Spiritual leader Pilot Baba’s last rites performed

Kathmandu: Kapil Advait, popularly known as Pilot Baba, a prominent spiritual figure from India with his disciples spread in different parts of the world, was laid to rest in Haridwar, near the bank of the Ganges, on Thursday.

His body was put in Samadhi in lotus pose and then buried amidst chanting of Namonarayana, Har Har Mahadevi and Mahayogi Pilot Baba Ki Jaya, by his disciples and followers who had gathered there in large number to have the last glimpse of the saint, and bid him farewell.

Pilot Baba, 86, had breathed his last in a Bombay Hospital on Tuesday and his body was brought to Haridwar, near his Ashram. His last rites were performed in a way befitting the honours the ‘sadhus’ of the highest order are given.

Born in 1936 in a Zamindar family in Bihar’s Sasaram district, Kapil Singh pursued higher education in Benares Hindu University, and joined the Indian Air Force as a Fighter pilot only to give it up to pursue his journey towards spiritualism that gave him fame, worldwide recognition and a large number of followers.

Pilot Baba is credited to have performed over 100 Thal (land) and Jal (water) Samadhi spending days under public gaze in air-tight condition totally controlling his breath, and coming back alive posing open challenge to the scientists. Not only did he perform samadhi himself, he initiated many of his disciples to attain the feat. Pilot Baba was formally initiated into Sanyas on the occasion of Mahashivaratri by Hari Baba, an enlightened yogi, in Trikhandi area of Bhainse near Hetauda, a place he always felt attached to, even after his renunciation.

In his book–Himalaya Kaharaha Hai–Pilot Baba gives account of his life and milestones of the journey explaining what led him to quit the air force job to the Himalayas in search of the ultimate truth and its accomplishment.

He piloted the air force plane during India’s war with Pakistan, and on couple of occasions, some body unknown to him in the past would appear in the cockpit and control the aircraft losing its balance. “I realised nothing of me is in my control and I must find who controls and guides me,” he wrote, adding he found the person who had appeared in his cockpit in difficult time to save him was Hari Baba in Trikhandi in the form of an ordinary ascetic.

He spent many years after that in the Himalayas in deeper meditation, and traveled around the world teaching, Spiritualism, Kriya Yog and Samadhi  worldwide.

He had developed kidney problems for about a decade but continued with his activities–in a much reduced scale–during the past one decade.

He was frequent visitor to Nepal, and visited Trikhandi–almost every time he came here. He had a dream to have a world class meditation centre there built, as a tribute to his Guru Haribaba, with Khappar Baba, a fellow sanyasi, looking after the place Pilot Baba held in high esteem, always.