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Autobiography of a By Paramhansa Yogananda With a Preface by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, M.A., D. Litt., D. Sc. “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.”—John 4:48. The Philosophical Library New York

Copyright, 1946, by Paramhansa Yogananda Printed in the of America 1946 First Edition, First Printing Published by The Philosophical Library, Inc. 15 East 40th Street New York, N. Y. 1994 Reprint of the 1946 First Edition Published by Crystal Clarity Publishers 14618 Tyler Foote Road Nevada City, CA 95959 1-800-424-1055 Second printing 2005

2 Foreword by Swami (J. Donald Walters) I met Paramhansa Yogananda as a result of reading this book. Finding it was, I must say, a complete surprise. There it was, sitting “innocently” on a shelf in a book shop on Fifth Avenue in New York. I’d no idea how utterly this volume would revolutionize my life. That was late in the summer of 1948. I was desperate to know truth. Nothing I’d encountered had persuaded me that people were right in what they were urging on me as my destiny. My father was a geologist working for a large oil company. My mother was respected and happy in her social milieu. Both were, in many ways, ideal parents; I’d never, for example, known them even to have an argument. Their love and respect for one another were an inspiration to their many friends. Yet even so, I was not happy. Life must have more to offer, I felt, than marriage, a nice home in a nice suburb, a socially acceptable job, and “cocktail party” friendships. I was desperately unhappy. I wanted , and had no idea how to go about finding Him. That was when I came upon this book. Reading it was the most moving experience of my life. As I launched on this literary adventure, I found myself fluctuating between tears and laughter: tears of joy, laughter of even greater joy. Here, I knew, I had found someone at last who had what I so urgently wanted: someone who knew God! I took the next bus non-stop across the American continent: a journey of four days and four nights to where he lived. The first words I addressed to him would have been inconceivable to me a scant week earlier. Words such as , , , and many others that, nowadays, are part of common parlance were utterly new to me. Yet my first words to him were, “I want to be your disciple.” I knew to my core that here, before me, was my own so long- needed guide to the Infinite. To my indescribable joy, I was accepted. His life, an epic of compassion, added further proof that day of his unfathomable kindness: He took in a callow twenty-two-y e a r -old, wholly ignorant in spiritual matters, yet earnestly desirous of being taught. He must have realized what a Herculean task he was assuming. Yet he resolved to do what he could to mold this lump of unwieldy clay into some semblance of a yogi. My own story, and what it meant to live with this great man of God, is related in The Path (Autobiography of a Western Yogi). The present brief testimony is only an invitation to you to read the following pages. No man, it has been said, is great in the eyes of his own valet. The saying becomes null and void in the life of Paramhansa Yogananda. He remains the greatest man I have ever known. The people closest to him were the ones who held him in the highest reverence and esteem.

3 There were, I confess, things in his book that I had to place mentally on a shelf—certainly not because I disbelieved them, for my in him was complete—yet things nevertheless for which my skeptical modern upbringing had not prepared me. The longer I lived with him, however, the more aware I became that wonders—well, why mince words? !—were an everyday feature of his life. Dear Reader, if you are willing to risk a complete change in your life-outlook, read this book! I promise you, it won’t devastate you. Rather, you will gain from it joyful new insight into what life is really all about. I met Paramhansa Yogananda fifty-six years ago. Since then I have remained his devoted disciple. And I become more certain every day that what he brought to the world was something of which the whole human race stands in desperate need.

(Note: This PDF file does not contain the photos published with the original, 1946 edition; nor is it formatted with the original pagination, due to the different, 8.5”x11” page size of the PDF.)

4 Preface By W. Y. EVANS-WENTZ, M.A., D.Litt., D.Sc. Jesus College, Oxford; Author of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Tibet’s Great Yogi , Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines, etc. The value of Yogananda’s Autobiography is greatly enhanced by the fact that it is one of the few books in English about the wise men of which has been written, not by a journalist or foreigner, but by one of their own race and training—in short, a book about y o g i s by a yogi. As an eyewitness recountal of the extraordinary lives and powers of modern Hindu saints, the book has importance both timely and timeless. To its illustrious author, whom I have had the pleasure of knowing both in India and America, may every reader render due appreciation and gratitude. His unusual life-document is certainly one of the most revealing of the depths of the Hindu mind and heart, and of the spiritual wealth of India, ever to be published in the West. It has been my privilege to have met one of the sages whose life-history is herein narrated— Sri Yukteswar Giri. A likeness of the venerable saint appeared as part of the frontispiece of my Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines.* It was at Puri, in Orissa, on the Bay of , that I encountered Sri Yukteswar. He was then the head of a quiet near the seashore there, and was chiefly occupied in the spiritual training of a group of youthful disciples. He expressed keen interest in the welfare of the people of the United States and of all the Americas, and of England, too, and questioned me concerning the distant activities, particularly those in California, of his chief disciple, Paramhansa Yogananda, whom he dearly loved, and whom he had sent, in 1920, as his emissary to the West. Sri Yukteswar was of gentle mien and voice, of pleasing presence, and worthy of the veneration which his followers spontaneously accorded to him. Every person who knew him, whether of his own community or not, held him in the highest esteem. I vividly recall his tall, straight, ascetic figure, garbed in the saffron-colored garb of one who has renounced worldly quests, as he stood at the entrance of the hermitage to give me welcome. His hair was long and somewhat curly, and his face bearded. His body was muscularly firm, but slender and well- formed, and his step energetic. He had chosen as his place of earthly abode the holy city of Puri, whither multitudes of pious , representative of every province of India, come daily on pilgrimage to the famed Temple of , “Lord of the World.” It was at Puri that Sri Yukteswar closed his mortal eyes, in 1936, to the scenes of this transitory state of being and passed on, knowing that his incarnation had been carried to a triumphant completion. I am glad, indeed, to be able to record this testimony to the high character and holiness of Sri Yukteswar. Content to remain afar from the multitude, he gave himself unreservedly and in

5 tranquillity to that ideal life which Paramhansa Yogananda, his disciple, has now described for the ages. W. Y. EVANS-WENTZ

*Oxford University Press, 1935.

6 Author’s Acknowledgments I am deeply indebted to Miss L. V. Pratt for her long editorial labors over the manuscript of this book. My thanks are due also to Miss Ruth Zahn for preparation of the index, to Mr. C. Richard Wright for permission to use extracts from his Indian travel diary, and to Dr. W. Y. Evans-Wentz for suggestions and encouragement. PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA October 28, 1945 Encinitas, California

7 Contents Preface, by W. Y. EVANS-WENTZ List of Illustrations CHAPTER 1My Parents and Early Life ...... 10 CHAPTER 2 My Mother’s Death and the Mystic Amulet ...... 18 CHAPTER 3 The Saint with Two Bodies ...... 22 CHAPTER 4 My Interrupted Flight Toward the Himalayas ...... 27 CHAPTER 5 A “Perfume Saint” Displays his Wonders ...... 36 CHAPTER 6 The Tiger Swami ...... 42 CHAPTER 7 The Levitating Saint ...... 49 CHAPTER 8 India’s Great Scientist, J. C. Bose ...... 53 CHAPTER 9 The Blissful Devotee and his Cosmic Romance ...... 59 CHAPTER 10 I Meet my Master, Sri Yukteswar ...... 64 CHAPTER 11 Two Penniless Boys in Brindaban ...... 72 CHAPTER 12 Years in my Master’s Hermitage ...... 78 CHAPTER 13 The Sleepless Saint ...... 99 CHAPTER 14 An Experience in Cosmic Consciousness ...... 104 CHAPTER 15 The Cauliflower Robbery ...... 110 CHAPTER 16 Outwitting the Stars ...... 118 CHAPTER 17 Sasi and the Three Sapphires ...... 126 CHAPTER 18 A Mohammedan Wonder-W o rk e r ...... 131 CHAPTER 19 My Master, in Calcutta, Appears in Serampore ...... 136 CHAPTER 20 We Do Not Visit Kashmir ...... 139 CHAPTER 21 We Visit Kashmir ...... 143 CHAPTER 22 The Heart of a Stone Image ...... 150 CHAPTER 23 I Receive My University Degree ...... 155 CHAPTER 24 I Become a Monk of the Swami Order ...... 160 CHAPTER 25 Brother and Sister Nalini ...... 166 CHAPTER 26 The Science of ...... 170 CHAPTER 27 Founding a Yoga School at Ranchi ...... 176 CHAPTER 28 Kashi, Reborn and Rediscovered ...... 182 CHAPTER 29 and I Compare Schools ...... 185 CHAPTER 30 The Law of Miracles ...... 189 CHAPTER 31 An Interview with the Sacred Mother ...... 197 CHAPTER 32 is Raised from the Dead ...... 204 CHAPTER 33 Babaji, the Yogi-Christ of Modern India ...... 210 CHAPTER 34 Materializing a Palace in the Himalayas...... 216 CHAPTER 35 The Christlike Life of ...... 225 CHAPTER 36 Babaji’s Interest in the West ...... 234 CHAPTER 37 I Go to America ...... 241 CHAPTER 38 Luther Burbank—A Saint Amidst the Roses ...... 248 CHAPTER 39 Therese Neumann, the Catholic Stigmatist ...... 252 CHAPTER 40 I Return to India ...... 258 CHAPTER 41 An Idyl in South India ...... 264 CHAPTER 42 Last Days with My Guru...... 273 CHAPTER 43 The Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar ...... 283 CHAPTER 44 With at Wardha ...... 297 CHAPTER 45 The Bengali “Joy-Permeated Mother” ...... 309

8 CHAPTER 46 The Woman Yogi Who Never Eats ...... 313 CHAPTER 47 I Return to the West ...... 321 CHAPTER 48 At Encinitas in California ...... 324

Index

9 CHAPTER: 1 My Parents and Early Life The characteristic features of Indian culture obstinate crying-spells. I recall the general have long been a search for ultimate verities family bewilderment at my distress. Happier and the concomitant disciple-guru* memories, too, crowd in on me: my mother’s relationship. My own path led me to a caresses, and my first attempts at lisping Christlike sage whose beautiful life was phrase and toddling step. These early chiseled for the ages. He was one of the great triumphs, usually forgotten quickly, are yet a masters who are India’s sole remaining natural basis of self-confidence. wealth. Emerging in every generation, they My far-reaching memories are not have bulwarked their land against the fate of unique. Many are known to have Babylon and Egypt. retained their self-consciousness without I find my earliest memories covering the interruption by the dramatic transition to and anachronistic features of a previous from “life” and “death.” If man be solely a incarnation. Clear recollections came to me of body, its loss indeed places the final period to a distant life, a yogi† amidst the Himalayan identity. But if prophets down the snows. These glimpses of the past, by some millenniums spake with truth, man is dimensionless link, also afforded me a essentially of incorporeal nature. The glimpse of the future. persistent core of human egoity is only The helpless humiliations of infancy are temporarily allied with sense perception. not banished from my mind. I was resentfully Although odd, clear memories of infancy conscious of not being able to walk or express are not extremely rare. During travels in m y s elf freely. Prayerful surges arose within numerous lands, I have listened to early me as I realized my bodily impotence. My recollections from the lips of veracious men strong emotional life took silent form as and women. words in many languages. Among the inward I was born in the last decade of the confusion of tongues, my ear gradually nineteenth century, and passed my first eight accustomed itself to the circumambient years at Gorakhpur. This was my birthplace in Bengali syllables of my people. The beguiling the United Provinces of northeastern India. scope of an infant’s mind! adultly considered We were eight children: four boys and four limited to toys and toes. girls. I, Mukunda Lal Ghosh,‡ was the second Psychological ferment and my son and the fourth child. unresponsive body brought me to many

*Spiritual teacher; from Sanskrit root gur, to raise, to ‡My name was changed to Yogananda when I entered uplift. the ancient monastic Swami Order in 1914. My guru †A practitioner of yoga, “union,” ancient Indian bestowed the religious title of Paramhansa on me in science of on God. 1935 (see chapters 24 and 42).

10 Father and Mother were , of the budget. One fortnight Mother spent, in Kshatriya caste.* Both were blessed with feeding the poor, more than Father’s monthly saintly nature. Their mutual love, tranquil and income. dignified, never expressed itself frivolously. “All I ask, please, is to keep your A perfect parental harmony was the calm charities within a reasonable limit.” Even a center for the revolving tumult of eight young gentle rebuke from her husband was grievous lives. to Mother. She ordered a hackney carriage, Father, Bhagabati Charan Ghosh, was not hinting to the children at any kind, grave, at times stern. Loving him dearly, disagreement. we children yet observed a certain reverential “Good-by; I am going away to my distance. An outstanding mathematician and mother’s home.” Ancient ultimatum! logician, he was guided principally by his intellect. But Mother was a queen of hearts, We broke into astounded lamentations. and taught us only through love. After her Our maternal uncle arrived opportunely; he death, Father displayed more of his inner whispered to Father some sage counsel, tenderness. I noticed then that his gaze often garnered no doubt from the ages. After Father metamorphosed into my mother’s. had made a few conciliatory remarks, Mother happily dismissed the cab. Thus ended the In Mother’s presence we tasted our only trouble I ever noticed between my earliest bitter-sweet acquaintance with the parents. But I recall a characteristic scriptures. Tales from the Mahabharata and discussion. † were resourcefully summoned to meet the exigencies of discipline. Instruction “Please give me ten rupees for a hapless and chastisement went hand in hand. woman who has just arrived at the house.” Mother’s smile had its own persuasion. A daily gesture of respect to Father was given by Mother’s dressing us carefully in the “Why ten rupees? One is enough.” Father afternoons to welcome him home from the added a justification: “When my father and office. His position was similar to that of a grandparents died suddenly, I had my first vice-president, in the Bengal-Nagpur taste of poverty. My only breakfast, before Railway, one of India’s large companies. His walking miles to my school, was a small work involved traveling, and our family lived banana. Later, at the university, I was in such in several cities during my childhood. need that I applied to a wealthy judge for aid of one rupee per month. He declined, Mother held an open hand toward the remarking that even a rupee is important.” needy. Father was also kindly disposed, but his respect for law and order extended to the “How bitterly you recall the denial of that rupee!” Mother’s heart had an instant logic.

*Traditionally, the second caste of warriors and rulers. “Do you want this woman also to remember †These ancient epics are the hoard of India’s history, painfully your refusal of ten rupees which she mythology, and philosophy. An “Everyman’s Library” volume, Ramayana and Mahabharata, is a needs urgently?” condensation in English verse by Romesh Dutt (New York: E. P. Dutton).

11 “You win!” With the immemorial gesture Several years after Father had retired on a of vanquished husbands, he opened his wallet. pension, an English accountant arrived to “Here is a ten-rupee note. Give it to her with examine the books of the Bengal-Nagpur my good will.” Railway Company. The amazed investigator Father tended to first say “No” to any discovered that Father had never applied for new proposal. His attitude toward the strange overdue bonuses. woman who so readily enlisted Mother’s “He did the work of three men!” the sympathy was an example of his customary accountant told the company. “He has rupees caution. Aversion to instant acceptance— 125,000 (about $41,250.) owing to him as typical of the French mind in the West—is back compensation.” The officials presented really only honoring the principle of “due Father with a check for this amount. He reflection.” I always found Father reasonable thought so little about it that he overlooked and evenly balanced in his judgments. If I any mention to the family. Much later he was could bolster up my numerous requests with questioned by my youngest brother Bishnu, one or two good arguments, he invariably put who noticed the large deposit on a bank the coveted goal within my reach, whether it statement. were a vacation trip or a new motorcycle. “Why be elated by material profit?” Father was a strict disciplinarian to his Father replied. “The one who pursues a goal children in their early years, but his attitude of evenmindedness is neither jubilant with toward himself was truly Spartan. He never gain nor depressed by loss. He knows that visited the theater, for instance, but sought his man arrives penniless in this world, and recreation in various spiritual practices and in departs without a single rupee.” reading the .* Shunning all Early in their married life, my parents luxuries, he would cling to one old pair of became disciples of a great master, Lahiri shoes until they were useless. His sons bought Mahasaya of Benares. This contact automobiles after they came into popular use, strengthened Father’s naturally ascetical but Father was always content with the trolley temperament. Mother made a remarkable car for his daily ride to the office. The admission to my eldest sister Roma: “Your accumulation of money for the sake of power father and myself live together as man and was alien to his nature. Once, after organizing wife only once a year, for the purpose of the Calcutta Urban Bank, he refused to having children.” benefit himself by holding any of its shares. He had simply wished to perform a civic duty Father first met Lahiri Mahasaya through in his spare time. Abinash Babu,† an employee in the Gorakhpur office of the Bengal-Nagpur

*This noble Sanskrit poem, which occurs as part of the Railway. Abinash instructed my young ears Mahabharata epic, is the Hindu Bible. The most with engrossing tales of many Indian saints. poetical English translation is Edwin Arnold’s The Song Celestial (Philadelphia: David McKay, 75ø). One of the best translations with detailed commentary is ’s Message of the Gita (Jupiter Press, 16 Semudoss St., Madras, India, $3.50). †Babu (Mister) is placed in Bengali names at the end.

12 He invariably concluded with a tribute to the exclaiming, ‘Lahiri Mahasaya! Lahiri superior glories of his own guru. Mahasaya!’ Your father was motionless with “Did you ever hear of the extraordinary stupefaction for a few moments. circumstances under which your father “‘Abinash, not only do I give you leave, became a disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya?” but I give myself leave to start for Benares It was on a lazy summer afternoon, as tomorrow. I must know this great Lahiri Abinash and I sat together in the compound of Mahasaya, who is able to materialize himself my home, that he put this intriguing question. at will in order to intercede for you! I will I shook my head with a smile of anticipation. take my wife and ask this master to initiate us in his spiritual path. Will you guide us to “Years ago, before you were born, I him?’ asked my superior officer—your father—to give me a week’s leave from my Gorakhpur “‘Of course.’ Joy filled me at the duties in order to visit my guru in Benares. miraculous answer to my prayer, and the Your father ridiculed my plan. quick, favorable turn of events. “‘Are you going to become a religious “The next evening your parents and I fanatic?’ he inquired. ‘Concentrate on your entrained for Benares. We took a horse cart office work if you want to forge ahead.’ the following day, and then had to walk through narrow lanes to my guru’s secluded “Sadly walking home along a woodland home. Entering his little parlor, we bowed path that day, I met your father in a palanquin. before the master, enlocked in his habitual He dismissed his servants and conveyance, lotus posture. He blinked his piercing eyes and fell into step beside me. Seeking to and leveled them on your father. console me, he pointed out the advantages of striving for worldly success. But I heard him “‘Bhagabati, you are too hard on your listlessly. My heart was repeating: ‘Lahiri employee!’ His words were the same as those Mahasaya! I cannot live without seeing you!’ he had used two days before in the Gorakhpur field. He added, ‘I am glad that you have “Our path took us to the edge of a allowed Abinash to visit me, and that you and tranquil field, where the rays of the late your wife have accompanied him.’ afternoon sun were still crowning the tall ripple of the wild grass. We paused in “To their joy, he initiated your parents in admiration. There in the field, only a few the spiritual practice of Kriya Yoga.† Your yards from us, the form of my great guru father and I, as brother disciples, have been suddenly appeared!* close friends since the memorable day of the vision. Lahiri Mahasaya took a definite “‘Bhagabati, you are too hard on your interest in your own birth. Your life shall employee!’ His voice was resonant in our astounded ears. He vanished as mysteriously *The phenomenal powers possessed by great masters as he had come. On my knees I was are explained in chapter 30, “The Law of Miracles.” †A yogic technique whereby the sensory tumult is stilled, permitting man to achieve an ever-increasing identity with cosmic consciousness. (See p. 243.)

13 surely be linked with his own: the master’s family estate in Ichapur, Bengal, I was blessing never fails.” stricken with Asiatic cholera. My life was Lahiri Mahasaya left this world short l y despaired of; the doctors could do nothing. At after I had entered it. His picture, in an ornate my bedside, Mother frantically motioned me frame, always graced our family altar in the to look at Lahiri Mahasaya’s picture on the various cities to which Father was transferred wall above my head. by his office. Many a morning and evening “Bow to him mentally!” She knew I was found Mother and me meditating before an too feeble even to lift my hands in salutation. improvised shrine, offering flowers dipped in “If you really show your devotion and fragrant sandalwood paste. With frankincense inwardly kneel before him, your life will be and myrrh as well as our united devotions, we spared!” honored the divinity which had found full I gazed at his photograph and saw there a expression in Lahiri Mahasaya. blinding light, enveloping my body and the His picture had a surpassing influence entire room. My nausea and other over my life. As I grew, the thought of the uncontrollable symptoms disappeared; I was master grew with me. In meditation I would well. At once I felt strong enough to bend often see his photographic image emerge over and touch Mother’s feet in appreciation from its small frame and, taking a living form, of her immeasurable faith in her guru. Mother sit before me. When I attempted to touch the pressed her head repeatedly against the little feet of his luminous body, it would change picture. and again become the picture. As childhood “O Omnipresent Master, I thank thee that slipped into boyhood, I found Lahiri thy light hath healed my son!” Mahasaya transformed in my mind from a little image, cribbed in a frame, to a living, I realized that she too had witnessed the enlightening presence. I frequently prayed to luminous blaze through which I had instantly him in moments of trial or confusion, finding recovered from a usually fatal disease. within me his solacing direction. At first I One of my most precious possessions is grieved because he was no longer physically that same photograph. Given to Father by living. As I began to discover his secret Lahiri Mahasaya himself, it carries a holy omnipresence, I lamented no more. He had vibration. The picture had a miraculous often written to those of his disciples who origin. I heard the story from Father’s brother were over-anxious to see him: “Why come to disciple, Kumar Roy. view my bones and flesh, when I am ever It appears that the master had an aversion within range of your kutastha (spiritual to being photographed. Over his protest, a sight)?” group picture was once taken of him and a I was blessed about the age of eight with cluster of devotees, including Kali Kumar a wonderful healing through the photograph Roy. It was an amazed photographer who of Lahiri Mahasaya. This experience gave discovered that the plate which had clear intensification to my love. While at our images of all the disciples, revealed nothing

14 more than a blank space in the center where direction on the outer world, are half closed he had reasonably expected to find the also. Completely oblivious to the poor lures outlines of Lahiri Mahasaya. The of the earth, he was fully awake at all times to phenomenon was widely discussed. the spiritual problems of seekers who A certain student and expert approached for his bounty. photographer, Ganga Dhar Babu, boasted that Shortly after my healing through the the fugitive figure would not escape him. The potency of the guru’s picture, I had an next morning, as the guru sat in lotus posture influential spiritual vision. Sitting on my bed on a wooden bench with a screen behind him, one morning, I fell into a deep reverie. Ganga Dhar Babu arrived with his equipment. “What is behind the darkness of closed Taking every precaution for success, he eyes?” This probing thought came powerfully greedily exposed twelve plates. On each one into my mind. An immense flash of light at he soon found the imprint of the wooden once manifested to my inward gaze. Divine bench and screen, but once again the master’s shapes of saints, sitting in meditation posture form was missing. in mountain caves, formed like miniature With tears and shattered pride, Ganga cinema pictures on the large screen of Dhar Babu sought out his guru. It was many radiance within my forehead. hours before Lahiri Mahasaya broke his “Who are you?” I spoke aloud. silence with a pregnant comment: “We are the Himalayan yogis.” The “I am . Can your camera reflect the celestial response is difficult to describe; my omnipresent Invisible?” heart was thrilled. “I see it cannot! But, Holy Sir, I lovingly “Ah, I long to go to the Himalayas and desire a picture of the bodily temple where become like you!” The vision vanished, but alone, to my narrow vision, that Spirit appears the silvery beams expanded in ever-widening fully to dwell.” circles to infinity. “Come, then, tomorrow morning. I will “What is this wondrous glow?” pose for you.” “I am Iswara.* I am Light.” The voice Again the photographer focused his was as murmuring clouds. camera. This time the sacred figure, not cloaked with mysterious imperceptibility, was “I want to be one with Thee!” sharp on the plate. The master never posed for Out of the slow dwindling of my divine another picture; at least, I have seen none. ecstasy, I salvaged a permanent legacy of The photograph is reproduced in this inspiration to seek God. “He is eternal, ever- book. Lahiri Mahasaya’s fair features, of a universal cast, hardly suggest to what race he belonged. His intense joy of God-communion *A Sanskrit name for God as Ruler of the universe; is slightly revealed in a somewhat enigmatic from the root is, to rule. There are 108 names for God in the Hindu scriptures, each one carrying a different smile. His eyes, half open to denote a nominal shade of philosophical meaning.

15 new Joy!” This memory persisted long after My boil was surgically treated. A the day of rapture. noticeable scar, left by the doctor’s incision, Another early recollection is outstanding; is present today. On my right forearm is a and literally so, for I bear the scar to this day. constant reminder of the power in man’s sheer My elder sister Uma and I were seated in the word. early morning under a neem tree in our Those simple and apparently harmless Gorakhpur compound. She was helping me phrases to Uma, spoken with deep with a Bengali primer, what time I could concentration, had possessed sufficient hidden spare my gaze from the near-by parrots eating force to explode like bombs and produce ripe margosa fruit. Uma complained of a boil definite, though injurious, effects. I on her leg, and fetched a jar of ointment. I understood, later, that the explosive vibratory smeared a bit of the salve on my forearm. power in speech could be wisely directed to “Why do you use medicine on a healthy free one’s life from difficulties, and thus arm?” operate without scar or rebuke.* “Well, Sis, I feel I am going to have a Our family moved to Lahore in the boil tomorrow. I am testing your ointment on . There I acquired a picture of the the spot where the boil will appear.” Divine Mother in the form of the Goddess Kali.* It sanctified a small informal shrine on “You little liar!” the balcony of our home. An unequivocal “Sis, don’t call me a liar until you see what happens in the morning.” Indignation filled me. *The infinite potencies of sound derive from the Creative Word, Aum, the cosmic vibratory power Uma was unimpressed, and thrice behind all atomic energies. Any word spoken with repeated her taunt. An adamant resolution clear realization and deep concentration has a materializing value. Loud or silent repetition of sounded in my voice as I made slow reply. inspiring words has been found effective in Coueism and similar systems of psychotherapy; the secret lies in “By the power of will in me, I say that the stepping-up of the mind’s vibratory rate. The poet tomorrow I shall have a fairly large boil in Tennyson has left us, in his Memoirs, an account of his this exact place on my arm; and your boil repetitious device for passing beyond the conscious mind into superconsciousness: shall swell to twice its present size!” “A kind of waking trance—this for lack of a better word—I have frequently had, quite up from boyhood, Morning found me with a stalwart boil on when I have been all alone,” Tennyson wrote. “This the indicated spot; the dimensions of Uma’s has come upon me through repeating my own name to boil had doubled. With a shriek, my sister myself silently, till all at once, as it were out of the intensity of the consciousness of individuality, rushed to Mother. “Mukunda has become a individuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away necromancer!” Gravely, Mother instructed me into boundless being, and this not a confused state but the clearest, the surest of the surest, utterly beyond never to use the power of words for doing words—where death was an almost laughable harm. I have always remembered her counsel, impossibility—the loss of personality (if so it were) and followed it. seeming no extinction, but the only true life.” He wrote further: “It is no nebulous ecstasy, but a state of transcendent wonder, associated with absolute clearness of mind.”

16 conviction came over me that fulfillment I continued my prayers with a crescendo would crown any of my prayers uttered in that intensity. A forcible tug by the other player sacred spot. Standing there with Uma one resulted in the abrupt loss of his kite. It day, I watched two kites flying over the roofs headed toward me, dancing in the wind. My of the buildings on the opposite side of the helpful assistant, the cactus plant, again very narrow lane. secured the kite string in the necessary loop “Why are you so quiet?” Uma pushed me by which I could grasp it. I presented my playfully. second trophy to Uma. “I am just thinking how wonderful it is “Indeed, Divine Mother listens to you! that Divine Mother gives me whatever I ask.” This is all too uncanny for me!” Sister bolted away like a frightened fawn. “I suppose She would give you those two kites!” My sister laughed derisively. “Why not?” I began silent prayers for their possession. Matches are played in India with kites whose strings are covered with glue and ground glass. Each player attempts to sever the string of his opponent. A freed kite sails over the roofs; there is great fun in catching it. Inasmuch as Uma and I were on the balcony, it seemed impossible that any loosed kite could come into our hands; its string would naturally dangle over the roofs. The players across the lane began their match. One string was cut; immediately the kite floated in my direction. It was stationary for a moment, through sudden abatement of breeze, which sufficed to firmly entangle the string with a cactus plant on top of the opposite house. A perfect loop was formed for my seizure. I handed the prize to Uma. “It was just an extraordinary accident, and not an answer to your prayer. If the other kite comes to you, then I shall believe.” Sister’s dark eyes conveyed more amazement than her words.

*Kali is a symbol of God in the aspect of eternal Mother Nature.

17 CHAPTER: 2 My Mother’s Death and the Mystic Amulet My mother’s greatest desire was the marriage bungalow, I was awakened by a peculiar of my elder brother. “Ah, when I behold the flutter of the mosquito netting over the bed. face of Ananta’s wife, I shall find heaven on The flimsy curtains parted and I saw the this earth!” I frequently heard Mother express beloved form of my mother. in these words her strong Indian sentiment for “Awaken your father!” Her voice was family continuity. only a whisper. “Take the first available train, I was about eleven years old at the time at four o’clock this morning. Rush to Calcutta of Ananta’s betrothal. Mother was in if you would see me!” The wraithlike figure Calcutta, joyously supervising the wedding vanished. preparations. Father and I alone remained at “Father, Father! Mother is dying!” The our home in Bareilly in northern India, terror in my tone aroused him instantly. I whence Father had been transferred after two sobbed out the fatal tidings. years at Lahore. “Never mind that hallucination of yours.” I had previously witnessed the splendor Father gave his characteristic negation to a of nuptial rites for my two elder sisters, Roma new situation. “Your mother is in excellent and Uma; but for Ananta, as the eldest son, health. If we get any bad news, we shall leave plans were truly elaborate. Mother was tomorrow.” welcoming numerous relatives, daily arriving in Calcutta from distant homes. She lodged “You shall never forgive yourself for not them comfortably in a large, newly acquired starting now!” Anguish caused me to add house at 50 Amherst Street. Everything was bitterly, “Nor shall I ever forgive you!” in readiness—the banquet delicacies, the gay The melancholy morning came with throne on which Brother was to be carried to explicit words: “Mother dangerously ill; the home of the bride-to-be, the rows of marriage postponed; come at once.” colorful lights, the mammoth cardboard Father and I left distractedly. One of my elephants and camels, the English, Scottish uncles met us en route at a transfer point. A and Indian orchestras, the professional train thundered toward us, looming with entertainers, the priests for the ancient rituals. telescopic increase. From my inner tumult, an Father and I, in gala spirits, were abrupt determination arose to hurl myself on planning to join the family in time for the the railroad tracks. Already bereft, I felt, of ceremony. Shortly before the great day, my mother, I could not endure a world however, I had an ominous vision. suddenly barren to the bone. I loved Mother It was in Bareilly on a midnight. As I as my dearest friend on earth. Her solacing slept beside Father on the piazza of our black eyes had been my surest refuge in the the high mountain abode of yogis and trifling tragedies of childhood. swamis.* “Does she yet live?” I stopped for one “Let us run away to the Himalayas.” My last question to my uncle. suggestion one day to Dwarka Prasad, the “Of course she is alive!” He was not slow young son of our landlord in Bareilly, fell on to interpret the desperation in my face. But I unsympathetic ears. He revealed my plan to scarcely believed him. my elder brother, who had just arrived to see Father. Instead of laughing lightly over this When we reached our Calcutta home, it impractical scheme of a small boy, Ananta was only to confront the stunning mystery of made it a definite point to ridicule me. death. I collapsed into an almost lifeless state. Years passed before any reconciliation “Where is your orange robe? You can’t entered my heart. Storming the very gates of be a swami without that!” heaven, my cries at last summoned the Divine But I was inexplicably thrilled by his Mother. Her words brought final healing to words. They brought a clear picture of myself my suppurating wounds: roaming about India as a monk. Perhaps they “It is I who have watched over thee, life awakened memories of a past life; in any after life, in the tenderness of many mothers! case, I began to see with what natural ease I See in My gaze the two black eyes, the lost would wear the garb of that anciently-founded beautiful eyes, thou seekest!” monastic order. Father and I returned to Bareilly soon Chatting one morning with Dwarka, I felt after the crematory rites for the well-beloved. a love for God descending with avalanchic Early every morning I made a pathetic force. My companion was only partly memorial-pilgrimage to a large sheoli tree attentive to the ensuing eloquence, but I was which shaded the smooth, green-gold lawn wholeheartedly listening to myself. before our bungalow. In poetical moments, I I fled that afternoon toward Naini Tal in thought that the white sheoli flowers were the Himalayan foothills. Ananta gave strewing themselves with a willing devotion determined chase; I was forced to return sadly over the grassy altar. Mingling tears with the to Bareilly. The only pilgrimage permitted me dew, I often observed a strange other-worldly was the customary one at dawn to the sheoli light emerging from the dawn. Intense pangs tree. My heart wept for the lost Mothers, of longing for God assailed me. I felt human and divine. powerfully drawn to the Himalayas. The rent left in the family fabric by One of my cousins, fresh from a period Mother’s death was irreparable. Father never of travel in the holy hills, visited us in remarried during his nearly forty remaining Bareilly. I listened eagerly to his tales about

*Sanskrit root meaning of swami is “he who is one with his Self (Swa).” Applied to a member of the Indian order of monks, the title has the formal respect of “the reverend.”

19 years. Assuming the difficult role of Father- “Let these words be my final blessing, Mother to his little flock, he grew noticeably my beloved son Mukunda!” Mother had said. more tender, more approachable. With “The hour is here when I must relate a calmness and insight, he solved the various number of phenomenal events following your family problems. After office hours he retired birth. I first knew your destined path when like a hermit to the cell of his room, you were but a babe in my arms. I carried you practicing Kriya Yoga in a sweet serenity. then to the home of my guru in Benares. Long after Mother’s death, I attempted to Almost hidden behind a throng of disciples, I engage an English nurse to attend to details could barely see Lahiri Mahasaya as he sat in that would make my parent’s life more deep meditation. comfortable. But Father shook his head. “While I patted you, I was praying that “Service to me ended with your mother.” the great guru take notice and bestow a His eyes were remote with a lifelong blessing. As my silent devotional demand devotion. “I will not accept ministrations from grew in intensity, he opened his eyes and any other woman.” beckoned me to approach. The others made a Fourteen months after Mother’s passing, way for me; I bowed at the sacred feet. My I learned that she had left me a momentous master seated you on his lap, placing his hand message. Ananta was present at her deathbed on your forehead by way of spiritually and had recorded her words. Although she baptizing you. had asked that the disclosure be made to me “‘Little mother, thy son will be a yogi. As in one year, my brother delayed. He was soon a spiritual engine, he will carry many to to leave Bareilly for Calcutta, to marry the God’s kingdom.’ girl Mother had chosen for him.* One “My heart leaped with joy to find my evening he summoned me to his side. secret prayer granted by the omniscient guru. “Mukunda, I have been reluctant to give Shortly before your birth, he had told me you you strange tidings.” Ananta’s tone held a would follow his path. note of resignation. “My fear was to inflame “Later, my son, your vision of the Great your desire to leave home. But in any case Light was known to me and your sister Roma, you are bristling with divine ardor. When I as from the next room we observed you captured you recently on your way to the motionless on the bed. Your little face was Himalayas, I came to a definite resolve. I illuminated; your voice rang with iron resolve must not further postpone the fulfillment of as you spoke of going to the Himalayas in my solemn promise.” My brother handed me quest of the Divine. a small box, and delivered Mother’s message. “In these ways, dear son, I came to know that your road lies far from worldly ambitions. The most singular event in my life *The Indian custom, whereby parents choose the life- brought further confirmation—an event which partner for their child, has resisted the blunt assaults of now impels my deathbed message. time. The percentage is high of happy Indian marriages.

20 “It was an interview with a sage in the “I proffered alms‡ to the saint, and Punjab. While our family was living in bowed before him in great reverence. Not Lahore, one morning the servant came taking the offering, he departed with a precipitantly into my room. blessing. The next evening, as I sat with “‘Mistress, a strange * is here. He folded hands in meditation, a silver amulet insists that he “see the mother of Mukunda.”’ materialized between my palms, even as the sadhu had promised. It made itself known by “These simple words struck a profound a cold, smooth touch. I have jealously chord within me; I went at once to greet the guarded it for more than two years, and now visitor. Bowing at his feet, I sensed that leave it in Ananta’s keeping. Do not grieve before me was a true man of God. for me, as I shall have been ushered by my “‘Mother,’ he said, ‘the great masters great guru into the arms of the Infinite. wish you to know that your stay on earth will Farewell, my child; the Cosmic Mother will not be long. Your next illness shall prove to protect you.” be your last.’† There was a silence, during A blaze of illumination came over me which I felt no alarm but only a vibration of with possession of the amulet; many dormant great peace. Finally he addressed me again: memories awakened. The talisman, round and “‘You are to be the custodian of a certain anciently quaint, was covered with Sanskrit silver amulet. I will not give it to you today; characters. I understood that it came from to demonstrate the truth in my words, the teachers of past lives, who were invisibly talisman shall materialize in your hands guiding my steps. A further significance there tomorrow as you meditate. On your deathbed, was, indeed; but one does not reveal fully the you must instruct your eldest son Ananta to heart of an amulet. keep the amulet for one year and then to hand How the talisman finally vanished amidst it over to your second son. Mukunda will deeply unhappy circumstances of my life; and understand the meaning of the talisman from how its loss was a herald of my gain of a the great ones. He should receive it about the guru, cannot be told in this chapter. time he is ready to renounce all worldly hopes and start his vital search for God. When he But the small boy, thwarted in his has retained the amulet for some years, and attempts to reach the Himalayas, daily when it has served its purpose, it shall vanish. traveled far on the wings of his amulet. Even if kept in the most secret spot, it shall return whence it came.’

*An anchorite; one who pursues a or path of spiritual discipline. †When I discovered by these words that Mother had possessed secret knowledge of a short life, I understood for the first time why she had been insistent on hastening the plans for Ananta’s marriage. Though she died before the wedding, her natural maternal wish had been to witness the rites. ‡A customary gesture of respect to .

