Autobiography of a Yogi Part 56

"After a silence, Babaji added, 'Repeat to each of your disciples this majestic promise from the BHAGAVAD GITA: "SWALPAMASYA DHARMASYA, TRAYATA MAHATO BHOYAT"--"Even a little bit of the practice of this religion will save you from dire fears and colossal sufferings."'

{FN34-8}

"As I knelt the next morning at my guru's feet for his farewell blessing, he sensed my deep reluctance to leave him.

"'There is no separation for us, my beloved child.' He touched my shoulder affectionately. 'Wherever you are, whenever you call me, I shall be with you instantly.'

"Consoled by his wondrous promise, and rich with the newly found gold of G.o.d-wisdom, I wended my way down the mountain. At the office I was welcomed by my fellow employees, who for ten days had thought me lost in the Himalayan jungles. A letter soon arrived from the head office.

"'Lahiri should return to the Danapur {FN34-9} office,' it read.

'His transfer to Ranikhet occurred by error. Another man should have been sent to a.s.sume the Ranikhet duties.'

"I smiled, reflecting on the hidden crosscurrents in the events which had led me to this furthermost spot of India.

"Before returning to Danapur, I spent a few days with a Bengali family at Moradabad. A party of six friends gathered to greet me.

As I turned the conversation to spiritual subjects, my host observed gloomily:

"'Oh, in these days India is dest.i.tute of saints!'

"'Babu,' I protested warmly, 'of course there are still great masters in this land!'

"In a mood of exalted fervor, I felt impelled to relate my miraculous experiences in the Himalayas. The little company was politely incredulous.

"'Lahiri,' one man said soothingly, 'your mind has been under a strain in those rarefied mountain airs. This is some daydream you have recounted.'

"Burning with the enthusiasm of truth, I spoke without due thought.

'If I call him, my guru will appear right in this house.'

"Interest gleamed in every eye; it was no wonder that the group was eager to behold a saint materialized in such a strange way.

Half-reluctantly, I asked for a quiet room and two new woolen blankets.

"'The master will materialize from the ether,' I said. 'Remain silently outside the door; I shall soon call you.'

"I sank into the meditative state, humbly summoning my guru. The darkened room soon filled with a dim aural moonlight; the luminous figure of Babaji emerged.

"'Lahiri, do you call me for a trifle?' The master's gaze was stern.

'Truth is for earnest seekers, not for those of idle curiosity. It is easy to believe when one sees; there is nothing then to deny.

Supersensual truth is deserved and discovered by those who overcome their natural materialistic skepticism.' He added gravely, 'Let me go!'

"I fell entreatingly at his feet. 'Holy guru, I realize my serious error; I humbly ask pardon. It was to create faith in these spiritually blinded minds that I ventured to call you. Because you have graciously appeared at my prayer, please do not depart without bestowing a blessing on my friends. Unbelievers though they be, at least they were willing to investigate the truth of my strange a.s.sertions.'

"'Very well; I will stay awhile. I do not wish your word discredited before your friends.' Babaji's face had softened, but he added gently, 'Henceforth, my son, I shall come when you need me, and not always when you call me. {FN34-10}'

"Tense silence reigned in the little group when I opened the door.

As if mistrusting their senses, my friends stared at the l.u.s.trous figure on the blanket seat.

"'This is ma.s.s-hypnotism!' One man laughed blatantly. 'No one could possibly have entered this room without our knowledge!'

"Babaji advanced smilingly and motioned to each one to touch the warm, solid flesh of his body. Doubts dispelled, my friends prostrated themselves on the floor in awed repentance.

"'Let HALUA {FN34-11} be prepared.' Babaji made this request, I knew, to further a.s.sure the group of his physical reality. While the porridge was boiling, the divine guru chatted affably. Great was the metamorphosis of these doubting Thomases into devout St.

