it is imageless; that is to say, it has no name and no

form. Still, its name is great glory, freedom, and

enlightenment.
That Absolute God is pure existence, pure awareness,
pure consciousness. When it incarnates in any being's
heart, then he or she becomes free from the ocean of
birth and death and he or she becomes glorious and
enlightened, without exception.
Shvetashvatara Upanishad, IV.19

Incarnation of Absolute God is the transfer of power from

Absolute God to the individual. By this transfer, the individual
"I-am" (personal consciousness) becomes the universal "I-Am"
(cosmic consciousness). This transfer of power is not in the
hand of any person. It. is absolutely in the hand of Absolute
God. Therefore, to obtain this incarnation, one has to surrender
completely to Absolute "I-AM" or Absolute God. When this
process is carried on perfectly through yogic meditation, and
when the antah-karana (the psyche or mind on all levels)
becomes pure, then Absolute God incarnates in the form of
"I-Am", without doubt: "Be still and know That I Am." The
process of incarnation may be gradual or sudden, partial or full,
according to one's intensity of love, surrender and dedication.

We have no way to know anything except by our senses, mind

and wisdom, but the principle of "I-AM" or Absolute God is
not the subject matter of the senses or the mind. To experience
that, we need to have the divine mind, divine wisdom. By
divine mind we mean cosmic mind and cosmic wisdom, which
are the source of the individual mind and individual wisdom.

The individual body and mind are time and space bound, while
the divine mind is beyond time and space. In this case, how can
we know the Absolute God, the Absolute "I-AM"? You cannot
see the sun by any light other than the sunlight. In the same
way, you cannot grasp Absolute God by the senses and mind,
but only by the grace of that Absolute "I-AM", Absolute God
itself.

Although the sun is always in the sky, far away, still its light is
always with us. It is like the impersonal or universal "I-Am"
which is called guru. It is all the time in your heart. But as long
as you have individual "I-am" or personal "I-am", so long you
need the outer guru.
This impersonal or universal "I-Am" in the form of the guru
has many divine powers and performs many miracles for you.
The supreme power, the supreme miracle, is that by which your
individual or personal "I-am" is transformed into the
impersonal or universal "I-Am". The true guru can show you
that the whole universe is your guru. All gurus of the past,
present and future are the vibration of one guru, that is, the
universal "I-Am". He is not the true guru who claims that he is
the best of all, and he or she is not the true disciple who claims,
"My guru is the best of all and others are false." You will find
in the marketplace many such gurus and disciples.

I had nearly one hundred gurus, and I was a most happy man in
my practice of meditation as well as medicine and surgery.
Therefore I was not interested in seeing any further guru.

During my medical practice in Bombay, however, I was

treating a patient suffering from tuberculosis. His name was
Pandit Murli Dhar. Some miracle happened to that patient.
Although he was suffering from the final stages of TB, still
he got full recovery. His recovery surprised him and me both.
The patient was ready to reward me in every possible way, but
I could not accept any reward. So this patient invited me to go
to see a mighty guru. He was daily requesting me to see his
guru, but I was not enthusiastic.

Finally, after six months, on the insistence of this patient I went

to see his guru in Matunga, Bombay. I entered his ashram and
I greeted him in Western style by raising one finger. He was
very kind and he accepted my one-finger greeting, although
according to Indian custom one is expected to prostrate before
the guru. At that time I was a professor of medicine and surgery
at a medical college and the head of the medical department at
the government hospital attached to the same college. And I
was very proud of my scholarship, especially in Sanskrit.

I approached the guru. Baba Bhagavandas, and asked his

introduction. He gave me introduction... but it was my
introduction, including details and even private facts about
my life. 1 asked him, "Is this your introduction?"

Then he told me, "I was working through you. Are you not the
witness of my activities?"

