The book

Fire of Transformation - a story of love between a woman and the Divine, between soul and spirit, between earth and sky, unique and precious. this is a deeply moving and personal account of challenge and revelation, of joy, struggle and surrender, of the outer and inner journeying towards self-discovery.
Valeria Bonnazola (Gora Devi) was a young student in Milan when an inner prompting called her to India in a search for love, the love for God. There she encountered the legendary Hairakhan Babaji -- referred to by Yogananda in his book, Autobiography of a Yogi -- the revolutionary teacher and acclaimed Mahavatar who transformed her life completely.

The author

Gora Devi was born in 10th April 1946. She obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University Statale in Milan with a thesis on Utopia and the New World. Travelling to India in 1972 she spent 12 years with Babaji, the renowned Yogi of the Himalayas. she was one of the first Western people to meet Babaji and his first Italian disciple. The life journey on which she embarked is both mystical and entrancing, simple and yet extraordinary; a story of courage and endurance, of human frailty and the absolute wonder of human potential. She continues to live primarily in India.

Gora Devi

Fire of Transformation

My life with Babaji

Foreword

by Peter Dawkins

In this book Gora Devi writes of her personal experiences as a disciple of Shri Hairakhan Wale Baba, the Mahavatar Babaji who appeared publicly in India at the end of the last century and millennium. It is a beautiful account - beautiful in its honesty - and is based upon the diary that Gora Devi kept during her time with Babaji. As she says herself in her own preface, this diary is intended to be a personal witness to a divine encounter. I always find it very touching, very moving, to hear or read about someone's personal encounter with Babaji, and even more so with Gora Devi, who was one of the few people in the 1970's to become a disciple of Babaji rather than just a devotee, and to be by Babaji's side during the last crucial years of his public appearance as Hairakhan Baba. This diary concerns Gora Devi's life and experiences with Babaji as a disciple during the years 1972-1984, and gives a unique insight not only into Babaji and his way of teaching (or one of his ways, as he himself is beyond limitation), but also into the transformational process undertaken by his beloved disciple.

Hairakhan Baba is known as a Mahavatar - a Great Avatar. Avatar means 'incarnation or manifestation of God', Maha means 'great'. In the Hindu Saivite tradition, Babaji is the Mahavatar of Samba-Sada-Shiva, the Supreme Being who is described as 'He who gives happiness at all times'. When he appeared in 1970 in the Indian foothills of the Himalayas, at Hairakhan, Babaji was recognised as such by many great yogis and saints, who were called to him and who had been preparing for his reappearance. Babaji has many names to describe him, amongst them being the Mahayogi (i.e. the Great Yogi or Yogi of all yogis) and Visva-Guru (i.e. the Guru of all gurus), who gave the world the yogic teachings and who has been with this world from its beginning, manifesting himself whenever appropriate throughout the ages. It is said that such manifestations rarely occur and that when they do it is when a major crisis confronts humanity and the planet, and the world needs greater help than can be given by an ordinary Avatar. Such a time is now, as we move from one Great Age (i.e. a 26,000-year cycle of twelve zodiacal Ages) into a new Great Age, and out of the Kali Yuga or Dark Age that ends each Great Age with a death and purifying, transformational process.

In the Hindu tradition Shiva is the god-name usually associated with that aspect of Deity which brings about death of the old form and transformation (or transmutation) into a new form of expression. However, because this process brings about the birth of each new creation, Shiva is known as the Creator as well as the Destroyer/Transformer. He is also the Maintainer or Preserver of what He creates. In other words, Shiva is the divine Trinity of Creator (Brahma), Preserver (Vishnu) and Destroyer (Rudra). He is often referred to as Samba-Sada-Shiva ('the Ever Holy Shiva'), or as Mahesvara ('the Great Lord'), names that correspond to Jehovah, the Lord God of Hebrew and Christian tradition.

Shiva is that divine Spirit or essence of life, light and consciousness that is everywhere and out of which all things are made. Sometimes it is called the great ocean of life, sometimes the holy breath of life, sometimes the Word or 'Om'. We all share this same essence, and in varying degrees we manifest it consciously and beautifully in our human forms of expression. To the degree that we can understand and truly manifest this divinity we become devotees, disciples, initiates, saints, Adepts, Masters and Great Masters - or, in Hindu terminology, sadhus, jnanis, yogis, Rishis, Sidhas and Avatars. The greatest of these in our world is Babaji ('Beloved or Holy Father'), the Mahavatar and Teacher of all teachers. It is very likely that he is the same great soul as the one known in Western tradition as Idris or Enoch, who is described in Rabbinical literature as the first human being in this world to achieve full enlightenment and rise to the highest level of evolution, to become the supreme Messiah or Christ and the Teacher of all other teachers, Master of all other masters. I believe that this is so; but even this is too limited a viewpoint, as realisation of the Divine is simply the moment in time when we as human souls consciously apprehend and are able to manifest to others our own divinity, which has always existed from the beginning of time.

