looked for beneficial action performed in harmony with the Divine Will and all of Creation.
We human beings tend to become like those we choose as role models; we become what we focus on, or like the people with whom we most associate. Babaji, like most Teachers, urged His followers to "go to the wise and learn." The Katha Upanishad, another early and inspired Indian scriptural work, helps in the definition of "the wise" whom we should seek out.
"The good is one thing; the pleasant is another. These two, differing in their ends, both prompt to action. Blessed are they that choose the good; they that choose the pleasant miss the goal.
"Both the good and the pleasant present themselves to man. The wise, having examined both, distinguish the one from the other. The wise prefer the good to the pleasant; the foolish, driven by fleshly desires, prefer the pleasant to the good."4
Babaji taught by His own example and by guiding people into experiences they needed for growth. He showed people how to live in harmony with The Divine and Its Creation. He put people into situations where they could experience The Divine, however briefly. He sought practical results from His followers - even as they struggled toward purification and enlightenment. On one day, Babaji admonished: "You monkeys and bears! Only wagging your tails won't be enough! You will have to do something practical, something useful. Babaji says you must work hard and put [the teachings] into practice. First, be inspired yourselves; then inspire others with this message of karma yoga [work]."5 He urged His followers to spend some time in His ashrams, with their monastic schedule and style, to experience and practice a pure, focused life in harmony with The Divine and all of Nature. Then go out to serve, as "householders" living in the real world, or to create ashrams "as islands in a sea of materialism" to serve in whatever capacities our countries need.
Babaji lived and taught squarely against the Western quip of "you only live once." He taught from the position that the human soul, like its Source and Goal, is eternal and that the experience of millions of lifetimes in various forms of the soul proceeds in a continuum from life to life. Each life in human form is an opportunity and challenge to build toward perfection of the soul, which returns again and again (through reincarnation) until the soul attains perfection. The soul's goal is to return to a state of unity with the Divine Perfection from which it came and from whence it has strayed in its experiencing itself and life's pleasures through constantly expanding senses and the concept of itself as an individual body, rather than as a manifestation of the Supreme Soul. Each lifetime can take the soul and its temporary human body closer to the goal of reunion, or we can throw away a lifetime's opportunity through ignorance or willfulness.
In His teaching and life, Babaji used miraculous powers, but indicated (as have other Masters} that they are attainable by anyone who can exercise the discipline to focus his or her mind and follow their Path to unity with The Divine. The powers come from thinking, working, living in harmony with the Creative Energy of the Universe. Babaji, for example, knew - even before they arrived or spoke to Him - who was coming to His ashram, whether they were ready for the experience of Haidakhan, whether they should stay or go. He read people's minds, healed their ailments, guided them into experiences they needed. And it has been people's experience that He comes and goes in human form, at will, through the course of human history.
His Message is not sectarian, but for all human beings of whatever religious or philosophical leaning. Hindus, Moslems, Christians, Parsis, agnostics, animists, atheists, and others came to live and learn in His presence. His teachings and actions express the best in all religions and can challenge, enrich and expand spiritual knowledge, wisdom and experience within the framework of any of them. Krishna, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, all stated that their highest and best followers can be identified by how they live - how they put into practice the religion they profess. Jesus, when asked "Which is the first commandment of all?", answered, "...thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Babaji s teachings are focused on living in harmony with The Divine, and loving the whole of Creation as thyself, more than on worshiping The Divine by any particular ritual or belief. He would surely agree with a statement attributed to His old friend, Neemkaroli Baba, "It is better to see God in everything than to try to figure it out."
When He had given His message, through example, experience and teaching, Babaji left, in order that people might absorb the Message and learn to live in Truth, Simplicity and Love, rather than to blindly follow His charming and beautiful Presence like so many sheep.
This book is a collection of people's experiences of Babaji; it is something of a biography of Babaji based on personal stories and recollections of people in whose veracity I have reason to believe. No one person and no one book can possibly "capture" this Being in print: The Divine in Its manifest forms is beyond human capacity to understand or to relate. Still, I invite you to read this book about Babaji as I and others have experienced Him. He does not come to create a new religion or to establish a "new God"; He comes to remind and teach humankind of a harmonious way of life. Whether you experience Babaji as divine or as a stimulating, challenging, unusual human being, His life and message (which are really the same thing) have much to offer to people in this era of change and possible growth.
