Baba
pp. 8, 67 radicality vs. capitalism
p. 8 |
"The world is ... corrupted by capitalist elites, but we cannot hope to win any war {such as, the class-war} on the material plane." |
p. 67 |
"our elders considered him [Hari Puri Baba] too ... radical." |
pp. 15-6, 23 abodes of living saints
p. |
city |
saint |
15 |
Puttaparti |
Satya Sai Baba |
Ganes`puri |
Baba Muktananda |
|
R.s.ikes` |
Tatwala Baba |
|
15-6 |
Varanasi |
Nilakantha Tata Ji & Ananda Mayi Ma |
23 |
nigh Jaipur |
Hari Puri Baba |
pp. 17-8 S`iva
p. 17 |
S`iva "is usually depicted ... two eyes rolled upward and the third one closed. He wears a cobra around his neck and a five-day-old crescent moon in his hair, from which a |
p. 18 |
torrent of water (the Ganges or Ganga) springs forth. In his hand he holds a trident with a two-headed drum dangling from its tines." |
p. 20 Naga Baba
"Naga means naked {Actually, /naga/ is ‘dragon’; ‘naked’ is /nagna/. Apparently, a pun is intended.}, and indeed many Naga Babas have abandoned all clothing". |
pp. 22-3 out-of-body experience
p. 22 |
"I moved slowly forward, rising up from the temple floor with every step, a few inches at a time, until I was dancing on air. ... |
p. 23 |
But I had left my body and entered into another state of consciousness." |
p. 26 shape of hill-abode of saints
"From the bare, rocky hill emerged the open thighs of a giant woman, her pubic hair the only greenery on the mountain. ... I have come to meet a celibate hermit who lives in the private parts of a great rock woman." {That the male saint celebrated in each Tantra is dwelling in the vagina of a goddess, is stated in the prologues to some Vajra-yana Tantra-s.} |
pp. 33-4 the nature of knowledge
p. 33 |
"I can teach you the secrets of the soul, atma vidya; ... I can show you who you really are ... . ... |
p. 34 |
I’m talking about a different kind of text from what you are used to. It is not written; it’s not a book. ... . ... its authority and power lie in the empty spaces. On paper these are the white spaces that haven’t been touched by ink. The printing can be perceived from as many different perspectives as there are people and spirits and gods." |
pp. 34-6 guru & cela
p. 34 |
"the guru is the patron of the disciple, willing to travel to any of the three worlds to save his rear end." |
p. 35 |
"to be a disciple, a chela ... means that you will have a guide, a benefactor, a protector, one who will show you a path and do everything in his power to see to it |
p. 36 |
that you also cross to the other side, as he has, so that you may show the path to others and keep it from disappearing." |
p. 37 initiation
"virja havan, the initiation ritual into sannyas, for every neophyte who has entered into the Juna Akhara, the old Order". |
pp. 38, 40 Hari Puri Baba
p. 38 |
"when Hari Puri Baba was born, the gods and goddesses rained fragrant flowers from heaven, cows tripled their flow of milk for a month, and for once there was peace on earth." |
p. 40 |
"Hari Puri Baba obtained a number of siddhis. ... He spoke ka bhasha, the crow language, the language of birds." |
p. 40 Bhr.gu S`astra
"the Bhrigu Shastri ... possessed the Bhrigu Shastra, a text composed thousands of years ago by the Rishi Bhrigu, his ancestor. The Bhrigu Shastri also has a highly guarded section of that ancient text that contains horoscopes for those who would approach his lineage for thousands of years to come." {It is would appear that this is not a material text, but rather one in a divine world, which text is consulted there whenever the need may arise.} |
pp. 41-3, 45-7 ritual of initiation
p. 41 |
"shave all your hair, down there too, not just your head and face. ... the three worlds know you are my disciple ... . |
p. 42 |
Anyone becoming a sannyasi is given a new name, a name for entering a new world ... . ... In the fifth century BC {788-820 Chr.E. ("ShA")}, Adi Shankara formalized preexisting groupings of renunciates ... into an order that became known as the order of the Ten Names, the members of which became known as sannyasis. On eof those names was Puri ... . ... Rampuri also means a distinctive knife – a switchblade – that comes from the town of Rampur, after which it was named. ... Adi Shankara vanished from the world (literally) at the age of twenty-eight. {32, the same age as Christ according to the usual tradition} ... |
p. 43 |
The barber handed me a small mirror ... so that I could watch". |
p. 45 |
