Hazrat Babajaan (Balochi/; various dates claimed – September 21, 1931) was a Pashtun Muslim saint considered by her followers to be a satguru or qutb.
Born in Afghan portion of Balochistan, she lived the final 25 years of her life in Pune, India. She was the original master of Meher Baba, an Indian spiritual master.
Life
Early life The earliest recorded account of Hazrat Babajan, who was named at birth Gulrukh ("face like a rose") states that she: "is the daughter of one of the ministers of the Emir of Afghanistan".Purdom, Charles B: The Perfect Master, London: Williams & Northgate, 1937, p. 115, and referring to Meher Baba’s 1927 public discourse on Babajan, which had been recorded in a diary at the time Later accounts report that Babajan "hails from Afghanistan […] and was the daughter of a well-to-do Afghan of noble lineage";Munsiff, Dr Abdul Ghani: "Hazrat Babajan of Poona", Meher Baba Journal, Vol. 1, February 1939, No. 4, p. 31 "born to a royal Muslim family of Baluchistan [sic]".Kalchuri, Bhau: Meher Prabhu: Lord Meher, The Biography of the Avatar of the Age Volume One, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina: Manifestation, Inc., 1986, p. 5Regarding Babajan’s early life, Ghani says, "the information gleaned from different sources is meagre, since Babajan herself was never communicative to anyone with regard to her early life" (Ghani, Meher Baba Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4, p. 31). Another version of Babajan’s early life says: "According to some people [her] original name is Razia Sultana. She is said to be the daughter of one Bahadur Shah Zaffar and had come from Afghanistan" (Burman, J J Roy: Hindu-Muslim Syncretic Shrines and Communities, New Delhi: Mittal Publications, 2002, p. 237) The precise date of Babajan's birth is unclear. Biography variants range from 1790Purdom, Charles B: The God-Man: The Life, Journeys & Work of Meher Baba with an Interpretation of His Silence & Spiritual Teaching, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1962, p. 18, who wrote, "her actual date of birth is not known; it is supposed to have been about 1790." Kalchuri states Babajan to have been born "between 1790 and 1800" (Meher Prabhu: Vol One, p. 5), and Ghani considered the date to have been 1806, estimating she was "125 years" when she died (Meher Baba Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4, p. 38) to around 1820.Paul Brunton (Raphael Hirsch, or Hurst), quoting "former Judge Khandalawalla" in 1930, wrote: "her age is really about ninety-five", providing a later birth date of around 1835 (A Search in Secret India, London: Rider & Co., 1934, p. 62) Her education was in keeping with her family's social status of that time. Well-educated, she was fluent in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, in addition to her native Pashto. She was also a hafiza, one who learns the Quran by heart. An introspective child and spiritually inclined, from "early life she developed mystical tendencies, and unlike girls of her age, she used to pass a good deal of her time in prayers, meditation and solitude".Ghani, Meher Baba Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4, p. 31
Following the conventions of Afghan nobility, Babajan was reared under the strict purdah tradition, in which women were secluded from the outside world, and also subject to a custom of arranged marriages. She opposed an unwelcome marriage planned for her, and ran away from home on her wedding day at the age of eighteen. Disguised in her burqa, she journeyed to Peshawar, the frontier city at the foot of the Khyber Pass. It was in or near Peshawar that she eventually came into contact with a Hindu satguru. Following instruction from the guru:"She went into seclusion in a nearby mountain outside Rawalpindi and underwent very severe [riyazat] (spiritual austerities) for nearly seventeen months.Kalchuri confirms, "Under this Sadguru’s guidance she climbed a mountain in the wilderness and lived in a secluded cave. For a year and a half she remained in the mountainous regions of what is now Pakistan, undergoing rigorous spiritual austerity" (Meher Prabhu: Vol One, p. 7) Thereafter she came down to [the] Punjab and stayed a few months in Multan. It was in Multan, while [Babajan] was 37 years of age, she contacted a Muslim saint […] who put end to her spiritual struggle by giving her God-realisation."Ghani, Meher Baba Journal, Vo. 1, No. 4, p. 32. Ghani does not name the Muslim saint, but Kalchuri states he was known as Maula Shah. This intense spiritual experience does not appear to have been an ultimate achievement.
According to Meher Baba, she "became God Realized at the age of about sixty-five" at the hands of another (unnamed) Master. Purdom confirms this earliest version: "After years in search of God she found a Master, who many years afterwards (at the age of sixty-five, it is said) made her perfect" (The God-Man, p. 18)After that experience she returned to Rawalpindi to reconnect with the Hindu guru who, after several years, helped her return to normal consciousness.Tradition attributes Shaykh Abu Sa’id Ahamd al-Kharraz of Baghdad (d. 899) as "the first Sufi to explain and elaborate the theories of ‘'fana, or the soul’s annihilation in God, and ‘'baqa, or the soul’s subsistence in God. According to this school of thought, soul’s annihilation means the mystic’s obliteration from every kind of knowledge of his phenomenal existence and individual qualities. Subsistence of the soul denotes knowledge of eternal existence and the seeker’s abiding in God" (see Bhatnagar, R S: Dimensions of Classical Sufi Thought, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Pvt. Ltd., 1992, pp. 186–187); see also Meher Baba, God Speaks: The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose, Walnut Creek, CA: Sufism Reoriented, 1973, pp. 131ff., pp. 240–241, who clearly recognized that there are various stages in the fana-baqa process, and who provided a comprehensive description of the stages involved, not to be found in more traditional accounts.
