​Haridas Das Babaji

Source: https://nitaaiveda.com/Essays_and_Articles/Haridasa_Babaji_and_Shastra.htm

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Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Though Shri Haridasa Dasa Babaji who is in the line of the Gadadhara Parampara, is not in the line of our Bhaktivinoda Sarasvata Bhaktivedanta Parampara, he is a very striking inspiration for all devotees about the greatest service of Grantha Seva i.e. rendering service to the greatest Holy Books in creation -> the Scriptures composed by the Associates of Lords Nityananda Gauranga. Very less is known about him and his life so we would like to present a short biography.

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Shri Haridasa Dasa has been a unique saint who attained siddhi (perfection in devotional service) through the service of Gaudiya Vaishnava literature. Shri Manohara dasa Baba has said to him, "I entrust you with the responsibility of discovering, translating and publishing the books of the Gaudiya Vaishnava Acharyas and writing and publishing others and bless that you may attain siddhi through this."

Haridasa Dasa used to say, "I do not live by bread but by service to the Great Works composed by the great Associates of Lords Nityananda Gauranga - by discovering, and translating Them, by writing commentaries on Them and by printing Them so that They are made available to the devotees. They are my Ishta, the objects of my exclusive devotion. Without service to Them I cannot live." He actually worshiped them as the devotee worships God. In his anxiety to find some scripture which was supposed to be lost, he lost all sleep and hunger. If he could not find it, he prayed to it and wept for it, as the devotee prays to God and weeps for Him. At last he has the mercy of the Holy Book and the Acharya who composed it, as the devotee has the mercy of God by finding Him.

He devoted his whole life to the service of Gaudiya Vaishnava literature. His contribution to Gaudiya Vaishnava literature is incomparable, looking at the number, size and importance of the works he has compiled and published one would wonder whether it is possible for a single person to do that work in a single lifetime.

Ever since Shri Haridasa Dasa started his sadhana in the form of Grantha Seva, he got up early in the morning and sang aloud the Holy Names of Nityananda, Gauranga and Hare Krishna with the accopaniment of khanjani and then sat down to work. He lived on madhukari (begging) and worked 17 hours a day in service to the Holy Scriptures of Lords Nityananda Gauranga. He would copy the old manuscripts, edit and translate them and write commentaries to them. He also go them printed. The entire work of writing, printing, proof-reading and distributing was done by him single-handed. He also collected money for paper and printing by madhukari.

Once on account of writing all the time Haridasa Dasa's hand got paralysed and water began to flow ceaselessly from his eyes. The doctor and his friends advised him to stop reading and writing for some time. But he did not head their advice. He said, I have seen so many times that disease aggravates to the extent of becoming fatal if I become slack in service to the Holy Scriptures and it disappears if I work with great vigor. It is true that if a work is done without any selfish motive and with the sole purpose of causing happiness to the Holy Books, the Holy Names, the Lord and His devotees, then it goes on smoothly inspite of all the difficulties that come in the way. Haridasa Dasa continued the work with still greater determination and assiduity and both his eyes and hand became normal.

His Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhana alone is a work which would normally take a whole lifetime to be completed. It is the encyclopedia of the vast Gaudiya Vaishnava literature.

(1) The first part of the encyclopedia gives the meaning of the difficult Sanskrit words and technical philosophical terms used in all the published and unpublished works of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas.

(2) The second part gives the meaning of all terms of Vraja-Bhaashaa (language of Vrindavana Dhama, Udiya (language of Puri Dhama), Bengali (language of Navadvipa Dhama) and Maithila languages used in the Vaishnava verses from the time of Vidyapati and Chandidasa upto the time of Shri Narahari Chakravarti.

(3) The third part gives the substance of each of the Gaudiya Vaishnava books and the biographies of their authors and each of the Vaishnava saints, who lived at the time of the compilation of the work.

(4) The fourth part gives a detailed description of all the tirthas (holy places), dhamas and the festivals of the devotees of Lords Nityananda Gauranga.

When the work comprising 2065 pages in double crown size was ready for publication, Haridasa Dasa has to face the problem of finding finance for printing. It was not an easy task for a vairagi Babji like him who lived on Madhukari. He thought that Gaudiya Vaishnava Abidhana was an essential part of his service to the Gaudiya Vaishnava literatures and the Vaishnavas and he decided to undertake the project depending entirely upon the mercy of the Lord and the Vaishnavas. The printing was started and the money started coming, one does not know how and from where.

Before taking to the Vaishnava life, Haridasa Dasa was known by the name Harendra Kumar Chakravarty. His birthplace was in the village of Madhugram in the Pheni subdivision of Noakhali district in what is now Bangla Desh. He came from a line of scholarly Brahmins: his father's name was Gagan Chandra Tarkaratna and grandfather was Goloka Chandra Nyayaratna. Haridas Das only had one brother, Manindra Kumar, who left home to take up a life of renunciation while still quite young. Neither brother ever married, but observed the principles of celibacy throughout their lives. Manindra Kumar took initiation from the same spiritual master as his brother and came to Navadvipa Dhama where he lived at the Haribol Kutir for fifteen years, taking the name Mukunda Das Babaji.

Harendra Kumar was a very clever student and passed all his academic exams with honors. In 1925 he graduated from Calcutta University with an English M.A. in Sanskrit, specializing in Vedanta. He was first in his class and awarded a gold medal. Later he sold this medal to buy a piece of land in Shri Navadvipa Dhama. A little before graduating, he took initiation from the Vaishnava Guru in the line of Shri Gadadhara Pandita.

After graduation, he taught for some time in Kumilla, at the Ishwar School, but only for as long as it took to pay off his debt to his teachers and spiritual master. During this time, his intelligence, learning and sterling character impressed everyone. As all good teachers, he combined the personality of a tough disciplinarian with that of a gentle parent-figure. He was known for his punctuality and devotion to duty, as well as the affectionate care he gave to his students.

Nevertheless, after only three years of teaching, he began to feel a strong desire to pursue the spiritual life and so began a life of bhajan, living sometimes in Navadvipa, at others in Vrindavana. He came back and taught for a while at Kumilla College, but not long thereafter renounced material life definitively. After that, he remained in Navadvipa and lived on madhukari. For one and a half years he lived at Radha Kunda on madhukari. During this period every morning he swept the land around Radha Kunda. After that he went to Puri Dhama and served in Shri Haridasa Samadhi Matha.

Whenever Haridasa Dasa was asked who his father was, he always gave his Guru's name and never talked about his previous life or his degrees or academic accomplishments.