"Pointing to the altar, Hari Puri Baba told me that, in fact, he was not becoming my guru but only my shakshi {saks.in} guru, a "witness guru" to my becoming the disciple of the lord of yogis, Guru Dattatreya". |
p. 46 |
"I heard a few sanctifying drops of water hit the dhoti, as the cloth was held tight by three gurus." "he bent my head and sliced off the remaining hair". |
p. 47 |
"said Hari Puri Baba. ... "... By the authority vested in me by all the mad people of the world, I declare you cleansed of all sin."" |
"ShA" = http://www.dharmakshetra.com/sages/Saints/Sripad%20Sankarachara.htm
p. 48 assumption of bhasma and of rudra-aks.a
"mixed white ash, called vibhuti, with water in a small brass bowl to make a paste. ... "Vibhuti is from the sacred fire, the dhuni, which never goes out. We make our sacrifices into the dhuni ... . It has in it the fruit of countless sacrifices, and indeed is illusion burned to ash. ..." ... applied the thin paste to my forehead in three horizontal lines." |
"slipped the rudraksha bead on the janeu string over my head. "... This bead, which ... is a seed from a tree, contains the power of discipleship. ... Rudra, shed a tear of compassion for mankind, and this became the rudraksha tree. It pulls the pranas upward ... ."" |
p. 50 the 5 om-kara-s
om – ji! |
guru, dev, datt, swami, alakh |
p. 51 holy communion
"scraped off the coconut flesh and mixed it with gur, the natural brown sugar made from boiling and then cooling sugarcane juice, which solidifies .. . "The taste of the goddess Lakshmi," Hari Puri Baba said. H picked up a small chunk of gur with his fingers and put it in my mouth. I then, on cue, place a chunk of gur in his mouth. ... "Gur sweet, or guru sweet?" I answered, "Guru."" |
"The sacrament of the five gurus, the panch guru sanskar, was complete".
pp. 57-8 guru as the 4 roots
p. |
the root of __ |
is the __ of the guru |
57 |
meditation |
body |
puja |
feet |
|
58 |
mantra |
speech |
liberation [moks.a] |
grace |
p. 58 visions in the sacred fire
"Late at night I would have visions as I stared into the fire and let my eyes go out of focus. At first I saw tridents and conches, flaming spears and a lotus, and then one night I saw a yellow-eyed, fat-bellied man riding a ram. ... I had been very fortunate to have the darshan of Agni, the God of Fire." |
pp. 59-60 the 8 limbs of Patan~jali’s Yoga Sutra
p. |
# |
anga |
meaning |
59 |
1. |
yama |
"control" |
2. |
niyama |
"prescription" |
|
3. |
asana |
"sitting" |
|
4. |
pran.a-yama |
"control of breathing" |
|
5. |
prati-ahara |
"withdrawing from ... what our senses perceive" |
|
60 |
6. |
dharan.a |
"retaining" |
7. |
dhyana |
"focusing, meditation" |
|
8. |
sama-adhi |
"integration" |
p. 60 japa
"do japa, repetition, of your guru mantra – fifty-one malas a day". |
pp. 63-4 dhuni
p. 63 |
"Respect for the dhuni, like respect for other people, means not pointing your feet in its direction." |
||||
fire is __ |
logs are __ |
smoke is __ |
sparks are __ |
offering is __ |
|
universe |
year |
clouds |
thunder |
soma |
|
world |
earth |
night |
stars |
rain |
|
man |
his mouth |
his breath |
his eyen |
food |
|
pp. 63-4 |
[p. 63] woman |
her womb |
her hair |
[p. 64] pleasure |
semen |
p. 64 storytelling
"Hari Puri Baba was a storyteller. ... He would ... entrance his audience with tales of great sadhus and their teachings, the exploits of gods and heroes". |
p. 66 Natha tradition
"hat[.]ha yoga ... was not really part of the Naga sannyasi tradition but belonged to the Naths, a later tradition of sadhus also known as "torn-ears" (because their ears are torn to insert their large black earrings)." {This yoga would appear to be of Ajivika provenience, at least a millennium older than the Naga sat-nyasa founded by S`ankara-acarya.} |
pp. 68-72, 74-5 worship of god Hanumant
p. 68 |
"Tuesday, Mangalvar, Mars-day, Hanuman’s day of the week. This is a day that ... is good for meditation, worship and charity. Local villagers ... smeared sticky laddu candy on the closed lips of the huge sindur- orange Hanuman. ... They massaged jis legs ... with westlers’ mustard-seed oil, and then emptied ... orange sindur powder over his head ... . This sacred coloring was put on everyone’s third eye." |
|
p. 69 |
"Hanuman is Mahavir, the great hero who searches the Three Worlds for the greatest treasure, discovers it within his own heart, and brings it back to his people." |
|
p. 70 |
