Hari Datt Karnatak was born on 26 March 1923 in the town of
Almora in
Uttarakhand, India. He was the fifth of seven children of his parents of five brothers and two sisters, followed by a younger brother and a sister. His family was of a Kumaoni
Brahmin Karnatak lineage. Hari Datt was born in the lunar month of
Chaitra, in
Shukla Paksha (
Rama Navami). Hari Datt grew up in the lower Himalayan region of
Kumaon, which includes
Dunagiri (also called Dronagiri), the birthplace of modern-day Kriya Yoga and the temple of
Shakti. Known since the
Mahabharata War, the Kurmachalam region encompasses
Almora district and
Udham Singh Nagar district. Early in life he listened to stories told by older people about
siddha yogis Sombari Baba Maharaj, Gudari Baba, Suri Baba, Khaki Baba, Aughar Baba, and several other saints of that region. His parents were devotees of a saint of Kumaon, Hariakhan Baba Maharaj, who was known to visit Almora. On a journey to
Haldwani in 1929, Hari Datt received his first
Darshana with the sage Sombari Baba Maharaj. Darshana is viewed as experiencing the presence of a highly revered person, which can awaken the latent potential for spiritual growth or intellectual understanding. American poet
Gary Snyder, a
Zen Buddhist practitioner, stated, "It's a gift; it's like there's a moment in which the thing is ready to let you see it. In India, this is called darshan. Darshan means getting a view."
Leaving home at the age of eight Hari Datt's early childhood years were marked by sadness and the feeling of separation: "When I was small, about five-six years old, I began to feel unhappy and sad inside. That sadness would be enhanced at the sunset in the Himalayas... A feeling of separation would come, and I would feel like I was closed in a box where it is dark. The dome of the sky and the earth at night would make me feel like I was inside the box. 'How can I get out of this box?' was my constant question." His parents were puzzled by his strange behavior of leaving the house early in the morning and refusing to go into the house. He also didn't like to go to school to learn reading and writing. His father, a Sanskrit scholar, and tough disciplinarian, forced Hari Datt to memorize Sanskrit grammar and prayers. In 1931–1932, his father died at age 56 of a heart attack, an event which shook the whole family, but also brought Hari Datt a sense of relief. With the pressure lifted, Hari Datt was free to do anything he wanted. However, he assumed more responsibilities by helping his mother in farming, taking care of the cows, and threshing grain. Also, he had to go to school and do homework. He was attracted to the freedom that monks had in their lifestyle, unburdened by an excess of clothing or work, and who did not have to attend school. "Whenever any monk would come to the village temple, I would go to see them, I started living like a monk." His mother came home one day to find him sitting, wearing only a loincloth, with wood ash smeared all over his body. She said, "Son, there is no happiness in the world, there is no peace in household life. I know you are very attracted to monk life but that is not an easy task either." Hari Datt had several conversations with his mother about God, soul, and peace. His view of the surrounding world as a restraining box, made of earth as the bottom, and the sky as the top, induced him to weep. Deciding this had to be lifted, he made his conviction known to his mother, asking her to release him from the confinement of "this box of earth and sky." To that, she said, "I can't". He replied, "I'm going."
Brahmacharya school At the age of eight, Hari Datt was initiated into Brahmacharya. "I was initiated at the age of eight and would do my practices every morning and night before eating food." In 1931, with his mother's consent, he left home and joined a small Brahmachari gurukul for young boys in the woods of
Kumaon. A regimented daily schedule included six hours of sleep, rising at 4:00a.m., walking a mile in the dark to bathe in a river regardless of the season or weather conditions, a teacher-guided group study of homework and preparation for exams. Upon joining that place he was told by the teacher, "You have to learn to bear all kinds of hardships in life. We can train our body in any way we want." Daily duties included manual labor, carrying water from a river in a valley, collecting firewood, cooking, cleaning, and gardening. He practiced and became proficient in
martial arts,
Hatha yoga,
Shatkarma,
Mudras and Sanskrit. The teacher was not a monk, although he wanted to be a monk. He would talk about politics and how the British came to India as traders and gradually took over the whole country. He resented British rule and would teach how to survive in the wild, and how to become revolutionaries. Young Hari Datt Brahmachari and other boys were able to study, prepare for their grade school and high school exams, and do yoga exercises. The teacher, who was not sure about his own life, left that place and later joined the army. A diminished group continued their daily routine until they also disbanded leaving only a few. By 1936, it was no longer a school but became a small study class. At that time Hari Datt Brahmachari, in comparison to other boys, who were determined to get good jobs or get well educated, didn't know what he wanted to be in life. His friends joked, "Just go on looking for some saints. Some day you may find someone, or you may go on looking forever."