In 1944, he attended the Ratha Yatra in Puri Dhama and then returned to Govinda Kunda in Vrindavana and practiced intense bhajana. While there, the siddha mahatma Manohar Das Babaji ordered him to work on recovering lost Gaudiya Vaishnava scriptures. Haridasa Dasa Babaji took this order seriously and until his dying breath was deeply involved in this service to Gaudiya Vaishnava literature of Lords Nityananda Gauranga and Shri Shri Radha Krishna.

He returned to Navadvipa Dhama and started the Grantha Seva (Scripture Service) as a mode of sadhana (spiritual practice) which lasted till the end of his life.

He discovered Madhava Mahotsava, the great work of Shrila Jiva Goswami and Artharasaalaka Tika of Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu written by Shrila Mukunda dasa, a disciple of Shrila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami.

The extent to which Haridasa Dasa received the blessings of the Divine Lord to accomplish this service to the Holy Scriptures can be seen from the following anecdote. Many people heard him tell this story, but this account has been taken from an article written by the devotee Suresh Chandra Datta in the Phalgun 1364 issue of Sudarshan magazine:

"Once Haridasa Dasji was engaged in a search for Shrila Sanatana Goswami's great scripture Krishna Lila Stava, but was not meeting with any success. There was end to his grief. He lost all sleep and cried day and night. One day he sat on the bank of the Yamuna in Vrindavana Dhama weeping and crying, "Ha! Prabhu Sanatana! Ha! Prabhu Sanatana!" As he was descending the stairs to the water, he saw a bundle floating on the waves, touching the shore. Curious, he plucked the bundle out of the water and found an ancient manuscript of the Krishna Lila Stava. He took the manuscript and held it to his head, then to his chest, and then to his nose, ecstatically smelling the perfume of old paper mixed with incense and sandalwood. He was overwhelmed with joy. He touched it to his forehead, higged it again and again with tears streaming out of his eyes and blissful tremors and horripilations appearing all over his body for receiving this mercy from Shrila Sanatana Goswami. Late he translate and published it."

Haridasa Dasa had all the godly qualities described in the Bhagavad Gita. He had the humility that is the ornament of the Vaishnavas, and stayed free of faultfinding. He kept all the principles of sadachar, and showed a powerful spirit of renunciation. His attractive personality impressed all who came in contact with him.

He prefered to remain out of the public eye. He never went to large gatherings, and though he was often invited to lecture or give discourses on the scriptures, he always refused. Even so, all who were interested in Vaishnava literature recognized his contribution and expressed their gratitude to him. Swedish professor Walther Eidlitz and the German scholar E. G. Schulze in particular praised him lavishly for his publications. It is impossible not to be impressed by what Haridas Dasji was able to accomplish on his own and without riches or political clout, simply through hard work and unfailing determination.

Though he was an imposing figure, light-skinned, tall and long-armed, with wide-eyes and a steady smile, his face luminous with spiritual power and devotion to Vaishnava practices, and yet he was so hospitable that he would rise up from his seat to eagerly greet any guests to his kutir.

He was ready to undertake any effort to achieve the needful in establishing the authentic Vaishnava path. At some time early in his life he heard the sweet singing of a youth singing Radha Madhava's names in a beautiful voice and was plunged into a sea of feeling for the Lord, a feeling that all his university education or a life of austerity never undid. All this is the proof of the unequalled mercy of his teachers and spiritual masters on him. His humility before his teachers always amazed anyone who witnessed it, such as when he met his university professor Dr. Amareswar Thakur later in life and prostrated himself on the ground in front of him.

Haridas Dasji always seemed to be rushing from one library or manuscript collection wherever he heard of one, from one end of the land to the other. He looked through countless manuscripts like someone obsessed trying to find any evidence of works that had hitherto been unknown--writings by Mahajans, Goswamis and Gaudiya Vaishnavas of Lords Nityananda Gauranga. He never thought about whether food or shelter would be waiting for him, his only concern was to go where there was a possiblity that some new literary discovery could be made. But the discovery alone was not enough, he wanted to make these jewels shine for all, and so he translated and published so many such works. Simultaneously, he was constantly gathering notes related to the geography and history of the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya. Everywhere he went, he would inquire into the family histories of Lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu's Eternal Associates. Though his efforts alone were glorious, the success he achieved in compiling the Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhana--the fruit of these researches, was even more glorious.

The Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhana was the last work completed by Haridas Dasji. He would work on it 16 or 17 hours a day. In fact, he finished the second volume (Parts 2, 3 and 4) of the Abhidhan on the day before he left his body. He was in Calcutta going through the last proofs of the first volume and he said, "I am not well. When the Abhidhana is finished, I will be too." On September 20, 1957, he fell ill, and after only seven or eight hours of sickness he entered the spiritual world. He was only 58. Had he remained for another three days, he would have seen the first completed printed editions of the first volume. The Bengal government appointed a committee for the publication of the second volume and it was published under the supervision of that committee a year later.

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Baba Hari Dass

Baba Hari Dass grew up in the lower Himalayan region of Kumaon division, which includes Dunagiri (also called Dronagiri), known as the birthplace of modern-day Kriya Yoga, and the temple of Shakti or Mother Goddess. Rich in ancient lore, already known during times of Mahabharata War, the region is also known as Kurmachalam and encompasses Almora, Nainital, Bageshwar, Champawat, Pithoragarh, and Udham Singh Nagar. Early on in life, he listened to stories told by older people about Siddha yogis Sombari Baba Maharaj, Gudari Baba, Suri Baba, Khaki Baba, Aughar Baba, and several other saints of that region. His parents were devotees of a legendary saint of Kumaon, Hariakhan Baba Maharaj, who "used to come to Almora". In 1929, on the way to Haldwani, during the wintertime, he received his first darshan with the sage Sombari Baba Maharaj, also known as Paramanandji Maharaj in the village Kakrighat, by the Koshi river, where Sombari Baba Maharaj lived under a huge Banyan tree in a tiny hut built into its roots.

Vow of silence and tapas
(Silence is the only Voice of our God - Herman Melville)
In 1952, Baba Hari Dass took a continual vow of silence called Mauna (or Mauna Vrata). In a similar tradition of Buddhist meditative method of Vipassana, silence is used "as the process of self-purification by introspection."
In 1964, Bhagavan Das (the great American kirtanist and devotee of Neem Karoli Baba as well as friend of Krishna Das and Ram Das) met Baba Hari Dass near a temple called Hanuman Girdi, in Nainital, and later wrote: "The sadhu was a muni, a yogi whose practice of austerity includes complete silence. For the previous twelve years, whenever he wanted to communicate, he would jot his thoughts succinctly on a small chalkboard." Similarly, in 1967, Ram Dass: "He is a jungle sadhu. He went into the jungle when he was 8 years old. He is silent (Mauna). He has been Mauna for 15 years. He writes with a chalkboard."
At the beginning of his practice, Baba encountered obstacles, "For twelve years I faced much difficulties ... for two or three years you have to fight with anger." Since merely not talking is not considered a yogic silence, keeping a quiet mind is, "The mind can't be stopped merely by keeping your mouth shut."
There is much more very interesting information on the great Saint whose confluence with the West had many deep, lasting influences still reverberate to this day.

