Babaji's Advice
While we were in India, we enjoyed a wonderful conversation with Indu Bhan. Although elderly now, in his youth Indu was a key assistant and good friend to Swami Kriyananda. Indu’s mother, Rani Bhan, was a remarkable person and a great help to Swamiji during that time. She was a powerful spiritual magnet, her house constantly visited by the great saints of that period. If you’ve heard the name of a saint from Northern India, such as Anandamayi Ma, Neem Karoli Baba, or Swami Narayan, they probably visited or stayed with Rani. She passed away in 2005, but Indu is still in touch with her through dreams and occasional visions.
Rani saw Babaji more than once during her lifetime, and Indu told us that she is still in regular contact with him on the astral plane. She asked Babaji a question that is in the minds of many of us: “Why don’t you do something to stop all the darkness we see in the world today?”
Babaji’s answer was fascinating and enlightening. “Darkness,” he said, “has its necessary place, since creation depends upon the duality of both light and dark for its very existence. But although I cannot stop the darkness, it is my job to help increase the light.” Good advice for all of us.
During our trip, we felt Babaji’s grace more strongly than ever before, sometimes very palpably. We felt his blessings in Brindaban (Babaji/Krishna’s city from ancient times), where every day Ananda devotees give material aid as well as love and dignity to many thousands of widows. We felt his hand behind the attendance of our talk in Chennai by Rajinikanth, the Indian superstar and Babaji devotee. He is so popular that sixteen regional newspapers printed the story that he had attended the event.
And we felt his blessings during the presentation of the “Global Ambassador Peace Award” at the United Nations. Shomik Chaudhuri, the man who presented the award, comes from a family of Babaji devotees. He himself received Kriya initiation at the age of twelve from a disciple of the deathless master.
Many other times also during this trip Babaji’s blessings were present. And why not? After all, we have dedicated our entire lives to serving the work he started and still guides. He promised that anyone can receive his blessing just by reverently thinking of him.
But back to his advice about light and dark: It applies not only globally but also personally. You will progress much faster if you concentrate on increasing the light in your consciousness rather than focusing on dark areas that may remain lurking there. “The greatest ‘sin,’” Paramhansa Yogananda often used to say, “is to call yourself a sinner.”
One of the aspects of the yogic path that first attracted me was that it didn’t make a big deal out of sin, seeing it as only a misdirection of energy, due to ignorance. If we but channel our energy in an upward and expansive direction, our darkness will instantly begin to wane. Master said that keeping your energy focused at the point between the eyebrows, the center of light in the body, will fill you with God’s presence, and is the fastest way to advance spiritually.
Forget the ignorant acts of the dark side and live in the light. Let’s follow Babaji’s advice and focus on increasing the light in ourselves, others, and the world. Happiness will follow.
In the light,
Nayaswami Jyotish
