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CHAPTER IV
BABAJI'S RETURN TO HAIDAKHAN
Ram Singh Makes a Murti

Master Ram Singh Sammal has taught in the school in Okhal-dunga since the 1956-57 school year. He was born a few miles down the path from Okhaldunga to Haldwani, in a village called Himatpur-Lachampur, in 1937. Tradition has it that the Sammal ancestors came from the Punjab after some now-forgotten disaster in a time before the English moved into the Kumaon area (1815). Now Sammals occupy much of the land in this area.

Ram Singh's family is a family of farmers, and he still walks down the hill toward Haldwani on Sundays and school holidays to tend his farm in his native village. His mother was very devoted to God. Siddha-like, what she told people - or foretold - came to pass, and because her statements of future events were so consistently accurate, people from the whole area came to her for guidance, though she did not encourage this or set herself up as a special person. She and her family used to pay special respect to Nantin Baba, a saint who was widely known and revered.

When he was still a very young child, Ram Singh heard from his family the stories of 'Old Haidakhan Baba' and the miracles He performed. Early in his life, Ram Singh developed a very strong desire to see Babaji. This desire was fanned by his meeting Mahendra Baba in 1955, as he walked the Okhaldunga route from Haldwani to Haidakhan. After that, Mahendra Baba stopped occasionally to visit Ram Singh.

In 1962, Ram Singh had a series of dreams about 'Old Haidakhan Baba.' One night, at 2:30 a.m., Babaji came to Ram Singh in a dream and said, "Make My murti."⁶³ Babaji repeated His words and the dream ended. During the day, Ram Singh told his mother of the dream, but she said there was no hurry to make a murti; it was nice that he had had Babaji's darshan. The next night, again at 2:30 a.m., Ram Singh had the same dream. This time, his mother said there must be something to this dream. On the third night, the same dream came at the same time. Both mother and son decided Ram Singh should make a murti.

On the fourth day, in the evening, as Ram Singh was saying his evening prayers, his mind became concentrated on making the murti; he had no idea how to go about making a murti. He drifted into meditation and, in his meditation, Ram Singh 'saw' several instruments useful in sculpting. He made drawings of what he had seen, then went to a blacksmith and asked if he could make those instruments for him. When they were made, on the first following school holiday Ram Singh and some of his students went into the jungle and brought back some special 'holy' clay.

On the next holy day, Ram Singh took his clay and made a pile of it which he expected he could scrape and shape into a murti about eighteen to twenty inches tall. He sketched into the clay lines to delineate hands, feet, legs, etc. As he looked at the clay and wondered what to do next, the school master came to tell Ram Singh that Nantin Baba was in Haldwani and wanted Ram Singh to come to him; if Ram Singh came to him in Haldwani, Nantin Baba would return with him to Ram Singh's house. With some feelings of relief, Ram Singh put his clay away (covering it with wet cloths to keep it workable) and left quickly.

Ram Singh stayed with Nantin Baba in Haldwani for three days, basking in his powerful presence, finding answers to spiritual questions just by looking into his eyes with love and faith. Then Nantin Baba came with Ram Singh to his house in Okhaldunga, and Nantin Baba stayed there for nine days.

The first three days, Ram Singh said nothing about the dreams of Babaji and the murti project, but then he related the whole story. Nantin Baba looked at what Ram Singh had done, said it was a nice project, and encouraged Ram Singh to work on it.

On the ninth day, Nantin Baba said he wanted to go to the Surya Devi temple, in the jungle a few miles from Okhaldunga. Seven other people joined them for the walk. When they reached the temple, late in the afternoon, they found Surya Devi Baba - a middle-aged renunciate who took care of the temple and usually stayed there - in residence. Whether for this reason or some other, Nantin Baba decided not to spend the night there, but to walk on; so the whole party left.

