If Babaji was Krishna in a previous life, and Krishna is an incarnation of Vishnu, does that mean that Babaji also is an incarnation of Vishnu?
—Balian, Scandinavia
Dear Balian,
Yes, you may say that Babaji is an incarnation of Vishnu, in Hindu terminology.
In Yogananda’s more universal terminology Babaji is an avatar, a soul who found full oneness with God’s absolute, eternal, changeless, blissful Consciousness, which is above Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. That eternal Consciousness is physically incarnating in and as Babaji. Nothing in him is “I”. Everything is only God, His consciousness. He does nothing of himself, but is like a living manifestation of God, right now, right here, on our planet.
It is tough for us unenlightened humans to understand who Babaji really is. Sri Yukteswar explains in the Autobiography of a Yogi: “Babaji’s spiritual state is beyond human comprehension. 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.”
In the Himalayas recently a saint told us: “Everything is Babaji, and Babji is in everything.”
May you have a little glimpse of his supreme reality.
In divine friendship,
Jayadev