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Today’s show celebrates Mahavatar Babaji Smriti Divas, the anniversary of the meeting between Saint Mahavatar Babaji (vegetarian) and Paramahansa Yogananda (vegetarian) before He left on His mission for the United States to spread Kriya Yoga worldwide. Saint Mahavatar Babaji, is an avatar and the teacher of Lahiri Mahasaya (vegetarian) who helped revive Kriya Yoga back into the world. We are pleased to present selections from Chapter 33, “Babaji, the Yogi-Christ of Modern India,” from the book “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda (vegetarian). “[…] ‘Babaji’s spiritual state is beyond human comprehension,’ Sri Yukteswar explained to me. ‘The dwarfed vision of men cannot pierce to His transcendental star. One attempts in vain even to picture the Avatar’s attainment. It is inconceivable.’ The UPANISHADS have minutely classified every stage of spiritual advancement. A SIDDHA (‘perfected being’) has progressed from the state of a JIVANMUKTA (‘freed while living’) to that of a PARAMUKTA (‘supremely free’ – full power over death); the latter has completely escaped from the mayic [maya influence] thralldom and its re-incarnational round. The PARAMUKTA, therefore, seldom returns to a physical body; if he does, he is an avatar, a divinely appointed medium of supernal blessings on the world. An avatar is unsubject to the universal economy; his pure body, visible as a light image, is free from any debt to nature. The casual gaze may see nothing extraordinary in an avatar’s form, but it casts no shadow nor makes any footprint on the ground. These are outward symbolic proofs of an inward lack of darkness and material bondage. Such a God-man alone knows the Truth behind the relativities of life and death. […] Great prophets like Christ and Krishna come to Earth for a specific and spectacular purpose; they depart as soon as it is accomplished. Other avatars, like Babaji, undertake work which is concerned more with the slow evolutionary progress of man during the centuries than with any one outstanding event of history. Such Masters always veil themselves from the gross public gaze, and have the power to become invisible at will. For these reasons, and because they generally instruct their disciples to maintain silence about them, a number of towering spiritual figures remain world-unknown. I give in these pages on Babaji merely a hint of His life – only a few facts which He deems it fit and helpful to be publicly imparted. […]”
