Part One
Initiation
In 1956 a momentous meeting took place for Laxmi Narayan. On one of his occasional visits to Yeola, a town about 50 miles east of Nasik, Laxmi Narayan was told of a "true sadhu” also from Karnataka, his own birthplace. He lived very simply three miles away in a tiny hamlet called Suki. As it happened, the "true sadhu” turned out to be none other than Swami Muktananda Paramahamsa (Baba). He was a disciple of the great Swami Nityananda of Ganeshpuri. Baba was later to settle in Ganeshpuri himself, founding an ashram called Gurudev Siddha Peeth in memory of Nityananda, which was to attract thousands of seekers from all over the world. Swamiji later described the meeting quite casually.
On arrival in Suki I saw Baba reclining on a swing with a few devotees sitting close by. I paid my respects and sat down. Suddenly the devotees came and started touching my feet.
I told them, “Touch your guru's feet, not mine.' They replied, “Our guru has told us to touch yours.’
Indeed, the mutual love and respect born at that first meeting must have been very great because the same evening, after the devotees had departed leaving the two together, Laxmi Narayan requested Baba to initiate him as his guru. It is interesting to note that not only did Baba initiate him that very night, but also returned Laxmi Narayan's humble dakshina with a handful of coins offered to the padukas of his own guru Nityananda. Laxmi Narayan, however, insisted that his guru should accept the dakshina, however modest.
Baba instructed, 'Come to Ganeshpuri when I call you, meanwhile return to Sapta Shringh. It's a good place.
The 'good place' was at that time a tiny collection of buildings housing a few brahmins and a small number of very poor tribal people.
I heard nothing from Baba for a while. Then, quite some time later in Sapta Shringh, some pilgrims visited and I offered them what hospitality I could. They told me their guru had sent them on a pilgrimage, so I asked them his name.
'Swami Muktananda of Ganeshpuri,' was the reply.
I told them he was also mine! They reported back to Baba and soon afterward he called me to Ganeshpuri. It was the first of many visits.
Great closeness was destined to develop between them. It was quite soon after this encounter that a second meeting took place with Swami Janananda, another famous disciple of Swami Nityananda, about whom Babaji was later to say, "He who has seen Swami Janananda has seen Nityananda.”
About that time I was thinking of building a small hut to live in at Sapta Shringh, but the funds weren't available. One day a certain man took me to Nasik for the darshan of Swami Janananda, Bhagawan Nityananda's disciple who runs the Nityananda Ashram in Kanangaard, Karnataka. In the evening we went to meet him and he spoke lovingly to me. I asked him about the route to Kailas and Manasaror, which he himself had visited. He told me the route he'd taken and the difficulties he'd encountered. He then invited me to take food and in the evening there was a film on Nityananda. The following day I took leave of Swamiji and returned to Sapta Shringn. It so happened that the man who had accompanied me gave me 100 rupees and that was enough to start work on my hut!
Founding the Ashram
After completion, however, the hut was found to leak so badly in the monsoon that Laxmi Narayan slept and meditated on raised boxes. The three-and-one-half-month monsoon in Sapta Shringh is notorious and the 4,500-foot mountain often stays under clouds for days at a time, leaving an almost permanent film of damp on everything.
Gradually Laxmi Narayan's spiritual destiny started to unfold and manifest itself, attracting an ever-expanding nucleus of devotees. An ashram was soon to emerge out of that solitary, leaking room.
It was my habit from the earliest days to distribute prasad to the adivasi children, and seeing it, people started offering the facilities for their proper feeding. A dharamsala sprang up and finally a small ashram, which included a children's hostel and a small school. The ashram we called Sapta Shringh Gurudev Ashram. Sapta Shringh in honor of the Mother and Gurudev in honor of all the great mahatmas who have done penance there. Originally we thought of providing the children with three meals a day. However, this idea was put aside as it encouraged the villagers to be idle, as they didn't then have to work to feed their own children! So we gave them only breakfast and lunch.
Soon poor children from the neighboring villages came and stayed with us. They were given free board and lodging and education at the school. The government offered us financial help but I refused, saying, 'The government has only two hands, where the Mother has a thousand!
The ashram has continued up to the present day and now how houses about fifty poor children. A visitor can witness the moving sight of anywhere up to one hundred twenty-five children being served breakfast and lunch, as well as a small evening prasad, in the ashram hall every day of the year.
'Bal Bhojan’ was officially inaugurated by Swami Muktananda in 1960 and the events that accompanied the opening inaugurations and yagna were a sign of what lay in the future.
