Babaji gives "Communion"
Shared By Marge DeVivo
We rode into Haidakhan in the back of a large truck, all the way through the riverbed, and up to the bottom of the 108 steps! This seemed miraculous to me, as I had heard all the stories of walking up through the riverbed, through chest-high water, almost being swept away downstream, with every step. I was very much in fear of that, but when it was time to go to Haidakhan, I just decided Babaji would handle that for me and I had to face the fear ... and so He did. The truck left with us on it from the Kailash View Hotel on the morning of June 26, and we arrived in Haidakhan before lunchtime. We were a bit sunburned and overheated because of the intensity of the sun at that time of year and that time of day.
Arriving in Haidakhan, I was expecting to change into some very nice sari in order to go and meet the Master Babaji. When we arrived, we went up the 108 steps and were directed to stay in the International Guest House, where our luggage was deposited. Then we were told to go directly to Babaji, who was taking a bath in the river on the opposite side, known as the Gufa (cave) side. What about changing into nice clothes? Nope, we were to greet Him first and then we could change clothes, after that. Oh MY! This meant I was meeting Babaji in a striped 3-button shirt and cotton pants, the only clothes I had with me appropriate for climbing onto the top of a truck!!! This was not what I had in mind. I had heard stories that you change into a magnificent white sari and get very elegantly put together. Oh well!
Anyway, there was no way to argue with anyone about this or change it. From the top of the steps we could see quite an entourage of people down in the river on the other side, with a magnificent glowing figure in pure white under a large sky-blue umbrella!! THIS WAS BABAJI!! From the moment we spotted Him, He also seemed to spot us! He stopped right where He was, with the full entourage stopped behind Him. We headed back down the 108 steps and across the river. There were many channels to cross, with some bridges and some where you just walked through the water. He just stared at us the entire trip across the river. It's quite a long trip, and the energy felt like He was pointing at us, but this was only with His eyes.
As we got closer, I would glance up whenever I could to get a glimpse of Him. I couldn't look very long because of all the rocks that I was in danger of tripping over even when I was very careful. By the time we were about 100 feet from Babaji, my body started to tremble uncontrollably, especially my legs. I had to put my hands on my thighs to keep my legs walking and moving forward. I had only one thought as I got closer and closer "Oh my God! This is God!" Even from the top of the stairs, it appeared that there was a huge light all around Babaji, about 8 feet in diameter. This "glow" became brighter as we got closer. This trembling was so fierce I had to concentrate on every step to get there.
Finally, we reached Babaji's feet and we knelt down to pranam (touch His feet). As we stood up, He spoke to us in German. We didn't say anything, so then He said in English "What your name?" I opened my mouth, and NOTHING would come out, not even a whisper! Jim was hitting his forehead, looking down, saying "our names, our names, what are our names?" Finally, he said "we are Jim and Marge, from America." And then I added "from Emahmn." (Emahmn was our spiritual teacher in the USA who had prepared us for our visit to Babaji. Babaji loved Emahmn very much.) At that, Babaji turned downriver and screamed with so much force and ferocity, it scared the tar out of us, "EMAHMN! EMAHMN!" We looked at each other in total terror, like "Oh No! We said the wrong thing! Now He's going to destroy us!" When He turned back to us, it was with total compassion and warmth. (This quality of Babaji to change "moods" so quickly and completely was noticed by all in His presence.)
He motioned immediately for us to greet Muniraji, who was in the entourage of those who had gone to the bath. We had been carrying Muniraji's picture around with us for weeks. We had been told he was a great saint and we both felt deep connections to him from other lifetimes. We'd both had dreams of Muniraji and Babaji together, giving instructions and such. We ran to Shri Muniraji and tried to pranam, but he wouldn't allow that ( he was still "traveling incognito" at that time, and no one was treating him like a saint), so he grabbed our hands and shook them, saying "Welcome to Haidakhan!"