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श्री खाकीबाबा सरकार

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बाबा बड़े ही उच्च कोटि के सिद्ध संत थे बड़ी सिद्धियां उनको प्राप्त थी। एक बार सेठ श्रीजयदयाल गोयन्दकाजी ने भेंट होने पर महाराज जी से प्रश्न किया कि आप सिद्ध पुरुष हैं आप हमें यह बताइए कि मृत्यु के समय पर कैसा आचरण व्यवहार करना चाहिए और मृत्यु का समय भी बताने का कष्ट करें, सेठजी की बात सुनकर महाराज जी मौन ही रहे बस मुस्कुरा भर दिए। इस बात को धीरे-धीरे समय व्यतीत हो गया।

बक्सर वाले मामा श्रीनारायणदास भक्तमालीजी, उस समय में पंडित श्रीनारायण चतुर्वेदीजी के नाम से भी जाने जाते थे, भक्तमाल की कथा कह रहे थे उसी दिन उनके पूज्य गुरुदेव श्रीखाकी बाबा सरकारका पत्र टेलीग्राम आया कि तत्काल बक्सर उपस्थित हो जाएं । नारायण दास जी तुरंत चलती है रेल से और बक्सर पहुंचकर सीधे गुरुदेव के पास गए प्रणाम किया तो गुरुदेव बोले आगए हां गुरुदेव आ गए कुछ बालभोग किया बोले नहीं गुरुदेव सीधे आपके पास आए, तो पहले जाओ नित्य क्रिया करो स्नान ध्यान करो बाल भोग करके तब हमारे पास आना । जो आज्ञा सरकार इसके पश्चात स्नान ध्यान और भोग लगाकर तब गुरुजीके पास आए तो गुरुजी बोले कि सेठ श्रीजयदयाल गोयंदकाजी को एक पोस्टकार्ड लिखना था इसलिए तुम्हें बुलाया । बड़ा आश्चर्य श्रीनारायणदास भक्तमालीजी कहने लगे कि इनके चरणों में इतने पढ़े-लिखे लोग बैठते हैं पासमें ही इतना बड़ा विद्यालय है एक पत्र तो किसी से भी लिखवाया जा सकता था इस एक पत्र के लिए हमें वहां से तत्काल पत्र भेजकर के कि तत्काल उपस्थित हो जाओ हमें बुलवाया हम भी घबरा गए आश्चर्य । खाकी बाबा सरकारने उस पत्र में लिखवाया कि सेठजी अब आप अपनी वृत्ति को बाह्य व्यवहारों से सर्वथा मोड़कर अंतर्मुखी बनालें केवल इतने दिन का समय शेष है। उस पत्र को पढ़ते ही सेठ जी ने बोलना बंद कर दिया मौन हो गए और राम नाम में डूबकर अंतर्मुखी हो गए जो समय खाकी बाबा सरकार ने उस पत्र में बताया था प्रमाणिक लोगों ने बताया कि उसीदिन सेठजी ने अपना शरीर छोड़ दिया उस समय वह ऋषिकेश में थे ।

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बच्चे को जीवित करना

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एक बार एक बुढ़िया माई का बच्चा बीमार था वह डॉक्टरों के पास उसे दिखाने के लिए ले गई डॉक्टर ने कहा कि ये तो मर चुका है अब इसके शरीर में नाड़ी नहीं, ह्रदय में धड़कन नहीं ले जाओ मिट्टी है यह तो जाकर इसका संस्कार करो, बुढ़िया माई उस बच्चे को लेकर बाबाजीके पास आई ,बाबाजी तो लंबे चौड़े थे वे अचानक उस बच्चे के सीने पर चढ़गए चार पांच वर्ष का बालक था अब वहां जितने लोग थे वह सभी बड़े विस्मित हुए सबने सोचा कि यह बाबा ने क्या किया छोटा सा बच्चा अगर कहीं सांस होगी भी तो वहभी निकल गई होगी , बाबा बच्चेके सीनेपर चढ़कर तुरंत ही उतर आए आश्चर्य बाबा के उतरते ही बच्चा उठकर बैठ गया और बोला मुझे भूख लगी है खिचड़ी खानी है ।

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पानी पर चलना

एक बार जर्मन के शोधकर्ताओं का एक दल भारतवर्ष में योगियों की तलाश में घूम रहा था परन्तु जहां-जहां भी वे लोग गए कुछ ना कुछ पाखंड ही अनुभव में आया जब वे खाकी बाबा सरकार के पास आए तो बाबा बोले कि देखो तुमलोग भारतवर्ष की निंदा तो लिखना नहीं भारतवर्ष में एक से एक बड़े योगी महापुरुष हैं इसलिए किसी की निंदा मत करना यदि तुम लोगों को योग सिद्धि का प्रभाव देखना ही है तो लो देखो बाबा जैसे बैठे हुए थे वैसे ही उठकर की खड़ाऊं पहने हुए ही गंगा जी के पानी के ऊपर उस प्रकार से चले जैसे कोई भूमि पर चल रहा है सब लोग देखके दंग रह गए और उन शोधकर्ताओं ने उस समय उनके पास कैमरा था उस कैमरे में उन्होंने बाबा के फोटो खींचे गंगाजीके पानी पर चलते हुए फोटो अखबार में भी छपे थे । बाबा ने गंगा जी से कहा मार्ग देदो ! जो योगी होते हैं उनको अग्नि, जल, पवन आज पर चलने का अधिकार होता है तो जैसे ही बाबाने गंगाजीसे कहा गंगाजीके बीच में बिल्कुल सुखा सुखा हो गया इस पार से उस पारतक और बाबा उसीपर आरामसे जैसे समतल भूमि पर चलते हैं वैसे ही बाबा चलते हुए गंगा पार कर लिये ।

