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Vishnu Dutt Mishra -"Shastriji"

Vishnu Dutt Mishra and Giridhari Lal Mishra were two brothers from the present Indian state of Rajasthan. Their father and father's fathers before them were the raj gurus (gurus of the kings) of the Alwar state, and Vishnu Dutt has also held this title. Vishnu Dutt is a "shastri" - a scholar with an "acharya" degree in Sanskrit from Benares University (the equivalent of a Ph. D.) - who taught Hindi and Sanskrit in the secondary school at Rajgarh, District Alwar, in Rajasthan. His younger brother, Giridhari Lal, was a highly respected judge in the Rajasthan Judicial Service.

In 1951 or 1952, when Vishnu Dutt was about 43 and Giridhari Lal was about 37 years old, and when Giridhari Lal was performing his duties and living in Bandikui (not far from Rajgarh), Mahendra Baba visited Bandikui. Giridhari Lal met Mahendra Baba during that visit. On the same day, Vishnu Dutt felt called to go to Bandikui and he also met Mahendra Baba, through Giridhari Lal, at the railroad station, as Mahendra Baba was leaving Bandikui. As the train was about to move, Mahendra Baba told Vishnu Dutt that when the two brothers lived in the same town, he would come to them. After about one month, Giridhari Lal was transferred from Bandikui to Rajgarh, and Mahendra Baba started visiting them frequently.

Vishnu Dutt (known as "Shastriji") had a remarkable memory for the scriptures, in both Sanskrit and Hindi, and could recite long passages from memory. Mahendra Maharaj used to ask Shastriji to recite various scriptures to him. One day, in 1954, Mahendra Baba remarked, "You recite so well; why can't you write some literature?"

The next day, Mahendra Baba had Giridhari Lal take him to a place outside of Rajgarh for his bath. When Shastriji, at home, took his bath, as he poured the first pitcher of water, an original sloka (a religious verse of praise) came into his mind, and he spoke it as he bathed. He wrote it down and when Mahendra Baba returned, Shastriji showed him the sloka. Mahendra Baba was delighted and said that a gift of 10,000 rupees could not make him so happy. He told Shastriji the sloka - and the ability to compose it - was the blessing of the Divine Mother and that he now had Her full blessings.

The next day, when Shastriji went to school, in a free period he started writing slokas - and they flowed easily, almost automatically. When he showed them to Mahendra Maharaj that evening, Mahendra Maharaj was so excited that he literally jumped for joy, and then put his hand on Shastriji's head in blessing. Ever since this time, Shastriji has been able to compose easily whatever he wishes. He had never written anything for publication before, nor had any thought of doing so.

The following day Mahendra Maharaj left for Vrindaban. As he was sitting in the bus, he blessed Shastriji again and assured him that he could write whatever he wanted. This started Shastriji on his first book, "Sadguru Stuti Kusmanjali," a book of prayers to and verses about Shri Babaji. The whole book was written in seven or eight days. It was written in Sanskrit verse and translated into Hindi, also in verse form. When it was completed, Giridhari Lal read it and became very excited, asking how such an excellent book could be written in such a short time. He insisted that he and Shastriji take the manuscript to Mahendra Maharaj, so they went to Vrindaban the next day.

They found Mahendra Maharaj sitting by a small pond, in meditation. They sat down before him and after two or three minutes he opened his eyes. Immediately, he asked what they had brought, and Shastriji handed the manuscript to Mahendra Baba. Mahendra Baba had Shastriji read the book to him as they sat there. Shastriji read until about 3 p.m., when Mahendra Baba interrupted and apologized for not having given them tea, even yet, but this day was closing day for shops in this part of Vrindaban and what could he do? "Well," he said, "you go on reciting and we'll see about food later." Shastriji continued to read. About twenty minutes later, a young girl, carrying a tray of sweets and tea, came up and put the tray before them and went away.

After he heard the whole book read to him, Mahendra Maharaj commented that Shastriji wrote excellent Sanskrit verse, but that his Hindi verse should equal that of Tulsidas, Kabir, and other great poets. That time will come, he said; but, until then, you should write only in Sanskrit.

About six weeks after this, Mahendra Baba sent word to Shastriji that he should take leave from his teaching duties and come to Vrindaban immediately. Shastriji found Mahendra Baba in a small room at Shyamji s house, above a sweet shop. Mahendra Baba was sitting in front of a photograph of 'Old Haidakhan Baba.' Shastriji made a pranam to the photograph and told Mahendra Baba that he had never before seen a photograph of Haidakhan Baba but that he had seen that form in his dreams. In 1940, in the temple to Laxman in his home in Rajgarh, Shri Laxmanji had given Shastriji a vision, or dream, of Babaji in the same form as he now saw in the photograph, and told Shastriji that "He [Babaji] can give you everything."