"I surrender to Thee, O Lord; Thou alone art my refuge; Thou alone art my mother, my father, my kin, my all; Thou art my Lord in the world and in the scriptures. Hail, hail, O King of Sages, Remover of the pain of Thy devotees! From the Haidakhan Aarati (worship service)
CHAPTER I
WE MEET HAIDAKHAN BABA
Margaret met me in New Delhi on February 21, 1980, and insisted we go the very next morning to meet Babaji, despite an unconfirmed business meeting I had requested at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. We arranged for a car and driver and rode for two and a half hours south, to Vrindaban, where there is a Babaji ashram.
We rode across the flat plains of central India, sharing the sometimes divided highway with forms of transportation that reflected thousands of years of human existence - cars, smoke-belching trucks, crowded buses, two-wheeled, horse-drawn carts, four-wheeled, rubber-tired ox carts, a few camels, one or two laden elephants, and hundreds of people walking along the side, carrying everything from children to bundles of firewood and jugs of water. It was a lovely scene (and a slow ride), similar to what I had experienced in other third-world countries during my just-completed career in the Department of State in Washington, D.C.
What was more unusual, in my experience, was the peaceful repose of a sari-clad Margaret sitting beside me as we drove to meet Babaji. In the United States, Margaret Gold was a lawyer and teacher of law, a dynamo of energy directed at relieving the problems of all who came into her sphere. For much of the time as we drove, she was content to sit quietly, repeating a mantra6 as she moved the beads of her mala (rosary) through her fingers, and occasionally pointing out to me the timeless beauties of the Indian landscape. It was clear that the seven weeks she had spent in Babaji's presence in India had made a profound change in Margaret.
When we reached Vrindaban, our driver slowly and carefully threaded his way through the crowded, narrow streets of the ancient town, famed as the childhood home of the great Lord Krishna. The rivers of people, rickshaws, hand carts, ox carts, cows, pigs and other cars parted gently to allow our progress to the winding, narrow lane on which Babaji's Vrindaban ashram is located. Our driver parked in a wide spot in the street and Margaret led me toward the door of the ashram.
We left our shoes on a porch outside the entrance, along with a hundred other pairs of shoes and sandals, and walked into Babaji s ashram. The temple, which occupies two-thirds of the ground floor area of the ashram, was jammed with perhaps four hundred devotees who were sitting cross-legged on the floor, singing and chanting rhythmically, with harmonium, drums and bells playing. Margaret and I got into the long line of people who were going to where Babaji sat, yogi-fashion, on a raised dais, blessing devotees, receiving their gifts of flower garlands, candies, nuts, fruits, etc., and Himself giving out gifts. Margaret and I both had gifts for Babaji. Margaret had a mobile of hearts from Finland and I had a golden, heart-shaped locket that I had bought in Paris for $300 and on which I had paid another $100 in customs duties at the airport in Bombay.
It took perhaps fifteen minutes for us to reach Babaji, so I had a chance to see how people knelt before Him and touched His feet, handed Him a gift, or just raised up for His touch of blessing. When my turn came, I felt awkward in kneeling and touching my forehead to the floor before Him, but I did that and looked up at Him. Babaji was older - looking like someone in his early 30's - and chubbier than the photographs of Him that I had seen. He looked intently into my eyes as I reached to hand Him my little jewel box with its locket and chain. Babaji took the box, gave it a puzzled look and handed it back to me to open. I opened the box and gave it back to Babaji, who glanced casually at my gift - apparently far less impressed by it than I - and gave it to the devotee standing at His left who was handling the gifts which Babaji did not immediately give away.
I stood up to go, but Babaji motioned for me to sit down before Him at His right. So I sat on the floor, legs crossed, and watched Babaji for five or ten minutes. He sat soberly, with His hand raised in blessing, for some devotees. Others He received with a smile or laughter and a touch of blessing, perhaps exchanging a few words in Hindi. With an impish grin on His face, He threw apples, oranges, and candies into the laps of the ladies and children sitting directly in front of Him. There was constant hustle, noise, and activity swirling around Babaji, and yet an atmosphere of peace and serenity. I remembered the many "little miracles" of my European trip on my way to India and I chuckled to myself as I inwardly asked, "Is this God on earth?"
After a few minutes, the mustachioed Indian devotee standing at Shri Babaji's left came to me and said Babaji had told him to take me to see "Swamiji," who could answer my questions in English. I wondered if Babaji had been reading my mind, as people said He did. We picked our way through the crowded temple to the far corner where Swami Fakiranand7, a 70-year-old devotee who administered Babaji's ashram at Haidakhan, sat selling English and Hindi literature about Babaji. We talked for a few minutes about Babaji as the present physical manifestation of the scriptural Lord Shiva; then Swamiji was called away to a meeting. I stood up in that corner farthest from Babaji and watched the scene, so foreign to anything that even my Foreign Service travels had prepared me for.
