KRIYA BABAJI

Who is Kriya Babaji?
Kriya Babaji is the Great Himalayan Master of Masters who has lived through the centuries, having been borne more than 1700 years ago. Babaji is an Avatar of Muruga and the source and fountainhead of all forms of Kriya Tantra Yoga.
"Meditation on the manifest obtains a clearly different object than meditation on the unmanifest...(but)...He who knows the impersonal God and the personal God as one, overcomes death through the impersonal and obtains immortality through the personal."
Ishavasya Upanishad
He is seen and recognized by those he chooses. Although he has appeared in many forms over the centuries he consistently manifests as a timeless youth. His black hair is aflame with copper-golden rays and his well toned body reflects that of an athletic sixteen. His dark eyes, awash with love, penetrate the soul. His countenance surrounded with authority and mystery. He is known as the great yogi, the youth of sixteen summers.
Babaji and Mataji work on the subtle planes, even during sleep, assisting spiritual pilgrims both consciously and subconsciously. Sometimes they can appear inwardly to bless a struggling sadhak with pranayam techniques and other powerful Kriyas. On rare occasions they are seen in luminous physical bodies as well.
Those who accept the immortality and omnipotence of God can hardly deny the possibility of that consciousness manifesting on the physical plane with the same attributes. Such a perfected being is a MahaSiddha, an avatar. In spite of an occasional misinformed utterance of a Nattering Naysayer, Babaji is still accessible ON THE PHYSICAL PLANE for those who seek him and he has promised to remain through this age. The fact that he doesn't appear flippantly should not surprise sincere sadhaks. He is committed to serving humanity now and during the coming age. This is his pledge to Mataji, his tantric shakti, and to all humanity. Yogiar used to say, "Egoistic doubting Thomas’ have every right to acknowledge that they have not seen him, if that be so. They have no right to suggest that because they have not seen him he does not exist." A more truthful response would be, "I don't know!"
Gautama Buddha manifested to serve and uplift the east; Christ manifested to serve and uplift the west. The advent of Babaji and Mataji will harmonize both. Babaji is none other than the second advent, Kalki, and the very personification of Buddha Maiytreya.
Babaji’s Life Story
Many other fascinating details about the obscure life of Babaji were revealed by the great Kriya Master in a darshan given to the late Acharya Neelakantan during 1952. Babaji revealed that he was born to a brahman family under the star (nakshatra) rohini of the gotra wadala in what is today the seaport town of Parangipetti, India, on Thursday, November 30th, in the year 203 AD on the full moon day of Kartikaa (November-December). This seaport village of his birth was then known as Sweethanathapuram. The main temple within the village is now Kumaraswami but once housed the Sweethanatha lingam, mentioned by one of the shaivite saints and considered one of the original 108 shaivite shrines in India.
While still a youth, the Master was kidnapped and taken north by sea to Dacca. Through dramatic circumstances he was released and migrated to Benares where he ultimately shone as a Sanskrit scholar of eminence. Discontent with this early success and destined for a greater end, he sailed by boat to the powerful shrine of Katirgama on the southern coast of Lanka. There, he received inspirational guidance from the great siddha Bogar and accepted the challenge of attaining this loftiest of mystic goals. For 18 months, he plunged into meditation and came to understand and appreciate the state of soruba samadhi (the descent of the divinity into the physical plane).
Following the inner call, he wandered through South India, ultimately attaining the grace of initiation into Kundalini Yoga by Siddha Agasthiyar at falls of Kutralam. Kutralam is one of sixty-four Tantric Shakti Peetams (shakti shrines).
Babaji then retired into a lonely Himalayan cave and remained absorbed in intensive yogic sadhana for years at a stretch, finally to emerge with the physical glow of the immortal divine fire.
"The breath that arose 12 matras long if you control and absorb within well may you live a thousand years of land and sea; the body, perishes not."
Thirumandiram v722
Babaji made his own contributions to the raja Yoga nucleus given by sage Agasthiyar, and has retained his form through the centuries "tapping" many, granting vital visions to some, speaking to a few, and materializing to give physical darshan to His saintly chosen.
Babaji's grace of Kriya shakti began a new cycle during 1944, subsequent to intensive tapas performed by the great Himalayan master Babaji in an Australian cave. A number of persons have incarnated subsequently with the responsibility of carrying forward his work.
