Fair-skinned, of medium build
and height, Babaji's beautiful, strong body radiates a perceptible
glow. His eyes are dark, calm, and tender; his long, lustrous
hair is copper-colored. A very strange fact is that Babaji bears an
extraordinarily exact resemblance to his disciple Lahiri Mahasaya.
The similarity is so striking that, in his later years, Lahiri
Mahasaya might have passed as the father of the youthful-looking
Babaji.
Swami Kebalananda, my saintly Sanskrit tutor, spent some time with
Babaji in the Himalayas.
"The peerless master moves with his group from place to place in
the mountains," Kebalananda told me. "His small band contains two
highly advanced American disciples. After Babaji has been in one
locality for some time, he says: 'DERA DANDA UTHAO.' ('Let us lift
our camp and staff.') He carries a symbolic DANDA (bamboo staff).
His words are the signal for moving with his group instantaneously
to another place. He does not always employ this method of astral
travel; sometimes he goes on foot from peak to peak.
"Babaji can be seen or recognized by others only when he so
desires. He is known to have appeared in many slightly different
forms to various devotees-sometimes without beard and moustache,
and sometimes with them. As his undecaying body requires no food,
the master seldom eats. As a social courtesy to visiting disciples,
he occasionally accepts fruits, or rice cooked in milk and clarified
butter.
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