Naga Baba, Udasi Baba and Swami Nityananda Maharaj Hari Datt's interest in the monk lifestyle resurfaced on more than one occasion. He contacted traveling
sannyasins in temples or in public engagements in order to learn their wisdom and inquire about yoga techniques. Some of those early encounters fell short of his expectations. Trying to learn about the life of a Naga Baba (naked sannyasin) became a debacle. The kind of mischief other boys engaged in, like throwing rocks or disturbing the monk's meditation resulted in cursing, angry outbursts, and a chase. Another sannyasin who attracted Hari Datt's attention was Udasi Baba, credited by adult followers as possessing supernatural powers over ghosts or curing sickness, and who lived in a cremation ground. One day, when he had nobody to cremate at his site, he joined an encampment of local people and looked like an ordinary man who craved attention. He acknowledged that his tales of subduing ghosts were fabrications and that "ghosts are for those who are afraid of ghosts." These encounters resulted in a diminishing attraction for monkhood for the 12-year-old Brahmachari. In 1935, Hari Datt met
Swami Nityananda Maharaj, who lectured and held gatherings that many adults attended. "I was very eager to listen to Swamiji's talk. It was the first time I met a famous sannyasi who was surrounded by intellectuals, lawyers, professors, etc. Swamiji stood up chanting OM in a deep voice...Then he started his speech." For a boy to mix with adults who were following monks was not encouraged. It was believed that young lads couldn't understand spiritual subjects; in contrast, however, from Hari Datt's perspective, "older people simply became a hindrance for youngsters." Since Swami Nithyananda's lectures were in English, Hari Datt could not understand the content. Yet he was keen to observe the ascetic form of the swami, who was wearing a tiger skin and using a
trident staff, was a follower of the
Shiva order. Swamiji was a proponent of establishing
dharmashalas locations, called
Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, for pilgrims on their way to the
Mount Kailash.
Darshana of Anandamayi Ma and Samadhi In 1935, when
Anandamayi Ma visited Almora region, he went to see her in a trance state some interpreted as
samadhi: "I heard that a woman saint was in town. Her name was Ananda Mayi Ma. I was very excited to see a woman saint... a woman who looked to be 35-40 years old. Her eyes were closed. Her face looked like golden light. Everyone outside bowed to her and people hurriedly took her to
Ranikhet to a secluded place to rest." He listened to a lecture by a
pundit who invoked the Yoga Sutras to interpret her state of consciousness and what level of
samadhi she was in. Intrigued, he discussed further experienced
darshan and how samadhi brings knowledge of God with an older colleague in the Brahmacharya school. He was discouraged from viewing samadhi as an emotionally induced trance that could occur during devotional singing (
Kirtan) or dancing. In contrast, he was told that through formal training, the regular practice of
pranayama and meditation (
Dhyana), samadhi could be attained and take deeper roots. Also in that discussion, the issue was raised of renouncing the becoming a
sannyasi would require a radical departure from social norms compared to the householder life of
grihastha, and "If everyone renounces the world, then one day all the old generation will die out and there will be no new generation." He agreed that such statement was quite right, however, since everyone is not meant to be a householder, the natural balance would still be sustained by everyone performing duties for the world. "When this thought came in my mind it removed the reality of my friend's argument. I felt good and did not lose my attraction for the life of renunciates."