The jungle was very dense and it soon became very dark. Nantin Baba selected a big, spreading tree and sat down under it. Everyone but Nantin Baba was very much afraid of the animals known to roam in the jungle, so they quickly built and lit a fire. Nantin Baba told Ram Singh to go to the nearby stream and get water. They could hear the sounds of a large animal coming their way, and Nantin Baba cautioned Ram Singh about tigers in the jungle. Ram Singh was very much afraid and he went to wake up a friend who had drifted off to sleep, in order to have company in the jungle; but Nantin Baba shouted at him not to disturb his friend. So Ram Singh gathered all his courage and walked into the dark jungle, toward the water and the noise of the approaching animal. But, before he had taken many steps, Nantin Baba sent someone to accompany him. Together, they got the water and brought it back, in complete safety. Nantin Baba then cooked kitcheri (a moist rice dish, with whatever vegetables are available, and spices) and fed all the group.

As they sat near the fire after their meal, a tiger walked into their midst; everyone - except Nantin Baba - was scared almost to death. Someone picked up a stone to throw; Nantin Baba told the company to sit still. The tiger walked up to Nantin Baba and lay down before him, put his great head on his paws and looked steadily at Nantin Baba. The tiger lay there, focused and looking, for five or six minutes, then got up and quietly walked away. The company around Nantin Baba, who had been terribly frightened by the tiger's presence, experienced a great sense of bliss when the tiger left, and all through the night in the jungle.

The next day, Nantin Baba sent Ram Singh back to his home with the instruction that his most important work was to complete the murti of Haidakhan Baba. When he got to his home, Ram Singh found the pile of clay too hard, too dry, to shape, so he started all over again with a new pile of clay.

As he worked on the new pile of clay, Ram Singh talked to Babaji as he would if he had seen Babaji sitting in the room with him. He said he didn't know how to shape the hands or feet, how to show the legs, how to give the impression of a kurta hanging over His body; or anything else. He told Babaji that he had heard that Baba had a scar on His head from the Mahabharata War, and he asked what he should do.

Every night, for twenty-two nights in a row, at 2:30 a.m., Shri Babaji appeared to Ram Singh in dreams. Each night Babaji helped Ram Singh with the next day's problem on the murti. Babaji would sit yogi-fashion and tell Ram Singh to observe how and where His legs crossed, let Ram Singh measure lengths and breadths of His body by his hands or by finger-widths. Then during the day, Ram Singh wrote the dream in his diary and followed Babaji's guidance to shape the clay. When they were working on the head of the murti, during one dream Shri Babaji bent His head toward Ram Singh, told Ram Singh to part His hair and locate the scar on His head, and to measure it with his fingers. (The scar measured five or six finger-widths.) In this fashion, with very practical help from Shri Babaji, the murti was finished in twenty-two or twenty-three days.

Two or three days after the murti was finished, a ninety-year-old man of the village, a disciple of Nantin Baba, came to Ram Singh's house and told him to go and get Nantin Baba, who was then just about half a mile away. It was a hot mid-day, so Ram Singh found Nantin Baba lying down, resting. Ram Singh made a pranam to Nantin Baba and picked up his luggage, and Nantin Baba followed Ram Singh to his home without a word. At the house, Nantin Baba asked about the murti. Ram Singh showed the murti to Nantin Baba, who said that even a great artist could not have made such a fine murti of Shri Babaji.

Again Nantin Baba stayed with Ram Singh for nine days. During that time, Ram Singh (with help from the village) made a large, one-room hut of stone and mud-and-cow-dung mortar, with a thatched roof. Nantin Baba installed the murti with the proper Vedic ceremonies and he taught Ram Singh how to perform puja to the murti.

When all this was done, Ram Singh asked Nantin Baba if he would see Babaji in His physical form during this lifetime. Nantin Baba answered that all forms are one, the same; as the seed is and becomes the flower, so also God is in all forms. Then he added that Ram Singh would see Babaji in His physical form.

Very soon, people came to see Ram Singh's murti. Someone from Haidakhan village asked Ram Singh to give, or sell, the murti to him. Ram Singh refused to part with that very special murti, but he agreed to make a bigger murti for the Haidakhan temple. So he made a second murti of clay. But before the man from Haidakhan could get the murti, the murti cracked, then fell apart, at neck and legs, into three big pieces. Ram Singh was greatly disappointed; he had spent much time and effort on this murti. That night Babaji appeared to Ram Singh again, in a dream, and, looking sternly at Ram Singh, Babaji asked, "Do you want to start a business of making murtis?" Ram Singh's disappointment vanished with the dream.