Shastriji told us later that the only reason Shri Muniraji was in Haidakhan that day was to welcome us, as he knew we were arriving then. We hadn't connected with him in Haldwani. So Babaji knew about this connection in our hearts, and it was the very first thing He did with us, connect us physically to Shri Muniraji. It was no surprise to us in any way, when Babaji left in 1984, that Muniraji would now be in charge of the devotees, and especially the ashrams throughout the world.
After this, we went back to Babaji, who was going over to the gufa to bless the food before lunch. All the lunches were prepared on the gufa side in that season, so everyone had to cross the river for prasad (food). He told us to go sit in the shade. We were following Him around like two puppies. He took us into the shade of the nine temples on the marble floor and showed us exactly where to sit down. There were big trays of food up on the walls. When we first sat down there, there were at least 20 people milling about waiting for lunch. Then something strange happened, and suddenly, we were the only ones there with Babaji. Everyone else just "disappeared." He started pacing back and forth in front of us, like a tiger. It seemed you could almost see sparks coming off Him as the energy was so electric!! He was pacing and looking at us, like trying to figure out what to do with us. We had been out in the hot sun all the way up in the truck. We were not in good shape. I was still trembling like a leaf in the wind. It helped to sit on the cool marble, but I was in so much AWE I really couldn't function.
Finally, after much pacing and electricity and awe, Babaji picked up a tray of chappati. He took one off the tray, bit off a piece, breathed on the rest of it, went to Jim and said, "Open," and he stuck this chappati in his mouth. Then He did the same with me with a smaller one. As soon as this bread hit my mouth, I was immediately calmed and soothed. I relaxed and ate the chappati completely, feeling nourished, quieted, and all of a sudden, it was like I had ALWAYS been here with Babaji!!! It was completely NORMAL to see Him there in front of me; the scene was familiar; the faces were familiar; I was HOME!!! There was no other world! I would look at Him and smile, and just say, "Oh! There's Babaji!" No more trembling, no more shyness, no more unworthiness to the point of not functioning. My other life was completely illusion; this was the real world. FINALLY, the real world happened in my life, as I'd always felt something was "wrong" with me, like things just didn't make sense in my normal everyday life. Here, everything finally made sense.
In fact, from then until about 3 days before I went home, I couldn't even REMEMBER anything about my home or family or car or work or ANYTHING about living in Nebraska. If people asked where we were from, we could say "Nebraska" or the USA, but details were GONE!!! One afternoon, in our room in Haidakhan, Jim and I were trying to remember a name of any one of our sisters. I have three sisters, and he has 5. We had promised to send postcards to all these people. NEITHER of us could come up with a name of ANY of them for a long time. Finally, after really struggling, like when you do a past-life hypnosis or something, I got the name of one of my sisters, and I kept saying it over and over, like "what a strange name!"
We had gone to India expressly to ask Babaji what to do with our acreage, which He had guided us to buy in 1980 rather than visit Him then. We couldn't even remember there WAS an acreage until shortly before we were going to leave ... and even then, there was no way to remember a question or a problem to ask Him about while in His presence. While in His Presence, there was no problem, no question, just pure BEING, in a heightened state of awareness. It was while we were farther away from Him that we figured out we had better write down our questions and ask Him while we were here rather than trying to write Him a letter from America about it! So that is what we did, eventually. (that's another story)
It was such a blessing to finally feel like life was making sense, walking around with Babaji, traveling with Him to Nainital, Haldwani, Delhi, and then to Vrindavan for Guru Purnima. The difference in food and climate and culture were very hard on my body, but my heart was filled with joy and a 'sense of belonging.' This "remembering" my True Self came with Babaji giving me the "bread of life." Just like holy communion, which I had grown up with in the Catholic Church! I'm sure He knew of that too.
This meeting Babaji was so spectacular for us that we agreed that even if He had sent us straight home after that 20-30 minutes, we would have felt complete. We had heard the stories of people who arrived, got their luggage up the steps, and Babaji would just say, "Go home. Go now." And that would be the end of it for that person. They had to leave. We went with no expectation and grateful for every single thing that happened to us for the next 12 days that we spent with Babaji.
BHOLE BABA KI JAI!!!
Marge DeVivo
Topic: Babaji gives "Communion" (Read 7045 times)