21 CHAPTER: 3 The Saint with Two Bodies “ Father, if I promise to return home without open; I made my way to a long, hall-like coercion, may I take a sight-seeing trip to room on the second floor. A rather stout man, Benares?” wearing only a loincloth, was seated in lotus My keen love of travel was seldom posture on a slightly raised platform. His head hindered by Father. He permitted me, even as and unwrinkled face were clean-shaven; a a mere boy, to visit many cities and beatific smile played about his lips. To dispel pilgrimage spots. Usually one or more of my my thought that I had intruded, he greeted me friends accompanied me; we would travel as an old friend. comfortably on first-class passes provided by “Baba anand (bliss to my ).” His Father. His position as a railroad official was welcome was given heartily in a childlike fully satisfactory to the nomads in the family. voice. I knelt and touched his feet. Father promised to give my request due “Are you Swami Pranabananda?” consideration. The next day he summoned me He nodded. “Are you Bhagabati’s son?” and held out a round-trip pass from Bareilly His words were out before I had had time to to Benares, a number of rupee notes, and two get Father’s letter from my pocket. In letters. astonishment, I handed him the note of “I have a business matter to propose to a introduction, which now seemed superfluous. Benares friend, Kedar Babu. “Of course I will locate Kedar Nath Babu Unfortunately I have lost his address. But I for you.” The saint again surprised me by his believe you will be able to get this letter to clairvoyance. He glanced at the letter, and him through our common friend, Swami made a few affectionate references to my Pranabananda. The swami, my brother parent. disciple, has attained an exalted spiritual stature. You will benefit by his company; this “You know, I am enjoying two pensions. second note will serve as your introduction.” One is by the recommendation of your father, for whom I once worked in the railroad office. Father’s eyes twinkled as he added, The other is by the recommendation of my “Mind, no more flights from home!” Heavenly Father, for whom I have I set forth with the zest of my twelve conscientiously finished my earthly duties in years (though time has never dimmed my life.” delight in new scenes and strange faces). I found this remark very obscure. “What Reaching Benares, I proceeded immediately kind of pension, sir, do you receive from the to the swami’s residence. The front door was Heavenly Father? Does He drop money in Abruptly I quitted the room and your lap?” descended the steps. Halfway down I met a He laughed. “I mean a pension of thin, fair-skinned man of medium height. He fathomless peace—a reward for many years appeared to be in a hurry. of deep meditation. I never crave money now. “Are you Kedar Nath Babu?” Excitement My few material needs are amply provided colored my voice. for. Later you will understand the significance “Yes. Are you not Bhagabati’s son who of a second pension.” has been waiting here to meet me?” He Abruptly terminating our conversation, smiled in friendly fashion. the saint became gravely motionless. A “Sir, how do you happen to come here?” sphinxlike air enveloped him. At first his eyes I felt baffled resentment over his inexplicable sparkled, as if observing something of presence. interest, then grew dull. I felt abashed at his pauciloquy; he had not yet told me how I “Everything is mysterious today! Less could meet Father’s friend. A trifle restlessly, than an hour ago I had just finished my bath I looked about me in the bare room, empty in the when Swami Pranabananda except for us two. My idle gaze took in his approached me. I have no idea how he knew I wooden sandals, lying under the platform was there at that time. seat. “‘Bhagabati’s son is waiting for you in “Little sir,* don’t get worried. The man my apartment,’ he said. ‘Will you come with you wish to see will be with you in half an me?’ I gladly agreed. As we proceeded hand hour.” The yogi was reading my mind—a feat in hand, the swami in his wooden sandals was not too difficult at the moment! strangely able to outpace me, though I wore these stout walking shoes. Again he fell into inscrutable silence. My watch informed me that thirty minutes had “‘How long will it take you to reach my elapsed. place?’ Pranabanandaji suddenly halted to ask me this question. The swami aroused himself. “I think Kedar Nath Babu is nearing the door.” “‘About half an hour.’ I heard somebody coming up the stairs. “‘I have something else to do at present.’ An amazed incomprehension arose suddenly; He gave me an enigmatical glance. ‘I must my thoughts raced in confusion: “How is it leave you behind. You can join me in my possible that Father’s friend has been house, where Bhagabati’s son and I will be summoned to this place without the help of a awaiting you.’ messenger? The swami has spoken to no one “Before I could remonstrate, he dashed but myself since my arrival!” swiftly past me and disappeared in the crowd. I walked here as fast as possible.”

*Choto Mahasaya is the term by which a number of Indian saints addressed me. It translates “little sir.”

23 This explanation only increased my Calcutta. They can similarly transcend at will bewilderment. I inquired how long he had every obstacle of gross matter.” known the swami. It was probably in an effort to stir “We met a few times last year, but not spiritual ardor in my young breast that the recently. I was very glad to see him again swami had condescended to tell me of his today at the bathing .” powers of astral radio and television.* But “I cannot believe my ears! Am I losing instead of enthusiasm, I experienced only an my mind? Did you meet him in a vision, or awe-stricken fear. Inasmuch as I was destined did you actually see him, touch his hand, and to undertake my divine search through one hear the sound of his feet?” particular guru—Sri Yukteswar, whom I had not yet met—I felt no inclination to accept “I don’t know what you’re driving at!” Pranabananda as my teacher. I glanced at him He flushed angrily. “I am not lying to you. doubtfully, wondering if it were he or his Can’t you understand that only through the counterpart before me. swami could I have known you were waiting at this place for me?” The master sought to banish my disquietude by bestowing a -awakening “Why, that man, Swami Pranabananda, gaze, and by some inspiring words about his has not left my sight a moment since I first guru. came about an hour ago.” I blurted out the whole story. “Lahiri Mahasaya was the greatest yogi I ever knew. He was Divinity Itself in the form His eyes opened widely. “Are we living of flesh.” in this material age, or are we dreaming? I never expected to witness such a in If a disciple, I reflected, could materialize my life! I thought this swami was just an an extra fleshly form at will, what miracles ordinary man, and now I find he can indeed could be barred to his master? materialize an extra body and work through it!” Together we entered the saint’s room. *In its own way, physical science is affirming the validity of laws discovered by yogis through mental “Look, those are the very sandals he was science. For example, a demonstration that man has wearing at the ghat,” Kedar Nath Babu televisional powers was given on Nov. 26, 1934 at the Royal University of Rome. “Dr. Giuseppe Calligaris, whispered. “He was clad only in a loincloth, professor of neuro-psychology, pressed certain points just as I see him now.” of a subject’s body and the subject responded with minute descriptions of other persons and objects on the As the visitor bowed before him, the saint opposite side of a wall. Dr. Calligaris told the other turned to me with a quizzical smile. professors that if certain areas on the skin are agitated, the subject is given super-sensorial impressions “Why are you stupefied at all this? The enabling him to see objects that he could not otherwise perceive. To enable his subject to discern things on the subtle unity of the phenomenal world is not other side of a wall, Professor Calligaris pressed on a hidden from true yogis. I instantly see and spot to the right of the thorax for fifteen minutes. Dr. converse with my disciples in distant Calligaris said that if other spots of the body were agitated, the subjects could see objects at any distance, regardless of whether they had ever before seen those objects.”

24 “I will tell you how priceless is a guru’s from that day has the Blissful Creator help. I used to meditate with another disciple remained hidden from my eyes behind any for eight hours every night. We had to work at screen of delusion.” the railroad office during the day. Finding Pranabananda’s face was suffused with difficulty in carrying on my clerical duties, I divine light. The peace of another world desired to devote my whole time to God. For entered my heart; all fear had fled. The saint eight years I persevered, meditating half the made a further confidence. night. I had wonderful results; tremendous spiritual perceptions illumined my mind. But “Some months later I returned to Lahiri a little veil always remained between me and Mahasaya and tried to thank him for his the Infinite. Even with super-human bestowal of the infinite gift. Then I mentioned earnestness, I found the final irrevocable another matter. union to be denied me. One evening I paid a “‘Divine Guru, I can no longer work in visit to Lahiri Mahasaya and pleaded for his the office. Please release me. keeps divine intercession. My importunities me continuously intoxicated.’ continued during the entire night. “‘Apply for a pension from your “‘Angelic Guru, my spiritual anguish is company.’ such that I can no longer bear my life without “‘What reason shall I give, so early in my meeting the Great Beloved face to face!’ service?’ “‘What can I do? You must meditate “‘Say what you feel.’ more profoundly.’ “The next day I made my application. “‘I am appealing to Thee, O God my The doctor inquired the grounds for my Master! I see Thee materialized before me in premature request. a physical body; bless me that I may perceive Thee in Thine infinite form!’ “‘At work, I find an overpowering sensation rising in my spine.† It permeates “Lahiri Mahasaya extended his hand in a my whole body, unfitting me for the benign gesture. ‘You may go now and performance of my duties.’ meditate. I have interceded for you with Brahma.’* “Without further questioning the physician recommended me highly for a “Immeasurably uplifted, I returned to my pension, which I soon received. I know the home. In meditation that night, the burning divine will of Lahiri Mahasaya worked Goal of my life was achieved. Now I through the doctor and the railroad officials, ceaselessly enjoy the spiritual pension. Never including your father. Automatically they obeyed the great guru’s spiritual direction, *God in His aspect of Creator; from Sanskrit root brih, to expand. When Emerson’s poem Brahma appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1857, most the readers were †In deep meditation, the first experience of Spirit is on bewildered. Emerson chuckled. “Tell them,” he said, the altar of the spine, and then in the brain. The “to say ‘Jehovah’ instead of ‘Brahma’ and they will not torrential bliss is overwhelming, but the yogi learns to feel any perplexity.” control its outward manifestations.

25 and freed me for a life of unbroken communion with the Beloved.”* After this extraordinary revelation, Swami Pranabananda retired into one of his long silences. As I was taking leave, touching his feet reverently, he gave me his blessing: “Your life belongs to the path of renunciation and yoga. I shall see you again, with your father, later on.” The years brought fulfillment to both these predictions.† Kedar Nath Babu walked by my side in the gathering darkness. I delivered Father’s letter, which my companion read under a street lamp. “Your father suggests that I take a position in the Calcutta office of his railroad company. How pleasant to look forward to at least one of the pensions that Swami Pranabananda enjoys! But it is impossible; I cannot leave Benares. Alas, two bodies are not yet for me!”

*After his retirement, Pranabananda wrote one of the most profound commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, available in Bengali and Hindi. †See page 259.

26

CHAPTER: 4 My Interrupted Flight Toward the Himalayas “ Leave your classroom on some trifling story window. I ran down the steps and pretext, and engage a hackney carriage. Stop passed my uncle, buying fish at the door. in the lane where no one in my house can see “What is the excitement?” His gaze roved you.” suspiciously over my person. These were my final instructions to Amar I gave him a noncommittal smile and Mitter, a high school friend who planned to walked to the lane. Retrieving my bundle, I accompany me to the Himalayas. We had joined Amar with conspiratorial caution. We chosen the following day for our flight. drove to Chadni Chowk, a merchandise Precautions were necessary, as Ananta center. For months we had been saving our exercised a vigilant eye. He was determined tiffin money to buy English clothes. Knowing to foil the plans of escape which he suspected that my clever brother could easily play the were uppermost in my mind. The amulet, like part of a detective, we thought to outwit him a spiritual yeast, was silently at work within by European garb. me. Amidst the Himalayan snows, I hoped to find the master whose face often appeared to On the way to the station, we stopped for me in visions. my cousin, Jotin Ghosh, whom I called Jatinda. He was a new convert, longing for a The family was living now in Calcutta, guru in the Himalayas. He donned the new where Father had been permanently suit we had in readiness. Well-camouflaged, transferred. Following the patriarchal Indian we hoped! A deep elation possessed our custom, Ananta had brought his bride to live hearts. in our home, now at 4 Gurpar Road. There in a small attic room I engaged in daily “All we need now are canvas shoes.” I and prepared my mind for the led my companions to a shop displaying divine search. rubber-soled footwear. “Articles of leather, gotten only through the slaughter of animals, The memorable morning arrived with must be absent on this holy trip.” I halted on inauspicious rain. Hearing the wheels of the street to remove the leather cover from my Amar’s carriage in the road, I hastily tied Bhagavad Gita, and the leather straps from together a blanket, a pair of sandals, Lahiri my English-made sola topee (helmet). Mahasaya’s picture, a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a string of prayer beads, and two At the station we bought tickets to loincloths. This bundle I threw from my third- Burdwan, where we planned to transfer for Hardwar in the Himalayan foothills. As soon as the train, like ourselves, was in flight, I departure is an ill omen. This trip is doomed gave utterance to a few of my glorious to failure.” anticipations. “Is this your love for the Lord? Can’t you “Just imagine!” I ejaculated. “We shall be stand the little test of a treacherous initiated by the masters and experience the companion?” trance of cosmic consciousness. Our flesh will Through Amar’s suggestion of a divine be charged with such magnetism that wild test, my heart steadied itself. We refreshed animals of the Himalayas will come tamely ourselves with famous Burdwan sweetmeats, near us. Tigers will be no more than meek sitabhog (food for the goddess) and motichur house cats awaiting our caresses!” (nuggets of sweet pearl). In a few hours, we This remark—picturing a prospect I entrained for Hardwar, via Bareilly. Changing considered entrancing, both metaphorically trains at Moghul Serai, we discussed a vital and literally—brought an enthusiastic smile matter as we waited on the platform. from Amar. But Jatinda averted his gaze, “Amar, we may soon be closely directing it through the window at the questioned by railroad officials. I am not scampering landscape. underrating my brother’s ingenuity! No “Let the money be divided in three matter what the outcome, I will not speak portions.” Jatinda broke a long silence with untruth.” this suggestion. “Each of us should buy his “All I ask of you, Mukunda, is to keep own ticket at Burdwan. Thus no one at the still. Don’t laugh or grin while I am talking.” station will surmise that we are running away together.” At this moment, a European station agent accosted me. He waved a telegram whose I unsuspectingly agreed. At dusk our import I immediately grasped. train stopped at Burdwan. Jatinda entered the ticket office; Amar and I sat on the platform. “Are you running away from home in We waited fifteen minutes, then made anger?” unavailing inquiries. Searching in all “No!” I was glad his choice of words directions, we shouted Jatinda’s name with permitted me to make emphatic reply. Not the urgency of fright. But he had faded into anger but “divinest melancholy” was the dark unknown surrounding the little responsible, I knew, for my unconventional station. behavior. I was completely unnerved, shocked to a The official then turned to Amar. The peculiar numbness. That God would duel of wits that followed hardly permitted countenance this depressing episode! The me to maintain the counseled stoic gravity. romantic occasion of my first carefully- “Where is the third boy?” The man planned flight after Him was cruelly marred. injected a full ring of authority into his voice. “Amar, we must return home.” I was “Come on; speak the truth!” weeping like a child. “Jatinda’s callous

28 “Sir, I notice you are wearing eyeglasses. Dwarka Prasad awaited us with a telegram Can’t you see that we are only two?” Amar from Ananta. My old friend tried valiantly to smiled impudently. “I am not a magician; I detain us; I convinced him that our flight had can’t conjure up a third companion.” not been undertaken lightly. As on a previous The official, noticeably disconcerted by occasion, Dwarka refused my invitation to set this impertinence, sought a new field of forth to the Himalayas. attack. While our train stood in a station that “What is your name?” night, and I was half asleep, Amar was awakened by another questioning official. He, “I am called Thomas. I am the son of an too, fell a victim to the hybrid charms of English mother and a converted Christian “Thomas” and “Thompson.” The train bore us Indian father.” triumphantly into a dawn arrival at Hardwar. “What is your friend’s name?” The majestic mountains loomed invitingly in the distance. We dashed through the station “I call him Thompson.” and entered the freedom of city crowds. Our By this time my inward mirth had first act was to change into native costume, as reached a zenith; I unceremoniously made for Ananta had somehow penetrated our the train, whistling for departure. Amar European disguise. A premonition of capture followed with the official, who was credulous weighed on my mind. and obliging enough to put us into a European Deeming it advisable to leave Hardwar at compartment. It evidently pained him to think once, we bought tickets to proceed north to of two half-English boys traveling in the Rishikesh, a soil long hallowed by feet of section allotted to natives. After his polite many masters. I had already boarded the train, exit, I lay back on the seat and laughed while Amar lagged on the platform. He was uncontrollably. My friend wore an expression brought to an abrupt halt by a shout from a of blithe satisfaction at having outwitted a policeman. Our unwelcome guardian escorted veteran European official. us to a station bungalow and took charge of On the platform I had contrived to read our money. He explained courteously that it the telegram. From my brother, it went thus: was his duty to hold us until my elder brother “Three Bengali boys in English clothes arrived. running away from home toward Hardwar via Learning that the truants’ destination had Moghul Serai. Please detain them until my been the Himalayas, the officer related a arrival. Ample reward for your services.” strange story. “Amar, I told you not to leave marked “I see you are crazy about saints! You timetables in your home.” My glance was will never meet a greater man of God than the reproachful. “Brother must have found one one I saw only yesterday. My brother officer there.” and I first encountered him five days ago. We My friend sheepishly acknowledged the were patrolling by the Ganges, on a sharp thrust. We halted briefly in Bareilly, where lookout for a certain murderer. Our

29 instructions were to capture him, alive or The officer concluded with a pious dead. He was known to be masquerading as a ejaculation; his experience had obviously sadhu in order to rob pilgrims. A short way moved him beyond his usual depths. With an before us, we spied a figure which resembled impressive gesture, he handed me a printed the description of the criminal. He ignored clipping about the miracle. In the usual our command to stop; we ran to overpower garbled manner of the sensational type of him. Approaching his back, I wielded my ax newspaper (not missing, alas! even in India), with tremendous force; the man’s right arm the reporter’s version was slightly was severed almost completely from his body. exaggerated: it indicated that the sadhu had “Without outcry or any glance at the been almost decapitated! ghastly wound, the stranger astonishingly Amar and I lamented that we had missed continued his swift pace. As we jumped in the great yogi who could forgive his front of him, he spoke quietly. persecutor in such a Christlike way. India, “‘I am not the murderer you are seeking.’ materially poor for the last two centuries, yet has an inexhaustible fund of divine wealth; “I was deeply mortified to see I had spiritual “skyscrapers” may occasionally be injured the person of a divine-looking sage. encountered by the wayside, even by worldly Prostrating myself at his feet, I implored his men like this policeman. pardon, and offered my turban-cloth to staunch the heavy spurts of blood. We thanked the officer for relieving our tedium with his marvelous story. He was “‘Son, that was just an understandable probably intimating that he was more mistake on your part.’ The saint regarded me fortunate than we: he had met an illumined kindly. ‘Run along, and don’t reproach saint without effort; our earnest search had yourself. The Beloved Mother is taking care ended, not at the feet of a master, but in a of me.’ He pushed his dangling arm into its coarse police station! stump and lo! it adhered; the blood inexplicably ceased to flow. So near the Himalayas and yet, in our captivity, so far, I told Amar I felt doubly “‘Come to me under yonder tree in three impelled to seek freedom. days and you will find me fully healed. Thus you will feel no remorse.’ “Let us slip away when opportunity offers. We can go on foot to holy Rishikesh.” “Yesterday my brother officer and I went I smiled encouragingly. eagerly to the designated spot. The sadhu was there and allowed us to examine his arm. It But my companion had turned pessimist bore no scar or trace of hurt! as soon as the stalwart prop of our money had been taken from us. “‘I am going via Rishikesh to the Himalayan solitudes.’ He blessed us as he “If we started a trek over such dangerous departed quickly. I feel that my life has been jungle land, we should finish, not in the city uplifted through his sanctity.” of saints, but in the stomachs of tigers!”

30 Ananta and Amar’s brother arrived after cannot work out your past karma† without three days. Amar greeted his relative with worldly experiences.” affectionate relief. I was unreconciled; Ananta ’s immortal words rose to my lips got no more from me than a severe in reply: “‘Even he with the worst of karma upbraiding. who ceaselessly meditates on Me quickly “I understand how you feel.” My brother loses the effects of his past bad actions. spoke soothingly. “All I ask of you is to Becoming a high-souled being, he soon accompany me to Benares to meet a certain attains perennial peace. Arjuna, know this for saint, and go on to Calcutta to visit your certain: the devotee who puts his trust in Me grieving father for a few days. Then you can never perishes!’”‡ resume your search here for a master.” But the forceful prognostications of the Amar entered the conversation at this young man had slightly shaken my point to disclaim any intention of returning to confidence. With all the fervor of my heart I Hardwar with me. He was enjoying the prayed silently to God: familial warmth. But I knew I would never “Please solve my bewilderment and abandon the quest for my guru. answer me, right here and now, if Thou dost Our party entrained for Benares. There I desire me to lead the life of a renunciate or a had a singular and instant response to my worldly man!” pray e r s . I noticed a sadhu of noble countenance A clever scheme had been prearranged by standing just outside the compound of the Ananta. Before seeing me at Hardwar, he had pundit’s house. Evidently he had overheard stopped in Benares to ask a certain scriptural the spirited conversation between the self- authority to interview me later. Both the styled clairvoyant and myself, for the stranger pundit and his son had promised to undertake called me to his side. I felt a tremendous my dissuasion from the path of a sannyasi.* power flowing from his calm eyes. Ananta took me to their home. The son, a “Son, don’t listen to that ignoramus. In young man of ebullient manner, greeted me in response to your prayer, the Lord tells me to the courtyard. He engaged me in a lengthy assure you that your sole path in this life is philosophic discourse. Professing to have a that of the renunciate.” clairvoyant knowledge of my future, he With astonishment as well as gratitude, I discountenanced my idea of being a monk. smiled happily at this decisive message. “You will meet continual misfortune, and “Come away from that man!” The be unable to find God, if you insist on “ignoramus” was calling me from the deserting your ordinary responsibilities! You

†Effects of past actions, in this or a former life; from Sanskrit kri, “to do.” *Literally, “renunciate.” From Sanskrit verb roots, “to ‡Bhagavad Gita, IX, 30-31. Krishna was the greatest cast aside.” prophet of India; Arjuna was his foremost disciple.

31 courtyard. My saintly guide raised his hand in “Of course I rushed to send telegrams to blessing and slowly departed. station officials in all the cities which Amar “That sadhu is just as crazy as you are.” had underlined in the timetable. He had It was the hoary-headed pundit who made this checked Bareilly, so I wired your friend charming observation. He and his son were Dwarka there. After inquiries in our Calcutta gazing at me lugubriously. “I heard that he neighborhood, I learned that cousin Jatinda too has left his home in a vague search for had been absent one night but had arrived God.” home the following morning in European garb. I sought him out and invited him to I turned away. To Ananta I remarked that dinner. He accepted, quite disarmed by my I would not engage in further discussion with friendly manner. On the way I led him our hosts. My brother agreed to an immediate unsuspectingly to a police station. He was departure; we soon entrained for Calcutta. surrounded by several officers whom I had “Mr. Detective, how did you discover I previously selected for their ferocious had fled with two companions?” I vented my appearance. Under their formidable gaze, lively curiosity to Ananta during our Jatinda agreed to account for his mysterious homeward journey. He smiled mischievously. conduct. “At your school, I found that Amar had “‘I started for the Himalayas in a buoyant left his classroom and had not returned. I went spiritual mood,’ he explained. ‘Inspiration to his home the next morning and unearthed a filled me at the prospect of meeting the marked timetable. Amar’s father was just masters. But as soon as Mukunda said, leaving by carriage and was talking to the “During our ecstasies in the Himalayan caves, coachman. tigers will be spellbound and sit around us like tame pussies,” my spirits froze; beads of “‘My son will not ride with me to his perspiration formed on my brow. “What school this morning. He has disappeared!’ the then?” I thought. “If the vicious nature of the father moaned. tigers be not changed through the power of “‘I heard from a brother coachman that our spiritual trance, shall they treat us with the your son and two others, dressed in European kindness of house cats?” In my mind’s eye, I suits, boarded the train at Howrah Station,’ already saw myself the compulsory inmate of the man stated. ‘They made a present of their some tiger’s stomach—entering there not at leather shoes to the cab driver.’ once with the whole body, but by installments “Thus I had three clues—the timetable, of its several parts!’” the trio of boys, and the English clothing.” My anger at Jatinda’s vanishment was I was listening to Ananta’s disclosures evaporated in laughter. The hilarious sequel with mingled mirth and vexation. Our on the train was worth all the anguish he had generosity to the coachman had been slightly caused me. I must confess to a slight feeling misplaced! of satisfaction: Jatinda too had not escaped an encounter with the police!

32 “Ananta,* you are a born sleuthhound!” Luxuriant curls framed my tutor’s My glance of amusement was not without handsome face. His dark eyes were guileless, some exasperation. “And I shall tell Jatinda I with the transparency of a child’s. All the am glad he was prompted by no mood of movements of his slight body were marked by treachery, as it appeared, but only by the a restful deliberation. Ever gentle and loving, prudent instinct of self-preservation!” he was firmly established in the infinite At home in Calcutta, Father touchingly consciousness. Many of our happy hours requested me to curb my roving feet until, at together were spent in deep Kriya meditation. least, the completion of my high school Kebalananda was a noted authority on the studies. In my absence, he had lovingly ancient or sacred books: his erudition hatched a plot by arranging for a saintly had earned him the title of “Shastri pundit, Swami Kebalananda,† to come Mahasaya,” by which he was usually regularly to the house. addressed. But my progress in Sanskrit “The sage will be your Sanskrit tutor,” scholarship was unnoteworthy. I sought every my parent announced confidently. opportunity to forsake prosaic grammar and to talk of yoga and Lahiri Mahasaya. My tutor Father hoped to satisfy my religious obliged me one day by telling me something yearnings by instructions from a learned of his own life with the master. philosopher. But the tables were subtly turned: my new teacher, far from offering “Rarely fortunate, I was able to remain intellectual aridities, fanned the embers of my near Lahiri Mahasaya for ten years. His God-aspiration. Unknown to Father, Swami Benares home was my nightly goal of Kebalananda was an exalted disciple of Lahiri pilgrimage. The guru was always present in a Mahasaya. The peerless guru had possessed small front parlor on the first floor. As he sat thousands of disciples, silently drawn to him in lotus posture on a backless wooden seat, by the irresistibility of his divine magnetism. I his disciples garlanded him in a semicircle. learned later that Lahiri Mahasaya had often His eyes sparkled and danced with the joy of characterized Kebalananda as rishi or the Divine. They were ever half closed, illumined sage. peering through the inner telescopic orb into a sphere of eternal bliss. He seldom spoke at length. Occasionally his gaze would focus on a student in need of help; healing words *I always addressed him as Ananta-da. Da is a respectful suffix which the eldest brother in an Indian poured then like an avalanche of light. family receives from junior brothers and sisters. †At the time of our meeting, Kebalananda had not yet “An indescribable peace blossomed joined the Swami Order and was generally called within me at the master’s glance. I was “Shastri Mahasaya.” To avoid confusion with the name permeated with his fragrance, as though from of Lahiri Mahasaya and of Master Mahasaya (chapter 9), I am referring to my Sanskrit tutor only by his later a lotus of infinity. To be with him, even monastic name of Swami Kebalananda. His biography without exchanging a word for days, was has been recently published in Bengali. Born in the experience which changed my entire being. If Khulna district of Bengal in 1863, Kebalananda gave up his body in Benares at the age of sixty-eight. His any invisible barrier rose in the path of my family name was Ashutosh Chatterji.

33 concentration, I would meditate at the guru’s to be recorded, with voluminous feet. There the most tenuous states came commentaries by various students. easily within my grasp. Such perceptions “The master never counseled slavish eluded me in the presence of lesser teachers. . ‘Words are only shells,’ he said. ‘Win The master was a living temple of God whose conviction of God’s presence through your secret doors were open to all disciples through own joyous contact in meditation.’ devotion. “No matter what the disciple’s problem, “Lahiri Mahasaya was no bookish the guru advised Kriya Yoga for its solution. interpreter of the scriptures. Effortlessly he dipped into the ‘divine library.’ Foam of “‘The yogic key will not lose its words and spray of thoughts gushed from the efficiency when I am no longer present in the fountain of his omniscience. He had the body to guide you. This technique cannot be wondrous clavis which unlocked the profound bound, filed, and forgotten, in the manner of philosophical science embedded ages ago in theoretical inspirations. Continue ceaselessly the .* If asked to explain the different on your path to liberation through Kriya, planes of consciousness mentioned in the whose power lies in practice.’ ancient texts, he would smilingly assent. “I myself consider Kriya the most “‘I will undergo those states, and effective device of salvation through self- presently tell you what I perceive.’ He was effort ever to be evolved in man’s search for thus diametrically unlike the teachers who the Infinite.” Kebalananda concluded with commit scripture to memory and then give this earnest testimony. “Through its use, the forth unrealized abstractions. omnipotent God, hidden in all men, became visibly incarnated in the flesh of Lahiri “‘Please expound the holy stanzas as the Mahasaya and a number of his disciples.” meaning occurs to you.’ The taciturn guru often gave this instruction to a near-b y A Christlike miracle by Lahiri Mahasaya disciple. ‘I will guide your thoughts, that the took place in Kebalananda’s presence. My right interpretation be uttered.’ In this way saintly tutor recounted the story one day, his many of Lahiri Mahasaya’s perceptions came eyes remote from the Sanskrit texts before us. “A blind disciple, Ramu, aroused my active pity. Should he have no light in his *The ancient four Vedas c o m p r i se over 100 extant eyes, when he faithfully served our master, in canonical books. Emerson paid the following tribute in whom the Divine was fully blazing? One his Journal to Vedic thought: “It is sublime as heat and night and a breathless ocean. It contains every religious morning I sought to speak to Ramu, but he sat sentiment, all the grand ethics which visit in turn each for patient hours fanning the guru with a noble poetic mind. . . . It is of no use to put away the hand-made palm-leaf punkha. When the book; if I trust myself in the woods or in a boat upon the pond, Nature makes a of me presently: devotee finally left the room, I followed him. eternal necessity, eternal compensation, unfathomable power, unbroken silence. . . . This is her creed. Peace, “‘Ramu, how long have you been blind?’ she saith to me, and purity and absolute abandonment—these panaceas expiate all sin and bring you to the beatitude of the Eight .”

34 “‘From my birth, sir! Never have my by him above all other saints. Ramu’s faith eyes been blessed with a glimpse of the sun.’ was the devotionally ploughed soil in which “‘Our omnipotent guru can help you. the guru’s powerful seed of permanent Please make a supplication.’ healing sprouted.” Kebalananda was silent for a moment, then paid a further tribute to his “The following day Ramu diffidently guru. approached Lahiri Mahasaya. The disciple felt almost ashamed to ask that physical “It was evident in all miracles performed wealth be added to his spiritual by Lahiri Mahasaya that he never allowed the superabundance. ego-principle‡ to consider itself a causative force. By perfection of resistless surrender, “‘Master, the Illuminator of the cosmos is the master enabled the Prime Healing Power in you. I pray you to bring His light into my to flow freely through him. eyes, that I perceive the sun’s lesser glow.’ “The numerous bodies which were “‘Ramu, someone has connived to put me spectacularly healed through Lahiri Mahasaya in a difficult position. I have no healing eventually had to feed the flames of power.’ cremation. But the silent spiritual awakenings “‘Sir, the Infinite One within you can he effected, the Christlike disciples he certainly heal.’ fashioned, are his imperishable miracles.” “‘That is indeed different, Ramu. God’s I never became a Sanskrit scholar; limit is nowhere! He who ignites the stars and Kebalananda taught me a diviner syntax. the cells of flesh with mysterious life- effulgence can surely bring luster of vision into your eyes.’ “The master touched Ramu’s forehead at the point between the eyebrows.* “‘Keep your mind concentrated there, and frequently chant the name of the prophet Rama† for seven days. The splendor of the sun shall have a special dawn for you.’ “Lo! in one week it was so. For the first time, Ramu beheld the fair face of nature. The Omniscient One had unerringly directed his disciple to repeat the name of Rama, adored

*The seat of the “single” or spiritual eye. At death the consciousness of man is usually drawn to this holy spot, accounting for the upraised eyes found in the ‡Ahankara, egoism; literally, “I do.” The root cause of dead. dualism or illusion of , whereby the subject (ego) †The central sacred figure of the Sanskrit epic, appears as object; the creatures imagine themselves to Ramayana. be creators.

35 CHAPTER: 5 A “Perfume Saint” Displays his Wonders “To every thing there is a season, and a time “You have indeed penetrated the to every purpose under the heaven.” bewilderment of my thoughts!” I smiled I did not have this wisdom of Solomon to gratefully. “The confusion of benign and comfort me; I gazed searchingly about me, on terrible aspects in nature, as symbolized by any excursion from home, for the face of my Kali, has puzzled wiser heads than mine!” destined guru. But my path did not cross his “Few there be who solve her mystery! own until after the completion of my high Good and evil is the challenging riddle which school studies. life places sphinxlike before every Two years elapsed between my flight intelligence. Attempting no solution, most with Amar toward the Himalayas, and the men pay forfeit with their lives, penalty now great day of Sri Yukteswar’s arrival into my even as in the days of Thebes. Here and there, life. During that interim I met a number of a towering lonely figure never cries defeat. sages—the “Perfume Saint,” the “Tiger From the maya† of duality he plucks the Swami,” Nagendra Nath Bhaduri, Master cleaveless truth of unity.” Mahasaya, and the famous Bengali scientist, “You speak with conviction, sir.” Jagadis Chandra Bose. “I have long exercised an honest My encounter with the “Perfume Saint” introspection, the exquisitely painful approach had two preambles, one harmonious and the to wisdom. Self-scrutiny, relentless other humorous. observance of one’s thoughts, is a stark and “God is simple. Everything else is shattering experience. It pulverizes the complex. Do not seek absolute values in the stoutest ego. But true self-analysis relative world of nature.” mathematically operates to produce seers. The way of ‘self-expression,’ individual These philosophical finalities gently acknowledgments, results in egotists, sure of entered my ear as I stood silently before a temple image of Kali.* Turning, I confronted †Cosmic illusion; literally, “the measurer.” Maya is the a tall man whose garb, or lack of it, revealed magical power in creation by which limitations and him a wandering sadhu. divisions are apparently present in the Immeasurable and Inseparable. Emerson wrote the following poem, to which he gave the title of Maya: *Kali represents the eternal principle in nature. She is Illusion works impenetrable, traditionally pictured as a four-armed woman, standing Weaving webs innumerable, on the form of the God or the Infinite, because Her gay pictures never fail, nature or the phenomenal world is rooted in the Noumenon. The four arms symbolize cardinal Crowd each other, veil on veil, attributes, two beneficent, two destructive, indicating Charmer who will be believed the essential duality of matter or creation. By man who thirsts to be deceived. the right to their private interpretations of God “Only the shallow man loses and the universe.” responsiveness to the woes of others’ lives, as “Truth humbly retires, no doubt, before he sinks into narrow suffering of his own.” such arrogant originality.” I was enjoying the The sadhu’s austere face was noticeably discussion. softened. “The one who practices a scalpel self-dissection will know an expansion of “Man can understand no eternal verity universal pity. Release is given him from the until he has freed himself from pretensions. deafening demands of his ego. The love of The human mind, bared to a centuried slime, God flowers on such soil. The creature finally is teeming with repulsive life of countless turns to his Creator, if for no other reason world-delusions. Struggles of the battlefields than to ask in anguish: ‘Why, Lord, why?’ By pale into insignificance here, when man first ignoble whips of pain, man is driven at last contends with inward enemies! No mortal into the Infinite Presence, whose beauty alone foes these, to be overcome by harrowing array should lure him.” of might! Omnipresent, unresting, pursuing man even in sleep, subtly equipped with a The sage and I were present in Calcutta’s miasmic weapon, these soldiers of ignorant Kalighat Temple, whither I had gone to view lusts seek to slay us all. Thoughtless is the its famed magnificence. With a sweeping man who buries his ideals, surrendering to the gesture, my chance companion dismissed the common fate. Can he seem other than ornate dignity. impotent, wooden, ignominious?” “Bricks and mortar sing us no audible “Respected Sir, have you no sympathy tune; the heart opens only to the human chant for the bewildered masses?” of being.” The sage was silent for a moment, then We strolled to the inviting sunshine at the answered obliquely. entrance, where throngs of devotees were passing to and fro. “To love both the invisible God, Repository of All Virtues, and visible man, “You are young.” The sage surveyed me apparently possessed of none, is often thoughtfully. “India too is young. The ancient baffling! But ingenuity is equal to the maze. rishis* laid down ineradicable patterns of Inner research soon exposes a unity in all spiritual living. Their hoary dictums suffice human minds—the stalwart kinship of selfish for this day and land. Not outmoded, not motive. In one sense at least, the brotherhood unsophisticated against the guiles of of man stands revealed. An aghast humility materialism, the disciplinary precepts mold follows this leveling discovery. It ripens into India still. By millenniums—more than compassion for one’s fellows, blind to the embarrassed scholars care to compute!—the healing potencies of the soul awaiting skeptic Time has validated Vedic worth. Take exploration.” it for your heritage.”

“The saints of every age, sir, have felt like yourself for the sorrows of the world.” *The rishis, literally “seers,” were the authors of the Vedas in an indeterminable antiquity.

37 As I was reverently bidding farewell to crowd of people were sitting, Orient-wise, the eloquent sadhu, he revealed a clairvoyant here and there on a thick orange-colored perception: carpet. An awed whisper reached my ear: “After you leave here today, an unusual “Behold Gandha Baba on the leopard experience will come your way.” skin. He can give the natural perfume of any I quitted the temple precincts and flower to a scentless one, or revive a wilted wandered along aimlessly. Turning a corner, I blossom, or make a person’s skin exude ran into an old acquaintance—one of those delightful fragrance.” long-winded fellows whose conversational I looked directly at the saint; his quick powers ignore time and embrace eternity. gaze rested on mine. He was plump and “I will let you go in a very short while, if bearded, with dark skin and large, gleaming you will tell me all that has happened during eyes. the six years of our separation.” “Son, I am glad to see you. Say what you “What a paradox! I must leave you now.” want. Would you like some perfume?” But he held me by the hand, forcing out “What for?” I thought his remark rather tidbits of information. He was like a ravenous childish. wolf, I thought in amusement; the longer I “To experience the miraculous way of spoke, the more hungrily he sniffed for news. enjoying perfumes.” Inwardly I petitioned the Goddess Kali to “Harnessing God to make odors?” devise a graceful means of escape. “What of it? God makes perfume My companion left me abruptly. I sighed anyway.” with relief and doubled my pace, dreading any relapse into the garrulous fever. Hearing “Yes, but He fashions frail bottles of rapid footsteps behind me, I quickened my petals for fresh use and discard. Can you speed. I dared not look back. But with a materialize flowers?” bound, the youth rejoined me, jovially “I materialize perfumes, little friend.” clasping my shoulder. “Then scent factories will go out of “I forgot to tell you of Gandha Baba business.” (Perfume Saint), who is gracing yonder “I will permit them to keep their trade! house.” He pointed to a dwelling a few yards My own purpose is to demonstrate the power distant. “Do meet him; he is interesting. You of God.” may have an unusual experience. Good-b y , ” and he actually left me. “Sir, is it necessary to prove God? Isn’t He performing miracles in everything, The similarly worded prediction of the everywhere?” sadhu at Kalighat Temple flashed to my mind. Definitely intrigued, I entered the house “Yes, but we too should manifest some of and was ushered into a commodious parlor. A His infinite creative variety.”

