Babaji's Grace

I ended the last chapter with a quote from Swami Shankara. It would be interesting to begin this chapter with a story my guru told about that master. So much did Yogananda know about him, indeed, that I have sometimes wondered whether he wasn’t himself Swami Shankara in a former life.

Babaji, many centuries ago, lived in a house in Benares. He had a servant. When Swami Shankara came to that city, his renown preceded him as an astrologer. Babaji’s servant went to him for a reading. When he returned, he was trembling.

“What’s the matter?” Babaji asked him.

“Swami Shankara says I will die tonight!”

“Go back to him,” said Babaji, “and tell him that it won’t happen.”

The servant returned to Shankara with Babaji’s message. That saint replied, “This karma is so strong that, if your master can prevent its coming to fruition, I will go to him and become his disciple!”

That night, Babaji extended himself on the body of the quaking man. A huge storm suddenly swept over the area. Whole trees were uplifted. Lightning struck repeatedly all around the house. When morning came, however, the man was still alive. He went back to Swami Shankara, who, on seeing him, hurried back with him and prostrated himself before Babaji. It was then that he asked for initiation, and Babaji taught him Kriya Yoga.

How could past karma be so exacting in its demands as to make Shankara so certain of that man’s fate? How did Babaji protect his servant? What drew the servant to visit Swami Shankara? (The latter’s reputation, yes, but it may have been something more.) What drew Shankara to the feet of Babaji? The fact of that servant’s still being alive—all right—but Shankara was a master. It must have been more than those mere facts that led him, seemingly out of the blue, to accept Babaji as his guru.

Some of the above questions may seem trivial, and easily answerable by that convenient catchall word, “coincidence.” I ask them because the preceding story suggested them as a possible bridge to my next subject. For one thing is very certain: Many events in our lives cannot be explained away as mere coincidences. One of these puzzles is the mystery of ongoing discipleship. A saying in the Hindu scriptures goes, “When the disciple is ready, the guru appears.” One need not search the wide world for his guru. Nor need the guru necessarily be seeking a disciple, consciously. But even if the seeker will sit in his meditation room and call deeply for help, when the time comes, that meeting will occur.  --An excerpt from Paramhansa Yogananda: A Biography by Swami Kriyananda