Encounter with a Himalayan Mystic – Baba Haidakhan or Babaji

It was early eighties. I was then an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Delhi. I had rented an apartment a few kilometers away from IIT, at a place known as Masjid Moth (DDA Flats). There was accommodation on campus but with two infant daughters and a live in full time Nanny to boot, available accommodation on campus was a bit too compact for our needs. I lived in this apartment from approximately the middle of 1981 to the middle of 1984.  During this period I had an unusual spiritual encounter. I do not recall the exact date when the encounter took place but the incident itself is crystal clear in my mind.

Babaji: Message from the Himalayas, by Maria Gabriele Wosien, G. Reichel Verlag ( 1990), https://www.amazon.com/Babaji-Himalayas-Maria-Gabriele-Wosien/dp/3926388145/

At the time my wife with nanny and children were away. I was alone at home. It was morning, some time after breakfast the bell rang. I opened the door to find in front of me two Himalayan mystics, an old one and a younger, fair and radiant, well built turbaned young mystic of around thirty. The turban was just a cloth tied up around the head in a style particular to Babaji actually rather than a formal turban (as I saw in his photos later in a publication on Babaji by Maria Gabriele Wosien)

The younger person was completely silent but the older one spoke that they were Himalayan mystics on a visit and were seeking some food from me. I agreed to offer them some money but did not agree to let them in for refreshment because it is not safe. In India, even some thieves sometimes move around in the guise of mystics. Therefore, in principle one may not let unknown mystics in to one’s home. Something in me wanted to agree but I declined on principle not to comply.

If I was in my present home that has an outdoor garden I would have seated them in the garden but being an apartment there was none such then, just a staircase landing ahead of my door. The older Babaji then spoke in Hindi that the younger silent mystic was a much-evolved Babaji - bahut pahunche huain babaji hain - in Hindi. I politely declined again. Then the younger Baba too spoke, from deep within his belly, as sometimes mystics who are on a vow of silence (not speaking from the mouth) do. He spoke a single sentence of four words,

 “I shall eat half a Kilo of Ghee (Adhaa kilo ghee khanunga)”

I apologized and declined and the mystics went away. Looking back, the request of a half kilo of Ghee was a ridiculous request, perhaps a friendly joke, or a secret message still unknown to me, or a sign that the Babaji wished me to actually decline rather than comply, because even if one agreed to feed the mystics one would not offer such crazy fare. It is only recently I realized that the request of half a kilo of ghee might have been to perform a Havan ceremony that Babaji was fond of. I feel now that the Babaji had come to visit me and also perhaps bless me because I was facing a difficult moment in my life then and troubles of the time began to lift soon after. At that time I was unaware of Babaji and any past connection with him. It was only much later in 1995 that I realized that Baba Haidakhan accompanied by the older mystic, who was probably Shastri Ji about whom I heard of in 2007, had most probably visited me.

At the time I did not know who the Babaji was and why he had chosen me of all the people to visit. My apartment was removed from the road and situated on the third floor of a complex and there were numerous other apartments en route that it appeared they did not visit but headed straight for mine, with a request that was quite strange and un-compliable.

I cannot be one hundred percent sure because of the passage of time that it was indeed Baba Haidakhan but my investigations since then indicate that it was most likely so. First are relationships dating back to my childhood in Nainital some that I recall faintly as is the case with memories of very early childhood and some that I learned of later from my mother. The second is resemblance from the photos. There are plenty of images of him in books on him and on the net from various stages of his life to compare. Babaji did wear a turban every now and then and he did move around on unknown trips accompanied by an older mystic known as Shastriji. Moreover He is known to have kept vows of silence when he spoke a bit through his throat on occasions while looking downwards. We both seem to be born around the same time in 1950. My spiritual connection with Babaji is likely an old one even dating back to previous lives. We have both had deep spiritual links to the Himalayan district of Nainital and the sacred peaks of Nanda and Sunanda that have blessed this district since times immemorial. The first published nomenclature of the Sunanda peak is due to me. The Europeans had referred to it unknowingly yet inappropriately as Nanda Devi East and that practice had persisted until the book mentioned revealed its spiritual name. Seems, the goddess granted the honor of introducing her appropriate name to the world at large from her love and grace. There is full post on that in this blog .

A photo of my home that Sua Lal helped build

The second time Babaji intervened in my life is when I needed workers to build my present home in 1993 and was unable to find any, despite my willingness to pay heavily for them, because of the season but suddenly they landed up by surprise beginning with a mystic mason, by the name of Sua Lal. He was well known in the area for singing songs in praise of Lord Shiva while he worked like a mad man when he got down to it. To ordinary humans some mystics appear as psychotics.

Since then my encounters with Babaji in a spiritual way have continued consciously and knowingly, albeit intermittently until today. He has on some occasions appeared in my personal affairs at a moment of grave need and I too have visited his Ashram first time in the summer of 2007 when he took me for a visit to the district personally (??!!) with him. Some of my later encounters with Babaji are so magical and fantastic that I myself find them unbelievable when they are over leave alone describe them here although I have described one in the post entitled kriya yoga of Babaji in this blog (and another more recently here). Babaji is indeed a magical manifestation of Universal consciousness, although he may change bodies as soon as it is no longer young. He is an immortal soul with deep connections to Nainital and Almora Himalayas.

Haidakhan is also spelt as Hairakhan because the central sound in the name does not exist in most other languages aside from Hindi. It is a sound that is more like the combined sound of an R and a D. Perhaps Hairdakhan would have been the best way to represent it in English but this is usually not done.

There are a few more posts on Babaji in this blog in case you wish to read more about him.

Note: Because of the interest of many in this post, it was updated today on 27th of September, 2018, by slightly editing text and adding new pictures.

A Photo of me from the eighties