PERFECT MASTERS - Hazrat Babajan of Pune Part 04

[Guest guest]

Hazrat Babajan hailed from Afghanistan (Central Asia) and was the

daughter of well to do Afghan of noble lineage. Her maiden name was

Gulrukh (rose faced) and her early training was that befitting the

status of an Afghan aristocrat. At a very early age she learned

Quran by heart and later became conversant with Arabic, Persian,

Pushtoo and Urdu. From early life she developed mystical tendencies,

and unlike girls of her age, she used to pass a good deal of her time

in prayers, meditation and solitude.

 

This mystical aspect in her asserted itself, as when coming of age,

she was found to be against any idea of marriage. The parents could

not understand her and to them the idea of a Pathan girl remaining

unmarried was extremely scandalous. Finding the situation no longer

tenable and the parents bent upon forcing the issue of matrimony on

her. Gulrukh managed to escape and came to Peshawar (India) and then

to Rawalpindi. For a Pathan girl brought up under the strictest

discipline of the Parda system, wandering at the age of 18 years, was

not an easy undertaking. Surely it was her spiritual destiny landed

her safely into India unscathed and undetected.

 

At Rawalpindi, Gulrukh led an ascetic life for some years, and

eventually came into contact with a Hindu saint, who initiated her

into the spiritual path. After this initiation she went into

seclusion in a nearby mountain outside Rawalpindi and underwent very

severe penance for nearly seventeen months. Thereafter she came down

to Punjab and stayed a few months in Multan. It was in Multan, while

Gulrukh was 37 years of age, that she contacted a Muslim saint – a

Mazjoob (immersed in Divinity) who put an end to her spiritual

struggle by giving her God-realization. Gulrukh once again wended

her way to Rawalpindi, and there she was again spiritually drawn to

the same Hindu saint, responsible for her first initiation. The

saint helped her to come down from the super conscious state of God-

realization to the normal consciousness of a Master.

 

Hereafter for Gulrukh began a long trail of journeys from one part of

India to another. In one of her itineraries she visited Bombay, and

after a few months' stay in Bombay, went back once again to the

Punjab, and spent a good number of years at different places in

Northern India. It was at this time that she happened to utter in a

moment of ecstasy words connoting her divine state. This was treated

as blasphemy by orthodoxy, which, with the connivance of the church,

got her buried alive Gulrukh miraculously, survived this ordeal, and

finding the country unsafe for her she bade good bye to the Punjab

and Northern India forever. She travelled south to Bombay took up

her abode in a locality know as Chuna Bhatti near Byculla. Bombay

however, was not to be graced by her presence for long and the

enviable honour of manifesting Gulrukh's spiritual greatness goes to

Poona, that the sepoys of the Baluchi Regiment, which had only

recently arrived from the North and who knew that Gulrukh was buried

and dead, had a surprise of their life to find her all alive and

seated underneath a neem (margosa) tree at a place called Malcolm

Tank within Cantonment limits. The Baluchi sepoys looked upon this

as a great miracle, and thus feeling convinced of her spiritual

greatness, gave Gulrukh an ovation, by bowing to her reverently.

After this incident her saintly fame spread far and wide, and she

came to be universally known as Hazrat Babajan.

 

Sometime after her entry into Poona about the year 1903, Babajan had

no fixed place of abode. She was seen sitting or resting at odd

places in different parts of the city and cantonment. Although

shabbily dressed, there was something magnetic in her personality

very unusual in a street mendicant that she looked, that no passer-by

could resist giving her a second glance. She was seldom seen moving

about or sitting anywhere all alone. Her bodily requirements were

very few, and food she ate very sparingly at long intervals. She was

very fond of tea, which was offered to her very frequently by

visitors. While walking in streets, on whomsoever her eyes feel that

person could not but halt or stand up reverentially unit she passed

by.

 

An unsettled life of some years in and around Poona saw Babajan at

last settled at a spot near Char Bavadi, Malcom Tank, underneath the

neem (margosa) tree. At this time the locality mentioned was a

picture of dirt, desolation and ugliness.

