Babaji, the Yogi Christ

In 1946, Paramahansa Yogananda, one of modern India's greatest yogis, revealed in his classic "Autobiography of a Yogi," the existence of a Christ-like saint, an immortal yogi, Mahavatar Babaji. Yogananda related how Babaji had for centuries lived in the Himalayas guiding many spiritual teachers at a distance, usually without their even knowing it.

He was a great siddha, one who had overcome ordinary human limitations, and who worked silently for the spiritual evolution of all humanity, behind the scenes. He also revealed that Babaji was the one who had taught a powerful series of yogic techniques, know as "Kriya Yoga," to Lahiri Mahasaya, around 1861, who subsequently initiated many others, including Yogananda's own Christ-like guru, Sri Yukteswar, some thirty years later. Yogananda spent 10 years with his guru before Babaji himself appeared to him, and directed him to bring the sacred Science of the Soul to the West. Yogananda fulfilled this sacred mission from 1920 to 1952, when he attained mahasamadhi.

Babaji guided and inspired some of history's greatest saints and many spiritual teachers, in the fulfillment of their mission. These include Adi Shankaracharya, the great 9th century A.D. reformer of Hinduism who wrote the first available commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, and Kabir, the 15th century saint beloved by both the Hindus and Muslims. Both of them were personally initiated by Babaji, and refer to him in their writings.

Babaji's greatest contribution to the world in modern times has been the revival, beginning in 1861, of Kriya Yoga which Patanjali refers to in his famous "Yoga-Sutras." Patanjali wrote this classic text of yoga about the 3rd century A.D. In it he defines Kriya Yoga in II.1 as "constant practice, (particularly by the cultivation of detachment), self-study, and devotion to the Lord." However, along with what Patanjali described as Kriya Yoga, Babaji added the teachings of the tantra,

Babaji maintained the remarkable appearance of a youth throughout the approximately 2,500 years of his incarnation. His main challenge throughout such a long lifetime was that he had only a handful of disciples and that they, through the reincarnation process, had difficulty remembering their Guru and recapitulating their previous lives’ virtues life after life. The story of how Babaji had to wait until Lahiri Mahasaya was in his thirties before he could return to him and how Babaji was instrumental in helping Lahiri to awaken and recapitulate his previous lives as a great yogi and one of Babaji’s disciples is recounted at length in Autobiography of a Yogi.

In 1950, Babaji left his body. But, having promised his divine sister, Mataji (see below) always to remain in physical form, he reincarnated in the West on July 19, 1951 in Tilamook, Oregon. As had been foretold, in this incarnation he would be recognized as The Buddha Maitreya, yet many have recognized him from his previous life as Babaji, including some whose previous saintly lives were recorded in Paramahansa Yogananda’s masterpiece of spiritual literature, Autobiography of a Yogi.

Babaji’s reincarnation in the West should come as no surprise given his concern that "East and West must establish a golden middle path of activity and spirituality combined" and that he shared this mission with and through his disciples Sri Yukteswar and Yogananda. Babaji told Sri Yukteswar "India has much to learn from the West in material development; in return, India can teach the universal methods by which the West will be able to base its religious beliefs on the unshakeable foundations of yogic science."

Foretelling to Sri Yuketeswar the coming of his disciple Yogananda and his dharmic path, Babaji told him at their first of three meetings: "Some years hence I will send you a disciple who you can train for yoga dissemination in the West. The vibrations there of many spiritually seeking souls come flood-like to me. I perceive potential saints in America and Europe, waiting to be awakened." Babaji also requested of Sri Yukteswar that he prepare the way for this future work by writing "a short book on the underlying basic unity between the Christian and Hindu scriptures". This book was published in the West as ‘The Holy Science’.

Extracts taken from Chapter 36 entitled "Babaji’s Interest in the West", Autobiography of a Yogi, 1946 First Edition.

Autobiography of a Yogi recalls how Babaji appeared to Yogananda before he left for America, in answer to his prayers to hear the Voice of God. Babaji blessed his mission to teach the scientific technique of God-realization to the West and that this technique ‘will ultimately spread in all lands, and aid in harmonizing the nations through man’s personal, transcendental perception of the Infinite Father"

Extract taken from Chapter 37, Autobiography of a Yogi, 1946 First Edition).