In the middle of the Nauchandi Yagna a man arrived with a silver statue of the Sapta Shringh Devi, which he presented to me. He explained that he had ordered the statue to be made in Nasik for himself, but that in a dream, the Mother had told him to give it to the sadhu at Sapta Shringh. He had ignored the dream, whereupon a second time he was ordered to do so. When he had ignored the second warning, a wall of his house collapsed! Taking the divine hint, he set out immediately for Sapta Shringh and was now delivering the statue to "the sadhu." Strange to say, it was from that moment that the ashram really blossomed and grew rapidly. The same statue is in the ashram temple to this day.
In the life of a mahatma there is almost always a period of seeking or tapasya and then a point of breakthrough when the seeker leaps from the pond of selfhood into the sea of universal consciousness, emerging transformed. Once Swamiji pointed to an old photograph of himself and commented, 'That was another Babaji,' pointing to a time before he'd been reborn into God consciousness. It is significant that in 1962 Baba Muktananda sent him a large chair similar to that used by himself and Swami Nityananda. However Babaji rarely used it and preferred a folded gunny sack on the floor with the children.
Sanyassa
In April 1963, at the express wish of his guru, Laxmi Narayan, who until then had worn the white cloth of a brahmachari, was initiated into the Saraswati order of monks at Kailas Math, Nasik. Swami Akhandananda, the Mahamandeleshwar, himself a great mahatma, spontaneously gave Laxmi Narayan the name Prakashananda (the bliss of the light of awareness) because Laxmi Narayan had become a beacon of his guru's light. From then on, Laxmi Narayan became "Babaji” or "Swamiji.”
It had been Baba Muktananda's wish that his disciple, now Swami Prakashananda Saraswati, would assume responsibility for his Ganeshpuri ashram, but Babaji's heart was at Sapta Shringh and he didn't want involvement with the politics and bustle of a large ashram.
For three days Baba pressed me to take the gadi (seat of authority) at his ashram near Ganeshpuri, but I told him, 'A flower garland only has value on account of the flowers; the moment they wither it is thrown away. You are the flowers and I am the string and in the event of your not being present, I would be tossed aside.'
Baba Muktananda finally conceded to Babaji's wish and allowed him to return to Sapta Shringh. However, Babaji promised that as long as his guru was alive, he would make regular visits to the Ganeshpuri ashram, especially in Muktanandaji's absence.
Years later, in May 1982, Baba Muktananda "passed on the gadi" to two young disciples, Swamis Chidivilasananda and Nityananda. The ceremonies consisted of two parts. The first was when Baba was crowned as a spiritual king with a crown and a magnificent red and gold shawl; the second was when, dressed in plain cotton cloth, he gave the throne and kingdom to his two disciples. It is significant that Babaji was present at the ceremonies and was profoundly and movingly honored by his guru, who later lovingly presented him with the same red and gold shawl and a silver-studded stick. It is also interesting that Babaji later gave the same shawl to Swami Pranavananda, an early disciple of Baba Muktananda for whom Babaji had a very special affection and regard. Pranavanandaji, like Babaji, had preferred a quiet, simple life to that of a big ashram. About the silver stick, Babaji later commented, “Baba gave me this stick as authority to point out faults and to speak out if necessary.”
Pranavananda's relationship with Babaji was a very special and close one. Pranavananda was a short, round man of infectious vitality and humor who some thought resembled Ganesh, the round-bellied, elephant-headed god who is the remover of all obstacles. Having received sannyas initiation from Baba Muktananda, Pranavanandaji then came and lived with Babaji at Sapta Shringh helping to teach the ashram boys. Soon, however, he left for a solitary life in the wild country at Patana near Chalisgoan where there was an ancient temple to the Mother. In the course of time, he attained great spiritual status and was described by Babaji as a great soul. The unique relationship between the two was visibly manifested as we shall see, and played an important part in both their lives.
Another close disciple is Om Baba, who at present runs the Sapta Shringh Ashram. An ex-military man, he has been engaged in serving the ashram since its conception and it is largely due to his efforts that the ashram has expanded its facilities, such as the ability to offer accommodation to visiting pilgrims. A fine new hostel has also been built for the resident children. Another disciple, Swami Umananda, a gentle man from Karnataka, met Babaji in Sapta Shringh in 1977 and served there for twelve years before moving on.