First teaching in Hatha Yoga and Swami Satyananda Giri In 1936, Hari Datt Brahmachari attended classes of
Swami Satyananda Giri (disciple of
Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri) of
Dashnami Sanyasi Sect (originated by
Jagadguru Adi Shankaracharya), who visited Almora region. Swami Satyananda was well versed in classical yoga tenets and encouraged adults to use the practices of
Hatha yoga. He postulated that developing strong body, in which the soul resides, aids in the journey to attain emancipation. Techniques he demonstrated and explained were based in
Ashtanga Yoga and in Hatha Yoga of seven limbs:
Shatkarma,
Asana,
Mudra,
Pratyahara,
Pranayama,
Dhyana, and
Samadhi. He also used
Ayurvedic principles of the balanced food of three-
doshas, consistent eating habits, and avoided oily and fat rich foods. When young Brahmachari was asked to demonstrate what he knew, Swamiji was surprised and pleased to see well developed postures, mudras, etc. Brahmachari explained he practiced those in Brahmachari School by his own doing rather than learning from someone else (
asanas,
pranayamas,
shatkarmas, and
mudras). Swamiji asked him to teach others in his class, who were adults. "Swamiji saw my
Sarvangasana and was very pleased. I showed the series of 12 postures of
Surya Namaskar (sun salutation). Swamiji liked the way I did the postures and said I should come back every morning and show the people the method of doing asanas." Due to that teaching experience, his feeling of a misfit in the class and shyness went away. He was also well received by adult learners. After seeing Swami Nityananda Maharaj and Ananda Mai Ma, Hari Datt's desire to practice yoga increased. Yoga practices became part of his life. His quest continued as he visited different villages in Himalayan mountains around the age of 14, encountering several Westerners who were learning yogic practices and later recalling them as "true seekers". Learning and experiences in Swami Satyananda Giri's classes in Hatha Yoga, Ayurveda, Ashtanga Yoga, and Kriyas shaped the foundation of his own system that he taught Western learners later in India, USA, and Canada. Baba Hari Dass' emphasis was to include tested and well-developed practices into a comprehensive whole, "There are several types of yoga, each of which has its own methods. All are different ways of attaining the same goal."
Ramkot Hanuman temple and Sita Ram Dass Baba Hari Datt Brahmachari and his remaining colleagues from the study group, in 1940, were getting ready to pass the 10th-grade high school exams. For that reason, they were motivated to visit a less-known temple in the area called Ramkot Hanuman (Khagmara Kot-Kila) located near Almora, to pray for success. That place, established in a remote area and planned in 16th CE as a military fort, was used by bird hunters and gamblers. In local oral tradition, the place, among other stories, was talked about as a hunting ground (Khagmara hills) by the king Balo Kalyan Chand. He followed a hare and reached the top of the hill but then, the hare "assumed the form of a tiger and disappeared." His diviners interpreted the meaning that his enemies would find they had tigers to deal with, so the raja started to build the fort there as his main outpost of the area. In more recent times, a vairagi-renunciate from
Ayodhya, Sita Ram Dass Baba, renovated, cleaned the fort place and started regular temple worship of the deity of Hanuman. He renamed Khagmara Kot (“A fort where birds are hunted”) to Ramkot (“A fort of Rama”). He was known for his uncompromising and tough character - did not tolerate bird hunters, and chased them out of the area. After that temple visit their worries about school progress weren't entirely relieved, partly because they believed they failed to satisfy the tough expectations of Sita Ram Baba who, they thought, may have been angry with them. While waiting for the results of high school exams, they decided to visit
Jageshwar Temples, as one of them was from that area. "He said it is one of the 12
Jyotir Lingams, the self-revealed sign of
Lord Shiva... We had to pray for our success in the high school exams." At that time they separated. It was a sad moment because they had been together for several years, but since they were independent they could go their separate ways and had a reason to feel happy as well. Hari Datt Brahmachari, despite the fact that he liked the village of his friend, decided to leave and disappear into the mountains. Later, after four months of wondering, he could not recall his whereabouts, "I didn't have any memory...The whole summer passed that way and then I realized that I had to go back." He learned, he had passed the high school exams, and that all his friends had moved away, either returning home, enrolling in college, finding jobs, or joining the army. Since he had no place to stay and didn't want to return home, which he left ten years earlier, he decided to go back to Ramkot and see Sita Ram Dass Baba. He noticed several significant improvements were made in the temple surroundings. Also, a large group of vairagi monks on their pilgrimage way to
Kailash Mansarovar was there. Most striking, Sita Ram Dass Baba warmly welcomed Brahmachari and asked him to do various tasks for the monks. He noticed in the
yajnashala room (place of sacred fire) a monk completely covered with sheets motionless and meditating for several hours. He remained in the same position even as others were busy with their routines and activities. Brahmachari was allowed to sit near the monk and his mere presence induced in him a deep meditative experience. Later on, he was surprised to hear from Sita Ram Dass Baba that Baba Raghubar Dassji Maharaj, without any verbal communication with Brahmachari already accepted him as his disciple.
