Babaji—Head of This Lineage
Introduction
by Yogacharya David Hickenbottom
Babaji and Jesus together are helping this world to work out its spiritual evolution and are at the head of this spiritual lineage. Babaji is a wonderful personality who is described in the Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda.
There are many amazing accounts of his life; however, it is his purity of body, mind, and spirit that stands out to me. Master, Paramhansa Yogananda, described how Babaji appeared to him before he came to America. Master said that he had a glimpse into the Cosmic Consciousness of the great Guru. This glimpse was a view of the real treasury that Babaji has realized.
Babaji initiated Lahiri Mahasaya into Kriya Yoga on a sacred mountain in the Himalayas. At the time of that initiation, Lahiri Mahasaya sailed into Cosmic Consciousness and remained in that state for several days. Then Babaji sent the realized Master out into the world to live and act as any other mortal: carrying out all of the functions of a householder. Babaji knew that an example of a householder yogi was much needed in the coming of this new age.
Jesus and Babaji, working together for the spiritual transformation of this world, do not work openly through the media, etc. It has been found that the aspirant who has an inner fire burning for realization will rise above those who settle for complacency and will find their way to a true teacher, one who can lead the soul into higher and higher states of realization. Babaji blesses all through silent, uplifting vibrations.
Through inner attunement, one may come into contact with great Avatars such as Babaji. However, the real purpose of such great Masters is not to create a new religion around their personality; rather, he or she is focused on the aspirant realizing God. The spiritual consciousness of such a great Master acts as a catalyst for those who focus their minds upon such a one; therefore, great blessings can come their way.
I have felt the living manifestation of this great Master and his Presence is of such great purity that it is difficult to describe. Yet, alongside that ever-pure transcendent Consciousness there resides a very real personality that is strong, wise, and joyous.
This Guru-lineage, beginning with Jesus and Babaji, is like a necklace of pearls: each one shining, interesting, and perfect. I feel that it is the greatest privilege that I may be of service to these great masters in any small way God allows me to be. Indeed, wherever you find yourself to be, you may be of service to them, to God, in all the ways He directs you. May Babaji bless you and keep the inner fire blazing for Divine Realization that alone will lead you to eternal happiness, peace, and fulfillment.
Mother Speaking About Babaji
Bodily Aging Related to Level of Consciousness.
Age is a thing of the mind. As we have said before, the four beasts before the throne are time, space, the word, and the atom. And these things are man made, man created. And you know, actually, through his own thinking processes, man makes himself much older. He thinks, “I am a certain age. I am 40, 50, 60, 70 years old. I am very old, and I haven’t much time to live. I haven’t much time to do all of the things which I would like to do. And, particularly, it doesn’t seem as though I have much time to do the work which God has destined for me.”
But this is not so. Because if you are in the eternal Spirit, then you are beyond time, you are beyond space, you are beyond everything. You cannot die because Spirit is everlasting. It always was, it is, and it always will be. There is no cessation. The body must drop off sometimes we are told. And yet we have the example before us of Babaji: he who has risen to such high heights that even being several hundred years old, still he has the body of a young man. And still, he keeps his sojourn upon this earth. This is a wonderful thing to think about. A wonderful thing.
DATE: 610208 TITLE: MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE
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Realization Found through Humility, Service, Love, Mind on God
And as you meditate upon this wondrous Spirit which is everywhere equally present, the change takes place within yourself and you start to reap the harvest. Everything within you changes. You are no longer as you are. And the harvest is great. And this is because you have deigned to become a humble laborer, to have humility, to do as Babaji did, to wash the feet of an Anchorite in order that he might show the example of serving even the humblest everywhere. Christ came to teach us this. Master came to teach us this. Every master teaches us humility and service and divine love, and a constant thought of God, constantly keeping his Name upon our lips, saying over and over again, “My Father God, bless me, have mercy on me. Make me One with Thee. Reveal Thyself. Reveal Thyself. I and my Father are One. Blessed Spirit I am He.”
DATE: 610215 TITLE: HARVEST
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QUESTIONER: If we get eternal life—don’t we already have eternal life?
YOGACHARYA MILDRED HAMILTON: Yes, but we do not realize it, and so because of the habit formation of the mind over many incarnations, it is our tendency, you see, to think of life and of death, to limit ourselves with a lifespan— in other words, we expect to die. Now that we believe in reincarnation, we expect to be reborn again. And so we give power to this expectation. We give power to whatever we dwell upon. Because man has come to live perhaps sixty or seventy years, occasionally longer, we have come to take that as the normal span of life; and yet it tells in the Bible about many of the old prophets who lived to be 100, 125, 150 years old, and who was it—Methuselah—who lived to be 900? We hear of Babaji who is 7 or 800 years old, of the head of our own group of Masters—this by actual records—and he has appeared to many, many people. Habit is a tremendous thing. And we don’t realize that with every word, every thought that emanates from us, we are building the patterns of our own life, that through this vibratory force we are creating that which we live with. So life is eternal; it goes on constantly. But in the sense—the worldly sense, the world of duality—there is nothing stable about this world, actually, is there? Because it is all delusion. What was one minute ago is not now. Everything is change. Why? Because everything is movement, you see. You could say that movement is eternal but this is eternal life in God. But it is constantly changing. The pattern is changing. But we are made in His image and likeness; therefore, we have the power to create as we will, if we would only but take hold of it.
DATE: 631129 TITLE: Meaning of Bread and Wine Offered as Symbol of Body and Blood at Last Supper
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I can’t tell you how vitally necessary it is for all of us to make every effort today. Somebody asked me the other night, “Do you think that all of the prophecies of the upturning of the world are going to come true?” And I said, “Yes, I do.” Because it is upon us. We are seeing it all over the world. Nation is fighting against nation. There are earthquakes; there is pestilence; there is famine. All of these things are with us. Are we going to let this get us down? Are we going to be prophets of gloom? Are we going to think that actually the earth is going to open up and swallow us up? In some cases, it is.
I saw all this happening in vision twenty‑two years ago in India at an ashram. When I was lifted up into this tremendous experience, I saw that it happened. But when it speaks of this final hour that is to come, there will be some flesh saved. And that flesh will be saved because of the elect. Who are the elect? The elect are those chosen by God because of their goodness, because of the fact that they have kept their covenant with God, that they have put Him first, that every thought, every word, every action is dedicated to Him alone, that they sit in the quietness and the sanctuary of their own souls and they lift up their consciousness and they commune with Him until finally they are so absorbed in Him that He lifts them up. And He fills them with the peace, the bliss, the power, the wonder, the glory of His love.
You have this opportunity. You have been given the techniques which will help you to do this, especially the one technique of controlling the breath because breathlessness is deathlessness. Man has been known to leave his body when God has tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Now, it’s time, my son.” He has been known to leave the body voluntarily, to go in full consciousness, not through committing suicide, but through super-meditation, superconsciousness. And some have taken their bodies with them. All of those of you who have read The Autobiography of a Yogi have read about Babaji, which means “Great Father” and how his body still appears to those who are highly developed on earth today. He leads them; he guides them; he has a small band of disciples that he travels with, and they appear to those whose human selves are not so gross in nature that they would dispel his presence or the sight of his presence.
DATE: 810531 TITLE: Your Covenant with God