There is little doubt that Babaji's presence form 1953 to 1980 had an enormous effect in popularizing Sapta Shringh. His universal love, coupled with his atma-jnan, planted the seed of devotion and knowledge in many hearts, both in India and abroad. To be fortunate enough to stay at the ashram with him was an experience to treasure. The effect of his presence on those around him was profound and had the power to awake in a seeker spontaneous faith, devotion, and love, setting doubts at rest. To perceive Babaji as being a physical manifestation of the power of Sapta Shringh was not a difficult matter. On occasion, he would go into seclusion and stay in his hut. Unlike the original hut sixty feet away, this was built nine feet by nine feet by nine feet underground (his meditation cave) in honor of the nine-syllabled Devi mantra he used in his invocation of the Mother. On one such two-day retreat, the entire ashram seemed illuminated and transfigured. Finally, when he appeared on the second day, there was no familiar personality, only a terrifying all-knowing presence. The third day he was back to normal, laughing and joking as usual. There is no doubt that spiritual seekers were able to make fast progress in his presence, as, like his guru, he had the ability to bestow shaktipat. Although not everyone who came to him asked about spiritual matters, nevertheless his knowledge of them was inexhaustible and profound, as was his unassuming wisdom on any subject raised.
One of his chief roles at Sapta Shringh was serving as headmaster in the gurukrula tradition to the ashram students. As one in whom the presence of Jagadamba, the Mother, was active, Babaii's chief function was channeling Her to a confused and troubled world, to transmit Her love to Her children. This he did by oral teaching which spontaneously arose and was never prearranged, and by the presence and shakti he emanated. Although some of the teaching was direct upadesh, a lot of it, as we shall see, was by stories. His storehouse of stories and ability to talk for hours at a time almost amounted to a siddhi, and he was also a great lover of the classical stories such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
The stories or parables were a unique feature of his teaching. Kirin Narayan wrote a book based around Swamiji's stones, Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels. 1He never told a story the same way twice and adapted it to his listeners. Indeed, sometimes he would even name the characters in the story after those sitting in front of him!
His use of stories was twofold. First, to offer a focus of meditation to his listeners and second, to use the stories to illustrate points to individuals. What struck people most on meeting him was the depth of love which emanated from his being. Quite soon a visitor understood that here was no ordinary sadhu or swami.
Contact with Westerners
During his visits to his guru's Ganeshpuri ashram he had his first major contact with Westerners. However, Babaji, as a traditional sanyasi, was wary of diluting the tradition and teachings handed down through generations with the "freedom” of the West.
Why should I go to America? Here there are stones, trees, and water just like over there. What is so lacking here in India? Here there may be little money, but at least peace can be found. Every place has a quality and no place is alike. Over in America there is money but people lack peace. If I visit there, I'll have to become like that, too. An individual is a little world, and his environment is a big world. Obviously, a man tends to become like his environment. The little world becomes like the big world. A man can become spoiled by that environment. Desire for wealth spoils a man and, even if he desires happiness, it can lead him astray. Anyway, I have a world atlas, and although my eyes are bad, I only have to ask someone to point out a city or a town and that is enough. If I want to see someone, I just close my eyes and envisage them. If I want to talk to them, I talk to them here (points to his heart). To give a blessing, I can do that just as well from here, even with someone I have never seen before.
In India we have a simple love, whereas in the West the strongest love is for money. If Westerners want to experience our love, it is better for them to come here to India.
In spite of his conviction of the corrupting power of wealth, he loved Westerners as he loved all people, and welcomed his guru's Western disciples who occasionally visited with a care and tenderness that was unforgettable and directly honored his guru:
The respect I am giving you is because you come from my guru. We are all guru-brothers.
Two of the Western seekers Babaji met in the early 1970s are now well-known teachers—Ram Das and Franklin Jones, now known as Avatar Adi Da Samraj. Avatar Adi Da Samraj expressed an interest in this biography and was kind enough to contribute his memories of Swamiji as: "...a vessel of happiness. ...a beautiful being who breathed the spiritual force in such a way that it saturated his entire body. I saw him standing up in a crowd, all of us sitting and only he standing. His entire body was transfigured by white and yellow light all over the body. I was spontaneously moved to bow down to worship this form, this sign.... All kinds of people in that room saw Swami Prakashananda transfigured, about one hundred or so. He was the only one who stood up and shone. You cannot do this by an act of will. It was a very sacred occasion. I put my head to the floor to acknowledge That.... What a wonder, what beauty. A man that enjoys this sublime state should be remembered. He will be famous in our communion forever.”
A third Westerner and less well-known teacher is author and nutritionist Gabriel Cousens, M.D., a family man and holistic physician with all its inherent responsibilities. Dr. Cousens was acknowledged by Babaji on several occasions to be a yogi of real spiritual attainment who "has realized the innate perfection.” True to Babaji's agaram bagaram tradition and deeply affected by his contact with Babaji, Dr. Cousens makes no claim to be anything. He functions as a support for people spiritually, as a mentor, and by continuing the tradition of Babaji's work as a lamp from which shaktipat is a vehicle of grace for other lamps to be lit.
Dr. Cousens teaches around the world as well as at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona, where he is the director.
1 University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-819-5
