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Mahaavatar Babaji, the revealer of Kriya Yoga, the ancient instrument that frees humans from the clutches of worldly taints ending in the merger of soul with the Spirit, is a deathless yogi. His existence was brought into light by the Autobiography of a Yogi (1946), a book authored by Paramhansa Yogananda ji.
Among the practitioners of kriya yoga, as taught by Paramhansa Yogananda ji through his organisations the SRF (headquartered in Los Angeles, California) and the YSS (headquartered in Dakshineswar, near Kolkata and branch headquarters in Rachi, Jharkhand), Babaji is revered as one who has promised to remain in his bodily form throughout the present cycle of creation to protect and guide, though intuitively, all sincere Kriya practitioners.
For any Kriya practitioner, be they as advanced as Swami Sri Yukteshwar ji, the ability to meet Babaji in bodily form is considered a touchstone of his mental state, that is how far one’s mind has become calm and free from fluctuations. If this depicts Babaji’s role in the evolution of Kriya practitioners, then his directives to Swami Yukteshwar ji to write about the unity between eastern and western religion led to the birth of a book: The Holy Science.
Finally, the way Babaji kept track of Lahiri Mahashaya ji through his birth and rebirth, the way he fulfilled his last desire (to reside in a palace), and the way he chastised him for his taking of the relationship between them as something to be demonstrated to quench the inquisitiveness of Lahiri ji’s friends depicts the uniqueness of guru-disciple relationship. It portrays the relationship as eternal, fulfilling, and above all not to be sullied by sullied by the taint of human frailties.