STORY OF THE MONTH
(Jul 2027)


The God-like Nature of Mahavatar Babaji

(As Narrated by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda)

“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 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 recognised by others only when he so desires. He is known to have appeared in many slightly different forms to various devotees—sometimes with beard and moustache and sometimes without them.

His undecayable body requires no food; the master, therefore, 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 that was blazing for a sacred Vedic ceremony. The guru suddenly seized a burning brand and lightly struck the bare shoulder of a chela (disciple) 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 guru’s camp.

“‘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 rock-lined chasm below the ledge.

‘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.

After they had returned with the mangled form, the master placed his hand on the dead man. Lo! he opened his eyes and prostrated himself humbly before the omnipotent guru.

“‘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.”

(Excerpts from the book, “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda) 


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Notes:
(Refer Archives, Jul 2026, for an earlier story on Mahavatar Babaji)

1. Writing about Babaji in his Bible commentary, 'The Second Coming of Christ', Paramahansa Yoganandaji says: 
"Rare souls sometimes serve the world by remaining primarily in transcendent meditation, sending forth powerful spiritual vibrations to balance the world’s evils; but these souls seclude themselves in remote haunts and seldom or never appear before ordinary men. I have written of one such avatar, Mahavatar Babaji, in Autobiography of a Yogi: Nature herself stands in powerless awe before him!"

2. "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, reorganiser of the Swami Order, and to Kabir, famous medieval master. The chief nineteenth-century disciple was, as we know, Lahiri Mahasaya, revivalist of the lost Kriya art." (from "Autobiography of a Yogi")

3. "The deathless guru bears no mark of age on his body; he appears to be a youth of not more than 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-coloured. Sometimes Babaji’s face closely resembles that of Lahiri Mahasaya. On occasion the similarity was so striking that Lahiri Mahasaya, in his later years, might have passed as the father of the youthful-looking Babaji." (from, "Autobiography of a Yogi")

4. "Mataji (sister of Mahavatar Babaji) also has lived through the centuries; she is almost as far advanced spiritually as her brother. She remains in ecstasy in a secret underground cave near the Dasaswamedh ghat (in Varanasi)" (from, "Autobiography of a Yogi")

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"SATSANGA OF THE MONTH" (Jul 2027)

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