"The northern Himalayan crags near Badrinarayan are still blessed by the living presence of Babaji, guru of Lahiri Mahasaya. The secluded master has retained his physical form for centuries, perhaps for millenniums. The deathless Babaji is an avatara. This Sanskrit word means "descent"; its roots are ava, "down," and tri, "to pass." In the Hindu scriptures, avatara signifies the descent of Divinity into flesh.
"Babaji's spiritual state is beyond human comprehension," Sri Yukteswar explained to me. "The dwarfed vision of men cannot pierce to his transcendental star. One attempts in vain even to picture the avatar's attainment. It is inconceivable."
An avatar is unsubject to the universal economy; his pure body, visible as a light image, is free from any debt to nature. The casual gaze may see nothing extraordinary in an avatar's form but it casts no shadow nor makes any footprint on the ground. These are outward symbolic proofs of an inward lack of darkness and material bondage. Such a God-man alone knows the Truth behind the relativities of life and death.
Krishna, Rama, Buddha, and Patanjali were among the ancient Indian avatars. A considerable poetic literature in Tamil has grown up around Agastya, a South Indian avatar. He worked many miracles during the centuries preceding and following the Christian era, and is credited with retaining his physical form even to this day.
Babaji's mission in India has been to assist prophets in carrying out their special dispensations. He thus qualifies for the scriptural classification of Mahavatar (Great Avatar). He has stated that he gave yoga initiation to Shankara, ancient founder of the Swami Order, and to Kabir, famous medieval saint. His chief nineteenth-century disciple was, as we know, Lahiri Mahasaya, revivalist of the lost Kriya art.
The Mahavatar is in constant communion with Christ; together they send out vibrations of redemption, and have planned the spiritual technique of salvation for this age. The work of these two fully-illumined masters is to inspire the nations to forsake suicidal wars, race hatreds, religious sectarianism, and the boomerang-evils of materialism. Babaji is well aware of the trend of modern times, especially of the influence and complexities of Western civilization, and realizes the necessity of spreading the self-liberations of yoga equally in the West and in the East.
That there is no historical reference to Babaji need not surprise us. The great guru has never openly appeared in any century; the misinterpreting glare of publicity has no place in his millennial plans. Like the Creator, the sole but silent Power, Babaji works in a humble obscurity.
Great prophets like Christ and Krishna come to earth for a specific and spectacular purpose; they depart as soon as it is accomplished. Other avatars, like Babaji, undertake work which is concerned more with the slow evolutionary progress of man during the centuries than with any one outstanding event of history. Such masters always veil themselves from the gross public gaze, and have the power to become invisible at will. For these reasons, and because they generally instruct their disciples to maintain silence about them, a number of towering spiritual figures remain world-unknown. I give in these pages on Babaji merely a hint of his life—only a few facts which he deems it fit and helpful to be publicly imparted.
No limiting facts about Babaji's family or birthplace, dear to the annalist's heart, have ever been discovered. His speech is generally in Hindi, but he converses easily in any language. He has adopted the simple name of Babaji (revered father); other titles of respect given him by Lahiri Mahasaya's disciples are Mahamuni Babaji Maharaj (supreme ecstatic saint), Maha Yogi (greatest of yogis), Trambak Baba and Shiva Baba (titles of avatars of Shiva). Does it matter that we know not the patronymic of an earth-released master?
"Whenever anyone utters with reverence the name of Babaji," Lahiri Mahasaya said, "that devotee attracts an instant spiritual blessing."
The deathless guru bears no marks of age on his body; he appears to be no more than a youth of twenty-five. Fair-skinned, of medium build and height, Babaji's beautiful, strong body radiates a perceptible glow. His eyes are dark, calm, and tender; his long, lustrous hair is copper-colored. A very strange fact is that Babaji bears an extraordinarily exact resemblance to his disciple Lahiri Mahasaya. The similarity is so striking that, in his later years, Lahiri Mahasaya might have passed as the father of the youthful-looking Babaji.
Swami Kebalananda, my saintly Sanskrit tutor, spent some time with Babaji in the Himalayas.
"The peerless master moves with his group from place to place in the mountains," Kebalananda told me. "His small band contains two highly advanced American disciples. After Babaji has been in one locality for some time, he says: 'Dera danda uthao.' ('Let us lift our camp and staff.') He carries a symbolic danda (bamboo staff). His words are the signal for moving with his group instantaneously to another place. He does not always employ this method of astral travel; sometimes he goes on foot from peak to peak.
"Babaji can be seen or recognized by others only when he so desires. He is known to have appeared in many slightly different forms to various devotees—sometimes without beard and moustache, and sometimes with them. As his undecaying body requires no food, the master seldom eats. As a social courtesy to visiting disciples, he occasionally accepts fruits, or rice cooked in milk and clarified butter.
"Two amazing incidents of Babaji's life are known to me," Kebalananda went on. "His disciples were sitting one night around a huge fire which was blazing for a sacred Vedic ceremony. The master suddenly seized a burning log and lightly struck the bare shoulder of a chela who was close to the fire.
"'Sir, how cruel!' Lahiri Mahasaya, who was present, made this remonstrance.
"'Would you rather have seen him burned to ashes before your eyes, according to the decree of his past karma?'
"With these words Babaji placed his healing hand on the chela's disfigured shoulder. 'I have freed you tonight from painful death. The karmic law has been satisfied through your slight suffering by fire.'
"On another occasion Babaji's sacred circle was disturbed by the arrival of a stranger. He had climbed with astonishing skill to the nearly inaccessible ledge near the camp of the master.
"'Sir, you must be the great Babaji.' The man's face was lit with inexpressible reverence. 'For months I have pursued a ceaseless search for you among these forbidding crags. I implore you to accept me as a disciple.'
"When the great guru made no response, the man pointed to the rocky chasm at his feet.
"'If you refuse me, I will jump from this mountain. Life has no further value if I cannot win your guidance to the Divine.'
"'Jump then,' Babaji said unemotionally. 'I cannot accept you in your present state of development.'
"The man immediately hurled himself over the cliff. Babaji instructed the shocked disciples to fetch the stranger's body. When they returned with the mangled form, the master placed his divine hand on the dead man. Lo! he opened his eyes and prostrated himself humbly before the omnipotent one.
"'You are now ready for discipleship.' Babaji beamed lovingly on his resurrected chela. 'You have courageously passed a difficult test. Death shall not touch you again; now you are one of our immortal flock.' Then he spoke his usual words of departure, 'Dera danda uthao'; the whole group vanished from the mountain."
An avatar lives in the omnipresent Spirit; for him there is no distance inverse to the square. Only one reason, therefore, can motivate Babaji in maintaining his physical form from century to century: the desire to furnish humanity with a concrete example of its own possibilities. Were man never vouchsafed a glimpse of Divinity in the flesh, he would remain oppressed by the heavy mayic delusion that he cannot transcend his mortality.
During my visit at Ranbajpur with Ram Gopal, "the sleepless saint,"3 he related the wondrous story of his first meeting with Babaji.
"I sometimes left my isolated cave to sit at Lahiri Mahasaya's feet in Benares," Ram Gopal told me. "One midnight as I was silently meditating in a group of his disciples, the master made a surprising request.

