Bringing Happiness to Our Ancestors

Bringing Happiness to Our Ancestors
 
Dear ones,

Every year when Basant Panchami comes, something happens in my heart that I cannot fully explain. The yellow flowers, the gentle warmth returning to the air, and the spring blossoms all speak of renewal. But for those of us who walk this path, the day carries a fragrance that goes beyond the season, for Divine Light chose this day to descend upon Earth.

On February 2, 1873, a special personality was born who would forever change the way people experience spirituality. At that time, the world was unaware. How could it? Great souls arrive quietly, without fanfare, disguising themselves in ordinariness. But Nature knew, and that day Nature made a silent promise. 

The child’s mother was a saintly woman whose heart overflowed with devotion. Once, an avadhoot came to her door seeking food. The avadhoot requested fish for the meal, but she had none, for she neither cooked nor ate meat. By grace, the alert maid of the house went to her neighbor and got two fish, and when the saint finished eating them, he asked, “What ails you?” The lady kept silent, but her maid replied, “My noble mistress has everything except a child.”

“Oh!” exclaimed the saint, looking beyond the deep blue sky. After a few minutes, he beamed, raised his fingers toward heaven, said, “One... two... one... two...” and departed, never to be seen again. 

The following year, the first son was born on Basant Panchami 1873, and he was Ram Chandra of Fatehgarh, also known as Lalaji.

What can I say about this Special Personality that has not already been said? Poets have tried, the scriptures point toward such beings, and Tennyson wrote these words that seem meant for him alone:

Thou seemeth human and divine,
The highest, holiest, manhood thou.

In a span of merely seven months, while still a young man, he attained what many could not accomplish across countless lifetimes. The Divine Light did not dawn upon him as a distant goal to be pursued; it lived in him naturally. He did not seek it; he was it. 

Through Lalaji, a forgotten legacy was revived for humanity: the sacred science of Pranahuti, also known as the transmission of pranasya prana, the very essence of life. This profound knowledge was first introduced seventy-three generations before Lord Ram Chandraji of Ayodhya by Pujya Shri Rishabh Devji Maharaj, who uncovered this delicate science of transferring the core of life itself. 


Through divine transmission, the doors to higher realms of consciousness open. Seekers gain access to Brahmvidya not by withdrawing from life into sanyas but through harmonious integration: living fully in the world while remaining inwardly united with the Supreme and fulfilling both material and spiritual duties as a householder (grihastha). This living current of divine transmission swiftly carries a seeker into states of samadhi, often in remarkably short order through sincere daily Practice.

Yet, as human history unfolded, this precious science gradually faded from human awareness and was ultimately lost. It remained dormant until destiny intervened, and Lalaji Maharaj rediscovered and revived the sacred current, restoring to humanity a direct, living path to the Highest. This was Lalaji’s gift: not only philosophy and teaching, but the actual transmission of spiritual essence from heart to heart.

And then came the disciple.


In Shahjahanpur, a young man named Ram Chandra (Babuji) heard of the saint in Fatehgarh. Something stirred in him at the mere mention of Lalaji, so he traveled to meet him. In that first encounter on June 3, 1922, his life changed forever. 

He later wrote: “When I first came to my Master, I experienced a state of mind which has no parallel. The rapture I experienced at that moment of my life was something I cannot adequately describe. From that day, I began to live a new life. Everything seemed changed. The world appeared different.”


And so, a love story began that would surpass all others in spiritual history. I do not use these words lightly, as what unfolded between Lalaji and his disciple was no ordinary devotion. It was much more than the reverence a student holds for a teacher. It was something for which language fails, which led even the celestial beings to pause in wonder.

Babuji once said about their bond: “We were in osmosis, completely united spiritually, our hearts being only as one. Nothing is too beautiful for the Beloved one; such a love helps to push oneself to the limits, to try to do everything possible to satisfy him.”
 

Elsewhere, he confessed that he could not exist without Lalaji for a single second. He was not referring to the physical Lalaji, who had departed decades earlier, but to the Lalaji who had become the very breath of his breath, the pranasya prana, the life of his life.