Mahendra Maharaj then told Shastriji that the time had come when he could write such beautiful compositions that they would excel those of Tulsidas, Kabir, and everyone. Shastriji made a pranam to Mahendra Baba and asked him how to proceed with the writing. Mahendra Baba protested, "How can I give these blessings?" He removed the jasmine garland that was hung on Babaji's photograph. He gave the garland to Shastriji, saying, "Your daughter is the incarnation of Saraswati [the Goddess of Knowledge and artistic inspiration]. You give this mala to her and she will give you the outline of what has to be written." (At that time, Shastriji's daughter was four years old.)

When Shastriji returned home from Vrindaban, the whole family came to greet him and to inquire what Mahendra Maharaj had wanted. The four-year-old daughter came, too, so Shastriji took the garland and put it on her, as directed by Mahendra Maharaj. The girl took the pen from Shastriji's pocket, found a piece of paper and started scribbling on the paper. Each day, the little girl scribbled on a number of pages, and each day Shastriji wrote exactly the same number of pages of poetry (slokas). If she scribbled on ten pages, he wrote ten pages of slokas; if she scribbled on twenty-five pages, he wrote twenty-five pages of slokas. Occasionally, she would return for a second session of scribbling and Shastriji wrote more pages of poetry.

The book Shastriji was beginning to write was "Shrisadashiv Charitamrit," the book which chronicles the "Babaji leela" from discussions among the gods, through His manifestations in the eras of Lord Ram and Lord Krishna, and on up through that of 'Old Haidakhan Baba' (and now - as of December 1983 - the latest manifestation of Shri Babaji). While Shastriji was writing this book, Mahendra Maharaj used to come to Shastriji's home every week or ten days to check on the progress of the writing.

One evening, as Shastriji was reciting to Mahendra Baba what had been written recently, he came to a description of the Divine Mother. As Shastriji recited this, he saw Mahendra Maharaj's body turn into that form of the Divine Mother that his slokas described. Suddenly, there was 'Ma,' wearing a red sari, with a big red spot of kum-kum in the middle of her forehead, wearing a jeweled nose-ring - altogether a beautiful form beautifully adorned. Shastriji was greatly frightened, but he could not stop his recitation. This experience continued for a full twenty-five minutes, while Shastriji recited, by the end of which he was drenched in sweat from his nervousness. When the recitation ceased, the familiar form of Mahendra Maharaj was straightening out his beard and mustache; he slapped his right thigh and said to Shastriji, "You got scared by just this much?"

The following day Mahendra Maharaj enriched Shastriji's powerful spiritual experience by directing the family to a Hanuman temple some miles outside of Rajgarh where Mahendra Maharaj sat, with Shastriji at his side, and sang a religious song to Lord Hanuman three times. By the time Mahendra Maharaj had repeated the song the third time, Shastriji saw the statue of Hanuman come alive and begin to expand immensely. Shastriji was so frightened that he fainted. When Mahendra Baba brought Shastriji out of his faint, Mahendra took the family on to an ancient and particularly holy Shiva temple. There, both Mahendra Baba and Shastriji took ritual baths and then Mahendra Baba directed Shastriji in giving the Shiva lingam at the temple a ritual bath.

The result of this series of powerful experiences was to put Shastriji into such a trance that for a full six months thereafter he had no feelings: he did not experience hunger or thirst; he did not feel like temple worship because if he went to a temple or to a Shivalingam he saw only Babaji standing there blinking His eyes.

Shastriji had no desire to speak and he remained silent. His wife became quite worried about Shastriji and called some doctors to examine him; they reported that he was perfectly all right, he was just not speaking.

Throughout this six months, Shastriji 'saw things' - "like a whole show, going on and on." He watched these 'visions' and wrote what he saw - whatever passed before his eyes. He had never gone to Haldwani or been in that area, but, during this period, he had visions of how Haidakhan started (early in Creation), how it changed and grew. He saw the Haidakhan Cave formed, saw the trees as they grew. He saw the similar growth of each of Shri Babaji's ashrams. He 'saw' Lord Shiva and other gods and 'listened' to their conversations; he saw Shiva/Babaji play His role in Lord Ram's time and in Krishna's time. And what he saw, he wrote - in Sanskrit verse, in the same meter in which the Ramayana was written. And when, years later, he went to Haidakhan, Siddhashram, Kathgharia, and other Babaji ashrams, he saw that his descriptions were accurate.⁵⁸

The visions were received by Vishnu Dutt Mishra in 1954 and 1955, and he wrote then the Sanskrit slokas which describe what he saw. In the following two years, Shastriji composed Hindi verse translations of the Sanskrit slokas and added commentary in Hindi. The book, with eight chapters, was published in 1959, and the Rajah of Alwar had a limited edition printed in gold leaf.

