Encounter with a Himalayan Mystic – Baba Haidakhan or Babaji

Babaji or Baba Haidakhan ( Hairakhan, Hairdahan), The Havan and the fire

Reproduced from my other blog http://nainitalgoddess.blogspot.com

It was in the early eighties, as an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering of 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 the 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. It was during this period when 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.

At the time my wife with nanny and children were away and I was alone at home. It was morning, some time after breakfast when 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/ (a cloth tied up around the head) young mystic of around thirty. 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 as a principle one does 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 (speaking from the mouth) do. He spoke a single sentence of four words,

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

The younger mystic appeared to glance repeatedly at a picture of my mother hung up high on the wall opposite the entrance. 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. I feel now that the Babaji had  merely come to visit me and also perhaps bless me because I was facing a difficult moment in my life then and the 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 I had been most probably visited by Baba Haidakhan accompanied by the older mystic who was probably Shastri Ji about whom I heard in 2007.

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 and that too 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 is old relationships dating back to my childhood in Nainital. The second is the resemblance from the photos. The image accompanying this post is that of Babaji when he was much younger and slimmer but 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 cloth/patka/turban every now and then and he did move around on unknown trips accompanied by an older mystic known as Shatriji. Moreover He is known to have kept vows of silence when he spoke a bit through his throat on occasions while looking downwards.  It seems that my spiritual connection with Babaji is an old one even dating back 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 revelation of the name Sunanda Devi previously known as Nanda Devi  East to the world has been through me)

A photo of my home in Jaipur

The second time Babaji intervened in my life is when I needed workers  to build my present home in 1993 despite my willingness to pay heavily for them but was unable to find any because of the season but suddenly they landed up by surprise beginning with a mystic mason.  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, all this when I am not a disciple of Babaji as many others are. To me he is a highly revered and loved mystic friend, guide and protector but not someone I pray to through prescribed rituals. 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 another blog - http://nainitalgoddess.blogspot.com . That blog also has a detailed post on who Babaji was. Babaji is indeed a magical manifestation of the Universal consciousness. Although he may change bodies as soon as it is no longer young, he is an immortal soul with deep connections to the Nainital Himalayas (and the surrounding region from Kathgogam to Dwarahat that includes Ranikhet and Almora).

Haidkhan 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 or invent another symbol for it such as a d with an umlaut.

Recently I seem to have figured out the mystery of Half a Kiliogram of Ghee, the single sentence that Babaji spoke from deep within his being. It was most likely required for performing a Havan, a religious fire ceremony that Babaji loved to perform regularly that is fed with Ghee and in the most advanced form of it the fire and the performer become one as described in the Ancient Scripture - The Bhagvat Gita, so that Babaji as the fire of the Havan would have consumed that ghee.