"'Ram Gopal,' he said, 'go at once to the Dasasamedh bathing ghat.' "I soon reached the secluded spot. The night was bright with moonlight and the glittering stars. After I had sat in patient silence for awhile, my attention was drawn to a huge stone slab near my feet. It rose gradually, revealing an underground cave. As the stone remained balanced in some unknown manner, the draped form of a young and surpassingly lovely woman was levitated from the cave high into the air. Surrounded by a soft halo, she slowly descended in front of me and stood motionless, steeped in an inner state of ecstasy. She finally stirred, and spoke gently.
" I am Mataji, the sister of Babaji. I have asked him and also Lahiri Mahasaya to come to my cave tonight to discuss a matter of great importance.'

The above Extracts are taken from Autobiography of a Yogi, Chapter 33, 1946 First Edition.

Extracts taken from Autobiography of a Yogi, Chapter 26, 1946 First Edition.

"The Etheric Weaver allows you to experience the phenomenon of healing that you think you need to go to others for. Using the Etheric Weaver, you align to your own self, your Soul, and it gives you spontaneous meditation without having to learn how to shut your mind down as meditation should be 24 hours a day, everything…simply, the ability to respond. So you need to bring these abilities out. Then with the Etheric weaver you can help people with all sorts of physical and emotional and mental difficulties, but you can also affect their soul and a whole transition of life takes place for them. And you learn the benefit of meditation and that is Life – it is extremely spiritual. Using the Etheric Weaver helps you tune into your own Buddha nature in your higher mind, heart and physical being and that is the same thing as the Etheric Weaver – it is resonating with your Etheric field, your Etheric body and that wakes you up and that regulates your chakras better than anyone or anything else and you have no limitations as to how holy that self can be."

Extract from a teaching by His Holiness Jetsun Gyalwa Jampa Gonpo, Glastonbury Dharshan January 1, 2005.