 

The Cantonment authorities became alive in the situation, and had it

been possible they would unhesitatingly have had Babajan shifted to

some out of the way spot. But they dared not risk a public

demonstration in the matter. By now Babajan's fame as a saint hand

spread far and wide and 'Char Bavadi' became a place of pilgrimage

for people from all over India. In place of Babajan's shabby

shelter. When the new structure which was only a few feet away from

Babajan's original seat was ready to every one's surprise, she

refused to be moved there. The awkward situation however, was got

over by extending the structure a little more so as the include and

embrace Babajan's original seat, as well as the neem tree.

 

When Babajan first came to Poona people surmised her age to be not

less that 90 years, and thereafter even 30 years added to her life in

the city wrought no changes in her personality. Short in stature,

firm and agile fair and sunburn, face broad and heavily wrinkled,

high cheek bones, liquid blue eyes possessing great depths, head

covered with a silvery crown of thick white hair hanging loose up to

the shoulders, deep sonorous voice, all conspired to make her

personality very unique and unworldly. Her attire was simple,

consisting of a long apron extending below the knees, a pyjamas

narrowed round the legs and a linen scarf thrown carelessly round the

shoulders.

 

Babajan slept very little, one day she would feel out of sorts, at

times even high fever, and the next day she would be her usual self

without recourse to any medication. Young and old, male or female,

she used to address everyone as Bachcha or Baba (child).

 

Her method of healing was quite unique and entertaining. When anyone

approached her for a cure, she would hold between her fingers, the

painful or diseased part of the person concerned, and calling upon

some imaginary being, simultaneously ordering the troublesome entity

to quit. Surprisingly enough, this funny operation would impart

instantaneous relief.

 

A Zorastrain child aged about 10 years had lost his eyesight

altogether. His guardians brought him to Babajan, and when told of

the sorry plight of the child, Babajan mumbled some words, and blew

her breath upon his eyes. The child immediately recovered his

eyesight and began to jump about joyfully saying " I can see now, I

can see " .

 

One Hindu woman, a devotee of Babajan very humbly and supplicatingly

submitted to Babajan that she was married over ten years, but was not

yet blessed with an issue. She requested Babajan's blessings in her

case. Babajan blessed her, and said. " Your first issue would be a

son. " . Exactly after a year and half, the lady returned and placed

the male baby at the feet of Babajan. Babajan took up the child in

her arms, played with it for some time, and allowed the mother and

the child to depart with her blessings.

 

Babajan's love and charity towards humanity was supremely Divine in

expression; it could not but reclaim a most confirmed sinner and

subdue the cruellest of minds. Articles of clothing and other

presentations to Babajan, people would remove without her

permission. Once a man tried to steal a costly shawl covering her

body while asleep, but he found its removal rather risky, as some

portion of it was held underneath her body. Babajan instinctively

raised herself bodily a little, thereby helping the thief to achieve

the purpose. On another occasion, a person from Bombay, in token of

his fulfilled desire, placed two bangles of solid gold round

Babajan's wrists. At the earliest opportunity, an unknown person

snatched away the bangles so very roughly that it gave her wrist a

nasty cut which bled profusely.

 

A lyrical show was to be staged in a theatre at Talegaon, a small

town about 2 miles from Poona. That particular night, owing to the

popularity of the cast in the play, there was an unusual rush, and

the theatre was choked to its capacity, that management had no go but

to lock the doors.

 

Hazrat Babajan's spiritual status in the hierarchy of saints is that

of Qutub. Literally the word Qutub means a peg or a pin, and a

Qutub functioning on the physical plane is the hub round which the

universe revolves. After a spiritual sojourn of about 35 years in

Poona, Hazrat Babajan left her mortal coil on 21st September 1931 at

the ripe old age of 125 years. Her funeral procession was tremendous

affair, never accorded to any dignitary or royalty in the annals of

Poona. Her remains were laid at rest at the very spot underneath the

neem tree where she sat and dispensed Divine Grace for such a long

number of years.

 

Babajan's seat being in the Cantonment area, everyone though that the

military authorities would refuse permission for Babajan's burial

within their limits. The trustees saw and proposed many sites in

different parts of the city, but there was no unanimity amongst them

about any one particular spot. One day they decided to approach

Babajan herself and settled the question of her burial ground direct.

No sooner they approached her, Babajan flew into rage at the sight of

them and said, " Get away from here. How can the dead show concern for

the living? I am not going to leave this place. " Thus Babajan

decided the question of her burial ground at the same time conveyed

to them that materially – minded people are more dead than alive.