Soon I saw Babaji beckoning for someone to come to Him. The man next to me said Babaji was telling me to come, so I walked back through the crowd, feeling that four hundred pairs of eyes were on me. As I knelt before Babaji, He opened a cardboard box and took out two big round pieces of sugar-and-milk candy and placed them in my right hand. I sat at His feet, eating the candy and looking up into His face. He was full of kindness and love, beyond anything I recollect having seen in any person's face and form; He seemed to literally radiate that love, like a measurable energy force. Suddenly, Babaji moved to get up; He leaned forward, put both His hands on my back and raised Himself to His feet, then hurried along the path through the crowd and out of the temple area. It was time for lunch. Margaret and her American and European friends came to tell me that Babaji had honored me greatly in His welcome and that I had been greatly blessed. I had no experience of how Babaji greeted other newcomers, but my mind and body held the 'charge' of His blessing for a long time. Even through the great confusion of entering into a culture that was very strange to me, I felt that I had been pulled to Babaji by His will and in His time.
In typical ashram fashion, we sat cross-legged on the floor of the temple for our noon meal, about a hundred people at each sitting. Plates made of broad leaves sewn together were placed before each person and devotees served us, from steaming buckets, with rice, lentils, vegetables, fried bread (chapatis), a sweet, and tea in stainless steel 'glasses.' The food we ate had been offered first to Babaji and blessed by Him. This blessed food is called prasad: all the meals served to Babaji's devotees, wherever He went, were blessed and served as prasad. We ate with our right hands. As I ate, Shri Babaji came back into the temple, stood before me, and asked my name.
After prasad, there was a period for rest and household activities before Babaji's late afternoon darshan - the time in which a saint sits with devotees to share his or her radiance, advice and uplifting energy - and the evening aarati (a sung worship service). Margaret and I went to a guesthouse and napped and bathed before starting back to Babaji's ashram.
Vrindaban is the town where Lord Krishna, a great manifestation of The Divine as Lord Vishnu, and the central character of the Indian epic, The Mahabharata, lived as a child with his cow-herding tribe. Scriptural tradition places Lord Krishna's time in Vrindaban about 6700 years ago, but many historians guess the time to be much closer to the birth of Christ. Recent archaeological finds push the date back toward the traditional dates. Under any circumstances, Vrindaban is an old town and its narrow, winding, crowded streets, even though paved now with asphalt, provide the many religious pilgrims and tourists with a setting more conducive to spiritual search than the bustling, aggressive commercial cities of India. Vrindaban is still famous for its milk and milk products and there are many street-side stalls and shops where delicious hot milk or milky tea, called chai, is served, and we could buy milk-and-sugar sweets to offer to Shri Babaji. Outside the many temples, street vendors offered flower garlands at a rupee or so each, to be offered to The Divine during the evening worship services. The streets were full of activity - shoppers, vendors, strollers, rickshaws, bicycles, horse-drawn carts, ox carts, a few cars, many cows, some pigs and piglets. As the afternoon came to a close, Vrindaban's thousand temples offered up the sounds of bells and gongs and chanting and the sweet scent of incense.
Babaji's ashram also filled and again people waited in long lines to touch His feet with reverence and offer their gifts and themselves, while Om Namah Shivaya8 was sung to many tunes. That evening, after aarati, when I placed a flower garland on Babaji's knees and knelt before Him, He put the garland around my neck. On my way back to my place, I stopped in a darkened area behind and to the left of Babaji to talk with an Indian devotee. I happened to look away from the devotee to look at Babaji: I saw He had turned just at that second to look over His left shoulder at me, and before I could even smile at Him, I was aware of an orange flying past a column and over the outstretched hands of three or four devotees - a left-handed, sideways shot that hit me square in the chest, as if to say, "Who else but God could make a shot like that?" Babaji laughed and turned back to the devotees in front of Him.
For two days Margaret and I were caught up in the excitement and joy of being with Babaji. We were up at 3:30 a.m. to bathe and make our way to the temple before 5 for the first activity of the day. Hours were spent in the temple, singing and chanting and being bathed in the waves of love, peace and joy emanating from Babaji and His devotees. We talked with devotees from many parts of India, Europe and North America, hearing tales of their experiences with Babaji.
