My unexpected day of BLISS

January 18^th 2013

A day with Mahavatar Babaji

My inner child has to fess up that she was a bit disappointed that she did not get to meet Babaji G upon the chance meeting of our Guru Shakti Durga and Guru Babaji. Deepak, our spa attendant is a disciple of Babaji and was the connector to Shakti Durga in Varanasi. We were having our idyllic day on the Ganga and missed the divine encounter. After consoling my inner child, I gave thanks for the opportunity that Shakti Durga had to meet another Guru in person, which was most auspicious. I then gave it up to Guru that if meeting Babaji was in my highest and best interest, I would meet him at that point.

I was awake until midnight packing for my return trip to my Pennsylvania home. Saraswati and I were able to share in the festivities of a local wedding which made “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” look like a backyard family picnic.

Welcome to MY BIG FAT INDIAN WEDDING

Ganesha

The Pink and White Silk Tent

My luggage was clearly overweight with the gifts for my office staff and family. It’s a good thing that I only have to pay for the extra weight for my purchases in India and not the tremendous gifts that I received spiritually from India, because I would be broke.

Tea with Saraswati

We had tea on the terrace serenaded by a Sitar. Before I left, I spent the last hour with Saraswati just being and giving hugs to our spiritual family. These two weeks solidified prior relationships and created many more new connections (At least new for this lifetime). Having said my good byes to my dear sister Saraswati, I boarded a bus to the airport having surrendered to the delicious idea of staying in the overseas lounge at the New Delhi airport and finishing this BLOG and just relaxing trying to integrate all the tools that I have blessed with these two weeks.

Before the bus pulled out from our hotel, Hanumani came on board and said that Mahavatar Babaji was going to come to the hotel where everyone was staying overnight whilst I departed for the states at 11:35 PM. (“Mahavatar” means “great avatar”, and “Babaji” simply means “revered father”. A quick Wikipedia search tells us “Mahavatar Babaji is the name given to an Indian saint by Lahiri Mahasaya and several of his disciples^[1] who met Mahavatar Babaji between 1861 and 1935. Some of these meetings were described by Paramahansa Yogananda in his book Autobiography of a Yogi (1946), including a first hand telling of Yogananda’s own meeting with Mahavatar Babaji.^[2] Another first hand account was given by Sri Yukteswar Giri in his book The Holy Science.^[3] All of these accounts, along with additional meetings with Mahavatar Babaji, are described in various biographies^[4][5][6] of those mentioned by Yogananda.”

Now I was in a quandary about just what to do, stay with the plan or take this opportunity to meet this man who is a Sage amongst men, smells sweet of roses and offers wisdom beyond this world. Okay, so I threw out my plan for my day alone and decided I would head to the hotel with the gang.

We were all on the same plane to Delhi and Shakti Durga and a small group was heading to Chennai on the same plane that would continue through to Hyderabad. Our luggage was overweight and it would have been fine if I had only had a copy of my itinerary for my flight. I had it saved on my iPhone but India has not gone green so they would only accept a paper copy of verification that I had a flight. They didn’t even have Internet access that I could use to print out the receipt. So we paid the 6500 Rupees and we were on our way. The flight had significant turbulence with some massive drops, so significant that the sick sacks were in use (I don’t get motion sick and just rode the waves).

Upon landing, Hanumani received a call that the plans had changed again and that Babaji would receive our group at his hotel at 6 PM. Hanumani was concerned that we would not get to see him with international flights that evening and asked if the 3 of us, Maya Eshwari, Ganga Ma and I, could join them in the afternoon so as to make our flight. Babaji disciple was there to greet us and we hopped in a taxi with all of our bags and we were off. She said it would be 500 Rupees for the cab and I still had money so I offered to pay and the meter ticked away. It seemed like 50 minutes at least that we were in the car when we arrived in a residential neighborhood and were promptly whisked into the house transferring our bags into another car (The fare was 500 Rupees on the nose. I discovered that that they didn’t understand the slang having no idea what on the nose means in India and looked at me like I had two heads when I made the comment. I just was astounded that it was exactly what she said it would be and not a penny more or less!).

We entered the first floor and there were rose petals and marigold petals everywhere. The energy in the air was palpable. As we entered the second floor and removed our shoes, we were greeted with Chai tea and warm hospitality.

The entrance to this beautiful home. We were the Spiritual crashers.

We were taken into a living room and there was this larger than life beautiful soul sitting in front of the window with light streaming in from behind him. He was just engaged in conversation,that none of us could understand. What I could understand was the tremendous sense of calm that washed over me simply from being in his presence. It was as if my heart was growing like the Grinch’s heart with every word that he spoke. We were on the floor on our knees having bowed as a sign of devotion for him.

