songs in Pahari language, the dialect of the mountains in Northern India.
At the end of the Seventies, in the warm winter mornings in Hairakhan Babaji used to read loud to me some verses from an ancient worn out big book..... Shri Babaji, Gora Devi, Shri Shastriji in Hairakhan, 1977.
I was wondering why Babaji called just me to listen to these words, until He told me that in one of my previous lifetimes I was with Gorakhnath. He told me to sit in meditation inside the temple of Gorakhnath in Hairakhan, and on another occasion He sent me to meditate in the dhuni of Gorakhnath at Dhanyan, on the mountains near Almora.
I felt also that Babaji was thus showing me what would have been my way: a yogic path of detachment and meditation, a hard path that He conferred only to a few people. In fact He said that during this Kali Yuga it is very difficult to practice inner concentration, because in this period of decay man's mind is stressed since the very first day of birth and never finds peace: so the most effective practice is that of Karma Yoga, action dedicated to the Divine. Gorakhnath represents the faraway dream of a mythical time when the ascetics spent their life in meditation in the forests and on the snowy peaks of the Himalayas, lost in mystic love, intoxicated by the light and the visions of God. This dream has always been mine, since the first day when I left for India in search of my Master.
On a summertime in Hairakhan eventually it happened that I found a book in English with many quotations from the scripts by Gorakhnath: I read and copied it more than once, impressed by its depth.
It was a treatise of philosophy about the origin of the world and of the mental mechanisms, about the eternal play of Shiva-Shakti, the great Lord of the universe and His inseparable Spouse, the infinite cosmic Energy. Also precise instructions about the use of mantras and breathe were given. The following year I went to visit Shastriji, the old sage and master who for fourteen years was the inseparable disciple and priest of Babaji. Suddenly, and without any request of mine, he took out of a shelf some old dusty copybooks, his diaries of the times with Babaji, and started to read them to me. I was stunned, because they were precisely the teachings of the great Guru Gorakhnath.
Shri Hairakhan Babaji in meditation, 1972.
As Shri Krishna gave His divine teachings to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, so Shri Hairakhan Babaji Maharaji gave His priceless teachings to His beloved disciple Vishnu Datt Shastri. He poured His limitless grace upon him, calling him by different loving names, such as Kamalo, Flower Fakir, etc. In 1976 Shastriji had traveled with Babaji in Nepal: during that journey Babaji started to recite some verses in the ancient language of the sadhus and yogis of India. On that occasion Babaji told him that Guru Gorakhnath was speaking through Him, actually making us understand that the great Yogi and Himself are One. Babaji gave this knowledge also to seven people present at that time, calling them 'The Seven Rishis', thus fulfilling their spiritual quest.
I copied out every verse that Shastriji recited, drinking up each and every syllable. A couple of times I saw tears in Shastriji's eyes and I also cried, because the sound of those words evoked in us the presence of our beloved Babaji and of His precious voice.
Shastriji called this script "Gorakhvani" - The Words Of Gorakhnath that are like divine nectar, the essence of the yogic instructions of Babaji. These are the highest yogic instructions by Lord Shiva Himself.
Here Babaji repeats sometimes that these teachings are to be kept secret: they are not for everyone, because only a few will be able to understand them, or even to have will to listen.
I copied out every verse that Shastriji recited, drinking up each and every syllable... Shri Shastriji and Gora Devi translate Gorakhvani, Rajgarh, 1997.
Now Shastriji feels that it's time to reveal them to a larger public. Apparently these instructions are very simple, but practicing them is maybe the most difficult thing in the world.
Essentially they express this only message: the only real thing is the Name of the Lord, all the rest is illusion and impermanence.
I personally want to thank Shastriji a thousand times for having allowed me to have access to and translate this work with him, spending a blissful time at his feet in Rajgarh.
Bhole Baba ki Jai! Gaura Devi
Shri Babaji used the language spoken by sadhus and saints all over India and Nepal, a poetic form of the ancient Hindi. The teachings have been given in form of verses with rhymes. The transliteration in Roman alphabet has been published to allow Western readers to learn their sound, because, as Shri Babaji stresses, by the mere listening to these teachings liberation is gained.
Notes:
Guru: spiritual master.
Yogi-Yogini: the man and the woman who practices Yoga.
Sadhu: errant ascetic who renounced the world.
Rishi: seers, sages, they represent the Vedic Arian thought.
„I personally want to thank Shastriji a thousand times for having allowed me to have access to and translate this work with him, spending a blissful time at his feet in Rajgarh.” Shri Shastriji is reading Gorakhvani with Gora Devi, Kalavati and Bhagwati.
Gaura Devi
OM NAMAH SHIVAYA
Introduction by Kamalo - Shri Shastriji
In Nepal, the holy land of Guru Gorakhnath Maharaji, Shri Gorakhnath Himself, in His own Divine voice and by His utter grace, gave various teachings through Shri Babaji.
Through Shri Babaji's grace, the teachings were then passed on to Shri Sardar Kamalo (Shri Shastriji).
Shri Gorakh revealed to Kamalo one great secret that, like a mantra is the essence of innumerable teachings.
By His grace, Shri Gorakhnath Maharaji reveals Himself from time to time in order to benefit people. Suddenly that time He decided to reveal His divine teachings to seven Rishis present with Him.
That day, at seven in the morning in His room He gave His divine message to the Rishis, who were waiting in ecstasy.
The Rishis were astonished when they heard His words, which fulfilled their lives.
The Lord explained that He has six Kailash Mountains on this earth, thus bringing to light a deep mystery.
Shri Shastriji Vishnu Datta Misra - Kamalo
Note:
Mantra: a formula that includes words and sounds of magical or divine power.
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