Sri M, born Mumtaz Ali in Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) in 1948, has written of his transformation into a yogi, his years with his guru travelling to different places in the Himalayas, of mystical experiences before and after meeting his guru, and of later years at the Krishnamurti foundation and afterwards in his book "Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master - A Yogi's Autobiography". A few of these experiences have also been mentioned in freely available videos of his interviews and lectures. Even if only to force our minds to remain open to the possibility of higher dimensions of consciousness and existence, it seems worthwhile to go over some parts of his life story here. Or, even closer home, think of the purity of mind these stories create or the deep rest the heart of a believer gets when it learns of these things being true. Or, think of it as a story the great yogi wanted his friends to hear - for reasons we may not yet understand. Or just think of it as a "time-pass" with a joker friend of yours who thinks much of his games. All these are non-disturbing ways of thinking of these incredible events and would be conducive to learning. If you get excited and feel depressed that you are not at the same level as the yogi on these dimensions, you are likely to feed the disturbed mind that is always crying for one want or the other. Do you have your own way to calm the disturbed mind? If not, then don't let your visualization and imagination of your junior position vis-a-vis this yogi get the better of you. The book was written to help us. It is like prasaada at the end of a puja. It is like a snack shared amongst friends. It is like a gift from a parent to the child. Surely, the ancients who wrote in Sanskrit would have called these stories "milk fed by the mother to her child". We may call it the mother Ganges instead. So such is the nature of great stories. Some of the great old ones like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata also have metaphysical (esoteric) interpretations, but the stories still retain their full status as simple stories. So might the yogi have higher or other purposes in presenting his case, but it still retains its position as a "feel good" story. Compulsive believers have a compelling reason to partake of this prasaad. May it be auspicious.
1. In early childhood, he was often disturbed by some nightmares but even in dreams, nothing ever harmed him. Both he and his younger sister were fairly studious, his sister even more than he. He heard of great sufis from one of his grandmothers and his father too had an interest in yoga and used to keep some books on yoga in his office. He liked to eat at some of his Hindu friends' place mainly because, he says, he did not get good idli sambhar elsewhere.
2. His guru from the Himalayas first contacted him at his Kerala residence when he was nine years old. The yogi beckoned to him from under a jack-fruit tree in the courtyard of the house, blessed him and asked if he remembered anything. Sri M replied in the negative, and the yogi left after telling him that he would remember in due course of time. After this meeting, Sri M felt himself meditating spontaneously at night, and perceived soothing lights arising from the heart center or running up his spine. Even before this incident, Sri M was inclined towards the mystical, in the sense that when Swami Abhedananda from a nearby ashram would come to his part of the town singing devotional songs, Sri M would find the music very appealing to his heart.
3. He went to see a swami called Gopala Pillai who was visiting his friend's place. Gopala Swami touched his forehead as a blessing and Sri M was in waves of ecstacy. Overwhelmed, he ran to the jackfruit tree in the courtyard of his house. Slowly, the experience subsided.
4. A librarian provided timely help by pointing to good spiritual books by a variety of authors - e.g., Swami Vivekananda, Madam Blavatsky, the Upanishads, etc. Sri M also read philosophers like Aristotle in those days.
5. At the age of 14, he met another mystic of high repute in the area called Kaladi Mastan. The mastan sportingly called him the big thief - the thief who had come to steal the mastan's treasure.The mastan was a wandering monk who kept almost no possessions, but at his touch, Sri M went into an ecstatic trance for 3 days. Shopkeepers who were around when the mastan blessed him told him when he came to that he had been in trance for three days.
6. Two other mystics blessed him via dreams. Swami Abhedananda, who used to sing devotional songs with his troupe, happened to bless him around this time. That night, Sri M dreamt of himself as a gopi (cowherd girl) playing with Lord Krishna, the master yogi himself. Another mystic, Mai Maa, lived in rags and was followed everywhere by a few stray dogs who she often fed. Offering her some dosas, which she accepted, when Sri M returned home, he was blessed by her in a dream. He woke up feeling the energy within him and could not go to school that day because he was so "drunk" with the ecstasy. He writes that the night of the dream, he could barely walk due to the experience and that the feeling subsided only the next evening.
7. During these early days, he also visited the shrine of a sufi saint named Beema Bibi, in whose name exorcisms were conducted at the shrine regularly. Once he ran away to meditate in a grove where many saints were said to have had illuminating experiences. The reason was that he found in the books he was reading, different statements made by two renowned yogis about the location of the heart center and was perplexed by that. At night, he got an answer from someone who seemed to know that Sri M was bound to come into association with Babaji - a legendary figure who is said to have maintained his young body for centuries, and is said to be the preceptor of Shri Lahiri Mahashaya, who revived Kriya Yoga in the modern world.