Initiation into Sannyasa and Baba Raghubar Dassji Maharaj In 1942, at the age of 19, he was initiated with
Sannyasa diksha into
Vairagi-[https://web.archive.org/web/20231014232247/http://ancientindia.co.in/tyagi-bhumihars/ Tyagi
Vaishnava. His
guru, Baba Raghubar Dassji Maharaj, a reclusive sadhu that he met in Ramkot
Hanuman Temple (
Almora region), oversaw the initiation. His guru's main center was Digambari
Akhada, Tapasiji Ki Chhawani
Ayodhya, order of
Ramanandi Sampradaya. Followers of Saint
Ramananda originated in the 14th century. Baba Raghubar Dassji Maharaj was highly regarded renunciate and a Sanskrit
Acharya, he was known for minimal verbal communication. He met with his disciples only once every two or three years to convey yoga
sādhanā instructions to his followers. He's quoted as saying: "First find unity within, in your thoughts, words and actions and the unity outside will follow you." On another occasion he said: "I tell you one thing, as long as you keep yourself hidden in the world you will progress in your spiritual path." In 1952–1953, while living in a burial place called Ghati, Baba Hari Dass described the experience of a legendary Kumaon yogi Hariakhan Baba while staying in a cave in cold winter. While sitting by the side of the fire, he fainted and his left arm fell into that fire: "I saw Hariakhan Maharaj come into the room and bend over me…, I saw him clearly, removing my left arm from the fire pit... By some unknown power I was related to Hariakhan Maharaj."
Vow of silence and tapas Silence is the only Voice of our God -
Herman Melville (
Pierre: or, The Ambiguities, Bk. XIV, ch. 1, 1852,) In 1952, Baba Hari Dass took a continual
vow of silence called
mauna (or
maunavrata). In a similar tradition of
Buddhist meditative method of
Vipasana, silence is used "as the process of self-purification by introspection." In 1964,
Bhagavan Das met Baba Hari Dass near a temple called
Hanumangarhi, Nainital, and later wrote: "The sadhu was a muni, a yogi whose practice of austerity includes complete silence. For the previous twelve years, whenever he wanted to communicate, he would jot his thoughts succinctly on a small chalkboard." Similarly, in 1967,
Ram Dass: "He is a jungle sadhu. He went into the jungle when he was 8 years old. He is silent (mauna). He has been mauna for 15 years. He writes with a chalkboard." Even as continued silence would seem a radical, but also inconvenient form of communication, several Western authors recognized the social value of silence. Among those were
Jacques Derrida and
Søren Kierkegaard. In their view, silence would function as a precursor for clearer and substantively deeper understanding. Michael Strawser (Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Central Florida), commenting on Jacques Derrida's view of Soren Kierkegaard's meaning of silence, wrote, "What is needed is Kierkegaard's call to silence in order to recognize one's responsibility to the other." Silence is also valued by Perkey Avot, in the Jewish Sages guide for living, and functions as "a safety fence for wisdom". In yoga,
mauna is maintained with the aim of achieving uninterrupted concentration (
ekagrata, Sanskrit: एकाग्रता). Side effects of such practice would include constraining outgoing emotions of the mind, such as anger, excessive argumentativeness, etc. In Ashtanga,
mauna would be part of a larger body of practices called
tapas (Sanskrit: तपस्). Overall,
mauna as practice of tapas would not be viewed as
penance but rather "as a mental training to develop will power". In the beginning of his practice he encountered obstacles, "For twelve years I faced much difficulties...for two or three years you have to fight with anger." Since merely not talking is not considered a yogic silence, keeping a quiet mind is, "The mind can't be stopped merely by keeping your mouth shut." In 1983, David C. Fuess (a writer for
The Wall Street Journal), observed about Baba Hari Dass: "Babaji had not spoken for twenty-nine years and communicates by a means of a small chalk board." In 2008, Melissa Weaver,
Santa Cruz Sentinel correspondent, wrote: "During classes, he sits in a wood-backed chair, his students... sit patiently while he writes his thoughts on a wipe-off board, which are then read aloud by a volunteer."