There was "an apsara, a heavenly nymph, cursed by her lord, Brihaspati-Jupiter, to take birth as a monkey girl. This monkey girl, known as Anjana, could assume any form ... . ... Vayu ... blew away her garments, embraced her, and impregnated her. ... Hanuman was born to Anjana in a nearby cave ... . ... Before Anjana departed, she ... told him to eat ... ‘... the rising sun,’ pointing to |
|
p. 71 |
Surya the Sun. ... This happened to be the day of a solar ecloipse ... . ... Hanuman threatened Airavata, the elephant mount of Lord Indra himself .., which struck the monkey on the jaw ... . ... |
|
p. 72 |
Hanu means jaw. ... Hanuman ... especially likes to tease the rishi-sages ... . He steals and hides their ritual implements ... . ... |
|
One day as he swings in the trees |
{The Kerkopes, suspended from a stick, |
|
near the ashram of the rishi Trnabindu, |
and associated with the name TRiBallos, |
|
Hanuman |
were changed into monkeys (CDCM, s.v. "Cercopes").} |
|
catches hold of a ferocious tiger and a bull elephant ... . ... |
{Bull changed into a "spotted leopard" (MJW, pp. 180-1). |
|
p. 74 |
Hanuman ... came to a cave that |
Monkey arrived at "Waterfall Cave" (MJW). |
led him to an underwater city beneath the sea." |
"Monkey uncovers a great underwater city" (MJW, pp. 34-5). |
|
p. 75 |
A baba proffered to Hanumant a selection from among signet-rings. |
To Monkey was given a block of iron by the wife of dragon-king Ao-kuan (MJW, pp. 36-7).} |
CDCM = Pierre Grimal : A Concise Dictionary of Classical Mythology. 1990.
MJW = Monkey; A Journey to the West, translated by David Kherdian (Shambhala Publ.). http://www.nvcc.edu/home/dashkenas/MONKEY.htm
p. 77 talking with crows
"craws ... were attracted to Hari Puri Baba and perched close to him ... . ... He used to make these funny little noises to them, and ... they seemed to respond. I realized that Hari Puri Baba ... was actually speaking to them. and the crows were talking back." |
p. 79 interaction between spirits and humans
"And these spirits, as you call them, need humans to perform material tasks, whatever they may be, and humans go to spirit for immaterial tasks such as the acquisition of knowledge and the blessings this may bring. The more humans believe in and honor spirit, the more that spirit manifests and speaks through humans." |
p. 82 non-acquisition of karman
"only the body acquires karma and the spirit remains a witness." |
p. 85 Kas`i
Kas`i is Varan-asi "(where the Varan and Asi rivers meet), or Banaras." Its god and goddess are Vis`va-natha and Anna-purn.a, respectively. |
p. 87 Bhairava
The god’s "anger jumped out of his body as the wrathful deity known as Bhairon, and sliced off the haughty Brahma’s fifth head. ... Brahma’s severed skull stuck to his hand, and ... he wandered throughout the three worlds using the skull as his begging bowl." |
p. 89-90 a legend about feeding 3 categories of guests
guests fed by Baba Ram Nath Aghorin were, sequentially : |
|
p. 89 |
1. humans |
p. 90 |
2. hounds |
3. ghosts |
pp. 91-4 churning; Jayanta
p. 91 |
"where Vishnu dreamed the world into existence while sleeping on the coils of his endless serpent. They turned Mount Meru, the axis of the world, upside |
p. 92 |
down to use as their churning rod, ... his endless serpent stretched as the churning rope in the hands of the gods and demons. ... After a thousand years of churning, treasures started rising to the surface. |
The Wish-Granting Cow was first ... . |
|
Then came the Sea Goddess, |
|
the fragrant Wish-Granting Tree, and |
|
the Apsaras ...; |
|
Shiva caught Soma the Moon, which he displayed in his dreadlocks, |
|
and the cannabis plant ...; |
|
Vishnu acquired the ruby called Kaustubha, and placed it on his chest like a medal. |
|
Then Mahalakshmi, ... the Goddess of Prosperity, rose ... . ... |
|
Dhanvantari, Lord of healing, Herbs, and Longevity, ... appeared". |
|
p. 93 |
"Mohini entrusted the kumbh of amrit to Jayant, the son of Indra, who transformed himself into a sparrow and flew ... .The pursuit lasted ... twelve human years, during which Jupiter guided and protected Jayant ..., the Moon helped prevent the amrit from spilling (as he controls the tides), the Sun protected the kumbh from breaking, and Saturn prevented Jayant from drinking all the amrit by himself. However, during all this excitement, four drops fell to earth and landed at what is now Prayag [Allahabad], Hardwar, Ujjain, and Nasik. |
Every twelve years, which is how long it takes for Jupiter to circle the Sun, when Jupiter, the Sun, and the Moon are in the same places in the sky as they were when |
