MIND-YOGA (AUST)

MIND-YOGA (AUST) 6 June 2012

“My Guru was

recognized as
a great
Siddha
throughout
India.”

Living with a Siddha Guru

By Dean Das

My Guru was recognized as a great Siddha
throughout India.
Siddha, means ‘perfected one’, in the sense of a
person whose individual consciousness has
merged with universal consciousness -- a Self-
Realized / God-Realized human being.
My Guru’s name was Swami Prakashananda
Saraswati (referred to as ‘Babaji’).
During the 1970’s into the early 1980’s, I was
afforded the rare opportunity of living with such
an extraordinary human being. He lived atop a
4,500 foot high mountain plateau (gadh), Sapta
Shringi Gadh, 40 kilometres north of Nasik City,
in Maharashtra State, Western India. Babaji’s
birth- name was Laxman. In 1917, he was born
into a brahmin family in South-West India. At 8
years of age, he had a vision of the Divine
Goddess:
‘I was lying in bed next to my grandmother at 8
years of age. It was night. My eyes were closed,
but I was not asleep. Then I saw something
behind my closed lids. It was a face, a very large
face, (like the sister of Balindra, a demon whose
face is worn as a mask in Divali, the Festival of
Lights). What I see has many arms, in fact 18
arms extended, with a weapon in each hand. Her
eyes are wide and blazing bright, and She is
dressed in a green sari. She is now gone, and only
the stillness of the dark night remains’. (‘Agaram
Bagaram Baba’, author, Titus Foster, 1999).
At 16 years of age, following the death of his
mother, Babaji left home to live as a sadhu (‘a

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 Living with a Siddha Guru
MIND-YOGA (AUST) 6 June 2012
By Dean Das (continued)
seeker after truth’). He traversed the length and
breadth of India, three times by foot, extending
from the tip of Kanyakumari in the South, to
Lake Manasarovar in Tibet. Thirty years after
leaving his village, Babaji arrived at Sapta Shringi
mountain, a Siddha Peeth (‘a place of power’),
sacred to the Siddha/Nath yogic tradition, and
the home of the 18-armed, Nivasini Devi. Upon
entering the Devi Temple high-up in the rock
wall, Babaji came face to face with the very same
Devi who appeared before him, whilst lying next
to his grandmother at 8 years of age. He shed
‘tears of joy’. He had finally come home. This
was in 1955. Thus began Babaji’s 27 year
residency atop the Sapta Shringi mountain.
For the first seven years he lived in a cave, and
subsisted on the leaves and fruits of the trees.
In 1956, he was taken to a tiny village (Yeola),
where he met his Sadguru, who ‘casually leant
over and pressed his fingers into my eyeballs’. In
that instant, ‘I saw a brilliant shimmering light
before my eyes. My mind merged into that light,
and I entered into samadhi’ (‘absolute
absorption’). (The Sadguru was later recognized
world-wide as a great Siddha Yogi, a rare
exponent of the shaktipat process, the
transmitting of ‘spiritual energy’ from Guru to
disciple. His name was Swami Muktananda
Saraswati of Ganeshpuri).
Following shaktipat initiation, Muktananda sent
Babaji back to Sapta Shringi, where from 1956
until 1962, he engaged in intense yogic sadhana
(‘inner-work’). In 1962 he attained the ultimate
goal, reaching a permanent state of consciousness
known as Self/God Realization. Swami
Muktananda publicly acknowledged Babaji as a
Siddha, and at his Guru’s behest, he took formal
‘initiation’ into the Saraswati Order of Sannyas
(‘monkhood’). From then on he was known as
Swami Prakashananda Saraswati (‘the Bliss of
Self-Illumination’).
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MEETING MY GURU
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 blue-
stone buildings built on the outskirts of an
impoverished village. This was the mountain
ashram of the Siddha, Swami Prakashananda
Saraswati.
There is a statement of esoteric import – ‘when
the student is ready, the Guru appears’. The
manner of meeting my Guru adhered to this
principle. I had met my Guru’s, Guru, Swami
Muktananda, in Melbourne, 1974. At this time,
as a young man, I was undertaking intense
sadhana -- hatha yoga, pranayama, and long
periods of sitting meditation. The practices
culminated in the ‘awakening’ of what is known
as the kundalini shakti. Currents of ‘life-force’
energy permeated my body from head to foot,
day and night, and at times of meditation, my
mind became completely absorbed within itself.
Upon my meeting with Muktananda, the
kundalini process intensified a hundred-fold.
Muktananda instructed me to go to his ashram in
Ganeshpuri, India. I did so. Short of a year, I left
Muktananda’s ashram (Muktananda was in
America at this time).
In my meditation, I was instinctively drawn to
Muktananda’s Guru, the great Siddha, Baba
Nityananada. He had lived in the village of
Ganeshpuri, and died in 1961. I meditated in
Nityananda’s (empty) ashram on a daily basis. I
was homeless, but I knew that Nityananda had
many yogic chelas (disciples) living in the
surrounding mountains, at the foot of the
Mandagni mountain (‘the mountain of fire’).
These disciples were naga babas (‘naked, ash-
covered’ babas) and dhuni babas (‘fire-
worshipping’ babas), who lived in small jungle
camps. I was accepted into their midst.
 Living with a Siddha Guru
MIND-YOGA (AUST) 6 June 2012
By Dean Das (continued)
After a few months, I found myself residing in
the camp of a mouna baba (one who has taken
‘a vow of silence’). He and a few disciples were
sitting in a circle on the ground, when a non-
descript man dressed in shorts and t-shirt
appeared, sitting down in our midst. A hushed
silence ensued. The man seated next to me said,
‘Ask him anything you like?’ I asked, ‘What is the
most important thing for moksha?’ The man
responded (in English), ‘Guru’. He proceeded,
‘this time in India you will meet your Guru’ (a
personal matter had necessitated me returning
to Australia for a brief time). ‘Your wife same
Guru’ (my girl-friend was still living at
Muktananda’s ashram). ‘Your Guru is not
Swami Muktanananda. Your Guru is of a
different nature. Your Guru is a simple man, a
humble man. He lives at the top of a mountain
with many children. Go to Nasik’. With that, the
fellow got up and left. (Upon enquiry, I was told
that this fellow travelled from Mangalore to live
with old-man Nityananda when a 12 year old
boy, and upon Nityananda ‘leaving his body’,
the bala (boy) yogi headed deep into the
mountains.
Now, the name ‘Nasik’ rang a bell!
Two days previous, I was sitting in a thatched
hut sipping a cup of chai. Behind me on the wall
was a large photograph featuring a strong
countenanced face, long dark hair, beard, and
piercing eyes. A garland of flowers hung around
his neck. I asked the chai wallah, ‘Who is this?’
He replied, ‘A Siddha. He lives at the top of a
mountain with many children. Like an
orphanage’. ‘What is his name?’ ‘His name is
Swami Prakashananda. He lives near Nasik’ (by
road, Nasik is some 7 hours from Ganeshpuri).
The penny finally dropped! I collected my girl-
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friend from Muktananda’s ashram, and went to
Nasik, only to discover that this Swami lived
some 45 kilometres the other side of the town. It
demanded a four and one half hour climb by
foot to reach the summit of Sapta Shringi
mountain.
We entered the small doorway into the darkened
ashram temple. No electricity here! The room
was lit by a single hurricane lamp. An elderly,
stubble-faced man stood before me (looking
nothing like the photo taken some 20 years
earlier). His opening words were, ‘how long you
want to stay?’ I answered, ‘I don’t know Baba. I
just got here’. He replied, ‘You stay life-time’. He
abruptly left the room. I stayed for around 7
years.
The blue-stone ashram accommodated 60 or so
children from surrounding districts, aged
between 5 years and 14 years, and a school
teacher. Babaji had built a school adjoining the
ashram. In addition, three times a day, up to 60
village children were fed within the ashram
precincts by the three or four resident swamis,
assisted by adivasi (‘Jungle caste’) people from
the village.
Siddhas don’t ‘teach’ in a conventional sense.
Their ‘teaching’ is experiential in nature, and is
transmitted through the presence of their being.
Babaji’s sole instruction to me was ‘be with me
all the time’ (in a physical sense). ‘You don’t need
to meditate when you are with me’. He became
the object of my ‘meditation’, whilst he laughed,
told stories, and joked with visitors, interrupted
only by the urgency of ridding himself of the
large wad of chewing tobacco causing excessive
salivation.
 Living with a Siddha Guru
MIND-YOGA (AUST) 6 June 2012