I was dumb. In fact, nobody could ask his introduction, because

he always gave the introduction of the questioner. Therefore,
nobody knew who he was or where he came from. This guru
was like a dream to me. After many months, I came to realize
that nobody knew anything about him. If anybody went before
him, that person could not even talk, because he, Bhagavandas,
dwelled in the ocean of bliss which was a magnetic ocean. He
had the power to know everything about others, and by telling
their story, he was solving their problems. He was the ocean
of miracles and magical powers. And he was absolutely
independent. He was not accepting money or gifts in any form
from anyone, except on his birthday. Then whatever came he
distributed among the musicians, dancers, and artists who
were performing at the birthday celebration.

One day I asked Baba Bhagavandas for some private time to

talk to him. He told, "1 have no private time, because twenty-
four hours a day people are coming."

I asked, "You do not sleep?" Then I came to know from others

that Bhagavandas had not slept in forty years and he was eating
only sometimes, maybe once or twice in a year, for the sake of
others.

Once he was sick. I was called as a doctor to examine him.

Following the examination I told him directly, "You need a
good sleep and a good meal. There is nothing wrong with you
except lack of sleeping and lack of eating."

Then he asked me, 'How can I sleep or eat?"

I asked him, "Why not?"

Then he reminded me of one of the stories from my private life.

From my childhood I had three hobbies: love for education,
especially Sanskrit, love for meditation and love for all holy
books and sciences. I was seeing visions of various gods and
goddesses from heaven. I had asked various gurus about these
visions, but they could not answer anything. In fact, they all
gave me warning, "Be careful. Without proper guidance, you
may become insane."

Listening to them, I was a little bit disturbed and I stopped

my meditation for some time. But I soon became restless due
to lack of meditation. Therefore I went into a temple when
nobody was there and I told God, "I cannot stop meditation,
because when I stop, then I become restless. And I cannot find
any guru to answer my questions. Therefore I pray for you,
God, to become my guru." I said, "I sleep very little and I eat
very little. Therefore, my guru will be someone who is not
eating and not sleeping at all."

This prayer to God happened in private in the temple. Nobody

knew about it. This incident Baba Bhagavandas reminded me
of, saying, "After all, somebody has to be your guru; God has
to reply to your prayer. Therefore, for the last forty years I am
not eating or sleeping."

This was not the talk of entertainment. I began to feel and

began to see him as Arjuna saw Bhagavan Shri Krishna when
all sorts of visions appeared in Bhagavan Krishna's body, as
described in the eleventh chapter of the Shirmad Bhagavad
Gita. I saw in Baba Bhagavandas' body the whole universe. I
was terrified and at the same time I was very happy. I was
terrified because it was the end of my wisdom, and I was happy
to see the vision of the universal "I-Am".

Once he was very busy. I was asking some question about the
Yoga Satras of Patanjali. He intentionally avoided answering
my question. Then I left my book of Yoga Satras before him.
Throwing my book far away, he shouted, "If the author does
not understand his own writing, then who will explain it to
him?"

I became unconscious by his shouting and his answer. After

twelve hours I awakened, and he asked me, "What is your
question?"

I replied, "Nobody's answer is like that. You have answered

practically, by your demonstration. Now I have no question."

By the way, in my childhood when I was studying the

Ashtadhyayi of Panini, my guru was calling me by the name
Panini, and in another school when I was studying the
commentary on the same Ashtadhyayi by Patanjali, that guru
was calling me Patanjali.

When you become universal "I-Am", then you become

everybody. When you know your Self, then you know the
whole universe, including the past, present and future.
There is no room here to describe every incident which
occurred with my guru, Baba Bhagavandas For that you need
a separate book. He was for me Christ consciousness, that is to
say, the universal "I-Am". In his presence you were absorbed
in the ocean of magnetic bliss and love. You could not miss to
feel that universal consciousness, universal "I-Am", that is, the
presence of Absolute God.

The supreme miracle and magic is to unite not only all of

mankind but also to unite the whole world within one's Self.
As a matter of fact, the whole world is within your mind. This
is not a figurative statement, but it is a fact.