सखी भाव का प्राकट्य

बाबा जी बहुत ही उच्च कोटि के भक्त ,महापुरुष एवं योगी थे परंतु उनके अंदर माधुर्य रसकी भक्ति नहीं थी स्त्री और पुरुष के भेद को महत्व देते थे उनका कहना था कि जब भगवान ने पुरुष बनाया है तो फिर भक्त स्त्री क्यों बनते हैं ? यह ठीक नहीं है । बाबाजी के एक मित्र थे श्री रूपकलाजी महाराज बड़े उच्चकोटि के भक्त थे उन्होंने बाबा से कहा कि आप कामोद कुंज वाले महाराज जी के पास श्री अयोध्याजी में चलिए वहां आपकी समस्या का समाधान हो जाएगा । कामदकुंज वाले बाबाजी जिनका नाम लक्ष्मणशरणजी महाराज था। बाबाजी उन्हीं की कुटिया पर पहुंच गए अयोध्या जी में। उनके यहां का एक नियम था कि जो भी भक्त उनके दर्शनार्थ वहां आएगा वह युगलनाम के अतिरिक्त और कुछ भी नहीं बोलेगा और वापस चला जाएगा । जो अधिकारी लोग होते थे उन्हीं के सामने बाबा भगवान की लीलाओं का वर्णन करते थे श्री खाकी बाबा सरकार को महाराज जी के चरणों में पहुंचकर बड़े दिव्य सुख की अनुभूति हुई अब एकदिन बाबाजीके मन में भाव आया कि महाराजजीकी कुछ सेवा की जाए तो महाराजजी वृद्ध ही आराम करने के लिए वह चारपाई पर पौडे़ हुए थे उसी समय खाकी बाबा सरकार उनके चरणों की ओर जाकर के बैठ गए और चरण दबाने लगे कुछ ही समय के पश्चात बाबा को ऐसी अनुभूति हुई कि वह एक 16 वर्षीय किशोरीके चरणों को दबा रहे हैं और वह किशोरी नखसे लेकर शिख तक सजी हुई है केसर के जैसा उसके शरीर का रंग है, बड़ीही दिव्य सुगंध उसके शरीर से निकल रही है ऐसा दिव्य दृश्य जिसका वर्णन वाणी से नहीं किया जा सकता। बाबा का तो नियम था कि वे स्त्री की छाया से भी डरते थे स्पर्श की तो कल्पनाभी नहीं कर सकते थे कंचन और कामिनीसे सर्वथा मुक्त थे । बाबा एसा अनुभव होते ही डर गए और उन्होंने एकदम से अपना हाथ पीछे खींच लिया अब जैसेही बाबा ने अपना हाथ पीछे खींचा तो और महान आश्चर्य अब क्या देखते हैं कि उनका पूरा शरीर एक किशोरी के रूप में परिवर्तित हो गया हैं अब अपने शरीर को इधर-उधर देखें पूरा शरीर बाबा का एक किशोरी के शरीर में बदल गया जटा जूट वेशभूषा सब कुछ बाबा तो एकदम विस्मित हो गए यह एकदम से क्या हो गया कुछ समझ में नहीं आया, वह सोचने लगी कि कहीं मैं ध्यान में तो नहीं हूं या स्वप्न तो नहीं देख रहा हूं यह अनुभूति कहां से हो रही है । तभी लक्ष्मण शरणजी महाराज अपने उसी स्वरूप में अर्थात 16 वर्षीय किशोरी के स्वरूप में उठे और बाबाजी का दाहिना हाथ पकड़कर बोले कि अपने स्वरूप को स्मरण करो तुम तो प्रिया अली हो । इसके पश्चात खाकी बाबा सरकार प्रिया अली के रूप में ही प्रतिष्ठित हो गए। जो अधिकारी संत थे उन्हें कथित बाबा सरकार की इस 16 वर्षीय प्रिया अली स्वरूप का दर्शन भी कभी-कभी होता था यह बात वह संत बताते भी थी।

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Swami Rama of Hardwar (Ram Kunj)

Source: https://ocoy.org/swami-rama-of-hardwar-ram-kunj/

Late one afternoon when I was staying for a while with Srimati Rani Bhan and her family in Delhi she told me that we (Rani, her son and I) would be going to see a Kashmiri saint in a nearby neighborhood. The length of the walk belied the description of “nearby” but I trusted Raniji’s respect for the saint who was simply named Swami Rama.

He was not a Shankara swami but one who had taken what Ma Anandamayi in a conversation with me called “shukla sannyas,” white sannyas. In such a sannyas there are no formal rites of any kind. Rather, from deep within the impulse to declare oneself a sannyasi arises and the person does so spontaneously, adopting a name and henceforth leading the sadhu life. Some, such as Swami Paramananda the chief sannyasi of the Anandamayi Ashram, wore gerua clothing and others dressed in white. It all depended on their intuition. Rani had not told me which Swami Rama was.

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The swami was staying in a fairly large house, but it was filled with people. Because of the universal respect Rani had in Delhi both for her personal spiritual character and the fact that Prime Minister Nehru was her cousin, we were taken to the front row of the room where the swami would be when he appeared. It was a good bit of a wait, so I meditated until Rani touched my shoulder and said, “He is coming.”

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A fiery swami

I stood up and turned around and knew that the radiant man in simple white with no trappings of religion whatsoever coming toward us was The One. He brought with him an atmosphere of inner spiritual fire. He smoldered. Looking at him I thought: “The Pope has to be dressed in great finery and carried into Saint Peter’s on a throne to let people know who he is, but this man needs none of that.” I was impressed and meant no disrespect to the Pope. But I was glad I was there instead of in Saint Peter’s.

Swamiji spoke in Hindi, of which I knew little, but I can tell you from later conversations that he always spoke directly and simply yet profoundly. People came from all over India to spend time in spiritual study with him. The last time we met there were some pandits from Maharashtra staying with him in Hardwar for several weeks. Yet he adamantly refused to play the guru game. He gladly taught yoga of various sorts to aspirants, but would not pretend to empower them with some kind of initiation. Instead he assured them that by drawing on their own inner resources they could gain realization.

There was personal motivation, too. “If I allow you to claim you are my disciples you will not do what I tell you, but you will tell people that I teach what I do not teach, and deny that I teach what I do teach. And you will try to control me at the same time.” Buddha said much the same.

Swami Rama’s teacher

Whether Swami Rama considered he had a guru, I do not know, but he definitely had a teacher. When he was only nine years old, playing in the streets of his village in Kashmir, an old yogi came walking through and said to him: “Boy! Come with me.” So he followed him out of the village. When they were out of anyone’s sight, the yogi taught him the japa and meditation of a mantra, telling him to say the mantra always. Then the sadhu walked on and disappeared. That was it. He had not even told the boy his name.

