Mahavatar Babaji Maharaj

Mahavatar Babaji Maharaj is regarded within the Kriya Yoga tradition as a timeless, divine being who cannot be captured by ordinary historical record. He is described as “ageless and ever young” — ancient and immortal, unbound by time or place. Of his birth, identity, and life, tradition says that “time could not reveal the facts.”

According to the teaching of the tradition, Babaji appears in different forms, or remains formless, as the spiritual guidance of seekers requires. He is therefore not bound to a single place or era; his presence is regarded as constant and living.

Babaji’s most significant and best-documented role is that he initiated Lahiri Mahashaya into Kriya Yoga. Tradition describes how he watched over him “from the beginning until he attained divinity, the way a bird protects its young.” He then instructed Lahiri Mahashaya to return to worldly life as a householder, showing that “liberation is no longer the prerogative of a few chosen renunciates.”

Through this act, Babaji established a foundational message: that even an ordinary person living amid family and work can attain spiritual realization. Tradition holds that he “brought the message of Kriya Yoga to the West through Paramahamsa Yogananda and Paramahamsa Hariharananda” and guided their spiritual development.

Mahavatar Babaji is thus regarded as the wellspring from which today’s living lineage of Kriya Yoga flows — not as a historical figure fixed to dates and places, but as an ever-present spiritual principle that protects and inspires the lineage.

Source: Kriya Yoga International ↗