The Monk and the Avatar

The word "avatar" in Indian philosophy refers to the appearance in the world of a deity in human form. It is an Indian term traditionally reserved for showing great respect to extraordinary human beings who bless us with their presence on this earth. But today, in a spiritual world where it sometimes seems as if you can't throw a stone fifty feet without hitting yet another self-declared avatar, one has to appreciate Yogananda's foresight in distinguishing Babaji as nothing less than a Mahavatar. Qualifying for this much greater "scriptural classification," as Yogananda called it in his book, is apparently no small matter. Swami Satyananda, a long-time monk of the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), the organization Yogananda designated to carry on his teachings after his death, explained the distinction to me last November.

"Throughout human evolution we're evolving physically, but we're also evolving spiritually. And the pinnacle of spiritual evolution is a cosmic consciousness that unites our awareness with all three worlds [physical, causal, astral], and beyond. At that point, we have the power to consciously leave our bodies and transcend this material world. But if we then come back for the purpose of helping others spiritually, and yet we ourselves have no more karma, at that point we are an avatar. Paramahansa Yogananda said that he himself was an avatar because he came back for that purpose. Mahavatar Babaji would be an avatar who attained that status long ago and has received a dispensation from Cosmic Spirit to remain incarnate, that is, in a form on earth, but in a hidden way, for the purpose of helping the spirituality of mankind."

In my talks with Satyananda, it was clear that he was convinced that the words of his Guru regarding Babaji were entirely factual. Leading me on a brief tour of the world of Babaji according to Yogananda and the SRF, he corrected some common misperceptions regarding the legend of the immortal yogi, including the notion that spiritual enlightenment and evolution is leading us all to an eventual state of physical immortality.

"Once we have attained liberation, cosmic consciousness, all things are possible. But it would not be the ultimate goal to then retain a human body for the purpose of living forever. Actually, the Vedic scriptures tell us that there are three bodies. We have the physical body, we have an astral body of energy and light, and we have a causal body of consciousness. So the ultimate goal of evolution has always been, and will always be, to be free of all bodies."

"Including the physical?"

"Including the physical. It would not be the apotheosis of incarnations to remain immortal in the physical body."

"Do you mean that our ultimate evolutionary destiny is not really as a human in a body on this planet?"

"That's right. It would be pure cosmic consciousness. The idea of an avatar coming back to retain a body for an indefinite period of time is the unique role of Babaji."

So Babaji was the exception rather than the rule of evolution, according to Satyananda, and our most likely evolutionary destiny lay far beyond this world.

What about Satyananda himself? I wondered. "Have you ever met Babaji, had a vision, felt his presence?"

"I've had an experience with Babaji. It was a very powerful personal perception that made it clear beyond a doubt that not only is he a spiritual presence in the world, but that there's a unity between him and my group [SRF]. The experience was unsought, but deeply, deeply needed, and left a lifelong imprint. But I don't really want to put it into print. I'm sure you respect and appreciate that."

Understanding his reluctance, I also found myself wondering if his experience had occurred in the physical realm. Indeed, did people today ever see Babaji's physical body? Would I have to travel all the way to the Himalayas to have that opportunity?

The Southern Gentleman

"You have to make contact with Babaji on the inner planes," the voice on the other end of the line told me. "Yogananda, Yukteswar, and Lahiri all encouraged their devotees not to go to the Himalayas in search of Babaji but to find him on the inner planes in deep meditation and contemplation." The gentle Southern accent belonged to one of the few surviving teachers of Kriya yoga who can genuinely claim to have studied with Yogananda and been authorized to guide others on the path—Roy Eugene Davis. A seventy-one-year-old Southern gentleman with a sweet conversational style and an obvious devotion to his teacher, Davis met Yogananda over fifty years ago and caught fire with a passion for the yogic path to enlightenment. And even though I initially felt slightly uncomfortable asking him questions like, "Are you convinced that Yogananda did actually intend everything he wrote about Babaji to be taken as fact?" Davis's relaxed manner quickly put me at ease. It was clear that, for Davis, the traditional idea of enlightenment is one glorious step along the way to an even more glorious possibility that Babaji represents as the pinnacle of human evolution. He told me:

"If what Yogananda says is true, and I believe it, Babaji is an accomplished Siddha, a Master of the elements. He can materialize his body, and he is in a permanent super-conscious state. I would say that's sort of the peak experience that we can aspire to. I think the potential is in all of us for that."

Davis, in his unassuming manner, was more candid than many, particularly about what he did not know. Never straying far from his own experience, he was not inclined to speculation, and when I pressed him for more about the real nature of Babaji's attainment, he finally said simply, "I have never seen him."

