Agaram Bagaram Baba

The son of a British diplomat, Titus Foster spent much of his early years in various countries of the world. Born in Vienna, he was educated in Poland, South Africa, and England.

In 1976, he met Swami Prakashananda near Bombay, India. Titus lived in his close company for eight years as a chela (disciple).

I first met Baba Prakashananda walking along a garden path some fifty miles outside Bombay. He was dressed in the ochre-colored cotton robe of a monk and his presence, luminosity, and effortless, graceful simplicity shocked my hard cynical Western ego into silence.

My first experience of Swami Prakashananda was in 1977 at an ashram in Ganeshpuri, India. He was a spectacularly fascinating-looking human being. His clothes appeared plain and simple in contrast to the richness of his Divine depth.

The teachings of a spiritual master can be said to be influenced by two principal factors. First, by the "seed principles” which have flowered and matured within him and led him to spiritual illumination. Second, by the religious tradition in which he has evolved.

This is a wonderful presentation of "Babaji" Swami Prakashananda of Sapta Shringh mountain, who referred to himself simply as an Agaram Bagaram Baba - a topsy-turvy sadhu, or holy man.

"I am not a Siddha or Yogi nor a Jnani, still I feel that you belong to me and I belong to you," he often said, but we felt that he was surely all those.

I would like to acknowledge and thank those people who so selflessly and unstintingly helped by donating their time, suggestions, love, and patience in making this book possible :

One hundred twenty miles northeast of the sweltering bustle of Bombay lies Nasik. It is a town of pilgrimage whose altitude of 2,000 feet makes it a relative haven from the oppressive humidity of Bombay.

Who is Prakashananda? Who is a jnani? To describe the life and mind of a great soul, a jnani, is to catch a glimpse of the ultimate potential and mystery of every one of us. The jnani is one who has entered into the essence behind all religions and encompasses and embodies them all.

‘First God, then food’

In November 1917 Swamiji was born into a Brahmin family in Karnataka, South India, and given the name Laxmi Narayan. He said little about his early life. A sannyasi, it is said, has no past and seldom mentions it.

‘Sapta Shring is a physical representation of the Divine Power’

Sapta Shringh is part of a long line of mountains stretching north into Gujerat and south joining the Western Ghats. The mountain of Sapta Shringh itself stands over 4,000 feet, a 'Shakti Peeth' sacred to the Divine Mother for thousands of years.

Initiation

In 1956 a momentous meeting took place for Laxmi Narayan. On one of his occasional visits to Yeola, a town about 50 miles east of Nasik, Laxmi Narayan was told of a "true sadhu” also from Karnataka, his own birthplace.

Babaji's physique testified to tremendous strength and endurance. However, the extreme climate of Sapta Shringh, together with the former years of wandering and tapasya and having been often without adequate food, had taken a heavy toll on his body.

It was in 1987 that Pranavanandaji made a request of Babaji, with the mischievous glint of humor that characterized him, that intuitively he must have known to be relevant in the near future. It concemed Babaji's frequently stated wish to be given jal samadhi on his death.

‘You should note down what comes out of this mouth because one day many people will benefit from it.’

The teachings contained in Part II were compiled at Babaji's specific suggestion over a period of time during his meetings with a wide variety of visitors.

‘The Guru is the Eternal Principle’

Who then is the guide of a seeker wishing to make the journey back to the source of his existence? Who is the guru or true teacher?

The syllable gu means maya or ignorance and the syllable ru is that which destroys it.

‘When the Guru Principle speaks through the vehicle of a true mahatma, it can be taken as God’s word.’

Babaji never proclaimed or appointed himself as a Guru or teacher. Nevertheless, hundreds of people regarded him as a Guru although he himself was careful not to display his spiritual status and deliberately remained "agaram bagaram."

‘The seed received from the Sadguru, if nourished by the water of sadhana, will one day blossom into self-realisation.’

The guru's main work is to offer a path (marg) to God - a Sadhana. This will inevitably be based on those seed principles and disciplines which have guided his own path to God realization.

‘The seed received from the Sadguru, if nourished by the water of sadhana, will one day blossom into self-realisation.’

The guru's main work is to offer a path (marg) to God - a Sadhana. This will inevitably be based on those seed principles and disciplines which have guided his own path to God realization.

‘A human being can acquire God-like qualities and uplift humanity.’

So what of Man? In the same way that a cloth consists of many individual strands to which it owes its strength, we also consist of many lives. We think of ourselves as one life but actually this body consists of many organisms

“The one who has understood this world is always happy.”

Manas is the faculty to understand and cognize, though it has the ability and tendency to wander off on its own, like an independent entity. It is, however, the servant of the soul (atma) and totally dependent on it. Nevertheless, without this faculty there could be no cognition of the external world.

The Rain of God's grace falls and liberates us.

In the Guru Gita, Parvati asks Shiva how the individual Soul returns to God, its source. How to explain such a subtle spiritual subject?

In Mangalore during the monsoon the villagers put up temporary grass huts, but some water drops always leak through the grass roof.

‘Everything is perceived through the medium of the mind and, like a child, one's mind should be pure and not fickle. If water is pure and colourless, we can see down to its depths.’

In every spiritual path, purity of mind and heart are emphasized in order that God may be perceived within the seeker.

Our lack of discrimination causes so much trouble.

One of Swamiji's favorite subjects was discrimination between the real and the unreal. In fact, the peeling away of ignorance in order to allow the light of truth to shine through may be said to be the essence of all spiritual paths.

It is not necessary to cut yourself off from the world in order to realize God.

For Babaji, renunciation had little to do with wearing particular clothes, having a long beard, or even becoming a sanyassi. It meant to renounce the small ‘I’— the ahamkara (ego).

His word and blessing has so much power that it supersedes even the law of karma.

The jnani, it is said, is a mirror or transparency for the Supreme Self. For those fortunate enough to come into contact with him, mystical ideals such as truth, knowledge, God, love, and joy can become a reality, an actual experience.

The reader may now well ask, 'Is Babaji really no more? Where is the continuation of his work?'

The answer must be, as Babaji never tired of saying, the guru principle is within, always available to us. Great souls will always be there to reveal the true path when we ourselves are ready. Therefore, in a universal sense Babaji's work continues in all places and at all times.

Students Remember Swami Prakashananda

Dean Das, Forensic Psychologist

The year was 1975.

Following a four and one half hour climb up dry creek beds, ‘we’ (my girl- friend and I), reached the top of Sapta Shringi mountain. It was nightfall. At the foot of the 300 steps leading up to the Devi Temple, was a cluster of small bluestone buildings built on the outskirts of an impoverished village. This was the mountain ashram of the Siddha, Swami Prakashananda Saraswati.

• Abhishek - a ritualistic pouring of water on the statue or representation of a deity.

• Adivasi - literarily, 'original people.'

• Angustha Purusha - the thumb-sized individual soul in the heart.

• Anna - a small denomination of money.

• Anustan - a ritual penance.