Babaji and Simplicity

Monday, February 18, 2013

Babaji and Simplicity

 

 

Simplicity

Babaji, the famous mystical appearance of Nainital who spoke very little did speak of simplicity. This picture attempts to explain simplicity

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Gifts of Love

Gifts of Love

Friday, February 1, 2013

Encounter with a Himalayan Mystic – Baba Haidakhan or Babaji

Jai Shiv Shankar, Jai Bhole Nath ki

It was in the early eighties, as an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Delhi I had rented an apartment a few kilometers away from IIT, at a place known as Masjid Moth (DDA Flats). There was accommodation on campus but with two infant daughters and a live in full time Nanny to boot the accommodation on campus was a bit too compact for our needs. I lived in this apartment from approximately the middle of 1981 to the middle of 1984. It was during this period when I had an  unusual spiritual encounter. I do not recall the exact date when the encounter took place but the incident itself is crystal clear in my mind.

Babaji or Baba Haidakhan ( Hairakhan, Hairdakhan)

At the time my wife with nanny and children were away and I was alone at home. It was morning, some time after breakfast when the bell rang. I opened the door to find in front of me two Himalayan mystics, an old one and a younger, fair and radiant, well built turbaned young mystic of around thirty. The turban was just a cloth tied up around the head in a style particular to Babaji actually rather than a formal turban. The younger person was completely silent but the older one spoke that they were Himalayan mystics on a visit and were seeking some food from me. I  agreed to offer them some money but did not agree to let them in for refreshment because it is not safe. In India even some thieves sometimes move around in the guise of mystics, therefore as a principle one does not let unknown mystics in to one’s home. Something in me wanted to agree but I declined on principle not to comply. If I was in my present home that has an outdoor garden I would have seated them in the garden but being an apartment there was none such then, just a staircase landing ahead of my door. The older Babaji then spoke in Hindi that the younger silent mystic was a much evolved Babaji - bahut pahunche huain babaji hain - in Hindi. I politely declined again. Then the younger Baba too spoke from deep within his belly as sometimes mystics who are on a vow of silence (not speaking from the mouth) do. He spoke a single sentence of four words,

 “I shall eat half a Kilo of Ghee ( Adha kilo ghee khanunga )”

I apologized and declined and the mystics went away. Looking back, the request of a half kilo of Ghee was a ridiculous request, perhaps a friendly joke, or a secret message still unknown to me, or a sign that the Babaji wished me to actually decline rather than comply, because even if one agreed to feed the mystics one would not offer such crazy fare. I feel now that the Babaji had  merely come to visit me and also perhaps bless me because I was facing a difficult moment in my life then and the troubles of the time began to lift soon after. At that time I was unaware of Babaji and any past connection with him.  It was only much later in 1995 that I realized that I had been most probably visited by Baba Haidakhan accompanied by the older mystic who was probably Shastri Ji about whom I heard in 2007.

At the time I did not know who the Babaji was and why he had chosen me of all the people to visit. My apartment was removed from the road and situated on the third floor of a complex and there were numerous other apartments en route that it appeared they did not visit but headed straight for mine and that too with a request that was quite strange and un-compliable.

I cannot be one hundred percent sure because of the passage of time that it was indeed Baba Haidakhan but my investigations since then indicate that it was most likely so. First is relationships dating back to my childhood in Nainital. The second is the resemblance from the photos. The image accompanying this post is that of Babaji when he was much younger and slimmer but there are plenty of images of him in books on him and on the net from various stages of his life to compare. Babaji did wear a turban every now and then and he did move around on unknown trips accompanied by an older mystic known as Shatriji. Moreover He is known to have kept vows of silence when he spoke a bit through his throat on occasions while looking downwards. We both seem to be born around the same time in 1950. My spiritual connection with Babaji is likely an old one even dating back to previous lives. We have both had deep spiritual links to the Himalayan district of Nainital and the sacred peaks of Nanda and Sunanda that have blessed this district since times immemorial. The first published nomenclature of the Sunanda peak is due to me. It had been referred to unknowingly yet inappropriately as Nanda Devi East by the Europeans and that practice had persisted. until a few years ago the goddess granted me the honor of introducing her appropriate name to the world at large. There is full post on that in this blog and a link is probably there in the side bar.

A photo of my home in Jaipur

The second time Babaji intervened in my life is when I needed workers  to build my present home in 1993 and was unable to find any, despite my willingness to pay heavily for them, because of the season but suddenly they landed up by surprise beginning with a mystic mason, by the name of Sua Lal who was well known in the area for singing songs in praise of Shiva while he worked like a mad man for some. To  ordinary humans some mystics appear as psychotics. Since then my encounters with Babaji in a spiritual way have continued consciously and knowingly albeit intermittently until today. He has on some occasions appeared in my personal affairs at a moment of grave need and I too have visited his Ashram first time in the summer of  2007 when he took me for a visit to the district personally (??!!) with him, all this when I am not a disciple of Babaji as some others are. To me he is more a highly revered and much loved mystic friend, albeit a spiritual Guru at the same time. Some of my later encounters with Babaji are so magical and fantastic that I myself find them unbelievable when they are over leave alone describe them here although I have described one in the post entitled kriya yoga of Babaji in this blog. Babaji is indeed a magical manifestation of the Universal consciousness. Although he may change bodies as soon as it is no longer young, he is an immortal soul with deep connections to the Nainital Himalayas.

Haidkhan is also spelt as Hairakhan because the central sound in the name does not exist in most other languages aside from Hindi. It is a sound that is more like the combined sound of an R and a D. Perhaps Hairdakhan would have been the best way to represent it in English but this is usually not done.

There are a few more posts on Babaji in this blog in case you wish to read more about him.

Note: This post also appears in my other blog http://someitemshave.blogspot.com

Update April 2013 :  I have recently realized that the request of half a kg of Ghee was probably for a fire ceremony called a Havan that Babaji loved to perform.