He is a tall man with dark gray hair that flowed down to the middle of his back. His skin was dark without a sign of facial hair. His face was smiling even at rest. He wore a white pressed button down gown and silver cuff links. His feet were cradled in wooden sandals that appeared to be from a natural piece of wood with a silver knob between the great and second toe to keep them on his feet. He appeared perfectly groomed and neatly pressed with a beige pashmina that he wore around his shoulders or had  draped neatly upon his lap. His energy body was larger than life. When you would look at him, his gaze would attract your eyes and he could see right to your soul.

We sat in awe of his energetic body

The Sandals

Here sitting in the same room with me was this gentle being of love and light showering us with the energy of the Christ consciousness. I knew this energy and it was so familiar. One by one he called us up and when his hands reached out and held the sides of my head, the sensation was indescribable. He then placed the gentlest kiss upon my forehead and passed blessings to me with just a touch.

His energy was intoxicating. There was a not a normal human energy pattern.  He didn’t seem to have the 7 energy centers that you and I possess, just one magnificent illuminated presence. We were offered Prasad, which we ate and then the owner of the home, who was an absolute riot, shuffled us into the dining room for lunch. She was quite happy to have us there although I initially felt like a party crasher. We were suddenly soul family.  Come, come she said over and over.

I surrendered and did as I was told and was waiting on the far side of the table as she brought out the food. Then right in front of me was Babaji larger than life. Don’t know how I ended up in the front of the queue, but I was right next to him and he insisted on serving our food as a blessing from him. Talk about an act of humility. This being of love and light was gently placing this food on my Styrofoam partitioned plate and I was standing next to him utterly intoxicated with his energy. I was amazed that I could stay standing. His gentleness and subtle humanness was again a paradox given his out of this world energy. He served all of us and we then sat down and devoured an absolutely delicious local Indian feast.

Serving with Humility

After the lunch, we were directed back in to the living room with the home owner (yes I am sorry, I didn’t write down her name but I was significantly under the influence if this incredible soul). Babaji speaks only minimal English and we were at the mercy of others to translate for us. They were all so gracious to invite the “westerners” into their world.

The lovely homeowner had given Babaji food to eat. We had been told by Shakti Durga that he barely drinks a bit of milk and does not sleep as he is at such a high vibration.  Babaji motioned for me to come to him. I gently worked my way to the front of the room and got back on my knees on the floor. He then proceeded to gently feed me the food that had been prepared for him. One by one he fed the room with such humility. (Life lesson 101 how to be larger than life yet humble and pure. No arrogance, no ego just pure love).

Humility as we were fed by Babaji

The lessons that we had been learning for the past two weeks were being divinely gifted to us. Every time I got near to Babaji I could smell the sweet smell of roses as that is the scent that naturally emanates form his skin. Who wouldn’t want some of that?

He was asking about each of us and when I told him my story, he passed his leather bound book to me and asked for my contact information along with information on each of us from the Shanti Mission Group. Stella was collecting warm clothing and garb as she had accepted his invitation to travel to his Ashram in the Himalayas.

The meeting in this beautiful home was drawing to a close. We were then escorted to the cars and transported to a lovely Courtyard Inn and Suites in Delhi. We were greeted by the manager, Sumit Jaswal who was planning the evening’s festivities.

Greetings in the lobby

Our fellow spiritual aspirants arrived from the other hotel. As we were telling them of the day’s events, Babaj came into the hotel and greeted the group. We were then directed to the basement where the room was set for dinner and a gathering. There was an elevated stage with 3 sofas. I sat on the left front of the room. Babaji sat on the center sofa with his interpreter on his right and he invited Hanumani, sans camera, to sit on his left. As I was getting situated in my chair, I gazed up at the stage and he motioned to me to come up to the stage and join him (He is impossible to say no to!!).

On the stage with Babaji

In order to properly greet is, he took a bag full of red rose petals and gently allowed them to rain over our heads. In the pictures that I snapped,  I could see the love and contentment that the act of love and humility created in our group. He placed several Malas made of flowers on various members of our group.

He asked to hear briefly from each of us why we came to India and what we were taking away and he wasn’t asking about what we would declare on our customs forms!! One by one our group was introduced and stories were shared.

He asked us to chant as we did on retreat and as a group proceeded to chant Om Gum Ganapataya Namaha and Jaya Jaya Shivo Shamboo . He then shared his words of wisdom in chants and prose as we sat in silence with reverence feeling the grace of God.

Before we departed for the airport, we were gifted several DVDs that are not in English but quite special along with two apples and a banana as Prasad. We were also blessed and received a forehead marking with an orange claylike substance (I’ll be honest that I don’t exactly know the significance of the whole ceremony, but it all felt right).

Prior to leaving for the airport, we were fed again and one of his disciples came up to me and said that he would like to visit me in June when he is in Pennsylvania. Well alrighty then, I will make myself available.

Bliss is written all over our faces

It has only been upon my return home that all of this has begun to sink in.

Mahavatar Babaji

Upon arrival to the hotel Lobby, I looked down to the floor and there was a magazine with a very telling message.

Leap of Faith

Om Guru. Om Guru, Om Guru.