Beloved Master – Mahatma Shri. Ram Chandraji Maharaj of Shahjahanpur
(1899 – 1983)
(Rev. Babuji Maharaj)
New Spiritual Era
Rev. Shri. Babuji was born in the north Indian town of Shahjahanpur, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, on 30 April 1899. He was named Ram Chandra after one of the great figures of Indian history (later fondly called “Babuji”). From an early age Ram Chandra displayed a craving for spiritual realisation which overshadowed all other interests.
Rev. Shri. Babuji’s life was that of an ordinary householder, never that of a renunciate or sannyasi. He considered the home and family to be the very finest training ground for spirituality, and it was in this light that he approached his familial responsibilities.
In June of 1922, at the comparatively young age of twenty-two, he first met his Master, a man with the same name as himself who lived in the town of Fatehgarh, not far from Shahjahanpur. Shri. Ram Chandra of Fatehgarh, affectionately known as Lalaji, a saint of the highest calibre.
The art of transmission was passed from Rev. Shri Lalaji to his most devoted disciple, Rev. Babuji, who further refined his Master’s teachings into the current practice of Sahaj Marg (the natural path).
Though teacher and disciple met only a few times before Lalaji’s death in 1931, Shri. Lalaji Maharaj became the sole centre and purpose of Shri. Babuji’s existence. The thought of his Master remained constant in Babuji’s mind and heart from their first meeting until he himself passed on to the brighter world on 19th April 1983.
Precepts & Teachings
God is ONE and ONE alone, so that we must take up the ONE to realize that ONE alone.
God is extremely simple and subtle, and the means to realize God should also be equally fine, simple and subtle.
The wonder is that we expect everything “from” God, but we do not even try to deserve it.
Nature’s laws are inexorable. To go on doing things against Nature is impertinence.
The real cry of the pangful heart of a true seeker brings the Master to his door.
Arrogance, Pride and Prejudice are the poisons of spiritual life.
If one can sell his heart in order to make a gift of it to the ‘Divine Master’, hardly anything more remains to be done.
The entire responsibility of success rests upon the Master when the Abhyasi has duly submitted himself to his charge.
Spiritual perfection has to be based on three factors:
a) Love for the Master
b) Satsang with the Master, and
c) Obedience to the Master.
Absorbing in reality means that the Abhyasi should not feel anything in him. He loses the feeling of body, mind and soul, which is the real condition of God.
All physical ailments are really meant for the cure of spiritual diseases, because thereby it consumes some of the ‘samskaras’ and increases the power of endurance as well.
The end of religion is the beginning of spirituality. The end of spirituality is the beginning of reality, and the end of reality is real bliss. When that too is gone, we have reached the destination!