38 “How long did it take to master your Tibet. The Tibetan yogi, I was assured, had art?” attained the age of over a thousand years. “Twelve years.” “His disciple Gandha Baba does not “For manufacturing scents by astral always perform his perfume-feats in the means! It seems, my honored saint, you have simple verbal manner you have just been wasting a dozen years for fragrances witnessed.” The student spoke with obvious which you can obtain with a few rupees from pride in his master. “His procedure differs a florist’s shop.” widely, to accord with diversity in temperaments. He is marvelous! Many “Perfumes fade with flowers.” members of the Calcutta intelligentsia are “Perfumes fade with death. Why should I among his followers.” desire that which pleases the body only?” I inwardly resolved not to add myself to “Mr. Philosopher, you please my mind. their number. A guru too literally Now, stretch forth your right hand.” He made “marvelous” was not to my liking. With polite a gesture of blessing. thanks to Gandha Baba, I departed. Sauntering home, I reflected on the three I was a few feet away from Gandha varied encounters the day had brought forth. Baba; no one else was near enough to contact my body. I extended my hand, which the yogi My sister Uma met me as I entered our did not touch. Gurpar Road door. “What perfume do you want?” “You are getting quite stylish, using perfumes!” “Rose.” Without a word, I motioned her to smell “Be it so.” my hand. To my great surprise, the charming “What an attractive rose fragrance! It is fragrance of rose was wafted strongly from unusually strong!” the center of my palm. I smilingly took a large white scentless flower from a near-b y Thinking it was “strongly unusual,” I vase. silently placed the astrally scented blossom under her nostrils. “Can this odorless blossom be permeated with jasmine?” “Oh, I love jasmine!” She seized the flower. A ludicrous bafflement passed over “Be it so.” her face as she repeatedly sniffed the odor of A jasmine fragrance instantly shot from jasmine from a type of flower she well knew the petals. I thanked the wonder-worker and to be scentless. Her reactions disarmed my seated myself by one of his students. He suspicion that Gandha Baba had induced an informed me that Gandha Baba, whose proper auto-suggestive state whereby I alone could name was Vishudhananda, had learned many detect the fragrances. astonishing yoga secrets from a master in

39 Later I heard from a friend, Alakananda, vibrations, and not inner sensations that the “Perfume Saint” had a power which I hypnotically produced.† wish were possessed by the starving millions Performances of miracles such as shown of Asia and, today, of Europe as well. by the “Perfume Saint” are spectacular but “I was present with a hundred other spiritually useless. Having little purpose guests at Gandha Baba’s home in Burdwan,” beyond entertainment, they are digressions Alakananda told me. “It was a gala occasion. from a serious search for God. Because the yogi was reputed to have the Hypnotism has been used by physicians power of extracting objects out of thin air, I in minor operations as a sort of psychical laughingly requested him to materialize some chloroform for persons who might be out-of-season tangerines. Immediately the endangered by an anesthetic. But a hypnotic luchis* which were present on all the banana- state is harmful to those often subjected to it; leaf plates became puffed up. Each of the a negative psychological effect ensues which bread-envelopes proved to contain a peeled in time deranges the brain cells. Hypnotism is tangerine. I bit into my own with some trespass into the territory of another’s trepidation, but found it delicious.” consciousness. Its temporary phenomena have Years later I understood by inner nothing in common with the miracles realization how Gandha Baba accomplished performed by men of divine realization. his materializations. The method, alas! is beyond the reach of the world’s hungry †Laymen scarcely realize the vast strides of twentieth- hordes. century science. Transmutation of metals and other alchemical dreams are seeing fulfillment every day in The different sensory stimuli to which centers of scientific research over the world. The eminent French chemist, M. Georges Claude, man reacts—tactual, visual, gustatory, performed “miracles” at Fontainebleau in 1928 before auditory, and olfactory—are produced by a scientific assemblage through his chemical vibratory variations in electrons and protons. knowledge of oxygen transformations. His “magician’s wand” was simple oxygen, bubbling in a tube on a The vibrations in turn are regulated by table. The scientist “turned a handful of sand into “lifetrons,” subtle life forces or finer-than- precious stones, iron into a state resembling melted chocolate and, after depriving flowers of their tints, atomic energies intelligently charged with the turned them into the consistency of glass. five distinctive sensory idea-substances. “M. Claude explained how the sea could be turned by oxygen transformations into many millions of Gandha Baba, tuning himself with the pounds of horsepower; how water which boils is not cosmic force by certain yogic practices, was necessarily burning; how little mounds of sand, by a single whiff of the oxygen blowpipe, could be changed able to guide the lifetrons to rearrange their into sapphires, rubies, and topazes; and he predicted vibratory structure and objectivize the desired the time when it will be possible for men to walk on result. His perfume, fruit and other miracles the bottom of the ocean minus the diver’s equipment. Finally the scientist amazed his onlookers by turning were actual materializations of mundane their faces black by taking the red out of the sun’s rays.” This noted French scientist has produced liquid air by an expansion method in which he has been able to separate the various gases of the air, and has discovered various means of mechanical utilization of *Flat, round Indian bread. differences of temperature in sea water.

40 Awake in God, true saints effect changes in religious life thus: “To lay aside what you this dream-world by means of a will have in your head (selfish desires and harmoniously attuned to the Creative Cosmic ambitions); to freely bestow what you have in Dreamer. your hand; and never to flinch from the blows Ostentatious display of unusual powers of adversity!” are decried by masters. The Persian mystic, Neither the impartial sage at Kalighat Abu Said, once laughed at certain fakirs who Temple nor the Tibetan-trained yogi had were proud of their miraculous powers over satisfied my yearning for a guru. My heart water, air, and space. needed no tutor for its recognitions, and cried “A frog is also at home in the water!” its own “Bravos!” the more resoundingly Abu Said pointed out in gentle scorn. “The because unoften summoned from silence. crow and the vulture easily fly in the air; the When I finally met my master, he taught me Devil is simultaneously present in the East by sublimity of example alone the measure of and in the West! A true man is he who dwells a true man. in righteousness among his fellow men, who buys and sells, yet is never for a single instant forgetful of God!” On another occasion the great Persian teacher gave his views on the

41 CHAPTER: 6 The Tiger Swami “I have discovered the Tiger Swami’s stood speechless. We had never before seen address. Let us visit him tomorrow.” such a chest or such football-like biceps. On This welcome suggestion came from an immense neck, the swami’s fierce yet calm Chandi, one of my high school friends. I was face was adorned with flowing locks, beard eager to meet the saint who, in his and moustache. A hint of dovelike and premonastic life, had caught and fought tigers tigerlike qualities shone in his dark eyes. He with his naked hands. A boyish enthusiasm was unclothed, save for a tiger skin about his over such remarkable feats was strong within muscular waist. me. Finding our voices, my friend and I The next day dawned wintry cold, but greeted the monk, expressing our admiration Chandi and I sallied forth gaily. After much for his prowess in the extraordinary feline vain hunting in Bhowanipur, outside Calcutta, arena. we arrived at the right house. The door held “Will you not tell us, please, how it is two iron rings, which I sounded piercingly. possible to subdue with bare fists the most Notwithstanding the clamor, a servant ferocious of jungle beasts, the royal approached with leisurely gait. His ironical ?” smile implied that visitors, despite their noise, “My sons, it is nothing to me to fight were powerless to disturb the calmness of a tigers. I could do it today if necessary.” He saint’s home. gave a childlike laugh. “You look upon tigers Feeling the silent rebuke, my companion as tigers; I know them as pussycats.” and I were thankful to be invited into the “Swamiji, I think I could impress my parlor. Our long wait there caused subconsciousness with the thought that tigers uncomfortable misgivings. India’s unwritten are pussycats, but could I make tigers believe law for the truth seeker is patience; a master it?” may purposely make a test of one’s eagerness to meet him. This psychological ruse is freely “Of course strength also is necessary! employed in the West by doctors and dentists! One cannot expect victory from a baby who imagines a tiger to be a house cat! Powerful Finally summoned by the servant, Chandi hands are my sufficient weapon.” and I entered a sleeping apartment. The famous Sohong* Swami was seated on his He asked us to follow him to the patio, bed. The sight of his tremendous body where he struck the edge of a wall. A brick affected us strangely. With bulging eyes, we crashed to the floor; the sky peered boldly through the gaping lost tooth of the wall. I

*Sohong was his monastic name. He was popularly fairly staggered in astonishment; he who can known as the “Tiger Swami.”

42 remove mortared bricks from a solid wall bound body thwarts the mind. If the master with one blow, I thought, must surely be able allows himself to be commanded by a servant, to displace the teeth of tigers! the latter becomes autocratic; the mind is “A number of men have physical power similarly enslaved by submitting to bodily such as mine, but still lack in cool confidence. dictation.” Those who are bodily but not mentally At our entreaty, the impressive swami stalwart may find themselves fainting at mere consented to tell us something of his own life. sight of a wild beast bounding freely in the “My earliest ambition was to fight tigers. jungle. The tiger in its natural ferocity and My will was mighty, but my body was habitat is vastly different from the opium-fed feeble.” circus animal! An ejaculation of surprise broke from “Many a man with herculean strength has me. It appeared incredible that this man, now nonetheless been terrorized into abject “with Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear,” could helplessness before the onslaught of a royal ever have known weakness. Bengal. Thus the tiger has converted the man, in his own mind, to a state as nerveless as the “It was by indomitable persistency in pussycat’s. It is possible for a man, owning a thoughts of health and strength that I fairly strong body and an immensely strong overcame my handicap. I have every reason determination, to turn the tables on the tiger, to extol the compelling mental vigor which I and force it to a conviction of pussycat found to be the real subduer of royal defenselessness. How often I have done just Bengals.” that!” “Do you think, revered swami, that I I was quite willing to believe that the could ever fight tigers?” This was the first, titan before me was able to perform the tiger- and the last, time that the bizarre ambition pussycat metamorphosis. He seemed in a ever visited my mind! didactic mood; Chandi and I listened “Yes.” He was smiling. “But there are respectfully. many kinds of tigers; some roam in jungles of “Mind is the wielder of muscles. The human desires. No spiritual benefit accrues by force of a hammer blow depends on the knocking beasts unconscious. Rather be victor energy applied; the power expressed by a over the inner prowlers.” man’s bodily instrument depends on his “May we hear, sir, how you changed aggressive will and courage. The body is from a tamer of wild tigers to a tamer of wild literally manufactured and sustained by mind. passions?” Through pressure of instincts from past lives, The Tiger Swami fell into silence. strengths or weaknesses percolate gradually Remoteness came into his gaze, summoning into human consciousness. They express as visions of bygone years. I discerned his slight habits, which in turn ossify into a desirable or mental struggle to decide whether to grant my an undesirable body. Outward frailty has request. Finally he smiled in acquiescence. mental origin; in a vicious circle, the habit-

43 “When my fame reached a zenith, it good actions bring ill upon me? I beg you not brought the intoxication of pride. I decided to impose any command that I change my not only to fight tigers but to display them in way of life.’” various tricks. My ambition was to force Chandi and I were all attention, savage beasts to behave like domesticated understanding the past dilemma. In India a ones. I began to perform my feats publicly, child does not lightly disobey his parents’ with gratifying success. wishes. “One evening my father entered my room “In stoic silence Father listened to my in pensive mood. explanation. He followed it with a disclosure “‘Son, I have words of warning. I would which he uttered gravely. save you from coming ills, produced by the “‘Son, you compel me to relate an grinding wheels of cause and effect.’ ominous prediction from the lips of a saint. “‘Are you a fatalist, Father? Should He approached me yesterday as I sat on the superstition be allowed to discolor the veranda in my daily meditation. powerful waters or my activities?’ “‘“Dear friend, I come with a message “‘I am no fatalist, son. But I believe in for your belligerent son. Let him cease his the just law of retribution, as taught in the savage activities. Otherwise, his next tiger- holy scriptures. There is resentment against encounter shall result in his severe wounds, you in the jungle family; sometime it may act followed by six months of deathly sickness. to your cost.’ He shall then forsake his former ways and “‘Father, you astonish me! You well become a monk.”’ know what tigers are—beautiful but “This tale did not impress me. I merciless! Even immediately after an considered that Father had been the credulous enormous meal of some hapless creature, a victim of a deluded fanatic.” tiger is fired with fresh lust at sight of new The Tiger Swami made this confession prey. It may be a joyous gazelle, frisking over with an impatient gesture, as though at some the jungle grass. Capturing it and biting an stupidity. Grimly silent for a long time, he opening in the soft throat, the malevolent seemed oblivious of our presence. When he beast tastes only a little of the mutely crying took up the dangling thread of his narrative, it blood, and goes its wanton way. was suddenly, with subdued voice. “‘Tigers are the most contemptible of the “Not long after Father’s warning, I jungle breed! Who knows? my blows may visited the capital city of Cooch Behar. The inject some slight sanity of consideration into picturesque territory was new to me, and I their thick heads. I am headmaster in a forest expected a restful change. As usual finishing school, to teach them gentle everywhere, a curious crowd followed me on manners! the streets. I would catch bits of whispered “‘Please, Father, think of me as tiger comment: tamer and never as tiger killer. How could my

44 “‘This is the man who fights wild tigers.’ was at the palace door to welcome me. He “‘Has he legs, or tree-trunks?’ proffered his own gold-brocaded seat, smilingly placing himself in a chair of simpler “‘Look at his face! He must be an design. incarnation of the king of tigers himself!’ “‘All this politeness is certainly going to “You know how village urchins function cost me something!’ I thought in mounting like final editions of a newspaper! With what astonishment. The prince’s motive emerged speed do the even-later speech-bulletins of the after a few casual remarks. women circulate from house to house! Within a few hours, the whole city was in a state of “‘My city is filled with the rumor that excitement over my presence. you can fight wild tigers with nothing more than your naked hands. Is it a fact?’ “I was relaxing quietly in the evening, when I heard the hoofbeats of galloping “‘It is quite true.’ horses. They stopped in front of my dwelling “‘I can scarcely believe it! You are a place. In came a number of tall, turbaned Calcutta Bengali, nurtured on the white rice policemen. of city folk. Be frank, please; have you not “I was taken aback. ‘All things are been fighting only spineless, opium-fed possible unto these creatures of human law,’ I animals?’ His voice was loud and sarcastic, thought. ‘I wonder if they are going to take tinged with provincial accent. me to task about matters utterly unknown to “I vouchsafed no reply to his insulting me.’ But the officers bowed with unwonted question. courtesy. “‘I challenge you to fight my newly- “‘Honored Sir, we are sent to welcome caught tiger, Raja Begum.* If you can you on behalf of the Prince of Cooch Behar. successfully resist him, bind him with a chain, He is pleased to invite you to his palace and leave his cage in a conscious state, you tomorrow morning.’ shall have this royal Bengal! Several thousand “I speculated awhile on the prospect. For rupees and many other gifts shall also be some obscure reason I felt sharp regret at this bestowed. If you refuse to meet him in interruption in my quiet trip. But the suppliant combat, I shall blazon your name throughout manner of the policemen moved me; I agreed the state as an impostor!’ to go. “His insolent words struck me like a “I was bewildered the next day to be volley of bullets. I shot an angry acceptance. obsequiously escorted from my door into a Half risen from the chair in his excitement, magnificent coach drawn by four horses. A the prince sank back with a sadistic smile. I servant held an ornate umbrella to protect me was reminded of the Roman emperors who from the scorching sunlight. I enjoyed the pleasant ride through the city and its *“Prince Princess”—so named to indicate that this woodland outskirts. The royal scion himself beast possessed the combined ferocity of tiger and tigress.

45 delighted in setting Christians in bestial supervised the erection of a storm-proof arenas. pavilion, designed to accommodate “‘The match will be set for a week hence. thousands. Its center held Raja Begum in an I regret that I cannot give you permission to enormous iron cage, surrounded by an outer view the tiger in advance.’ safety room. The captive emitted a ceaseless series of blood-curdling roars. He was fed “Whether the prince feared I might seek sparingly, to kindle a wrathful appetite. to hypnotize the beast, or secretly feed him Perhaps the prince expected me to be the meal opium, I know not! of reward! “I left the palace, noting with amusement “Crowds from the city and suburbs that the royal umbrella and panoplied coach bought tickets eagerly in response to the beat were now missing. of drums announcing the unique contest. The “The following week I methodically day of battle saw hundreds turned away for prepared my mind and body for the coming lack of seats. Many men broke through the ordeal. Through my servant I learned of tent openings, or crowded any space below fantastic tales. The saint’s direful prediction the galleries.” to my father had somehow got abroad, As the Tiger Swami’s story approached a enlarging as it ran. Many simple villagers climax, my excitement mounted with it; believed that an evil spirit, cursed by the Chandi also was raptly mute. gods, had reincarnated as a tiger which took various demoniac forms at night, but “Amidst piercing sound-explosions from remained a striped animal during the day. Raja Begum, and the hubbub of the somewhat This demon-tiger was supposed to be the one terrified crowd, I quietly made my sent to humble me. appearance. Scantily clad around the waist, I was otherwise unprotected by clothing. I “Another imaginative version was that opened the bolt on the door of the safety room animal prayers to Tiger Heaven had achieved and calmly locked it behind me. The tiger a response in the shape of Raja Begum. He sensed blood. Leaping with a thunderous was to be the instrument to punish me—the crash on his bars, he sent forth a fearsome audacious biped, so insulting to the entire welcome. The audience was hushed with tiger species! A furless, fangless man daring pitiful fear; I seemed a meek lamb before the to challenge a claw-armed, sturdy-limbed raging beast. tiger! The concentrated venom of all humiliated tigers—the villagers declared— “In a trice I was within the cage; but as I had gathered momentum sufficient to operate slammed the door, Raja Begum was headlong hidden laws and bring about the fall of the upon me. My right hand was desperately torn. proud tiger tamer. Human blood, the greatest treat a tiger can know, fell in appalling streams. The prophecy “My servant further apprized me that the of the saint seemed about to be fulfilled. prince was in his element as manager of the bout between man and beast. He had “I rallied instantly from the shock of the first serious injury I had ever received.

46 Banishing the sight of my gory fingers by origin. With an incredible lunge, he snapped thrusting them beneath my waist cloth, I the chain and leaped on my back. My swung my left arm in a bone-cracking blow. shoulder fast in his jaws, I fell violently. But The beast reeled back, swirled around the rear in a trice I had him pinned beneath me. Under of the cage, and sprang forward convulsively. merciless blows, the treacherous animal sank My famous fistic punishment rained on his into semiconsciousness. This time I secured head. him more carefully. Slowly I left the cage. “But Raja Begum’s taste of blood had “I found myself in a new uproar, this acted like the maddening first sip of wine to a time one of delight. The crowd’s cheer broke dipsomaniac long-deprived. Punctuated by as though from a single gigantic throat. deafening roar, the brute’s assaults grew in Disastrously mauled, I had yet fulfilled the fury. My inadequate defense of only one hand three conditions of the fight—stunning the left me vulnerable before claws and fangs. tiger, binding him with a chain, and leaving But I dealt out dazing retribution. Mutually him without requiring assistance for myself. ensanguined, we struggled as to the death. In addition, I had so drastically injured and The cage was pandemonium, as blood frightened the aggressive beast that he had splashed in all directions, and blasts of pain been content to overlook the opportune prize and lethal lust came from the bestial throat. of my head in his mouth! “‘Shoot him!’ ‘Kill the tiger!’ Shrieks “After my wounds were treated, I was arose from the audience. So fast did man and honored and garlanded; hundreds of gold beast move, that a guard’s bullet went amiss. I pieces showered at my feet. The whole city mustered all my will force, bellowed fiercely, entered a holiday period. Endless discussions and landed a final concussive blow. The tiger were heard on all sides about my victory over collapsed and lay quietly. one of the largest and most savage tigers ever “Like a pussycat!” I interjected. seen. Raja Begum was presented to me, as promised, but I felt no elation. A spiritual The swami laughed in hearty change had entered my heart. It seemed that appreciation, then continued the engrossing with my final exit from the cage I had also tale. closed the door on my worldly ambitions. “Raja Begum was vanquished at last. His “A woeful period followed. For six royal pride was further humbled: with my months I lay near death from blood poisoning. lacerated hands, I audaciously forced open his As soon as I was well enough to leave Cooch jaws. For a dramatic moment, I held my head Behar, I returned to my native town. within the yawning deathtrap. I looked around for a chain. Pulling one from a pile on the “‘I know now that my teacher is the holy floor, I bound the tiger by his neck to the cage man who gave the wise warning.’ I humbly bars. In triumph I moved toward the door. made this confession to my father. ‘Oh, if I could only find him!’ My longing was “But that fiend incarnate, Raja Begum, sincere, for one day the saint arrived had stamina worthy of his supposed demoniac unheralded.

47 “‘Enough of tiger taming.’ He spoke with Chandi and I bowed at the swami’s feet, calm assurance. ‘Come with me; I will teach grateful for his vivid outline of a life truly you to subdue the beasts of ignorance cyclonic. I felt amply repaid for the long roaming in jungles of the human mind. You probationary wait in the cold parlor! are used to an audience: let it be a galaxy of angels, entertained by your thrilling mastery of yoga!’ “I was initiated into the spiritual path by my saintly guru. He opened my soul-doors, rusty and resistant with long disuse. Hand in hand, we soon set out for my training in the Himalayas.”

48 CHAPTER: 7 The Levitating Saint “I saw a yogi remain in the air, several feet of peace after the storm was vivid beyond above the ground, last night at a group forgetting.” meeting.” My friend, Upendra Mohun “I heard that the saint never leaves his Chowdhury, spoke impressively. home.” Upendra’s tone was a trifle I gave him an enthusiastic smile. incredulous. “Perhaps I can guess his name. Was it “Indeed it is true! He has lived indoors Bhaduri Mahasaya, of Upper Circular Road?” for the past twenty years. He slightly relaxes Upendra nodded, a little crestfallen not to his self-imposed rule at the times of our holy be a news-bearer. My inquisitiveness about festivals, when he goes as far as his front saints was well-known among my friends; sidewalk! The beggars gather there, because they delighted in setting me on a fresh track. Saint Bhaduri is known for his tender heart.” “The yogi lives so close to my home that “How does he remain in the air, defying I often visit him.” My words brought keen the law of gravitation?” interest to Upendra’s face, and I made a “A yogi’s body loses its grossness after further confidence. use of certain . Then it will “I have seen him in remarkable feats. He levitate or hop about like a leaping frog. Even has expertly mastered the various saints who do not practice a formal yoga§ pranayamas* of the ancient eightfold yoga have been known to levitate during a state of outlined by .† Once Bhaduri intense devotion to God.” Mahasaya performed the “I would like to know more of this sage. before me with such amazing Do you attend his evening meetings?” force that it seemed an actual storm had arisen Upendra’s eyes were sparkling with curiosity. in the room! Then he extinguished the thundering breath and remained motionless in a high state of superconsciousness.‡ The aura faculty which makes man really man and not just a super-animal.” M. Jules-Bois explained that the awakening of the higher consciousness “was not to be *Methods of controlling life-force through regulation confused with Coueism or hypnotism. The existence of of breath. a superconscious mind has long been recognized †The foremost ancient exponent of yoga. philosophically, being in reality the Oversoul spoken of ‡French professors were the first in the West to be by Emerson, but only recently has it been recognized willing to scientifically investigate the possibilities of scientifically.” The French scientist pointed out that the superconscious mind. Professor Jules-Bois, from the superconsciousness come inspiration, genius, member of the L’Ecole de Psychologie of the moral values. “Belief in this is not though it Sorbonne, lectured in America in 1928; he told his recognized and valued the qualities which mystics audiences that French scientists have accorded preached.” recognition to the superconsciousness, “which is the §St. Theresa of Avila and other Christian saints were exact opposite of Freud’s subconscious mind and is the often observed in a state of .

49 “Yes, I go often. I am vastly entertained respect. His face was that of a rishi, as by the wit in his wisdom. Occasionally my described in the ancient texts. Noble-headed, prolonged laughter mars the solemnity of his abundantly bearded, he always sat firmly gatherings. The saint is not displeased, but his upright, his quiet eyes fixed on disciples look daggers!” Omnipresence. On my way home from school that The saint and I entered the meditative afternoon, I passed Bhaduri Mahasaya’s state. After an hour, his gentle voice roused cloister and decided on a visit. The yogi was me. inaccessible to the general public. A lone “You go often into the silence, but have disciple, occupying the ground floor, guarded you developed ?”† He was his master’s privacy. The student was reminding me to love God more than something of a martinet; he now inquired meditation. “Do not mistake the technique for formally if I had an “engagement.” His guru the Goal.” put in an appearance just in time to save me from summary ejection. He offered me some mangoes. With that good-humored wit that I found so delightful “Let Mukunda come when he will.” The in his grave nature, he remarked, “People in sage’s eyes twinkled. “My rule of seclusion is general are more fond of Jala Yoga (union not for my own comfort, but for that of others. with food) than of Dhyana Yoga (union with Worldly people do not like the candor which God).” shatters their delusions. Saints are not only rare but disconcerting. Even in scripture, they His yogic pun affected me uproariously. are often found embarrassing!” “What a laugh you have!” An I followed Bhaduri Mahasaya to his affectionate gleam came into his gaze. His austere quarters on the top floor, from which own face was always serious, yet touched he seldom stirred. Masters often ignore the with an ecstatic smile. His large, lotus eyes panorama of the world’s ado, out of focus till held a hidden divine laughter. centered in the ages. The contemporaries of a “Those letters come from far-off sage are not alone those of the narrow present. America.” The sage indicated several thick “Maharishi,* you are the first yogi I have envelopes on a table. “I correspond with a few known who always stays indoors.” societies there whose members are interested in yoga. They are discovering India anew, “God plants his saints sometimes in with a better sense of direction than unexpected soil, lest we think we may reduce Columbus! I am glad to help them. The Him to a rule!” knowledge of yoga is free to all who will The sage locked his vibrant body in the receive, like the ungarnishable daylight. lotus posture. In his seventies, he displayed no “What rishis perceived as essential for unpleasing signs of age or sedentary life. human salvation need not be diluted for the Stalwart and straight, he was ideal in every

*“Great sage.” †Actual perception of God.

50 West. Alike in soul though diverse in outer His creation being naught but a passive experience, neither West nor East will maya.) flourish if some form of disciplinary yoga be Mirabai composed many ecstatic songs not practiced.” which are still treasured in India; I translate The saint held me with his tranquil eyes. one of them here: I did not realize that his speech was a veiled “If by bathing daily God could be realized prophetic guidance. It is only now, as I write these words, that I understand the full Sooner would I be a whale in the deep; meaning in the casual intimations he often If by eating roots and fruits He could be gave me that someday I would carry India’s known teachings to America. Gladly would I choose the form of a goat; “Maharishi, I wish you would write a If the counting of rosaries uncovered Him book on yoga for the benefit of the world.” I would say my prayers on mammoth beads; “I am training disciples. They and their students will be living volumes, proof against If bowing before stone images unveiled Him the natural disintegrations of time and the A flinty mountain I would humbly worship; unnatural interpretations of the critics.” Bhaduri’s wit put me into another gale of If by drinking milk the Lord could be imbibed laughter. Many calves and children would know Him; I remained alone with the yogi until his If abandoning one’s wife would summon God disciples arrived in the evening. Bhaduri Would not thousands be eunuchs? Mahasaya entered one of his inimitable discourses. Like a peaceful flood, he swept Mirabai knows that to find the Divine One away the mental debris of his listeners, The only indispensable is Love.” floating them Godward. His striking parables Several students put rupees in Bhaduri’s were expressed in a flawless Bengali. slippers which lay by his side as he sat in This evening Bhaduri expounded various yoga posture. This respectful offering, philosophical points connected with the life of customary in India, indicates that the disciple Mirabai, a medieval Rajputani princess who places his material goods at the guru’s feet. abandoned her court life to seek the company Grateful friends are only the Lord in disguise, of sadhus. One great-sannyasi refused to looking after His own. receive her because she was a woman; her “Master, you are wonderful!” A student, reply brought him humbly to her feet. taking his leave, gazed ardently at the “Tell the master,” she had said, “that I patriarchal sage. “You have renounced riches did not know there was any Male in the and comforts to seek God and teach us universe save God; are we all not females wisdom!” It was well-known that Bhaduri before Him?” (A scriptural conception of the Mahasaya had forsaken great family wealth in Lord as the only Positive Creative Principle,

51 his early childhood, when single-mindedly he Shortly before I embarked for the West, I entered the yogic path. sought him out and humbly knelt for his “You are reversing the case!” The saint’s farewell blessing: face held a mild rebuke. “I have left a few “Son, go to America. Take the dignity of paltry rupees, a few petty pleasures, for a hoary India for your shield. Victory is written cosmic empire of endless bliss. How then on your brow; the noble distant people will have I denied myself anything? I know the well receive you.” joy of sharing the treasure. Is that a sacrifice? The shortsighted worldly folk are verily the real renunciates! They relinquish an unparalleled divine possession for a poor handful of earthly toys!” I chuckled over this paradoxical view of renunciation—one which puts the cap of Croesus on any saintly beggar, whilst transforming all proud millionaires into unconscious martyrs. “The divine order arranges our future more wisely than any insurance company.” The master’s concluding words were the realized creed of his faith. “The world is full of uneasy believers in an outward security. Their bitter thoughts are like scars on their foreheads. The One who gave us air and milk from our first breath knows how to provide day by day for His devotees.” I continued my after-school pilgrimages to the saint’s door. With silent zeal he aided me to attain anubhava. One day he moved to Road, away from the neighborhood of my Gurpar Road home. His loving disciples had built him a new hermitage, known as “Nagendra Math.”* Although it throws me ahead of my story by a number of years, I will recount here the last words given to me by Bhaduri Mahasaya.

*The saint’s full name was Nagendranath Bhaduri. Math means hermitage or ashram.

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CHAPTER: 8 India’s Great Scientist, J. C. Bose “Jagadis Chandra Bose’s wireless inventions “I have recently returned from an antedated those of Marconi.” expedition to scientific societies of the West. Overhearing this provocative remark, I Their members exhibited intense interest in walked closer to a sidewalk group of delicate instruments of my invention which professors engaged in scientific discussion. If demonstrate the indivisible unity of all life.* my motive in joining them was racial pride, I The Bose crescograph has the enormity of ten regret it. I cannot deny my keen interest in million magnifications. The microscope evidence that India can play a leading part in enlarges only a few thousand times; yet it physics, and not metaphysics alone. brought vital impetus to biological science. The crescograph opens incalculable vistas.” “What do you mean, sir?” “You have done much, sir, to hasten the The professor obligingly explained. embrace of East and West in the impersonal “Bose was the first one to invent a wireless arms of science.” coherer and an instrument for indicating the refraction of electric waves. But the Indian “I was educated at Cambridge. How scientist did not exploit his inventions admirable is the Western method of commercially. He soon turned his attention submitting all theory to scrupulous from the inorganic to the organic world. His experimental verification! That empirical revolutionary discoveries as a plant procedure has gone hand in hand with the gift physiologist are outpacing even his radical for introspection which is my Eastern achievements as a physicist.” heritage. Together they have enabled me to sunder the silences of natural realms long I politely thanked my mentor. He added, uncommunicative. The telltale charts of my “The great scientist is one of my brother crescograph† are evidence for the most professors at Presidency College.” skeptical that plants have a sensitive nervous I paid a visit the next day to the sage at system and a varied emotional life. Love, his home, which was close to mine on Gurpar hate, joy, fear, pleasure, pain, excitability, Road. I had long admired him from a stupor, and countless appropriate responses to respectful distance. The grave and retiring botanist greeted me graciously. He was a *“All science is transcendental or else passes away. handsome, robust man in his fifties, with thick Botany is now acquiring the right theory—the hair, broad forehead, and the abstracted eyes of Brahma will presently be the textbooks of natural of a dreamer. The precision in his tones history.”—Emerson †From the Latin root, crescere, to increase. For his revealed the lifelong scientific habit. crescograph and other inventions, Bose was knighted in 1917. stimuli are as universal in plants as in “I dedicate today this Institute as not animals.” merely a laboratory but a temple.” His “The unique throb of life in all creation reverent solemnity stole like an unseen cloak could seem only poetic imagery before your over the crowded auditorium. “In the pursuit advent, Professor! A saint I once knew would of my investigations I was unconsciously led never pluck flowers. ‘Shall I rob the rosebush into the border region of physics and of its pride in beauty? Shall I cruelly affront physiology. To my amazement, I found its dignity by my rude divestment?’ His boundary lines vanishing, and points of sympathetic words are verified literally contact emerging, between the realms of the through your discoveries!” living and the non-living. Inorganic matter was perceived as anything but inert; it was “The poet is intimate with truth, while the athrill under the action of multitudinous scientist approaches awkwardly. Come forces. someday to my laboratory and see the unequivocable testimony of the crescograph.” “A universal reaction seemed to bring metal, plant and animal under a common law. Gratefully I accepted the invitation, and They all exhibited essentially the same took my departure. I heard later that the phenomena of fatigue and depression, with botanist had left Presidency College, and was possibilities of recovery and of exaltation, as planning a research center in Calcutta. well as the permanent irresponsiveness When the Bose Institute was opened, I associated with death. Filled with awe at this attended the dedicatory services. Enthusiastic stupendous generalization, it was with great hundreds strolled over the premises. I was hope that I announced my results before the charmed with the artistry and spiritual Royal Society—results demonstrated by symbolism of the new home of science. Its experiments. But the physiologists present front gate, I noted, was a centuried relic from advised me to confine myself to physical a distant shrine. Behind the lotus* fountain, a investigations, in which my success had been sculptured female figure with a torch assured, rather than encroach on their conveyed the Indian respect for woman as the preserves. I had unwittingly strayed into the immortal light-bearer. The garden held a domain of an unfamiliar caste system and so small temple consecrated to the Noumenon offended its etiquette. beyond phenomena. Thought of the divine “An unconscious theological bias was incorporeity was suggested by absence of any also present, which confounds ignorance with altar-image. faith. It is often forgotten that He who Bose’s speech on this great occasion surrounded us with this ever-evolving might have issued from the lips of one of the mystery of creation has also implanted in us inspired ancient rishis. the desire to question and understand. Through many years of miscomprehension, I *The lotus flower is an ancient divine symbol in India; came to know that the life of a devotee of its unfolding petals suggest the expansion of the soul; science is inevitably filled with unending the growth of its pure beauty from the mud of its origin holds a benign spiritual promise. struggle. It is for him to cast his life as an

54 ardent offering—regarding gain and loss, “The work already carried out in the Bose success and failure, as one. laboratory on the response of matter, and the “In time the leading scientific societies of unexpected revelations in plant life, have the world accepted my theories and results, opened out very extended regions of inquiry and recognized the importance of the Indian in physics, in physiology, in medicine, in contribution to science.* Can anything small agriculture, and even in psychology. Problems or circumscribed ever satisfy the mind of hitherto regarded as insoluble have now been India? By a continuous living tradition, and a brought within the sphere of experimental vital power of rejuvenescence, this land has investigation. readjusted itself through unnumbered “But high success is not to be obtained transformations. Indians have always arisen without rigid exactitude. Hence the long who, discarding the immediate and absorbing battery of super-sensitive instruments and prize of the hour, have sought for the apparatus of my design, which stand before realization of the highest ideals in life—not you today in their cases in the entrance hall. through passive renunciation, but through They tell you of the protracted efforts to get active struggle. The weakling who has refused behind the deceptive seeming into the reality the conflict, acquiring nothing, has had that remains unseen, of the continuous toil nothing to renounce. He alone who has and persistence and resourcefulness called striven and won can enrich the world by forth to overcome human limitations. All bestowing the fruits of his victorious creative scientists know that the true experience. laboratory is the mind, where behind illusions they uncover the laws of truth. “The lectures given here will not be mere *“At present, only the sheerest accident brings India into the purview of the American college student. Eight repetitions of second-hand knowledge. They universities (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, will announce new discoveries, demonstrated Johns Hopkins, Pennsylvania, Chicago, and California) for the first time in these halls. Through have chairs of Indology or Sanskrit, but India is virtually unrepresented in departments of history, regular publication of the work of the philosophy, fine arts, political science, sociology, or Institute, these Indian contributions will reach any of the other departments of intellectual experience the whole world. They will become public in which, as we have seen, India has made great contributions. . . . We believe, consequently, that no property. No patents will ever be taken. The department of study, particularly in the humanities, in spirit of our national culture demands that we any major university can be fully equipped without a properly trained specialist in the Indic phases of its should forever be free from the desecration of discipline. We believe, too, that every college which utilizing knowledge only for personal gain. aims to prepare its graduates for intelligent work in the world which is to be theirs to live in, must have on its “It is my further wish that the facilities of staff a scholar competent in the civilization of this Institute be available, so far as possible, India.”—Extracts from an article by Professor W. Norman Brown of the University of Pennsylvania to workers from all countries. In this I am which appeared in the May, 1939, issue of the Bulletin attempting to carry on the traditions of my of the American Council of Learned Societies, 907 country. So far back as twenty-five centuries, 15th St., Washington, D. C., 25ø copy. This issue (#28) contains over 100 pages of a “Basic Bibliography for India welcomed to its ancient universities, at Indic Studies.”

