Babaji

Babaji was a young Maratha Brahmin of South India, whose real name was S. Krishnaswami. He was at one time a clerk in the Collector's office in Nellore. In the early 1880s, after the arrival of the Founders in Bombay, he joined the staff at the theosophical headquarters and assumed the name of "Babaji" (also spelled "Bawaji" or "Bowaji"). A few months after this he became a probationary chela of Mahatma K.H. assuming the mystery name Dharbagiri Nath.

In late 1882 Gwala K. Deb (a chela of the Master K.H. whose mystical name also was Dharbagiri Nath) was to travel to Simla from Darjeeling to deliver a letter from Mahatma K.H. to Mr. Sinnett. However, Deb could not leave Darjeeling and Babaji allowed him to overshadow his own body, in order to perform the allotted task.

Mme. Blavatsky wrote to Mr. Sinnett:

He has as much right to call himself Dharbagiri Nath, as “Babaji.” There is—a true Dh. Nath, a chela, who is with Master K. H. for the last 13 or 14 years; who was at Darjeeling, and he is he of whom Mahatma K. H. wrote to you at Simla. For reasons I cannot explain he remained at Darjeeling. You heard him ONCE, you never saw him, but you saw his portrait his alter ego physically and his contrast diametrically opposite to him morally, intellectually and so on. Krishna Swami’s, or Babaji’s deception does not rest in his assuming the name, for it was the mystery name chosen by him when he became the Mahatma’s chela; but in his profiting of my lips being sealed; of people’s erroneous conceptions about him that he, this present Babaji was a HIGH chela whereas he was only a probationary one and now cast off. . .

According to Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett:

He was present at the time of the Hodgson investigation at Adyar. There is considerable mystery surrounding some phases of his life and the identity of the entity operating through his physical vehicle. It is said that a t one time his physical body was "lent" to accomplish certain work and , in doing this, he used the chela's mystical name, "Dharbagiri Nath," and continued to use that name subsequently at various times. In March 1885, he accompanied HPB and others to Europe and looked after HPB for some time. There are statements indicating that he was again at one time overshadowed by Gwala K. Deb, and his continued use of the name Dharbagiri Nath caused considerable confusion. Later he turned against HPB and caused much trouble in theosophical circles in Europe and England, especially at Elberfeld with the Gebhard family. He returned to India and died in obscurity. See brief biography in D, p. 537. See references in ML index to Bawaji, Dharbagiri Nath, Gwala K. Deb. See LBS, pp. 286, 335, 336, 340; LMW I: 132