Devraha Hans Baba A personal account written by one of his disciples.

In early 1994, I was told by some friends about a great yogi by the name of Devraha Hans Baba, whom they planned to bring to Delhi. According to his followers, the yogi had supernatural powers called siddhis which accrue to the adepts in yoga. They believed that another famous yogi called Devraha Baba, who had relinquished his body in June 1990, had taken over the body of Hans Das through a process known as par kaya pravesh or transmigration. Having taken on the body of Hans Das as his vehicle, the former Devraha Baba was now known as Devraha Hans Baba.

To me, the varacity of these claims or boasts made little difference because all disciples are wont to selling the object of their worship as a panacea. However, it could not be a coincidence that I had earlier had the opportunity to meet the original Devraha Baba several times. At that time, I was driven by sheer interest. This time, however, it was self-interest that took me to meet the new avatar of his. I was beset by a few personal problems and felt I needed to go to someone for guidance. And what better guidance than from a great yogi.

My first impression of him was that of an anchorite, clad in loin cloth and seated on a high wooden platform. This, one of his disciples later explained, was in conformance with the ancient Patanjali system of yoga, which advises the illumined yogi to avoid direct human vibrations by staying above the ground. It was winter but the yogi wore just that piece of cotton wrapping around his midriff, while we, who stood below were warmly clad in woollens.

A large crowd had gathered to listen to him. His speech had the cadence of poetry. What he said sounded neither bombastic nor pedantic. In very simple terms, the yogi was explaining the immanence and primacy of God. In his lyrical fashion, he was, as far as I could make out, telling those who stood below, that man, ignorant of his own divinity, was trapped in a relentless cycle of birth and death.

But my mind was on other matters. My immediate aim was to set my life in order, through, I hoped, his intercession. I visited him many times, never disclosing my problems in the expectation that he as an illumined being would intuitively know what my problems were. Then, on the urging of someone who had faced a smiliar crisis, I finally confessed. His answer was contrary to what I had wanted to hear. And that created even more turmoil within myself.

Meanwhile, some disciples who had come from outside Delhi, urged me to seek initiation or diksha from Hans Baba. I little understood the importance of the act, which entails the complete surrender of one's self to the guru who then takes charge of the initiate's life in a subtle way. My desperation compelled me to seek initiation and I was accepted. I would go to him from time to time with my compelling demands and he would gaze at me with compassionate eyes. He often said nothing and to me remained unfathomable.

Today, after two years or more since my first meeting with the yogi, my problems remain although they are not exactly the same. If there is a change, it is vested in the realisation that the guru is not an instrument for self-gratification. To pre-suppose the course of one's life may well be the starting point for a complete reversal of one's assumptions. It is not a change that generates pleasure, or even comfort. It could be the very opposite. In such circumstances, one begins to harbour doubts, at times, even to the extent of wishing to repudiate the guru - even reject him altogether.

But does he ever abandon the disciple? My view of Hans Baba, at any given point of time in the past, was shaped by my expectations. I have only now understood the futility of trying to quantify him. The mystic poet Kabir, who lived from 1450 to 1518 AD, and whose followers include both Muslims and Hindus, gave the most succint description of the true guru:

"The guru is the potter and the disciple, the clay vessel.
Assiduously, he extracts imperfractions from the pot.
But he strokes it gently inside
Even as he pummels it from the outside."

For the self-seeker to graduate to a spiritual aspirant, he must be subjected to the most testing trials after he takes refuge with a great master. While the supplicant's intention is to bolster his sense of the self and grip on reality as he knows it, the guru's intention is entirely at variance with his. It is as Kabir said: 'To re-make by de-centering him from the personal ego and centering him in the universal consciousness'. To quote a cliche, he (the guru) holds a mirror to the disciple, who then gets a view of himself in many forms and his interactions with the outside world. It is, in essence, a humbling process that may occur even without the overt presence of the guru. When the ego suffers such an assault, whatever the cause, there is suffering, in extreme case even disintegration. And man's primary impulse is to feel whole, a feeling which he equates with happiness.

God epitomises that state of wholeness, free of the pre-conditions of the self and the 'Other'. All soul sickness arises from the sense of separation from God, even if it is not understood as such. It manifests through a crisis, which triggers off the process of disintegration and could be viewed as behavioural aberrations and alienation. Healing comes when one can reach out to God. One goes through this process, at times seemingly endlessly, rising like the Phoenix to find one's place in the world.

The theory of Karma ascribes suffering to transgressions committed in the present and previous births. Sanskaras or the accummulated tendencies of numerous incarnations, would be the metaphysical equivalent of the scientific belief in genetic behavioural patterns, handed down from generation to generation. For the aspirant, purification through suffering is the means of freedom from such conditioning. An inner stillness the key to halting the pendulum of action and reaction, which sustains the continuum of personality.

One looks for remedies in the immediate context and, for some, God, at times manifest as the guru, becomes the anchor to which one tries to cling. Help very often comes unsolicited. The tendency to seek intercession may eventually graduate into pure devotion free of preconditions. The burden of Karma cannot be wished away. It can however be worked out, more easily through grace. The guru's great boon for the one who has worldly debts to discharge is finally to be able to do so in a state of equanimity. And what else he may bestow must necessarily remain a mystery.

The author of this piece wishes to remain anonymous because of personal reasons. Persons wishing to know more about Devraha Hans Baba may please contact Mr. B.K.Rao at DII 80 Kidwai Nagar (West), New Delhi. India. Telephone +91-11-603272.

Devraha Hans Baba lives at an ashram in Vindhyachal (Uttar Pradesh), which is near Allahabad. He travels extensively all over India and visits Delhi once a year.