The second chapter of "Shrisadashiv Charitamrit" relates a number of conversations between Lord Shiva and other gods and goddesses. One of these conversations, between Lord Shiva and His Shakti (called Jagadamba, the Universal Mother, in this instance) contains the following statements.

Jagadamba requested Lord Shiva to go to the world to help mankind, and Shiva replied:

"To make You happy, I will go to the world as Sadguru Mahavatar Shri Haidakhandi Baba."

Jagadamba responded:

"As I am the other half of Your body, I should be Your first disciple. I would like to precede You in the world and tell Your world about Your Glory. I will be instrumental in bringing all the people of the world to You. As Your disciple, I want always to remain with You. My name should be Shri Charanashrit Shri Paramguru Mahendra Maharaj."⁵⁹

Lord Shiva granted Jagadamba's request and continued:

"When I come to the world, I will first go to the Kumaon and appear in a cave at the base of Mount Kailash. Although I will go around the world as an immortal saint, I will come for some time to the caves of Kumaon.

"In that place there is an herb called 'Haira'; the Gautam Ganga flows there twenty-four hours a day; nearby there is a beautiful cave. This place will become famous in the world as 'Haidakhan Vishwa Mahadham.'⁶⁰ This place I love. I will become known as 'Haidakhan Baba.' People of the area will have My first darshan in the form of a divine, pure, peaceful sadhu."

"Whoever reaches this place will not be touched by the evils of the Kali Yuga. I shall grant the wishes of all who come. I shall perform great yagyas [fire ceremonies] there and people from all over the world can have My darshan there. I Myself shall tell people how they are to worship Lord Shiva. I will give the greatest mantra to the people - Om Namah Shivaya - and I will go from house to house, telling them to repeat this mantra."⁶¹

The fourth chapter of "Shrisadashiv Charitamrit" records, among other things, teachings of Shri Babaji as He spoke (in Shastriji's visions) to saints and siddhas who came to Him and asked Him to teach them. One of the basic teachings of Shri Babaji in these visions centered on the repetition of God's Names. Babaji is quoted as saying:

"To realize the Universal Soul - the Soul of men and of Nature - only the Name of the Lord can help. There is no difference between Name and Form. By practicing the repetition of the Lord's Name, the devotee becomes the Name Itself - the Name of the Lord. His Form and the one reciting the Name unite: the Name is the Lord. To reach the Ultimate, the practice of the repetition of the Lord's Name is the best practice."

"The Lord Himself resides in the heart of him who recites His Name."

"The mixing of Truth, Simplicity, and Love with the Lord's Name gives 'tasty food'; then the Lord is happy. The best and easiest religious practice (sadhana) in the world is nama japa [repetition of the Name]. Its recitation with faith leads to the ultimate happiness. To recite the Lord's Name with every breath is the way to work properly; it creates a divine atmosphere.

"All material wealth, all attachments will pass; the one thing that is permanent is the Word of the Lord. Awake, and forget your worries!"

Shri Sambasadashiv is quoted in this Chapter as saying:

"I Myself always recite the Name of the Lord; that is why I am happy. Only those reciting the Name of the Lord with every breath are true karma yogis.⁶² There is no knowledge without the Name of the Lord. You speak so many words, but not the Name of the Lord."

"Have faith! Reciting the Name of the Lord is not the first, but the last stage of spiritual practice."

"When lions enter the forest, the other animals run away. Likewise, all evil thoughts will vanish with the recitation of the Lord's Name. Reciting the Name of the Lord will bring you the company of good people and you will be near saints. Blessed are the few who will discard the kingdom of the world for the Lord's Name. Such a devotee always resides in My heart;"

Chapter Four also contains these comments about human activity and aspirations for those who seek God-realization:

"Without knowledge, karma [activity or work] is useless. Without love and devotion, karma is useless. Plain karmas bring miseries. Karma, japa, and knowledge together bring happiness and simplicity. Good character and detachment are necessary for the realization of the Lord.

"In the womb, you take a vow not to get attached; but as soon as you come out, you get entangled. Abandon attachment! Your mind plays tricks on you! That is why you are after pleasures! All worldly things - including the desire for liberation - are obstacles to which you are attached. If you want divine peace, leave behind ignorant karmas."