Many years later in the Himalayas Swamiji was in great danger. The yogi suddenly appeared, saved his life and disappeared. These two times were his only contact with him. But I can tell you that the sadhana given him by the yogi certainly worked. Swami Rama was one of the greatest yogis I have met. When he quietly intoned Om everyone’s hair would stand on end. No one could be more unassuming in outer behavior and demeanor, yet he was impressive beyond description and his wisdom was profound.

There must have been an intuitive element to his conversations. Because of his very thick Kashmiri accent I was always about three sentences behind when he spoke to me, but I never lost a word.

I visit Swami Rama in Hardwar

My last visit with him took place in Hardwar at his very simple and tranquil ashram by the Ganges. I had been with Anandamayi Ma at Bhagat House most of the morning, and when she went to her room for a few hours I walked over to Swamiji’s ashram, having just learned earlier that day that he was in Hardwar.

With me was a young Austrian man who had arrived just that morning to meet with Mataji. He figured that his parents would never agree to his coming to India, so when they left for a vacation in Spain he looted his bank account and sped to India. Arriving in Delhi, he went to the Swiss embassy (there was no Austrian embassy there) and asked them: “Where can I meet someone who is like those written about in the ancient books of Indian spirituality?” Rather a tall order, but it so happened that the entire embassy staff was devoted to Ma Anandamayi, and they told him she was now in Hardwar. So there he was, too. So also was the telegram from his parents telling him to return immediately. (Wisely, he did not. And later visited India again and kept in touch with Brahmacharini Atmananda, also an Austrian. I always asked for news about him when I saw her, and it was always good, I am glad to say.)

Walking into Swami Rama’s ashram was a beautiful revelation. Most of the buildings were thatch huts and those that were not were simple and plain. Not the lair of a glitter guru, but the abode of a genuine yogi. And there sat the yogi on the ground in his usual white attire, reading. It was a happy meeting indeed. Swamiji was a jewel, perfected by the Master Jeweler, and just to sit near him was refreshing and joy. He and I caught up on what each had been doing since our last visit.

What is Kundalini, Swamiji?

Swami Rama was very pleased to meet with Thomas, who right away asked about Kundalini. He was fortunate (as was I), since Swamiji understood the subject as few did. His main teacher had been his own yoga practice, but he had spent some years with the great Kashmiri yogi Swami Lakshmanjoo, who I am sure perfected his understanding of Kundalini.

“First,” said Swami Rama, “kundalini is not shakti. Nor is it prakriti or even mulaprakriti. It is beyond power; it is consciousness–primal consciousness: mulachaitanya. This has to be understood. Anything other than this is not kundalini, but an illusion. You cannot ‘awaken’ kundalini; it awakens you! The ‘rise of kundalini’ is the rise of consciousness from the unreal to the Real, from darkness to the Light, from death to Immortality. Kundalini bestows of Self-realization, which has nothing to do with energy but everything to do with consciousness, the consciousness of Brahman that is our inmost Self. Kundalini is Self-realization.” As usual, Swamiji had said volumes in a few sentences. (I learned early on in my time in India that simplicity is a hallmark of the wise, the Brahmajnanis. Complexity is a trait of samsara.

The true nature of Om

Next was my turn and I asked about Om. “Om is not a mantra,” announced Swami Rama. “It is Brahman. Realizing that is moksha. It is slightly a vibration, but almost totally is Divine Consciousness: Brahmachaitanya. We can even say that it is moksha, the embodiment of moksha. We must become Om. Then we will be God.” Now I knew.

Like good friends we talked about a lot of things, some trivial, some sublime, but always in contentment with one another’s company. With Swami Rama you never felt any distance or difference because he was one with everything, and that included you.

In this world good things always come to an end, and so did this, my last meeting with Swamiji. Thomas and I walked back into Hardwar very silent and very satisfied.

Om Swami Rama.

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Baba Premanand Bharati and the Society of Krishna (1902)

Source: https://www.richardrosenyoga.com/the-god-of-love.html

Baba Premananda Bharati was born Surendranath Mukherj in 1858 to an influential Calcutta family. His uncle was a judge on the same Calcutta High Court on which John Woodroffe would sit between 1904 and 1922. Surendranath became a journalist and worked for a couple of newspapers before starting one of his own, the Gup and Gossip–gup means “idle gossip,” as opposed to, I suppose, the hard-working kind–that reported on the comings and goings of Calcutta society. He was also involved with a group of Bengali intellectuals attracted to Ramakrishna, a group which included Narendranath Datta.

In 1884, Surendranath had his requisite life-changing experience. It happened as he watched a performance of Chaitanya Lila (“Play of Chaitanya,” which can mean “soul” or “intellect”), [1] a bio-play about the Bengali monk and Bhakti Yogin, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486-1534). Known as the “Golden Avatar,” he’s identified to this day by millions of faithful as the most recent (and next to last) incarnation of Krishna. Chaitanya founded what’s known as Gaudiya Vaishnavism, [7] a kind of Bhakti Yoga involving intense devotional worship of Krishna as the one true God. [8] Powerfully affected by the play’s depiction of divine love, Surendranath resolved to abandon his relatively successful secular life and devote himself wholeheartedly to the spiritual. For reasons that aren’t clear, it took him six years to get it done, but in 1890 he was officially initiated by his guru, one Swami Brahmananda Bharati, and spiritually reborn as Baba Premananda Bharati. [4]

Before leaving on a a two-month pilgrimage across India that covered 1000 miles–sound familiar?–Baba met with his guru’s guru, another Baba by the name of Lokanatha Brahmachari. In 1890, Lokanatha was in the last year, all 160 of them, of his life. He supposedly left home at 11, practiced Raja Yoga for 25 years and then spent the ensuing 50 years meditating in the Himalayas ... in full ascetic regalia, which is to say, naked. He finally achieved enlightenment at age 90–better late than never–and at 136 settled in a place called Baradi where he spent the rest of his days. He must have been an imposing figure: seven feet tall and very gaunt, he never slept or, for that matter, closed his eyes–he didn’t even blink.

After completing his pilgrimage, Baba then spent the next 10 years spreading the Gaudiya Vaishnava gospel. In 1900 he had a vision of Krishna, who directed him to retire from the world and become a hermit, which he dutifully did for the next two years. In 1902 Krishna was back with another visionary assignment, which essentially spun Baba around 180 degrees: he was instructed to go teach in the “Far West,” which everybody assumed meant the US.