55 Nalanda and Taxila, scholars from all parts of the power to hold the mind to the pursuit of the world. truth with an infinite patience.” “Although science is neither of the East Tears stood in my eyes at the scientist’s nor of the West but rather international in its concluding words. Is “patience” not indeed a universality, yet India is specially fitted to synonym of India, confounding Time and the make great contributions.* The burning historians alike? Indian imagination, which can extort new I visited the research center again, soon order out of a mass of apparently after the day of opening. The great botanist, contradictory facts, is held in check by the mindful of his promise, took me to his quiet habit of concentration. This restraint confers laboratory. “I will attach the crescograph to this fern;

*The atomic structure of matter was well-known to the the magnification is tremendous. If a snail’s ancient Hindus. One of the six systems of Indian crawl were enlarged in the same proportion, philosophy is Vaisesika, from the Sanskrit root visesas, the creature would appear to be traveling like “atomic individuality.” One of the foremost Vaisesika expounders was Aulukya, also called , “the an express train!” atom-eater,” born about 2800 years ago. In an article in East-West, April, 1934, a summary My gaze was fixed eagerly on the screen of Vaisesika scientific knowledge was given as which reflected the magnified fern-shadow. follows: “Though the modern ‘atomic theory’ is Minute life-movements were now clearly generally considered a new advance of science, it was brilliantly expounded long ago by Kanada, ‘the atom- perceptible; the plant was growing very eater.’ The Sanskrit anus can be properly translated as slowly before my fascinated eyes. The ‘atom’ in the latter’s literal Greek sense of ‘uncut’ or scientist touched the tip of the fern with a indivisible. Other scientific expositions of Vaisesika treatises of the B.C. era include (1) the movement of small metal bar. The developing pantomime needles toward magnets, (2) the circulation of water in came to an abrupt halt, resuming the eloquent plants, (3) akash or ether, inert and structureless, as a basis for transmitting subtle forces, (4) the solar fire as rhythms as soon as the rod was withdrawn. the cause of all other forms of heat, (5) heat as the cause of molecular change, (6) the law of gravitation as “You saw how any slight outside caused by the quality that inheres in earth-atoms to interference is detrimental to the sensitive give them their attractive power or downward pull, (7) tissues,” Bose remarked. “Watch; I will now the kinetic nature of all energy; causation as always rooted in an expenditure of energy or a redistribution of administer chloroform, and then give an motion, (8) universal dissolution through the antidote.” disintegration of atoms, (9) the radiation of heat and light rays, infinitely small particles, darting forth in all The effect of the chloroform discontinued directions with inconceivable speed (the modern all growth; the antidote was revivifying. The ‘cosmic rays’ theory), (10) the relativity of time and space. evolutionary gestures on the screen held me “Vaisesika assigned the origin of the world to more raptly than a “movie” plot. My atoms, eternal in their nature, i.e., their ultimate companion (here in the role of villain) thrust a peculiarities. These atoms were regarded as possessing an incessant vibratory motion. . . . The recent discovery sharp instrument through a part of the fern; that an atom is a miniature solar system would be no pain was indicated by spasmodic flutters. news to the old Vaisesika philosophers, who also reduced time to its furthest mathematical concept by When he passed a razor partially through the describing the smallest unit of time (kala) as the period stem, the shadow was violently agitated, then taken by an atom to traverse its own unit of space.”

56 stilled itself with the final punctuation of and machinery, are subject to fatigue, and death. regain efficiency by periodic rest. The life- “By first chloroforming a huge tree, I pulse in metals is seriously harmed or even achieved a successful transplantation. extinguished through the application of Usually, such monarchs of the forest die very electric currents or heavy pressure.” quickly after being moved.” Jagadis smiled I looked around the room at the happily as he recounted the life-saving numerous inventions, eloquent testimony of a maneuver. “Graphs of my delicate apparatus tireless ingenuity. have proved that trees possess a circulatory “Sir, it is lamentable that mass system; their sap movements correspond to agricultural development is not speeded by the blood pressure of animal bodies. The fuller use of your marvelous mechanisms. ascent of sap is not explicable on the Would it not be easily possible to employ mechanical grounds ordinarily advanced, such some of them in quick laboratory experiments as capillary attraction. The phenomenon has to indicate the influence of various types of been solved through the crescograph as the fertilizers on plant growth?” activity of living cells. Peristaltic waves issue from a cylindrical tube which extends down a “You are right. Countless uses of Bose tree and serves as an actual heart! The more instruments will be made by future deeply we perceive, the more striking generations. The scientist seldom knows becomes the evidence that a uniform plan contemporaneous reward; it is enough to links every form in manifold nature.” possess the joy of creative service.” The great scientist pointed to another With expressions of unreserved gratitude Bose instrument. to the indefatigable sage, I took my leave. “Can the astonishing fertility of his genius “I will show you experiments on a piece ever be exhausted?” I thought. of tin. The life-force in metals responds adversely or beneficially to stimuli. Ink No diminution came with the years. markings will register the various reactions.” Inventing an intricate instrument, the “Resonant Cardiograph,” Bose then pursued Deeply engrossed, I watched the graph extensive researches on innumerable Indian which recorded the characteristic waves of plants. An enormous unsuspected atomic structure. When the professor applied pharmacopoeia of useful drugs was revealed. chloroform to the tin, the vibratory writings The cardiograph is constructed with an stopped. They recommenced as the metal unerring accuracy by which a one-hundredth slowly regained its normal state. My part of a second is indicated on a graph. companion dispensed a poisonous chemical. Resonant records measure infinitesimal Simultaneous with the quivering end of the pulsations in plant, animal and human tin, the needle dramatically wrote on the chart structure. The great botanist predicted that use a death-notice. of his cardiograph will lead to vivisection on “Bose instruments have demonstrated plants instead of animals. that metals, such as the steel used in scissors

57 “Side by side recordings of the effects of The nitella plant thus may become a sort of a medicine given simultaneously to a plant Rosetta stone for deciphering the closely and an animal have shown astounding guarded secrets close to the very borderland unanimity in result,” he pointed out. of mind and matter. “Everything in man has been foreshadowed in The poet Rabindranath Tagore was a the plant. Experimentation on vegetation will stalwart friend of India’s idealistic scientist. contribute to lessening of human suffering.” To him, the sweet Bengali singer addressed Years later Bose’s pioneer plant findings the following lines:* were substantiated by other scientists. Work O Hermit, call thou in the authentic words done in 1938 at Columbia University was reported by The New York Times as follows: Of that old hymn called Sama; “Rise! Awake!” It has been determined within the past few years that when the nerves transmit messages Call to the man who boasts his shastric lore between the brain and other parts of the body, From vain pedantic wranglings profitless, tiny electrical impulses are being generated. Call to that foolish braggart to come forth These impulses have been measured by delicate galvanometers and magnified Out on the face of nature, this broad earth, millions of times by modern amplifying Send forth this call unto thy scholar band; apparatus. Until now no satisfactory method had been found to study the passages of the Together round thy sacrifice of fire impulses along the nerve fibers in living Let them all gather. So may our India, animals or man because of the great speed Our ancient land unto herself return with which these impulses travel. O once again return to steadfast work, Drs. K. S. Cole and H. J. Curtis reported having discovered that the long single cells of To duty and devotion, to her trance the fresh-water plant nitella, used frequently Of earnest meditation; let her sit in goldfish bowls, are virtually identical with Once more unruffled, greedless, strifeless, those of single nerve fibers. Furthermore, they pure, found that nitella fibers, on being excited, propagate electrical waves that are similar in O once again upon her lofty seat every way, except velocity, to those of the And platform, teacher of all lands. nerve fibers in animals and man. The electrical nerve impulses in the plant were found to be much slower than those in animals. This discovery was therefore seized upon by the Columbia workers as a means for taking slow motion pictures of the passage of the electrical impulses in nerves.

*Translated from the Bengali of Rabindranath Tagore, by Manmohan Ghosh, in Viswa-Bharati.

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CHAPTER: 9 The Blissful Devotee and his Cosmic Romance “ Little sir, please be seated. I am talking to my deep humiliation to realize that my eyes were Divine Mother.” blind to Her who even at this moment was Silently I had entered the room in great perceptible to the faultless gaze of the saint. awe. The angelic appearance of Master Shamelessly gripping his feet, deaf to his Mahasaya fairly dazzled me. With silky white gentle remonstrances, I besought him again beard and large lustrous eyes, he seemed an and again for his intervening grace. incarnation of purity. His upraised chin and “I will make your plea to the Beloved.” folded hands apprized me that my first visit The master’s capitulation came with a slow, had disturbed him in the midst of his compassionate smile. devotions. What power in those few words, that my His simple words of greeting produced being should know release from its stormy the most violent effect my nature had so far exile? experienced. The bitter separation of my “Sir, remember your pledge! I shall mother’s death I had thought the measure of return soon for Her message!” Joyful all anguish. Now an agony at separation from anticipation rang in my voice that only a my Divine Mother was an indescribable moment ago had been sobbing in sorrow. torture of the spirit. I fell moaning to the floor. Descending the long stairway, I was overwhelmed by memories. This house at 50 “Little sir, quiet yourself!” The saint was Amherst Street, now the residence of Master sympathetically distressed. Mahasaya, had once been my family home, Abandoned in some oceanic desolation, I scene of my mother’s death. Here my human clutched his feet as the sole raft of my rescue. heart had broken for the vanished mother; and “Holy sir, thy intercession! Ask Divine here today my spirit had been as though Mother if I find any favor in Her sight!” crucified by absence of the Divine Mother. Hallowed walls, silent witness of my grievous This promise is one not easily bestowed; hurts and final healing! the master was constrained to silence. My steps were eager as I returned to my Beyond reach of doubt, I was convinced Gurpar Road home. Seeking the seclusion of that Master Mahasaya was in intimate my small attic, I remained in meditation until converse with the Universal Mother. It was ten o’clock. The darkness of the warm Indian received last night at ten o’clock from the night was suddenly lit with a wondrous Beautiful Mother Herself?” vision. Master Mahasaya possessed control over Haloed in splendor, the Divine Mother the flood-gates of my soul: again I plunged stood before me. Her face, tenderly smiling, prostrate at his feet. But this time my tears was beauty itself. welled from a bliss, and not a pain, past “Always have I loved thee! Ever shall I bearing. love thee!” “Think you that your devotion did not The celestial tones still ringing in the air, touch the Infinite Mercy? The Motherhood of She disappeared. God, that you have worshiped in forms both human and divine, could never fail to answer The sun on the following morning had your forsaken cry.” hardly risen to an angle of decorum when I paid my second visit to Master Mahasaya. Who was this simple saint, whose least Climbing the staircase in the house of request to the Universal Spirit met with sweet poignant memories, I reached his fourth-floor acquiescence? His role in the world was room. The knob of the closed door was humble, as befitted the greatest man of wrapped around with a cloth; a hint, I felt, humility I ever knew. In this Amherst Street that the saint desired privacy. As I stood house, Master Mahasaya* conducted a small irresolutely on the landing, the door was high school for boys. No words of opened by the master’s welcoming hand. I chastisement passed his lips; no rule and knelt at his holy feet. In a playful mood, I ferule maintained his discipline. Higher wore a solemn mask over my face, hiding the mathematics indeed were taught in these divine elation. modest classrooms, and a chemistry of love absent from the textbooks. He spread his “Sir, I have come—very early, I wisdom by spiritual contagion rather than confess!—for your message. Did the Beloved impermeable precept. Consumed by an Mother say anything about me?” unsophisticated passion for the Divine “Mischievous little sir!” Mother, the saint no more demanded the outward forms of respect than a child. Not another remark would he make. Apparently my assumed gravity was “I am not your guru; he shall come a little unimpressive. later,” he told me. “Through his guidance, your experiences of the Divine in terms of “Why so mysterious, so evasive? Do love and devotion shall be translated into his saints never speak plainly?” Perhaps I was a terms of fathomless wisdom.” little provoked. Every late afternoon, I betook myself to “Must you test me?” His calm eyes were Amherst Street. I sought Master Mahasaya’s full of understanding. “Could I add a single word this morning to the assurance you

60 divine cup, so full that its drops daily manna characteristically exuded by this tree overflowed on my being. Never before had I was symbolic of the heavenly food Master bowed in utter reverence; now I felt it an Mahasaya was bestowing. His divine immeasurable privilege even to tread the invocations continued. I sat rigidly motionless same ground which Master Mahasaya on the grass amid the pink feathery tamarisk sanctified. flowers. Temporarily absent from the body, I “Sir, please wear this champak garland I soared in a supernal visit. have fashioned especially for you.” I arrived This was the first of many pilgrimages to one evening, holding my chain of flowers. Dakshineswar with the holy teacher. From But shyly he drew away, repeatedly refusing him I learned the sweetness of God in the the honor. Perceiving my hurt, he finally aspect of Mother, or Divine Mercy. The smiled consent. childlike saint found little appeal in the Father “Since we are both devotees of the aspect, or Divine Justice. Stern, exacting, Mother, you may put the garland on this mathematical judgment was alien to his gentle bodily temple, as offering to Her who dwells nature. within.” His vast nature lacked space in which “He can serve as an earthly prototype for any egotistical consideration could gain the very angels of heaven!” I thought fondly, foothold. watching him one day at his prayers. Without “Let us go tomorrow to the Dakshineswar a breath of censure or criticism, he surveyed Temple, forever hallowed by my guru.” the world with eyes long familiar with the Master Mahasaya was a disciple of a Primal Purity. His body, mind, speech, and Christlike master, Sri actions were effortlessly harmonized with his Paramhansa. soul’s simplicity. The four-mile journey on the following “My Master told me so.” Shrinking from morning was taken by boat on the Ganges. personal assertion, the saint ended any sage We entered the nine-domed Temple of Kali, counsel with this invariable tribute. So deep where the figures of the Divine Mother and was his identity with Sri Ramakrishna that Shiva rest on a burnished silver lotus, its Master Mahasaya no longer considered his thousand petals meticulously chiseled. Master thoughts as his own. Mahasaya beamed in enchantment. He was Hand in hand, the saint and I walked one engaged in his inexhaustible romance with the evening on the block of his school. My joy Beloved. As he chanted Her name, my was dimmed by the arrival of a conceited enraptured heart seemed shattered into a acquaintance who burdened us with a lengthy thousand pieces. discourse. We strolled later through the sacred “I see this man doesn’t please you.” The precincts, halting in a tamarisk grove. The saint’s whisper to me was unheard by the egotist, spellbound by his own monologue. “I

*These are respectful titles by which he was customarily addressed. His name was Mahendra Nath Gupta; he signed his literary works simply “M.”

61 have spoken to Divine Mother about it; She placidity reminds us of the vast calmness of realizes our sad predicament. As soon as we God. As all things can be reflected in water, get to yonder red house, She has promised to so the whole universe is mirrored in the lake remind him of more urgent business.” of the Cosmic Mind. So my gurudeva often My eyes were glued to the site of said.” salvation. Reaching its red gate, the man Soon we entered a university hall where a unaccountably turned and departed, neither lecture was in progress. It proved abysma l l y finishing his sentence nor saying good-by. dull, though varied occasionally by lantern The assaulted air was comforted with peace. slide illustrations, equally uninteresting. Another day found me walking alone “So this is the kind of bioscope the near the Howrah railway station. I stood for a master wanted me to see!” My thought was moment by a temple, silently criticizing a impatient, yet I would not hurt the saint by small group of men with drum and cymbals revealing boredom in my face. But he leaned who were violently reciting a chant. toward me confidentially. “How undevotionally they use the Lord’s “I see, little sir, that you don’t like this divine name in mechanical repetition,” I bioscope. I have mentioned it to Divine reflected. My gaze was astonished by the Mother; She is in full sympathy with us both. rapid approach of Master Mahasaya. “Sir, She tells me that the electric lights will now how come you here?” go out, and won’t be relit until we have a The saint, ignoring my question, chance to leave the room.” answered my thought. “Isn’t it true, little sir, As his whisper ended, the hall was that the Beloved’s name sounds sweet from plunged into darkness. The professor’s all lips, ignorant or wise?” He passed his arm strident voice was stilled in astonishment, around me affectionately; I found myself then remarked, “The electrical system of this carried on his magic carpet to the Merciful hall appears to be defective.” By this time, Presence. Master Mahasaya and I were safely across the “Would you like to see some bioscopes?” threshold. Glancing back from the corridor, I This question one afternoon from Master saw that the scene of our martyrdom had Mahasaya was mystifying; the term was then again become illuminated. used in India to signify motion pictures. I “Little sir, you were disappointed in that agreed, glad to be in his company in any bioscope, but I think you will like a different circumstances. A brisk walk brought us to the one.” The saint and I were standing on the garden fronting Calcutta University. My sidewalk in front of the university building. companion indicated a bench near the He gently slapped my chest over the heart. goldighi or pond. A transforming silence ensued. Just as “Let us sit here for a few minutes. My the modern “talkies” become inaudible Master always asked me to meditate motion pictures when the sound apparatus whenever I saw an expanse of water. Here its goes out of order, so the Divine Hand, b y

62 some strange miracle, stifled the earthly If anyone observed the unpretentious bustle. The pedestrians as well as the passing master and myself as we walked away from trolley cars, automobiles, bullock carts, and the crowded pavement, the onlooker surely iron-wheeled hackney carriages were all in suspected us of intoxication. I felt that the noiseless transit. As though possessing an falling shades of evening were omnipresent eye, I beheld the scenes which sympathetically drunk with God. When were behind me, and to each side, as easily as darkness recovered from its nightly swoon, I those in front. The whole spectacle of activity faced the new morning bereft of my ecstatic in that small section of Calcutta passed before mood. But ever enshrined in memory is the me without a sound. Like a glow of fire dimly seraphic son of Divine Mother—Master seen beneath a thin coat of ashes, a mellow Mahasaya! luminescence permeated the panoramic view. Trying with poor words to do justice to My own body seemed nothing more than his benignity, I wonder if Master Mahasaya, one of the many shadows, though it was and others among the deep-visioned saints motionless, while the others flitted mutely to whose paths crossed mine, knew that years and fro. Several boys, friends of mine, later, in a Western land, I would be writing approached and passed on; though they had about their lives as divine devotees. Their looked directly at me, it was without foreknowledge would not surprise me nor, I recognition. hope, my readers, who have come thus far The unique pantomime brought me an with me. inexpressible ecstasy. I drank deep from some blissful fount. Suddenly my chest received another soft blow from Master Mahasaya. The pandemonium of the world burst upon my unwilling ears. I staggered, as though harshly awakened from a gossamer dream. The transcendental wine removed beyond my reach. “Little sir, I see you found the second bioscope* to your liking.” The saint was smiling; I started to drop in gratitude on the ground before him. “You can’t do that to me now; you know God is in your temple also! I won’t let Divine Mother touch my feet through your hands!”

*The Oxford English Dictionary gives, as rare, this definition of bioscope: A view of life; that which gives such a view. Master Mahasaya’s choice of a word was, then, peculiarly justified.

63

CHAPTER: 10 I Meet my Master, Sri Yukteswar “Faith in God can produce any miracle except many it seems illogic. The devotee’s one—passing an examination without study.” irrationality springs from a thousand Distastefully I closed the book I had picked inexplicable demonstrations of God’s up in an idle moment. instancy in trouble. “The writer’s exception shows his “Hello, Mukunda! I catch hardly a complete lack of faith,” I thought. “Poor chap, glimpse of you these days!” A classmate he has great respect for the midnight oil!” accosted me one afternoon on Gurpar Road. My promise to Father had been that I “Hello, Nantu! My invisibility at school would complete my high school studies. I has actually placed me there in a decidedly cannot pretend to diligence. The passing awkward position.” I unburdened myself months found me less frequently in the under his friendly gaze. classroom than in secluded spots along the Nantu, who was a brilliant student, Calcutta bathing . The adjoining laughed heartily; my predicament was not crematory grounds, especially gruesome at without a comic aspect. night, are considered highly attractive by the yogi. He who would find the Deathless “You are utterly unprepared for the Essence must not be dismayed by a few finals! I suppose it is up to me to help you!” unadorned skulls. Human inadequacy The simple words conveyed divine becomes clear in the gloomy abode of promise to my ears; with alacrity I visited my miscellaneous bones. My midnight vigils friend’s home. He kindly outlined the were thus of a different nature from the solutions to various problems he considered scholar’s. likely to be set by the instructors. The week of final examinations at the “These questions are the bait which will Hindu High School was fast approaching. catch many trusting boys in the examination This interrogatory period, like the sepulchral trap. Remember my answers, and you will haunts, inspires a well-known terror. My escape without injury.” mind was nevertheless at peace. Braving the The night was far gone when I departed. ghouls, I was exhuming a knowledge not Bursting with unseasoned erudition, I found in lecture halls. But it lacked the art of devoutly prayed it would remain for the next Swami Pranabananda, who easily appeared in few critical days. Nantu had coached me in two places at one time. My educational my various subjects but, under press of time, dilemma was plainly a matter for the Infinite had forgotten my course in Sanskrit. Ingenuity. This was my reasoning, though to Fervently I reminded God of the oversight. I set out on a short walk the next “It would only add to this fellow’s morning, assimilating my new knowledge to confusion, if I were to tell him that divine the rhythm of swinging footsteps. As I took a meditation among the cadavers is a short cut short cut through the weeds of a corner lot, to a high school diploma!” my eye fell on a few loose printed sheets. A In my new dignity, I was now openly triumphant pounce proved them to be Sanskrit planning to leave home. Together with a verse. I sought out a pundit for aid in my young friend, Jitendra Mazumdar,† I decided stumbling interpretation. His rich voice filled to join a Mahamandal hermitage in Benares, the air with the edgeless, honeyed beauty of and receive its spiritual discipline. the ancient tongue.* A desolation fell over me one morning at “These exceptional stanzas cannot thought of separation from my family. Since possibly be of aid in your Sanskrit test.” The Mother’s death, my affection had grown scholar dismissed them skeptically. especially tender for my two younger But familiarity with that particular poem brothers, Sananda and Bishnu. I rushed to my enabled me on the following day to pass the retreat, the little attic which had witnessed so Sanskrit examination. Through the discerning many scenes in my turbulent sadhana.‡ After help Nantu had given, I also attained the a two-hour flood of tears, I felt singularly minimum grade for success in all my other transformed, as by some alchemical cleanser. subjects. All attachment§ disappeared; my resolution to Father was pleased that I had kept my seek God as the Friend of friends set like word and concluded my secondary school granite within me. I quickly completed my course. My gratitude sped to the Lord, whose travel preparations. sole guidance I perceived in my visit to Nantu “I make one last plea.” Father was and my walk by the unhabitual route of the distressed as I stood before him for final debris-filled lot. Playfully He had given a blessing. “Do not forsake me and your dual expression to His timely design for my grieving brothers and sisters.” rescue. “Revered Father, how can I tell my love I came across the discarded book whose for you! But even greater is my love for the author had denied God precedence in the Heavenly Father, who has given me the gift of examination halls. I could not restrain a a perfect father on earth. Let me go, that I chuckle at my own silent comment: someday return with a more divine understanding.”

*Sanskrita, polished; complete. Sanskrit is the eldest sister of all Indo-European tongues. Its alphabetical †He was not Jatinda (Jotin Ghosh), who will be script is Devanagari, literally “divine abode.” “Who remembered for his timely aversion to tigers! knows my grammar knows God!” Panini, great ‡Path or preliminary road to God. philologist of ancient India, paid this tribute to the §Hindu scriptures teach that family attachment is mathematical and psychological perfection in Sanskrit. delusive if it prevents the devotee from seeking the He who would track language to its lair must indeed Giver of all boons, including the one of loving end as omniscient. relatives, not to mention life itself. Jesus similarly

65 With reluctant parental consent, I set out you require none here. A second injunction to join Jitendra, already in Benares at the for your discipline concerns food. Even when hermitage. On my arrival the young head you feel hunger, don’t mention it.” swami, Dyananda, greeted me cordially. Tall Whether famishment gleamed in my eye, and thin, of thoughtful mien, he impressed me I knew not. That I was hungry, I knew only favorably. His fair face had a Buddhalike too well. The invariable hour for the first composure. hermitage meal was twelve noon. I had been I was pleased that my new home accustomed in my own home to a large possessed an attic, where I managed to spend breakfast at nine o’clock. the dawn and morning hours. The ashram The three-hour gap became daily more members, knowing little of meditation interminable. Gone were the Calcutta years practices, thought I should employ my whole when I could rebuke the cook for a ten-minute time in organizational duties. They gave me delay. Now I tried to control my appetite; one praise for my afternoon work in their office. day I undertook a twenty-four hour fast. With “Don’t try to catch God so soon!” This double zest I awaited the following midday. ridicule from a fellow resident accompanied “Dyanandaji’s train is late; we are not one of my early departures toward the attic. I going to eat until he arrives.” Jitendra brought went to Dyananda, busy in his small sanctum me this devastating news. As gesture of overlooking the Ganges. welcome to the swami, who had been absent “Swamiji,* I don’t understand what is for two weeks, many delicacies were in required of me here. I am seeking direct readiness. An appetizing aroma filled the air. perception of God. Without Him, I cannot be Nothing else offering, what else could be satisfied with affiliation or creed or swallowed except pride over yesterday’s performance of good works.” achievement of a fast? The orange-robed ecclesiastic gave me an “Lord hasten the train!” The Heavenly affectionate pat. Staging a mock rebuke, he Provider, I thought, was hardly included in admonished a few near-by disciples. “Don’t the interdiction with which Dyananda had bother Mukunda. He will learn our ways.” silenced me. Divine Attention was elsewhere, I politely concealed my doubt. The however; the plodding clock covered the students left the room, not overly bent with hours. Darkness was descending as our leader their chastisement. Dyananda had further entered the door. My greeting was one of words for me. unfeigned joy. “Mukunda, I see your father is regularly “Dyanandaji will bathe and meditate sending you money. Please return it to him; before we can serve food.” Jitendra approached me again as a bird of ill omen. taught: “Who is my mother? and who are my I was in near-collapse. My young brethren?” (Matthew 12:48.) *Ji is a customary respectful suffix, particularly used in stomach, new to deprivation, protested with direct address; thus “swamiji,” “guruji,” “Sri Yukteswarji,” “paramhansaji.”

66 gnawing vigor. Pictures I had seen of famine “Swamiji, I am puzzled. Following your victims passed wraithlike before me. instruction, suppose I never asked for food, “The next Benares death from starvation and nobody gives me any. I should starve to is due at once in this hermitage,” I thought. death.” Impending doom averted at nine o’clock. “Die then!” This alarming counsel Ambrosial summons! In memory that meal is the air. “Die if you must Mukunda! Never vivid as one of life’s perfect hours. admit that you live by the power of food and Intense absorption yet permitted me to not by the power of God! He who has created observe that Dyananda ate absent-mindedly. every form of nourishment, He who has He was apparently above my gross pleasures. bestowed appetite, will certainly see that His devotee is sustained! Do not imagine that rice “Swamiji, weren’t you hungry?” Happily maintains you, or that money or men support surfeited, I was alone with the leader in his you! Could they aid if the Lord withdraws study. your life-breath? They are His indirect “O yes! I have spent the last four days instruments merely. Is it by any skill of yours without food or drink. I never eat on trains, that food digests in your stomach? Use the filled with the heterogenous vibrations of sword of your discrimination, Mukunda! Cut worldly people. Strictly I observe the through the chains of agency and perceive the shastric* rules for monks of my particular Single Cause!” order. I found his incisive words entering some “Certain problems of our organizational deep marrow. Gone was an age-old delusion work lie on my mind. Tonight at home I by which bodily imperatives outwit the soul. neglected my dinner. What’s the hurry? There and then I tasted the Spirit’s all- Tomorrow I’ll make it a point to have a sufficiency. In how many strange cities, in my proper meal.” He laughed merrily. later life of ceaseless travel, did occasion arise to prove the serviceability of this lesson in a Shame spread within me like a Benares hermitage! suffocation. But the past day of my torture was not easily forgotten; I ventured a further The sole treasure which had accompanied remark. me from Calcutta was the sadhu’s silver amulet bequeathed to me by Mother.

*Pertaining to the shastras, literally, “sacred books,” Guarding it for years, I now had it carefully comprising four classes of scripture: the shruti, , hidden in my ashram room. To renew my joy purana, and . These comprehensive treatises cover every aspect of religious and social life, and the in the talismanic testimony, one morning I fields of law, medicine, architecture, art, etc. The opened the locked box. The sealed covering shrutis are the “directly heard” or “revealed” untouched, lo! the amulet was gone. scriptures, the Vedas. The or “remembered” lore was finally written down in a remote past as the Mournfully I tore open its envelope and made world’s longest epic poems, the Mahabharata and the unmistakably sure. It had vanished, in Ramayana. are literally “ancient” allegories; accordance with the sadhu’s prediction, into literally mean “rites” or “rituals”; these treatises convey profound truths under a veil of detailed the ether whence he had summoned it. symbolism.

67 My relationship with Dyananda’s A Christlike man in the ocher robes of a followers grew steadily worse. The household swami stood motionless at the end of the road. was alienated, hurt by my determined Instantly and anciently familiar he seemed; aloofness. My strict adherence to meditation my gaze fed hungrily for a trice. Then doubt on the very Ideal for which I had left home assailed me. and all worldly ambitions called forth shallow “You are confusing this wandering monk criticism on all sides. with someone known to you,” I thought. Torn by spiritual anguish, I entered the “Dreamer, walk on.” attic one dawn, resolved to pray until answer After ten minutes, I felt heavy numbness was vouchsafed. in my feet. As though turned to stone, they “Merciful Mother of the Universe, teach were unable to carry me farther. Laboriously I me Thyself through visions, or through a guru turned around; my feet regained normalcy. I sent by Thee!” faced the opposite direction; again the curious The passing hours found my sobbing weight oppressed me. pleas without response. Suddenly I felt lifted “The saint is magnetically drawing me to as though bodily to a sphere uncircumscribed. him!” With this thought, I heaped my parcels “Thy Master cometh today!” A divine into the arms of Habu. He had been observing womanly voice came from everywhere and my erratic footwork with amazement, and nowhere. now burst into laughter. This supernal experience was pierced by “What ails you? Are you crazy?” a shout from a definite locale. A young priest My tumultuous emotion prevented any nicknamed Habu was calling me from the retort; I sped silently away. downstairs kitchen. Retracing my steps as though wing-shod, “Mukunda, enough of meditation! You I reached the narrow lane. My quick glance are needed for an errand.” revealed the quiet figure, steadily gazing in Another day I might have replied my direction. A few eager steps and I was at impatiently; now I wiped my tear-swollen his feet. face and meekly obeyed the summons. “Gurudeva!”* The divine face was none Together Habu and I set out for a distant other than he of my thousand visions. These market place in the Bengali section of halcyon eyes, in leonine head with pointed Benares. The ungentle Indian sun was not yet beard and flowing locks, had oft peered at zenith as we made our purchases in the through gloom of my nocturnal reveries, bazaars. We pushed our way through the holding a promise I had not fully understood. colorful medley of housewives, guides, priests, simply-clad widows, dignified , and the ubiquitous holy bulls. Passing an inconspicuous lane, I turned my *“Divine teacher,” the customary Sanskrit term for one’s spiritual preceptor. I have rendered it in English head and surveyed the narrow length. as simply “Master.”

68 “O my own, you have come to me!” My Precious words! A quarter-century guru uttered the words again and again in elapsed before I had another auricular proof Bengali, his voice tremulous with joy. “How of his love. His lips were strange to ardor; many years I have waited for you!” silence became his oceanic heart. We entered a oneness of silence; words “Will you give me the same seemed the rankest superfluities. Eloquence unconditional love?” He gazed at me with flowed in soundless chant from heart of childlike trust. master to disciple. With an antenna of “I will love you eternally, Gurudeva!” irrefragable insight I sensed that my guru knew God, and would lead me to Him. The “Ordinary love is selfish, darkly rooted in obscuration of this life disappeared in a desires and satisfactions. Divine love is fragile dawn of prenatal memories. Dramatic without condition, without boundary, without time! Past, present, and future are its cycling change. The flux of the human heart is gone scenes. This was not the first sun to find me at forever at the transfixing touch of pure love.” these holy feet! He added humbly, “If ever you find me falling from a state of God-realization, please My hand in his, my guru led me to his promise to put my head on your lap and help temporary residence in the Rana Mahal to bring me back to the Cosmic Beloved we section of the city. His athletic figure moved both worship.” with firm tread. Tall, erect, about fifty-five at this time, he was active and vigorous as a He rose then in the gathering darkness young man. His dark eyes were large, and guided me to an inner room. As we ate beautiful with plumbless wisdom. Slightly mangoes and almond sweetmeats, he curly hair softened a face of striking power. unobtrusively wove into his conversation an Strength mingled subtly with gentleness. intimate knowledge of my nature. I was awe- struck at the grandeur of his wisdom, As we made our way to the stone balcony exquisitely blended with an innate humility. of a house overlooking the Ganges, he said affectionately: “Do not grieve for your amulet. It has served its purpose.” Like a divine mirror, my “I will give you my hermitages and all I guru apparently had caught a reflection of my possess.” whole life. “Sir, I come for wisdom and God- “The living reality of your presence, contact. Those are your treasure-troves I am Master, is joy beyond any symbol.” after!” “It is time for a change, inasmuch as you The swift Indian twilight had dropped its are unhappily situated in the hermitage.” half-curtain before my master spoke again. His eyes held unfathomable tenderness. I had made no references to my life; they now seemed superfluous! By his natural, “I give you my unconditional love.” unemphatic manner, I understood that he

69 wished no astonished ejaculations at his reawaken my interest: I won’t accept you as a clairvoyance. disciple easily. There must be complete “You should go back to Calcutta. Why surrender by obedience to my strict training.” exclude relatives from your love of I remained obstinately silent. My guru humanity?” easily penetrated my difficulty. His suggestion dismayed me. My family “Do you think your relatives will laugh at was predicting my return, though I had been you?” unresponsive to many pleas by letter. “Let the “I will not return.” young bird fly in the metaphysical skies,” Ananta had remarked. “His wings will tire in “You will return in thirty days.” the heavy atmosphere. We shall yet see him “Never.” Bowing reverently at his feet, I swoop toward home, fold his pinions, and departed without lightening the controversial humbly rest in our family nest.” This tension. As I made my way in the midnight discouraging simile fresh in my mind, I was darkness, I wondered why the miraculous determined to do no “swooping” in the meeting had ended on an inharmonious note. direction of Calcutta. The dual scales of maya, that balance every “Sir, I am not returning home. But I will joy with a grief! My young heart was not yet follow you anywhere. Please give me your malleable to the transforming fingers of my address, and your name.” guru. “Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri. My chief The next morning I noticed increased hermitage is in Serampore, on Rai Ghat Lane. hostility in the attitude of the hermitage I am visiting my mother here for only a few members. My days became spiked with days.” invariable rudeness. In three weeks, Dyananda left the ashram to attend a I wondered at God’s intricate play with conference in Bombay; pandemonium broke His devotees. Serampore is but twelve miles over my hapless head. from Calcutta, yet in those regions I had never caught a glimpse of my guru. We had had to “Mukunda is a parasite, accepting travel for our meeting to the ancient city of hermitage hospitality without making proper Kasi (Benares), hallowed by memories of return.” Overhearing this remark, I regretted Lahiri Mahasaya. Here too the feet of for the first time that I had obeyed the request Buddha, Shankaracharya and other Yogi- to send back my money to Father. With heavy Christs had blessed the soil. heart, I sought out my sole friend, Jitendra. “You will come to me in four weeks.” “I am leaving. Please convey my For the first time, Sri Yukteswar’s voice was respectful regrets to Dyanandaji when he stern. “Now I have told my eternal affection, returns.” and have shown my happiness at finding “I will leave also! My attempts to y o u —that is why you disregard my request. meditate here meet with no more favor than The next time we meet, you will have to your own.” Jitendra spoke with determination.

70 “I have met a Christlike saint. Let us visit him in Serampore.” And so the “bird” prepared to “swoop” perilously close to Calcutta!

71 CHAPTER: 11 Two Penniless Boys in Brindaban “It would serve you right if Father Ananta joined me in reminiscent disinherited you, Mukunda! How foolishly laughter; he had had to admit that the Benares you are throwing away your life!” An elder- “clairvoyant” he selected was a shortsighted brother sermon was assaulting my ears. one. Jitendra and I, fresh from the train (a “What are your plans, my wandering figure of speech merely; we were covered brother?” with dust), had just arrived at the home of “Jitendra persuaded me to Agra. We shall Ananta, recently transferred from Calcutta to view the beauties of the Taj Mahal† here,” I the ancient city of Agra. Brother was a explained. “Then we are going to my newly- supervising accountant for the Bengal-Nagpur found guru, who has a hermitage in Railway. Serampore.” “You well know, Ananta, I seek my Ananta hospitably arranged for our inheritance from the Heavenly Father.” comfort. Several times during the evening I “Money first; God can come later! Who noticed his eyes fixed on me reflectively. knows? Life may be too long.” “I know that look!” I thought. “A plot is “God first; money is His slave! Who can brewing!” tell? Life may be too short.” The denouement took place during our My retort was summoned by the early breakfast. exigencies of the moment, and held no “So you feel quite independent of presentiment. Yet the leaves of time unfolded Father’s wealth.” Ananta’s gaze was innocent to early finality for Ananta; a few years later* as he resumed the barbs of yesterday’s he entered the land where bank notes avail conversation. neither first nor last. “I am conscious of my dependence on “Wisdom from the hermitage, I suppose! God.” But I see you have left Benares.” Ananta’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction; he yet hoped “Words are cheap! Life has shielded you to secure my pinions in the family nest. thus far! What a plight if you were forced to look to the Invisible Hand for your food and “My sojourn in Benares was not in vain! shelter! You would soon be begging on the I found there everything my heart had been streets!” longing for! You may be sure it was not your pundit or his son!” “Never! I would not put faith in passers- by rather than God! He can devise for His

*See chapter 25. †T h e w o r l d -famous mausoleum.

