Mahavatar Babaji

{{Infobox Hindu leader

| name = Mahavatar Babaji

| image = Babaji-transparent.png

| alt =

| caption = Mahavatar Babaji meditating in the lotus position – a drawing from Autobiography of a Yogi, commissioned by Paramahansa Yogananda and based on his own meeting with Babaji

| religion = Hinduism

| relatives =

| honors =

| known_for = Kriya Yoga

| school = Yoga

| disciples = Lahiri Mahasaya

| influenced = George Harrison, Paramahansa Yogananda, Rajinikanth, Roger Hodgson, Steve Jobs, The Beatles, Yukteswar Giri, Vishwananda

| birth_place = Unknown

}}

Mahavatar Babaji ({{IAST3|Mahāvatāra Bābājī}}; {{literal translation|Great Avatar (Revered) Father}}) is a legendary immortal yogi and guru, who is said to be living in the Himalayas. He is said to have taught multiple revered historic yogis, including Lahiri Mahasaya (1828–1895).{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Timothy |url=http://archive.org/details/americasalternat00mill |title=America's alternative religions |date=1995 |publisher=Albany : State University of New York Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-7914-2397-4 |pages=178}}{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Constance |url=http://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofhi0000jone_r9k7 |title=Encyclopedia of Hinduism |date=2008 |publisher=New York : Checkmark Books, an imprint of Infobase Publishing |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8160-7336-8 |pages=61}}{{efn|Babaji's other names include Mahamuni Babaji Maharaj (Supreme Ecstatic Master), Maha Yogi (Great Yogi), and Trambak Baba or Shiva Baba (incarnations of Shiva).}} Babaji first became recognized through the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda, who devoted a chapter of his Autobiography of a Yogi to Babaji and founded Self-Realization Fellowship, a modern yoga movement that Babaji is associated with. The cave where Babaji met Lahiri Mahasaya, located near Ranikhet, is now a tourist attraction and place of pilgrimage in India.{{Rp|page=170}}

There is little historical information about Babaji. According to Yogananda, Babaji has intentionally kept his birthplace and birthdate a secret.

In popular culture

Mahavatar Babaji was on the cover of The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.{{Cite book |last=Tillery |first=Gary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ajhTvx3NQPYC |title=Working Class Mystic: A Spiritual Biography of George Harrison |publisher=Quest |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-8356-0900-5 |page=81 |language=en}}cnn.com {{cite news |title=How the 'Sgt. Pepper' cover might have looked today |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/31/entertainment/sgt-pepper-cover-anniversary-trnd/index.html |access-date=2017-08-31}}{{cite web |title=Who Are All Those People in SGT Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band - Spacious Planet |url=http://www.spaciousplanet.com/world/guide/who-are-all-those-people-in-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111024180614/http://www.spaciousplanet.com/world/guide/who-are-all-those-people-in-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band |archive-date=24 October 2011 |access-date=2011-11-28 |df=dmy-all}} He can also be seen on the cover of George Harrison's 1974 album Dark Horse. Songwriter Roger Hodgson of English rock band Supertramp composed a song called "Babaji" in reference to Mahavatar Babaji. This song was recorded and released on their 1977 album Even in the Quietest Moments...{{Cite book |last=Melhuish |first=Martin |title=The Supertramp Book |publisher=Omnibus Press |year=1986 |isbn=0-7119-0787-0 |pages=124–126}} In Book 3 of Conversations with God (1998), by Neale Donald Walsch, it is mentioned that Babaji may at one time have resurrected himself from the dead, like Jesus.Walsch, Neale Donald, Conversations with God: an uncommon dialog (Book #3), page 95.

The 2002 film Baba featured a fictional encounter with Mahavatar Babaji.{{Cite book |last=Virk |first=Rizwan |title=Wisdom of a Yogi |publisher=Bayview Books |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-954872-10-3 |pages=}}{{Rp|pages=235, 314}} The film was produced by Rajinikanth, a devotee of Babaji.{{Cite news |last=Chaubey |first=Santosh |date=16 March 2018 |title=Here's how Rajinikanth became a devotee of Mahavatar Babaji |work=India Today |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/lifestyle/what-s-hot/story/here-s-how-rajinikanth-became-a-devotee-of-mahavatar-babaji-1191001-2018-03-16}}