Pauls. After we had eaten, Babaji blessed each of us in turn. There was a sudden flash; we witnessed the instantaneous dechemicalization of the electronic elements of Babaji's body into a spreading vaporous light. The G.o.d-tuned will power of the master had loosened its grasp of the ether atoms held together as his body; forthwith the trillions of tiny lifetronic sparks faded into the infinite reservoir.

"'With my own eyes I have seen the conqueror of death.' Maitra, {FN34-12} one of the group, spoke reverently. His face was transfigured with the joy of his recent awakening. 'The supreme guru played with time and s.p.a.ce, as a child plays with bubbles. I have beheld one with the keys of heaven and earth.'

"I soon returned to Danapur. Firmly anch.o.r.ed in the Spirit, again I a.s.sumed the manifold business and family obligations of a householder."

Lahiri Mahasaya also related to Swami Kebalananda and Sri Yukteswar the story of another meeting with Babaji, under circ.u.mstances which recalled the guru's promise: "I shall come whenever you need me."

"The scene was a k.u.mBHA MELA at Allahabad," Lahiri Mahasaya told his disciples. "I had gone there during a short vacation from my office duties. As I wandered amidst the throng of monks and sadhus who had come from great distances to attend the holy festival, I noticed an ash-smeared ascetic who was holding a begging bowl. The thought arose in my mind that the man was hypocritical, wearing the outward symbols of renunciation without a corresponding inward grace.

"No sooner had I pa.s.sed the ascetic than my astounded eye fell on Babaji. He was kneeling in front of a matted-haired anchorite.

"'Guruji!' I hastened to his side. 'Sir, what are you doing here?'

"'I am was.h.i.+ng the feet of this renunciate, and then I shall clean his cooking utensils.' Babaji smiled at me like a little child; I knew he was intimating that he wanted me to criticize no one, but to see the Lord as residing equally in all body-temples, whether of superior or inferior men. The great guru added, 'By serving wise and ignorant sadhus, I am learning the greatest of virtues, pleasing to G.o.d above all others-humility.'"

{FN34-1} Now a military sanatorium. By 1861 the British Government had already established certain telegraphic communciations.

{FN34-2} Ranikhet, in the Almora district of United Provinces, is situated at the foot of Nanda Devi, the highest Himalayan peak (25,661 feet) in British India.

{FN34-3} "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath."--MARK 2:27.

{FN34-4} The karmic law requires that every human wish find ultimate fulfillment. Desire is thus the chain which binds man to the reincarnational wheel.

{FN34-5} "What is a miracle?-'Tis a reproach, 'Tis an implicit satire on mankind."

--Edward Young, in NIGHT THOUGHTS.

{FN34-5} The theory of the atomic structure of matter was expounded in the ancient Indian VAISESIKA and NYAYA treatises. "There are vast worlds all placed away within the hollows of each atom, multifarious as the motes in a sunbeam."--YOGA VASISHTHA.

{FN34-7} Physical, mental, and spiritual suffering; manifested, respectively, in disease, in psychological inadequacies or "complexes,"

and in soul-ignorance.

{FN34-8} Chapter II:40.

{FN34-9} A town near Benares.

{FN34-10} In the path to the Infinite, even illumined masters like Lahiri Mahasaya may suffer from an excess of zeal, and be subject to discipline. In the BHAGAVAD GITA, we read many pa.s.sages where the divine guru Krishna gives chastis.e.m.e.nt to the prince of devotees, Arjuna.

{FN34-11} A porridge made of cream of wheat fried in b.u.t.ter, and boiled with milk.

{FN34-12} The man, Maitra, to whom Lahiri Mahasaya is here referring, afterward became highly advanced in self-realization. I met Maitra shortly after my graduation from high school; he visited the Mahamandal hermitage in Benares while I was a resident. He told me then of Babaji's materialization before the group in Moradabad.

"As a result of the miracle," Maitra explained to me, "I became a lifelong disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya."

CHAPTER: 35

THE CHRISTLIKE LIFE OF LAHIRI MAHASAYA