Nama-Japa

Sweet Babaji

Selected extracts from the physical book

When Babaji was in Ayodhya, he had written to the Ashram for permission to visit. In those days practically nobody was admitted via a letter, and especially aspirants of any traditional path were not given permission to come. But in Babaji's case it was all different. When the letter from the Ashram was on its way he felt it and knew that his permission was coming. The letter finally arrived and it contained a blessing packet. Babaji felt the force emanating from this blessing packet so strongly that for 3 days he was in constant bliss.

***

Babaji recounted several insightful stories:

Note: The person involved in these stories was no longer alive at the time, otherwise Babaji would not have told them.

Mother had set up a department which was focusing on spreading Sri Aurobindo's message throughout India and also abroad. Babaji was doing a similar work in the Indian state of Orissa. Experiencing numerous difficulties in their work, the head of the concerned department asked the Mother the following question:

"Mother, why is it that Babaji, who does a similar work as we do, always succeeds in what he is doing while we face endless difficulties, due to which our work is being held up. There are quarrels and disagreements among us or illnesses and other obstacles crop up, due to which our work is endlessly delayed. What is the secret of Babaïi's success, Mother?"

Mother smiled and answered: "He knows a secret mantra.

X was very happy to hear this and immediately asked the Mother to reveal the mantra so that they too would succeed in their work. Mother again smiled and said:

"Why should I tell you, you can ask him yourself."

Note: Since Babaji had joined the Ashram after having already gained realisation in the traditional yoga he had been practising, X was convinced that the mantra Babaji was using was a powerful invocation which he must have learned during his previous yogic practices, realizing little that Babaji had surrendered all his inner knowledge, his mantra-practices and achievements at the Mother's feet when he came to the Ashram.

One day X met Babaji in order to hear from him this magic mantra, which seemed to give him success in all his undertakings. At the time Babaji was quietly sitting in his room doing Japa.

"Babaji, I want to ask you a question."

"Yes, I am right here, what is it that you want to ask?"

"No, no Babaji, it is very important. I cannot ask it here. Please come with me to my office.

Babaji was driven by car to X's private office wondering what important inquiry this could possibly be. Then came the crucial question:

"Babaji, please tell me the secret mantra you are using so I also can practice it."

Surprised, Babaji answered: "I do not have any secret mantra.

"Yes, yes Babaji, Mother said so. You have a secret mantra and this is the reason why you always succeed in whatever you are doing. Please tell me this mantra so that I may also use it."

Babaji replied:

"I do not have any secret mantra. The only thing that I am doing is this: I repeat the Mother's name 'Ma' continuously without stopping.

***

The same person from the above story, who had frequent physical contact with the Mother, asked her the following question:

"Mother, how is it that Babaji never asks your permission before undertaking any work while we always have to ask your permission for any work we want to do?"

Mother smiled and answered:

"He always asks me permission for everything he is doing!"

Babaji had a fully conscious inner contact with the Mother.

***

Babaji joined the Ashram in 1945 after having already gained the realisations of the "old yoga".

Even at that time he was already recognized as being a great saint and yogi. Sometime after Babaji had settled in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram visitors started to come from his home state, Orissa, to meet him and find out why he had come to Pondicherry and what this special yoga here was all about.

A small group of people had arrived from Orissa and asked Babaji about Sri Aurobindo's yoga. They wanted to know the difference between this yoga and the traditional yogic methods which everyone knew about. Babaji, being of a very humble and sweet predisposition, thought to himself: "Why will I tell them myself, I am not a great scholar, let me send them to one of the great learned persons at the Ashram. They will be much better able to explain Sri Aurobindo's yoga to them than I..

So Babaji sent his visitors to one of the Ashram lecturers. In the evening time after having met this person the visitors from Orissa again collected in Babaji's room. Babaji was happy to see them and asked them very sweetly:

"Well, now do you understand what this yoga is?"

"Oh no, Babaji," came the surprising answer, "this yoga is not for us! We were told that this yoga is like fire, that it is extremely difficult and should not be attempted. We were told that this yoga will burn us if we do not have the true inner call. No, Babaji, let us stay with our Lord Jaganath in Puri, this yoga is much too difficult for us!"

Babaji was deeply surprised and from this very moment inwardly resolved to never send away anyone who would ask him about this yoga. Then he said:

"Now, listen to me. I will explain this yoga to you.

