Vageesh Express

Vedic Guru

November 2007 Edition

||Sri Gurubhyo Namah||

In 2006,‘Vedic Guru’ revered the lives of saints who lived in the 19th century and before.

In 2007, we humbly honor Gurus of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Mahavatar Babaji

Mahavatar Babaji is the name given to an Indian yogi and holy man by Lahiri Mahasaya and several of his disciples who met Mahavatar Babaji between 1861 and 1935. Some of these meetings were described by Paramahansa Yogananda in his book Autobiography of a Yogi, including a first hand telling of Yogananda’s own meeting with Mahavatar Babaji.

Mahavatar Babaji’s real name and date of birth are not known, so those who met him during that period all called him by the title first given to him by Lahiri Mahasaya. ‘Mahavatar’ means ‘great avatar’, and ‘Babaji’ simply means ‘revered father’. Some of the encounters included two or more witnesses - discussions between those who met Mahavatar Babaji indicate that they all met the same person.

Legendary powers and age have been attributed to Mahavatar Babaji by the disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya, and by additional unconfirmed stories told in modern times. These stories have led many to believe that Mahavatar Babaji is a legendary person, rather than a real sadhu that was seen by numerous witnesses from 1861-1935.

Paramahansa Yogananda, in his Autobiography, described Mahavatar Babaji’s role on earth:

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–one with the body, and one without it–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.

In addition, Babaji is reputed to be ageless, according to some accounts, and about 500 years old around the late 1800’s, according to Swami Pranabananda. Yogananda reports that, according to the disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya, nobody knows Babaji’s age, family, place of birth, true name, or other details “dear to the annalist’s heart.”

Source : http://wikipedia.org

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