And so in 1902, like Vivekananda before him and Yogananda after, Baba bravely headed West. He stopped for a while in Paris and then London, where to earn a few extra pounds to help finance his trip, he briefly resumed his former occupation as a reporter, contributing to a London paper. Finally, in October of that year, three months after Vivekananda passed on, Baba landed in New York City, becoming the first Gaudiya Vaishnava missionary in this country. While he hadn’t aroused much media interest in Europe, three New York papers, the Times, the Herald, and the Tribune, reported extensively on his arrival and intentions, though at least one befuddled reporter pegged Baba as a Buddhist missionary.

Over the next couple of years, Baba kept busy organizing and lecturing. He established the first Krishna Samaj (Society) in the US shortly after his arrival. In 1903, he spoke at Green Acre in Maine (where Vivekananda had taught a decade earlier), sharing the stage with another of our bit actors, Rama Tirtha (more on him next). Hoping to make a Vivekananda-like impact on the American public, he attended the St Louis World’s Fair [2] in 1904, but apparently his appearance fell flat, and no wonder: how could he compete with exhibits like the Hereafter, where visitors could tour mockups of Heaven and Hell, admission 25¢, children 15¢, or Mysterious Asia, which featured Princess Rajah–like Little Egypt 10 years earlier in Chicago–performing the scandalous Hootchy-Kootchy.

From St Louis, Baba made his way to Boston, where he invited himself, a la Vivekananda, to an International Peace Conference. After wrangling a place on the program, by all accounts his presentations were considerably more successful than those in St Louis. In 1904 Baba also published his first book, Shri Krishna: the Lord of Love. It was more or less a retelling of the Bhagavatam Purana, [9] a bhakti text focusing on Krishna as the God of gods. Baba’s ambitious goal was to recount the “history of the Universe from its birth to its dissolution,” and to embody “true Hinduism,” or “purely Eastern thought in purely Eastern dress.” [carney xci].

Surprisingly it seems, for the first decade of the 20th century, the book was reviewed in major newspapers like the Boston Evening Transcript, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. And maybe even more surprisingly, it was taken seriously and generally favorably reviewed. The Evening Transcript, for example, praised the “remarkable ... completeness with which it covers the subject ... a clear, succinct history of the origin, nature, and evolution of the universe as the Oriental mind perceives it.” The reviewer finished with a “conviction that there is more, far more of truth and wisdom in the ideas of the so-called Pagan East than perhaps he had dreamed of.” [carney lvii] The Oriental Review went way out on a limb–considering it was not even 1910–and deemed Shri Krishna to be the “greatest book of the century” [carney lxi]

But not everybody thought so. As reported in the Baptist Missionary Magazine in January, 1906: [113]

There came into our office the other day a short man, wearing a long, black coat, and long, gray-black hair. Baba Premanand Bharati wished us to have a copy of his famous work, “Sree Krishna,the Lord of Love.” Supposing that it was for review, and not having it in our library, we said that we could make reference to it and some statements concerning its nature–a frank one, of course–and thanked him for his gift. “O no,” he said; “I came to sell it.”

We did not flatter ourselves that the far-famed Baba Bharati, while “fulfilling his great mission to the benighted Back Bay of Boston,” had seen our editorial comment on his “needed work.” It gave us, however, reason to regret that one of the confreres of our visitor had pulled down the sign in front of the elevator: “No agents allowed in this building.”

Despite all the positive press, by 1905 Baba was beginning to attract the scowls of various Christian clergymen and other morality watchdogs. It’s not hard to figure out why. In his lectures, he’d taken to comparing Jesus with Krishna, railing against the West’s “Christianizing” of Indians, and claiming that Hinduism was the “soul” or “parent” of all religion. And in yet another bizarre parallel with Vivekananda, one day on his way to a lecture, he was chased by a gang of unruly boys–the newspaper report called them “urchins”–who tore at his clothes.

Seeing that a Parliament of Religion-type event was being held in Los Angeles, Baba decided it might be the right time to head even farther West. So in August, 1905, he arrived in LA and spoke almost daily at the religion gathering, which was covered daily by two LA papers, the Times and the Herald. He must have liked the atmosphere, because after a brief visit back East, he returned to LA and set up shop. In the next two years, before his return to India in 1907, he established the first Krishna Home in the US and began publishing and writing for a house magazine, the Light of India. After three years in India, Baba revisited the US and stayed for about a year, his goals to build a permanent Krishna temple–he did but it failed soon after Baba departed–and solicit contributions for the Zenana Society, an organization he founded aimed at “de-Westernizing” and “de-Christianizing” Hindu women and educating them in traditional Hindu ways. [5] He went back to India in 1911 and left his body in 1913 at the relatively young age of 56.

TEACHING

Like Vivekananda, Baba blasted the West for its treatment of India and Indians. I won’t say much about this, except to note that, as he considered himself the guardian of authentic Hinduism, he had particularly choice words for the Western “thieves”–read Christian Scientists and Theosophists–who had “stolen” Eastern thought. Interestingly thought, Baba also went after the Neo-Vedantists, beginning with Ram Mohan Roy and including Vivekananda. He accused them of “Christianizing” Hinduism and Vedanta, making it “scientific” and “rational,” simplifying and “sanitizing” it to make it more palatable India’s British overlords.

Biographer Carney notes that, like Vivekananda again, Baba adapted his spiritual message to suit the needs and understanding of his audience. The foundation of his teaching was non-sectarian New Thought, the edifice a blend of esoteric Christianity and devotional Vaishnavism. It’s no wonder Baba riled the Christian establishment: according to him Christianity was properly an Eastern religion, misrepresented, even “crucified,” by its Western proponents. He didn’t stop there. Essentially, he continued, Christianity is the same religion as Vaishnavism, the one “true” religion, Jesus being none other that an incarnation of Krishna, relaying the same “Eternal Truths” as the Veda, which he simply adopted to the needs and understanding of his time and place.

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Dr. Ramesh Paramahamsa

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Source: http://ajapajapayoga.com/late-master-dr-ramesh-paramahamsa/

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Sarva Shree Mahamahim Mahatantrayogi Prof. Dr. Ramesh Paramahamsa left his material body in the year 2005. He was a philosopher and spiritual leader of many dimensions. He was the founder of “Institute of Psychic and spiritual research”. He authored several books like “I met a Himalayan guru”, “Life is breath”, “A Spontaneous way to sexful bliss”, “Breath is Life”,”Shabd Brahma” etc. He remained in proximity to respectable gurus like Janardan Paramahansa, Pt. Gopinath Kaviraj, Swami Lakshman Joo and many others. He had knowledge and proficiency in practical aspects of Yoga-Tantra, breathing technique (Ajapa-Japa), rituals and meditation sitting at the feet of several Gurus in the lap of Himalayas for more than two decades. He obtained also this ancient wisdom form the great yogi Maharishi Matang and Sri Purnanda in Samadhij Pragya(Deep awakened meditative conscious state). In this process he attained super natural powers- Alokik shaktis and in this state he declared for himself “Entire word is mine”.