Although he has chosen to always be in this world, in order to help it, normally Babaji resides behind the scenes, seen and recognised by only a few. It is said that he, as Mahavatar, materialises his body directly when needed and is not born physically of any woman. Normally he maintains his youthfulness even whilst embodied, appearing as the ever-young and beautiful youth; but this is clearly not always the case, as Babaji can do whatever he pleases and sometimes he chooses otherwise. He has appeared young, old, thin, fat, in sequence or simultaneously, in one body or several, to various people. Likewise, as Mahavatar he is said to be immortal even in his physical form or forms, yet this cannot be understood in the ordinary way: death is not always what it seems. Babaji plays a divine drama. He plays with elements. He can appear where and when he wishes, in one or more bodies simultaneously, physical or subtle, and of whatever appearance and age he chooses, and can dissolve them into light or otherwise as and when he decides.

In his last public manifestation - the one in which Gora Devi was involved and which is the subject of this book - Babaji was referred to as the '1008 Baba'. In this he had an exquisitely beautiful form, but one which he continually changed during the fourteen years of his public appearance. The public manifestation previous to that one (1800-1922), which was referred to by Paramahansa Yogananda in his widely distributed and influential book, The Autobiography of a Yogi, was as the '108 Baba'. Both manifestations were as the Hairakhan Baba, for Babaji chose Hairakhan as his place of manifestation, for a specific purpose.

Hairakhan (a name derived from Hiriya Khand, meaning 'sanctified area') is a place close to and including a tiny, remote village in the Nainital District of Uttar Pradesh, in the Himalayan foothills of India, twenty-six kilometres east of the market town of Haldwani. The village lies on the bank of the holy river Guatama Ganga, opposite a sacred cave that lies at the foot of the Kumaon Mount Kailash. This mountain is the original Kailash, the physical representation of Mount Meru, the sacred mountain marking the central axis or heart of the world and home of Lord Shiva. It was much more recently in human history that the second Mount Kailash (i.e. the Tibetan Mount Kailash) was 'found' further north in the higher peaks of the Himalayas, on the northern side of Lake Mansarovar, as a kind of substitute for the original. The Guatama Ganga flows underground from Lake Mansarovar and surfaces not far from Hairakhan. The sacred cave, like the Kumaon Mount Kailash, is said to date back to the time of creation, and is described in the Shiva Puranas as a dwelling place of the Gods and the place where Shiva (or Babaji) periodically retreats for meditation and tapasya (ascetic practices).

As '108 Baba', Babaji appeared in about the year 1800 to Hairakhan villagers as a bright light on top of the Kumaon Mount Kailash. Eventually the Mahavatar emerged from this light as a beautiful youth, condensing his body out of the dazzling light. Having stayed at Hairakhan for a few years he then travelled around the Kumaon region, gathering to himself certain devotees and disciples, great saints and yogis, and at times crowds of people came to celebrate festivals with him. In the 1840's he constructed with his own hands and the help of the villagers an octagonal temple (representing Shiva's eightfold manifest power) on a small hill opposite to and on the other side of the river from the Kailash cave. Besides being at Hairakhan, Babaji was seen by many people in different places, and performed many miracles through the power of his love. Having promised to return again, in August 1922 Babaji went with some of his devotees to the confluence of the Kali and Gauri rivers and, stepping into and then sitting on the surface of the water, he dematerialised into a ball of light in front of their eyes and 'disappeared'. In the following years, however, he appeared to many of his close devotees in dreams, visions or even direct physical form.

The great saint and sidha-yogi, Mahendra Baba, who spent his life searching for and preparing for the return of Babaji, was one of those to whom Babaji appeared physically. Babaji gave him certain signs and a unique, secret mantra by which he, Babaji, could be recognised when he next appeared publicly. Mahendra Baba passed on this knowledge to his disciple, Shri Vishnu Datt Shastriji, who duly recognised and confirmed the reality of Babaji in the Mahavatar's next public appearance. Shastriji subsequently became Babaji's 'priest'. Mahendra Baba also foretold the year, 1970, when Babaji would make his appearance, and prepared the world for this event through his writings, teachings and building of ashrams.

In June 1970 Babaji was duly 'discovered' in the sacred cave at the foot of the Kumaon Mount Kailash. Gradually he drew to himself more and more people, to visit him at Hairakhan, to undergo purification and training under his guidance, and to build an ashram and further temples. After fourteen years of extraordinary activity and demonstrations of divine love, and having foretold the date of the event, he underwent mahasamadhi.