By Dean Das (continued)

To increase my physical proximity to him, Babaji
arranged that I sleep on the verandah surrounding
his room. At bed time, leaning through the
window, he would joke, ‘Dean Das, nirvikalpa
samadhi (‘meditative absorption free of thought’),
me, nidra samadhi (‘absorption in the ordinary
state of sleep’)’ - - releasing a series of ‘ahh - grrh’
guttural sounds in imitation of loud snoring. Over
a period of months, I could not tolerate being in
his physical presence. His body was like an
electrical ‘power station’, transmitting hot electrical
currents that entered my body. The ‘internal heat’
became unbearable! I tried to escape, but as soon
as it was noticed, someone was sent to fetch me.
Bolts of vital energy (‘kundalini shakti’) crept,
leaped, shimmied, and radiated through every pore
of my body. Columns of golden-hued light flowed
up and down the spine, causing the mind to swoon,
it entering a state of ecstatic bliss (‘samadhi’). An
hour or so later, I returned to partial body
awareness, to find myself sitting in the middle of
the hall, my head resting upon Babaji’s wet feet,
dampened by the flow of ‘tears of joy’.
Babaji lightly placed his hand upon the top of my
head, and ‘a soothing cool’ entered my over-heated
body.
A Siddha Guru awakens a person’s latent ‘spiritual
energy’ (‘kundalini shakti’) through the medium of
touch, word, look, or thought. Siddhas have the full
array of siddhis (‘psychic powers’) at their disposal.
To the casual observer, Swami Prakashananda was
a loving, humorous, unpretentious, elderly man.
And, indeed, he was truly that.
But to me, he was a loving father, and at the same
time, the embodiment of Pure Consciousness Itself.
(An ‘excerpt’ from forthcoming book, ‘The
Awakening of Kundalini’ – from Meditation to
Realization’ – Dean Das, is the founder of Mind-
Yoga (Aust), Melbourne.
www.meditationclassesmelbourne.com)

DEAN DAS,
founder of
Mind-Yoga
(Aust) is a
practitioner
of some
45yrs.