Many spiritual seekers have become familiar with Mahavatar Babaji, and the artistic conception of him, through Paramahansa Yogananda’s “Autobiography of a Yogi”. Some claim that this same Babaji was known as Hariakhan Baba, from the early 19th century until 1922, and that he was reincarnated again in 1970, in a cave in northern India, looking much younger but changing dramatically during his fourteen-year incarnation. . Still others believe that the true Maha Avatar Babaji is an entirely different entity; one who had a female body in his youth, slowly transforming into an image of a bald Willie Nelson, before leaving his body in 1997. This Babaji claimed that both versions of Hariakhan Baba were his disciples. So who is the real Babaji? Or are they all different manifestations of the one Babaji?
I have personally had a deep connection with the elder Hariakhan Babaji and the young Haidakhan Babaji, as he was known. When my house burned down in 1987, a photo of old Hariakhan Babaji did not burn. Then, years later, when it came time to sell our rebuilt house due to divorce, I prayed deeply to young Babaji for his help, promising to go to his ashram in India, if the house was sold. The banks wouldn’t finance our house as it was off the grid with alternative energy, and that alone eliminated over ninety-five percent of our potential buyer prospects. Miraculously, the house was sold the next day and soon I was off to India to learn much more about Babaji.
As divine providence and karma would have it, I was given young Babaji’s favorite silver silk waistcoat as my Christmas present, at his ashram in Haidakhan in 1994. This was a Christmas I will never forget at one of the holiest places in the earth. Then I was given a reading by the holy Shastraji, who lived with Babaji almost every day during the fourteen years of his incarnation. He said that Babaji had already appeared to me three times in this life and that I did not recognize him, but that he would be back soon. Then I attended the opening, full moon night of the 1995 Kumbha Mela festival in Allahabad, with ten million souls already present! Here Babaji appeared to me when time stopped. He asked me in perfect English: “Are you having fun?” I couldn’t find my voice to respond. Then he disappeared, leaving me totally hurt and bewildered. Yes, he was having fun! And now I felt that Babaji had totally blessed my trip to India and indeed my whole life, most of the time unknowingly.
Years later, with the advent of our online cyberspace, I began researching everything I could find about Babaji. There is a lot out there and a lot of it seems contradictory and confusing. However, I have realized what Babaji said: “I am not a body or a thing.” Yogananda said, “Babaji is beyond human understanding.” How true! I believe that the various forms of Babaji attract different types of disciples. For those who believe that Babaji was a manifestation of Krishna and advocated Kriya yoga, he appears as the long-haired image known as Kriya Babaji in Yogananda’s book. For those who believe that Babaji is Lord Shiva incarnate, he appears as both versions of Haidakhan Baba. I’m still confused about the Willie Nelson version of Babaji and why no one seems to know much about this incarnation. What little information there is, it just doesn’t seem to add up, to me. However, I feel that Babaji can manifest any form at will, including animals. It is the message from him that is important, not the body. This controversy will never be resolved by any rational mind. For me, there is only one Eternal God Living in truth, simplicity and love. That is the Babaji and the message that I feel in my heart.