After two days, Margaret and I went back to Delhi to tend to my business with the Ministry of External Affairs; then we drove back to Vrindaban. We arrived at the temple late in the evening; the service was over, the temple nearly empty and scantily lit. We feared we had missed Babaji, who was about to leave for Bombay. But Babaji appeared out of the dark shadows in the temple and, through interpreters, told Margaret and me to join Swamiji and a party of mostly Western devotees who were going to the ashram in Haidakhan that night.
We rode through the night on the narrow-gauge train to Haldwani, at the edge of the plains where the foothills of the Himalayas begin to rise. Pedal rickshaws carried us, two by two, with baggage behind, through busy shopping streets to the modest shop of Trilok Singh, a grain and vegetable dealer and strong devotee of Babaji, from which place most of the last 'legs' of people's trips to Haidakhan depart. On this occasion, there was a jeep to take Swamiji and some of his party to the end of the road up the river valley, to what is known as "the dam site."
As the jeep wound its way through the hills overlooking the river, I was amazed at the beauty of the area. Most of the hills are covered with trees - lots of pine - and, here and there, families had cleared, over the years, terraces along the hillside which were, at that season, richly green with corn, wheat, or vegetables. On the edges of some of the fields were stone houses with red tin roofs and barns, outside of which oxen and buffaloes stood or lay. Overhead, eagles flew; a family of monkeys fled through the trees as the jeep rolled by. Down in the wide, stony valley a chastened river flowed quietly in one or more channels down a largely dry bed; the river's time to howl is from July through September, when the monsoon turns the quiet stream into a raging demon and cuts off easy access between the Haidakhan valley and the plains.
In the mid-70's, the Indian Government decided to build a dam near the mouth of 'Babaji's' Gautam Ganga (the river which flows through Babaji's ashram at Haidakhan) in order to supply water to plains cities and farms. A road was built to the dam site, which greatly benefited the farmers of the valley. But despite work crews at the site every year and a dedication speech by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the dam has never gotten under way. Nor is it likely to, since engineers note that the rock at the site is too crumbly, too likely to shift, to support a dam; and the monsoon erosion would fill the reservoir with mud within ten or fifteen years, anyway. But the project has supplied needed jobs in the valley, brought buses to the mouth of the valley, and created tea shops where travelers to and from Haidakhan and other villages can sit while they wait for the infrequent buses.
Our jeep stopped at the dam site and we got out to walk the remaining three or four miles up the riverbed to Haidakhan. Village men carried our baggage for ten rupees (about one dollar) - a price then set and enforced by Babaji to provide villagers with a fair income and to keep villagers from gouging naive foreigners who would pay almost anything asked. On our hike up the river on that trip, I counted twenty-one river crossings, some ankle-deep, some knee-deep. As our party walked, we met valley dwellers going to the bus, dogs barked at us from their hillside stations, and as we neared the houses on the hillsides, children came out to shout "Bhole Baba ki jai!" - "Hail to the Simple Father!" - one of Shri Babaji's many names. There was a strong sense of coming home, despite the strangeness of the whole scene and culture.
Within sight of the ashram, about a quarter mile downstream, there is an island in the riverbed on which a tree grows. Legend has it that Lord Shiva brought His consort to the mount known locally as Mount Kailash, which rises above the island, and that Sati used to bathe in the river by the island. The crown of this Mount Kailash and the cave at its feet are associated with Lord Shiva's doing thousands of years of tapas (meditation and other spiritual practices) here for the benefit of humankind. There is now an orange-painted statue of Shri Hanuman - a god9 with the form of a monkey, who came to earth to serve Lord Ram and His consort, Sita - stationed on this island to greet and bless travelers and pilgrims.
I was confused by the numbers of gods and holy figures I was being 'introduced to' in the Hindu culture and I asked what to make of Hanuman. I learned then (and over and over in later experience) that despite the hundreds of identifiable, storied gods, goddesses, and demons in the Hindu culture and religion, the scriptures and thoughtful Hindus firmly declare that "The Lord is One, without a second."10 The multiplicity of gods and goddesses arises from human efforts to demonstrate and give form to the many aspects of the One, Formless God, to illustrate and personalize the laws which make the universe operate in harmony and the principles which underlie the creation, maintenance and 'destruction' (or purification) of the universe. Adherents worship that form - or those forms - of The Divine which are most attractive to them, or whose qualities they wish to attain. And, if one gives credence to statements from past and present, The Divine appears to sincere devotees in the forms that they worship and expect to encounter. Hanuman, noted for his strength and his wholehearted devotion and service to God (as Lord Ram), is a great favorite all over India. Hanuman is also a great favorite of Shri Babaji and His devotees.
