Kriya Babaji Nagaraj

The immortal siddha known as Babaji was born in 203 AD in the coastal village of Swythan Nathapuram, Tamil Nadu, South India. This village was later called Porto Nova and is now known as Parangipettai. His parents, Jnanambal and Vedaranya Iyer, named him Nagaraj. Little is known about his early years, but in 208 AD, while playing at the local Muruga Temple, he was kidnapped by a seafaring Pathan intending to sell him into servitude.

Approximately two years later, while passing through Calcutta, he was purchased by a wealthy benefactor named Ramananda, who soon set him free. Nagaraj traveled to Kasi, where he lived for about three years, studying Sanskrit and Vedanta and becoming widely known as a prodigy and child scholar. Unsatisfied with mere knowledge and acclaim, he traveled to Prayag in 214 AD and joined a group of saints known as Palkudi Baba, who subsisted only on milk. In 217 AD, he traveled with them to Karthirigama, a Muruga shrine at the southern end of Sri Lanka. He spent the next two years there practicing intense yogic sadhana. He gained the grace of the great Nath Siddha Boganathar, who became his Jnana Guru, or Guru of Wisdom, marking his transformation from a Vedantin to a Siddhantin.

Around 219 AD, Babaji went to Kutralam in the Pothigai mountains of South India, near Agasthiyar’s ashram. After two years of tapas without seeing the great sage, Babaji vowed to continue his tapas and fast until death unless Agasthiyar appeared. At the point of death, the great Siddha appeared and taught him the sacred breathing techniques known as Kriya Kundalini Pranayam. Empowered by this practice, Babaji soon attained Soruba Samadhi—the complete divinization of his being, including physical perfection and immortality.

Since then, Babaji, known as “the Master,” has worked behind the scenes for the development of all beings. Adapting and crystallizing the techniques of the Tamil Yoga Siddhas, he created the tradition of Babaji’s Kriya Yoga. He has been the guiding force behind many great spiritual figures such as Adi Shankaracharya, Kabirdas, Lahiri Mahasaya, Kali Kambliwala, Sri Yukteswar, Yogananda, and more recently, Yogi S.A.A. Ramaiah. The Master continues to work for our ultimate salvation. His ashram, Gauri Shankar Peetam, is in the Himalayas near Badrinath. May we all meet there one day. Aum.

OM KRIYA BABAJI NAMA AUM

Om Kriya Babaji Nama Aum
(The guru mantra of Babaji's Kriya Yoga)

Om is pranava, the primordial sound of the Universe that runs through the prana.
Kriya is ”action with awareness,” which is both the vehicle and the destination of practitioners of Kriya Yoga, by making all of our actions the object of awareness.
Babaji is the Guru of the Kriya Yoga tradition, who synthesized its ancient teachings and who has disseminated them in modern times. This is the same Babaji referred to as Mahavatar Babaji in Paramahansa Yogananda’s “Autobiography of a Yogi.”
Nama is Salutations or “I call to you”
Aum the primordial sound resonating within

This guru mantra, Om Kriya Babaji Nama Aum, has the power to connect our pulse to the pulse of Babaji, tuning us into the Grace of the legendary Himalayan Siddha, Kriya Babaji Nagaraj. Through the mantra he reveals himself to his Devotees. Through its repetition the inner guru, or supreme intelligence abiding in the crown chakra becomes accessible. The mantra is shakti, conscious energy. It has power, as the Guru transmits his shakti through the mantra and the shakti enters the disciple through the mantra. The root of the mantra is the guru's word, and indeed, the mantra is a form of the guru himself.