Namaste:
I read in the Haidikhan Samaj newsletter that you were collecting stories from people on how Babaji came into their lives.
He came into my life in a most extraordinary way, demonstrating without a doubt that He is truly Maha Prabuji Lord Shiva Himself. Thank you for the opportunity to share.
In Spring of 2001, I was suffering from terrible burnout from my job. It required a great deal of travel, was highly stressful and was causing me significant insomnia and subsequently affecting my general health and well being.
I was in the Portland, Oregon airport. I had been working there and was preparing to fly to work in Boston before returning home to New York City. Having had this career for 20 years with all of its perks, and prestige as well as satisfaction that I was helping people, I knew deep down for a long time that I just had to leave this work. That April Day, The Divine made that decision for me.
While at the gate waiting for the plane, I fainted. To this day, I don't know what caused it. Paramedics came and looked me over, but it was not necessary to take me to a hospital. When I recovered, I quit my job right then and there!!
I had my plane reservations changed to St. Louis, Mo where my parents lived and decided I would fly there and stay for awhile to decide what the next step in my life was going to be.
I had a very long wait of several hours to catch that new flight. Then something quite remarkable happened…I kept seeing this very nice looking man dressed in white. He looked Native American and the energy that emanated from him was so powerful, so loving and so very healing.
No matter where I walked in the airport or sat.. I would see him! It got to the point that there was no logical explanation to this remarkable being's comings and goings. Sometimes I would walk past him and then not much later, he would walk past me coming from the opposite direction.
He never said anything to me and I don't remember being able to look in his eyes, but the energy that flooded from him was extraordinary and beautiful. It didn't even seem odd at the time. It seemed that silently he was guiding me and assuring me that everything was alright.
The only explanation I gave myself was he must be a Shaman. I recalled experiences that author Carlos Castenada had with the shaman, Don Juan. I was reading and doing some studies in Native American spirituality at the time and figured I had "attracted some sort of blessings to myself" and as powerful as the experience was, didn't give it much thought afterwards because of all of the outer changes I was experiencing.
I suppose, too I explained the experience away as perhaps a delusional hallucination. I had fainted only one other time in my life and thought that the "Shaman Experience" was due to the stress of the events of that day.
The following December, I had moved back to Missouri and was reading a book where the author had mentioned Haidakhan Babaji. I had never heard about this guru before and decided to look him up on the internet.
To my amazement, I realized that the being at the airport was Babaji !!!! I spent days visiting so many different websites and gazing at his beautiful pictures. The same energy I felt from this live.. three dimensional.. in the flesh .."shaman" came pouring out of these photos.
As I acquired more information about Babaji, I learned that he has materialized and given his darshan in form to people…I felt so humbled, so grateful and so blessed that Divine Grace came to me in the midst of midlife crisis and transformed me.
I had the chance to email and communicate with devotees. One very nonchalantly mentioned that "He seems to like to materialize in airports because he can pop in and out without people noticing." Apparently, other people have had similar experiences. It has amazed me just how many people actually have had powerfully wonderful supernatural "introductions" to him !
It is said, that when a person is ready, the Guru appears…Bole Baba ki jai..DID he appear!!! I have subsequently had a couple of other intense experiences that have proven without a doubt the loving reality of his presence in my life..but alas, no more materializations..in fact he often seems to hide..sometimes standing back and letting my love for him and my faith remind me that he is real and he is alive and he is my Guru..and he is always with me.
Thank you for this opportunity to share and to remind myself how much Bole Baba loves me.
"The root of meditation is the Guru's form. The root of worship is the Guru's feet. The root of mantra is the Guru's word. The root of liberation is the Guru's grace." - Shri Guru Gita v.76
Om Namah Shivaya!
Karen Maresca (Kanti)