72 devotee a thousand resources besides the unequal to any tussle on the world’s harsh begging-bowl!” proving ground! “More rhetoric! Suppose I suggest that “Your willingness does you credit. I’ll your vaunted philosophy be put to a test in escort you to the train at once.” Ananta turned this tangible world?” to the openmouthed Jitendra. “You must go “I would agree! Do you confine God to a along as a witness and, very likely, a fellow speculative world?” victim!” “We shall see; today you shall have A half hour later Jitendra and I were in opportunity either to enlarge or to confirm my possession of one-way tickets for our own views!” Ananta paused for a dramatic impromptu trip. We submitted, in a secluded moment; then spoke slowly and seriously. corner of the station, to a search of our persons. Ananta was quickly satisfied that we “I propose that I send you and your were carrying no hidden hoard; our simple fellow disciple Jitendra this morning to the dhotis* concealed nothing more than was near-by city of Brindaban. You must not take necessary. a single rupee; you must not beg, either for food or money; you must not reveal your As faith invaded the serious realms of predicament to anyone; you must not go finance, my friend spoke protestingly. without your meals; and you must not be “Ananta, give me one or two rupees as a stranded in Brindaban. If you return to my safeguard. Then I can telegraph you in case of bungalow here before twelve o’clock tonight, misfortune.” without having broken any rule of the test, I “Jitendra!” My ejaculation was sharply shall be the most astonished man in Agra!” reproachful. “I will not proceed with the test “I accept the challenge.” No hesitation if you take any money as final security.” was in my words or in my heart. Grateful “There is something reassuring about the memories flashed of the Instant Beneficence: clink of coins.” Jitendra said no more as I my healing of deadly cholera through appeal regarded him sternly. to Lahiri Mahasaya’s picture; the playful gift “Mukunda, I am not heartless.” A hint of of the two kites on the Lahore roof with Uma; humility had crept into Ananta’s voice. It may the opportune amulet amidst my be that his conscience was smiting him; discouragement; the decisive message perhaps for sending two insolvent boys to a through the unknown Benares sadhu outside strange city; perhaps for his own religious the compound of the pundit’s home; the skepticism. “If by any chance or grace you vision of Divine Mother and Her majestic pass successfully through the Brindaban words of love; Her swift heed through Master ordeal, I shall ask you to initiate me as your Mahasaya to my trifling embarrassments; the disciple.” last-minute guidance which materialized my high school diploma; and the ultimate boon, my living Master from the mist of lifelong *A dhoti-cloth is knotted around the waist and covers dreams. Never could I admit my “philosophy” the legs.

73 This promise had a certain irregularity, in of Hearts.* I am of devotional temperament keeping with the unconventional occasion. myself. I will make it my positive duty to see The eldest brother in an Indian family seldom that you receive food, and shelter from this bows before his juniors; he receives respect overpowering heat.” and obedience second only to a father. But no “No, sir, let us alone. You are very kind; time remained for my comment; our train was but you are mistaken in judging us to be at point of departure. truants from home.” Jitendra maintained a lugubrious silence No further conversation ensued; the train as our train covered the miles. Finally he came to a halt. As Jitendra and I descended to bestirred himself; leaning over, he pinched me the platform, our chance companions linked painfully at an awkward spot. arms with us and summoned a horse cab. “I see no sign that God is going to supply We alit before a stately hermitage, set our next meal!” amidst the evergreen trees of well-kept “Be quiet, doubting Thomas; the Lord is grounds. Our benefactors were evidently working with us.” known here; a smiling lad led us without “Can you also arrange that He hurry? comment to a parlor. We were soon joined by Already I am famished merely at the prospect an elderly woman of dignified bearing. before us. I left Benares to view the Taj’s “Gauri Ma, the princes could not come.” mausoleum, not to enter my own!” One of the men addressed the ashram hostess. “Cheer up, Jitendra! Are we not to have “At the last moment their plans went awry; our first glimpse of the sacred wonders of they send deep regrets. But we have brought Brindaban?* I am in deep joy at thought of two other guests. As soon as we met on the treading the ground hallowed by feet of Lord train, I felt drawn to them as devotees of Lord Krishna.” Krishna.” The door of our compartment opened; “Good-by, young friends.” Our two two men seated themselves. The next train acquaintances walked to the door. “We shall stop would be the last. meet again, if God be willing.” “Young lads, do you have friends in “You are welcome here.” Gauri Ma Brindaban?” The stranger opposite me was smiled in motherly fashion on her two taking a surprising interest. unexpected charges. “You could not have come on a better day. I was expecting two “None of your business!” Rudely I royal patrons of this hermitage. What a shame averted my gaze. if my cooking had found none to appreciate “You are probably flying away from your it!” families under the enchantment of the Stealer These appetizing words had disastrous effect on Jitendra: he burst into tears. The *Brindaban, in the Muttra district of United Provinces, is the Hindu Jerusalem. Here Lord Krishna display e d his glories for the benefit of mankind.

74 “prospect” he had feared in Brindaban was The heat outdoors was merciless. My turning out as royal entertainment; his sudden friend and I made for the shelter of a lordly mental adjustment proved too much for him. cadamba tree at the ashram gate. Sharp words Our hostess looked at him with curiosity, but followed; once again Jitendra was beset with without remark; perhaps she was familiar misgivings. with adolescent quirks. “A fine mess you have got me into! Our Lunch was announced; Gauri Ma led the luncheon was only accidental good fortune! way to a dining patio, spicy with savory How can we see the sights of this city, odors. She vanished into an adjoining kitchen. without a single pice between us? And how I had been premeditating this moment. on earth are you going to take me back to Selecting the appropriate spot on Jitendra’s Ananta’s?” anatomy, I administered a pinch as “You forget God quickly, now that your resounding as the one he had given me on the stomach is filled.” My words, not bitter, were train. accusatory. How short is human memory for “Doubting Thomas, the Lord works—in a divine favors! No man lives who has not seen hurry, too!” certain of his prayers granted. The hostess reentered with a punkha. She “I am not likely to forget my folly in steadily fanned us in the Oriental fashion as venturing out with a madcap like you!” we squatted on ornate blanket-seats. Ashram “Be quiet, Jitendra! The same Lord who disciples passed to and fro with some thirty fed us will show us Brindaban, and return us courses. Rather than “meal,” the description to Agra.” can only be “sumptuous repast.” Since A slight young man of pleasing arriving on this planet, Jitendra and I had countenance approached at rapid pace. never before tasted such delicacies. Halting under our tree, he bowed before me. “Dishes fit for princes indeed, Honored “Dear friend, you and your companion Mother! What your royal patrons could have must be strangers here. Permit me to be your found more urgent than attending this host and guide.” banquet, I cannot imagine! You have given us a memory for a lifetime!” It is scarcely possible for an Indian to pale, but Jitendra’s face was suddenly sickly. Silenced as we were by Ananta’s I politely declined the offer. requirement, we could not explain to the gracious lady that our thanks held a double “You are surely not banishing me?” The significance. Our sincerity at least was patent. stranger’s alarm would have been comic in We departed with her blessing and an any other circumstances. attractive invitation to revisit the hermitage. “Why not?” “You are my guru.” His eyes sought mine trustfully. “During my midday devotions, the *; an endearing name by which Lord Krishna is known to his devotees. blessed Lord Krishna appeared in a vision. He

75 showed me two forsaken figures under this We sought out a secluded spot near the very tree. One face was yours, my master! station. Often have I seen it in meditation! What joy if “Pratap, I will instruct you in the Kriya of you accept my humble services!” Lahiri Mahasaya, the greatest yogi of modern “I too am glad you have found me. times. His technique will be your guru.” Neither God nor man has forsaken us!” The initiation was concluded in a half Though I was motionless, smiling at the eager hour. “Kriya is your chintamani,”† I told the face before me, an inward obeisance cast me new student. “The technique, which as you at the Divine Feet. see is simple, embodies the art of quickening “Dear friends, will you not honor my man’s spiritual evolution. Hindu scriptures home for a visit?” teach that the incarnating ego requires a “You are kind; but the plan is unfeasible. million years to obtain liberation from maya. Already we are guests of my brother in Agra.” This natural period is greatly shortened through Kriya Yoga. Just as Jagadis Chandra “At least give me memories of touring Bose has demonstrated that plant growth can Brindaban with you.” be accelerated far beyond its normal rate, so I gladly consented. The young man, who man’s psychological development can be also said his name was Pratap Chatterji, hailed a speeded by an inner science. Be faithful in horse carriage. We visited Madanamohana your practice; you will approach the Guru of Temple and other Krishna shrines. Night all .” descended while we were at our temple “I am transported to find this yogic key, devotions. long sought!” Pratap spoke thoughtfully. “ I t s “Excuse me while I get sandesh.”* unshackling effect on my sensory bonds will Pratap entered a shop near the railroad station. free me for higher spheres. The vision today Jitendra and I sauntered along the wide street, of Lord Krishna could only mean my highest crowded now in the comparative coolness. good.” Our friend was absent for some time, but We sat awhile in silent understanding, finally returned with gifts of many then walked slowly to the station. Joy was sweetmeats. within me as I boarded the train, but this was “Please allow me to gain this religious Jitendra’s day for tears. My affectionate merit.” Pratap smiled pleadingly as he held farewell to Pratap had been punctuated by out a bundle of rupee notes and two tickets, stifled sobs from both my companions. The just purchased, to Agra. journey once more found Jitendra in a welter of grief. Not for himself this time, but against The reverence of my acceptance was for himself. the Invisible Hand. Scoffed at by Ananta, had Its bounty not far exceeded necessity?

*An Indian sweetmeat. †A mythological gem with power to grant desires.

76 “How shallow my trust! My heart has semiprecious stones. Delicate wreaths and been stone! Never in future shall I doubt scrolls emerge intricately from marbles, God’s protection!” brown and violet. Illumination from the dome Midnight was approaching. The two falls on the cenotaphs of Emperor Shah-Jahan “Cinderellas,” sent forth penniless, entered and Mumtaz Mahall, queen of his realm and Ananta’s bedroom. His face, as he had his heart. promised, was a study in astonishment. Enough of sight-seeing! I was longing for Silently I showered the table with rupees. my guru. Jitendra and I were shortly traveling “Jitendra, the truth!” Ananta’s tone was south by train toward Bengal. jocular. “Has not this youngster been staging “Mukunda, I have not seen my family in a holdup?” months. I have changed my mind; perhaps But as the tale was unfolded, my brother later I shall visit your master in Serampore.” turned sober, then solemn. My friend, who may mildly be described “The law of demand and supply reaches as vacillating in temperament, left me in into subtler realms than I had supposed.” Calcutta. By local train I soon reached Ananta spoke with a spiritual enthusiasm Serampore, twelve miles to the north. never before noticeable. “I understand for the A throb of wonderment stole over me as I first time your indifference to the vaults and realized that twenty-eight days had elapsed vulgar accumulations of the world.” since the Benares meeting with my guru. Late as it was, my brother insisted that he “You will come to me in four weeks!” Here I receive diksha* into Kriya Yoga. The “guru” was, heart pounding, standing within his Mukunda had to shoulder the responsibility of courtyard on quiet Rai Ghat Lane. I entered two unsought disciples in one day. for the first time the hermitage where I was to spend the best part of the next ten years with Breakfast the following morning was India’s Jyanavatar, “incarnation of wisdom.” eaten in a harmony absent the day before. I smiled at Jitendra. “You shall not be cheated of the Taj. Let us view it before starting for Serampore.” Bidding farewell to Ananta, my friend and I were soon before the glory of Agra, the Taj Mahal. White marble dazzling in the sun, it stands a vision of pure symmetry. The perfect setting is dark cypress, glossy lawn, and tranquil lagoon. The interior is exquisite with lacelike carvings inlaid with

*Spiritual initiation; from the Sanskrit root diksh, to dedicate oneself.

77

CHAPTER: 12 Years in my Master’s Hermitage “ You have come.” Sri Yukteswar greeted me “You will be near in Calcutta; come here from a tiger skin on the floor of a balconied whenever you find time.” sitting room. His voice was cold, his manner “Every day if possible, Master! unemotional. Gratefully I accept your authority in every “Yes, dear Master, I am here to follow detail of my life—on one condition.” you.” Kneeling, I touched his feet. “Yes?” “How can that be? You ignore my “That you promise to reveal God to me!” wishes.” An hour-long verbal tussle ensued. A “No longer, Guruji! Your wish shall be master’s word cannot be falsified; it is not my law!” lightly given. The implications in the pledge “That is better! Now I can assume open out vast metaphysical vistas. A guru responsibility for your life.” must be on intimate terms indeed with the “I willingly transfer the burden, Master.” Creator before he can obligate Him to appear! I sensed Sri Yukteswar’s divine unity, and “My first request, then, is that you return was determined, as his disciple, to press my home to your family. I want you to enter advantage. college in Calcutta. Your education should be continued.” “You are of exacting disposition!” Then Master’s consent rang out with compassionate “Very well, sir.” I hid my consternation. finality: Would importunate books pursue me down the years? First Father, now Sri Yukteswar! “Let your wish be my wish.” “Someday you will go to the West. Its Lifelong shadow lifted from my heart; people will lend ears more receptive to India’s the vague search, hither and yon, was over. I ancient wisdom if the strange Hindu teacher had found eternal shelter in a true guru. has a university degree.” “Come; I will show you the hermitage.” “You know best, Guruji.” My gloom Master rose from his tiger mat. I glanced departed. The reference to the West I found about me; my gaze fell with astonishment on puzzling, remote; but my opportunity to a wall picture, garlanded with a spray of please Master by obedience was vitally jasmine. immediate. “Lahiri Mahasaya!” “Yes, my divine guru.” Sri Yukteswar’s “Guruji, please tell me something of your tone was reverently vibrant. “Greater he was, life.” I was squatting on a straw mat near his as man and yogi, than any other teacher tiger skin. The friendly stars were very close, whose life came within the range of my it seemed, beyond the balcony. investigations.” “My family name was Priya Nath Karar. Silently I bowed before the familiar I was born† here in Serampore, where Father picture. Soul-homage sped to the peerless was a wealthy businessman. He left me this master who, blessing my infancy, had guided ancestral mansion, now my hermitage. My my steps to this hour. formal schooling was little; I found it slow Led by my guru, I strolled over the house and shallow. In early manhood, I undertook and its grounds. Large, ancient and well-built, the responsibilities of a householder, and have the hermitage was surrounded by a massive- one daughter, now married. My middle life pillared courtyard. Outer walls were moss- was blessed with the guidance of Lahiri covered; pigeons fluttered over the flat gray Mahasaya. After my wife died, I joined the roof, unceremoniously sharing the ashram Swami Order and received the new name of quarters. A rear garden was pleasant with Sri Yukteswar Giri.‡ Such are my simple jackfruit, mango, and plantain trees. annals.” Balustraded balconies of upper rooms in the Master smiled at my eager face. Like all two-storied building faced the courtyard from biographical sketches, his words had given three sides. A spacious ground-floor hall, with the outward facts without revealing the inner high ceiling supported by colonnades, was man. used, Master said, chiefly during the annual “Guruji, I would like to hear some stories festivities of Durgapuja.* A narrow stairway of your childhood.” led to Sri Yukteswar’s sitting room, whose small balcony overlooked the street. The “I will tell you a few—each one with a ashram was plainly furnished; everything was moral!” Sri Yukteswar’s eyes twinkled with simple, clean, and utilitarian. Several Western his warning. “My mother once tried to styled chairs, benches, and tables were in frighten me with an appalling story of a ghost evidence. in a dark chamber. I went there immediately, and expressed my disappointment at having Master invited me to stay overnight. A missed the ghost. Mother never told me supper of vegetable curry was served by two another horror-tale. Moral: Look fear in the young disciples who were receiving face and it will cease to trouble you. hermitage training. “Another early memory is my wish for an *“Worship of .” This is the chief festival of the ugly dog belonging to a neighbor. I kept my Bengali year and lasts for nine days around the end of September. Immediately following is the ten-d a y festival of Dashahara (“the One who removes ten †Sri Yukteswar was born on May 10, 1855. sins”—three of body, three of mind, four of speech). ‡Yukteswar means “united to God.” Giri is a Both pujas are sacred to Durga, literally “the classificatory distinction of one of the ten ancient Inaccessible,” an aspect of Divine Mother, , the Swami branches. Sri means “holy”; it is not a name but female creative force personified. a title of respect.

79 household in turmoil for weeks to get that I climbed to my little attic and bestowed dog. My ears were deaf to offers of pets with affectionate glances, as though on a living more prepossessing appearance. Moral: presence. “You have witnessed my Attachment is blinding; it lends an imaginary meditations, and the tears and storms of my halo of attractiveness to the object of desire. sadhana. Now I have reached the harbor of “A third story concerns the plasticity of my divine teacher.” the youthful mind. I heard my mother remark “Son, I am happy for us both.” Father and occasionally: ‘A man who accepts a job under I sat together in the evening calm. “You have anyone is a slave.’ That impression became so found your guru, as in miraculous fashion I indelibly fixed that even after my marriage I once found my own. The holy hand of Lahiri refused all positions. I met expenses by Mahasaya is guarding our lives. Your master investing my family endowment in land. has proved no inaccessible Himalayan saint, Moral: Good and positive suggestions should but one near-by. My prayers have been instruct the sensitive ears of children. Their answered: you have not in your search for early ideas long remain sharply etched.” God been permanently removed from my Master fell into tranquil silence. Around sight.” midnight he led me to a narrow cot. Sleep was Father was also pleased that my formal sound and sweet the first night under my studies would be resumed; he made suitable guru’s roof. arrangements. I was enrolled the following Sri Yukteswar chose the following day at the Scottish Church College in morning to grant me his Kriya Yoga initiation. Calcutta. The technique I had already received from Happy months sped by. My readers have two disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya—Father and doubtless made the perspicacious surmise that my tutor, Swami Kebalananda—but in I was little seen in the college classrooms. Master’s presence I felt transforming power. The Serampore hermitage held a lure too At his touch, a great light broke upon my irresistible. Master accepted my ubiquitous being, like glory of countless suns blazing presence without comment. To my relief, he together. A flood of ineffable bliss, seldom referred to the halls of learning. overwhelming my heart to an innermost core, Though it was plain to all that I was never cut continued during the following day. It was out for a scholar, I managed to attain late that afternoon before I could bring myself minimum passing grades from time to time. to leave the hermitage. Daily life at the ashram flowed smoothly, “You will return in thirty days.” As I infrequently varied. My guru awoke before reached my Calcutta home, the fulfillment of dawn. Lying down, or sometimes sitting on Master’s prediction entered with me. None of the bed, he entered a state of .* It was my relatives made the pointed remarks I had simplicity itself to discover when Master had feared about the reappearance of the “soaring bird.” *Literally, “to direct together.” Samadhi is a superconscious state of ecstasy in which the yogi perceives the identity of soul and Spirit.

80 awakened: abrupt halt of stupendous snores.* The impartiality of saints is rooted in A sigh or two; perhaps a bodily movement. wisdom. Masters have escaped maya; its Then a soundless state of breathlessness: he alternating faces of intellect and idiocy no was in deep yogic joy. longer cast an influential glance. Sri Breakfast did not follow; first came a Yukteswar showed no special consideration to long walk by the Ganges. Those morning those who happened to be powerful or strolls with my guru—how real and vivid accomplished; neither did he slight others for still! In the easy resurrection of memory, I their poverty or illiteracy. He would listen often find myself by his side: the early sun is respectfully to words of truth from a child, warming the river. His voice rings out, rich and openly ignore a conceited pundit. with the authenticity of wisdom. Eight o’clock was the supper hour, and A bath; then the midday meal. Its sometimes found lingering guests. My guru preparation, according to Master’s daily would not excuse himself to eat alone; none directions, had been the careful task of young left his ashram hungry or dissatisfied. Sri disciples. My guru was a vegetarian. Before Yukteswar was never at a loss, never embracing monkhood, however, he had eaten dismayed by unexpected visitors; scanty food eggs and fish. His advice to students was to would emerge a banquet under his resourceful follow any simple diet which proved suited to direction. Yet he was economical; his modest one’s constitution. funds went far. “Be comfortable within your purse,” he often said. “Extravagance will buy Master ate little; often rice, colored with you discomfort.” Whether in the details of turmeric or juice of beets or spinach and hermitage entertainment, or his building and lightly sprinkled with buffalo ghee or melted repair work, or other practical concerns, butter. Another day he might have lentil-dhal Master manifested the originality of a creative or channa† curry with vegetables. For dessert, spirit. mangoes or oranges with rice pudding, or jackfruit juice. Quiet evening hours often brought one of my guru’s discourses, treasures against time. Visitors appeared in the afternoons. A His every utterance was measured and steady stream poured from the world into the chiseled by wisdom. A sublime self-assurance hermitage tranquillity. Everyone found in marked his mode of expression: it was Master an equal courtesy and kindness. To a unique. He spoke as none other in my man who has realized himself as a soul, not experience ever spoke. His thoughts were the body or the ego, the rest of humanity weighed in a delicate balance of assumes a striking similarity of aspect. discrimination before he permitted them an outward garb. The essence of truth, all- pervasive with even a physiological aspect,

*Snoring, according to physiologists, is an indication came from him like a fragrant exudation of of utter relaxation (to the oblivious practitioner, solely). the soul. I was conscious always that I was in †Dhal is a thick soup made from split peas or other the presence of a living manifestation of God. pulses. Channa is a cheese of fresh curdled milk, cut into squares and curried with potatoes.

81 The weight of his divinity automatically I was more than thankful to comply. bowed my head before him. Every night that I spent in Serampore, my If late guests detected that Sri Yukteswar guru would ask me to arrange the bedtime was becoming engrossed with the Infinite, he curtains. quickly engaged them in conversation. He The mosquitoes one evening were was incapable of striking a pose, or of especially virulent. But Master failed to issue flaunting his inner withdrawal. Always one his usual instructions. I listened nervously to with the Lord, he needed no separate time for the anticipatory hum of the insects. Getting communion. A self-realized master has into bed, I threw a propitiatory prayer in their already left behind the stepping stone of general direction. A half hour later, I coughed meditation. “The flower falls when the fruit pretentiously to attract my guru’s attention. I appears.” But saints often cling to spiritual thought I would go mad with the bites and forms for the encouragement of disciples. especially the singing drone as the mosquitoes As midnight approached, my guru might celebrated bloodthirsty rites. fall into a doze with the naturalness of a child. No responsive stir from Master; I There was no fuss about bedding. He often approached him cautiously. He was not lay down, without even a pillow, on a narrow breathing. This was my first observation of davenport which was the background for his him in the yogic trance; it filled me with customary tiger-skin seat. fright. A night-long philosophical discussion “His heart must have failed!” I placed a was not rare; any disciple could summon it by mirror under his nose; no breath-vapor intensity of interest. I felt no tiredness then, appeared. To make doubly certain, for no desire for sleep; Master’s living words minutes I closed his mouth and nostrils with were sufficient. “Oh, it is dawn! Let us walk my fingers. His body was cold and by the Ganges.” So ended many of my motionless. In a daze, I turned toward the periods of nocturnal edification. door to summon help. My early months with Sri Yukteswar “So! A budding experimentalist! My culminated in a useful lesson—“How to poor nose!” Master’s voice was shaky with Outwit a Mosquito.” At home my family laughter. “Why don’t you go to bed? Is the always used protective curtains at night. I was whole world going to change for you? Change dismayed to discover that in the Serampore yourself: be rid of the mosquito hermitage this prudent custom was honored in consciousness.” the breach. Yet the insects were in full Meekly I returned to my bed. Not one residency; I was bitten from head to foot. My insect ventured near. I realized that my guru guru took pity on me. had previously agreed to the curtains only to “Buy yourself a curtain, and also one for please me; he had no fear of mosquitoes. His me.” He laughed and added, “If you buy only yogic power was such that he either could one, for yourself, all mosquitoes will will them not to bite, or could escape to an concentrate on me!” inner invulnerability.

82 “He was giving me a demonstration,” I under similar compulsion to feel anger or thought. “That is the yogic state I must strive animosity. All forms of life have equal right to attain.” A yogi must be able to pass into, to the air of maya. The saint who uncovers the and continue in, the superconsciousness, secret of creation will be in harmony with its regardless of multitudinous distractions never countless bewildering expressions. All men absent from this earth. Whether in the buzz of may approach that understanding who curb insects or the pervasive glare of daylight, the the inner passion for destruction.” testimony of the senses must be barred. Sound “Guruji, should one offer himself a and sight come then indeed, but to worlds sacrifice rather than kill a wild beast?” fairer than the banished Eden.* “No; man’s body is precious. It has the The instructive mosquitoes served for highest evolutionary value because of unique another early lesson at the ashram. It was the brain and spinal centers. These enable the gentle hour of dusk. My guru was matchlessly advanced devotee to fully grasp and express interpreting the ancient texts. At his feet, I the loftiest aspects of divinity. No lower form was in perfect peace. A rude mosquito entered is so equipped. It is true that one incurs the the idyl and competed for my attention. As it debt of a minor sin if he is forced to kill an dug a poisonous hypodermic needle into my animal or any living thing. But the Vedas thigh, I automatically raised an avenging teach that wanton loss of a human body is a hand. Reprieve from impending execution! serious transgression against the karmic law.” An opportune memory came to me of one of Patanjali’s yoga aphorisms—that on ahimsa I sighed in relief; scriptural reinforcement (harmlessness). of one’s natural instincts is not always forthcoming. “Why didn’t you finish the job?” It so happened that I never saw Master at “Master! Do you advocate taking life?” close quarters with a leopard or a tiger. But a “No; but the deathblow already had been deadly cobra once confronted him, only to be struck in your mind.” conquered by my guru’s love. This variety of “I don’t understand.” snake is much feared in India, where it causes more than five thousand deaths annually. The “Patanjali’s meaning was the removal of dangerous encounter took place at Puri, where desire to kill.” Sri Yukteswar had found my Sri Yukteswar had a second hermitage, mental processes an open book. “This world charmingly situated near the Bay of Bengal. is inconveniently arranged for a literal Prafulla, a young disciple of later years, was practice of ahimsa. Man may be compelled to with Master on this occasion. exterminate harmful creatures. He is not “We were seated outdoors near the ashram,” Prafulla told me. “A cobra appeared *The omnipresent powers of a yogi, whereby he sees, hears, tastes, smells, and feels his oneness in creation near-by, a four-foot length of sheer terror. Its without the use of sensory organs, have been described hood was angrily expanded as it raced toward as follows in the Taittiriya Aranyaka: “The blind man us. My guru gave a welcoming chuckle, as pierced the pearl; the fingerless put a thread into it; the neckless wore it; and the tongueless praised it.” though to a child. I was beside myself with

83 consternation to see Master engage in a which no other healer—and I had tried rhythmical clapping of hands.* He was m a n y ! —had been able to summon within me. entertaining the dread visitor! I remained Day by day, behold! I waxed. Two weeks absolutely quiet, inwardly ejaculating what after Master’s hidden blessing, I had fervent prayers I could muster. The serpent, accumulated the invigorating weight which very close to my guru, was now motionless, eluded me in the past. My persistent stomach seemingly magnetized by his caressing ailments vanished with a lifelong attitude. The frightful hood gradually permanency. On later occasions I witnessed contracted; the snake slithered between my guru’s instantaneous divine healings of Master’s feet and disappeared into the bushes. persons suffering from ominous disease— “Why my guru would move his hands, tuberculosis, diabetes, epilepsy, or paralysis. and why the cobra would not strike them, Not one could have been more grateful for his were inexplicable to me then,” Prafulla cure than I was at sudden freedom from my concluded. “I have since come to realize that cadaverous aspect. my divine master is beyond fear of hurt from “Years ago, I too was anxious to put on any living creature.” weight,” Sri Yukteswar told me. “During One afternoon during my early months at convalescence after a severe illness, I visited the ashram, found Sri Yukteswar’s eyes fixed Lahiri Mahasaya in Benares. on me piercingly. “‘Sir, I have been very sick and lost “You are too thin, Mukunda.” many pounds.’ His remark struck a sensitive point. That “‘I see, Yukteswar,† you made yourself my sunken eyes and emaciated appearance unwell, and now you think you are thin.’ were far from my liking was testified to by “This reply was far from the one I had rows of tonics in my room at Calcutta. expected; my guru, however, added Nothing availed; chronic dyspepsia had encouragingly: pursued me since childhood. My despair reached an occasional zenith when I asked “‘Let me see; I am sure you ought to feel myself if it were worth-while to carry on this better tomorrow.’ life with a body so unsound. “Taking his words as a gesture of secret “Medicines have limitations; the creative healing toward my receptive mind, I was not life-force has none. Believe that: you shall be surprised the next morning at a welcome well and strong.” accession of strength. I sought out my master and exclaimed exultingly, ‘Sir, I feel much Sri Yukteswar’s words aroused a better today.’ conviction of personally-applicable truth

†Lahiri Mahasaya actually said “Priya” (first or given name), not “Yukteswar” (monastic name, not received by my guru during Lahiri Mahasaya’s lifetime). (See *The cobra swiftly strikes at any moving object within page 109.) “Yukteswar” is substituted here, and in a its range. Complete immobility is usually one’s sole few other places in this book, in order to avoid the hope of safety. confusion, to reader, of two names.

84 “‘Indeed! Today you invigorate yourself.’ “Lo! I felt an increase not alone of “‘No, master!’ I protested. ‘It was you strength but of weight. Lahiri Mahasaya who helped me; this is the first time in weeks retreated into silence. After a few hours at his that I have had any energy.’ feet, I returned to my mother’s home, where I stayed during my visits to Benares. “‘O yes! Your malady has been quite serious. Your body is frail yet; who can say “‘My son! What is the matter? Are you how it will be tomorrow?’ swelling with dropsy?’ Mother could hardly believe her eyes. My body was now of the “The thought of possible return of my same robust dimensions it had possessed weakness brought me a shudder of cold fear. before my illness. The following morning I could hardly drag myself to Lahiri Mahasaya’s home. “I weighed myself and found that in one day I had gained fifty pounds; they remained “‘Sir, I am ailing again.’ with me permanently. Friends and “My guru’s glance was quizzical. ‘So! acquaintances who had seen my thin figure Once more you indispose yourself.’ were aghast with wonderment. A number of them changed their mode of life and became “‘Gurudeva, I realize now that day by disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya as a result of day you have been ridiculing me.’ My this miracle. patience was exhausted. ‘I don’t understand why you disbelieve my truthful reports.’ “My guru, awake in God, knew this world to be nothing but an objectivized dream “‘Really, it has been your thoughts that of the Creator. Because he was completely have made you feel alternately weak and aware of his unity with the Divine Dreamer, strong.’ My master looked at me Lahiri Mahasaya could materialize or affectionately. ‘You have seen how your dematerialize or make any change he wished health has exactly followed your expectations. in the cosmic vision.* Thought is a force, even as electricity or gravitation. The human mind is a spark of the “All creation is governed by law,” Sri almighty consciousness of God. I could show Yukteswar concluded. “The ones which you that whatever your powerful mind manifest in the outer universe, discoverable very intensely would instantly come by scientists, are called natural laws. But there to pass.’ are subtler laws ruling the realms of consciousness which can be known only “Knowing that Lahiri Mahasaya never through the inner . The hidden spoke idly, I addressed him with great awe spiritual planes also have their natural and and gratitude: ‘Master, if I think I am well lawful principles of operation. It is not the and have regained my former weight, shall that happen?’ *“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye “‘It is so, even at this moment.’ My guru desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”—Mark 11:24. Masters who spoke gravely, his gaze concentrated on m y possess the Divine Vision are fully able to transfer their eyes. realizations to advanced disciples, as Lahiri Mahasaya did for Sri Yukteswar on this occasion.

85 physical scientist but the fully self-realized Unless necessary I do not invade the seclusion master who comprehends the true nature of of others’ minds. Man has the natural matter. Thus Christ was able to restore the privilege of roaming secretly among his servant’s ear after it had been severed by one thoughts. The unbidden Lord does not enter of the disciples.”* there; neither do I venture intrusion.” Sri Yukteswar was a peerless interpreter “You are ever welcome, Master!” of the scriptures. Many of my happiest “Your architectural dreams will memories are centered in his discourses. But materialize later. Now is the time for study!” his jeweled thoughts were not cast into ashes of heedlessness or stupidity. One restless Thus incidentally my guru revealed in his movement of my body, or my slight lapse into simple way the coming of three great events absent-mindedness, sufficed to put an abrupt in my life. Since early youth I had had period to Master’s exposition. enigmatic glimpses of three buildings, each in a different setting. In the exact sequence Sri “You are not here.” Master interrupted Yukteswar had indicated, these visions took himself one afternoon with this disclosure. As ultimate form. First came my founding of a usual, he was keeping track of my attention boys’ yoga school on a Ranchi plain, then my with a devastating immediacy. American headquarters on a Los Angeles “Guruji!” My tone was a protest. “I have hilltop, finally a hermitage in southern not stirred; my eyelids have not moved; I can California by the vast Pacific. repeat each word you have uttered!” Master never arrogantly asserted: “I “Nevertheless you were not fully with prophesy that such and such an event shall me. Your objection forces me to remark that occur!” He would rather hint: “Don’t you in your mental background you were creating think it may happen?” But his simple speech three institutions. One was a sylvan retreat on hid vatic power. There was no recanting; a plain, another on a hilltop, a third by the never did his slightly veiled words prove ocean.” false. Those vaguely formulated thoughts had Sri Yukteswar was reserved and matter- indeed been present almost subconsciously. I of-fact in demeanor. There was naught of the glanced at him apologetically. vague or daft visionary about him. His feet “What can I do with such a master, who were firm on the earth, his head in the haven penetrates my random musings?” of heaven. Practical people aroused his admiration. “Saintliness is not dumbness! “You have given me that right. The Divine perceptions are not incapacitating!” he subtle truths I am expounding cannot be would say. “The active expression of virtue grasped without your complete concentration. gives rise to the keenest intelligence.” In Master’s life I fully discovered the *“And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. And Jesus answered and said, cleavage between spiritual realism and the Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear and healed obscure mysticism that spuriously passes as a h i m . ” —Luke 22:50-51.

86 counterpart. My guru was reluctant to discuss insuperable obstacle to mergence of human the superphysical realms. His only with Divine. No such barrier exists, I came to “marvelous” aura was one of perfect understand, save in man’s spiritual simplicity. In conversation he avoided unadventurousness. startling references; in action he was freely I always thrilled at the touch of Sri expressive. Others talked of miracles but Yukteswar’s holy feet. Yogis teach that a could manifest nothing; Sri Yukteswar disciple is spiritually magnetized by reverent seldom mentioned the subtle laws but secretly contact with a master; a subtle current is operated them at will. generated. The devotee’s undesirable habit- “A man of realization does not perform mechanisms in the brain are often cauterized; any miracle until he receives an inward the groove of his worldly tendencies sanction,” Master explained. “God does not beneficially disturbed. Momentarily at least wish the secrets of His creation revealed he may find the secret veils of maya lifting, promiscuously.* Also, every individual in the and glimpse the reality of bliss. My whole world has inalienable right to his free will. A body responded with a liberating glow saint will not encroach upon that whenever I knelt in the Indian fashion before independence.” my guru. The silence habitual to Sri Yukteswar “Even when Lahiri Mahasaya was was caused by his deep perceptions of the silent,” Master told me, “or when he Infinite. No time remained for the conversed on other than strictly religious interminable “revelations” that occupy the topics, I discovered that nonetheless he had days of teachers without self-realization. “In transmitted to me ineffable knowledge.” shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause Sri Yukteswar affected me similarly. If I much commotion. In oceanic minds the entered the hermitage in a worried or whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle.” indifferent frame of mind, my attitude This observation from the Hindu scriptures is imperceptibly changed. A healing calm not without discerning humor. descended at mere sight of my guru. Every Because of my guru’s unspectacular day with him was a new experience in joy, guise, only a few of his contemporaries peace, and wisdom. Never did I find him recognized him as a superman. The popular deluded or intoxicated with greed or emotion adage: “He is a fool that cannot conceal his or anger or any human attachment. wisdom,” could never be applied to Sri “The darkness of maya is silently Yukteswar. Though born a mortal like all approaching. Let us hie homeward within.” others, Master had achieved identity with the With these words at dusk Master constantly Ruler of time and space. In his life I perceived reminded his disciples of their need for Kriya a godlike unity. He had not found any Yoga. A new student occasionally expressed

*“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”— cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them Matthew 7:6.

87 doubts regarding his own worthiness to Master was cautious of his body, while engage in yoga practice. withholding solicitous attachment. The “Forget the past,” Sri Yukteswar would Infinite, he pointed out, properly manifests console him. “The vanished lives of all men through physical and mental soundness. He are dark with many shames. Human conduct discountenanced any extremes. A disciple is ever unreliable until anchored in the once started a long fast. My guru only Divine. Everything in future will improve if laughed: “Why not throw the dog a bone?” you are making a spiritual effort now.” Sri Yukteswar’s health was excellent; I Master always had young chelas* in his never saw him unwell.† He permitted students hermitage. Their spiritual and intellectual to consult doctors if it seemed advisable. His education was his lifelong interest: even purpose was to give respect to the worldly shortly before he passed on, he accepted for custom: “Physicians must carry on their work training two six-y e a r -old boys and one youth of healing through God’s laws as applied to of sixteen. He directed their minds and lives matter.” But he extolled the superiority of with that careful discipline in which the word mental therapy, and often repeated: “Wisdom “disciple” is etymologically rooted. The is the greatest cleanser.” ashram residents loved and revered their guru; “The body is a treacherous friend. Give it a slight clap of his hands sufficed to bring its due; no more,” he said. “Pain and pleasure them eagerly to his side. When his mood was are transitory; endure all dualities with silent and withdrawn, no one ventured to calmness, while trying at the same time to speak; when his laugh rang jovially, children remove their hold. Imagination is the door looked upon him as their own. through which disease as well as healing Master seldom asked others to render him enters. Disbelieve in the reality of sickness a personal service, nor would he accept help even when you are ill; an unrecognized visitor from a student unless the willingness were will flee!” sincere. My guru quietly washed his clothes if Master numbered many doctors among the disciples overlooked that privileged task. his disciples. “Those who have ferreted out Sri Yukteswar wore the traditional ocher- the physical laws can easily investigate the colored swami robe; his laceless shoes, in science of the soul,” he told them. “A subtle accordance with yogi custom, were of tiger or spiritual mechanism is hidden just behind the deer skin. bodily structure.”‡

Master spoke fluent English, French, Hindi, and Bengali; his Sanskrit was fair. He †He was once ill in Kashmir, when I was absent from patiently instructed his young disciples by him. (See page 209.) ‡A courageous medical man, Charles Robert Richet, certain short cuts which he had ingeniously awarded the in physiology, wrote as devised for the study of English and Sanskrit. follows: “Metaphysics is not yet officially a science, recognized as such. But it is going to be. . . . At Edinburgh, I was able to affirm before 100 physiologists that our five senses are not our only means of knowledge and that a fragment of reality *Disciples; from Sanskrit verb root, “to serve.” sometimes reaches the intelligence in other ways. . . .