I want to share something that moves me to tears every time I read it.

In Lalaji’s dictations, there is a statement about Babuji that should leave us silent in wonder. Lalaji observed that even during Babuji’s most sacred moments with his wife, he never forsook his Master in his heart, even for a single breath. Their connection remained unbroken through every circumstance of his worldly life.

This is brahmacharya in its truest sense: not the absence of worldly life, but the presence of constant remembrance within that life. Babuji’s attention remained fixed on the Higher even while his body engaged with the world.
 

What love can sustain such remembrance? What devotion can maintain such constancy?

I will tell you something extraordinary now.

In an intercommunication recorded in Whispers from the Brighter World on March 21, 1945, there is an exchange that should be inscribed in gold. First, Swami Vivekananda, that lion among souls, spoke about Lalaji’s love for Babuji, and then Lord Krishna spoke about Babuji’s love for Lalaji.

Swami Vivekananda said, “Whatever is spoken by our Lord [Lalaji] about his love for you is the bare truth. He is burning with love for you. I have never come across such an example anywhere throughout my life.” Then he said, “People leave their homes for God: he left his home for you. That is the greatest sacrifice ever expected from a liberated soul,” prompting Lalaji to interrupt and ask Babuji not to record the conversation in his diary.

Lalaji, the liberated master, had left his Bhandar, his heavenly abode, for the sake of his disciple, Babuji. The teacher descended for the student, Heaven bent toward Earth.

And then Lord Krishna spoke, and his words still make my hands tremble as I write: “What Swami Vivekananda has said is literally correct, and there is no harm in writing that in the matter of loving you have surpassed even Radha... The love of Radha is now second to yours.”

Do you understand what this means? Radha’s love for Krishna has been celebrated across millennia as the highest example of devotion. Radha’s very name has become synonymous with divine love, and yet Lord Krishna declares that Babuji’s love for Lalaji surpassed even hers.

But the story does not end there. Three days later, it reaches a climax without precedent in the whole of creation.

On the auspicious day of March 24, 1945, Lalaji arranged for Babuji to be initiated directly by the Ultimate Being Itself. Lord Krishna, witnessing this, declared, “It is a very auspicious day that your Revered Master has got you initiated by the Ultimate Being directly. This is what is known as true initiation. This is the first example of its kind since the beginning of creation.”

Swami Vivekananda added, “I am elated with joy, hearing the news of your direct initiation with the Ultimate Being. This is the first example since the beginning of the world.”

Now, pause and consider something that makes my heart ache with wonder.

After this supreme event, Lalaji made a quiet statement that reveals the depth of his selflessness. He said, “Direct initiation is entirely my method. Earlier, it never occurred to anybody’s comprehension, nor was it ever put into practice.”

Do you grasp what this means? Lalaji knew the method because it was his own discovery. During his lifetime, he had comprehended what no soul before him had ever comprehended: the possibility of direct initiation by the Ultimate Being. He could have used it for himself, but he did not. He held this supreme secret within himself, waiting for his beloved disciple to arrive at the state where such a gift could be received. And when Babuji reached that exalted condition, Lalaji used the method for his disciple.

The teacher put the student first, giving what he himself had never taken. Such a love is beyond logic, perhaps even more than a parent sacrificing for a child, or a lover giving everything to their beloved. Here, the Guru discovered the ultimate spiritual gift and gave it to his disciple, content to remain in the background, content to see his disciple ascend to heights he himself does not seek.

And what did Lalaji say about himself after offering this supreme gift? He quoted a Persian couplet: “King Mahmood Ghaznavi, who had been the master of thousands of slaves, was gripped by poverty to such an extent as to be reduced to the status of the slave of a slave.” And then Lalaji simply added, “This is my state.”

The Master of Masters, the Special Personality who recovered what was lost, the one through whom Pranahuti flows to all humanity, described himself as a “slave of a slave” because he had given his disciple something greater than himself.

