In 1996, Gurudev, Ramakrishnananda Swami Shaktipada, was walking on the banks of the Ganges near the holy city of Rishikesh where, attracted by a melodious silence, he sat on the bright sand to meditate. Something in this place captivated him, but he did not know what it was. When he opened his eyes after a long and deep meditation, he noticed a nearby cave. He could not resist entering the cave and, once there, he felt an even more mysterious power, and he submerged into a deeper meditation.

There was something different in this place, different from any other place he had ever been, as if the sand, the stones, and the waters were bringing him closer to himself.

The next day, still excited from what he experienced in the cave, Gurudev noticed a sadhu standing next to the Çiva Temple. His shining white clothing and his noble movements separated him from the rest of the sadhus. Gurudev approached the sadhu, and asked him for his name.

"This has no name," answered the sadhu pointing to his heart.

"Where do you live?"

The sadhu silently pointed his finger towards the Çiva Temple.

"May I learn from you?"

Although he never accepted any disciples before, the sadhu agreed.

In the following days, Gurudev spent many hours with the sadhu, learning the mysteries of yoga and meditation. The sadhu, who is known by the name Baba Brahmananda, became Gurudev's beloved diksha-guru.

When Baba Brhamananda took Gurudev to the Ashram of his spiritual master, Gurudev recognized that the guru of Baba Brahmananda was Mastramji Babaji Maharaj, the same powerful sadhu that used to live in the magical cave. Then Gurudev understood that through Babaji's presence, which lives on in the cave, he had experienced this most amazing meditation, and that by his grace he was receiving the wisdom of the Vedas from Baba Brahmananda.

Even today, while chanting "Jaya Bhagavan" to his beloved Bhagavan Mastramji Babaji,  Gurudev is going back to the same cave, enjoying the nectar of Babaji that still inhabits the empty cave in his heart...  and touches the hearts that listen to his sweet voice chanting in ecstatic devotion to the great soul His Holiness Mastaram Babaji Mahraj.

His Divine Grace Bhagavan Mastarama Babaji Maharaj lived and taught in the foothills of the Himalayas, alongside the sandy banks of the Ganges River in a small cave amidst rocks and boulders.

Bhagavan Babaji had no mark on his forehead (tilaka) or any specific clothing. In winter and summer he wore the same single cloth. Sitting at his cave Babaji Maharaj just was, as he is, a living expression of Divine love, a soul that merged itself totally in Brahman; the one reality beyond this world of names and forms.

Bhagavan Babaji kept an old sadhu tradition, of not speaking of one's past. No one knows when he was born, where he came from, or his birth name. Everything we know is collected from stories that he used in his teachings.

Bhagavan Babaji Maharaj was born into a brahmin family that served the local king. His mother left her body a few days after his birth, leaving him to be raised by his father and uncle who educated him in a strict and traditional way. When he grew up, he was sent to a Sanskrit school and studied there for a few years. Around the age of fourteen, Babaji Maharaj went with a few of his friends to a kumba, a sadhu gathering near his village, and never returned.

When Bhagavan Mastaramji decided that he wanted to dedicate his life to God, to be totally dependent on his grace, he wrote to his father a letter containing few words: "From now on - renunciation". He had no contact with his family after that.

For the next 30 years, he traveled India by foot. Seven times he went from Ga¼gotri, at the top of the Himalayas, to Gangoshada, by the seaside, and visited all the holy places of Mother India.

When Bhagavan Babaji saw that water was available everywhere, he threw away his pot and said: "Why should one carry weight?" Then, without possessions, he continued to walk barefoot, with his only property, his cloth.

One day, in the early days as a sadhu, Babaji Maharaj decided to go for a bhiksha to a nearby village. Bhiksha is when sadhus go from house to house to beg for food. On his way another sadhu saw him and offered to share the food he received with him, as he had collected too much. After the meal, Babaji threw away a special cloth that he made for begging. Babaji understood that the Divine was supplying him with everything, even without asking. He just needed to accept whatever God offered.  This realization remained with Bhagavan Babaji for the rest of his life, and from that day onwards, Babaji never asked anything from anybody. Whatever he received, he accepted...

Bhagavan Babaji Maharaj often remained many days without food. In some Temples he used to eat the prasadam that fell to the floor from devotees' hands, and in holy places like Rishikesh and Haridwär, he used to eat the prasadam of sweets that was offered to Mother Ganga in floating cups on the sacred river.

Barefoot, without possessions, home, and family, Babaji travelled from one holy place to another, asking for nothing, needing nothing but the will of his Beloved Bhagavan. 

After 30 years of wanderings, Bhagavan Babaji finally stayed at the holy city of Rishikesh. He never explained what made him settle there, but the feeling of those who met him was that it was his time to share.

Not long after his arrival to Rishikesh, people started to recognize Bhagavan Babaji Maharaj as a holy man and began to gather around him. Several years later, some of Bhagavan Babaji's followers found a cave where he could live. Gradually, disciples began to join him, and live in nearby caves.

Babaji never said "I", but referred to himself as "Babaji" - as did his disciples. When people knew Babaji better, they named him "Mastram", which means "somebody who enjoys with Divine intoxication" or "intoxicated with Divinity".

Bhagavan Babaji's disciples followed his simple way of living with total dependence on God's grace. No one at Bhagavan Babaji's ashram was allowed to ask for anything from anyone, even if it meant going without food.

Babaji encouraged his disciples to follow the rules and regulations of Sanätana-dharma, to keep all the rules of purity, and to take the vows of all the holidays.

Bhagavan Babaji Maharaj saw the one God in all the Devas, and was a devotee of them all. He had a deep love for Bhagavan Kåôëa and expressed his devotion to Srimati Radharani in his hymns to Radha. Babaji loved Lord Rama and Lord Hanuman. He was a devotee of Çiva and had special love for Mother Durgä. Babaji was a bhakta, but at the same time he was a jnani and expressed his view of the Absolute Self in the twenty one slokas of his Atmachintanam.

Bhagavan Babaji Maharaj was a  bhakta, a jnani, he was what the people present with him needed him to be.

After two decades as a spiritual master of many disciples from all over the world, Bhagavan Babaji Maharaj started to say that he was not needed any longer and that it was time for him to go. Gradually he took less food. No amount of pleading by the disciples helped. Bhagavan Babaji Maharaj decided to leave his material body. Slowly, he became thinner until his body was emaciated, yet he was still physically strong, fixed in God, and situated in the Self. He was so full of shakti that it took eight months before he finally left his body in the summer of 1986.

Bhagavan Babaji Maharaj left his physical body, but if you go to the feet of the Himalayas, on the banks of the Ganges, you will find there a small cave. And if you sit there to meditate, as our Beloved Gurudev did, you will find that Bhagavan Babaji Maharaj still lives....