Who is this great mysterious yogi who cannot be reduced to a rule?
Lahiri saw him as an incarnation of Krishna. Yogi Ramaiah maintained that he and Muruga, the Dravidian Lord of beauty, were one and the same. The disciples of the great Harikan Baba recognized him as an avatar of Shiva. Still other Kriya yogis have identified him with Kali or Christ. Like the cosmic Lord, he manifests in the energy held dear by the devotee. The stellar star of his attainment is impossible for the mortal mind to comprehend. He is both multicultural and multi-linguistic and yet demonstrates a freedom from these conditions as well. Every aspect of his remarkable life reflects this freedom. Miraculous stories of his life include the ability to appear and disappear at will.
It is clear that Babaji has generally taken a dim view of organized religion.
Babaji has spent more than a millennium working out of the spotlight of public glare. For centuries He even instructed his disciples not to reveal his identity. Proselytizing is not part of the Kriya Yoga tradition. People are led only when they are ready, and in most cases, that takes lifetimes of preparation.
As Lahiri Mahasaya has said, "let the message of Kriya be wafted like the fragrance of a flower." Alas, few have followed this noble and great ideal. Organizations may disempower members as often as they empower them. Said Babaji to Acharya Neelakantan in 1952:
"Listen My child, you should not and cannot fail to be aware of that empowerment which is yourself - nearer to your heart. Cultivate that awareness. Be always in your own company and enjoy it. There is no society, club, institution, association, general body, or governing body to go and join... you rule in and out - “absolutely.” Organizations and clubs are fine for support groups. A spiritual lion needs no props. So cut the Gordian knot [1]!”
As Kahlil Gibran has aptly said, "Alone and without its nest must the eagle fly across the face of the sun.”
[1] The Gordian knot is, among other things, a reference to the root grantha knot of the subtle spinal regions long associated with structure and structured spiritual life.
How old is Babaji's form?
A contemporary Kriya Yogi, Swami Satyeswarananda records that when the question was put to Babaji by Kriya Amman Pranavananda he indicated that his age was going on four kalpa. "What is a kalpa", asked Pranavananda." "It depends," replied Babaji, "on your calculation...a kalpa by some...is 125 years...by others several hundred." Thus Babaji revealed his ancient origins without specifics. It has been widely known in Kriya circles that Babaji was the jnana guru of Adi Shankaracharaya, one of the greatest exponents of Advaita vedantic Yoga who lived from the years 788 until 820 AD. This is strong evidence that the latter kalpa calculation is the relevant one.
The great sage Vivekananda...
...explained that just as there is a point between the vegetable kingdom and the animal kingdom where it is very difficult to determine whether a particular cellular structure is vegetable or animal, so also there is a stage between the man-world and god-world where it is extremely hard to say whether a person is a man or a god. High in the remote rocky mountain crags of the Kumoan Himalayas the eternal Babaji lives today, as he has for millennia, retaining his physical form only for the benefit of humanity. The circumstances surrounding Babaji are certainly God-like.
Those who descend from the celestial realm (avatars) often bring with them outward signs of their inward freedom. Certainly, there have been others who cast no shadow or footprint. There are others as well who have breathed life into a corpse or instantly moved through time and space with impunity. There have been others too, who lived without food or drink, who walked upon water, or moved upon air. But few are they whose physical form, manifesting the golden light of immortality, decays not. And few are they who can move through the physical world fully active and yet with breathing stilled. And of those few, Babaji reigns supreme. He is the great avatar of Vedanta and Siddhantha. He is at the headwaters of all the sacred tributaries of Yoga and Tantra.
The Tamil Tantric, Rudranath Giri...
...has revealed that Babaji is the avatar of great sacrifice for the emerging golden age of Kriya and that his glorious Shakti, taking form as Bhairavi, has propagated the Vama Marg tantric path as well, for the benefit and spiritual growth of all humanity. For Babaji and Mataji, a hundred years is but a day. They have always worked quietly behind the scenes. Thousands of world and spiritual leaders are influenced by their "tappings", although most in an unconscious way. They seek absolutely no acknowledgment as guides many toward spriritual awakening. They work on all planes and are literally "a bridge for those who seek the farther shore". Over the years, pilgrims from dozens of "mystery paths" seemingly far removed from Kriya Tantra Yoga in the more traditional sense, have related to the author their blessings and experiences received from Babaji and Mataji. A self professed "astral traveler" from Eckankar described with obvious devotion how Babaji rescued her from great distress as she was caught in an energy chasm. Using his infinite sadhana shakti, he literally laid his expanded body across the chasm as a bridge for her to cross. A deep soulful echo then resounded through her consciousness, "Through My Grace, you cross."