|
p. 94 |
each drop was spilled, the amrit, this Nectar of Immortality, appears and there is a great celebration called the Kumbh Mela in each of these four places." |
p. 95 Monday; Tuesday
"on Monday for Shiva {MONday for the MOON atop his head?}, |
on Tuesday for Hanuman." |
p. 100 religious denomination; Naga akhara-s
"the names of the different sects : ... Bhairagi {actually, /Vairagin/; a pun with the name of hero /BHR.nGIN/ may be intended}". |
The seven Naga akharas ... : Mahanirvani, Niranjani, Juna, and Anand, and the lesser Agni, Atal, and Avahan." |
p. 107 river-goddesses
"I recited the names of the seventeen river goddesses and asked them all to join Ganga and Jamuna at that moment". [total :17 + 2 = 19 {sets of 19 goddesses are mentioned in Irish lore}] |
p. 108 spirit-travel
"Hari Puri ... traveled at night without his body, sometimes covering astounding distances." |
pp. 111, 116 gotra
p. 111 |
A reason for disapproval against being made a sannyasin : "He has no gotra ...!" |
{Approval from one’s gotra ‘clan’, pravara ‘family’, and jati ‘guild’ would be expected as a praerequisite to one’s becoming a sannyasin. The author of this autobiography had apparently wilfully neglected to secure these necessities.} |
p. 116 |
The author states himself to be "from a good family in America". |
{Being from a "good family" ought to further cause to seek approval from such family for one’s joining any major institution. Approval from a "good family" would be honored in Bharata.} |
{Hari Puri Baba may have entertained too profound a contempt for his disciple (and therefore for his disciple’s relatives) to bother to requaest him to obtain approval from his relatives before any formal induction-caerimonies.} {The unconscious paralysis which (Chapter 10, pp. 131 sq) overtook Hari Puri Baba after his unwarranted induction of an unapproved candidate into ordination as sannyasin may be taken as an indication of divine disapprobation of such wilfully haughty negligence on the guru’s part.}
pp. 112-3 systems of lineages of akhara-s {/akhara/ is, literally ‘lair of an animal’}
p. 112 |
"The akhara is a circle divided into four quarters, determined by a system of lineages :" |
||
# of Lineages |
direction |
surname |
|
16 |
northeast |
Puri |
|
p. 113 |
4 |
southeast |
? |
13 |
southwest |
Giri |
|
14 |
northwest |
" |
{Categorization by such intermediate directions (for risings and settings of sun at aequinoctes) [instead of the usual cardinal directions] is also characteristic of Taoism and of Bon.}
p. 127-9 one’s funeral (symbolic, performed for the living), followed by receiving the blown whisper, and by bathing
p. 127 |
"Pandit ... had performed my funeral rites. I was now ritually dead. ... |
p. 128 |
"In the name of the Acharya Mahamandaleshwar of Juna Akhara! In the name of the world guru Adi Shankara! In the name of the guru of yogis, Guru Dattatreya! May this Mahavakya be received by my disciple, Ram Puri!" Hari Puri cried. ... |
p. 129 |
"... Bathing in the water there will complete your initiation."" |
p. 142 tantrik bahinc^ut
"the word bahinchut, which might be translated as "sister-fucker." The ... word ... was tantric". |
p. 148 nad.i-s
"There are exactly seventy-two lakhs plus seventy-two thousand three eleven [7,272,311] nadis, subtle currents, in" the human body. |
p. 151 disappearance of illusion
"Mind you, destruction of the universe is not a violent act ..., but simply the disappearance of the web of illusion." |
p. 158 flying out of the material body
deathbed statement by Hari Puri : "Before discarding this body, I wanted to have some fun, so I left my body in your very capable hands and became a tourist. I flew to all the tirths, all the sacred places – to Kashmir, Kerala, Bengal, Dwarka Ji – everywhere I had visited before, and more. ... I sacrificed my legs to grow wings!" |
p. 159 mispronunciation as sin
"What do you know of sin? ... It’s the sounds one makes during his life. {"Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man : but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man." ("RFM", p. 233a)} ... Sin is mispronunciation." |
"RFM" = "Reply to Faustus the Manichaean". In :- A SELECT LIBRARY OF THE NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS, Vol 4. Buiffalo, 1887. http://books.google.com/books?id=8HkXAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA233&lpg=PA233&dq=
pp. 163-4 magical removal of a curse
p. 163 |