88 Sri Yukteswar counseled his students to balanced in every way,” my guru pointed out. be living liaisons of Western and Eastern The two disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya had virtues. Himself an executive Occidental in met, soon after I began my pilgrimages to outer habits, inwardly he was the spiritual Serampore. Father and Sri Yukteswar Oriental. He praised the progressive, admiringly evaluated the other’s worth. Both resourceful and hygienic habits of the West, had built an inner life of spiritual granite, and the religious ideals which give a centuried insoluble against the ages. halo to the East. From transient teachers of my earlier life Discipline had not been unknown to me: I had imbibed a few erroneous lessons. A at home Father was strict, Ananta often chela, I was told, need not concern himself severe. But Sri Yukteswar’s training cannot strenuously over worldly duties; when I had be described as other than drastic. A neglected or carelessly performed my tasks, I perfectionist, my guru was hypercritical of his was not chastised. Human nature finds such disciples, whether in matters of moment or in instruction very easy of assimilation. Under the subtle nuances of behavior. Master’s unsparing rod, however, I soon “Good manners without sincerity are like recovered from the agreeable delusions of a beautiful dead lady,” he remarked on irresponsibility. suitable occasion. “Straightforwardness “Those who are too good for this world without civility is like a surgeon’s knife, are adorning some other,” Sri Yukteswar effective but unpleasant. Candor with remarked. “So long as you breathe the free air courtesy is helpful and admirable.” of earth, you are under obligation to render Master was apparently satisfied with my grateful service. He alone who has fully spiritual progress, for he seldom referred to it; mastered the breathless state* is freed from in other matters my ears were no strangers to cosmic imperatives. I will not fail to let you reproof. My chief offenses were know when you have attained the final absentmindedness, intermittent indulgence in perfection.” sad moods, non-observance of certain rules of My guru could never be bribed, even by etiquette, and occasional unmethodical ways. love. He showed no leniency to anyone who, “Observe how the activities of your like myself, willingly offered to be his father Bhagabati are well-organized and disciple. Whether Master and I were surrounded by his students or by strangers, or were alone together, he always spoke plainly Because a fact is rare is no reason that it does not exist. Because a study is difficult, is that a reason for not and upbraided sharply. No trifling lapse into understanding it? . . . Those who have railed at shallowness or inconsistency escaped his metaphysics as an occult science will be as ashamed of rebuke. This flattening treatment was hard to themselves as those who railed at chemistry on the ground that pursuit of the philosopher’s stone was endure, but my resolve was to allow Sri illusory. . . . In the matter of principles there are only Yukteswar to iron out each of my those of Lavoisier, Claude Bernard, and Pasteur—the experimental everywhere and always. Greetings, then, to the new science which is going to change the *Samadhi: perfect union of the individualized soul orientation of human thought.” with the Infinite Spirit.

89 psychological kinks. As he labored at this the yielding methods are equally effective if titanic transformation, I shook many times applied with wisdom. You will go to foreign under the weight of his disciplinary hammer. lands, where blunt assaults on the ego are not “If you don’t like my words, you are at appreciated. A teacher could not spread liberty to leave at any time,” Master assured India’s message in the West without an ample me. “I want nothing from you but your own fund of accommodative patience and improvement. Stay only if you feel forbearance.” I refuse to state the amount of benefited.” truth I later came to find in Master’s words! For every humbling blow he dealt my Though Sri Yukteswar’s undissembling vanity, for every tooth in my metaphorical speech prevented a large following during his jaw he knocked loose with stunning aim, I am years on earth, nevertheless his living spirit grateful beyond any facility of expression. manifests today over the world, through The hard core of human egotism is hardly to sincere students of his Kriya Yoga and other be dislodged except rudely. With its teachings. He has further dominion in men’s departure, the Divine finds at last an souls than ever Alexander dreamed of in the unobstructed channel. In vain It seeks to soil. percolate through flinty hearts of selfishness. Father arrived one day to pay his respects Sri Yukteswar’s wisdom was so to Sri Yukteswar. My parent expected, very penetrating that, heedless of remarks, he often likely, to hear some words in my praise. He replied to one’s unspoken observation. “What was shocked to be given a long account of my a person imagines he hears, and what the imperfections. It was Master’s practice to speaker has really implied, may be poles recount simple, negligible shortcomings with apart,” he said. “Try to feel the thoughts an air of portentous gravity. Father rushed to behind the confusion of men’s verbiage.” see me. “From your guru’s remarks I thought to find you a complete wreck!” My parent But divine insight is painful to worldly was between tears and laughter. ears; Master was not popular with superficial students. The wise, always few in number, The only cause of Sri Yukteswar’s deeply revered him. I daresay Sri Yukteswar displeasure at the time was that I had been would have been the most sought-after guru trying, against his gentle hint, to convert a in India had his words not been so candid and certain man to the spiritual path. so censorious. With indignant speed I sought out my “I am hard on those who come for my guru. He received me with downcast eyes, as training,” he admitted to me. “That is my though conscious of guilt. It was the only time way; take it or leave it. I will never I ever saw the divine lion meek before me. compromise. But you will be much kinder to The unique moment was savored to the full. your disciples; that is your way. I try to purify “Sir, why did you judge me so only in the fires of severity, searing beyond mercilessly before my astounded father? Was the average toleration. The gentle approach of that just?” love is also transfiguring. The inflexible and

90 “I will not do it again.” Master’s tone humiliations before any humility. Master’s was apologetic. blazing rays, the open penetrating sunshine of Instantly I was disarmed. How readily the his wisdom, were too powerful for their great man admitted his fault! Though he never spiritual sickness. They sought some lesser again upset Father’s peace of mind, Master teacher who, shading them with flattery, relentlessly continued to dissect me whenever permitted the fitful sleep of ignorance. and wherever he chose. During my early months with Master, I New disciples often joined Sri Yukteswar had experienced a sensitive fear of his in exhaustive criticism of others. Wise like reprimands. These were reserved, I soon saw, the guru! Models of flawless discrimination! for disciples who had asked for his verbal But he who takes the offensive must not be vivisection. If any writhing student made a defenseless. The same carping students fled protest, Sri Yukteswar would become precipitantly as soon as Master publicly unoffendedly silent. His words were never unloosed in their direction a few shafts from wrathful, but impersonal with wisdom. his analytical quiver. Master’s insight was not for the “Tender inner weaknesses, revolting at unprepared ears of casual visitors; he seldom mild touches of censure, are like diseased remarked on their defects, even if parts of the body, recoiling before even conspicuous. But toward students who sought delicate handling.” This was Sri Yukteswar’s his counsel, Sri Yukteswar felt a serious amused comment on the flighty ones. responsibility. Brave indeed is the guru who undertakes to transform the crude ore of ego- There are disciples who seek a guru made permeated humanity! A saint’s courage roots in their own image. Such students often in his compassion for the stumbling eyeless of complained that they did not understand Sri this world. Yukteswar. When I had abandoned underlying “Neither do you comprehend God!” I resentment, I found a marked decrease in my retorted on one occasion. “When a saint is chastisement. In a very subtle way, Master clear to you, you will be one.” Among the melted into comparative clemency. In time I trillion mysteries, breathing every second the demolished every wall of rationalization and inexplicable air, who may venture to ask that subconscious reservation behind which the the fathomless nature of a master be instantly human personality generally shields itself.* grasped?

Students came, and generally went. *The subconsciously guided rationalizations of the Those who craved a path of oily sympathy mind are utterly different from the infallible guidance and comfortable recognitions did not find it at of truth which issues from the superconsciousness. Led by French scientists of the Sorbonne, Western thinkers the hermitage. Master offered shelter and are beginning to investigate the possibility of divine shepherding for the aeons, but many disciples perception in man. “For the past twenty years, students of psychology, miserly demanded ego-balm as well. They influenced by Freud, gave all their time to searching departed, preferring life’s countless the subconscious realms,” Rabbi Israel H. Levinthal pointed out in 1929. “It is true that the subconscious

91 The reward was an effortless harmony with Sri Yukteswar’s impartial justice was my guru. I discovered him then to be trusting, notably demonstrated during the summer considerate, and silently loving. vacation of my first college year. I welcomed Undemonstrative, however, he bestowed no the opportunity to spend uninterrupted months word of affection. at Serampore with my guru. My own temperament is principally “You may be in charge of the hermitage.” devotional. It was disconcerting at first to find Master was pleased over my enthusiastic that my guru, saturated with jnana but arrival. “Your duties will be the reception of seemingly dry of ,* expressed himself guests, and supervision of the work of the only in terms of cold spiritual mathematics. other disciples.” But as I tuned myself to his nature, I Kumar, a young villager from east discovered no diminution but rather increase Bengal, was accepted a fortnight later for in my devotional approach to God. A self- hermitage training. Remarkably intelligent, he realized master is fully able to guide his quickly won Sri Yukteswar’s affection. For various disciples along natural lines of their some unfathomable reason, Master was very essential bias. lenient to the new resident. My relationship with Sri Yukteswar, “Mukunda, let Kumar assume your somewhat inarticulate, nonetheless possessed duties. Employ your own time in sweeping all eloquence. Often I found his silent and cooking.” Master issued these signature on my thoughts, rendering speech instructions after the new boy had been with inutile. Quietly sitting beside him, I felt his us for a month. bounty pouring peacefully over my being. Exalted to leadership, Kumar exercised a petty household tyranny. In silent mutiny, the other disciples continued to seek me out for reveals much of the mystery that can explain human daily counsel. actions, but not all of our actions. It can explain the abnormal, but not deeds that are above the normal. The “Mukunda is impossible! You made me latest psychology, sponsored by the French schools, supervisor, yet the others go to him and obey has discovered a new region in man, which it terms the superconscious. In contrast to the subconscious which him.” Three weeks later Kumar was represents the submerged currents of our nature, it complaining to our guru. I overheard him reveals the heights to which our nature can reach. Man from an adjoining room. represents a triple, not a double, personality; our conscious and subconscious being is crowned by a “That’s why I assigned him to the kitchen superconsciousness. Many years ago the English psychologist, F. W. H. Myers, suggested that ‘hidden and you to the parlor.” Sri Yukteswar’s in the deep of our being is a rubbish heap as well as a withering tones were new to Kumar. “In this treasure house.’ In contrast to the psychology that way you have come to realize that a worthy centers all its researches on the subconscious in man’s nature, this new psychology of the superconscious leader has the desire to serve, and not to focuses its attention upon the treasure-house, the region dominate. You wanted Mukunda’s position, that alone can explain the great, unselfish, heroic deeds o f m e n . ” but could not maintain it by merit. Return *Jnana, wisdom, and bhakti, devotion: two of the main now to your earlier work as cook’s assistant.” paths to God.

92 After this humbling incident, Master Master summoned me and resumed toward Kumar a former attitude of brokenheartedly discussed the fact that the unwonted indulgence. Who can solve the boy was now unsuited to the monastic mystery of attraction? In Kumar our guru hermitage life. discovered a charming fount which did not “Mukunda, I will leave it to you to spurt for the fellow disciples. Though the new instruct Kumar to leave the ashram tomorrow; boy was obviously Sri Yukteswar’s favorite, I I can’t do it!” Tears stood in Sri Yukteswar’s felt no dismay. Personal idiosyncrasies, eyes, but he controlled himself quickly. “The possessed even by masters, lend a rich boy would never have fallen to these depths complexity to the pattern of life. My nature is had he listened to me and not gone away to seldom commandeered by a detail; I was mix with undesirable companions. He has seeking from Sri Yukteswar a more rejected my protection; the callous world inaccessible benefit than an outward praise. must be his guru still.” Kumar spoke venomously to me one day Kumar’s departure brought me no without reason; I was deeply hurt. elation; sadly I wondered how one with power “Your head is swelling to the bursting to win a master’s love could ever respond to point!” I added a warning whose truth I felt cheaper allures. Enjoyment of wine and sex intuitively: “Unless you mend your ways, are rooted in the natural man, and require no someday you will be asked to leave this delicacies of perception for their appreciation. ashram.” Sense wiles are comparable to the evergreen Laughing sarcastically, Kumar repeated oleander, fragrant with its multicolored my remark to our guru, who had just entered flowers: every part of the plant is poisonous. the room. Fully expecting to be scolded, I The land of healing lies within, radiant with retired meekly to a corner. that happiness blindly sought in a thousand misdirections.* “Maybe Mukunda is right.” Master’s reply to the boy came with unusual coldness. I “Keen intelligence is two-edged,” Master escaped without castigation. once remarked in reference to Kumar’s brilliant mind. “It may be used constructively A year later, Kumar set out for a visit to or destructively like a knife, either to cut the his childhood home. He ignored the quiet boil of ignorance, or to decapitate one’s self. disapproval of Sri Yukteswar, who never Intelligence is rightly guided only after the authoritatively controlled his disciples’ mind has acknowledged the inescapability of movements. On the boy’s return to Serampore spiritual law.” in a few months, a change was unpleasantly apparent. Gone was the stately Kumar with *“Man in his waking state puts forth innumerable serenely glowing face. Only an efforts for experiencing sensual pleasures; when the entire group of sensory organs is fatigued, he forgets undistinguished peasant stood before us, one even the pleasure on hand and goes to sleep in order to who had lately acquired a number of evil enjoy rest in the soul, his own nature,” Shankara, the habits. great Vedantist, has written. “Ultra-sensual bliss is thus extremely easy of attainment and is far superior to sense delights which always end in disgust.”

93 My guru mixed freely with men and will follow you after the astral body is torn women disciples, treating all as his children. from its physical casing. Even when the flesh Perceiving their soul equality, he showed no is weak, the mind should be constantly distinction or partiality. resistant. If temptation assails you with cruel “In sleep, you do not know whether you force, overcome it by impersonal analysis and are a man or a woman,” he said. “Just as a indomitable will. Every natural passion can be man, impersonating a woman, does not mastered. become one, so the soul, impersonating both “Conserve your powers. Be like the man and woman, has no sex. The soul is the capacious ocean, absorbing within all the pure, changeless image of God.” tributary rivers of the senses. Small yearnings Sri Yukteswar never avoided or blamed are openings in the reservoir of your inner women as objects of seduction. Men, he said, peace, permitting healing waters to be wasted were also a temptation to women. I once in the desert soil of materialism. The forceful inquired of my guru why a great ancient saint activating impulse of wrong desire is the had called women “the door to hell.” greatest enemy to the happiness of man. Roam in the world as a lion of self-control; “A girl must have proved very see that the frogs of weakness don’t kick you troublesome to his peace of mind in his early around.” life,” my guru answered causticly. “Otherwise he would have denounced, not woman, but The devotee is finally freed from all some imperfection in his own self-control.” instinctive compulsions. He transforms his need for human affection into aspiration for If a visitor dared to relate a suggestive God alone, a love solitary because story in the hermitage, Master would maintain omnipresent. an unresponsive silence. “Do not allow yourself to be thrashed by the provoking whip Sri Yukteswar’s mother lived in the Rana of a beautiful face,” he told the disciples. Mahal district of Benares where I had first “How can sense slaves enjoy the world? Its visited my guru. Gracious and kindly, she was subtle flavors escape them while they grovel yet a woman of very decided opinions. I stood in primal mud. All nice discriminations are on her balcony one day and watched mother lost to the man of elemental lusts.” and son talking together. In his quiet, sensible way, Master was trying to convince her about Students seeking to escape from the something. He was apparently unsuccessful, dualistic maya delusion received from Sri for she shook her head with great vigor. Yukteswar patient and understanding counsel. “Nay, nay, my son, go away now! Your “Just as the purpose of eating is to satisfy wise words are not for me! I am not your hunger, not greed, so the sex instinct is disciple!” designed for the propagation of the species according to natural law, never for the Sri Yukteswar backed away without kindling of insatiable longings,” he said. further argument, like a scolded child. I was “Destroy wrong desires now; otherwise they touched at his great respect for his mother even in her unreasonable moods. She saw him

94 only as her little boy, not as a sage. There was enjoyed an exchange of views on countless a charm about the trifling incident; it supplied topics with his guests. My guru’s ready wit a sidelight on my guru’s unusual nature, and rollicking laugh enlivened every inwardly humble and outwardly unbendable. discussion. Often grave, Master was never The monastic regulations do not allow a gloomy. “To seek the Lord, one need not swami to retain connection with worldly ties disfigure his face,” he would remark. after their formal severance. He cannot “Remember that finding God will mean the perform the ceremonial family rites which are funeral of all sorrows.” obligatory on the householder. Yet Shankara, Among the philosophers, professors, the ancient founder of the Swami Order, lawyers and scientists who came to the disregarded the injunctions. At the death of hermitage, a number arrived for their first his beloved mother, he cremated her body visit with the expectation of meeting an with heavenly fire which he caused to spurt orthodox religionist. A supercilious smile or a from his upraised hand. glance of amused tolerance occasionally Sri Yukteswar also ignored the betrayed that the newcomers anticipated restrictions, in a fashion less spectacular. nothing more than a few pious platitudes. Yet When his mother passed on, he arranged the their reluctant departure would bring an crematory services by the holy Ganges in expressed conviction that Sri Yukteswar had Benares, and fed many Brahmins in shown precise insight into their specialized conformance with age-old custom. fields. The shastric prohibitions were intended My guru ordinarily was gentle and to help swamis overcome narrow affable to guests; his welcome was given with identifications. Shankara and Sri Yukteswar charming cordiality. Yet inveterate egotists had wholly merged their beings in the sometimes suffered an invigorating shock. Impersonal Spirit; they needed no rescue by They confronted in Master either a frigid rule. Sometimes, too, a master purposely indifference or a formidable opposition: ice or ignores a canon in order to uphold its iron! principle as superior to and independent of A noted chemist once crossed swords form. Thus Jesus plucked ears of corn on the with Sri Yukteswar. The visitor would not day of rest. To the inevitable critics he said: admit the , inasmuch as “The sabbath was made for man, and not man science has devised no means of detecting for the sabbath.”* Him. Outside of the scriptures, seldom was a “So you have inexplicably failed to book honored by Sri Yukteswar’s perusal. Yet isolate the Supreme Power in your test tubes!” he was invariably acquainted with the latest Master’s gaze was stern. “I recommend an scientific discoveries and other advancements unheard-of experiment. Examine your of knowledge. A brilliant conversationalist, he thoughts unremittingly for twenty-four hours. Then wonder no longer at God’s absence.”

*Mark 2:27.

95 A celebrated pundit received a similar “These bloodless pedants smell unduly of jolt. With ostentatious zeal, the scholar shook the lamp,” my guru remarked after the the ashram rafters with scriptural lore. departure of the chastened one. “They prefer Resounding passages poured from the philosophy to be a gentle intellectual setting- Mahabharata, the ,* the bhasyas† up exercise. Their elevated thoughts are of Shankara. carefully unrelated either to the crudity of “I am waiting to hear you.” Sri outward action or to any scourging inner Yukteswar’s tone was inquiring, as though discipline!” utter silence had reigned. The pundit was Master stressed on other occasions the puzzled. futility of mere book learning. “Quotations there have been, in “Do not confuse understanding with a superabundance.” Master’s words convulsed larger vocabulary,” he remarked. “Sacred me with mirth, as I squatted in my corner, at a writings are beneficial in stimulating desire respectful distance from the visitor. “But what for inward realization, if one stanza at a time original commentary can you supply, from the is slowly assimilated. Continual intellectual uniqueness of your particular life? What holy study results in vanity and the false text have you absorbed and made your own? satisfaction of an undigested knowledge.” In what ways have these timeless truths Sri Yukteswar related one of his own renovated your nature? Are you content to be experiences in scriptural edification. The a hollow victrola, mechanically repeating the scene was a forest hermitage in eastern words of other men?” Bengal, where he observed the procedure of a “I give up!” The scholar’s chagrin was renowned teacher, Dabru Ballav. His method, comical. “I have no inner realization.” at once simple and difficult, was common in For the first time, perhaps, he understood ancient India. that discerning placement of the comma does Dabru Ballav had gathered his disciples not atone for a spiritual coma. around him in the sylvan solitudes. The holy Bhagavad Gita was open before them. Steadfastly they looked at one passage for *The Upanishads or (literally, “end of the Vedas”), occur in certain parts of the Vedas as essential half an hour, then closed their eyes. Another summaries. The Upanishads furnish the doctrinal basis half hour slipped away. The master gave a of the Hindu . They received the following brief comment. Motionless, they meditated tribute from Schopenhauer: “How entirely does the Upanishad breathe throughout the of the again for an hour. Finally the guru spoke. Vedas! How is everyone who has become familiar with that incomparable book stirred by that spirit to the very “Have you understood?” depths of his soul! From every sentence deep, original, “Yes, sir.” One in the group ventured this and sublime thoughts arise, and the whole is pervaded by a high and holy and earnest spirit. . . . The access to assertion. the Vedas by means of the Upanishads is in my eyes the greatest privilege this century may claim before all “No; not fully. Seek the spiritual vitality previous centuries.” that has given these words the power to †Commentaries. Shankara peerlessly expounded the Upanishads. rejuvenate India century after century.”

96 Another hour disappeared in silence. The Puri. The man, who held a reputation for master dismissed the students, and turned to ruthlessness, had it well within his power to Sri Yukteswar. oust us from the ashram. I cautioned my guru “Do you know the Bhagavad Gita?” about the despotic possibilities. But he seated himself with an uncompromising air, and did “No, sir, not really; though my eyes and not rise to greet the visitor. Slightly nervous, I mind have run through its pages many times.” squatted near the door. The man had to “Thousands have replied to me content himself with a wooden box; my guru differently!” The great sage smiled at Master did not request me to fetch a chair. There was in blessing. “If one busies himself with an no fulfillment of the magistrate’s obvious outer display of scriptural wealth, what time expectation that his importance would be is left for silent inward diving after the ceremoniously acknowledged. priceless pearls?” A metaphysical discussion ensued. The Sri Yukteswar directed the study of his guest blundered through misinterpretations of own disciples by the same intensive method the scriptures. As his accuracy sank, his ire of one-pointedness. “Wisdom is not rose. assimilated with the eyes, but with the “Do you know that I stood first in the M. atoms,” he said. “When your conviction of a A. examination?” Reason had forsaken him, truth is not merely in your brain but in your but he could still shout. being, you may diffidently vouch for its meaning.” He discouraged any tendency a “Mr. Magistrate, you forget that this is student might have to construe book- not your courtroom,” Master replied evenly. knowledge as a necessary step to spiritual “From your childish remarks I would have realization. surmised that your college career was unremarkable. A university degree, in any “The rishis wrote in one sentence case, is not remotely related to Vedic profundities that commentating scholars busy realization. Saints are not produced in batches themselves over for generations,” he every semester like accountants.” remarked. “Endless literary controversy is for sluggard minds. What more liberating thought After a stunned silence, the visitor than ‘God is’—nay, ‘God’?” laughed heartily. But man does not easily return to “This is my first encounter with a simplicity. It is seldom “God” for him, but heavenly magistrate,” he said. Later he made rather learned pomposities. His ego is a formal request, couched in the legal terms pleased, that he can grasp such erudition. which were evidently part and parcel of his being, to be accepted as a “probationary” Men who were pridefully conscious of disciple. high worldly position were likely, in Master’s presence, to add humility to their other My guru personally attended to the possessions. A local magistrate once arrived details connected with the management of his for an interview at the seaside hermitage in property. Unscrupulous persons on various

97 occasions attempted to secure possession of The officer, dazed at his varying Master’s ancestral land. With determination reception, respectfully offered a word of and even by instigating lawsuits, Sri apology and sped away. Yukteswar outwitted every opponent. He Amazing it was to find that a master with underwent these painful experiences from a such a fiery will could be so calm within. He desire never to be a begging guru, or a burden fitted the Vedic definition of a man of God: on his disciples. “Softer than the flower, where kindness is His financial independence was one concerned; stronger than the thunder, where reason why my alarmingly outspoken Master principles are at stake.” was innocent of the cunnings of diplomacy. There are always those in this world who, Unlike those teachers who have to flatter their in Browning’s words, “endure no light, being supporters, my guru was impervious to the themselves obscure.” An outsider influences, open or subtle, of others’ wealth. occasionally berated Sri Yukteswar for an Never did I hear him ask or even hint for imaginary grievance. My imperturbable guru money for any purpose. His hermitage listened politely, analyzing himself to see if training was given free and freely to all any shred of truth lay within the denunciation. disciples. These scenes would bring to my mind one of An insolent court deputy arrived one day Master’s inimitable observations: “Some at the Serampore ashram to serve Sri people try to be tall by cutting off the heads of Yukteswar with a legal summons. A disciple others!” named Kanai and myself were also present. The unfailing composure of a saint is The officer’s attitude toward Master was impressive beyond any sermon. “He that is offensive. slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he “It will do you good to leave the shadows that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a of your hermitage and breathe the honest air city.”* of a courtroom.” The deputy grinned I often reflected that my majestic Master contemptuously. I could not contain myself. could easily have been an emperor or world- “Another word of your impudence and shaking warrior had his mind been centered you will be on the floor!” I advanced on fame or worldly achievement. He had threateningly. chosen instead to storm those inner citadels of “You wretch!” Kanai’s shout was wrath and egotism whose fall is the height of simultaneous with my own. “Dare you bring a man. your blasphemies into this sacred ashram?” But Master stood protectingly in front of his abuser. “Don’t get excited over nothing. This man is only doing his rightful duty.”

*Proverbs 16:32.

98

CHAPTER: 13 The Sleepless Saint “Please permit me to go to the Himalayas. I The following morning I sought out hope in unbroken solitude to achieve Behari Pundit, my Sanskrit professor at continuous divine communion.” Scottish Church College. I actually once addressed these ungrateful “Sir, you have told me of your friendship words to my Master. Seized by one of the with a great disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya. unpredictable delusions which occasionally Please give me his address.” assail the devotee, I felt a growing impatience “You mean Ram Gopal Muzumdar. I call with hermitage duties and college studies. A him the ‘sleepless saint.’ He is always awake feebly extenuating circumstance is that my in an ecstatic consciousness. His home is at proposal was made when I had been only six Ranbajpur, near Tarakeswar.” months with Sri Yukteswar. Not yet had I fully surveyed his towering stature. I thanked the pundit, and entrained immediately for Tarakeswar. I hoped to “Many hillmen live in the Himalayas, yet silence my misgivings by wringing a sanction possess no God-perception.” My guru’s from the “sleepless saint” to engage myself in answer came slowly and simply. “Wisdom is lonely Himalayan meditation. Behari’s friend, better sought from a man of realization than I heard, had received illumination after many from an inert mountain.” years of Kriya Yoga practice in isolated caves. Ignoring Master’s plain hint that he, and At Tarakeswar I approached a famous not a hill, was my teacher, I repeated my plea. shrine. Hindus regard it with the same Sri Yukteswar vouchsafed no reply. I took his veneration that Catholics give to the Lourdes silence for consent, a precarious interpretation sanctuary in France. Innumerable healing readily accepted at one’s convenience. miracles have occurred at Tarakeswar, In my Calcutta home that evening, I including one for a member of my family. busied myself with travel preparations. Tying “I sat in the temple there for a week,” my a few articles inside a blanket, I remembered eldest aunt once told me. “Observing a a similar bundle, surreptitiously dropped from complete fast, I prayed for the recovery of my attic window a few years earlier. I your Uncle Sarada from a chronic malady. On wondered if this were to be another ill-starred the seventh day I found a herb materialized in flight toward the Himalayas. The first time my hand! I made a brew from the leaves, and my spiritual elation had been high; tonight gave it to your uncle. His disease vanished at conscience smote heavily at thought of once, and has never reappeared.” leaving my guru. I entered the sacred Tarakeswar shrine; explained my predicament. He took me to his the altar contains nothing but a round stone. home and offered a hospitable welcome. Its circumference, beginningless and endless, “Ranbajpur is far from here,” he makes it aptly significant of the Infinite. remarked. “At the crossroad, you should have Cosmic abstractions are not alien even to the turned left, not right.” humblest Indian peasant; he has been accused by Westerners, in fact, of living on My earlier informant, I thought sadly, abstractions! was a distinct menace to travelers. After a relishable meal of coarse rice, lentil-dhal, and My own mood at the moment was so curry of potatoes with raw bananas, I retired austere that I felt disinclined to bow before to a small hut adjoining the courtyard. In the the stone symbol. God should be sought, I distance, villagers were singing to the loud reflected, only within the soul. accompaniment of mridangas* and cymbals. I left the temple without genuflection and Sleep was inconsiderable that night; I prayed walked briskly toward the outlying village of deeply to be directed to the secret yogi, Ram Ranbajpur. My appeal to a passer-by for Gopal. guidance caused him to sink into long As the first streaks of dawn penetrated cogitation. the fissures of my dark room, I set out for “When you come to a crossroad, turn Ranbajpur. Crossing rough paddy fields, I right and keep going,” he finally pronounced trudged over sickled stumps of the prickly oracularly. plant and mounds of dried clay. An Obeying the directions, I wended my way occasionally-met peasant would inform me, alongside the banks of a canal. Darkness fell; invariably, that my destination was “only a the outskirts of the jungle village were alive krosha (two miles).” In six hours the sun with winking fireflies and the howls of near- traveled victoriously from horizon to by jackals. The moonlight was too faint to meridian, but I began to feel that I would ever supply any reassurance; I stumbled on for two be distant from Ranbajpur by one krosha. hours. At midafternoon my world was still an Welcome clang of a cowbell! My endless paddy field. Heat pouring from the repeated shouts eventually brought a peasant avoidless sky was bringing me to near- to my side. collapse. As a man approached at leisurely pace, I hardly dared utter my usual question, “I am looking for Ram Gopal Babu.” lest it summon the monotonous: “Just a “No such person lives in our village.” krosha.” The man’s tone was surly. “You are probably The stranger halted beside me. Short and a lying detective.” slight, he was physically unimpressive save Hoping to allay suspicion in his for an extraordinary pair of piercing dark politically troubled mind, I touchingly eyes.

*Hand-played drums, used only for devotional music.

100 “I was planning to leave Ranbajpur, but Tarakeswar and elsewhere are rightly your purpose was good, so I awaited you.” He venerated as nuclear centers of spiritual shook his finger in my astounded face. power.” “Aren’t you clever to think that, The saint’s censorious attitude vanished; unannounced, you could pounce on me? That his eyes became compassionately soft. He professor Behari had no right to give you my patted my shoulder. address.” “Young yogi, I see you are running away Considering that introduction of myself from your master. He has everything you would be mere verbosity in the presence of need; you must return to him. Mountains this master, I stood speechless, somewhat hurt cannot be your guru.” Ram Gopal was at my reception. His next remark was abruptly repeating the same thought which Sri put. Yukteswar had expressed at our last meeting. “Tell me; where do you think God is?” “Masters are under no cosmic “Why, He is within me and everywhere.” compulsion to limit their residence.” My I doubtless looked as bewildered as I felt. companion glanced at me quizzically. “The “All-pervading, eh?” The saint chuckled. Himalayas in India and Tibet have no “Then why, young sir, did you fail to bow monopoly on saints. What one does not before the Infinite in the stone symbol at the trouble to find within will not be discovered Tarakeswar temple yesterday?* Your pride by transporting the body hither and yon. As caused you the punishment of being soon as the devotee is willing to go even to misdirected by the passer-by who was not the ends of the earth for spiritual bothered by fine distinctions of left and right. enlightenment, his guru appears near-b y . ” Today, too, you have had a fairly I silently agreed, recalling my prayer in uncomfortable time of it!” the Benares hermitage, followed by the I agreed wholeheartedly, wonder-struck meeting with Sri Yukteswar in a crowded that an omniscient eye hid within the lane. unremarkable body before me. Healing “Are you able to have a little room where strength emanated from the yogi; I was you can close the door and be alone?” instantly refreshed in the scorching field. “Yes.” I reflected that this saint “The devotee inclines to think his path to descended from the general to the particular God is the only way,” he said. “Yoga, through with disconcerting speed. which divinity is found within, is doubtless “That is your cave.” The yogi bestowed the highest road: so Lahiri Mahasaya has told on me a gaze of illumination which I have us. But discovering the Lord within, we soon never forgotten. “That is your sacred perceive Him without. Holy shrines at mountain. That is where you will find the kingdom of God.” *One is reminded here of Dostoevski’s observation: “A man who bows down to nothing can never bear the burden of himself.”

101 His simple words instantaneously my bed, and seated himself on a straw mat. banished my lifelong obsession for the Overwhelmed by his spiritual magnetism, I Himalayas. In a burning paddy field I awoke ventured a request. from the monticolous dreams of eternal “Sir, why don’t you grant me a snows. samadhi?” “Young sir, your divine thirst is laudable. “Dear one, I would be glad to convey the I feel great love for you.” Ram Gopal took my divine contact, but it is not my place to do hand and led me to a quaint hamlet. The so.” The saint looked at me with half-closed adobe houses were covered with coconut eyes. “Your master will bestow that leaves and adorned with rustic entrances. experience shortly. Your body is not tuned The saint seated me on the umbrageous just yet. As a small lamp cannot withstand bamboo platform of his small cottage. After excessive electrical voltage, so your nerves giving me sweetened lime juice and a piece of are unready for the cosmic current. If I gave rock candy, he entered his patio and assumed you the infinite ecstasy right now, you would the lotus posture. In about four hours I opened burn as if every cell were on fire. my meditative eyes and saw that the moonlit “You are asking illumination from me,” figure of the yogi was still motionless. As I the yogi continued musingly, “while I am was sternly reminding my stomach that man wondering—inconsiderable as I am, and with does not live by bread alone, Ram Gopal the little meditation I have done—if I have approached me. succeeded in pleasing God, and what worth I “I see you are famished; food will be may find in His eyes at the final reckoning.” ready soon.” “Sir, have you not been singleheartedly A fire was kindled under a clay oven on seeking God for a long time?” the patio; rice and dhal were quickly served “I have not done much. Behari must have on large banana leaves. My host courteously told you something of my life. For twenty refused my aid in all cooking chores. “The years I occupied a secret grotto, meditating guest is God,” a Hindu proverb, has eighteen hours a day. Then I moved to a more commanded devout observance from time inaccessible cave and remained there for immemorial. In my later world travels, I was twenty-five years, entering the yoga union for charmed to see that a similar respect for twenty hours daily. I did not need sleep, for I visitors is manifested in rural sections of was ever with God. My body was more rested many countries. The city dweller finds the in the complete calmness of the keen edge of hospitality blunted by superconsciousness than it could be by the superabundance of strange faces. partial peace of the ordinary subconscious The marts of men seemed remotely dim state. as I squatted by the yogi in the isolation of the “The muscles relax during sleep, but the tiny jungle village. The cottage room was heart, lungs, and circulatory system are mysterious with a mellow light. Ram Gopal constantly at work; they get no rest. In arranged some torn blankets on the floor for

102 superconsciousness, the internal organs “You are blessed to have this experience; remain in a state of suspended animation, the spiritual radiations are not easily seen.” electrified by the cosmic energy. By such The saint added a few words of affection. means I have found it unnecessary to sleep for At dawn Ram Gopal gave me rock years. The time will come when you too will candies and said I must depart. I felt such dispense with sleep.” reluctance to bid him farewell that tears “ M y goodness, you have meditated for so coursed down my cheeks. long and yet are unsure of the Lord’s favor!” I “I will not let you go empty-handed.” gazed at him in astonishment. “Then what The yogi spoke tenderly. “I will do something about us poor mortals?” for you.” “Well, don’t you see, my dear boy, that He smiled and looked at me steadfastly. I God is Eternity Itself? To assume that one can stood rooted to the ground, peace rushing like fully know Him by forty-five years of a mighty flood through the gates of my eyes. I meditation is rather a preposterous was instantaneously healed of a pain in my expectation. Babaji assures us, however, that back, which had troubled me intermittently even a little meditation saves one from the for years. Renewed, bathed in a sea of dire fear of death and after-death states. Do luminous joy, I wept no more. After touching not fix your spiritual ideal on a small the saint’s feet, I sauntered into the jungle, mountain, but hitch it to the star of making my way through its tropical tangle unqualified divine attainment. If you work until I reached Tarakeswar. hard, you will get there.” There I made a second pilgrimage to the Enthralled by the prospect, I asked him famous shrine, and prostrated myself fully for further enlightening words. He related a before the altar. The round stone enlarged wondrous story of his first meeting with before my inner vision until it became the Lahiri Mahasaya’s guru, Babaji.* Around cosmical spheres, ring within ring, zone after midnight Ram Gopal fell into silence, and I zone, all dowered with divinity. lay down on my blankets. Closing my eyes, I saw flashes of lightning; the vast space within I entrained happily an hour later for me was a chamber of molten light. I opened Calcutta. My travels ended, not in the lofty my eyes and observed the same dazzling mountains, but in the Himalayan presence of radiance. The room became a part of that my Master. infinite vault which I beheld with interior vision. “Why don’t you go to sleep?” “Sir, how can I sleep in the presence of lightning, blazing whether my eyes are shut or open?”

*See pp. 310-313.