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He had a brilliant academic career and was awarded Ph.D. on philosophy of “Shabd Brahman and it’s applicability in life”. His name is mentioned in the famous book by Peter Brent “Godmen of India” published in U.K. in 1970 by Penguin publishers. He had keen interest in imparting the ancient knowledge to deserving ones. He delivered many lectures in India and abroad. He organized the World Confrence on Scientific Yoga in 1970. In the same year, he was invited by academy of Sciences ,Prague,Czeckoslovakia. He delivered lectures in famous universities of Germany and USA. He was invited by the French Centre in Canada. He spent fifteen months in USA and through lectures he inspired the American people for learning this knowledge.
He had total devotion in the Ancient wisdom and Tantra Sadhna.

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Ravi Paramahamsa

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Source: http://ajapajapayoga.com/ravi-paramahamsa-2/

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I was lucky enough to find my Master Dr. Ramesh Parmahamsa without much of trouble. Getting initiated from him was the greatest boon of my life. In the initial meeting my master did not entertain his request for initiation. So, I had to wait for approximately two long years to get the initiation. It was long period, from emotional perspective. But finally I managed to get initiation from my master and because I had to wait approximately two long years for initiation, this was something very valuable for me and I could not imagine even in his wildest dreams to quit the sadhna after few days or few months of practice, the way practitioners do nowadays. Sadhna is, simply your effort to communicate with divine energy and if your love for divine is true no one can stop you from experiencing the energy of that bond. Once you experience the energy in purest form, once you experience distance from the body, you will realize that everything is happening on its own accord and there is nothing we do in this universal play except for being the watchers. When you experience this state of mind then your attraction or your passion towards material dimensions of life will automatically decrease. You will be part of everything around you but you will be an observer, a simple watcher who is experiencing the events around you but at the same time enjoying the music of innermost cords of existence. One and only advice of mine is to get over with lot of unnecessary questions and focus more towards the practice. More you practice, more is the possibility of entering the ecstatic state and once you touch that energy even to minute level, you will hardly be left with the questions, because experience will itself wipe off everything. All the doubts, all the suspicions will be gone.

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After I started practicing the Ajapa Japa sadhana, I went through a lot of experiences. One day when I went to my friend’s house. His family was Gayathri Parivar's follower. They had a cow and she recently, had delivered a calf. When she was gazing nearby, the calf was lost and now this cow was almost crying for her baby. When I went there, my friend’s mother said to me Ravi bhaiya why don’t you tell something by the power of your sadhana. She wanted to know about the calf. I was a new sadhak then. I closed my eyes and told her that you will get the calf soon. A tall lady whose house is located on the raised platform is with the calf. After this, we together went for the search of a calf and within half an hour we found the calf.The surprising part was that the lady who had a calf was tall and her house was actually located on a raised platform. My friend’s mother was a bit surprised to see this. I often used to visit Shmashan to sit and sometimes meditate too. I found peace there and I used to notice the behavior of people coming with the dead bodies of their loved ones. Those days I was interested in outer aspects of tantric sadhana. So one day I performed some specific kriya with ashes of the recently burnt dead body and I brought those ashes in my personal room. But then in the night when I woke up, my heart almost sank with fear; someone was lying next to me in the midnight. I could not shout, I could not do anything. With no other option left for the safety, I closed my eyes and started chanting my mantra and praying my master to save me from some ill fate. Within five minutes that presence was no more and I was relieved, but that was very terrifying experience. I often enjoyed practicing meditation in the night because that was the time when I could meditate quietly and without any disturbance. But then I realized that whenever I sat for meditation, I would start hearing the voice as if there were some people at my door. Initially, I was afraid but then I got accustomed to it. There had been occasions when I heard my parents calling me at midnight when I was sitting in meditation, but later when I confirmed after finishing my meditation then there was nothing as such and when I cross-checked with my parents, they denied calling me. One day I was sitting in meditation with switched off the light and suddenly the bulb lit up. I could not believe it but then I was not able to meditate further. Whenever there used to be any specific occasion like birthday of any spiritual master. I used to get the vision of that master on that specific day. No matter I was sitting in the mediation or not. The image used to float before my eyes. The first experience of Samadhi was in a dream but the semiconscious state. I don’t say that it was exactly the Samadhi, but I understood in that state that what Samadhi could be or must be, I would say that it was a glimpse shown to me. I dreamt that I have gone to visit Vaishnav Devi cave; there I met Vivekananda and Ramakrishna. After having their darshan I sat there for meditation and I entered into a state where I was conscious of myself but there were no thoughts anything and it was complete blackness. This remained for somewhere around 10 minutes. When I woke up, I was very satisfied and feeling very fulfilled. This experience triggered my passion more into sadhana and I started practicing sadhana intensely. One day after meditation when I slept and I was not even half asleep. Suddenly I saw a bright light and heard loud laughter in my room. I cannot explain how fearful it was to be the witness of this experience, out of fear I closed my eyes and started praying to guru. But then I suddenly gained some inner strength and I tried to contact mentally with whosoever it was, I said that don’t make me afraid, if you wish to say anything then please let me know and show yourself physically. However, nothing happened. Neither that light was there nor was that laughter sound was there anymore.

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When I came to Delhi, I went for my first job. I was called in the night shift. We weretold to introduce ourselves. We were 12 people in the training room I guess. Somehow I was the last one to introduce myself. So I shared that I have been meditating for some time and that is the best thing I like to do as a hobby. So the Supervisor asked me. Can you tell me something about this place? I said yes. He asked me again, how much time do you need? I said five minutes. I closed my eyes and asked him, she is a lady, right? A tall beautiful lady. He said yes, how do you know that? I also told a few more things about the place and he was very surprised. Later I came to know that some people in that office experienced something paranormal and one of them had even seen that lady. One day I was in my office and out of blew I said to the girl, you are going to cry a lot today, even I did not know, why I said that but after maybe an hour that girl received a phone call and she kept on crying and crying for good amount of time. Similarly, I was sitting next to one of my fellow workers. I explained to him the way his house looked like and also asked him if there is a small boy who comes to play at his home and he nodded his head in yes.