Everyone listened attentively.

"On one hand this yoga is the most difficult of all yoga paths."

"Yes, yes"', came the enthusiastic reply, "that's what we were told."

Babaji continued: "But on the other hand, this yoga is the easiest of all." 

Everyone looked at Babaji in disbelief. How could it possibly be the most difficult and the easiest path at the same time?

Babaji:

"It is the most difficult yoga because it has never been done before. The transformation of mind, life and body has never been done in the past. But on the other hand it is the easiest of all, because in this yoga it is not by one's own tapasya that one succeeds, it is the Mother herself who does the yoga in us and through us. The only thing necessary for us is to feel ourselves to be a little child sitting in the lap of the Mother. Think that all you are and all you have belongs to the Mother. Think that 'Mother will always take care of me and protect me'. Surrender yourself in her lap like a little child and always repeat her name, 'Ma'. If you can do this much, the Mother herself will do this yoga for you."

There was great happiness since everyone present felt that in this way the practice of this special integral yoga was quite possible even for them.

Note: Due to Babaji's influence Sri Aurobindo's yoga is practised in Orissa with great fervour. At present (2023) there are more than 10,000 study circles, over 500 integral schools and 73 relic centres in this one Indian state alone.

***

Babaji had fallen and an x-ray revealed a small crack in a lower vertebra. He was advised complete bed-rest for 2 to 3 weeks. Reluctantly he followed the order. After ONE day in bed he pronounced that now he had listened enough to the doctors and wasn't going to listen anymore and that the Mother's name alone would set everything right.

In the evening Babaji was sitting as usual in his chair and when he was asked whether he had any pain, he replied that there was no crack. When someone asked him if it was necessary to consult doctors and take medicines, Babaji said: "If a person is doing sadhana sincerely and is repeating the Mother's name, no doctors and medicines are necessary, the Mother's name alone will do everything.

At this point a person remarked that since Babaji was repeating the Mother's name the accident should not have happened in the first place. Babaji replied that Mother had saved him and that this little physical difficulty which he had to face was in order to make that part of the body more strong and conscious, it was for progress.

***

Prior to coming to the Ashram, Babaji was staying at Ayodhya in his guru's ashram and was one of his personal attendants. The primary work of all the sadhaks was to do japa of Ram-Nam, to study the Ramayan and to be engaged in devotional discussions. Babaji felt more inclined towards japa, which he had been doing since his childhood. There were large numbers of devotees coming to the ashram quite frequently and Babaji had to spend some time with them, which naturally interrupted the flow of his continuous japa. In order to be able to practice his japa without interruption, Babaji decided to shift to an abandoned shed, some distance away from his guru's ashram. One of Babaji's fellow sadhaks agreed to bring their guru's prasad to Babaji daily and another devotee offered a nourishing drink consisting of milk and almonds every day.

Question: Babaji, you had no work, so what were you doing there?

Babaji: Nama-Japa.

Question: Excluding about 7 to 8 hours spent towards sleep and your daily personal chores, were you doing only japa for the remaining 16 or 17 hours of the day?

Babaji smiled so sweetly and said:

"Ah! It was giving me so much of Ananda! I was thinking that if japa done by just one person with only one tongue can give so much Ananda, how much Ananda would there be if a thousand tongues would repeat the name! The Ananda from the japa was so intense that in spite of feeling hungry and seeing the prasad in front of me I hesitated to take it because japa would have to be stopped, which would then cause a decrease in Ananda for the duration of eating. The same thing happened with the delicious drink which was standing in front of me and which I hesitated to drink in spite of being thirsty. I did not want to interrupt this continuous flow of Ananda from the repetition of the name.

After some time a sadhu taught me how to do japa at every hair-root of the entire body. I practised this and had the Ananda, but there was a danger because during the japa the body would rise quite a bit above the ground and would then suddenly drop back down. Therefore, after about one and a half years, I discontinued this practice."

Question: After discontinuing this special method and coming back to your old original way of doing japa did you get back the same Ananda as you felt before?

Babaji: No, this was no longer possible, because the effect of Sri Aurobindo's yoga had already started to work in the earth atmosphere.