103 CHAPTER: 14 An Experience in Cosmic Consciousness “I am here, Guruji.” My shamefacedness unshared by disobedient thoughts. They spoke more eloquently for me. scattered like birds before the hunter. “Let us go to the kitchen and find “Mukunda!” Sri Yukteswar’s voice something to eat.” Sri Yukteswar’s manner sounded from a distant inner balcony. was as natural as if hours and not days had I felt as rebellious as my thoughts. separated us. “Master always urges me to meditate,” I “Master, I must have disappointed you by muttered to myself. “He should not disturb my abrupt departure from my duties here; I me when he knows why I came to his room.” thought you might be angry with me.” He summoned me again; I remained “No, of course not! Wrath springs only obstinately silent. The third time his tone held from thwarted desires. I do not expect rebuke. anything from others, so their actions cannot “Sir, I am meditating,” I shouted be in opposition to wishes of mine. I would protestingly. not use you for my own ends; I am happy only in your own true happiness.” “I know how you are meditating,” my guru called out, “with your mind distributed “Sir, one hears of divine love in a vague like leaves in a storm! Come here to me.” way, but for the first time I am having a concrete example in your angelic self! In the Snubbed and exposed, I made my way world, even a father does not easily forgive sadly to his side. his son if he leaves his parent’s business “Poor boy, the mountains couldn’t give without warning. But you show not the what you wanted.” Master spoke caressively, slightest vexation, though you must have been comfortingly. His calm gaze was put to great inconvenience by the man y unfathomable. “Your heart’s desire shall be unfinished tasks I left behind.” fulfilled.” We looked into each other’s eyes, where Sri Yukteswar seldom indulged in tears were shining. A blissful wave engulfed riddles; I was bewildered. He struck gently on me; I was conscious that the Lord, in the form my chest above the heart. of my guru, was expanding the small ardors My body became immovably rooted; of my heart into the incompressible reaches of breath was drawn out of my lungs as if by cosmic love. some huge magnet. Soul and mind instantly A few mornings later I made my way to lost their physical bondage, and streamed out Master’s empty sitting room. I planned to like a fluid piercing light from my every pore. meditate, but my laudable purpose was The flesh was as though dead, yet in my intense awareness I knew that never before seen afar at night, glimmered within the had I been fully alive. My sense of identity infinitude of my being. The sharply etched was no longer narrowly confined to a body, global outlines faded somewhat at the farthest but embraced the circumambient atoms. edges; there I could see a mellow radiance, People on distant streets seemed to be moving ever-undiminished. It was indescribably gently over my own remote periphery. The subtle; the planetary pictures were formed of roots of plants and trees appeared through a a grosser light. dim transparency of the soil; I discerned the The divine dispersion of rays poured inward flow of their sap. from an Eternal Source, blazing into galaxies, The whole vicinity lay bare before me. transfigured with ineffable auras. Again and My ordinary frontal vision was now changed again I saw the creative beams condense into to a vast spherical sight, simultaneously all- constellations, then resolve into sheets of perceptive. Through the back of my head I transparent flame. By rhythmic reversion, saw men strolling far down Rai Ghat Road, sextillion worlds passed into diaphanous and noticed also a white cow who was luster; fire became firmament. leisurely approaching. When she reached the I cognized the center of the empyrean as space in front of the open ashram gate, I a point of intuitive perception in my heart. observed her with my two physical eyes. As Irradiating splendor issued from my nucleus she passed by, behind the brick wall, I saw to every part of the universal structure. her clearly still. Blissful amrita, the nectar of immortality, All objects within my panoramic gaze pulsed through me with a quicksilverlike trembled and vibrated like quick motion fluidity. The creative voice of God I heard pictures. My body, Master’s, the pillared resounding as Aum,* the vibration of the courtyard, the furniture and floor, the trees Cosmic Motor. and sunshine, occasionally became violently Suddenly the breath returned to my agitated, until all melted into a luminescent lungs. With a disappointment almost sea; even as sugar crystals, thrown into a glass unbearable, I realized that my infinite of water, dissolve after being shaken. The immensity was lost. Once more I was limited unifying light alternated with materializations to the humiliating cage of a body, not easily of form, the metamorphoses revealing the law accommodative to the Spirit. Like a prodigal of cause and effect in creation. child, I had run away from my macrocosmic An oceanic joy broke upon calm endless home and imprisoned myself in a narrow shores of my soul. The Spirit of God, I microcosm. realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His body is My guru was standing motionless before countless tissues of light. A swelling glory me; I started to drop at his holy feet in within me began to envelop towns, gratitude for the experience in cosmic continents, the earth, solar and stellar systems, consciousness which I had long passionately tenuous nebulae, and floating universes. The entire cosmos, gently luminous, like a city *“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”—John 1:1.

105 sought. He held me upright, and spoke “Saints who realize their divinity even while calmly, unpretentiously. in the flesh know a similar twofold existence. “You must not get overdrunk with Conscientiously engaging in earthly work, ecstasy. Much work yet remains for you in the they yet remain immersed in an inward world. Come; let us sweep the balcony floor; beatitude. The Lord has created all men from then we shall walk by the Ganges.” the limitless joy of His being. Though they are painfully cramped by the body, God I fetched a broom; Master, I knew, was nevertheless expects that souls made in His teaching me the secret of balanced living. The image shall ultimately rise above all sense soul must stretch over the cosmogonic identifications and reunite with Him.” abysses, while the body performs its daily duties. When we set out later for a stroll, I The cosmic vision left many permanent was still entranced in unspeakable rapture. I lessons. By daily stilling my thoughts, I could saw our bodies as two astral pictures, moving win release from the delusive conviction that over a road by the river whose essence was my body was a mass of flesh and bones, sheer light. traversing the hard soil of matter. The breath and the restless mind, I saw, were like storms “It is the Spirit of God that actively which lashed the ocean of light into waves of sustains every form and force in the universe; material forms—earth, sky, human beings, yet He is transcendental and aloof in the animals, birds, trees. No perception of the blissful uncreated void beyond the worlds of Infinite as One Light could be had except by vibratory phenomena,”* Master explained. calming those storms. As often as I silenced the two natural tumults, I beheld the

*“For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed multitudinous waves of creation melt into one all judgment unto the Son.”—John 5:22. “No man hath lucent sea, even as the waves of the ocean, seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is their tempests subsiding, serenely dissolve in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”— John 1:18. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that into unity. believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go A master bestows the divine experience unto my Father.”—John 14:12. “But the Comforter, of cosmic consciousness when his disciple, by which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in meditation, has strengthened his mind to a my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to degree where the vast vistas would not y o u . ” —John 14:26. overwhelm him. The experience can never be These Biblical words refer to the threefold nature of God as Father, Son, Holy Ghost (Sat, Tat, Aum in the given through one’s mere intellectual Hindu scriptures). God the Father is the Absolute, willingness or open-mindedness. Only Unmanifested, existing beyond vibratory creation. God adequate enlargement by yoga practice and the Son is the Christ Consciousness (Brahma or Kutastha Chaitanya) existing within vibratory creation; devotional bhakti can prepare the mind to this Christ Consciousness is the “only begotten” or sole absorb the liberating shock of omnipresence. reflection of the Uncreated Infinite. Its outward manifestation or “witness” is Aum or Holy Ghost, the It comes with a natural inevitability to the divine, creative, invisible power which structures all sincere devotee. His intense craving begins to creation through vibration. Aum the blissful Comforter pull at God with an irresistible force. The is heard in meditation and reveals to the devotee the ultimate Truth. Lord, as the Cosmic Vision, is drawn by the

106 seeker’s magnetic ardor into his range of Glaciers of silent x-rays, burning electron consciousness. floods, I wrote, in my later years, the following Thoughts of all men, past, present, to come, poem, “Samadhi,” endeavoring to convey the Every blade of grass, myself, mankind, glory of its cosmic state: Each particle of universal dust, Vanished the veils of light and shade, Anger, greed, good, bad, salvation, lust, Lifted every vapor of sorrow, I swallowed, transmuted all Sailed away all dawns of fleeting joy, Into a vast ocean of blood of my own one Gone the dim sensory mirage. Being! Love, hate, health, disease, life, death, Smoldering joy, oft-puffed by meditation, Perished these false shadows on the screen of Blinding my tearful eyes, duality. Burst into immortal flames of bliss, Waves of laughter, scyllas of sarcasm, melancholic whirlpools, Consumed my tears, my frame, my all. Melting in the vast sea of bliss. Thou art I, I am Thou, The storm of maya stilled Knowing, Knower, Known, as One! By magic wand of intuition deep. Tranquilled, unbroken thrill, eternally living, ever new peace! The universe, forgotten dream, subconsciously lurks, Enjoyable beyond imagination of expectancy, samadhi bliss! Ready to invade my newly wakened memory divine. Not a mental chloroform I live without the cosmic shadow, Or unconscious state without wilful return, But it is not, bereft of me; Samadhi but extends my conscious realm As the sea exists without the waves, Beyond limits of the mortal frame But they breathe not without the sea. To farthest boundary of eternity Dreams, wakings, states of deep turiya, sleep; Where I, the Cosmic Sea, Present, past, future, no more for me, Watch the little ego floating in me. But ever-present, all-flowing I, I, everywhere. The sparrow, each grain of sand, fall not without my sight. Planets, stars, stardust, earth, All space like an iceberg floats within my Volcanic bursts of doomsday cataclysms, mental sea. Creation’s molding furnace, Colossal Container, I, of all things made.

107 By deeper, longer, thirsty, guru-given relishable.” One day, however, I took a meditation problem to Master. Comes this celestial samadhi. “I want to know, sir—when shall I find Mobile murmurs of atoms are heard, God?” The dark earth, mountains, vales, lo! molten “You have found Him.” liquid! “O no, sir, I don’t think so!” Flowing seas change into vapors of nebulae! My guru was smiling. “I am sure you Aum blows upon vapors, opening wondrously aren’t expecting a venerable Personage, their veils, adorning a throne in some antiseptic corner of the cosmos! I see, however, that you are Oceans stand revealed, shining electrons, imagining that the possession of miraculous Till, at last sound of the cosmic drum, powers is knowledge of God. One might have the whole universe, and find the Lord elusive Vanish the grosser lights into eternal rays still! Spiritual advancement is not measured Of all-pervading bliss. by one’s outward powers, but only by the From joy I came, for joy I live, in sacred joy I depth of his bliss in meditation. melt. “Ever-new Joy is God. He is Ocean of mind, I drink all Creation’s waves. inexhaustible; as you continue your meditations during the years, He will beguile Four veils of solid, liquid, vapor, light, you with an infinite ingenuity. Devotees like Lift aright. yourself who have found the way to God never dream of exchanging Him for any other Myself, in everything, enters the Great happiness; He is seductive beyond thought of M y s e l f . competition. Gone forever, fitful, flickering shadows of “How quickly we weary of earthly mortal memory. pleasures! Desire for material things is Spotless is my mental sky, below, ahead, and endless; man is never satisfied completely, high above. and pursues one goal after another. The Eternity and I, one united ray. ‘something else’ he seeks is the Lord, who alone can grant lasting joy. A tiny bubble of laughter, I “Outward longings drive us from the Am become the Sea of Mirth Itself. Eden within; they offer false pleasures which Sri Yukteswar taught me how to summon only impersonate soul-happiness. The lost the blessed experience at will, and also how to paradise is quickly regained through divine transmit it to others if their intuitive channels meditation. As God is unanticipatory Ever- were developed. For months I entered the Newness, we never tire of Him. Can we be ecstatic union, comprehending why the surfeited with bliss, delightfully varied Upanishads say God is rasa, “the most throughout eternity?”

108 “I understand now, sir, why saints call during my active hours, I have been subtly the Lord unfathomable. Even everlasting life directed to adopt the right course in could not suffice to appraise Him.” everything, even details.” “That is true; but He is also near and “Human life is beset with sorrow until we dear. After the mind has been cleared by know how to tune in with the Divine Will, Kriya Yoga of sensory obstacles, meditation whose ‘right course’ is often baffling to the furnishes a twofold proof of God. Ever-new egoistic intelligence. God bears the burden of joy is evidence of His existence, convincing the cosmos; He alone can give unerring to our very atoms. Also, in meditation one counsel.” finds His instant guidance, His adequate response to every difficulty.” “I see, Guruji; you have solved my problem.” I smiled gratefully. “I do realize now that I have found God, for whenever the joy of meditation has returned subconsciously

109 CHAPTER: 15 The Cauliflower Robbery “Master, a gift for you! These six huge fro, in a pretty little row.” I could not but cauliflowers were planted with my hands; I admire the ease with which Master was able have watched over their growth with the to match the brisk pace of his young students. tender care of a mother nursing her child.” I “Halt!” My guru’s eyes sought mine. presented the basket of vegetables with a “Did you remember to lock the back door of ceremonial flourish. the hermitage?” “Thank you!” Sri Yukteswar’s smile was “I think so, sir.” warm with appreciation. “Please keep them in your room; I shall need them tomorrow for a Sri Yukteswar was silent for a few special dinner.” minutes, a half-suppressed smile on his lips. “No, you forgot,” he said finally. “Divine I had just arrived in Puri* to spend my contemplation must not be made an excuse college summer vacation with my guru at his for material carelessness. You have neglected seaside hermitage. Built by Master and his your duty in safeguarding the ashram; you disciples, the cheerful little two-storied retreat must be punished.” fronts on the Bay of Bengal. I thought he was obscurely joking when I awoke early the following morning, he added: “Your six cauliflowers will soon be refreshed by the salty sea breezes and the only five.” charm of my surroundings. Sri Yukteswar’s melodious voice was calling; I took a look at We turned around at Master’s orders and my cherished cauliflowers and stowed them marched back until we were close to the neatly under my bed. hermitage. “Come, let us go to the beach.” Master “Rest awhile. Mukunda, look across the led the way; several young disciples and compound on our left; observe the road myself followed in a scattered group. Our beyond. A certain man will arrive there guru surveyed us in mild criticism. presently; he will be the means of your chastisement.” “When our Western brothers walk, they usually take pride in unison. Now, please I concealed my vexation at these march in two rows; keep rhythmic step with incomprehensible remarks. A peasant soon one another.” Sri Yukteswar watched as we appeared on the road; he was dancing obeyed; he began to sing: “Boys go to and grotesquely and flinging his arms about with meaningless gestures. Almost paralyzed with

*Puri, about 310 miles south of Calcutta, is a famous curiosity, I glued my eyes on the hilarious pilgrimage city for devotees of Krishna; his worship is spectacle. As the man reached a point in the celebrated there with two immense annual festivals, Snanayatra and Rathayatra.

110 road where he would vanish from our view, concepts of time and space were annihilated; Sri Yukteswar said, “Now, he will return.” no peasant’s home so narrow that London or The peasant at once changed his direction Calcutta could not enter! The dullest and made for the rear of the ashram. Crossing intelligence enlarged before indisputable a sandy tract, he entered the building by the proof of one aspect of man’s omnipresence. back door. I had left it unlocked, even as my The “plot” of the cauliflower comedy can guru had said. The man emerged shortly, be best understood by a radio analogy. Sri holding one of my prized cauliflowers. He Yukteswar was a perfect human radio. now strode along respectably, invested with Thoughts are no more than very gentle the dignity of possession. vibrations moving in the ether. Just as a The unfolding farce, in which my role sensitized radio picks up a desired musical appeared to be that of bewildered victim, was number out of thousands of other programs not so disconcerting that I failed in indignant from every direction, so my guru had been pursuit. I was halfway to the road when able to catch the thought of the half-witted Master recalled me. He was shaking from man who hankered for a cauliflower, out of head to foot with laughter. the countless thoughts of broadcasting human wills in the world.* “That poor crazy man has been longing for a cauliflower,” he explained between outbursts of mirth. “I thought it would be a *The 1939 discovery of a radio microscope revealed a good idea if he got one of yours, so ill- new world of hitherto unknown rays. “Man himself as guarded!” well as all kinds of supposedly inert matter constantly emits the rays that this instrument ‘sees,’” reported the I dashed to my room, where I found that Associated Press. “Those who believe in telepathy, the thief, evidently one with a vegetable second sight, and clairvoyance, have in this announcement the first scientific proof of the existence fixation, had left untouched my gold rings, of invisible rays which really travel from one person to watch, and money, all lying openly on the another. The radio device actually is a radio frequency blanket. He had crawled instead under the bed spectroscope. It does the same thing for cool, nonglowing matter that the spectroscope does when it where, completely hidden from casual sight, discloses the kinds of atoms that make the stars. . . . one of my cauliflowers had aroused his The existence of such rays coming from man and all living things has been suspected by scientists for many singlehearted desire. years. Today is the first experimental proof of their I asked Sri Yukteswar that evening to existence. The discovery shows that every atom and every molecule in nature is a continuous radio explain the incident which had, I thought, a broadcasting station. . . . Thus even after death the few baffling features. substance that was a man continues to send out its delicate rays. The wave lengths of these rays range My guru shook his head slowly. “You from shorter than anything now used in broadcasting to will understand it someday. Science will soon the longest kind of radio waves. The jumble of these rays is almost inconceivable. There are millions of discover a few of these hidden laws.” them. A single very large molecule may give off 1,000,000 different wave lengths at the same time. The When the wonders of radio burst some longer wave lengths of this sort travel with the ease and years later on an astounded world, I speed of radio waves. . . . There is one amazing difference between the new radio rays and familiar rays remembered Master’s prediction. Age-old like light. This is the prolonged time, amounting to

111 By his powerful will, Master was also a persons to the firesides of millions: the first human broadcasting station, and had faint scientific intimations that man is an all- successfully directed the peasant to reverse pervading spirit. Not a body confined to a his steps and go to a certain room for a single point in space, but the vast soul, which the cauliflower. ego in most barbaric modes conspires in vain Intuition* is soul guidance, appearing to cramp. naturally in man during those instants when “Very strange, very wonderful, his mind is calm. Nearly everyone has had the seemingly very improbable phenomena may experience of an inexplicably correct yet appear which, when once established, will “hunch,” or has transferred his thoughts not astonish us more than we are now effectively to another person. astonished at all that science has taught us The human mind, free from the static of during the last century,” Charles Robert restlessness, can perform through its antenna Richet, Nobel Prizeman in physiology, has of intuition all the functions of complicated declared. “It is assumed that the phenomena radio mechanisms—sending and receiving which we now accept without surprise, do not thoughts, and tuning out undesirable ones. As excite our astonishment because they are the power of a radio depends on the amount understood. But this is not the case. If they do of electrical current it can utilize, so the not surprise us it is not because they are human radio is energized according to the understood, it is because they are familiar; for power of will possessed by each individual. if that which is not understood ought to surprise us, we should be surprised at All thoughts vibrate eternally in the everything—the fall of a stone thrown into the cosmos. By deep concentration, a master is air, the acorn which becomes an oak, mercury able to detect the thoughts of any mind, living which expands when it is heated, iron or dead. Thoughts are universally and not attracted by a magnet, phosphorus which individually rooted; a truth cannot be created, burns when it is rubbed. . . . The science of but only perceived. The erroneous thoughts of today is a light matter; the revolutions and man result from imperfections in his evolutions which it will experience in a discernment. The goal of yoga science is to hundred thousand years will far exceed the calm the mind, that without distortion it may most daring anticipations. The truths—those mirror the divine vision in the universe. surprising, amazing, unforeseen truths— Radio and television have brought the which our descendants will discover, are even instantaneous sound and sight of remote now all around us, staring us in the eyes, so to speak, and yet we do not see them. But it is not enough to say that we do not see them; we thousands of years, which these radio waves will keep do not wish to see them; for as soon as an on emitting from undisturbed matter.” unexpected and unfamiliar fact appears, we *One hesitates to use “intuition”; Hitler has almost try to fit it into the framework of the ruined the word along with more ambitious devastations. The Latin root meaning of intuition is “inner protection.” The Sanskrit word agama means hence certain ancient treatises by the rishis were called intuitional knowledge born of direct soul-perception; agamas.

112 commonplaces of acquired knowledge, and “I will tell you a secret,” Master we are indignant that anyone should dare to responded. “The Lord will send an umbrella experiment further.” of clouds; you all shall walk in comfort.” A humorous occurrence took place a few I happily organized the procession; our days after I had been so implausibly robbed of group started from the ashram with a Sat- a cauliflower. A certain kerosene lamp could Sanga* banner. Designed by Sri Yukteswar, it not be found. Having so lately witnessed my bore the symbol of the single† eye, the guru’s omniscient insight, I thought he would telescopic gaze of intuition. demonstrate that it was child’s play to locate No sooner had we left the hermitage than the lamp. the part of the sky which was overhead Master perceived my expectation. With became filled with clouds as though by exaggerated gravity he questioned all ashram magic. To the accompaniment of astonished residents. A young disciple confessed that he ejaculations from all sides, a very light had used the lamp to go to the well in the shower fell, cooling the city streets and the back yard. burning seashore. The soothing drops Sri Yukteswar gave the solemn counsel: descended during the two hours of the parade. “Seek the lamp near the well.” The exact instant at which our group returned to the ashram, the clouds and rain passed I rushed there; no lamp! Crestfallen, I away tracelessly. returned to my guru. He was now laughing heartily, without compunction for my “You see how God feels for us,” Master disillusionment. replied after I had expressed my gratitude. “The Lord responds to all and works for all. “Too bad I couldn’t direct you to the Just as He sent rain at my plea, so He fulfills vanished lamp; I am not a fortune teller!” any sincere desire of the devotee. Seldom do With twinkling eyes, he added, “I am not men realize how often God heeds their even a satisfactory Sherlock Holmes!” prayers. He is not partial to a few, but listens I realized that Master would never to everyone who approaches Him trustingly. display his powers when challenged, or for a His children should ever have implicit faith in triviality. Delightful weeks sped by. Sri Yukteswar was planning a religious procession. He asked *Sat is literally “being,” hence “essence; reality.” me to lead the disciples over the town and Sanga is “association.” Sri Yukteswar called his beach of Puri. The festive day dawned as one hermitage organization Sat-Sanga, “fellowship with truth.” of the hottest of the summer. †“If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”—Matthew 6:22. During deep “Guruji, how can I take the barefooted meditation, the single or spiritual eye becomes visible students over the fiery sands?” I spoke within the central part of the forehead. This omniscient despairingly. eye is variously referred to in scriptures as the third eye, the star of the East, the inner eye, the dove descending from heaven, the eye of Shiva, the eye of intuition, etc.

113 the loving-kindness of their Omnipresent every moment, he kept pace with the most Father.”* energetic young student. Sri Yukteswar sponsored four yearly A sankirtan (group chanting), festivals, at the equinoxes and solstices, when accompanied by the harmonium and hand- his students gathered from far and near. The played Indian drums, was in progress on the winter solstice celebration was held in second floor. Sri Yukteswar listened Serampore; the first one I attended left me appreciatively; his musical sense was acutely with a permanent blessing. perfect. The festivities started in the morning with “They are off key!” Master left the cooks a barefoot procession along the streets. The and joined the artists. The melody was heard voices of a hundred students rang out with again, this time correctly rendered. sweet religious songs; a few musicians played In India, music as well as painting and the flute and khol kartal (drums and cymbals). the drama is considered a divine art. Brahma, Enthusiastic townspeople strewed the path , and Shiva—the Eternal Trinity— with flowers, glad to be summoned from were the first musicians. The Divine Dancer prosaic tasks by our resounding praise of the Shiva is scripturally represented as having Lord’s blessed name. The long tour ended in worked out the infinite modes of rhythm in the courtyard of the hermitage. There we His cosmic dance of universal creation, encircled our guru, while students on upper preservation, and dissolution, while Brahma balconies showered us with marigold accentuated the time-beat with the clanging blossoms. cymbals, and Vishnu sounded the holy Many guests went upstairs to receive a mridanga or drum. Krishna, an incarnation of pudding of channa and oranges. I made my Vishnu, is always shown in with a way to a group of brother disciples who were flute, on which he plays the enrapturing song serving today as cooks. Food for such large that recalls to their true home the human souls gatherings had to be cooked outdoors in huge wandering in maya-delusion. , cauldrons. The improvised wood-burning goddess of wisdom, is symbolized as brick stoves were smoky and tear-provoking, performing on the vina, mother of all stringed but we laughed merrily at our work. Religious instruments. The Sama Veda of India contains festivals in India are never considered the world’s earliest writings on musical troublesome; each one does his part, science. supplying money, rice, vegetables, or his The foundation stone of is personal services. the ragas or fixed melodic scales. The six Master was soon in our midst, basic ragas branch out into 126 derivative supervising the details of the feast. Busy raginis (wives) and putras (sons). Each raga has a minimum of five notes: a leading note (vadi or king), a secondary note (samavadi or *“He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that prime minister), helping notes (anuvadi, formed the eye, shall he not see? . . . he that teacheth man knowledge, shall he not know?”—Psalm 94:9-10.

114 attendants), and a dissonant note (vivadi, the sing a night raga while the sun was overhead, enemy). Tan Sen intoned a which instantly Each one of the six basic ragas has a caused the whole palace precincts to become natural correspondence with a certain hour of enveloped in darkness. the day, season of the year, and a presiding Indian music divides the octave into 22 deity who bestows a particular potency. Thus, srutis or demi-semitones. These microtonal (1) the Hindole Raga is heard only at dawn in intervals permit fine shades of musical the spring, to evoke the mood of universal expression unattainable by the Western love; (2) Deepaka Raga is played during the chromatic scale of 12 semitones. Each one of evening in summer, to arouse compassion; (3) the seven basic notes of the octave is Megha Raga is a melody for midday in the associated in with a color, rainy season, to summon courage; (4) and the natural cry of a bird or beast—Do Raga is played in the mornings of with green, and the peacock; Re with red, and August, September, October, to achieve the skylark; Mi with golden, and the goat; Fa tranquillity; (5) Sri Raga is reserved for with yellowish white, and the heron; Sol with autumn twilights, to attain pure love; (6) black, and the nightingale; La with yellow, Malkounsa Raga is heard at midnights in and the horse; Si with a combination of all winter, for valor. colors, and the elephant. The ancient rishis discovered these laws Three scales—major, harmonic minor, of sound alliance between nature and man. melodic minor—are the only ones which Because nature is an objectification of Aum, Occidental music employs, but Indian music the Primal Sound or Vibratory Word, man can outlines 72 thatas or scales. The musician has obtain control over all natural manifestations a creative scope for endless improvisation through the use of certain or chants.* around the fixed traditional melody or raga; Historical documents tell of the remarkable he concentrates on the sentiment or definitive powers possessed by Miyan Tan Sen, mood of the structural theme and then sixteenth century court musician for Akbar embroiders it to the limits of his own the Great. Commanded by the Emperor to originality. The Hindu musician does not read set notes; he clothes anew at each playing the *Folklore of all peoples contains references to bare skeleton of the raga, often confining incantations with power over nature. The American himself to a single melodic sequence, Indians are well-known to have developed sound rituals for rain and wind. Tan Sen, the great Hindu stressing by repetition all its subtle microtonal musician, was able to quench fire by the power of his and rhythmic variations. Bach, among song. Charles Kellogg, the California naturalist, gave a Western composers, had an understanding of demonstration of the effect of tonal vibration on fire in 1926 before a group of New York firemen. “Passing a the charm and power of repetitious sound bow, like an enlarged violin bow, swiftly across an slightly differentiated in a hundred complex aluminum tuning fork, he produced a screech like intense radio static. Instantly the yellow gas flame, two w a y s . feet high, leaping inside a hollow glass tube, subsided Ancient Sanskrit literature describes 120 to a height of six inches and became a sputtering blue flare. Another attempt with the bow, and another talas or time-measures. The traditional screech of vibration, extinguished it.”

115 founder of Hindu music, , is said to cotton blankets over the courtyard; soon the have isolated 32 kinds of tala in the song of a assemblage was squatting under the starry lark. The origin of tala or rhythm is rooted in vault, quietly attentive to the wisdom pouring human movements—the double time of from Sri Yukteswar’s lips. His public walking, and the triple time of respiration in speeches emphasized the value of Kriya Yoga, sleep, when inhalation is twice the length of and a life of self-respect, calmness, exhalation. India has always recognized the determination, simple diet, and regular human voice as the most perfect instrument of exercise. sound. Hindu music therefore largely confines A group of very young disciples then itself to the voice range of three octaves. For chanted a few sacred hymns; the meeting the same reason, melody (relation of concluded with sankirtan. From ten o’clock successive notes) is stressed, rather than until midnight, the ashram residents washed harmony (relation of simultaneous notes). pots and pans, and cleared the courtyard. My The deeper aim of the early rishi- guru called me to his side. musicians was to blend the singer with the “I am pleased over your cheerful labors Cosmic Song which can be heard through today and during the past week of awakening of man’s occult spinal centers. preparations. I want you with me; you may Indian music is a subjective, spiritual, and sleep in my bed tonight.” individualistic art, aiming not at symphonic brilliance but at personal harmony with the This was a privilege I had never thought Oversoul. The Sanskrit word for musician is would fall to my lot. We sat awhile in a state bhagavathar, “he who sings the praises of of intense divine tranquillity. Hardly ten God.” The sankirtans or musical gatherings minutes after we had gotten into bed, Master are an effective form of yoga or spiritual rose and began to dress. discipline, necessitating deep concentration, “What is the matter, sir?” I felt a tinge of intense absorption in the seed thought and unreality in the unexpected joy of sleeping sound. Because man himself is an expression beside my guru. of the Creative Word, sound has the most “I think that a few students who missed potent and immediate effect on him, offering their proper train connections will be here a way to remembrance of his divine origin. soon. Let us have some food ready.” The sankirtan issuing from Sri “Guruji, no one would come at one Yukteswar’s second-story sitting room on the o’clock in the morning!” day of the festival was inspiring to the cooks amidst the steaming pots. My brother “Stay in bed; you have been working disciples and I joyously sang the refrains, very hard. But I am going to cook.” beating time with our hands. At Sri Yukteswar’s resolute tone, I By sunset we had served our hundreds of jumped up and followed him to the small visitors with khichuri (rice and lentils), daily-used kitchen adjacent to the second- vegetable curry, and rice pudding. We laid

116 floor inner balcony. Rice and dhal were soon could not return home without a glimpse of boiling. our guru.” My guru smiled affectionately. “Tonight “He has been expecting you and is even you have conquered fatigue and fear of hard now preparing your food.” work; you shall never be bothered by them in Sri Yukteswar’s welcoming voice rang the future.” out; I led the astonished visitors to the As he uttered these words of lifelong kitchen. Master turned to me with twinkling blessing, footsteps sounded in the courtyard. I eyes. ran downstairs and admitted a group of “Now that you have finished comparing students. notes, no doubt you are satisfied that our “Dear brother, how reluctant we are to guests really did miss their train!” disturb Master at this hour!” One man I followed him to his bedroom a half hour addressed me apologetically. “We made a later, realizing fully that I was about to sleep mistake about train schedules, but felt we beside a godlike guru.

117 CHAPTER: 16 Outwitting the Stars “Mukunda, why don’t you get an astrological and philosophically, to be rightly grasped armlet?” except by men of profound understanding. If “Should I, Master? I don’t believe in ignoramuses misread the heavens, and see astrology.” there a scrawl instead of a script, that is to be expected in this imperfect world. One should “It is never a question of belief; the only not dismiss the wisdom with the ‘wise.’ scientific attitude one can take on any subject is whether it is true. The law of gravitation “All parts of creation are linked together worked as efficiently before Newton as after and interchange their influences. The him. The cosmos would be fairly chaotic if its balanced rhythm of the universe is rooted in laws could not operate without the sanction of reciprocity,” my guru continued. “Man, in his human belief. human aspect, has to combat two sets of forces—first, the tumults within his being, “Charlatans have brought the stellar caused by the admixture of earth, water, fire, science to its present state of disrepute. air, and ethereal elements; second, the outer Astrology is too vast, both mathematically* disintegrating powers of nature. So long as man struggles with his mortality, he is *From astronomical references in ancient Hindu affected by the myriad mutations of heaven scriptures, scholars have been able to correctly and earth. ascertain the dates of the authors. The scientific knowledge of the rishis was very great; in the “Astrology is the study of man’s response Kaushitaki Brahmana we find precise astronomical passages which show that in 3100 B.C. the Hindus to planetary stimuli. The stars have no were far advanced in astronomy, which had a practical conscious benevolence or animosity; they value in determining the auspicious times for merely send forth positive and negative astrological ceremonies. In an article in East-West, February, 1934, the following summary is given of the radiations. Of themselves, these do not help or Jyotish or body of Vedic astronomical treatises: “It harm humanity, but offer a lawful channel for contains the scientific lore which kept India at the forefront of all ancient nations and made her the mecca the outward operation of cause-effect of seekers after knowledge. The very ancient equilibriums which each man has set into Brahmagupta, one of the Jyotish w o r ks, is an motion in the past. astronomical treatise dealing with such matters as the heliocentric motion of the planetary bodies in our solar “A child is born on that day and at that system, the obliquity of the ecliptic, the earth’s spherical form, the reflected light of the moon, the hour when the celestial rays are in earth’s daily axial revolution, the presence of fixed mathematical harmony with his individual stars in the Milky Way, the law of gravitation, and other scientific facts which did not dawn in the Western world until the time of Copernicus and century, via the Arabs, from India, where that system Newton.” of notation had been anciently formulated. Further light It is now well-known that the so-called “Arabic on India’s vast scientific heritage will be found in Dr. numerals,” without whose symbols advanced P. C. Ray’s History of Hindu Chemistry, and in Dr. B. mathematics is difficult, came to Europe in the 9th N. Seal’s Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus.

118 karma. His horoscope is a challenging touch with his divine consciousness; there is portrait, revealing his unalterable past and its no greater power than that inward protection.” probable future results. But the natal chart can “Then, dear Master, why do you want me be rightly interpreted only by men of intuitive to wear an astrological bangle?” I ventured wisdom: these are few. this question after a long silence, during “The message boldly blazoned across the which I had tried to assimilate Sri heavens at the moment of birth is not meant to Yukteswar’s noble exposition. emphasize fate—the result of past good and “It is only when a traveler has reached his evil—but to arouse man’s will to escape from goal that he is justified in discarding his maps. his universal thralldom. What he has done, he During the journey, he takes advantage of any can undo. None other than himself was the convenient short cut. The ancient rishis instigator of the causes of whatever effects are discovered many ways to curtail the period of now prevalent in his life. He can overcome man’s exile in delusion. There are certain any limitation, because he created it by his mechanical features in the law of karma own actions in the first place, and because he which can be skillfully adjusted by the fingers has spiritual resources which are not subject of wisdom. to planetary pressure. “All human ills arise from some “Superstitious awe of astrology makes transgression of universal law. The scriptures one an automaton, slavishly dependent on point out that man must satisfy the laws of mechanical guidance. The wise man defeats nature, while not discrediting the divine his planets—which is to say, his past—b y omnipotence. He should say: ‘Lord, I trust in transferring his allegiance from the creation to Thee, and know Thou canst help me, but I too the Creator. The more he realizes his unity will do my best to undo any wrong I have with Spirit, the less he can be dominated by done.’ By a number of means—by prayer, by matter. The soul is ever-free; it is deathless will power, by yoga meditation, by because birthless. It cannot be regimented by consultation with saints, by use of astrological stars. bangles—the adverse effects of past wrongs “Man is a soul, and has a body. When he can be minimized or nullified. properly places his sense of identity, he leaves “Just as a house can be fitted with a behind all compulsive patterns. So long as he copper rod to absorb the shock of lightning, remains confused in his ordinary state of so the bodily temple can be benefited by spiritual amnesia, he will know the subtle various protective measures. Ages ago our fetters of environmental law. yogis discovered that pure metals emit an “God is harmony; the devotee who astral light which is powerfully counteractive attunes himself will never perform any action to negative pulls of the planets. Subtle amiss. His activities will be correctly and electrical and magnetic radiations are naturally timed to accord with astrological constantly circulating in the universe; when a law. After deep prayer and meditation he is in man’s body is being aided, he does not know

119 it; when it is being disintegrated, he is still in guru, I thought I would bravely endure my ignorance. Can he do anything about it? trial alone. “This problem received attention from But twenty-three days of torture our rishis; they found helpful not only a weakened my resolution; I entrained for combination of metals, but also of plants Benares. There Sri Yukteswar greeted me and—most effective of all—faultless jewels with unusual warmth, but gave me no of not less than two carats. The preventive opportunity to tell him my woes in private. uses of astrology have seldom been seriously Many devotees visited Master that day, just studied outside of India. One little-known fact for a darshan.* Ill and neglected, I sat in a is that the proper jewels, metals, or plant corner. It was not until after the evening meal preparations are valueless unless the required that all guests had departed. My guru weight is secured, and unless these remedial summoned me to the octagonal balcony of the agents are worn next to the skin.” house. “Sir, of course I shall take your advice “You must have come about your liver and get a bangle. I am intrigued at the thought disorder.” Sri Yukteswar’s gaze was averted; of outwitting a planet!” he walked to and fro, occasionally “For general purposes I counsel the use intercepting the moonlight. “Let me see; you of an armlet made of gold, silver, and copper. have been ailing for twenty-four days, haven’t But for a specific purpose I want you to get you?” one of silver and lead.” Sri Yukteswar added “Yes, sir.” careful directions. “Please do the stomach exercise I have “Guruji, what ‘specific purpose’ do you taught you.” mean?” “If you knew the extent of my suffering, “The stars are about to take an unfriendly Master, you would not ask me to exercise.” interest in you, Mukunda. Fear not; you shall Nevertheless I made a feeble attempt to obey be protected. In about a month your liver will him. cause you much trouble. The illness is “You say you have pain; I say you have scheduled to last for six months, but your use none. How can such contradictions exist?” of an astrological armlet will shorten the M y guru looked at me inquiringly. period to twenty-four days.” I was dazed and then overcome with I sought out a jeweler the next day, and joyful relief. No longer could I feel the was soon wearing the bangle. My health was continuous torment that had kept me nearly excellent; Master’s prediction slipped from sleepless for weeks; at Sri Yukteswar’s words my mind. He left Serampore to visit Benares. the agony vanished as though it had never Thirty days after our conversation, I felt a been. sudden pain in the region of my liver. The following weeks were a nightmare of excruciating pain. Reluctant to disturb my *The blessing which flows from the mere sight of a saint.