Nantin Baba told Ram Singh to keep the door of the hut locked; not to make it common; to keep it only for his own worship and meditation. After many years, he said, people from all over India and from abroad would come to see it; then the hut should be open. He told Ram Singh that Shri Babaji would come to his house, and that Ram Singh would see Him, touch Him, and serve Him.

Ram Singh Meets the Oldest Man in Creation

Some weeks after the murti episode was completed, while Ram Singh was walking in the forest, he saw a beautiful young boy who seemed to be about twelve or thirteen years old, sitting straight, in meditation, with closed eyes. Ram Singh walked up to the boy, who opened his eyes and smiled. Spontaneously, Ram Singh said, "You look like the Absolute God in human form."

Ram Singh says that this young boy stayed in the hill area around Haidakhan and throughout the Kumaon region thereafter, but no one recalls seeing him earlier than 1961 or 1962. He lived alone, with no home, but often would spend some days, even a few weeks, outside someone's house yard or on village common land. He moved here and there around the area, often organizing and performing yagyas (fire ceremonies with all-day readings from scriptures). He was often found sitting in deep meditation. People enjoyed a strong sense of bliss in his presence.

Ram Singh walked through the hills with this young boy many times; so did others. He was fairly widely recognized in the area. People still recall seeing him in the hills and once or twice he came to Haidakhan, to the temple which 'Old Haidakhan Baba' had built. He performed fire ceremonies with Ram Singh in Ram Singh's hut with the murti of 'Old Haidakhan Baba.'

Ram Singh used to mention this boy to Nantin Baba, who told Ram Singh that one who has control over sitting, eating and sleeping is a Great Realized One; ordinary people, even 'ordinary' saints, do not have such control. Nantin Baba said, "You think he is a child? He is the oldest 'man' in Creation." Some time in 1968 or 1969, this young boy went to a banker in Almora and asked him for a donation of 100,000 rupees to build up the Haidakhan Ashram. His request was, of course, denied. Some time in the same period, a young hotel-keeper from Haldwani, who often spent time with the saints of this area, came upon this boy in the jungle and was so impressed by his beauty and purity that he spent several days with him in the jungle.

At this time, the young boy - now a young man in form - was also seen in Haldwani several times. Among other stops he made were two visits to Shri Trilok Singh, a wholesale vegetable and grain dealer. On one occasion, the young baba walked into Trilok Singh's shop and sat there for some time, quietly looking, then left without having said a word. On another occasion, he went to Trilok Singh's home, while a religious function was being celebrated there, and joined in the singing of the Hanuman Chalisa - a hymn of praise to the Shiva avatar Hanuman (the god with a monkey form who served Ram and Sita), who is a symbol and example of devotion and service to God.

In the second half of 1969, Surya Devi Baba - the keeper of the Surya Devi temple in the jungle - became ill and could not shake his illness. After a time, the young man came to the Surya Devi temple and stayed for some months nursing Surya Devi Baba. He made food for Surya Devi Baba, washed his clothes, kept the area clean, went into the jungle to collect medicinal herbs, and made herbal medicines for him; and at last Surya Devi Baba regained his health.

Surya Devi Baba thought this young sadhu was a wandering boy looking for a guru, so he took the young man on as a disciple. After a few more months, his 'disciple' told Surya Devi Baba that he was going to go to Haidakhan. For a moment, Surya Devi Baba had the idea that this young sadhu was "something very special," extraordinary, so he allowed him to go his way.

The young sadhu apparently went from the Surya Devi temple to a village called Kalichora (near Kathgodam, up-river from Haldwani) and stayed there, at a temple which 'Old Haidakhan Baba' and other saints used to frequent, for about three months. Robbers came and murdered a sadhu who was living there. A man who lived in the village of Kalichora told the young sadhu not to stay there because it was unsafe; he took him into his own home. The sadhu performed a nine-day yagya there and then, in June, 1970, the villager took the young sadhu to Haidakhan.