Our journey up the valley ended with a climb up what is called "The 108 Steps." (There are actually a few more than 108 steps from the riverbed to the ashram's temple garden, but 108 has a spiritual and numerological significance.) Near the top of the steps is a one-story building housing an office and tiny bedroom for Swami Fakiranand, facing the steps, and, facing the other direction, a small room in which Babaji slept and received visitors. Outside Babaji's room was a concrete terrace which contained an ancient pipal tree and a sacred fire pit, at which Babaji performed a dawn fire ceremony every day He was in Haidakhan. The terrace, shaded by the sacred pipal tree, looks out over the valley and the little village of Haidakhan. Margaret and I spent ten days in the Haidakhan ashram, living very simply and following the schedule which Babaji had established. We got up at 4 a.m. and went to the river to bathe, in predawn temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Fahrenheit. There was an hour or so for meditation and a hot cup of chai before the hour-long aarati service at sun-up. The ashram did not serve breakfast. The concept was that one meal a day, at noon, is sufficient for simple living, but Babaji also provided an evening supper and frequently distributed fruits, nuts and candies, or gave tea parties, so no one felt hunger. But Western devotees, used to breakfast, found cereals and buffalo milk or cheese and biscuits and chai at the village tea shops. Then we went to work.
Shri Babaji taught that work done without selfish, personal motive, dedicated to The Divine as service performed in harmony with all of Creation, is the highest form of worship. It is also a means of purification for a devotee, transforming inner negativity and hostility and opening the individual to spiritual growth. This is karma yoga. So there were work sessions both morning and afternoon. Our work at that time was enlarging the terrace on the right bank of the Gautam Ganga, where four small temples had been built and two more were under construction. Both men and women tackled the slopes of the hillside with pickaxes and shovels, carrying the dirt away in wheelbarrows and (mostly) in metal pans which Indian laborers carry on their heads. "Moving the mountain" seemed an impossible task with those simple tools, but progress was noticeable week by week, if not day by day. Patience was one of the virtues which Babaji taught through experiences.
At noon, we stopped and washed in the river and sat in the warm sun on the cemented terrace outside the ashram kitchen to eat. There was half an hour or so to rest, then back to work until just before sundown. We washed or bathed and went to the evening aarati service. After the service, the kitchen crew served supper, generally left-overs from the noon prasad, but occasionally something freshly cooked. The ashram rule was that lights go out at 10 p.m., but there were many conversations held after supper until weariness put an end to them.
Margaret had come to my house in Washington shortly after the sudden death, from a bee sting, of my wife Jackie at the end of October 1978. Margaret was a teacher of Transcendental Meditation, looking for a job and a place to stay. I was then part of a State Department team negotiating the contract for construction of the new American Embassy compound in Moscow and I needed someone to house-and-cat-sit while I traveled back and forth before and after Christmas, 1978. By the time my travels were over, I found Margaret so charming and supportive that I had asked her to marry me. She didn't say "yes," but she stayed on in the house. Margaret, like Jackie and me, had read Paramahansa Yogananda's "Autobiography of a Yogi" and had been fascinated by the tales of Mahavatar Babaji. When she learned, in the summer of 1979, of Babaji's presence in Haidakhan, Margaret had decided to travel with Leonard Orr and a group of Rebirthers to meet Babaji in January 1980. I had helped her make the trip and Margaret was to have joined me on a post-retirement business trip through Europe and Israel to test the possibilities of establishing an international consulting firm. But when I got to London to meet Margaret on her return from Haidakhan, I found two letters from her saying that all she wanted to do was to spend the rest of her life in Babaji's presence; and thanks for everything. After a night of pondering what to do, I extended my airline ticket from Tel Aviv to New Delhi and cabled for an interview in the Ministry of External Affairs. It was in this way that I met Babaji somewhat earlier than my Capricornian schedule had contemplated.
In New Delhi, in Vrindaban, and during the ten days in Haidakhan, I tried to talk Margaret into returning to the United States and marriage, but she was firm in her desire to stay with Babaji. I grew more and more concerned with my need to pursue my consulting business proposal and, finally, headed back to the U.S.A. Margaret went with me to Delhi to see me off, but she would not go back to the United States with me.
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
