Paramaguru Mahavatar Baba
The master arrived for class and a number of people were unsettled, or had not arrived yet. Those who were present and ready were appreciated by the master. He declared, 'If you are here before I enter the class, it shows the intensity on your part.'
Before we left for Kedarnath, at Gaurikund, master talked to us about Mahavatar Baba and his lineage:
This is the place where I had darshan of Mahavatar Babaji during my wandering days. He is a living master in the Himalayan region, and is many thousands of years old. Once, for 45 minutes he walked in the market place at Gaurikund and people saw him (he reduced his intensity of frequency so that people could see him without being affected by his energy field). This news was published in the newspapers.
Above Gaurikund, I had his darshan. Among sanyasis, for every parampara or lineage, there is one temple which the whole lineage should visit at least once in a lifetime. For example, Muslims visit Mecca at least once in a lifetime. For the Puri parampara, Kedarnath is the temple. We belong to the Nirvana Akkada and Puri parampara, and so Kedarnath is the temple for us.
Whomsoever is initiated by me (whoever has taken the healing initiation from me), should visit Kedar at least once. This is our kshetra devata, deity of the chosen location. It is a beautiful place and the route is safe, so there is no difficulty. All can come tomorrow to the Kedar temple, no problem. The route is completely controlled by the army. They assist well; there is light and water available just like on town roads. You can stop in between wherever you want and travel easily. It is a total of 9 miles by pony or dholi (chair).
We will start out at 5 am and have darshan of Kedarnath. We will return tomorrow night itself to Gaurikund. This is the highest altitude we are going to cover in our entire trip. It is the place where the great enlightened master Shankara left his body. His energy is there. All the 5 Pandavas of the Mahabharata fame, also left their bodies here. This is the only temple built of stone, amongst the four scared locations that we cover in this trip: Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath. This temple is built of stone like South Hindu temples. Amongst the Jyothirlingas (Forms of Lord Shiva when he appeared as a column of Light), this is the first one. Rameshwaram in the tip of South Bharat is the last.
It is a powerful energy center. If you are courageous and place your faith upon Existence, you can walk the nine miles. It will help. Many masters have lived and left their body here. Many mystics, masters and rishis (sages) live here. There is every chance that you may have the darshan of Mahavatar Babaji! He is very casual and gives darshan to a lot of people here. Amongst the departed masters, he is the one who has given darshan the most, to people. The ratio would be one million to eleven. If one million people have seen Babaji, eleven have seen other masters. A simple prayer and He will come down and bless you! That is why he appeared for all in the marketplace. Good people, bad people, and so-called sinners - all of them saw him. Pray intensely; he may give you darshan.
He will appear to be around 25 years of age. His feet will not touch the ground. He will wear only an orange cloth. There are records that he wears a white cloth also. Paramahamsa Yogananda also writes that he wears an orange cloth. If Babaji feels that somebody is a sincere seeker, he immediately appears.
Babaji gave me my name when I met him a few kilometers above Gaurikund, near a cave away from the road. I was staying there when I had his darshan. Of course, I was a very hard intellectual nut and I didn't believe when I saw him. I had read that he was over 2500 years old. When I saw him, I caught hold of one of his hands to see if I was hallucinating or really seeing him. I poked his other hand. He laughed. I could see him very clearly. I understood that he was laughing because I was testing him.
He laughed and called me 'Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda.' I didn't understand what he meant at that time. I thought he was asking me to go and see someone by that name, because at that time, I wasn't enlightened and I was known as Rajashekaran. I was only an ascetic, a sanyasi. A Paramahamsa, the great swan, is the title given to a highly evolved and enlightened master
I wanted to ask him the next question: where that person was, what to do with him etc, but he smiled and walked into my body. I was scared. I moved and gave way for him but he entered into me and didn't come out the other side. I turned and saw but he wasn't there.
(This incident happened in 1997, three years before enlightenment)
I was in search of an enlightened master during that period of my life. I was intensely praying for one. I never prayed to Babaji. I didn't even know that he was in Gaurikund. I knew he was in the Himalayas. When I read Paramahamsa Yogananda's autobiography, I learnt that he is here. Any person clad in saffron whom I saw, I would have a desire that he might be my master. When he said, 'Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda,' I thought he was guiding me to see a person by that name. When I tried to enquire with the people who were there if they saw Babaji as I had seen him, they said no. He appeared to be around 25-30 years of age!
Q: Why does he stay here?
A: I don't know. Maybe he likes the weather! But most records say that he gives darshan in this area only. I don't know if he stays physically in one place and gives darshan, or if he simply reduces his frequency and gives darshan.
Usually, disciples themselves ask for s*anyas, the initiation into asceticism. But in my case, one Sadhu* forced me to take sanyas. He was 96 years old and staying in Calcutta. I stayed at his place for 6 months. Every morning I used to bathe in the Ganges at 4 am and meditate till 7pm. I never used to move from that place of meditation. When he saw me doing this day in and day out, he was shocked and said that I must take sanyas. I told him that I did not want sanyas and that I only wanted enlightenment. He said that he was going to die soon anyway, and that this would be the last thing that he would want to happily do. I then thought that the divine was arranging something for me and I agreed. He was not enlightened but he was a great tapasvi, someone who had practiced spiritual penance intensely. He initiated me through a simple procedure and pronounced my new name: Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda! I was shocked.
Usually, according to the Sanyasi rule, the person initiating the monk, the sanyasi has to go through a few prescribed steps before giving sanyas directly. He would first have to give what is termed, the brahmacharya dheeksha, the first step in four evolutionary stages of student, householder, renunciate and ascetic. Only three days later, initiation into being an ascetic, sanyas dheeksha is given; and then three says later, the special initiation of Paramahamsa lineage is given. There should have been three stages. It should have first been Brahmachari Nithyananda, then initiated as master Nithyananda provided with the stick (danda), water pot and such accessories, then finally Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda after dropping the danda. He somehow directly gave me the Paramahamsa title straight away!
When I asked him about it, he said that it simply came out of him. Because of this incident, I feel that Babaji is the one who actually gave me Sanyas. So I tell you today: that our guru Parampara traces to Babaji!'
(This incident of sanyas was in 1999, a year before master's enlightenment and two years after he met Babaji.)
Q: Master, is there a blessing that has been given to Babaji to remain young always?
A: No. Enlightened masters can stay young forever. He just reduces his frequency when he wants to give darshan and then increases the frequency and disappears. Unless you are sincere, even if you see him, what will you do? I give thousands of instructions, but you don't follow them. If he gives you darshan, it will be one more thing for you, that is all. Unless you follow his instructions, what is the use? You need to have sincerity.
I used to feel deeply connected to Kedar before s*anyas. At that time, I didn't know which lineage or parampara* I would get my initiation from. I thought I was an attribute of Shiva, or Shiva's energy. Later on, I understood when I received Sanyas from the Puri
parampara, that Kedar is the scared location of my lineage; kshetra, Lord Dakshinamurthy is our guru; Ganga is our river; God Chandramouleeshwara is our deity; Goddess Kamakshi at Kanchipuram is our Devi; Tatvamasi (Thou art That) and A*ham Brahmasmi* ( I am divine) our maha vakyas (scriptural dogmas); Paramahamsa is our Upanishad; and Rig Veda is our scripture.