Madam Blavatsky...
...founder of the Theosophical Society in 1888 described Babaji in her great treatise, the Secret Doctrine, as follows, "It is He who changes form, yet remains ever the same, and it is He, again, who holds spiritual sway over the initiated adepts throughout the world. He is, as said, the nameless one who has so many names and yet, whose names and very nature are unknown. He is THE INITIATOR, called the GREAT SACRIFICE for sitting at the threshold of Light, He looks into it from within the circle of darkness which He will not cross, nor will He quit His post until the last day of this life-cycle. Why does the solitary watcher remain at His self chosen post? Why does He sit by the fountain of primeval wisdom, of which He drinks no longer, for He has naught to learn which He does not know - aye, neither on this earth nor in its heaven? Because the lonely sore-footed pilgrims, on their journey back to their home, are never sure to the last moment of not losing their way, in this limitless desert of illusion and matter called earth-life. Because He would show the way to that region of freedom and light from which He is a voluntary exile himself, to every prisoner who has succeeded in liberating himself from the bonds of flesh and illusion. Because, in short, He has sacrificed Himself for the sake of mankind, though but few elect may profit by the great sacrifice."
Sri Aurobindo and Ramalinga Swami...
...outlined the process of immortalizing the physical frame in their poems, songs, and writings. Like Babaji, Ramalinga Swami had no shadow or footprint. Not wishing to draw attention to himself he generally wore his upper garment extended as a hood thus casting a human-like shadow where none ad been. The Siddhantha tradition is a means for pilgrims to traverse that path toward immortality with consistent application of the Tantric Kriyas. These ancient and powerful keys will open the locks in the mystery of the great transformation. Babaji does not remain for his own pleasure, but as a stellar example of that which can be achieved through selfless yearning, dedicated effort without expectation of reward, and divine grace. He exhorts us not to be satisfied with the darshan bliss of others but to manifest and celebrate the joy of our own divinity through his yogic keys.
One of the most profound and accurate expressions of the Kriya energy is experienced by absorption through mantra into silence. Those who "channel" Babaji and Mataji through lectures and words are limited to manifesting a minute portion of his external energy. If they practice Yoga to clear the refuse of accumulated lifetimes their channeling will ultimately be expressed in an empowered profound silence (mouna Yoga) and that silence will serve advanced souls more usefully than discourses to the point of nausea. One self described "channel" who unfortunately collected money for her "service" was surprised when her attempts to "channel" Babaji ended in silence. It did not surprise devotees of Babaji. Babaji lives in silence--breaking it only rarely and briefly for the benefit of devotees. He also lives in ALL devotees and expects them ALL to grow into conscious channels without dramatics for the benefit of humanity and without egoism or materialism. When old souls gather together it is to do sadhana so each can benefit from the satsang energy.
Yogi Ramaiah
described his own experiences with Babaji in a series of audio tapes which he gave the author some years ago with an assignment about them. Yogi Ramaiah referred to the tapes as "Babaji stories." In a general sense, he did not foster such "grandmother tales" as he called them, preferring that sadhaks rely more on their own experiences, rather than trying to digest the meals of others, no matter how sumptuous the original ingredients. Nevertheless, the author is grateful to Babaji for having enabled some of these fascinating details to find an outlet to sincere souls through this book.
Babaji expresses himself through the various teachers of Kriya; past, present, and future. No one will ever monopolize the great fountainhead of Kriya. Yogiar once related the story of his initial contact with Babaji. After completing advanced degree work at Madras University, he was formulating plans to work on his Ph.D. in America, but was stricken with bone tuberculosis and given an "incurable" prognosis by his attending physicians and even a specialist from London. He was crushed and quickly lost all motivation to live. Is it not strange how we must sometimes sink to the depths of despair before rising to the zenith of fulfillment?