Karma yogi builder Early on in his life Haridas Baba was influenced by the teachings of the
Bhagavad Gita, which considers karma yoga to be a selfless service, and the most straightforward pathway to progress in spiritual life. He learned temple masonry from a local mason and used those skills in building temples, ashrams, idols, and rock walls. In more than one of those projects he had a lead role. In 1950–1964 with the help of local followers and volunteers, adults and children, he built Hanumangarh and later Kainchi Ashram in
Nainital.
The Divine Reality, a publication by Sri Kainchi Hanuman Mandir & Ashram, stated: "Haridas Baba used to come to Kainchi from
Hanumangarh to supervise the construction work of Kainchi Ashram." In 1962, after Hanumangarh, and Kenchi (Kainchi) Ashram, he started to build an ashram at Kakrighat where Sombari Maharaj lived, which was later completed on a contract basis. In the United States, Canada and Mexico, he continued using his design, planning and construction skills. In February, 1982, after a fire burnt a recently constructed program building at Mount Madonna Center, in Watsonville, California, he used the event as an opportunity to build a larger structure with more capacity. His example inspired many volunteers to help with those karma yoga efforts. In 1983,
Yoga Journal writer, Virginia Lee, said "Baba Hari Dass swings his hammer alongside everyone else". The same publication included two articles in 2002,
Karma Yoga Awards and
Saving Young Lives, that described how Baba Hari Dass donated proceeds from his books to the Sri Ram Foundation that was set up to help destitute children in India. From those funds, and other donations, Shri Ram Ashram was created near Haridwar, in India.
Local teacher-leader At the end of the 1930s several encounters with Western seekers in India shaped his attitude towards teaching yoga in the future. He became cognizant of a larger group of people wanting to learn yoga and the need to preserve genuine yogic tradition for these students. "When I was about 14 years old... I saw number of Westerners. Some had taken
sannyasa..it was quite clear that they were true seekers." In India, yoga practices were tested for thousands of years and it became known how each method affects the body, mind and consciousness. By adopting a well-known method of Ashtanga of Patanjali,
Yamas and
Niyamas, as his core practice, he aimed to shorten the time required for mastering essential routines. Otherwise, if new experimentation is needed "when those methods are changed, they are again subject to testing." In the early 1960s, during one of the subsequent waves of interest in Indian spirituality and yoga, some newcomers to
Nainital district were directed to Haridas Baba to receive instructions in hatha yoga, meditation and yogic life. "A young Englishman named Lawrie...was allowed to stay in the ashram, studying with Haridas Baba". He had established a local following and was considered an adept teacher, a leader and builder in several building and karma yoga construction projects at Hanuman Garhi and Nainital Ashram temples.
Dada Mukerjee (Sri Sudhir Mukerjee), recounting those events wrote: "Haridas was also very active in building the Kainchin temples and purchasing materials for them", and "Haridas...was well-versed in pujas and rituals, as well as in pranayam and meditation, and an experienced practitioner of hatha yoga..., he also looked after the devotees who came there... Ram Dass stayed there in 1967 and Lawrie
[Cy Laurie- jazz musician] in 1964, among others." ==Western confluence (1964–1971)==