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I remember very well that when I joined the second company in Delhi. Because of common spiritual interest, I became close to a person named Vivek. One day during a conversation, he told me that he used to practice Saakshi bhava meditation. He also shared with me the address of specific ashram which was near to the place I was staying. So one fine day I went to the Ashram and met the head of that specific branch. Actually it was Nirankari ashram. The administrator of that branch was a humble person. He was about to initiate me into Sakshi bahava dhyan. I will not deny the fact that those days I was very skeptic about other sadhana methods and in a way; I was arrogant of my own sadhana. When he was initiating me and trying to explain the method of practice, I interrupted him and I told him that I have seen something in the vision just now and I want to share that with you. He acknowledged my request and said go ahead. I told him that your guru will leave you guys midway; I see him dead and see a massive gathering around him. I said that you guys should get prepared to take further responsibility. He did not say anything and simply smiled. After a few years, I heard about the sudden demise of Baba Hardev Singh and then I remembered that incident of the past.

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When I was in Delhi, I met a cab driver who often used to pick and drop me. During the conversation, he told me about his paranormal experiences. He said that I am looking forward to some relief as I still experience the paranormal. I used to be in the arrogance of sadhana those days, so I said to him, don’t worry, I will take care of it. The next day I had my weekly off and I was in a deep sleep, when suddenly I felt that something was dragging me out of the bed, immediately I realized that something is wrong. When I opened my eyes, I realized that I was dragged half out of the bed. I immediately meditated to understand the incident and then I realized that power which was giving paranormal experiences to the driver was the one which was responsible for this incident. When I went to the office after my week off, I came to know that the driver had left the job. During the course of sadhana, I often used to see myself in the vision as saffron cladded sadhu wandering in different temples and as a Buddhist monk performing penance. I wanted to know more about this so I contacted past life regression therapists. During the course of this session, I vividly realized that actually I was a Hindu monk in one of my past life and a Buddhist monk in some remote monastery in Tibet in one of my past life. I specifically saw the places where I had been in the past and also some of the people who were associated with me in my past lives and are associated to me in this life as well. I also had a vision of some other lives too where I was a teacher with two brothers and a sister and also a lifetime where I was killed in Hindu Muslim riots at a young age of 22 or 23. My wife from that life is my wife in current life too. So no matter how much we come across difficulties and no matter we go through quarrels, we always have the longing for each other.

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One day when I was leaving my office. I felt something is wrong with me and I realized that I was unable to feel my body except for the part which was touching the ground. As it was a new experience, I felt maybe there is something else to it. But then over a period of time, I realized that day by day my body is becoming lighter and lighter like a feather and I am completely losing my body consciousness. Apart from this I also started experiencing drunk like state which became so powerful that my friends working with me used to ask. Are you drunk or high on something? I started feeling this energy at deeper level. My body became so light that I literally used to feel nobody at all. Whenever, I used to visit any local market. My wife used to get busy with shopping and I used to stand with my daughter in my lap, sometimes more than an hour, neither I used to feel my own weight, nor I used to feel my daughter’s weight. While I was going through these experiences, one day I went to my home town, my father came to pick me up. Out of some confusion, I deboarded the train one station prior to where I was supposed to get down. With good amount of luggage I decided to walk to the station where my father was waiting for me, I did not call him to inform you that I have deboarded the train one station prior. I remember that even with good amount of luggage with me, I felt no weight of luggage or me myself. I felt as if I was almost floating in the air and someone was simply pushing me forward and at the same time this powerful energy was hanging me in the air mid-way. So I was not feeling like walking but as if I was floating in the air. Not to miss, I went through a lot and lots of unusual dreams and sometimes my dreams went to the level of being nightmares. Also, I went through a lot of other experiences like, seeing the bright light at the third eye, feeling pain on certain parts of the head or other body parts, I also felt shortening of breath a lot of times and there were a lot of moments when I did not feel like breathing. This feeling was as if I am ok without breathing for a good duration three to five minutes. Feeling the movement of energy at the back of the spine and extreme lightness in the spine. Then I started feeling very pleasant sensation below my cheeks, at my third eye and at the top of my skull. I used to feel as if breath is entering through my third eye and passing out through crown chakra. This feeling used to be very pleasant and remains till date. A week before my father’s death, I had a dream that my father has passed away and he is wearing his uniform. I woke up from the dream with tears in eyes and told my wife about the dream. A lot of us believe that if we see someone’s death in the dream, it means that a person is supposed to get longer life and that is what my wife said. But just after a week my dream turned to be true. My father had a severe Heart attack and father passed away a day after the Heart attack. Wearing the uniform indicated that my father was still in service when he passed away. One day when I was back home. Suddenly, an image of a cow floated before my eyes. I found no relevance to this image and I left my home for some work. When I returned, I found there was a cow at my home it looked exactly the way I had seen in the vision. My mother told me that this cow was standing in front of our gate for long and when my mother fed her with chapattis, she came inside and was not ready to leave. This cow remained at our home till evening and finally, her owner came to us in the evening and then she left.

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During the course of my practice, I had numerous experiences. I started feeling the expansion of my consciousness. I was also able to connect to some higher souls and normal souls by my will and sometimes randomly. Many a time it happened that with the people I shared a deep bond. I would think of them and somehow or the other that person will contact me or meet me by the end of the day. A lot of dreams turned out to be true and a lot of things which I sensed in advance turned to be true. During the course of my practice, I realized that the energy which used to overpower me was random and I had no control over it. It used to overpower me any time, sometimes just after when I had my food, sometimes when I was talking to anyone, sometimes when I used to talk about spiritual subjects and sometimes when I used to hear bells in the temple during aarti and lot of other occasions. I did not have the mantra siddhi yet. I was experiencing the uncontrolled energy which was overpowering me any time anywhere. But then, I started getting control over it. Though the energy was very intense fulfilling and overpowering, now I could control that energy and I started entering into the state of Savikalp Samadhi as per my wish and I used to remain immersed in an ocean of bliss for hours and hours. Now let me specify you that in Ajapa Japa sadhana, even in Savikalp Samadhi the breath retention does not happen and you remain immersed in deep energy experience and feeling of complete bodilessness and expansion prevails permanently. You will feel complete duality with the body and you will very vividly experience that you and your body are different. I was amazed to notice that the body was operating on its own without any effort on my part. I feel no association with the body most of the time barring when I am in the normal body consciousness. But now as I have become mantra Siddha, I simply had to recite my mantra for hardly five to ten minutes or maybe ten to twenty times and I immediately enter into Savikalp Samadhi. As soon as I recite the mantra for the specific time, the energy immediately overpowers me and starts operating through me. How it feels like and what happens, when this energy overpowers you is very difficult to explain. It’s a matter of experience and the only experience is capable of revealing the actual picture.