Babaji - The Unfathomable. Gertraud Reichel

its fur and tenderly stroked its back. Then. upon a gesture from Babaji, the dog took off again.

      It wasn't the first time, I had noticed Babaji communicate telepathically with animals.

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      On my second visit to Haidakhan, one day I sat alone with Babaji on the other side of the valley. He had crouched down on one of the steps leading to the nine temples and indicated to me to sit at His Feet. It was my first time totally alone with Him. The peace and stillness which surrounded Him, the whole atmosphere of the temples and the beauty of the valley all lifted me up to another sphere of consciousness.

      Inwardly, I said to Babaji, quite spontaneously: "I have trust in you". Scarcely had I formulated the thought when He turned his elegantly proportioned, beauteous countenance and looked at me out of unfathomable eyes.

      "Yes", I repeated, "Unshakable trust have I in you".

      Without any arousal from Him, I gradually came to and suddenly noticed, to my horror, that all this time I had unwittingly been sitting on His foot! Hardly had this realisation struck like lightning, when I felt Babaji's toes wriggling beneath me.

      Through this incident, Babaji let me realise, to my utter amazement, how He perceives not only the immediate surroundings but at the same time also the entire world, all levels of it. and He is at one with it all.

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      The greatest transformation in my life was worked by Babaji in that He opened my heart chakra and let me experience divine, all-encompassing love. It happened spontaneously, out of the blue.

      We were on tour. It was that time of day for resting. Sharing my room was an elderly woman who was rather weak due to a digestive disorder. She was also crying because she had just received a lesson Babaji which had upset her. I embraced her in sympathy and then it happened .... Love in all its expansiveness, beyond all words. flowed through me. My self was dissolved in it; I was no longer present; the feeling of happiness was indescribable, infinite. "I" didn't exist as such anymore. Love was all there was. Everything was contained in it ...

      Then the first fleeting thought came into awareness. "What are you doing?" Slowly and steadily, I became conscious of my body .... "I drank from you", said the elderly woman, who up till then had remained motionless and peaceful in my arms. Intuitively, she knew what had occurred.

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      "Whosoever comes to me with love, then l will show him,' her love beyond anything imaginable".

      Babaji loved to play with children. One day, in the garden, He jokingly said to a five-year-old boy: "See that dog over there -- she's your wife. What do you say to that?"

      I don't want the dog for a wife".

      "Well then, why not?"

      "I don't like a woman with a tail and four legs".

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      We were sitting in the kirtan hall one evening, chanting. The room was illuminated by a kerosene lamp hanging from the ceiling. Babaji had arrived to give darshan. One of those present in the crowd was a sick young Indian boy who had earlier visited the clinic where I worked.

      Somehow I felt a strong sympathy for him and was glad to hear that Babaji had earlier that afternoon dressed him in new clothes and given him permission to stay at the ashram.

      When I went to pranam to Babaji, I asked inwardly for His blessing for this sick boy. Not long after, I noticed the boy making pranam. Babaji showed him much love and placed His hand on the boy, thereby bestowing shakti (energy). For me, it was like witnessing the Divine Mother.

      Darshan was over and Babaji walked over to the sick boy and again blessed him. This caring so touched me that I impulsively ran to Babaji and bowed down, thanking Him for His love and saying internally: "You are truly the Divine Mother". As I stood up again, the burning kerosene lamp above began to swing. Babaji pointed to the burning flame and said: "No fire, no fire, fire". Then He gave me a friendly look and left.

      I understood intuitively that Babaji wasn't referring to fire as such, but rather to the divine energy within everything material and ethereal, which Babaji Himself embodies.

      From this I now understand Babaji's presence is constantly everywhere -- within all humans, animals and plants and within all feelings, words, deeds and events.

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      One can only wonder at Babaji's play on words. The following story is not only humorous but teaches me also that after death. the human body is a useless leftover and shouldn't warrant any fuss made over it.

      Down by the river at a spot just below the ashram in Haidakhan, the inhabitants of the little village, according to Indian custom. cremate their dead. While the wooden logs are being properly stacked, the corpse is left to lie on a cloth just beside the pile in readiness for the offering to the purifying fire.

      On this particular day of the cremation, an ashram work project happened to be taking place nearby and involved carrying big rocks over to a site where a stone rampart was being built against the anticipated monsoon floods. It seemed to me like a lack of piety to have all this industrious work going on around a dead body and it disturbed me enough to make me go to Babaji.

      "Babaji, there is a corpse down there and yet work continues on in the immediate vicinity. I think the dead man should be left in peace". Babaji: "Yes ... yes ... peace, peace ... Go and chop him to pieces!"

      Taken aback, I ran down the 108 stairs to the riverbed. Was I really supposed to chop up the body as is the custom in Tibet? No. Babaji was only joking...!

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      If a devotee wished to receive chandan from Babaji in His little room in the early morning, he/ she had to ask for permission the evening before. So I approached Babaji and asked: "May I please come to chandan tomorrow?"

      Now my English is not the best and a thought flashed through my mind: "to" sounds like "two".

      Babaji smiled and nodded saying. "Three-morrow". in other words, "Yes, for three continuous mornings".

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      It's our last darshan. Tomorrow we leave Haidakhan. So much has happened in three days. I don't want to leave yet. This place has taken such a hold of my heart. But there is no time to be gloomy over the departure.

      We have just finished the day's karma yoga - work in the ashram - and are getting ready for the evening Aarati, prayer chanting. I have been asked to assist in the preparation of a puja ceremony. Fresh fruit and flowers are being beautifully arranged on a shiny platter and other items are being brought together. We feel happy to be given the privilege to participate in honouring Babaji in this way. Now it's time to take the things over to the temple.

      Everyone has already assembled there. The bells are ringing. Babaji arrives. Out of Him radiates such enormous power, yet He moves nimbly and lightly, like the wind. His beauty is overwhelming; each time one sees Him, it is like a new delight. He sits on His asana and His power, love and acute concentration are evident.

      Immediately, as if drawn to a magnet. a stream of devotees queue for His darshan. His attraction is irresistible. A mere smile or movement of the hand suffices to fill the heart and soul totally.

      The chanting grows louder; the vibrations intensify. The first puja commences where light is offered to the great Light. Music fills the air and all mind chatter is extinguished. The offered fruit, now blessed, is served out as prasad. Sounds upon sounds (instrumental music, bells, conches, drums, damaru) pervade the clear night.

      Now another puja; this time performed by a couple whose marriage ceremony took place this morning. The atmosphere becomes even more intense and high and brings everyone into a sense of oneness.

      Babaji beckons one of His close, long-term devotees to say a few words. He, too, is filled with the effects of divine energy and extols in Hindi the greatness of the divine presence of Babaji in human form. How inadequate is our comprehension of a Mahavatar! Even when Rama. the hero of the Mahabharatas was on earth, little did the people recognise