After spending weeks immersed in a subject that is so imbued with the mysterious, Davis's frankness and honesty came as a relief. Especially as it was becoming clear to me that while Yogananda's exalted reputation and respected authority in the spiritual world had convinced many of the truth of Babaji's existence—especially those connected to his own lineage—actual encounters with the great yogi were rare, and the flesh-and-blood variety almost nonexistent. Was it simply not Babaji's currently preferred method of manifestation? Perhaps. But it was somewhat curious, I thought, that physical encounters with the great yogi seem to get progressively more scarce as one moves forward in history from the date of Lahiri Mahasaya's first meeting with Babaji. It is, without a doubt, always a good idea to make a lot of room in the spiritual life for that which lies beyond the rational mind, and the phenomenon of Babaji may indeed be a prime example. But I had also heard that some highly respected figures in the yoga scene have long suspected that many of the more remarkable stories in Autobiography of a Yogi were embellished, if not entirely imagined. Even Roy Davis himself seemed unwilling to declare that the entire book was factual, saying that while Yogananda was no doubt telling the truth, much of the content consisted of reports of anecdotes he had been told and had taken on faith. As questions began to swirl in my mind, the philosophical implications of the issue suddenly struck home. On one hand, if you believe in an immortal sage named Babaji, you are inherently making a strong statement about the reality of immortality and other miraculous powers of mind and consciousness. And on the other hand, if you tend toward skepticism, you are calling into question the authenticity of a sacred icon whom respected authorities in the modern spiritual world revere as a symbol of perfect divinity. While Davis's words stayed with me—"I have not met anyone here or in India who has seen him in recent years"—my search was far from finished, and I was soon to meet several people with very different stories to tell.

A Different Lineage

Sightings and stories of Babaji have never been the exclusive domain of the lineage begun by Lahiri Mahasaya in the nineteenth century. In some ways, one could say it is almost de rigueur if you are a North Indian yogi to have had a Babaji encounter. Famous figures in the yoga scene such as Baba Hari Dass, Swami Radha, and Yogi Mani Finger have all passed on anecdotes of Babaji encounters over the years, although most were brief and did not involve any kind of initiation or transmission of the lineage. One exception to this rule occurred in the early 1950s, shortly after Yogananda's death, when Babaji is said to have initiated and empowered two Indian seekers to spread his teaching of Kriya yoga: S.A.A. Ramaiah and V.T. Neelakantan. Ramaiah was a young university student in Madras, India, when a series of miraculous events convinced him of Babaji's living presence in his life. And Neelakantan was a famous Indian journalist, already steeped in esoteric knowledge through his friendship with Annie Besant of the Theosophical Society when Babaji began to make regular appearances to him. When the two met in 1952, a new Kriya yoga lineage was born and, although their partnership did not last long, it was productive. They published several books allegedly dictated by Babaji, and Ramaiah began a long study of a relatively unknown ancient order of yogis called the Siddha yogis, a South Indian tradition that thrived in the ancient Tamil culture. It seems that many of these historical Siddhas—a term used for great saints who have mastered certain yogic powers or siddhis—were not quite as interested in traditional conceptions of yogic Samadhi as they were in something a little more down-to-earth-the evolution of the body. They envisioned radical physical transformation as a crucial part of the spiritual and evolutionary process. In their work and writings, the holy grail of immortality found perhaps its greatest champions.

The best way to describe Yogi Ramaiah, at least from my brief exchanges with him, would be to say that he is dedicated. Overseeing centers supporting the work of Babaji and Kriya yoga all around the world, from America to South Africa to India, he maintains a personal schedule that is, according to reports from exhausted students, near-Herculean. He is constantly circling the globe teaching, leading retreats, organizing conferences, and sharing his knowledge of the Siddha yoga tradition even as he continues to supervise the construction of a major new hospital and medical college in South India. Our conversation took place from one until two o'clock in the morning, one of the few times he was available to speak. Ramaiah is a passionate believer in the yogic path as envisioned by the Siddha sages, and all I had to do was mention the term "evolution" and that was the last word I got in for more than half an hour.

"According to the theory of evolution, the highest level of development is human beings. But according to yoga, that is not so. According to the Tamil Siddhantham, or the teachings of the Siddhas, something greater is happening. No doubt we are the most advanced physically, nobody is denying it. But by practicing yoga, we are going to evolve to a higher state. We don't stop with human beings. That is the reason why I advise everybody: practice yoga, practice yoga, practice yoga! Because yoga doesn't confine itself to the physical plane. There are five bodies—physical, vital, mental, intellectual, and spiritual. Beyond the physical plane, there is the vital, beyond the vital, the mental, beyond the mental, the intellectual, and beyond the intellectual, the spiritual. So if you want to understand, you have to practice the fivefold path of Babaji's Kriya yoga. When you practice yoga, you start evolving on all five planes.

"So when that divinity, whom you call God, whom you call Shiva—call it by any name that you like—manifests itself in the spiritual plane, the greatest of criminals becomes a saint. And when that divine consciousness manifests itself in the intellectual plane, you become a sage, you become a jnani. When it manifests itself in the mental plane, you become a Patanjali, who gave us the Raja Yoga Sutras. When that divinity manifests itself in the vital plane, you become a Boganathar, who is the guru of Babaji, you become a yogi Jesus Christ. And when that divinity manifests itself in the physical plane, you become a Babaji. Now do you understand the importance of Babaji?"