Babaji Returns

There are conflicting stories as to who saw Babaji first in Haidakhan when He returned to begin His recent teaching mission. In the light of subsequent experiences of Him, it is possible that all the stories are truthful, even if they appear to conflict: He was clearly capable of being in more than one place or one form at a time. Several people, including myself, have attempted to investigate the facts of His return to Haidakhan, and have only gotten deeper into confusion.

A man from Nepal, who spent months on this research, concluded that Babaji s first appearance was on top of Mount Kailash (the Kurmanchal or Kumaon Kailash, opposite the village of Haidakhan) and that after He had been there a few days, the priest of the temple up there brought Him down to the Haidakhan Cave.

A widely published and believed story was that of Chandramani, a man who lives a mile or so beyond Haidakhan village on the slopes of Mount Siddeshwar.⁶⁴ On a night in June, at about 3 a.m., he dreamed that his father, who had been dead for about twenty-five years, appeared to him and told him that Shri Haidakhan Baba had reappeared in a physical body and was staying in the Haidakhan Cave; he urged his son to go and have Haidakhan Baba's darshan. Chandramani awoke and went quickly down the hill and down the riverbed to the Cave. There he found an old man with a long white beard, wrapped in a white sheet. When the old man saw him, he told Chandramani, "My child, you should return home at once and come back only after three days." Chandramani went home, but he immediately put milk in a jar and returned to the Cave.

When he entered the cave the second time, Chandramani was amazed to find a young man - 20 or 22 years old, perhaps - who also had long hair, a long beard, and a big mustache. The young man drank a little of the milk and told Chandramani not to tell anyone what he had seen in the Cave. When Chandramani went back to the cave on the next two days, he could not find the man (young or old). Subsequently, Chandramani found Him sitting in the temple that 'Old Haidakhan Baba' had built, in a young form and without a beard or mustache.

Shri Shyam Behari Lal Gaur, a bank manager and an Ayurvedic doctor from Jaipur, states that he and several hundred devotees of Mahendra Maharaj had gathered at the Kathgharia Ashram on June 23, 1970, to observe the anniversary of Mahendra Baba's passing, and afterwards perhaps two hundred of those devotees walked into Haidakhan and spent a day or two there. On the night of the 25^th or 26^th of June, many of these people were sitting up late near the temple, meditating or singing kirtan. From about midnight to about 4 a.m., these people saw a divine light (jyoti). A big ball of white light appeared at the top of Mount Kailash, stayed there for a while, and then came slowly down the hillside (on the unclimbable slope of Kailash, which faces the ashram) and stopped for a time above the holy Haidakhan Cave. From there, the white light moved down the river three hundred meters or so to the island where Sati, Shiva's consort, is said to have bathed. From the ball of white light a ball of blue light emerged, and the two lights moved about a meter apart. They joined again, parted again, moved back upstream to the Cave, then down to the tree. This movement continued for three or three-and-a-half hours in full view of the people sitting by the ashram temple. At about 4 a.m. the light disappeared. The devotees left the ashram that day. Later, Shri Babaji told Dr. Gaur that if they had stayed on another day or two they would have met Him in His new physical form.

Dhan Singh, about seventy years old, who had a tea shop in the village of Haidakhan, used to go to the Haidakhan temple every morning to offer water to the shivalingam. Toward the end of June, the Forest Guard stationed in Haidakhan came to Dhan Singh's teashop in the afternoon and told Dhan Singh that there was a small, young sadhu sitting at the Haidakhan temple who looked like a "Great One."

The next morning, when Dhan Singh went to offer his water to the lingam, he took with him tea leaves, sugar, and milk and he went into the old hut in front of the temple, which 'Old Haidakhan Baba' had built, and made tea for the young baba. He continued this practice, when Babaji was in the ashram, for about two years. When Dhan Singh first saw Babaji, He had a very short beard; after two days it was gone.