Note: Babaji Ramkrishna Das, stayed at Ayodhya for about 16 years doing the sadhana of Nama-Japa. Then the Divine changed his course of sadhana and he came to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1945. After many years of stay in Pondicherry, when numerous people started visiting him, he began to ponder whether in this Integral Yoga also he should ask the visitors to do Nama-Japa. After studying the Mother's Agenda and also finding references to the practice of Nama-Japa at different places in Sri Aurobindo's writings and through his own inner realisation, Babaji was finally convinced that in this yoga also, Nama-Japa is essential for the transformation of the body.

It was especially during the last 20 years of his life that Babaji started writing in each and every of his numerous correspondences with devotees from Orissa, to have an unshakable faith and dependence on the Mother and to constantly do japa of the Mother's name. Year after year he wrote thousands of letters to devotees giving advice and responding to questions of sadhaks in all fields of life, always stressing the importance of Ma-Nama-Japa. Babaji felt that Nama-Japa done by so many people would create a wide, solid and raised platform of general consciousness, which in turn would help the more advanced sadhaks to rise still higher and thereby accelerate the process of transformation.

Perhaps the response was not up to what Babaji had hoped for, and early in the year of 1998 (he left his body in November of the same year), he thought of creating a base of Nama-Japa around himself.

At that time, due to some physical difficulties, Babaji was getting up only at about 5 o'clock in the morning. Two persons were staying with him at night and another 3 were coming early morning to help him with his morning chores.

It was the early morning of March 23, 1998 that Babaji got up at 5 am and immediately sat on his low chair. Looking at his attendants he said:

"Today, instead of the usual routine, we shall do Nama-Japa."

The 5 attendants sat down, Babaji started repeating

"Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma...." with a loud voice and others started to join in. Babaji stopped after half an hour.

It was then decided to do the japa every day from 5 am to 5:30 am, and throughout the day Babaji repeated this several times. The morning japa continued for the next 2 days. On the second day Babaji announced that this morning japa would from now on also be done in the evening time from 6:30 pm to 7:00 pm. It was started the same day.

As the information spread many people started joining the japa sessions especially in the evening.

After some time Babaji started distributing banana-prasad with his own hands to those who attended the evening japa. Those bananas tasted like nectar. Gradually Babaji's physical condition deteriorated and he was not able to leave his bed, yet the japa-sessions continued.

On August 16th, 1998, two days after his birthday, sometime during the morning hours, Babaji was admitted to the Ashram Nursing Home. During his stay of 89 days at the Nursing Home, the japa-sessions continued in Babaji's room at 5 in the morning and at 6:30 in the evening. Babaji had given instructions for these sessions in his room to continue and this was done accordingly despite oppositions and hindrances. Towards the later part of Babaji's stay at the Nursing Home Ma-Nama-Japa was done continuously in Babaji's own room from 5 am to 9 pm every day. This was appreciated by Babaji.

In the Nursing Home he was at times answering a few questions and was saying that his physical transformation was still possible. On the 16th of September during a brief discussion, Babaji said:

"The higher nature has already achieved victory over the lower nature, but it has not yet gained victory over the physical body. This will definitely be done and one will not have to leave the body.

Nama-Japa and surrender are necessary for this victory. There will be no necessity of doctors and treatments. These are necessary only for one's mental satisfaction."

A few days before he left his body he was questioned:

Question: Babaji, is it still possible that your body can be transformed?

Babaji: No, this time it is not possible.

Question: Why, Babaji? You had said that your body was ready for the transformation.

Babaji: There was a short pause, then Babaji said:

"Nama-Japa could not be done properly.,."

By this time he had almost stopped talking and was always keeping his eyes closed. But whenever anybody was doing japa of the Mother's name at his bed-side he opened his eyes and looked in that direction without blinking. This was being noticed almost till the crucial day of 8.11.1998, the day he left his body.

While he was in the Ashram Nursing Home he would go into trance. On one particular day, with the help of two attendants Babaji was sitting up in his bed, slowly looking from side to side. It was evident that he was not seeing us at all but was seeing something of the Supramental World. His eyes were completely indrawn so that only the white of the eyes was visible. As he continued to move his head very slowly from left to right and right to left, obviously observing something, he began to speak slowly in Oriya. His voice seemed to come from very far away: "Like this it will be! Like this it will be! The road is wide and clear, Nama-Japa is the only way."