It is said that we all need a guru to help us achieve liberation from mortal attachments and impurity of living, and thus to realise the Divine. Guru means 'the remover of darkness'. Sometimes the guru is seen, sometimes not seen. Sometimes he is physically present, sometimes not. Sometimes he is male, sometimes female. At all times he is within us, as we are each part of the Divine, and likewise we are always within the Guru. But we have to gradually realise this and what it means. Several of my friends and acquaintances met the 1008 Hairakhan Babaji in his physical form, and Gora Devi was one of them. I did not do so: I met the Great Master in another way, and he guides me still. I did not have to undergo the huge shock and lesson of detachment from the Master's physical presence when he left his body in 1984 - which is one of the final things that disciples have to learn - but Gora Devi did. This story of hers is a wonderful story of courage and devotion, and of love shared between two friends, one divine and the other human.

Peter Dawkins
Roses Farmhouse
January 2002

Editor's note

I first met Gora many years ago, a humble and unassuming person, peaceful yet with a quiet strength. In time I discovered other facets; a very animated person with a playful sense of humour, determined and sincerely dedicated to God. Out of this contact and friendship came the opportunity to be involved with the production of this book. If I had any doubts, they dissolved after reading the text. It is remarkable in its honesty, beauty and intimacy, appearing almost childlike in its innocence; a woman's search for identity and for love, and through her encounter with Babaji and his continuing presence her heart opens to the flowering of divine love.

Gora's diary is as much a mystical journey as it is a distinctly human story, in which simple everyday events are interwoven with a divine presence that is extraordinary, infinite and mesmerizing, where the tangible is entwined with the intangible. Alongside immeasurable joy there also exists pain, hardships and continual challenge. At times her story is provocative, difficult to understand or accept, sometimes it all appears like a magical fairytale, at other times a heavenly utopia or bizarre drama, yet within the humanity of the events there are echoes in all of our lives, within the words an energy that subtly finds its way to the heart of the reader. The presence of Babaji, felt if not completely understood, increasingly pervades the text and transports meaning beyond the words on the page.

A number of years passed before Gora considered writing this book, before realizing that the period of time spent with Babaji had also been a preparation for the role of author as well. She recalled that it had been Babaji who, in so many ways, had encouraged her to keep her diary, and when initially asked if she would write her story she replied, 'When Baba tells me to...' The original Italian version was finally published in 1993 and is updated in this English edition by the inclusion of an extra chapter both at the beginning and at the end.

It has been suggested that union with the Divine, whether in form or formless, is the relationship for which the heart of each and every human being truly yearns. Within this book the reader finds that they themselves are travelling on a profound and illuminating journey, one that is truly experiential, at times challenging, not always comfortable and rife with the unexpected; and what emerges so abundantly clearly is that the Fire of Transformation which emanates from the essence of Babaji is truly eternal. It is as vibrant, alive, accessible and transformative today as it has always been.

M.H.

Preface by the author

I hesitated for a long time before deciding to write this book, as it is very difficult to speak about Babaji in words. His essence is subtle, occult and can only be grasped by opening oneself to another dimension of consciousness, to the magic of one's heart.

Babaji often taught through a gesture, a smile, an incident. What impressed me most when I first met Him was His great silence and His capacity to communicate through it. Babaji is 'the Presence', the manifestation of the eternal mystery, the other shore of existence. His infinite love is the bridge between us and the great Truth, between the human and the Divine. His physical form is a marriage of heaven and earth.

Many people have been touched forever by His call and our lives have been completely changed. The first word He spoke to me when I met Him, was 'God', and immediately after He added, 'God is love.' From that time on my life has been a search to realize the meaning of these words.

This diary is intended to be a personal witness to a divine encounter, and it is hoped that it will give some understanding of Babaji and His message.

Gora Devi

[Gora Devi - from the Sanskrit meaning 'white goddess',
pronounced: Gor'a Day'vee]

Community Life

Milan, 15 September 1970

Yesterday evening, for the first time since returning from my summer holidays, I went to Brera. It's an interesting part of the city where artists live and gather together, an old quarter of small streets, elegant buildings and numerous restaurants, in many ways not unlike Montparnasse in Paris. I decided to be truly courageous and wear all my hippie clothes, my long Indian skirt, the elaborate sandals from Amsterdam. People from Milan generally have a decidedly narrow outlook on life, they are bourgeois and look disapprovingly at me when I walk down the street dressed like this. No matter, I have decided that I will be indifferent to their reactions, even going so far as to be provocative if possible, and turn this into my own small, private revolution.

In Brera I met up with everybody again, all my old friends, some of them recently returned from India. They all go around dressed even more outrageously than myself, with multicoloured clothes and very long hair. We eat at Fiorinos, a small, cheap restaurant, just perfect for us. It's as if we take refuge in the small streets of this old quarter of the city because it remains cosy and homely, unlike the rest of the metropolis of Milan, which is grey, cold, hostile and sad. Most people's lives appear to revolve around earning money, just so that they might continue living in a small flat in which they can enclose themselves, as if in a prison; a safe, small prison. People appear afraid of each other, of communication, of love. They are fearful of love and of sex, because love means to open up, to expand, to break through so many barriers. I don't want to end up like them, and that's why I haven't looked for a job yet, even though I'm afraid it could all lead to possible imprisonment.

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!