I am Harmony. Radhe Shyam

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      CHAPTER III

      PREDICTIONS AND PREPARATIONS FOR BABAJI'S RETURN:

       MAHENDRA MAHARAJ AND VISHNU DUTT MISHRA

       Mahendra Baba finds Babaji

      During the years of Shri Babaji's physical absence, from 1922 to 1970, a great siddha yogi³⁸ came on the scene to tell people about Babaji and to foretell and prepare for His return.

      The man who became known as Mahendra Baba, or Mahendra Maharaj, was born on March 4, 1908, in the home of his maternal grandfather in a village called Manika, near Mithila, Bihar. Mithila is the reputed birthplace of Lord Ram's wife, Sita. His childhood and boyhood were spent in this grandfather's home.

      Mahendra's grandfather was a staunch devotee of the Goddess Durga - one of the names and aspects of The Divine Mother, the Creatrix and Nurturer. The family was well-to-do and well-educated. Mahendra attended the local school and when he came home from school he was taught Sanskrit by learned teachers. He also studied several other languages, including English.

      The grandfather was learned in Sanskrit, astrology, and the ritualistic worship of God. He had a room separate from the rest of the household where he could do his pujas (ritual worship). He also read Durga Saptshati ("Seventy Verses in Praise of Goddess Durga") in Sanskrit several times a day. Young Mahendra soon learned to read it, too.³⁹

      In his childhood and youth, Mahendra had several experiences of Babaji. He said that, as a very young child, he was healed of a near-fatal illness by a vision of Babaji and the Divine Mother, Goddess Durga. On his fifth birthday, Mahendra went to a sweet shop to buy candy and was given sweets by Shri Babaji. A man in Bombay, whom Mahendra Baba insisted on treating as a friend, rather than as a devotee, says that Mahendra Baba told him that when he graduated from high school, Mahendra went to buy sweets to celebrate the event and that, at the sweet shop, he was embarrassed by the stare of a tall, old saint. When Mahendra received his sweets, he offered some to this saint. The saint refused the sweets but said he wanted to go to Mahendra's home. Mahendra led the saint to his home and for the next six days and nights the saint taught Mahendra yogic knowledge. Then the saint walked out of the house and did not return. Mahendra had asked this guru where he came from (he replied that he had come from the Himalayas), but he had not asked his name. It is customary to call religious men "Baba" or "Maharaj," so Mahendra had needed no other name in his conversations with the saint.

      Mahendra told other devotees that as soon as he reached boyhood he developed a desire to go to Vrindaban and meditate; he had a great love and respect for Lord Krishna. One day, when still a young boy, he asked his mother's permission to go to Vrindaban and repeat Krishna's name and 'find God.' His mother wept and begged him not to go until he had more education and understood spirituality better.

      Mahendra went to college in Patna, Bihar. He told his friend in Bombay that while he was in Patna he saw his saintly teacher again. On a cold December day, Mahendra and a number of other college students saw and were intrigued by a 'mahatma' (great soul) and followed him through the city streets. The mahatma went to the bank of the Ganges River, threw off his outer clothes, waded out to an island in the river, and sat yogi-fashion. As he sat, the whole area around him became warm; the boys on the river bank took off their winter wraps as they stood and watched the saint. The saint shouted out to them, "Do not try to test a yogi's powers!" and the boys quickly left the area.

      Mahendra capped his formal education with a Master of Arts degree in philosophy from Bhagalpur University in Bihar. His writings indicate a high degree of learning; they are so full of Sanskrit quotations and allusions to scriptural and literary incidents that they often make heavy reading for educated readers and they are extremely difficult to translate. Mahendra Maharaj told people that after he completed his education, he took part in Mahatma Gandhi's political movement for a while and visited many cities while involved in this work.

      Mahendra said he decided to leave his home in 1928. One day, while out for a walk, he decided to go to Benares, so he just kept on walking - a distance of at least two hundred miles from his home. He spent some time in the Vishwanath Temple in Benares and then started a school. After a few days, his grandfather, learning where Mahendra was, sent him some money and said he would come to see Mahendra. On hearing this, Mahendra used the money his grand­father sent to move on to Vrindaban, where he "fell at the feet of Mother Radhaji."⁴⁰

      He settled down for a long stay for 'sadhana' (religious practices for spiritual growth) in the village of Lohban, some miles from Vrindaban and close to Mathura, where Lord Krishna was born. His stay there lasted about twenty years, during which time he traveled a good deal and spent much time also in the Datta District of Gujarat, near the town of Ambaji, an area closely associated with the Divine Mother Amba. He never again visited his family in Bihar. While in Lohban, Mahendra Baba organized sessions for japa (repetition of God's names), for singing devotional songs, and for reading of scriptures like the Ramanaya. Many people came to him and were benefited by their association with him.⁴¹ He is still well remembered in Lohban. In 1984, the people of the village gave land and began collecting funds to build a temple and a small ashram in honor of Mahendra Maharaj and Shri Haidakhan Baba.

      Though Mahendra Baba went to Vrindaban and Lohban to be with Lord Krishna and Mother Radha, he did not forget his great СКАЧАТЬ