Right at the foot of the mountain, he acquired a small stone statuette of Mahavatar Babaji, on which he performed the traditional ritual of worship. The divine boy, along with his older brother Keshan, brought flowers and milk, sacred ashes and incense to the statue of Mahavatar Babaji. They sang mantras dedicated to Lord Shiva and Mahavatar Babaji. It was amazing to watch Prema Sai Baba perform such worship.
Who can the Avatar worship? Everything was mysterious in this action, including the meaning and meanings of this sacred action. Returning home to his village, Prema Sai Baba performed several more worship ceremonies for Mahavatar Babaji.
During the pilgrimage, Prema Sai Baba visited the main temple of Lord Shiva at the foot of Mount Arunachala, which is called Arunachaleshvara. We also visited the tombs of three great sages who lived at the foot of the sacred mountain in the 20th century: Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950), Sheshadri Swamigal (1870–1929) and Yogi Ramsuratkumar (1918–2001).
30. Prema Sai Baba and Mahavatar Babaji
Starting from 2021, the boy Prema Sai Baba started frequently talking about Mahavatar Babaji, the immortal yogi from the Himalayas. What do we know about Babaji?
Mahavatar Babaji is the Himalayan Mahatma. Since the middle of the 20th century, a lot of publications about him have gradually appeared. Speculation has been made about his birth, life and mission, but Babaji remains a mystery.
Mahavatar Babaji is at the absolute level of enlightenment. He is a physically immortal master, which is the perfect stage of development, beyond human understanding. Around us, people are born, live life, and then die. The surrounding reality convinces us that all people are mortal. That is why information about the immortal Himalayan Mahatmas causes mixed feelings, from admiration to skepticism.
Of course, physical immortality is not the goal of divine evolution. We follow the path of spiritual self-improvement in order to know God in our spiritual heart. This process can be described in different ways.
Someone talks about merging with God, someone prefers to talk about the awakening of God in the spiritual heart, for someone this is the way of knowing the truth about God, dissolving in God, rising to God, etc.
It is not so important how we try to describe the path of divine evolution. What is important is that this path is associated with the transformation of consciousness and self-realization of the original unity of the soul and God. Physical immortality is a natural consequence of higher enlightenment, as explained by my Kriya Yoga meditation guru, Yogi Ramaiah (1923–2006).
Prema Sai Baba says that Mahavatar Babaji really exists and is one of the greatest spiritual mentors of mankind. In 2021, Prema Sai Baba talked about Babaji so often that at times there was a feeling of Babaji's invisible presence in Prema Sai's house.
Prema Sai Baba performed the first great ritual of worship to Mahavatar Babaji at the foot of Mount Arunachala. Subsequently, he performed several more worship ceremonies at his home in the village of Doddamallur. These events are truly a great mystery, pointing to the joint mission of the three Sai Avatars and Mahavatar Babaji on Earth in the name of the spiritual transformation of mankind.
In my main book, Creativity of Eternal Life, the first and second parts are devoted to the life and teachings of Mahavatar Babaji. One of the sources of reliable information about Mahavatar Babaji was my guru, Yogi Ramaiah.
I was lucky to comprehend the wisdom of the practice of meditation and mantra under the guidance of Yogi Ramaiah for 12 years. The uniqueness of Yogi Ramaiah was that he studied in the Himalayan cave ashram of Babaji in the middle of the 20th century.
Mahavatar Babaji lives in the Himalayas, but he can appear anywhere in the world to meet with disciples and give spiritual instructions. That is why it is not necessary to travel to the distant Himalayas in order to see a great teacher.
If you are spiritually and energetically ready, he himself can miraculously appear in front of you at any moment, even if you are at home in any part of the world.
By attuning with Mahavatar Babaji during meditation or prayer, you can draw on his blessed presence and experience the invisible or even apparent closeness of this supreme teacher.
The body of Mahavatar Babaji is called the "body of eternal youth" because, despite the fact that he has been living on Earth for many aeons, he looks like a young man. My teacher Yogi Ramaiah has repeatedly told me that Babaji looks like a young man of about eighteen years of age, and some direct disciples of Mahavatar Babaji describe his appearance as a young man of about twenty years.
One of the most difficult truths to understand about Mahavatar Babaji is that he is physically immortal. There are many steps on the path of enlightenment and self-realization. At the highest peaks of spiritual experience, the matter of the physical body is also transformed into a luminous golden substance.
The beautiful, eternally youthful body of Mahavatar Babaji does not cast a shadow, because it is itself a source of the purest light. This body does not eat physical food, nor does it need sleep and rest. The most amazing thing about this body is that it does not breathe.
We tend to think that breathing is the basis of life. Human life begins with the first breath and ends with the last breath — breathing is synonymous with life itself. Each inhalation symbolizes birth, and each exhalation symbolizes death.
During the day we experience thousands of small births and deaths; each inhalation and exhalation is a new life, full of new possibilities. Since Mahavatar Babaji is beyond the duality of birth and death, his perfect body does not carry out the process of breathing.
One of my favorite books on self-development and esotericism, which I have been reading and re-reading for many years, is Autobiography of a Yogi by the prominent Indian spiritual teacher Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952).
He wrote his autobiography as a captivating novel, in a beautiful literary style, with an unusual plot and vivid descriptions of amazing events. The book contains the deepest information about Mahavatar Babaji and other teachers of the Kriya Yoga tradition.
For a large number of spiritual seekers from various countries, this amazing book was the first experience they had of contact with true divinity, helping them to embark on the path of spiritual self-exploration.
There are many practitioners of meditation and yoga for whom Autobiography of a Yogi is a reference book to help people advance on the path of knowledge of eternal truth.
Paramahansa Yogananda published The Autobiography of a Yogi in 1946, detailing his life story and numerous stories of interactions with prominent spiritual teachers in the Kriya Yoga tradition, including some stories about the legendary Babaji.
For the first time in the history of mankind, in his autobiography, Paramahansa Yogananda openly told a wide readership about the existence of Mahavatar Babaji. It is hard to imagine now, but before the publication of Autobiography of a Yogi, only a small group of advanced yogis knew of Babaji's existence.
In his book, Paramahansa Yogananda mentioned his personal meeting with Mahavatar Babaji. He also talked about how several other teachers of the Kriya Yoga tradition also met directly with the immortal Babaji and received spiritual instructions from him.
Information about Mahavatar Babaji is not just a personal experience or fantasy of Yogananda; it is serious and objective information confirmed by many great yogis who managed to communicate directly with Babaji.
Mahavatar Babaji was not born in the usual way. He appeared from a flash of light on the sacred Mount Kailash in Tibet, which happened in ancient times. He has lived on Earth for many millions of years.