Travels and pilgrimages After a second stay in Rawalpindi with her earlier Hindu master, Babajan embarked on several long journeys through various Middle Eastern countries Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, and: "It is said that she traveled to Mecca disguised as a man [apparently to avoid detection] by way of Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and doubling back into Arabia." At the Kaaba, she offered salah (prayers) five times a day, always sitting at one selected spot. While in Mecca, Babajan often gathered food for the poor and personally nursed hajjis (pilgrims) who had fallen ill.Kalchuri, Meher Prabhu: Vol. One, p. 8
From Mecca, Babajan made pilgrimage to the tomb of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in Medina, where she adopted the same routine of offering prayers and caring for fellow pilgrims. Leaving Arabia, she passed through Baghdad, Iraq and back to the Punjab. She then traveled south to Nasik and established herself there. From Nasik, Babajan travelled to Bombay (Mumbai), where she stayed for some time and her fame grew.
In April 1903, she made a second pilgrimage to Mecca, this time sailing from Bombay on the SS Haidari. About 1904, Babajan returned to Bombay and soon afterward proceeded to Ajmer in northern India to pay homage at the tomb of the Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti who established the Chishti Order of Islam in India. From Ajmer she again returned to Bombay and then soon after traveled east to Pune.Kalchuri, Meher Prabhu: Vol. One, pp. 8–11
Residence in Pune
By 1905 Babajan arrived in Pune, where she established her final residence. Now an old woman, her back slightly bent, shoulders rounded, with white matted hair, and shabbily dressed, she "was seen sitting or resting at odd places, in different parts of the city".Ghani, Meher Baba Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4, p. 33 Babajan finally located to a slum area called Char Bawdi ("four wells") on Malcolm Tank Road, part of a British Army cantonment.Kalchuri, Meher Prabhu: Vol. One, p. 12
The Char Bawdi area at that time has been described as "a picture of dirt, desolation and ugliness, a breeding spot of plague and pestilence and a regular haunt of dangerous riff-raffs by night".Ghani, Meher Baba Journal, Vo.1, No. 4, p. 33; see also Kalchuri, Meher Prabhu: Vol. One, p. 12, who states "… there was just a dirt road infested with hordes of mosquitoes; plague germs were even suspected there. During the day the area was desolate and deserted, but at night it sprang to life with thieves and the city’s most dangerous criminals who met there." After several months’ exposure to the natural elements, Babajan grudgingly allowed her devotees to build a basic shelter of gunny sacks above her. Children were in the habit of throwing stones at her.Purdom, The God-Man, p. 19, who relates: "I have met people who in their childhood used to throw stones at her, thinking her to be mad." She was a homeless faqir. The gifts from her devotees were shared among the poor and destitute, and in some instances stolen from her by thieves."She maintained a habit of sharing her meals with the needy. Devotees would frequently gift her with clothing and other items, but these she would share with the poor … not content with this charity, however, some would even dare to steal gifts from her" (See Helminski, Camille Adams: Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure, Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 2003, p. 81) She remained indifferent to the material offerings or the loss. Gradually, out of devotion, or mere curiosity, increasing numbers of people from Pune and elsewhere sought her out. Several alleged miracles have been attributed to Babajan.
According to one observer, within a decade of Babajan taking residence:"The [Char Bawdi] locality underwent a metamorphosis surpassing all expectations. What with the featural changes in the buildings all around, electrified tea-shops ringing with the clatter of cups and saucers, a concourse of peoples consisting of all ranks and creeds waiting for Babajan’s darshana, a street bard entertaining the crowd with his music, the beggars clamouring for alms, easy-going idlers standing indiscriminately hampering vehicular traffic and the whole atmosphere heavily laden with sweet burning incense perpetually kept burning near Babajan, presented a scene typically Eastern, leaving an indelible impression on one’s memory."Ghani, Meher Baba Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4, p. 34
Master to Meher Baba
In May 1913, Merwan Sheriar Irani, then nineteen years old, was riding his bicycle on the way to class at Deccan College, when he looked up and saw Babajan sitting under a neem tree surrounded by a crowd. He had cycled past on previous occasions but had never paid much attention to her, though he was aware that she was regarded by some as a Muslim saint; yet others thought her "a mad woman or a witch or sorceress".Kalchuri, Meher Prabhu: Vol. One, p. 195 His father, Sheriar Irani, held Babajan in high regard.Shepherd, Kevin R.D. From Oppression to Freedom: A Study of the Kaivani Gnostics, Cambridge: Anthropographia Publications, 1988, p. 71 Born into a Zoroastrian family, Sheriar Irani had been an itinerant dervish for a number of years,Kalchuri, Bhau, Meher Prabhu: Vol. One, pp. 117–131; before finally settling in Pune and marrying.