At the climax of Yogiar’s suicide attempt, Babaji reversed his fate dramatically with the clear inner command and spiritual mandate with the sweet words: "Live to realize God"! From that moment, every action of Yogiar was compelled to be an action dedicated to the cause of truth. He made wise use of his extended convalescence to plunge deeply into years of intense pranayam, meditation, and other yogic techniques (tapas).
The great master took charge of his training working both directly and through a number of subsidiary teachers (upa gurus) including Omkara Swami and Yogi Prasananda Guru, one of the earliest devotees of Ramana Maharishi and a profound yogi in his own right. In 1952, when the purpose of the illness had been served, friends and family alike were taken aback by the Yogi's abrupt and miraculous recovery brought on during a vision of Satguru Babaji. Babaji had thus set the stage for a further advance of his divine work. Teachers and books may come and go, but Babaji’s work goes on forever.
Says Lord Krishna in the Gita, "of one thousand, one seeks me - of one thousand who seeks me, one finds me." The battleground of spiritual life is littered with the corpses of those who could not at once reach the higher states. Despair not beloved reader, for every fall in our journey to the light can be a stepping stone toward success in the future; not one grain of effort will be lost in the process of spiritual evolution, for we shall return to complete that which has been our central task for eons; so to what end finds the yogic aspirant who falls short of the inner bliss? Thiramoolar answers thus...
"He will in this world take refuge again,
And by Lords grace resume Yoga in practice continual
And thus complete the undertaking unfinished."
Thirumandiram V 1903

Babaji Consciousness
The goal of vedic Tantra, as enumerated earlier, is the mergence of the individual soul with the cosmic soul. This consciousness is reflected by Christ in the statement, "I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE". In this lofty state, the breathing stops and body metabolism is supported by a tremendous influx of electromagnetic energy received from the cosmic source. This blissful inner reality is to be experienced and not expressed, since so much is lost in the expression. And yet the intellect seeks to digest this dynamic experience and the psychic being can draw great strength and growth from meditation on its promise. The Siddhas and avatars who have brought this divine consciousness into the lower planes experience it with simultaneous awareness and control of the mental and physical bodies as well.
During just such circum- stances, on 26 September, 1952, Babaji articulated an absolutely hair- raising, bliss evoking description of who, indeed, he is. The Master spoke as follows, as recorded verbatim by V.T. Neelakantan:
“I am existance-knowledge -bliss absolute. I am that by very nature. I cannot be anything else but that as I am that alone without a beginning and an end. It is my real innate nature. I am the absolute and supreme Self, both within and without the finitude. I am truth, eternal and everlasting. I am the only one, all in myself: None exist save I, in and through all that exists. I am ever all‑existence itself. I am the changeless one in the midst of all changes. I am the formless in all forms...I am the living ocean of ecstasy that rages wild and surges and storms and levels down the earth and heavens. I send such continuous wave after wave of inarticulate ecstasy into the world drowning deep and scattering all its thoughts and cares. I beat in every breast, see in every eye, throb in every pulse, smile in every flower, shine in the lightning and roar in the thunder. I flutter in the leaves, I hiss in the winds, and I roll in the surging seas. I am the wisdom of the wise, the strength of the strong, the heroism of the heroic. I am the very life of infinity, both within and without. I am the one in all and the all in one. I am the impersonal personality of the whole universe. What can make me afraid? I care not for natures laws. DEATH IS A JOKE TO ME AND I AM THE DEATH OF DEATH. I am the infinite, the eternal, and the immortal Self. Me no fire can burn, no water dissolve, no air dry, and no sword pierce. I am that supreme self before whose magnitude the suns and moons and all their systems appear as insignificant specks in the ocean and before whose glory space melts away into nothingness, time vanishes into non‑existence, and causation dwindles into emptiness. Ranging beyond names and forms, passing free into woods and forests, mountains and rivers, into day and night, clouds and stars, passing free into men and women, animals and angels, as the Self of each and all am I. Truth flows from me just as light radiates from the sun and fragrance emanates from a flower...I am the transcendental bliss, the absolute intelligence, the supreme synthesis of consciousness that shines in the shrine of every heart. I am the immutable and indescribable Atman, the dynamic principle of existence and the infinite ocean of everlasting glee."
KRIYA BABAJI