On the way to India on my first trip in June 1982, in the New York airport, a group of Hare Krishna’s approached us and asked about the malas around our necks.  They asked how many beads were on the strand. We answered 108, and they went into a big speech about that it should be 101 beads because Shiva is a “demi-god,” and only Krishna is the true God, and we were in big trouble. This kind of made us smile because we knew we were on our way to visit a manifestation of Shiva, and it seemed so funny to have these people telling us Shiva is a “nobody.”  We went on our way to India and didn’t really have time to think about this experience.

At one point with Babaji, we were in New Delhi in the home of one of His devotees. In the living room of this home a large swing was set up next to an air-conditioner.  Babaji was sitting in this swing, and he invited us into this room to sit on the couch next to the swing. We were there alone with Him. He asked someone to bring us some lemon water and let us just relax there with Him to recover from the extreme heat of driving from Haldwani with Him at mid-day.

It was very sweet to sit there with Him, and as He was sitting on the swing
like a small child, swinging back and forth, we could hear Him softly singing to Himself, with a sweet smile on His face, just loud enough for us to hear:  “Hare Krishna, Hare Rama, they are OK too...  Hare Krishna, Hare Rama, they are OK too.”

That’s when we knew that Babaji knew of our experience in the airport even though we had shared it with no one.

His acceptance of all worshipers of the Divine with no ill will toward others’ form of worship is very important. This all-inclusiveness of all who worship the Divine is one of the cornerstones of Babaji’s teachings. He often said, “Follow the religion that is in your heart. You must find the religion that really resonates with you and it will take you to God.  But you must FOLLOW it.”

Om Namah Shivaya
Love
Marge
(click here to send Marge DeVivo email)

I was in Haidakhan with Babaji in 1982. We arrived on June 26.  During one of the karma yoga (work) sessions, EVERYONE in the ashram was needed on the construction line.  The wall had to be finished before the monsoon started. We lined up and passed a metal disk full of dirt from one person to the next all the way up a hill and then up a ladder to pour into a very high wall full of rocks.

There were men, women, and children of all ages, nationalities, sizes, and levels of strength situated along this line.  The man who filled the pan struck me as an obnoxious person, and he handed them to me.  He and I had an instant dislike for one another. I turned and passed the disk on to a very tiny Indian woman, who would groan and wince when she got it.  I asked the man to fill it less full, and he just laughed at me and kept filling them more and more.  I decided he was not very nice, so I would take the very full pan, dump some dirt off, and then pass it to this lady.  This really teed him off, as could be expected.  We kept up this little game for quite some time, with Babaji right there watching everyone in the line every minute, giving instructions here and there.  He didn't say anything to either of us at that time.

Suddenly, Babaji called all the women off the line and told them to sit down and have a cold drink, which He had prepared for all of us.  This was a relief.  I walked over to the wall and Babaji came right over to me and talked to me just inches away from my face while He pinched my right bicep with alot of force.  I had studied acupressure and He had such a strong grip on my upper arm I could hardly breathe!!  (I later found out this pressure point is to release any congestion in the lungs. I had had lung problems all my life.) At the same time He was looking into my eyes and asking me questions.  I could barely answer, with the pressure on my arm and looking into His eyes was always like looking into outer space--just the VOID!).  He ended the conversation with  "...Oh, you go rest; go now!"  This was said very quietly, very slowly, and with great compassion, as if He felt like I was really exhausted. I started to wonder if I was. Later that evening at Arati, I saw that the same obnoxious guy was there, but I didn't notice I was directly behind him in the darshan line (the line of people who go up to the seat where Babaji is and pay their respects).  I was so self-absorbed about all the happenings of the day and where I was and Who I was with that I just kept moving forward in the line, very happy to be here with Shri MahaPrabhuji and not noticing this guy in front of me. 

