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Babaji, the Deathless Yogi

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Brief overview

Babaji, the deathless Mahavatar of the Himalayas, keeps his body to prove humanity's own divine possibility.

  1. An avatar owes nothing to natureThe pure body casts no shadow and makes no footprint, outward proof of an inward lack of material bondage.
  2. Babaji works in humble obscurityHe has never openly appeared in any century; the misinterpreting glare of publicity has no place in his millennial plans.
  3. The body is kept as an exampleOnly one reason motivates Babaji in keeping his form: to furnish humanity with a concrete example of its own possibilities.
Executive Summary AI
  • Chapter 33 of Autobiography of a Yogi describes Babaji, guru of Lahiri Mahasaya, who has retained his physical form for centuries, perhaps millenniums, in the northern Himalayan crags near Bhadriniyaram.
  • The narrator defines avatara as the descent of divinity into flesh, quoting Sri Yukteswar that such a being casts no shadow and makes no footprint, and classing Babaji as a Mahavatar whose mission is to assist other prophets.
  • Babaji says he gave yoga initiation to Shankara, founder of the Swami order, and to the medieval saint Kabir, and his chief 19th century disciple was Lahiri Mahasaya, revivalist of the lost Kriya art.
  • Swami Kabbalananda, the narrator's Sanskrit tutor, recounts life in Babaji's small band of disciples, including the seeker who was told "Jump then" and was afterwards restored, having passed a difficult test.
  • Ram Gopal Musumdar tells of the night at the bathing ghat where Mataji, Babaji's sister, asked why he should leave his body, and Babaji promised never to relinquish his physical form, remaining visible to at least a small number of people for the duration of this world cycle.
Key Quote
“The secluded master has retained his physical form for centuries, perhaps for millenniums.”
— Narrator
Key Quote
“The great guru has never openly appeared in any century.”
— Narrator
Key Quote
“Theradanda Utao, let us lift our camp and staff.”
— Babaji

Transcript

0:00 CHAPTER XXXIII. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI. Babaji, the yogi-Christ of modern India, the northern Himalayan crags near Bhadriniyaram,
0:27 are still blessed by the living presence of Babaji, Guru Vlahiri Mahasaya.
0:33 The secluded master has retained his physical form for centuries, perhaps for millenniums.
0:39 The deathless Babaji is an avatar.
0:41 This Sanskrit word means descent.
0:44 Its roots are ava and tri .
0:49 In the Hindu scriptures, avatara signifies the descent of divinity into flesh.
0:55 Babaji's spiritual state is beyond human comprehension.
0:58 Sri Yukteswar explained to me, the dwarfed vision of man cannot pierce to his transcendental
1:04 star. One attempts in vain even to picture the avatar's attainment it is inconceivable the upanishads have minutely classified every stage of spiritual advancement Sivamukta, freed while living, to that of a Paramukta, supremely free, full power over death.
1:27 The latter has completely escaped from the mayic thralldom and its reincarnational round.
1:33 The Paramukta therefore seldom returns to a physical body.
1:37 If he does, he is an avatar, a divinely appointed medium of supernal blessings on the world.
1:43 An avatar is unsubject to the universal economy.
1:47 His pure body, visible as light image,
1:50 is free from any debt to nature.
1:52 The casual gaze may see nothing extraordinary in an avatar's form,
1:56 but it casts no shadow nor makes any footprint on the ground.
2:00 These are outward symbolic proofs
2:02 of an inward lack of darkness and material bondage.
2:05 Such a god-man alone knows the truth behind the relativities of life and death omar khayyam so gross shall she look through this same garden after me in vain the moon of delight is god eternal polaris an been dissolved forever by the Persian seer through
2:46 his self-realization. How oft hereafter rising shall she look, after me in vain? What frustration
2:52 of search, by a frantic universe, for an absolute omission! Christ expressed his freedom in another
2:58 way. And a certain scribe came and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest and jesus saith unto him the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the son of man hath not where to lay his head
3:14 spacious with omnipresence could christ indeed be followed except in the overarching spirit krishna rama buddha and patanjali were among the ancient indian avatars a considerable poetic literature in tamil has grown up around augustia a southern indian avatar he worked many miracles during the centuries preceding and following the christian era form even to this day. Babaji's mission in India has been to assist prophets in carrying out their
3:47 special dispensations. He thus qualifies for the scriptural classification of Mahavatar,
3:53 Great Avatar. He has stated that he gave yoga initiation to Shankara, ancient founder of the
3:59 Swami order, and to Kabir, famous medieval saint. His chief 19th century disciple was, as we know, Lahiri Mahasaya,
4:09 revivalist of the lost Kriya art.
4:11 The Mahavatar is in constant communion with Christ.
4:15 Together they send out vibrations of redemption
4:17 and have planned the spiritual technique of salvation for this age.
4:21 The work of these fully illumined masters, one with the body and one
4:25 without it, is to inspire the nations to forsake suicidal wars, race hatreds, religious sectarianism
4:33 and the boomerang evils of materialism. Babaji is well aware of the trend of modern times,
4:39 especially of the influence and complexities of Western civilization, and realizes the necessity of spreading the self-liberations of yoga
4:47 equally in the West and in the East.
4:50 That there is no historical reference to Babaji need not surprise us.
4:54 The great guru has never openly appeared in any century.
4:59 The misinterpreting glare of publicity has no place in his millennial plans.

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