under oath, and greatly agitated, about these phenomena."35
* * * * * * * *
In 1921 or 1922, Shri Babaji made some preparations for ending the incarnation. Gangotri Baba, who became a widely-known saint, was then about fifty years old; he had retired from his profession as a school teacher. On his return from a pilgrimage to the Tibetan Mount Kailash, Gangotri Baba met Sombhari Baba in the town of Haldwani. Sombhari Baba (a great siddha yogi) told Gangotri Baba that Haidakhan Baba wanted to see him in His ashram at Kathgharia, about three miles outside of Haldwani.
Gangotri Baba went straight to the Kathgharia Ashram and sat with Haidakhan Baba. Haidakhan Baba said that He was about to leave the material world and go to the astral plane to do other work. He told Gangotri Baba to take up the work He was leaving behind. Haidakhan Baba instructed Gangotri Baba to go to live near the mountain village of Gangotri, from which he later received his name. Babaji also instructed Gangotri Baba to take special care of Dr. Hem Chand Joshi, the linguist, and his wife, Durga Devi. Then Babaji handed to Gangotri Baba a tulsi mala (a necklace or rosary made of tulsi wood beads) in a cotton mala bag and told him to keep it safely, saying, "I will take it back when I come next time."36
In the autumn of 1922, Haidakhan Baba traveled again to Tibet and ended this trip with a stop in the town of Ashkot, just inside the Indian border with western Nepal. Babaji stayed in Ashkot for a few days as a guest of the local rajah (king). When Babaji left the town, the rajah himself helped carry the palanquin in which Shri Babaji sat. A few miles out of Ashkot, Babaji sent the rajah back to Ashkot and continued His journey with some devotees and some of the rajah's attendants.
When the party came to the junction of the Kali and Gori Rivers, Shri Babaji told the party that He would return again for the benefit of all human beings. Then He stepped onto the waters of the river, which is deep and swift at that point, walked to the center of the river and sat yogi-fashion and changed into Light and disappeared.37
"Whenever there is a decline of righteousness in the world, Then Thou comest in the world to save righteousness; O Destroyer of sins, cleanse us of all our defects! Hail, hail, O King of Sages, Remover of the pain of Thy devotees." From the Haidakhan Aarati
CHAPTER III
PREDICTIONS AND PREPARATIONS FOR BABAJI'S RETURN:
MAHENDRA MAHARAJ AND VISHNU DUTT MISHRA
Mahendra Baba finds Babaji
During the years of Shri Babaji's physical absence, from 1922 to 1970, a great siddha yogi38 came on the scene to tell people about Babaji and to foretell and prepare for His return.
The man who became known as Mahendra Baba, or Mahendra Maharaj, was born on March 4, 1908, in the home of his maternal grandfather in a village called Manika, near Mithila, Bihar. Mithila is the reputed birthplace of Lord Ram's wife, Sita. His childhood and boyhood were spent in this grandfather's home.
Mahendra's grandfather was a staunch devotee of the Goddess Durga - one of the names and aspects of The Divine Mother, the Creatrix and Nurturer. The family was well-to-do and well-educated. Mahendra attended the local school and when he came home from school he was taught Sanskrit by learned teachers. He also studied several other languages, including English.
The grandfather was learned in Sanskrit, astrology, and the ritualistic worship of God. He had a room separate from the rest of the household where he could do his pujas (ritual worship). He also read Durga Saptshati ("Seventy Verses in Praise of Goddess Durga") in Sanskrit several times a day. Young Mahendra soon learned to read it, too.39
In his childhood and youth, Mahendra had several experiences of Babaji. He said that, as a very young child, he was healed of a near-fatal illness by a vision of Babaji and the Divine Mother, Goddess Durga. On his fifth birthday, Mahendra went to a sweet shop to buy candy and was given sweets by Shri Babaji. A man in Bombay, whom Mahendra Baba insisted on treating as a friend, rather than as a devotee, says that Mahendra Baba told him that when he graduated from high school, Mahendra went to buy sweets to celebrate the event and that, at the sweet shop, he was embarrassed by the stare of a tall, old saint. When Mahendra received his sweets, he offered some to this saint. The saint refused the sweets but said he wanted to go to Mahendra's home. Mahendra led the saint to his home and for the next six days and nights the saint taught Mahendra yogic knowledge. Then the saint walked out of the house and did not return. Mahendra had asked this guru where he came from (he replied that he had come from the Himalayas), but he had not asked his name. It is customary to call religious men "Baba" or "Maharaj," so Mahendra had needed no other name in his conversations with the saint.
Mahendra told other devotees that as soon as he reached boyhood he developed a desire to go to Vrindaban and meditate; he had a great love and respect for Lord Krishna. One day, when still a young boy, he asked his mother's permission to go to Vrindaban and repeat Krishna's name and 'find God.' His mother wept and begged him not to go until he had more education and understood spirituality better.
Mahendra went to college in Patna, Bihar. He told his friend in Bombay that while he was in Patna he saw his saintly teacher again. On a cold December day, Mahendra and a number of other college students saw and were intrigued by a 'mahatma' (great soul) and followed him through the city streets. The mahatma went to the bank of the Ganges River, threw off his outer clothes, waded out to an island in the river, and sat yogi-fashion. As he sat, the whole area around him became warm; the boys on the river bank took off their winter wraps as they stood and watched the saint. The saint shouted out to them, "Do not try to test a yogi's powers!" and the boys quickly left the area.
Mahendra capped his formal education with a Master of Arts degree in philosophy from Bhagalpur University in Bihar. His writings indicate a high degree of learning; they are so full of Sanskrit quotations and allusions to scriptural and literary incidents that they often make heavy reading for educated readers and they are extremely difficult to translate. Mahendra Maharaj told people that after he completed his education, he took part in Mahatma Gandhi's political movement for a while and visited many cities while involved in this work.
Mahendra said he decided to leave his home in 1928. One day, while out for a walk, he decided to go to Benares, so he just kept on walking - a distance of at least two hundred miles from his home. He spent some time in the Vishwanath Temple in Benares and then started a school. After a few days, his grandfather, learning where Mahendra was, sent him some money and said he would come to see Mahendra. On hearing this, Mahendra used the money his grandfather sent to move on to Vrindaban, where he "fell at the feet of Mother Radhaji."40
He settled down for a long stay for 'sadhana' (religious practices for spiritual growth) in the village of Lohban, some miles from Vrindaban and close to Mathura, where Lord Krishna was born. His stay there lasted about twenty years, during which time he traveled a good deal and spent much time also in the Datta District of Gujarat, near the town of Ambaji, an area closely associated with the Divine Mother Amba. He never again visited his family in Bihar. While in Lohban, Mahendra Baba organized sessions for japa (repetition of God's names), for singing devotional songs, and for reading of scriptures like the Ramanaya. Many people came to him and were benefited by their association with him.41 He is still well remembered in Lohban. In 1984, the people of the village gave land and began collecting funds to build a temple and a small ashram in honor of Mahendra Maharaj and Shri Haidakhan Baba.
Though Mahendra Baba went to Vrindaban and Lohban to be with Lord Krishna and Mother Radha, he did not forget his great
