Gods and Goddesses of Nainital

Every now and then I visit the various websites where my book – The Babaj Affair – has been listed by Amazon. Today when I looked up the amazon division in India I was delighted to find a lovely and brief review of the book from a reviewer by the name of RannBanka Rathod http://www.amazon.in/The-Babaji-Affair-Ashok-Malhotra/dp/149232955X That review is reproduced here: “The book by Ashok Malhotra has been quite refreshing among the many spiritual books out today. I was expecting a biography however got glued on to the book after I started reading it. It has a kind of optimism and spirituality coupled with a message as to how one should approach life. A must read for people who enjoy reading books about spirituality.” I would like to thank Mr. RannBanka Rathod for the review using his online name since I do not know his real one. A surprising coincidence was that the price of the book was set at 1008 rupees   by Amazon and the number 1008 is closely and intim...

Babaji Baba Hairdakhan, Babaji loved to care for and plant trees. He encouraged others to do the same. Himalayan mystics explain that human birth is precious. It is attained after millions of years of evolution when a soul evolves slowly from bacteria, animal and eventually to human form and beyond. As a human, the capabilities are far more than that of any other animal on planet earth. With this form, the human soul also had certain responsibilities that come with any advantages. It is the duty of humans to help the less evolved that include plants, animals and even other humans. It is an expression of  love for mother earth. Of the three virtues required for evolution – love, truth and simplicity, love is the foremost. If a human does not continue to evolve to still higher life forms, godly by our reckoning, there is danger of it slipping back into lower ones. At the present time, when human population has increased to an extent that plant life is sufferin...

Boat Club Nainital The Boat club is one of the central hubs of activity in Nainital. It features prominently in my book - The Babaji Affair. Here is a picture of it. It houses a dining hall and dance floor, a spacious patio by the lake, cards roon, wash rooms, another spacious bar where many key personalities of Nainital drop in from time to time for a chat and drink with others. One has to be properly dressed before one can enter the club. This includes a tie for men.You can easily spot tiny sail boats parked by the club with their colorful striped sails. As a child it was a hobby of mine to gaze at this lake and the sail boats from the living room window of our home on one of the lush green hills that surround this lake. For a panoramic view of the same picture and more on Nainital check out https://www.facebook.com/Nainital

  From breath to Breath From life to death Life is a room with six doors A life where the choice is yours Doors to doom and danger Lust, greed and anger Bright are the other three Love, truth and simplicity From the author of - The Babaji Affair

A view of Nainital and Naini Lake ( Photo by Jasdeep Sethi)    While everyone agrees that Nainital has become over congested and there is a need not just to stop new development but also relocate some of the existing one that is choking the hill sides, no concrete proposals are even being studied for it. Some promising areas for relocation are on the road to Bhowali or around Hanuman Garhi. However another very promising area is the location around Khurpa Tal. Geographically it is a very close to Nainital.  However, the existing road to it through the hills increases the distance considerably. What would be required is to connect both localities by the construction of a new road to it  involving a tunnel of about a quarter of kilometer length through the hill. The other side of the hill towards Khurpa Tal would then be a walking distance from the flats, the central location of Nainital. Presently much of the area around Khurpa Tal is used as farmlands. ...

There are some who believe that there is a mystic Babaji who is deathless and roams about in the Kumaon Himalayas hopping from hill to hill. Some even thought that Baba Haidakhan about whom there are several posts in this blog (see links to the left) is that deathless Baba. As regards that it is only the soul that is deathless, all physical bodies are transient, they are born and they die. Even the planets and the universe are transient. May I quote from another blogpost on this, "It is really very surprising how humans in this age of science and logic can believe, without the slightest shred of evidence, that there is a young Babaji who roams and hops about in the Kumaon hills and never dies! or for that matter a Lochness Monster or a Himalayan Yeti" http://ashokmalhotra.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/truth-about-yoga/

What Babaji of Nainital said. T he Himalayas have been a source of spiritual knowledge since ancient times. It has been the abode and/or origin of numerous saints, mystics, including the Great Buddha; and according to Hindu and Buddhist Mythology also of gods, goddesses and Bodhisattvas. Certainly if a location has to be chosen for that in the world it has to be The Himalayas as the Highest mountain chain of the world and also the most conducive to life and beauty. In 1970, a youthful saint of around twenty, called Baba Haidakhan or Babaji lovingly by his disciples appeared in the Nainital District of Himalayas. He died in 1984, even as he had said while he lived that the body is meaningless and transient but the soul lives on. While he lived, he lovingly and joyously demolished certain fallacies and myths about yoga that were spreading in the world. It was a time when there was a great interest in yoga in the west. Certain popular sects were propagating myths about yog...