We have seen already the ten incarnations of Hindu gods, the

twenty-four tirthankaras of Jainism, the ten gurus of the Sikha
dharma, the Paigambara Mohammed of the Muslim religion,
Zoroaster of Zoroastrianism (or the Parsi religion), Jesus Christ
of Christianity, Lord Moses of Judaism and Lord Buddha of
Buddhism. But nowadays everywhere fighting is going on in
the name of religion, God and heaven. Everybody admits that
we have only one God, without a second, but still we are busy
trying to divide humanity into various sects and cults.

We see constant fighting between the religious leaders of

India and Pakistan, between the Hindus and Sikhas, between
Christians and Muslims. Fighting by terrorists is going on in
Syria, Lebanon and Libya. There is fighting in the Middle East
between Muslim countries and Israel, in Shri Lanka between
Buddhists and Tamil people, in Ireland between Catholics and
Protestants. Now Muslims have their jihads and Christians
have their crusades in the name of religion and God. Religions
are very bad examples. It seems that to become religious is to
become ready to fight with one another.

All wars are by-products of religion. We fear that in the near

future some religious fanatic and political fanatic may start war
with nuclear weapons. This will be the beginning of the end.

There is nothing wrong with the religions and holy books or

with religious people, but it seems that the leaders of various
religions are not interested in creating unity. As a matter of
fact, all sincerely religious people are ready to become one,
because they believe there is only one God. But the chief
leaders do not permit the act of unity and oneness, although
they have much talk about unity and oneness. In this situation,
what is to be done?
Some think that we must eradicate all sects and religions from
the face of the earth. It is impossible to do such a thing, even
though mankind is suffering from disunity of all religions.
Have you heard of any war, local, national or international,
including higjiacking, where religion was not involved in
some way or another? No religion, no highjacking.

All religions are needed. In fact, why should we not have even
more religions? All religions are like branches of the same
world tree. A healthy tree needs more than one branch. A tree
which is beautiful has many branches and limbs, and more
grow every year.

Therefore we need religions, all of them. But for the sake of

unity and oneness, all religions must renounce their claims that
they are the only religion, their founder or prophet is the only
true founder or prophet, their guru is the only genuine guru. As
long as this type of talk goes on, there is no hope for unity.

God and holy books are not the problem, but religious leaders
and sectarian thinking are the problem. Every religious leader
and all religions must renounce their monopoly over heaven
and God and their claim that their founder is the only son of
God. Then it will be easy to unite all religions on a common
basis. As long as any religious leaders and any religions
claim exclusivity, so long there will be no hope of unity or
reconciliation.

What is sin? To divide humanity into sects and cults is sin. To

unite them, as the many branches of one tree are united through
general circulation, is virtue. That general circulation is the
principle of "I-Am". To unite people in the common feeling
"I-Am" is the highest virtue and merit. Such a man or woman
is a moving heaven on earth, and he or she is the true guru.

As long as individuality and personality exist, even if we

have a meditative mind and try for samadhi, so long that
individuality and personality remain a problem, because we
do not know ultimate truth.

At present we are facing the problem of planetary annihilation

due to modern nuclear weapons. Therefore we need the
incarnation of that mighty guru who can unite us and wipe out
fear of nuclear weapons. Believe it or not, all of you have that
faculty which can join and unite all beings with the strong
thread of unity. That thread is the principle of "I-Am". Only we
have forgotten it. The supreme guru is the one who unites the
whole mankind and the whole universe in the tree of unity. And
the Absolute God is that which nourishes that tree of unity.

As we said before, the whole world is within your mind. To

illustrate this fact, I want to tell you a very charming story
from Lord Krishna's childhood.

When Lord Krishna was a boy, he had the habit of eating clay.
One day his elder brother complained against him to their
mother, Yashoda, telling her, "Krishna is eating clay."

