a great teacher and saint. There are recorded incidents of miraculous healing attributed to him; of restoring at least one person to life the day after his death; healing the blind; disappearing from sight in the presence of people; simultaneous appearances in two places; and, the day after his death, appearing to three disciples in three different cities at the same hour, in the flesh.
After his initiation, Lahiri Mahasaya met Babaji several times in unexpected circumstances. One of these incidents illustrates a point which seems to run through all of Shri Babaji's manifestations. At a khumba mela15 in Allahabad, Lahiri was astounded to find Babaji kneeling before a matted-haired renunciate. Lahiri asked Babaji what He was doing. Babaji replied that he was washing the feet of a renunciate, that he would then clean his cooking utensils; He said that He was practicing the virtue of humility.
Shri Yukteswar, who was Yogananda's guru, was perhaps the greatest of Lahiri Mahasaya's disciples. He, too, was a miracle-worker. During his lifetime, he met Shri Babaji three times. On the first of these occasions, Shri Babaji set Yukteswar on another of the themes which Babaji has pressed in recent times. Babaji said that East and West must establish a middle path of activity and spirituality. India had much to learn from the West in material development and India could teach the methods by which the West would be able to place its religious beliefs on the foundations of yogic science. Babaji said there were potential saints in America and Europe who were waiting to be enlivened.16
On a later occasion, Shri Babaji instructed Yukteswar to write a book showing the underlying unity between the Christian and Hindu scriptures. This work resulted in Yukteswar's "The Holy Science."17
Shri Yukteswar's outstanding and most beloved disciple was Paramahansa Yogananda. While Yogananda was a babe in arms, Babaji informed Yukteswar that He would send him a disciple to train for dissemination of yogic knowledge in the West. In 1920, when Yogananda was committed to going to the United States of America to start this work, but experienced concern about leaving his native land for the materialistic West, Shri Babaji, in answer to hours of Yogananda's prayers, knocked on his door and came to confirm to Yogananda that he was the disciple sent to Yukteswar for this task, and to give His blessings on the venture.
Scriptural References
There are indications of Shri Babaji's manifestations long before the events described above. There are two books of religious prophesy - one ancient and one modern - which 'foretell' the appearance of Lord Shiva in a 'human' form during Lord Krishna's incarnation, at the end of the Dvapara Yuga and the beginning of the Kali Yuga, with the implication that this form will continue to assist mankind through the Kali Yuga (the Iron Age; also translated as the Age of Strife, Conflict or Darkness).
The older book is the Shiva Purana, which was put into its present form in (perhaps) the fourth or fifth century A.D., but which contains written and oral material from a far more distant past. There is the following statement concerning one of the many incarnations of Lord Shiva to carry out His worldly activities.
"In the twenty-eighth aeon of Dvapara, there will be... born... Krishna... as the foremost of the sons of Vasudeva."
"Then I [Shiva] too shall be born with the body of a Brahmacarin and the soul of by means of Yogic Maya to the great surprise of the worlds."
"On seeing a dead body forsaken in the cremation ground I shall enter into it and make it free from ailments by means of Yogic Maya... Then I will enter the holy divine cavern of Meru along with you [Lord Brahma] and Visnu. O Brahma, I shall then be known as Lakulin."
"The physical incarnation thus and the holy Siddha centre will be greatly renowned as long as the earth lasts."18
It is an historical fact that there was a great religious figure in India named Lakulish (a form of the name Lakulin, which means "one who carries a staff"). Tradition states that he lived at the time of Lord Krishna.19 Lakulish settled in a place called Kayavarohan, in modern Gujarat state, which is said to have been established as a religious teaching center by Maharshi Vishwamitra in the still earlier era of Lord Ram. Lakulish is credited with formulating and propagating the Pashupatmat form of Shaivism and establishing twelve "Jyotirlingams" (special phallic forms symbolic of Lord Shiva's creative energy) around India. The administration of these jyotirlingams and the learning centers associated with them lasted for about a thousand years. The lingams and their temples still exist. Haidakhan Baba frequently walked with a heavy staff, and Mount Meru is another name for Mount Kailash, where Lord Shiva has performed thousands of years of tapas. When Babaji visited Kayavarohan in 1980, He was greeted and worshipped as Lakulish and Lord Shiva.
The present text of the Shiva Purana was compiled some time later than Lakulish's era and it is now impossible to determine whether the prophesy in the Shiva Purana was contained in the earlier written versions or oral traditions, or was written at a later time to exalt Lakulish's Pashupatmat sect. Whether Lakulish represents the first appearance of Shri Babaji in a human form or not, a tradition among Shri Babaji s followers is that He has been in and out of physical worldly activities in an identifiable 'human' form (but not limited to one form only) at least since the end of the Dvapara Yuga, the time of Lord Krishna.
The modern book referred to is "Shrisadashiv Charitamrit"20, a divinely inspired book published by Shri Vishnu Dutt Shastri in 1959. The first chapter of this book relates the visions given to Shri Vishnu Dutt of a discussion among the ancient, fabled sage Narada and the gods, concerning the need to send someone to the earth to help and guide humankind. All concerned agreed that only Lord Samba Sadashiv (a subtle form of The Divine as Shiva, Who is believed to have interacted with the created universe since the beginning of Time) has the qualities needed for this task. Therefore, they went to Lord Samba Sadashiv and prayed that He go to the world and help it in its miseries. The Lord responded with this statement:
"I will very soon come to the world. In the Treta Yuga, I will come with Rama as a brahmachari and clean the world of non-knowledge. In the Dvapara Yuga, I will enter and give knowledge to all those who will open their hearts to me. Vishnu then will enter into me as a swan and the people of Kumaon will begin to call me Paramhansa [the Supreme Swan; the swan is a symbol of knowledge] and Brahmachari [a brahmachari is a dedicated, celibate student, a seeker of knowledge]."21
Vishnu Dutt Shastri understood this prophesy to have reference to Babaji. Babaji is believed by many to be a manifestation of the earliest forms of the Formless Divine (like "the Word" used in the gospel of John) and, in early and recent manifestations, is associated with the Kumaon Hills of Uttar Pradesh, where one of His many names is Brahmachari Baba.
"Shrisadashiv Charitamrit" also contains chapters relating to other earthly manifestations of Shri Babaji. Chapters V and VI deal with the period of Lord Ram. In a later chapter, Lord Shiva glorifies Ram to Lord Vishnu and concludes with the statement, "My heart is always filled with Ram's glory. As an incarnation of devotion, Ram is everything."
Another chapter deals with Lord Samba Sadashiv's appearance in Vrindaban in Lord Krishna's time. It describes Samba Sadashiv having darshan of the baby Krishna and the later worship of Shiva by Lord Krishna. Shri Babaji, in His recent incarnation, mentioned on a few occasions that He was one of the teachers of Jesus Christ during His years between the ages of twelve and thirty, on which the New Testament is silent. And, as stated above, Shri Babaji said that, some centuries later, He also had initiated Shri Shankara and the great religious poet Kabir into yogic practices. He told others that He lived in Tibet as the great Buddhist saint Milarepa in the eleventh and twelfth centuries AD.
A Dream Confirmed
There is evidence from two or three sources of an incarnation of Shri Babaji
