From "Shastriji: Voice of Babaji"

       Shastriji and Muniraji in Schweibenalp, after Havan, 1992

Sri Shastriji (Sri Shastriji Vishnu Datt) at Siddhashram Schweibenalp, May 10, 1985
Bhole Baba ki Jai

Ladies and gentlemen, and children You are all indeed very fortunate to be sitting in the court of Lord Haidiyakhandi, listening to the stories of His divine lilas.

Today I am going to throw some light on the incidents, on the background of how Lord Haidiyakhandi took human form and came on this earth for the good of mankind. Lord Haidiyakhandi is the absolute Brahma. To describe how He came to earth in human form is beyond speech, beyond the intellect of man. Thousands and thousands of people had His darshan, but there were very few to whom he revealed Himself, and they were the fortunate ones witnessing some of the things that happened.

To bring Him into a physical form on this earth was due to the prayers of a great saint called Mahendra Maharaja. Sri Mahendra Maharaja was born in the province of Bihar in India, in a small town called Manka. At the age of six, when Sri Mahendra Maharaja was still a child, he suffered from an incurable disease and to save him from this disease, Lord Haidiyakhandi appeared before him. And in the child's pure heart, the image of that saint remained inscribed. As he grew up, he kept thinking and meditating on the image of this saint in his heart. When he was nine years old, one day -- it was his birthday -- his mother asked him to go to a sweet-shop and buy some sweets. She gave him some money and when he went to the sweet-shop, he saw the same saint whom he had seen when he was a six year-old boy.

The saint, who was Sri Mahaprabhuji, blessed him and told him, "Son, here are some sweets for you. Go home. Today is your birthday. I give you my blessings."
When Mahendra Maharaja came home and gave the money back to his mother and also the sweets, she was very surprised and asked, "Who paid for them?"

He told her the story, that there was a saint who paid. She took the boy with her and went back to the sweet-shop, looking for the saint, but he had already disappeared. From that day on, Mahendra Maharaja's heart was very sad, as he always missed the saint, longing to meet him again. Mahendra Maharaja studied his maternal grandfather's books. His grandfather was a very learned man, and Mahendra received a lot of knowledge from reading his books. By the time he grew up, his intellect and consciousness had developed so much, that whatever he had read once, stayed with him indelibly as he had a photographic memory. After some time, he was not happy in the house, so he left home. But, he continued his studies always. He received his Masters Degree from Bhagalpur University. Then he came to Northern India and started to walk from Northern India to the West-coast of India. He walked to a place called Mount Abu where there is a famous Siddha pith, a sanctuary of the Divine Mother called Ambaji.

While in search of his master, whom he had met as a child, he kept on doing penance at Ambaji for 22 years, always searching for his master. After 22 years of penance, the Divine Mother Amba appeared before him, manifesting before Mahandra Maharaja, telling him, "My child, the guru you are looking for you will find in the Kumaon region, the foothills of the Himalayas. Go there and you will find your master. Mahendra Maharaja started walking, crossing one mountain top after another, always looking for his guru. The whole day used to walk and wherever he came to at night, there he used to rest. After walking for days, one day he came to a place called Shitlakhet. Night had fallen, and in this place there was a tea shop whose owner was a man called Shiromani Patak.

When he saw Mahendra Maharaja, he realized that this was a great saint, so he suggested to him, that since night had fallen, he should come to his house as his guest to spend the night there. But, Mahendra Maharaja replied to Mr. Patak, "I will not come to your house, but rather show me a place where I can spend the night in meditation and remembrance of the Lord. Mr. Patak said to him, "Mahendra Maharaja, there is a beautiful place down the hill, on the other side of the mountain, which is called Siddhashram. Spend the night in my house and tomorrow morning I will send my servant to take you there. You can live there as long as you want to."

When Mahendra Maharaja came to Mr. Patak's house, he went and sat down in a place where the old Haidakhan Baba in His former incarnation used to come and sit. When Mr. Patak saw that Mahendra Maharaja was sitting in the same place as old Haidakhan Baba had been sitting, he fell down, prostrating himself at his feet, and he started to cry. Quite overwhelmed, he said, "Mahendra Maharaja, I'm very happy and honored that today you are sitting in the same place as the old Babaji used to sit. All the memories are flooding back into my mind."

He was so overwhelmed by this experience that Mr. Patak started narrating story after story about Herakhan Baba to Mahendra Maharaja about what a great divine being he was, and about all the things that had happened during his presence on earth. He brought out all the literature he had written and showed it to Mahendra Maharaja. The whole night both of them spent talking about Babaji, and in the morning Mahendra Maharaja said, "Please send somebody, or you come and take me, to Siddhashram." As they were talking, suddenly they saw a man coming down from hills who shouted and said to Mahendra Maharaja, "I would have come most happily with you, but I just saw the pujari of Siddhashram who will accompany you there. I will come later and bring the foodstuff with me."