Here we bear witness to the sublime love of a Guru who withheld from himself the ultimate fruit so that his disciple could taste it first. His heart was so vast that when he discovered the greatest secret in creation, he gifted it to another. But to call it a sacrifice would be to misunderstand the heart of a true Master. This gift was a source of utmost joy for Lalaji.

In fact, it is the greatest joy a Guru can know to see his disciple surpass him, to watch the beloved rise, to give everything and feel only fullness in return. A mother does not sacrifice when she feeds her child, nor does a river sacrifice when it merges into the sea. For Lalaji, enabling Babuji to become the first human to receive direct initiation from the Ultimate was both a completion and a source of bliss.

This is love. This is the path. This is what we celebrate on Basant Panchami.

Lalaji once said about the current era, “This time will not recur for a very long period now. For this special time, the proverb applies: ‘Majnoon made the forest into his home, but I turned my home into a forest.’” The legendary lover Majnoon abandoned civilization to wander in the wilderness, mad with love. In contrast, Lalaji the Master transformed his own heavenly home into a wilderness of longing... for his disciple. 

Lord Krishna described Babuji’s degree of deservingness as Anuttara, the highest classification. He said, “Such deservingness is born sometimes quite suddenly after years, centuries, or even millennia, which has no parallel. Such a deserving person is born by God’s command. You are the example of it.” 

When Lalaji left his physical body in 1931, Babuji wrote, “Really speaking, my Master did not die, but I felt myself as dead.” For years afterward, his diary remained largely silent. The prolific disciple who had recorded so much while Lalaji was alive entered a dormant phase; something had to germinate in that darkness.

And then, in 1944, their communication was re-established. The relationship that physical death appeared to have ended had merely changed form. Lalaji continued to guide, transmit, and love. The bond transcended death, the love transcended the body, and the transmission continues.

Why do I share all this on Basant Panchami? So that you may understand what you have been given access to.

When you sit for meditation and feel that gentle stir in your heart, you are touching the same current that flowed between Lalaji and Babuji. When you receive transmission, you are receiving the gift recovered for humanity after being lost for countless generations, and when you feel that inexplicable longing for something you cannot name, you are feeling the echo of a love that surpassed even Radha’s.

This is our inheritance, our birthright. It is available to us because a child was born on Basant Panchami 1873 who went on to become a Master, and because a disciple loved that Master with a love unparalleled since the beginning of creation.

The spring flowers bloom, the world renews itself, and in the hearts of those who practice, the same renewal happens quietly, day after day, as the transmission continues its work.

On this Basant Panchami, I bow at the feet of Pujya Shri Lalaji Maharaj, the Special Personality who made all of this possible. And I bow at the feet of Pujya Shri Babuji Maharaj, whose love opened a door that can never be closed.

We are the inheritors of this patrimony. What a lineage! What a treasure has been placed in our hands! The question now falls to us: What shall we do with this inheritance?

Let us rise to the occasion. Let us make our spiritual Fathers happier, more joyful. Let them look down from the Brighter World and dance with delight, seeing us united, seeing us love and respect one another, and seeing us live what they lived for.

Preserving and enriching this patrimonial lineage necessitates that we behave, think, and act in tune with their standards. May there be harmony in every family touched by this path. May there be harmony in every center where seekers gather. May the petty divisions that sometimes creep into spiritual communities dissolve in the warmth of this spring sun. May we remember that we are all children of the same lineage, all recipients of the same transmission, all walking toward the same destination.

If Lalaji could give away his greatest discovery for the joy of seeing his disciple flourish, and if Babuji could love with a love that surpassed even Radha’s, then surely we can extend a hand of friendship to the brothers and sisters beside us, let go of minor grievances, and become vessels worthy of what has been poured into us.

So, may the love of our Masters touch your heart, may the transmission transform your being, and may you become, in your own way, a living testament to their legacy.

With Love and Prayers,
Kamlesh

Basant Panchami, January 23, 2026



Message on the occasion of the 153rd Birth Anniversary of Pujya Shri Lalaji Maharaj
January 22, 23, and 24, 2026, at Kanha Shanti Vanam