When I got to Babaji and gave my pranam, as I lifted my head He slipped a necklace of rose quartz over my head and gave me some prasad.  I was stunned to receive this beautiful necklace, and couldn't get over how it just landed on my neck so easily and smoothly without my even knowing He had it. Later, others told me that the necklace had been placed on Babaji's neck by "my mortal enemy," the man who filled the dirt pans.  Babaji had taken it off his own neck as I bowed down and put it on my neck as I rose.  After that, this man and I would see each other in the ashram and always smile and I would show him my necklace.  He was a jeweler and had made this necklace for Babaji. Rose quartz is the stone that heals the hurts in the heart, and it would appear that this man and I had past-life karma to settle.  In this very subtle, perfect way, Babaji healed the whole situation and the two of us.

This is only one tiny example of what people call "Babaji Theater."    It seems He would manipulate the universe into these little scenarios that brought out the best in everyone.  There are hundreds of these stories that are shared among those who were in Babaji's physical presence.  I hope to share some more of them with you soon.

Om Namah Shivaya
Love
Marge
(click here to send Marge DeVivo email)

My first trip to India (1982) was quite a shock to the system.  I was so happy to be there and so miserably sick most of the time. We had been told before we went NEVER to drink any kind of water in India (this was also before they sold the bottled water on the street like they do now).  We were told to drink only the soft drinks or hot tea that was boiled. The soft drinks are more like syrup they are so full of sugar.  The hot tea has lots of milk and sugar in it; I was not successful in getting the chai shops to leave out the sugar, as they thought sugar was the best part of the drink.

Anyway, not having consciously or purposely eaten sugar for several years, all this sugar, the heat of the day, the lack of liquids I was suffering, or when I did drink a Limca or a Campa cola, I'd go into a sugar thing and my skin would be all sticky, I'd feel dizzy, etc.  The dysentery started for me on Air India, leaving New York, after the very first meal was served.  It was probably more like "fear" but it had the same devastating effect on my digestive system. This meant I was even more dehydrated.

Each day in Haidakhan, I'd do my best to follow the schedule of ceremony, work, washing my clothes in the river, getting to the one meal a day at lunch time, and the rest of it.  Others made it look pretty relaxed and easy; I felt I was lucky to be walking around. To remember the towel, the lota, the sari, the petticoat, the blah-blah-blah of just getting to the river for a bath was overwhelming at times. Then taking the bath in the river without taking your clothes off (that's another whole story separate from this). Anyway, to say I felt "dazed and confused" is an understatement.  Yet moving around the ashram, doing what you had to do, was so energizing!  It was obvious where Babaji was at any given moment, as you would see faces lighting up and smiles and a little flurry of energy and activity somewhere-- you knew that's where He was at that moment.

One day I got up at 4 and worked until about 9, I then got so sick I had to lie down and I fell into a deep sleep.  When I woke, it was past 1:30 p.m. Lunch was at 1, and across the river, so if I didn't RUN, I'd probably miss the whole thing.  There were no alternative meals in the chai shops in those days; you got to lunch, or the best you could get other than that was a canned cheese (as I recall, it was pretty bad and tasted more like a can than cheese) available in the store.

I was feeling very weak and exhausted and not at all well, but the thought of waiting until the next day for sustenance forced me to move. I threw on a sari, grabbed a plastic sandwich bag full of vitamins for the day, which I couldn't take on an empty stomach, and headed for the gufa side. This is quite a long haul down the 108 steps, all the way across the river over homemade bridges spanning the many tributaries of the Gautami Ganga.  I had to watch the ground beneath me so carefully, just so I wouldn't trip or fall down those steps, that I was at the bottom of the steps when I saw that Babaji was approaching me accompanied by a young German girl in overalls, carrying an umbrella.  They were talking and laughing, having a really good time.

When I reached Babaji, we were standing in water, so I couldn't kneel down to touch His feet. Instead, I put my hands together in "Namaste" and put them up to my forehead and said "Om Namah Shivaya" and "Bhole Baba ki Jai!" When I did this, the little vitamin bag was hanging from my hands.

Babaji touched the vitamin bag, and said questioningly, "Medicine?"  I said, "No, Baba, vitamins."  He again said, louder, "Medicine?" still a question, and I said, louder, "No, Baba, vitamins."  He then said much louder, and no question, "MEDICINE!" and He walked away.  I was left standing there, thinking "Hmmmmmmm.... I think I'd better take these as soon as possible."  I ran and got some lunch, took the vitamins/medicine and I stayed well for the next 4 or 5 days, the longest I was feeling well during the entire 3-week trip.