Mahendra Maharaja and the pujari went and when they arrived there, Mahendra Maharaja was very happy to see a most beautiful and peaceful ashram. There was a spring also next to the ashram. The pujari told him that, when old Haidakhan Baba first came to this ashram, there was no water there and because there was no water, they asked for some people who looked for water with a divining rod. But even with a lot of effort, they could find very little water. So one day, old Haidakhan Baba took a bowl of water with Him and went there. First He smelt the water bowl. Then He just started to dig in the ground with His hands and a strong spring welled up, wide like an elephant's trunk, and now there is a constant flow of water.

Mahendra Maharaja went to this spring and took some water, drank it and then took a bath also. There is a near-by very old Divine Mother temple (Vaishnavi Devi) where he offered worship. Mahendra Maharaja described all these incidents in his autobiography called "Anupam Kripa." After a while he started to meditate there, but realized that his mind was not in the meditation. He was not comfortable there, so he stopped and fell asleep.

He dreamt that the Divine Mother Vaishnavi Devi appeared before him, saying, "My son, I am hungry." So Mahendra Maharaja replied, "Oh Divine Mother, you are feeding the whole of creation. It is not you who is hungry, but this child of yours who has not touched any food for the last three days. That is why you have pangs of hunger."

When he woke up, he saw Mr. Patak coming with a man, bringing everything to prepare food. In a short while food was cooked and offered to the Divine Mother Vaishnavi Devi as prasad, and then they all ate. For two or three days, Mahendra Maharaja was quite content to be there, but on the fourth day he thought, "To live like this is no good. If by tonight my Lord and guru, the Supreme Divine Being, does not appear before me, I'll end my life here."

Around 1:00 am, he woke up. He saw the (star) studded sky, he became even more depressed. So, again he went inside the cottage and locked the door from inside. After a short while, when he looked up, he saw Sri Babaji standing in full human form before him. He offered his pranam at His lotus feet. Babaji said to him, "Brahmachari, what is it you want?" So Mahendra Maharaja replied, "Oh Divine master, the way I am seeing You before me, I want all humanity to have your darshan. Come and make the world happy." To which Babaji replied, "Your desires will be fulfilled."

Then Mahendra Maharaja was in seventh heaven, ecstatic with joy, and after some time, he left Siddhashram and went to Haldwani. In Haldwani he said to some people, "Now that the Lord is coming on this earth, I have to go and do some work. I have to prepare the ground for His arrival. I have to prepare some literature so that people will know about Him."

After that he lived in Vrindaban for some time or in Lobhan. In Vrindaban he used to stand in the queue for the beggars, begging for food, moving here and there. At night, he used to sleep on the roof of the Shiva temple in Vrindaban called "Gopeshwara." He kept on visiting one place after another on foot. But later on in life, he used to go also by cars and trains. Once, he was visiting a place called Bandikui in Rajasthan. In Bandikui, my younger brother was living who was a district magistrate. One day a lawyer friend of his told him that a great saint had come, so he should go and have his darshan. My mother had been suffering from paralysis for 22 years. Therefore, my brother always used to go to these saints and ask for a cure and blessing for my mother, but nothing had helped so far. After my brother arrived at Mahendra Maharaja's place and had his darshan, he realized that he was a great saint as well as a great man with much knowledge. My brother requested him to come to his house the next day. Mahendra Maharaja replied, "Yes, I'll see." The next day, early in the morning, Mahendra Maharaja came with one of his followers to my house.

My mother was totally bedridden and could not move at all. When Mahendra Maharaja blessed her, touching her, what did we see? The next moment, she sat up in bed by herself! My brother then requested, "Mahendra Maharaja, please cure her completely." But, Mahendra Maharaja said, "That is enough. Whatever had to be done, as much as she could be cured, I have done."

Mahendra Maharaja then talked to my father, asking him, "How many sons do you have?" Then he also asked about the family. My father replied, "I have two sons. My elder son I have taught Sanskrit. This is my second son whom I have taught law and he is a magistrate. We are a brahmin family of a town called Alwar and our family is the family of the "raja gurus" (teachers of princes, hereditary advisors of the royal family). They used to perform all priestly functions at the court."

(Shastriji belongs to this family of princely advisors. His father told Mahendra Maharaja that nowadays the maharajas were no more, so he worked and his son also worked, and that is how they supported the family.)

