A small library, kept with care

The Haidakhan Babaji Digital Library exists for a simple reason: a number of rare books about Haidākhan Bābā — known to devotees as Mahāvatār Babaji — were printed in small runs and are now nearly impossible to find. As the paper copies age and scatter, the teaching they carry risks quietly disappearing. This library gathers those books and offers them to anyone, anywhere, without cost.

What is collected here

This is a library, not a single translator’s shelf. Some editions here were prepared by us — scanned, read by machine, and translated with AI assistance under human direction. Others are the work of translators, devotees, and publishers who came long before us, gathered here so that their labour stays within reach. We did not translate those, and we do not claim them. Every book states plainly who translated it, where it first appeared, and on what terms it is reproduced.

The lineage, in brief

Haidākhan is a place in the Kumaon Himālayas, above the Gautam Gangā, long associated with a recurring great soul in the tradition of Mahāvatār Babaji. The books collected here are the records his devotees kept — accounts of his appearance and presence, the teachings he gave, and the daily observances of those who gathered around him. They are devotional and historical at once, and they were written for ordinary readers rather than scholars.

Who is behind it

The library is directed by Isaac Sian, who oversees the scanning, editorial, and translation work done in-house, and the gathering and crediting of everything else. Translations prepared here are produced with AI assistance under his direction, then cross-checked and flagged for review — a method described openly on the How it’s made page. The intent is not to replace scholarship but to keep these texts alive and legible while more thorough editions can be prepared.

Attribution and rights

Where a text is not ours, we name its translator and publisher, and reproduce it only where we believe we may — by permission, by the wishes of the rights holder, or because the work is freely circulated within the tradition. If you hold rights to anything here and would rather it were credited differently or removed, please write to us and it will be handled at once.

If we have got something wrong

Everything gathered here was checked first, as carefully as we could, to make sure it was not under copyright and was already shared freely within the tradition. We are not lawyers, and we may have got something wrong. If anything on this site is your copyrighted work, please write to us and we will remove it — no argument and no delay. We would rather lose a book from the shelf than keep it against someone’s wishes. We want to respect everybody.

How to read what you find here

Treat these editions as faithful reading copies, not as final critical texts. Where a passage was uncertain, we have said so plainly rather than smoothing it over. For any liturgical or ritual use, please consult a qualified paṇḍit. Everything here is offered in good faith, and gladly given.