see Krishna and prayed to Him for a vision. Hardly had he completed the thought than he 'saw' the Yamuna River flowing near a banyan tree. Under the banyan tree, surrounded by growing wild flowers, stood Shri Krishna, as a beautiful young boy, smiling gently, looking at Mahendra Baba from the corners of His eyes, and playing His flute, softly and sweetly, like Pan. "I felt as if my sight - reaching up to glance at His eyes, found their brilliance so great that it forgot its natural function and became a fish, swimming in that ocean of love - became unconscious with joy." After quite some time, he 'awoke' from this vision and saw again the play going on under another banyan tree, with the same actors as before, the same audience; and Mahendra Baba became his old self again. But he was filled with wonder and joy and found himself repeating, "The Great Guru Shri Haidakhandi Himself is Krishna! It is Shri Krishna dressed in a gown and cap appearing as Shri Haidakhan Baba!"52
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The year 1957 was a year of great significance for Mahendra Maharaj and Shri Babaji's devotees. Mahendra Maharaj spent a good deal of time at the Kathgharia Ashram, about three miles from Haldwani - a place established by 'Old Haidakhan Baba,' in which He used to stay for fairly long periods of time. A statue (murti) of Shri Babaji was installed at the temple in this ashram on Sunday, February 24, 1957. Prior to the installation, a festival was held for four or five days, which was attended by thousands of people, many of them from distant places. Although neither devotees nor police made any effort to enforce discipline, there was no disorder - and no stealing; in fact, lost items - even items of jewelry - were returned to their owners.
On Saturday night, a large throng of people, including great sages and saints, learned men and philosophers, people from East and West, gathered to hear the Ramayana being read and to sing kirtan (religious songs) through the night prior to the installation on Sunday morning. Mahendra Baba, Vishnu Dutt and Giridhari Lal Mishra, and a tailor named Ram Chandra were locked in a room in the ashram with the murti, to provide space and time to make a kurta for the murti, and they were happily talking about Shri Babaji. At about eleven o'clock, at the height of the celebration, when the compound was filled with happiness, love and worship, some ladies sitting under the banyan tree, singing songs, saw a Divine Light. For a moment or two they did not understand its significance and were frightened. Then, as it moved here and there in human form, they understood it to be the vision of Shri Babaji for which they had been praying. Some of them ran to tell others and hundreds came running to see, amid a great clamor of rejoicing voices. A devotee ran to the room where Mahendra Maharaj and the others worked, and shouted, "Baba, Shri Haidakhan Baba has come!" Instantly, the four dropped their work and ran out and shared in this experience. After a few more minutes, the Light entered the room where the murti was and disappeared.
"This Light was about ten feet away from the gathering and Maharaj walked about there for some time along a straight line of about 125 feet, about two feet above the ground. Everyone saw it merely in the form of Light.
"The description of this Light is given in almost all religious books. Wherever there is a description of Him, it is always in the form of Light. In the great Vedic Gayatri Mantra, the word 'Bharg' has this significance. In the New Testament, the Light mentioned is in no way different from that written of in Hindu scriptures. In the Buddhist, Jain, Islamic - in fact, in all religions - there is this written reference to 'the Light.' But in such a collective form, during a sacrificial ceremony, for such a long time, walking about before all, showing His Glorious Image to all - such an event is almost unheard of in history."53
Some people reported that they saw, in the Light, the form of 'Old Haidakhan Baba,' clad in kurta (long shirt) and cap; Vishnu Dutt Shastriji says that he saw in the Light, which passed him at a distance of about ten feet, the young form of Shri Babaji. Shri Laxmi Narayan Mittal of Gwalior told me that the Light was so bright and pulsating that it was impossible to distinguish the features of the Form within the Light.
Later in the year 1957, Mahendra Maharaj wrote the book "Anupam Kripa," to share with others the experiences of Shri Babaji's Grace in the form of these appearances to him and others. The next year, Mahendra Baba wrote "Divya Kathamrit," which, like the Hindu Puranic texts, relates discussions among the gods, with guidance for humankind, and foretells the coming of Shri Babaji and activities which He would undertake.
In 1958, Mahendra Baba, who had been spending more and more time in Vrindaban, living with devotees on his visits there, persuaded his devotees to acquire property in Vrindaban to build an ashram. Devotees (mostly from Bombay) raised about 55,000 rupees and bought land and built the first rooms of the present ashram. Although Mahendra Baba had precise ideas for a fitting marble temple to Babaji on this site, it was not built in his lifetime. However, in 1958, when the first rooms were inaugurated, Mahendra Baba brought the murti of 'Old Haidakhan Baba' that was installed at Kathgharia in 1957, to this new ashram, where it remains today.
Mahendra Baba's Teachings
Mahendra Baba's teachings anticipated Shri Babaji's message in many respects; he communed deeply and often with Shri Babaji. He wrote of the essential unity of all of Creation and the necessity of harmony among all the elements of Creation. In a pamphlet entitled "Blessings and Precepts,"54 Mahendra Baba had this to say on these concepts:
"The human body and the infinite Brahman are similar in their creational structure. The materials for formation of both are the same. The resemblance is not in the physical body of the five elements only, but also in the subtle and causal bodies...
"If any part of the body is broken, one feels pain and consequential want. So also it is an indubitable fact that if there be any injury in any part of the universe, its effect - whether we know it or not - is sure to fall on the entire Brahman, in the natural course of events. [Italics mine.] Just as our affairs in our short lives are to some extent hereditary, in the same way actions in the vast universe are also determined and well organized. In the activity of our bodies, the cooperation of the sense organs is necessary; it is the same in the operation of the cosmos through the basic elements of Creation."55
Mahendra Baba wrote about the 'Jivatma' (the individual soul, or atma) and the 'Parmatma' (the universal Soul, or Brahman), noting that "the nature of both Jivatma and Parmatma is wholly identical. They are the manifested states of the same Being, just as the limited intelligence of childhood and the experience of old age are of the same person."
"Whether separately or unitedly - that is, individually or in association - a harmonious and genial cordiality is beneficial for all. If the literary man assigns to harmony a proper place in his realm; the administrator and politician conform to a harmonious way of thinking; the religious preceptor - keeping in view one truth in all religions - on seeing the same ideal in the infinite number of practices, preaches a religion of harmony to mankind throughout the entire world; then, surely, all demoniac and evil propensities, like manmade worries, envy, and vindictiveness, will very soon be banished from our society.
"We should begin this harmonious practice of general usefulness in our homes. We should regard all members of our family as parts of our body. We should entertain the same pure feeling of affinity toward our families as we have toward the organs of our bodies. Just as our pleasure and pain affect our minds and we feel worried and uneasy under those circumstances, we should be moved similarly in their weal and woe.
"From this stage, we shall learn to do service to the whole universal brotherhood. Mean selfishness has kept us dissociated from the universal fraternity: in reality, we are children of the same parents. Our wants are the same; we are inhabitants of the same earth; and the same God is the object of worship by us all."56 [Italics mine.]
Mahendra Maharaj, following Lord Shiva's counsel, urged people to follow the path of Truth, Simplicity and Love (Satya, Saralta, and Prem). Mahendra Baba described Truth as "Whatever the mind