After some time, Mahendra Maharaja wanted to leave for Vrindaban, so my father, my brother, and some servants took him to the railway station. As luck would have it, I came by the same train from Alwar (Rajgarh). As I stepped onto the platform, I was surprised to see my father, brother and servants with a bearded saint -- obviously, the saints wear saffron clothes, so I understood him to be a saint. I wondered who was this man and quickly went to offer my respects to my father who said, "Son, here is a great saint. Bow to him." Without asking a single question, I fell at his feet to offer my pranams, but he just took me in his arms, embraced me and calling me by my name, said, "Oh, brother Vishnu, now I have met you!" So, as the train started to move, my brother asked Mahendra Maharaja when he would see him again. He replied, "After one month, when you both will be together in one place, I will come and give you darshan." Exactly on the 30th day, my brother was transferred from Bandikui to our native town of Rajgarh where I used to live. After that, I had many experiences and witnessed many miracles with Mahendra Maharaja. One day I will share them with you. Now I just want to speak to you of my first meeting with Mahendra Maharaja.

       (Shastriji's property in Rajgarh)
What has he not given me! One day in Rajgarh, Mahendra Maharaja just touched my head and from that moment onwards, I started composing poems in Sanskrit which is a very difficult thing to do -- but they just started to flow through me. He said, "Today is the eighth day of the new moon and the Divine Mother's grace is one you, so whatever you want to write, start writing." After that, whenever I would sit down to write, a kind of plate of written words used to appear before me, and I would just copy it and keep on writing. And within ten days, I wrote my first book called "Sadguru Kusumanjali." I took this book and offered it to Mahendra Maharaja in Vrindaban. And when Mahendra Maharaja had read the book, he said, "I'm very happy. You have written like the great old master poets of India, like Kali Das and all the others. Your language is as good as theirs, if not better. You have written everything I wanted the world to know about my Lord Haidiyakhandi." Then he wrote a letter to Mr. Vora, a publisher in Bombay, to publish this book immediately. Mahendra Maharaja made one comment. "Son, your Sanskrit poems are beautiful, beyond fault, but your Hindi translation is not as good as it should be. I would like you to write in such a manner that, after 450 years, the world will say that, "Yes, he was another Tulsidas."

After that I stopped writing in Sanskrit and concentrated on writing in Hindi. It just kept on flowing. Then, during the nine-day festival of the Divine Mother, Navaratri, Mahendra Maharaja sent someone to call me to come to Vrindaban. It was the night of the seventh day of the festival. When I went and offered him my pranams, he said, "Now the time has come when you can start writing poems in Hindi as well." So I asked him, "Please give me some outline for this book." He turned and took a small photograph from the shelf and that photograph was of the old Haidakhan Baba. It was covered by garlands. He removed the garlands and took that photo and gave it to me. He also gave me the garlands and said to me, "Now go back home and put this garland on your little daughter (whom he had named Saraswati). She will tell you what to write."

Saraswati was then four years old. When I had arrived, as I was instructed by Mahendra Maharaja, I put the garlands on my four year-old daughter Saraswati, and the moment I put the garlands on her neck (she could not walk, so I was carrying her), she felt for my pen. I took it out and from that time onwards, my daughter would just come, draw all kinds of lines on the blank paper that was lying there. Everyday she would draw all kinds of lines -- straight, crossed, or anything -- on several sheets of paper, and I would just fill up as many pages with beautiful poetry. As I would come to the last page (on) which she had marked and made her lines, she would come running from where she had been playing outside and say, "Give me the pen." She would again draw more lines on five or ten pages, so I kept on writing.

The whole of my family was amazed at what was happening. This was the happy period of my life, because at that time, Mahendra Maharaja visited my house at least 40 times. Whenever he came, he would say, "Come on. Write. Finish it off quickly, because when Sri Mahaprabhuji comes, when will you find the time to write? Finish it as quickly as you can. Don't be late!" My brother, who was a great devotee of Mahendra Maharaja, used to come and visit Mahendra Maharaja every Saturday and then go back to his work. He said to Mahendra Maharaja, "You make my brother write all these pages but without the presence of the deity, how will people understand who He is? There should be a murti (statue) deity about whom you are writing."
Mahendra Maharaja instructed my brother to go to Jaipur and there, my got three statues made and brought them to Mahendra Maharaja. The question arose where these murtis should be installed. A place called Kathgharia near Haldwani was selected and there a temple was built and the murti of old Haidakhan Baba was installed. According to the Christian calendar, this was in 1958. The night before the installation, thousands of people were there for this ceremony. A divine light was seen by all of them which had the form of Babaji. These thousands of people, - men, women, children -- all saw this with their own eyes, going into ecstasy on seeing this manifestation of Babaji appearing before them. Mahendra Maharaja called out, "He is here! He is here! The eternal form of Lord Shiva Lord Haidiyakhandi is here!"