In a similar story I heard from a friend and teacher, there was a man who was so sick in bed for days that he just could barely drag himself to Babaji to ask Him for medicine.  When he got to Babaji and asked, Baba turned to the man next to him (my friend and teacher) and said, "Give him the medicine you have in your shirt pocket."  This was puzzling since all he had in his shirt pocket was chewing gum, so he gave the man a stick of chewing gum.  The man ate it and was instantly well.

Om Namah Shivaya
Love
Marge
(click here to send Marge DeVivo email)

In spring of 1982, after longing to go to India to visit Babaji for the three years I had known of Him being there, Leonard Orr's "Physical Immortality" book appeared in a B. Dalton Bookstore in Lincoln, Nebraska, with Babaji's painting on the cover.  This seems to have been quite a miraculous event just to even have it in that bookstore!

Having been acquainted with Babaji's paintings through a metaphysical teacher who had shown us many of these in his class, this book seemed to just jump off the shelf and come to my home of its own volition.

The chapters in the book about Babaji were astonishing!  What I remember most is Leonard saying, "Babaji is there waiting for you.  Why don't you go and visit Him?  Here's His address."  Now even though I had ALMOST gone there in 1980 with a group, I never had Babaji's address before.  The message in 1980 was "don't come now; buy land."  That is the land on which this Center is built.  We were lead to the exact spot in June 1980 and purchased it on 8/8/80.  That's a separate story.

Back to 1982, as I sat reading the book in my kitchen (same one as today) , I suddenly had an experience of a "light being" appearing to me right there at the kitchen table, saying "It's time to get to India..."  This was very real and moving.  I took out pen and paper and immediately wrote a letter to Babaji to ask permission to visit.  Since I was teaching elementary school at that time, I said we'd be free to come between June 4 and August 15.  I mailed the letter to Haidakhan.

The following weekend, even before the letter got to Haidakhan, we were driving to Chicago for a Metaphysical Conference Weekend.  On the way, my driving partner fell asleep and I was at the wheel.  Suddenly, it started to rain.  The rain became heavier and heavier until I could just barely see the road.  I wondered whether to stop for awhile and let the storm pass and then follow it, or to keep cruising and try to get ahead of it.  My partner was sleeping so soundly I didn't even try to wake him.  I had a small picture of Babaji on the sun visor above me that seemed to help me drive better.  I looked at it and said, "What to do?" and it answered immediately, inside me somewhere "You get through this, you don't have to go through the monsoon!!"

This seemed odd, but it was said with such assurance I believed it. Then I thought, "Oh my God! This must mean we really ARE going to India soon.  Here's a little test for me..."

So I drove and drove and held the car on the road through wind and rain and very poor visibility, passing up the storm and staying ahead of it all the way to Chicago.  It was very intense!  At that time, I was not aware of when the monsoon season was in India, and I really didn't want to think about it.

The last day of the school year was June 4, and I had just cleaned up the classroom and headed home to the mailbox.  There, in the mail, was a letter from Haidakhan.  Written by an American "secretary," it said that Babaji had said, "Yes, you should come.  Come in June."

That's another long story, so I'll cut to the chase on this one aspect about the monsoon.  We landed in India on June 23, got to Babaji on June 26 and we flew home from India on July 12.  All that time, there was no monsoon.  When we arrived, we heard lots of speculation about why the monsoon was late this year, so I shared my story with Radhe Shyam and Sita Ram, two Americans who were living there.  Radhe Shyam was gathering stories for his book, "I Am Harmony," and he really got tickled by my story.  From then on, we were introduced as "the reason for the late monsoon this year."

We found out later that the monsoon never really started until about 2 weeks after we left India!!!

Om Namah Shivaya

Babaji is often known as "Controller of the Cosmos," and in this case, He sure had something to do with the weather!!
(click here to send Marge DeVivo email)