Crows were sent (by instructing them in crows’ language), to indicate the places of burial of curse-objects. |
p. 164 |
"These things were buried in four places around the house, ... : twisted human hair; human nails; torn swatches of cloth eaten by white ants; twigs ... from the neem tree that were used to brush teeth". "He awakened ... the dhuni ... . He made a circle of turmeric around it, and decorated his trident and tongs with green chili peppers and more turmeric root ... . Then he enraged the flames with myrrh ... . ... Slowly he circled the sacred fire with a lemon hidden in his ... hand, and ... the approached his trident in the northeast corner of the dhuni. ... . ... he impaled the lemon on the center spoke of the trident". |
pp. 165-6 acceptance of boils on legs by curer in order to cure successfully
p. 165 |
statement by curer : "... Every time I heal someone, I get boils. The stronger the disease, the longer the boils last. ..." |
p. 166 |
instance of such curing : "And the wife was cured, but the disease, probably cancer, was so powerful that not only did Baba get large and cancerous-looking boils on his legs, but I got them as well." |
p. 171 reconciliation, by the dying, to death
"I don’t want, I don’t need, this body anymore ... . ... This body is finished ... . I’ll take another one, if you need me so much ... ." |
p. 173 funerary statue
"I jumped back when the lightning revealed the ghost of a scowling Hari Puri Baba sitting on a throne. ... The ghost of Hari Puri Baba ... was a white marble statue of him." |
pp. 186-7 metaphysics
p. 186 |
origin of "the great web of illusion, which is the world" : "Before the world comes into existence, there is only consciousness. Matter exists in potential, and is indistinguishable from consciousness. ... I visualized this as a calm, mirrorlike lake, reflecting only itself ... as the Cosmic Mind. At this stage, everything is the Same. ... If there were only sattva, the Balanced, then ego would always be transparent and movement would remain potential. Rajas, the Active, as agent of the Same, attracts, transforms, and assimilates. Tamas, the Passive, as agent of the Other, repels and maintains the isolation of things. ... |
p. 187 |
The tension between the Active and the Passive shapes the five elements." |
pp. 187-8 identifications of constellations
constellation |
its identity |
|
p. 187-8 |
cradle with 3 babes (the trimurti) |
Orion |
p. 188 |
gem of Anasuya the mother of Datta-atreya |
Betelgeuse |
as`rama-house of Atri |
Pollux |
|
Atri the father of Datta-atreya |
Sirius |
|
the 4 hounds of Datta-atreya |
Canis Major |
|
kama-dhenu of Datta-atreya |
Lupus |
p. 190 a dream about mirroring
"That night Hari Puri Baba appeared to me in a dream, the first time since he had left his body. ... He handed me a mirror ..., and asked me to look carefully at my face. ... When I turned the mirror at a slight angle, I could see the back of my head as if there were another mirror behind me. When I turned around, I saw myself reflected from every angle. In fact, I was in a room full of mirrors, and there were thousands of me. The sky had vanished, replaced by a ceiling mirror, and when I looked up, my multitudes looked down on me." |
pp. 197-9 self-disclosure of a permanent possessing-spirit (according to legend)
p. 197 |
"He told them his name was Baba Jai Ram Puri and |
p. 198 |
that he had been wandering in the forest for at least a couple of hundred years. ... some display of power ... caused the earth to tremble and the birds to fly out of their nests." |
p. 199 |
Jai Ram Puri Baba was "the guru of Uday Puri Baba who built Udaypuria hundreds of years ago." |
pp. 235-7 the author’s unaccounted failure of health; the destruction of his notebooks
p. 235 |
"By ... 1986, my diaries had grown to more than a thousand pages, and I had also collected numerous other texts". |
{This entire situation was due to the author’s and his companions’ being extremely poor judges of personal character : they promoted to being in charge of their entire operation a treacherous poisoner who delighted in destroying manuscripts.} |
p. 236 |
"I had been hemorrhaging, and I started to suspect foul play." |
|
p. 237 |
"the pages of my diaries, had met a violent end." |
Rampuri : Baba : autobiography of a blue-eyed yogi. Bell Tower, NY, 2005.
excerpts from this book http://rampuri.com/excerpts/
the entire book http://www.freado.com/read/7420/autobiography-of-a-sadhu-a-journey-into-mystic-india
photographs http://rampuri.com/galleries/photos/