8. With many such experiences guiding the way, Sri M finally decided to go to the Himalayas without informing his family. However, before that he did a "trial run" which was itself an experience. Finally he took the plunge, used the trains to reach Haridwar, and started searching for a true guru. Over the next few months, he stayed at different places like an ashram and once with a naga sadhu, and met practitioners of different kinds. Some were honest to the core and were living life according to their understanding of the scriptures, while others like a naga sadhu he met were addicted to their "chillum". None of them satisfied him fully, though, because they had no direct realization of God, or the higher dimensions of reality. He was told that although there were truly realized souls in the Himalayas, they were rare to find and that there were a fair number of fraudsters too. However, some of them really wished him well and wanted to help him and with their best wishes, Sri M carried on towards the higher regions of the Himalayas. He visited caves known to have been named after ancient rishis who were supposed to have meditated there and one fine day, was willing to throw himself into the cold waters of the Alakanandaa seeing no progress on the main aim of his life. That day, he met the same yogi who had visited him at his residence at the age of nine. The yogi knew about his travails and from where he had come, and giving him something to eat and drink, asked him to stay for a few days. As Sri M found out, this was Maheshwarnath Baba, disciple of the legendary Shri Guru Babaji (of Kriya Yoga fame), and a self-realized yogi himself. With Maheshwarnath Baba (or, Babaji, as Sri M calls him), Sri M spent three and a half most wonderful years, travelling across the Himalayas, witnessing miracles performed on occasion by Babaji (Maheshwarnath Babaji) to help someone or the other, meeting other siddhas and yogis from Tibetan and other traditions, learning from Babaji’s discourses on the upanishads or yoga, and practicing meditation or yogic exercises as taught by Babaji. At some point, he was officially initiated into the Nath tradition by Maheshwarnath Babaji, but was also informed that his role, later in life, was going to require him to go back to the world of ordinary humans, live external life like a regular householder, but also try to maintain the inner spiritual awakening while doing all that. Sri M was not keen to go back, but had learnt by then that the gurus knew best.
9. On one particular evening, a ball of light which looked the size of the moon from a distance descended from the sky in front of the cave where Sri M and Babaji were resting with the “dhuni” (fire) lit in front of the cave. The ball seemed to be a vehicle, which opened up and allowed a large blue serpent to dismount. Babaji seemingly spoke snake-language with the large serpent and at the end, asked Sri M to bow to the creature. After the creature departed in the same spaqcecraft, Sri M inquired and learnt that there was a planet in the Milky Way where these highly evolved serpents lived and that the serpents have had a long-standing relationship with humans for centuries. They had taught humans many a thing in the early phases of human development, but could not continue on earth due to problems with humans later. The being who had come to see Babaji was simply called “Nagraj” by Babaji – since he was quite high on the administration of the planet according to Babaji. Babaji said that some disputes on the planet (Sarpalok as he called it) had still not been resolved despite the higher level of spiritual evolution of these beings and that Nagraj had visited him to discuss what could be done about those disputes.
10. Samadhi or universal consciousness had to be bestowed upon Sri M by “other means” since there wasn’t enough time to get there via meditation. It was a simple dome-shaped instrument (perhaps made of some metal) which was placed on his head by two experts who had the sanction of his guru. They pressed the helmet-like structure on his head with the help of some strings and pressed on it. Sri M was first outside the body and then back in again. He then saw that in that state, consciousness had no center – this body or that, or even another heavenly body, anything could be called the center. When someone spoke to Sri M, he could feel his consciousness being within the speaker, as though it was himself speaking to himself. All these and many more amazing experiences have been recorded by Sri M for the reader’s benefit in his autobiographical book. It includes some of his experiences with J. Krishnamurti too, whom he met after Babaji asked him to go back to the “ordinary world” and work and live like a regular householder. There were also some remarkable experiences at Shirdi where he went with his guru.
11. Sri M did marry many years later and has two children from the marriage. He waited for a signal from his guru before starting “satsangs” and discourses in which he could teach about spiritual matters. The association with Maheshwarnath Babaji continued even physically after his return to the regular world – even though it was rare. Once, Babaji asked him to come over to Mumbai where he was planning on helping a disciple’s family with a period of emotional stress. Babaji would surprise him by surprise meetings of this kind at times. Maheshwarnath Babaji – who used to look like a 30-year old for decades and may have lived for dozens of decades according to Sri M’s calculations – finally decided to exit his physical body many years later, after duly informing Sri M and transferring most of his capabilities to Sri M. Sri M buried the body as per the guru’s instructions.
Over the years, Sri M has been speaking at universities, in the Indian Parliament, and on television too, spreading the light as best as he can. Most recently, in 2015, Sri M undertook a padayatra from Kanyakumari to Srinagar, stopping at various cities to talk to people and just bless them, if nothing. He has written that as a youngster, he learnt several magic tricks due to his interest in the field, so the present author is skeptical about the "ashes" he materializes in some of his interviews on freely available videos. In any case, he performs this trick adding that such siddhis are child’s play and not to be given much importance. Perhaps what is much more important to Sri M is that the learning of universal oneness be reflected in daily life, by somehow translating the Samadhi experience into a light which can guide all action.
Sadanand Tutakne
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