In 1969, my brother died in Gangapur while he held the post of District Judge. I wrote a letter to Mahendra Maharaja saying, "Your servant and devotee, my brother, has died and I am without any support now." My brother left his body on June 10, 1969, and my letter reached Mahendra Maharaja on June 23, 1969. When he read my letter, tears started streaming from his eyes and he said, "When such a good devotee of mine is no more, what am I doing living in this world?" And he left his body on the same day. On June 23, 1969, Mahendra Maharaja left his body, and in 1970, Sri Mahaprabhuji appeared. On February 25, 1971, he was brought to Vrindaban. This date, February 25, is the 12th day after leaving His body (Sri Mahaprabhuji i.e. -- February 14, 1984).



For 13 years, Sri Mahaprabhuji kept on giving darshan sitting on His ceremonial seat in Vrindaban. He went and gave darshan in many places, but these were the two main places where He resided -- Haidakhan and Vrindaban.

Mahendra Maharaja used to keep on praying to Sri Mahaprabhuji, "Oh Lord, please come on earth and be involved with us, because when you are not involved with us, you are beyond the human mind, beyond the human race, and if you come down to this earth and you are with us, you can lift us up."

Sri Mahaprabhuji performed thousands of small yagnas, but His great yagnas were 171 in number, in which thousands of people participated and ate the bandharas. Hundreds of quintals of offerings were given into the sacred fires. Who has the capacity to bring down the Divine Supreme Being, the Divine Supreme Brahma, from up there to this earth? The great tapasya and self-sacrifice of Mahendra Maharaja could do this! For just a minute-manifestation, or for a minute-realization of the Supreme Divine Being, great sages have spent life after life in penance, in prayer. But, with the prayer of Mahendra Maharaja, Sri Mahaprabhuji was brought down to this earth, and we had the privilege and grace to see Him day after day for 13 years! When Sri Mahaprabhuji wanted to reveal Himself to someone, even though that person was very far away, He gave that person indications-- ' revealing Himself to him or her', but when He did not want to reveal Himself, even to those who were very close and lived with Him for 24 hours, (they) did not see anything. His sole purpose of coming here was to give grace to mankind. Every day, as long as He was here on this earth, He spent all His time, all 24 hours, to propagate "Om Namaha Shivaya", karma yoga, and the fire-ceremony, as you all have witnessed when you visited Him. In between His teaching karma yoga, the fire-ceremony and "Om Namah Shivaya", Sri

Mahaprabhuji often used to emphasize that very bad times were coming and that there would be a revolution. To counteract this great revolution, that it might (not) wipe us out, we should partake in the great spiritual revolution. The only way of not being wiped out by this great revolution is to participate in the great spiritual revolution by repeating the great mantras, like "Om Namaha Shivaya", (and) by doing puja (offering devotion and worship). These are the only three things which can save man from the catastrophe. Whenever Sri Mahaprabhuji used to come out of His rooms -- many of you who were in Haidakhan will have heard this call -- "BE ALERT! BE PREPARED!"

He has taught us that we must change our hearts for the better. Once the bad heart changes into a good heart, from individuals to nations, there will not be any war but (rather) peace among nations. If mankind is to be saved (Sri Mahaprabhuji appeared before and told us it is possible, since He had come to give us blessing and showed us the path), then we must change our hearts. We must take part in the spiritual revolution. Only then can we be saved.

(Shastriji has just quoted Mahendra Maharaja who had written that by a change of heart, the face of the earth can be changed.)

The change of the heart can change kranti (revolution) into shanti (peace). As great scientists are working every minute of their waking hours to create nuclear and other weapons to destroy mankind, the same way you should be partaking in this great effort of repeating "Om Namaha Shivaya" or any other great mantra that you want to recite, and with this force, change the course of annihilation into peace. For spiritual strength is much greater, thousands of times greater, than material might. Sri Mahaprabhuji appeared to us for the benefit of mankind, to give all the good mankind was lacking. He wanted harmony and for mankind to be one family, only that there should be no class or caste distinctions. He wanted all the world to live together I harmony.

Every country, all nations should be brothers. There should be no distinctions between colors, black, or white, or yellow. Everybody in harmony, unitedly, enjoying this beautiful creation of the Lord. As you all have gathered here and are doing this beautiful job in this most beautiful place, the same way, spread the message of Sri Mahaprabhuji, of truth, simplicity and love to the maximum amount of people, to all corners of the world and start gathering together in harmony, in peace, in love and truth and simplicity, to live in that manner and unite the world as one big family. At the end of every speech Sri Mahaprabhuji always used to say, "Be fearless and the moment that you become fearless, nothing on this earth can touch you. No catastrophe, no other adverse force can touch you!"

BHOLE BABA KI JAI!
JAI MAHA MAYA KI JAI!
JAI MAHAPRABHUJI KI JAI!
JAI VISHWA!

 

 

Αλήθεια,Απλότητα, Αγάπη
Verdad, Simplicidad, Amor
Truth, Simplicity. Love
 

 Om nama Shivay