Mother Yashoda was alarmed and told the elder brother,

"When he eats clay again, inform me."

One day when baby Krishna was again eating clay, his brother
complained again to Mother Yashoda. Mother Yashoda went
and asked Krishna, "Boy Krishna, are you eating clay?"

With his cheeks puffed out and full, his lips closed tightly, the
baby Krishna shook his head in denial, indicating, "No,
Mother, I do not eat clay!"

With a stick, Mother Yashoda ordered him, "Open your

mouth!"

Due to fear of the stick, the boy Krishna opened his mouth, and
Mother Yashoda found it full of clay. Then she washed the clay
from his mouth. After cleaning it thoroughly--- lo and behold!
---Mother Yashoda saw the whole universe shining within his
mouth!

She was confused and said, "Is this a dream or is it reality? I am

his mother. Is this Lord Narayana, or is it my boy?" She saw
the whole universe with suns and moons and stars vibrating
there due to the grace of the baby god. From that day, Mother
Yashoda understood that her son was an incarnation of God.

Do you understand this story? The moral of this story is that

our mind is full of the relative knowledge of the relative
universe which is made of matter, that is to say, clay.
"Everybody is God playing the fool," said Emerson. Every
man and woman is a baby god. After washing the boy
Krishna's mouth, Mother Yashoda finds the whole universe is
there, within his mouth. Here the mouth is the mind, and the
clay is matter and the material universe, which we are eating
day and night by our senses. Mother Yashoda symbolically
represents the guru, who washes the mouth of the mind. Then
we can discover the whole universe within our mind.

Ultimate reality, Absolute "I-AM", cannot be described by any

language. People say that God is omnipresent, omnipotent and
omniscient, but then, we ask, what was God before becoming
"omni"? He existed before also, long before the "omni" came
into existence, that is, before the relative universe was born.
You can say that God is pure existence, but our senses cannot
perceive pure existence. Our senses can perceive relative
existence only, which is nothing but matter. And matter and the
material universe and material things are clay.

Therefore I am telling, the moment you describe the truth, that

moment it becomes untruth. Therefore you have to understand
this story by meditating on "I-Am" beyond the body and mind.
Then your mind becomes clean, and you will discover the
whole universe within you.

Thus at present we need the mighty guru who can clean our
mind to reveal the whole universe in cosmic unity. This unity
cannot be created. You have to feel it through yogic meditation.
We need such a guru who can unite not only all mankind,
but the whole universe. Such an example was found in Baba
Bhagavandas Bodhisattva.

This story of baby Krishna is our story. After meditating on

the principle of "I-Am" beyond the body and mind according
to the instruction of the mighty guru, you will feel and know
the significance of this story and of baby Krishna's eating
clay. By meditation you will know naturally, automatically and
spontaneously, by your own Self.

Om Shantih
Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati
Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, also known as Ramamurti S.
Mishra, M.D., or Shri Ramamurti, is the founder and guru
of the Yoga Society of New York, Inc., and Ananda Ashram
in Monroe, New York. He also established the Yoga Society
of San Francisco, Inc. (Brahmananda Ashram) and inspired
several other centers of meditation and learning in the United
States and around the world.

A highly respected teacher and a master of the Sanskrit

language, Shri Brahmananda wrote extensively on the science
and philosophy of Yoga and Vedanta which evolved from the
ancient scriptures of IndiaHe integrated the universal message
of these teachings with his deep knowledge of both Eastern
and Western medicine and psychology, emphasizing the
importance of direct experience and practical application.

His written works include Fundamentals of Yoga, The

Textbook of Yoga Psychology (on Patanjali' S Yoga Sutras), Self
Analysis and Self Knowledge (on Shankaracharya's Atma
Bodha), translations of Upanishads and other Sanskrit texts as
well as numerous essays. In addition, much of his teaching is
recorded on audio and video media.

Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati's life was dedicated to inner

transformation, Self actualization and universal peace through
spiritual unity. He left his body in September 1993, yet his
spiritual presence and timeless teachings continue to serve as a
vibrant source of inspiration and guidance for all seekers.

Baba Bhagavandas Publication Trust

The Baba Bhagavandas Fublication Trust was established by
Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati at the end of his life and dedicated
in the name of his Sadguru, Baba Bhagavandas Bodhisattva. Its
principle purpose is to publish those writings and teachings
which will help humankind to understand the essential unity
behind all existence, to experience the nature of the Self or
"I-Am" and to realize the purpose of life, both individually and
cosmologically.

The Baba Bhagavandas Publication Trust is responsible for

the protection and preservation of the life work of Shri
Brahmananda Sarasvati (Ramamurti S. Mishra, M.D.). With
the cooperation of friends and devotees worldwide, it hopes to
be able to develop archives of the life and teachings of Baba
Bhagavandas Bodhisattva as well.

In addition, the Trust supports the training of students and

teachers in Sanskrit, the ancient language in which much of the
valuable literature of the East is recorded. Translations, unique
commentaries and audio-video materials of authentic Sanskrit
chanting provide a direct access to the original works existing
in this language of pure sound vibration.

All Trust activities are dedicated to promoting world peace and

East-West unity, spiritual harmony and understanding between
all nations, religions, traditions and cultures.

The Baba Bhagavandas Publication Trust is a nonprofit entity.

All donations are tax exempt to the extent permitted by hw.

Trust offices are located at Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New

York.

Please contact the Baba Bhagavandas Publication

Trust if you have any written or recorded materials,
including manuscripts, informal notes, audio or
video tapes, letters, personal accounts or
photographs related to either Shri Brahmananda
Sarasvati (Ramamurti S. Mishra, M.D.) or Baba
Shagavandas Bodhisattva.

Original copies or reproductions will be filed and

indexed in the Trust's permanent archives. Any
publication of such materials will be with the
contributor's consent.

Ananda Ashram
Ananda Ashram is a spiritual retreat and educational center
founded on the universal principles of Yoga and Vedanta and
dedicated to East-West cultural exchange. It was established
in 1964 as the country center of the Yoga Society of New
York, Inc., by Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, then known as
Ramamurti S. Mishra, M.D. The Ashram is open year-round
and welcomes individuals of all faiths, origins and cultural
backgrounds.
Located in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains, Ananda
Ashram provides a serene, natural environment for spiritual
retreat and healing. Its eighty-five acres of woods, meadows
and orchards surround a spring-fed lake and provide resident and
guest accommodations and other special facilities.

The Ashram offers daily morning and evening programs with

meditation, scriptural studies and readings, as well as ongoing
Hatha Yoga and Sanskrit classes. In addition, regular
workshops and courses are offered in the various aspects of
Yoga, East-West music and dance, the creative arts, holistic
health and healing, and related subjects. Cultural events are
scheduled on special occasions throughout the year. The
Ashram programs are nonsectarian with an emphasis on Self
awareness, meditation and world peace.

17
To Contact Us
Baba Bhagavandas Publication Trust
13 Sapphire Road, Monroe, New York 10950
845 782 4009 (phone/fax) contact@ babatrust.org

Ananda Ashram
Yoga Society of New York, Inc.
13 Sapphire Road, Monroe, New York 10950
8457825575 (phone) 8457747368 (fax)
www.anandaashram.org

Brahmananda Ashram
Yoga Society of San Francisco, Inc.
2872 Folsom Street, San Francisco, California 94110
4152855537 (phone) 4152852909 (fax)
www.artnetwork.com/healing/yoga

Cover Photo
Baba Rhagavandas Bodhisattva, Bombay, India,
birthday celebration circa 1957

Editorial & Production Staff

Editor Shri Radha
Contributing Editor Bharati Devi
Typesetting & Book Design Shri Radha
Book Printing & Binding Spear Printing, Inc.