What is Hazrat Babajan?
Hazrat Babajan was a Pashtun Muslim saint considered by her followers to be a Sadguru or Qutub—a spiritual axis or pole of the age in Sufi cosmology. Born in Balochistan, Afghanistan, she lived the final 25 years of her life in Pune, India, where she dwelt as a wandering faqir (ascetic) beneath a neem tree in the slum area of Char Bawdi. She was the original master of Meher Baba, an Indian spiritual master, and is most renowned for transmitting God-realization to the nineteen-year-old Merwan Sheriar Irani (who later became known as Meher Baba) through a simple kiss on the forehead. Unlike conventional Sufi saints bound to formal orders or tariqas, Babajan lived outside established institutional structures, embodying the archetype of the majzub—a God-intoxicated soul absorbed in divine reality who dispensed grace through presence rather than teaching.
Origins & Lineage
Babajan, whose birthname was Gulrukh “Like a Rose”, was born as a Pathan princess to a Muslim royal family of Balochistan. The precise date of Babajan’s birth is unclear. Biography variants range from 1790 to 1806, making her over 120 years old at the time of her death. Well-educated, she memorized the entire Qur’an by heart, becoming a hāfiżah at an early age. At the age of 18, Gulrukh fled her arranged marriage and sought God instead. According to Indian author Bhau Kalchuri, she lived for a year and a half in the mountainous regions of what is now Pakistan under the guidance of a Hindu sadguru, then traveled to Punjab.
By 1905 Babajan arrived in Pune, where she established her final residence. Babajan finally located to a slum area called Char Bawdi (Four Wells) on Malcolm Tank Road, part of a British Army cantonment. She remained in Pune for approximately twenty-five to thirty-five years, living as a street-dwelling ascetic. Hazrat Babajan died in the Char Bawdi section of Pune on September 21, 1931 under the neem tree where she lived the final years of her life.
The Awakening of Meher Baba
The defining event of Babajan’s documented spiritual influence occurred in 1913. According to the Indian spiritual master Meher Baba, Babajan gave him God-realization through a kiss on the forehead in January 1914 when he was 19 years old on his way home from college in Pune. (Other sources cite 1913 as the date of this encounter.) 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 an old woman sitting under a neem tree surrounded by a crowd. With a single kiss on Merwan’s forehead, he was said to have suddenly triggered a seven-year process of transformation in the young man.
After this, he said that he experienced being in bliss for nine months, after which he said he was helped to return to normal consciousness by a second sadguru, Upasni Maharaj of Sakori. Meher Baba said that Babajan was one of the five Perfect Masters of her time, alongside Upasni Maharaj, Sai Baba of Shirdi, Tajuddin Baba of Nagpur, and Narayan Maharaj of Kedgaon. These five Perfect Masters, according to Meher Baba’s teaching, are fully God-realized beings who operate as spiritual poles sustaining the spiritual advancement of humanity during each age.
How Hazrat Babajan Lived
Babajan consistently demonstrated or lived a life like a fakir. Garbed in simple attire, she did not wear a veil or burqa covering her face. She refused to receive gifts, money, and other material possessions. She lived under a tree with granny bags below her and had simple food, whatever the devotees offered. 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.”
Although Hazrat Babajan (d.1931) can be described as a Sufi, she was not in the conventional category of that religious identity. She did not teach formally, establish a khanqah (Sufi lodge), initiate disciples into a silsilah (chain of transmission), or belong to any established Sufi order such as the Naqshbandi or Chishti lineages. Instead, she embodied the tradition of the majzub—the God-intoxicated wanderer who transmits realization through spiritual presence rather than pedagogical instruction. Devotees would visit her beneath the neem tree seeking blessings, and she would occasionally speak cryptic utterances or offer silent darshan (sacred viewing).
Hazrat Babajan Today
There is a shrine erected for her around the tree under which she made her final street home. The white marble dargah shrine of Babajan was built alongside the neem tree under which she had sat for many years. The Hazrat Babajan Dargah in Pune remains an active pilgrimage site, drawing seekers from diverse religious backgrounds—Muslims venerating her as a Sufi saint, Hindus honoring her as a satguru, and followers of Meher Baba paying homage to the master who awakened their beloved teacher.
The shrine is open daily, and visitors often sit in meditation near the neem tree, seeking the transmission of grace that Babajan embodied. Annual urs celebrations (death anniversaries) on September 21 draw crowds who commemorate her mahasamadhi. Her legacy is preserved primarily through the extensive documentation of Meher Baba’s life, as most written accounts of Babajan emerge from the literature surrounding Meher Baba and his spiritual lineage. Academic studies include Kevin R.D. Shepherd’s Hazrat Babajan: A Pathan Sufi of Poona (2014), which examines her life outside hagiographic frameworks.
Common Misconceptions
Hazrat Babajan is not a teacher one “practices” in the conventional sense—she did not leave teachings, texts, methods, or a formal lineage. She is not associated with any particular Sufi order, and attempts to categorize her within established tariqas misunderstand her role as a majzub existing outside institutional structures. While revered within the Meher Baba movement, Babajan herself predates and transcends that context; she was a sovereign spiritual presence recognized by diverse communities.
She should not be conflated with guru-disciple traditions that emphasize progressive instruction. Her transmission to Meher Baba was instantaneous and total, not gradual or methodical. The notion that one can replicate or “learn” what she transmitted misunderstands the nature of her realization and function. Babajan is best understood as a phenomenon of radical divine embodiment rather than a systematic spiritual pedagogue.
How to Begin
For those drawn to Hazrat Babajan, the primary entry point is pilgrimage to her dargah in Pune, located at Babajan Chowk on Gaffar Baig Street in the Camp area. Sitting in silence near the neem tree where she lived and transmitting grace remains the traditional mode of connection. Reading accounts of her life provides context: Kevin R.D. Shepherd’s Hazrat Babajan: A Pathan Sufi of Poona offers scholarly examination, while biographies of Meher Baba—such as Bhau Kalchuri’s Lord Meher or C.B. Purdom’s The God-Man—document her role in Meher Baba’s awakening.
Because Babajan left no written teachings or formal practices, engagement with her legacy is primarily devotional and contemplative. Those exploring the broader tradition of Sufi majzubs and wandering saints may study the works of scholars like Carl Ernst or Annemarie Schimmel on Islamic mysticism, though Babajan’s transcendence of conventional categories makes her a liminal figure even within these frameworks. Ultimately, her teaching is her presence—historically accessed through pilgrimage, and spiritually through remembrance and meditation on the mystery of instantaneous transmission.