120 I started to kneel at his feet in gratitude, conspicuous spot; Ananta immediately read but he quickly prevented me. my defiant comment. “Don’t be childish. Get up and enjoy the “You cannot destroy truth as easily as beauty of the moon over the Ganges.” But you have burnt this paper scroll.” My brother Master’s eyes were twinkling happily as I laughed scornfully. stood in silence beside him. I understood by It is a fact that on three occasions before I his attitude that he wanted me to feel that not reached manhood, my family tried to arrange he, but God, had been the Healer. my betrothal. Each time I refused to fall in I wear even now the heavy silver and with the plans,* knowing that my love for lead bangle, a memento of that day—long- God was more overwhelming than any past, ever-cherished—when I found anew that astrological persuasion from the past. I was living with a personage indeed “The deeper the self-realization of a man, superhuman. On later occasions, when I the more he influences the whole universe by brought my friends to Sri Yukteswar for his subtle spiritual vibrations, and the less he healing, he invariably recommended jewels or himself is affected by the phenomenal flux.” the bangle, extolling their use as an act of These words of Master’s often returned astrological wisdom. inspiringly to my mind. I had been prejudiced against astrology Occasionally I told astrologers to select from my childhood, partly because I observed my worst periods, according to planetary that many people are sequaciously attached to indications, and I would still accomplish it, and partly because of a prediction made by whatever task I set myself. It is true that my our family astrologer: “You will marry three success at such times has been accompanied times, being twice a widower.” I brooded over by extraordinary difficulties. But my the matter, feeling like a goat awaiting conviction has always been justified: faith in sacrifice before the temple of triple the divine protection, and the right use of matrimony. man’s God-given will, are forces formidable “You may as well be resigned to your beyond any the “inverted bowl” can muster. fate,” my brother Ananta had remarked. The starry inscription at one’s birth, I “Your written horoscope has correctly stated came to understand, is not that man is a that you would fly from home toward the puppet of his past. Its message is rather a prod Himalayas during your early years, but would to pride; the very heavens seek to arouse be forcibly returned. The forecast of your man’s determination to be free from every marriages is also bound to be true.” limitation. God created each man as a soul, A clear intuition came to me one night dowered with individuality, hence essential to that the prophecy was wholly false. I set fire the universal structure, whether in the to the horoscope scroll, placing the ashes in a temporary role of pillar or parasite. His paper bag on which I wrote: “Seeds of past karma cannot germinate if they are roasted in the divine fires of wisdom.” I put the bag in a

121 freedom is final and immediate, if he so wills; are the eternal rounds of maya, the contrasts it depends not on outer but inner victories. and relativities of the phenomenal universe.§ Sri Yukteswar discovered the Man, one by one, escapes from creation’s mathematical application of a 24,000-y e a r prison of duality as he awakens to equinoctial cycle to our present age.† The consciousness of his inseverable divine unity cycle is divided into an Ascending Arc and a with the Creator. Descending Arc, each of 12,000 years. Within Master enlarged my understanding not each Arc fall four Yugas or Ages, called Kali, only of astrology but of the world’s Dwapara, Treta, and , corresponding to scriptures. Placing the holy texts on the the Greek ideas of Iron, Bronze, Silver, and spotless table of his mind, he was able to Golden Ages. dissect them with the scalpel of intuitive My guru determined by various reasoning, and to separate errors and calculations that the last Kali Yuga or Iron Age, of the Ascending Arc, started about A.D. 500. The Iron Age, 1200 years in duration, is §The Hindu scriptures place the present world-age as occurring within the Kali Yuga of a much longer a span of materialism; it ended about A.D. universal cycle than the simple 24,000-year equinoctial 1700. That year ushered in Dwapara Yuga, a cycle with which Sri Yukteswar was concerned. The 2400-year period of electrical and atomic- universal cycle of the scriptures is 4,300,560,000 years in extent, and measures out a Day of Creation or the energy developments, the age of telegraph, length of life assigned to our planetary system in its radio, airplanes, and other space-annihilators. present form. This vast figure given by the rishis is based on a relationship between the length of the solar The 3600-year period of Treta Yuga will year and a multiple of Pi (3.1416, the ratio of the start in A.D. 4100; its age will be marked by circumference to the diameter of a circle). The life span for a whole universe, according to the common knowledge of telepathic ancient seers, is 314,159,000,000,000 solar years, or communications and other time-annihilators. “One Age of Brahma.” During the 4800 years of Satya Yuga, final Scientists estimate the present age of the earth to be about two billion years, basing their conclusions on a age in an ascending arc, the intelligence of a study of lead pockets left as a result of radioactivity in man will be completely developed; he will rocks. The Hindu scriptures declare that an earth such as ours is dissolved for one of two reasons: the work in harmony with the divine plan. inhabitants as a whole become either completely good or completely evil. The world-mind thus generates a A descending arc of 12,000 years, power which releases the captive atoms held together starting with a descending Golden Age of as an earth. 4800 years, then begins‡ for the world; man Dire pronouncements are occasionally published regarding an imminent “end of the world.” The latest gradually sinks into ignorance. These cycles prediction of doom was given by Rev. Chas. G. Long of Pasadena, who publicly set the “Day of Judgment” for Sept. 21, 1945. United Press reporters asked my *One of the girls whom my family selected as a opinion; I explained that world cycles follow an possible bride for me, afterwards married my cousin, orderly progression according to a divine plan. No Prabhas Chandra Ghose. earthly dissolution is in sight; two billion years of †A series of thirteen articles on the historical ascending and descending equinoctial cycles are yet in verification of Sri Yukteswar’s Yuga theory appeared store for our planet in its present form. The figures in the magazine East-West (Los Angeles) from given by the rishis for the various world ages deserve September, 1932, to September, 1933. careful study in the West; the magazine Time (Dec. 17, ‡In the year A.D. 12,500. 1945, p. 6) called them “reassuring statistics.”

122 interpolations of scholars from the truths as guru, unknown to the roll call of Christian originally expressed by the prophets. membership, that I learned to perceive the “Fix one’s vision on the end of the nose.” deathless essence of the Bible, and to This inaccurate interpretation of a Bhagavad understand the truth in Christ’s assertion— Gita stanza,* widely accepted by Eastern surely the most thrillingly intransigent ever pundits and Western translators, used to uttered: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, arouse Master’s droll criticism. but my words shall not pass away.”** “The path of a yogi is singular enough as The great masters of India mold their it is,” he remarked. “Why counsel him that he lives by the same godly ideals which must also make himself cross-eyed? The true animated Jesus; these men are his proclaimed meaning of nasikagram is ‘origin of the kin: “Whosoever shall do the will of my nose,’ not ‘end of the nose.’ The nose begins Father which is in heaven, the same is my at the point between the two eyebrows, the brother, and sister, and mother.”†† “ I f y e seat of spiritual vision.”† continue in my word,” Christ pointed out, “then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall Because of one Sankhya‡ aphorism, know the truth, and the truth shall make you “Iswar-ashidha,”—“A Lord of Creation free.”‡‡ Freemen all, lords of themselves, the cannot be deduced” or “God is not Yogi-Christs of India are part of the immortal proved,”§—many scholars call the whole fraternity: those who have attained a philosophy atheistical. liberating knowledge of the One Father. “The verse is not nihilistic,” Sri “The Adam and Eve story is Yukteswar explained. “It merely signifies that incomprehensible to me!” I observed with to the unenlightened man, dependent on his considerable heat one day in my early senses for all final judgments, proof of God struggles with the allegory. “Why did God must remain unknown and therefore non- punish not only the guilty pair, but also the existent. True Sankhya followers, with innocent unborn generations?” unshakable insight born of meditation, understand that the Lord is both existent and Master was more amused by my knowable.” vehemence than my ignorance. “Genesis is deeply symbolic, and cannot be grasped by a Master expounded the Christian Bible literal interpretation,” he explained. “Its ‘tree with a beautiful clarity. It was from my Hindu of life’ is the human body. The spinal cord is like an upturned tree, with man’s hair as its *Chapter VI:13. †“The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine roots, and afferent and efferent nerves as eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be ** Matthew 24:35. not darkness.”—Luke 11:34-35. ††Matthew 12:50. ‡One of the six systems of . Sankhya ‡‡John 8:31-32. St. John testified: “But as many as teaches final emancipation through knowledge of received him, to them gave he power to become the twenty-five principles, starting with prakriti or nature sons of God, even to them that believe on his name and ending with purusha or soul. (even to them who are established in the Christ §Sankhya Aphorisms, I:92. Consciousness).”—John 1:12.

123 branches. The tree of the nervous system phenomenal worlds. Reason and feeling bears many enjoyable fruits, or sensations of remain in a heaven of cooperative joy so long sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. In these, as the human mind is not tricked by the man may rightfully indulge; but he was serpentine energy of animal propensities. forbidden the experience of sex, the ‘apple’ at “The human body was therefore not the center of the bodily garden.* solely a result of evolution from beasts, but “The ‘serpent’ represents the coiled-up was produced by an act of special creation by spinal energy which stimulates the sex nerves. God. The animal forms were too crude to ‘Adam’ is reason, and ‘Eve’ is feeling. When express full divinity; the human being was the emotion or Eve-consciousness in any uniquely given a tremendous mental human being is overpowered by the sex capacity—the ‘thousand-petaled lotus’ of the impulse, his reason or Adam also succumbs.† brain—as well as acutely awakened occult “God created the human species by centers in the spine. materializing the bodies of man and woman “God, or the Divine Consciousness through the force of His will; He endowed the present within the first created pair, counseled new species with the power to create children them to enjoy all human sensibilities, but not in a similar ‘immaculate’ or divine manner.‡ to put their concentration on touch Because His manifestation in the sensations.** These were banned in order to individualized soul had hitherto been limited avoid the development of the sex organs, to animals, instinct-bound and lacking the which would enmesh humanity in the inferior potentialities of full reason, God made the animal method of propagation. The warning first human bodies, symbolically called Adam not to revive subconsciously-present bestial and Eve. To these, for advantageous upward memories was not heeded. Resuming the way evolution, He transferred the souls or divine of brute procreation, Adam and Eve fell from essence of two animals.§ In Adam or man, the state of heavenly joy natural to the reason predominated; in Eve or woman, original perfect man. feeling was ascendant. Thus was expressed “Knowledge of ‘good and evil’ refers to the duality or polarity which underlies the the cosmic dualistic compulsion. Falling under the sway of maya through misuse of his *“We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but feeling and reason, or Eve—and Adam— of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither consciousness, man relinquishes his right to shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”—Genesis 3:2-3. enter the heavenly garden of divine self- †“The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. The woman said, The sufficiency.†† The personal responsibility of serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”—Gen. 3:12-13. ‡“So God created man in his own image, in the image ** “Now the serpent (sex force) was more subtil than of God created he him; male and female created he any beast of the field” (any other sense of the body).— them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Gen. 3:1. Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and ††“And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in subdue it.”—Gen. 1:27-28. Eden; and there he put the man whom he had §“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the formed.”—Gen. 2:8. “Therefore the Lord God sent him ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from and man became a living soul.”—Gen. 2:7. whence he was taken.”—Gen. 3:23. The divine man

124 every human being is to restore his ‘parents’ or dual nature to a unified harmony or Eden.” As Sri Yukteswar ended his discourse, I glanced with new respect at the pages of Genesis. “Dear Master,” I said, “for the first time I feel a proper filial obligation toward Adam and Eve!”

first made by God had his consciousness centered in the omnipotent single eye in the forehead (eastward). The all-creative powers of his will, focused at that spot, were lost to man when he began to “till the ground” of his physical nature.

125 CHAPTER: 17 Sasi and the Three Sapphires “Because you and my son think so highly of weeks from today. Due to your intercession, Swami Sri Yukteswar, I will take a look at however, on that date he will recover. But him.” The tone of voice used by Dr. Narayan there is one condition. You must get him to Chunder Roy implied that he was humoring wear an astrological bangle; he will doubtless the whim of half-wits. I concealed my object as violently as one of his horses before indignation, in the best traditions of the an operation!” Master chuckled. proselyter. After a silence, during which I wondered My companion, a veterinary surgeon, how Santosh and I could best employ the arts was a confirmed agnostic. His young son of cajolery on the recalcitrant doctor, Sri Santosh had implored me to take an interest in Yukteswar made further disclosures. his father. So far my invaluable aid had been “As soon as the man gets well, advise a bit on the invisible side. him not to eat meat. He will not heed this Dr. Roy accompanied me the following counsel, however, and in six months, just as day to the Serampore hermitage. After Master he is feeling at his best, he will drop dead. had granted him a brief interview, marked for Even that six-month extension of life is the most part by stoic silence on both sides, granted him only because of your plea.” the visitor brusquely departed. The following day I suggested to Santosh “Why bring a dead man to the ashram?” that he order an armlet at the jeweler’s. It was Sri Yukteswar looked at me inquiringly as ready in a week, but Dr. Roy refused to put it soon as the door had closed on the Calcutta on. skeptic. “I am in the best of health. You will “Sir! The doctor is very much alive!” never impress me with these astrological “But in a short time he will be dead.” superstitions.” The doctor glanced at me belligerently. I was shocked. “Sir, this will be a terrible blow to his son. Santosh yet hopes for time to I recalled with amusement that Master change his father’s materialistic views. I had justifiably compared the man to a balky beseech you, Master, to help the man.” horse. Another seven days passed; the doctor, suddenly ill, meekly consented to wear the “Very well; for your sake.” My guru’s bangle. Two weeks later the physician in face was impassive. “The proud horse doctor attendance told me that his patient’s case was is far gone in diabetes, although he does not hopeless. He supplied harrowing details of the know it. In fifteen days he will take to his ravages inflicted by diabetes. bed. The physicians will give him up for lost; his natural time to leave this earth is six I shook my head. “My guru has said that, ashram!—their fashionable academic cloak of after a sickness lasting one month, Dr. Roy . will be well.” One of my friends, Sasi, spent a number The physician stared at me incredulously. of happy week ends in Serampore. Master But he sought me out a fortnight later, with an became immensely fond of the boy, and apologetic air. lamented that his private life was wild and “Dr. Roy has made a complete recovery!” disorderly. he exclaimed. “It is the most amazing case in “Sasi, unless you reform, one year hence my experience. Never before have I seen a you will be dangerously ill.” Sri Yukteswar dying man show such an inexplicable gazed at my friend with affectionate comeback. Your guru must indeed be a exasperation. “Mukunda is the witness: don’t healing prophet!” say later that I didn’t warn you.” After one interview with Dr. Roy, during Sasi laughed. “Master, I will leave it to which I repeated Sri Yukteswar’s advice you to interest a sweet charity of cosmos in about a meatless diet, I did not see the man my own sad case! My spirit is willing but my again for six months. He stopped for a chat will is weak. You are my only savior on earth; one evening as I sat on the piazza of my I believe in nothing else.” family home on Gurpar Road. “At least you should wear a two-carat “Tell your teacher that by eating meat blue sapphire. It will help you.” frequently, I have wholly regained my “I can’t afford one. Anyhow, dear guruji, strength. His unscientific ideas on diet have if trouble comes, I fully believe you will not influenced me.” It was true that Dr. Roy protect me.” looked a picture of health. “In a year you will bring three But the next day Santosh came running to sapphires,” Sri Yukteswar replied cryptically. me from his home on the next block. “This “They will be of no use then.” morning Father dropped dead!” Variations on this conversation took This case was one of my strangest place regularly. “I can’t reform!” Sasi would experiences with Master. He healed the say in comical despair. “And my trust in you, rebellious veterinary surgeon in spite of his Master, is more precious to me than any disbelief, and extended the man’s natural term stone!” on earth by six months, just because of my earnest supplication. Sri Yukteswar was A year later I was visiting my guru at the boundless in his kindness when confronted by Calcutta home of his disciple, Naren Babu. the urgent prayer of a devotee. About ten o’clock in the morning, as Sri Yukteswar and I were sitting quietly in the It was my proudest privilege to bring second-floor parlor, I heard the front door college friends to meet my guru. Many of open. Master straightened stiffly. them would lay aside—at least in the

127 “It is that Sasi,” he remarked gravely. “Beloved guru, shall I take the medicines “The year is now up; both his lungs are gone. prescribed by the doctors?” He has ignored my counsel; tell him I don’t Sri Yukteswar’s glance was want to see him.” longanimous. “Just as you wish—drink them Half stunned by Sri Yukteswar’s or discard them; it does not matter. It is more sternness, I raced down the stairway. Sasi was possible for the sun and moon to interchange ascending. their positions than for you to die of “O Mukunda! I do hope Master is here; I tuberculosis.” He added abruptly, “Go now, had a hunch he might be.” before I change my mind!” “Yes, but he doesn’t wish to be With an agitated bow, my friend hastily disturbed.” departed. I visited him several times during the next few weeks, and was aghast to find his Sasi burst into tears and brushed past me. condition increasingly worse. He threw himself at Sri Yukteswar’s feet, placing there three beautiful sapphires. “Sasi cannot last through the night.” These words from his physician, and the “Omniscient guru, the doctors say I have spectacle of my friend, now reduced almost to galloping tuberculosis! They give me no a skeleton, sent me posthaste to Serampore. longer than three more months! I humbly My guru listened coldly to my tearful report. implore your aid; I know you can heal me!” “Why do you come here to bother me? “Isn’t it a bit late now to be worrying You have already heard me assure Sasi of his over your life? Depart with your jewels; their recovery.” time of usefulness is past.” Master then sat sphinxlike in an unrelenting silence, I bowed before him in great awe, and punctuated by the boy’s sobs for mercy. retreated to the door. Sri Yukteswar said no parting word, but sank into silence, his An intuitive conviction came to me that unwinking eyes half-open, their vision fled to Sri Yukteswar was merely testing the depth of another world. Sasi’s faith in the divine healing power. I was not surprised a tense hour later when Master I returned at once to Sasi’s home in turned a sympathetic gaze on my prostrate Calcutta. With astonishment I found my friend. friend sitting up, drinking milk. “Get up, Sasi; what a commotion you “O Mukunda! What a miracle! Four make in other people’s houses! Return your hours ago I felt Master’s presence in the sapphires to the jeweler’s; they are an room; my terrible symptoms immediately unnecessary expense now. But get an disappeared. I feel that through his grace I am astrological bangle and wear it. Fear not; in a entirely well.” few weeks you shall be well.” Sasi’s smile illumined his tear-marred face like sudden sun over a sodden landscape.

128 In a few weeks Sasi was stouter and in with unnerving ridicule. Surveying the better health than ever before.* But his mountain of books on my table, I felt like a singular reaction to his healing had an traveler lost in a wilderness. A long period of ungrateful tinge: he seldom visited Sri meditation brought me a labor-saving Yukteswar again! My friend told me one day inspiration. Opening each book at random, I that he so deeply regretted his previous mode studied only those pages which lay thus of life that he was ashamed to face Master. exposed. Pursuing this course during eighteen I could only conclude that Sasi’s illness hours a day for a week, I considered myself had had the contrasting effect of stiffening his entitled to advise all succeeding generations will and impairing his manners. on the art of cramming. The first two years of my course at The following days in the examination Scottish Church College were drawing to a halls were a justification of my seemingly close. My classroom attendance had been haphazard procedure. I passed all the tests, very spasmodic; what little studying I did was though by a hairbreadth. The congratulations only to keep peace with my family. My two of my friends and family were ludicrously private tutors came regularly to my house; I mixed with ejaculations betraying their was regularly absent: I can discern at least astonishment. this one regularity in my scholastic career! On his return from Puri, Sri Yukteswar In India two successful years of college gave me a pleasant surprise. “Your Calcutta bring an Intermediate Arts diploma; the studies are now over. I will see that you student may then look forward to another two pursue your last two years of university work years and his A.B. degree. right here in Serampore.” The Intermediate Arts final examinations I was puzzled. “Sir, there is no Bachelor loomed ominously ahead. I fled to Puri, where of Arts course in this town.” Serampore my guru was spending a few weeks. Vaguely College, the sole institution of higher hoping that he would sanction my learning, offered only a two-year course in nonappearance at the finals, I related my Intermediate Arts. embarrassing unpreparedness. Master smiled mischievously. “I am too But Master smiled consolingly. “You old to go about collecting donations to have wholeheartedly pursued your spiritual establish an A.B. college for you. I guess I duties, and could not help neglecting your shall have to arrange the matter through college work. Apply yourself diligently to someone else.” your books for the next week: you shall get Two months later Professor Howells, through your ordeal without failure.” president of Serampore College, publicly I returned to Calcutta, firmly suppressing announced that he had succeeded in raising all reasonable doubts that occasionally arose sufficient funds to offer a four-year course. Serampore College became a branch affiliation of the University of Calcutta. I was *In 1936 I heard from a friend that Sasi was still in excellent health.

129 one of the first students to enroll in Sri Yukteswar gazed at me with mock Serampore as an A.B. candidate. severity. “Now you won’t have to spend so “Guruji, how kind you are to me! I have many hours on trains; what a lot of free time been longing to leave Calcutta and be near for your studies! Perhaps you will become you every day in Serampore. Professor less of a last-minute crammer and more of a Howells does not dream how much he owes scholar.” But somehow his tone lacked to your silent help!” conviction.

130 CHAPTER: 18 A Mohammedan Wonder-Worker “ Years ago, right in this very room you now “Afzal’s reverent obedience was occupy, a Mohammedan wonder-worker rewarded by a loving glance from the yogi. performed four miracles before me!” “‘You possess good karma from former Sri Yukteswar made this surprising lives,’ he observed solemnly. ‘I am going to statement during his first visit to my new teach you a certain yoga method which will quarters. Immediately after entering give you command over one of the invisible Serampore College, I had taken a room in a realms. The great powers that will be yours near-by boardinghouse, called Panthi. It was should be exercised for worthy ends; never an old-fashioned brick mansion, fronting the employ them selfishly! I perceive, alas! that Ganges. you have brought over from the past some “Master, what a coincidence! Are these seeds of destructive tendencies. Do not allow newly decorated walls really ancient with them to sprout by watering them with fresh memories?” I looked around my simply evil actions. The complexity of your previous furnished room with awakened interest. karma is such that you must use this life to reconcile your yogic accomplishments with “It is a long story.” My guru smiled the highest humanitarian goals.’ reminiscently. “The name of the fakir* was Afzal Khan. He had acquired his “After instructing the amazed boy in a extraordinary powers through a chance complicated technique, the master vanished. encounter with a Hindu yogi. “Afzal faithfully followed his yoga “‘Son, I am thirsty; fetch me some exercise for twenty years. His miraculous water.’ A dust-covered sannyasi made this feats began to attract widespread attention. It request of Afzal one day during his early seems that he was always accompanied by a boyhood in a small village of eastern Bengal. disembodied spirit whom he called ‘Hazrat.’ This invisible entity was able to fulfill the “‘Master, I am a Mohammedan. How fakir’s slightest wish. could you, a Hindu, accept a drink from my hands?’ “Ignoring his master’s warning, Afzal began to misuse his powers. Whatever object “‘Your truthfulness pleases me, my child. he touched and then replaced would soon I do not observe the ostracizing rules of disappear without a trace. This disconcerting ungodly sectarianism. Go; bring me water eventuality usually made the Mohammedan quickly.’ an objectionable guest!

*A Moslem yogi; from the Arabic faqir, poor; originally applied to dervishes under a vow of poverty.

131 “He visited large jewelry stores in wearing anything valuable! Afzal looked me Calcutta from time to time, representing over inquisitively, then remarked: himself as a possible purchaser. Any jewel he “‘You have powerful hands. Go handled would vanish shortly after he had left downstairs to the garden; get a smooth stone the shop. and write your name on it with chalk; then “Afzal was often surrounded by several throw the stone as far as possible into the hundred students, attracted by the hope of Ganges.’ learning his secrets. The fakir occasionally “I obeyed. As soon as the stone had invited them to travel with him. At the vanished under distant waves, the railway station he would manage to touch a Mohammedan addressed me again: roll of tickets. These he would return to the clerk, remarking: ‘I have changed my mind, “‘Fill a pot with Ganges water near the and won’t buy them now.’ But when he front of this house.’ boarded the train with his retinue, Afzal “After I had returned with a vessel of would be in possession of the required water, the fakir cried, ‘Hazrat, put the stone in tickets.* the pot!’ “These exploits created an indignant “The stone appeared at once. I pulled it uproar; Bengali jewelers and ticket-sellers from the vessel and found my signature as were succumbing to nervous breakdowns! legible as when I had written it. The police who sought to arrest Afzal found “Babu,† one of my friends in the room, themselves helpless; the fakir could remove was wearing a heavy antique gold watch and incriminating evidence merely by saying: chain. The fakir examined them with ominous ‘Hazrat, take this away.’” admiration. Soon they were missing! Sri Yukteswar rose from his seat and “‘Afzal, please return my prized walked to the balcony of my room which heirloom!’ Babu was nearly in tears. overlooked the Ganges. I followed him, eager to hear more of the baffling Mohammedan “The Mohammedan was stoically silent Raffles. for awhile, then said, ‘You have five hundred rupees in an iron safe. Bring them to me, and “This Panthi house formerly belonged to I will tell you where to locate your timepiece.’ a friend of mine. He became acquainted with Afzal and asked him here. My friend also “The distraught Babu left immediately invited about twenty neighbors, including for his home. He came back shortly and myself. I was only a youth then, and felt a handed Afzal the required sum. lively curiosity about the notorious fakir.” “‘Go to the little bridge near your house,’ Master laughed. “I took the precaution of not the fakir instructed Babu. ‘Call on Hazrat to give you the watch and chain.’

*My father later told me that his company, the Bengal- Nagpur Railway, had been one of the firms victimized †I do not recall the name of Sri Yukteswar’s friend, by Afzal Khan. and must refer to him simply as “Babu” (Mister).

132 “Babu rushed away. On his return, he being piled up, caused us to turn around. Lo! was wearing a smile of relief and no jewelry there was no sign of the glittering plates or the whatever. remnants of the meal.” “‘When I commanded Hazrat as “Guruji,” I interrupted, “if Afzal could directed,’ he announced, ‘my watch came easily secure such things as gold dishes, why tumbling down from the air into my right did he covet the property of others?” hand! You may be sure I locked the heirloom “The fakir was not highly developed in my safe before rejoining the group here!’ spiritually,” Sri Yukteswar explained. “His “Babu’s friends, witnesses of the mastery of a certain yoga technique gave him comicotragedy of the ransom for a watch, access to an where any desire is were staring with resentment at Afzal. He immediately materialized. Through the now spoke placatingly. agency of an astral being, Hazrat, the “‘Please name any drink you want; Mohammedan could summon the atoms of Hazrat will produce it.’ any object from etheric energy by an act of powerful will. But such astrally-produced “A number asked for milk, others for objects are structurally evanescent; they fruit juices. I was not too much shocked when cannot be long retained. Afzal still yearned the unnerved Babu requested whisky! The for worldly wealth which, though more hardly Mohammedan gave an order; the obliging earned, has a more dependable durability.” Hazrat sent sealed containers sailing down the air and thudding to the floor. Each man found I laughed. “It too sometimes vanishes his desired beverage. most unaccountably!” “The promise of the fourth spectacular “Afzal was not a man of God- feat of the day was doubtless gratifying to our realization,” Master went on. “Miracles of a host: Afzal offered to supply an instantaneous permanent and beneficial nature are lunch! performed by true saints because they have attuned themselves to the omnipotent Creator. “‘Let us order the most expensive Afzal was merely an ordinary man with an dishes,’ Babu suggested gloomily. ‘I want an extraordinary power of penetrating a subtle elaborate meal for my five hundred rupees! realm not usually entered by mortals until Everything should be served on gold plates!’ death.” “As soon as each man had expressed his “I understand now, Guruji. The after- preferences, the fakir addressed himself to the world appears to have some charming inexhaustible Hazrat. A great rattle ensued; features.” gold platters filled with intricately-prepared curries, hot luchis, and many out-of-season Master agreed. “I never saw Afzal after fruits, landed from nowhere at our feet. All that day, but a few years later Babu came to the food was delicious. After feasting for an my home to show me a newspaper account of hour, we started to leave the room. A the Mohammedan’s public confession. From tremendous noise, as though dishes were

133 it I learned the facts I have just told you about long ago, had initiated me into yoga. He Afzal’s early initiation from a Hindu guru.” straightened himself; his body instantly The gist of the latter part of the published became strong and youthful. document, as recalled by Sri Yukteswar, was “‘So!’ My guru’s glance was fiery. ‘I see as follows: “I, Afzal Khan, am writing these with my own eyes that you use your powers, words as an act of penance and as a warning not to help suffering humanity, but to prey on to those who seek the possession of it like a common thief! I withdraw your occult miraculous powers. For years I have been gifts; Hazrat is now freed from you. No misusing the wondrous abilities imparted to longer shall you be a terror in Bengal!’ me through the grace of God and my master. I “I called on Hazrat in anguished tones; became drunk with egotism, feeling that I was for the first time, he did not appear to my beyond the ordinary laws of morality. My day inner sight. But some dark veil suddenly lifted of reckoning finally arrived. within me; I saw clearly the blasphemy of my “Recently I met an old man on a road life. outside Calcutta. He limped along painfully, “‘My guru, I thank you for coming to carrying a shining object which looked like banish my long delusion.’ I was sobbing at his gold. I addressed him with greed in my heart. feet. ‘I promise to forsake my worldly “‘I am Afzal Khan, the great fakir. What ambitions. I will retire to the mountains for have you there?’ lonely meditation on God, hoping to atone for “‘This ball of gold is my sole material my evil past.’ wealth; it can be of no interest to a fakir. I “My master regarded me with silent implore you, sir, to heal my limp.’ compassion. ‘I feel your sincerity,’ he said “I touched the ball and walked away finally. ‘Because of your earlier years of strict without reply. The old man hobbled after me. obedience, and because of your present He soon raised an outcry: ‘My gold is gone!’ repentance, I will grant you one boon. Your other powers are now gone, but whenever “As I paid no attention, he suddenly food and clothing are needed, you may still spoke in a stentorian voice that issued oddly call successfully on Hazrat to supply them. from his frail body: Devote yourself wholeheartedly to divine “‘Do you not recognize me?’ understanding in the mountain solitudes.’ “I stood speechless, aghast at the belated “My guru then vanished; I was left to my discovery that this unimpressive old cripple tears and reflections. Farewell, world! I go to was none other than the great saint who, long, seek the forgiveness of the Cosmic Beloved.”

134 CHAPTER: 19 My Master, in Calcutta, Appears in Serampore “I am often beset by atheistic doubts. Yet a “Master is not here; he was summoned to torturing surmise sometimes haunts me: may Calcutta by an urgent note.” not untapped soul possibilities exist? Is man The following day I received a post card not missing his real destiny if he fails to from my guru. “I shall leave Calcutta explore them?” Wednesday morning,” he had written. “You These remarks of Dijen Babu, my and Dijen meet the nine o’clock train at roommate at the Panthi boardinghouse, were Serampore station.” called forth by my invitation that he meet my About eight-thirty on Wednesday guru. morning, a telepathic message from Sri “Sri Yukteswarji will initiate you into Yukteswar flashed insistently to my mind: “I Kriya Yoga,” I replied. “It calms the dualistic am delayed; don’t meet the nine o’clock turmoil by a divine inner certainty.” train.” That evening Dijen accompanied me to I conveyed the latest instructions to the hermitage. In Master’s presence my friend Dijen, who was already dressed for departure. received such spiritual peace that he was soon “You and your intuition!” My friend’s a constant visitor. The trivial preoccupations voice was edged in scorn. “I prefer to trust of daily life are not enough for man; wisdom Master’s written word.” too is a native hunger. In Sri Yukteswar’s words Dijen found an incentive to those I shrugged my shoulders and seated attempts—first painful, then effortlessly myself with quiet finality. Muttering angrily, liberating—to locate a realer self within his Dijen made for the door and closed it noisily bosom than the humiliating ego of a behind him. temporary birth, seldom ample enough for the As the room was rather dark, I moved Spirit. nearer to the window overlooking the street. As Dijen and I were both pursuing the The scant sunlight suddenly increased to an A.B. course at Serampore College, we got intense brilliancy in which the iron-barred into the habit of walking together to the window completely vanished. Against this ashram as soon as classes were over. We dazzling background appeared the clearly would often see Sri Yukteswar standing on materialized figure of Sri Yukteswar! his second-floor balcony, welcoming our Bewildered to the point of shock, I rose approach with a smile. from my chair and knelt before him. With my One afternoon Kanai, a young hermitage customary gesture of respectful greeting at resident, met Dijen and me at the door with my guru’s feet, I touched his shoes. These disappointing news. were a pair familiar to me, of orange-dyed

135 canvas, soled with rope. His ocher swami of a hallucination. A crestfallen Dijen soon cloth brushed against me; I distinctly felt not entered the room. only the texture of his robe, but also the gritty “Master was not on the nine o’clock surface of the shoes, and the pressure of his train, nor even the nine-thirty.” My friend toes within them. Too much astounded to made his announcement with a slightly utter a word, I stood up and gazed at him apologetic air. questioningly. “Come then; I know he will arrive at ten “I was pleased that you got my telepathic o’clock.” I took Dijen’s hand and rushed him message.” Master’s voice was calm, entirely forcibly along with me, heedless of his normal. “I have now finished my business in protests. In about ten minutes we entered the Calcutta, and shall arrive in Serampore by the station, where the train was already puffing to ten o’clock train.” a halt. As I still stared mutely, Sri Yukteswar “The whole train is filled with the light of went on, “This is not an apparition, but my Master’s aura! He is there!” I exclaimed flesh and blood form. I have been divinely joyfully. commanded to give you this experience, rare to achieve on earth. Meet me at the station; “You dream so?” Dijen laughed you and Dijen will see me coming toward mockingly. you, dressed as I am now. I shall be preceded “Let us wait here.” I told my friend by a fellow passenger—a little boy carrying a details of the way in which our guru would silver jug.” approach us. As I finished my description, Sri My guru placed both hands on my head, Yukteswar came into view, wearing the same with a murmured blessing. As he concluded clothes I had seen a short time earlier. He with the words, “Tabe asi,”* I heard a walked slowly in the wake of a small lad peculiar rumbling sound.† His body began to bearing a silver jug. melt gradually within the piercing light. First For a moment a wave of cold fear passed his feet and legs vanished, then his torso and through me, at the unprecedented strangeness head, like a scroll being rolled up. To the very of my experience. I felt the materialistic, last, I could feel his fingers resting lightly on twentieth-century world slipping from me; my hair. The effulgence faded; nothing was I back in the ancient days when Jesus remained before me but the barred window appeared before Peter on the sea? and a pale stream of sunlight. As Sri Yukteswar, a modern Yogi-Christ, I remained in a half-stupor of confusion, reached the spot where Dijen and I were questioning whether I had not been the victim speechlessly rooted, Master smiled at my friend and remarked:

“I sent you a message too, but you were *The Bengali “Good-by”; literally, it is a hopeful unable to grasp it.” paradox: “Then I come.” †The characteristic sound of dematerialization of bodily atoms.

136 Dijen was silent, but glared at me The anger vanished from Dijen’s face. “I suspiciously. After we had escorted our guru see what you mean,” he said ruefully. “But to his hermitage, my friend and I proceeded please explain how you could know about the toward Serampore College. Dijen halted in child with the jug.” the street, indignation streaming from his By the time I had finished the story of every pore. Master’s phenomenal appearance at the “So! Master sent me a message! Yet you boardinghouse that morning, my friend and I concealed it! I demand an explanation!” had reached Serampore College. “Can I help it if your mental mirror “The account I have just heard of our oscillates with such restlessness that you guru’s powers,” Dijen said, “makes me feel cannot register our guru’s instructions?” I that any university in the world is only a retorted. kindergarten.”

137 CHAPTER: 20 We Do Not Visit Kashmir “Father, I want to invite Master and four invited three other friends—Rajendra Nath friends to accompany me to the Himalayan Mitra, Jotin Auddy, and one other boy. Our foothills during my summer vacation. May I date of departure was set for the following have six train passes to Kashmir and enough Monday. money to cover our travel expenses?” On Saturday and Sunday I stayed in As I had expected, Father laughed Calcutta, where marriage rites for a cousin heartily. “This is the third time you have were being celebrated at my family home. I given me the same cock-and-bull story. arrived in Serampore with my luggage early Didn’t you make a similar request last Monday morning. Rajendra met me at the summer, and the year before that? At the last hermitage door. moment, Sri Yukteswarji refuses to go.” “Master is out, walking. He has refused “It is true, Father; I don’t know why my to go.” guru will not give me his definite word about I was equally grieved and obdurate. “I Kashmir.* But if I tell him that I have already will not give Father a third chance to ridicule secured the passes from you, somehow I think my chimerical plans for Kashmir. Come; the that this time he will consent to make the rest of us will go anyhow.” journey.” Rajendra agreed; I left the ashram to find Father was unconvinced at the moment, a servant. Kanai, I knew, would not take the but the following day, after some good- trip without Master, and someone was needed humored gibes, he handed me six passes and a to look after the luggage. I bethought myself roll of ten-rupee bills. of Behari, previously a servant in my family “I hardly think your theoretical trip needs home, who was now employed by a such practical props,” he remarked, “but here Serampore schoolmaster. As I walked along they are.” briskly, I met my guru in front of the That afternoon I exhibited my booty to Christian church near Serampore Courthouse. Sri Yukteswar. Though he smiled at my “Where are you going?” Sri Yukteswar’s enthusiasm, his words were noncommittal: “I face was unsmiling. would like to go; we shall see.” He made no “Sir, I hear that you and Kanai will not comment when I asked his little hermitage take the trip we have been planning. I am disciple, Kanai, to accompany us. I also seeking Behari. You will recall that last year he was so anxious to see Kashmir that he even *Although Master failed to make any explanation, his offered to serve without pay.” reluctance to visit Kashmir during those two summers may have been a foreknowledge that the time was not ripe for his illness there (see pp. 208 f.).

138 “I remember. Nevertheless, I don’t think “I am leaving today with some friends for Behari will be willing to go.” Kashmir,” I told him. “For years I have been I was exasperated. “He is just eagerly looking forward to this Himalayan trip.” waiting for this opportunity!” “I am happy for you, Mukunda. Is there My guru silently resumed his walk; I anything I can do to make your journey more soon reached the schoolmaster’s house. comfortable?” Behari, in the courtyard, greeted me with a These kind words gave me a lift of friendly warmth that abruptly vanished as encouragement. “Dear uncle,” I said, “could soon as I mentioned Kashmir. With a you possibly spare me your servant, Lal murmured word of apology, the servant left Dhari?” me and entered his employer’s house. I My simple request had the effect of an waited half an hour, nervously assuring earthquake. Uncle jumped so violently that myself that Behari’s delay was being caused his chair overturned, the papers on the desk by preparations for his trip. Finally I knocked flew in every direction, and his pipe, a long, at the front door. coconut-stemmed hubble-bubble, fell to the “Behari left by the back stairs about floor with a great clatter. thirty minutes ago,” a man informed me. A “You selfish young man,” he shouted, slight smile hovered about his lips. quivering with wrath, “what a preposterous I departed sadly, wondering whether my idea! Who will look after me, if you take my invitation had been too coercive or whether servant on one of your pleasure jaunts?” Master’s unseen influence were at work. I concealed my surprise, reflecting that Passing the Christian church, again I saw my my amiable uncle’s sudden change of front guru walking slowly toward me. Without was only one more enigma in a day fully waiting to hear my report, he exclaimed: devoted to incomprehensibility. My retreat “So Behari would not go! Now, what are from the courthouse office was more your plans?” alacritous than dignified. I felt like a recalcitrant child who is I returned to the hermitage, where my determined to defy his masterful father. “Sir, I friends were expectantly gathered. Conviction am going to ask my uncle to lend me his was growing on me that some sufficient if servant, Lal Dhari.” exceedingly recondite motive was behind “See your uncle if you want to,” Sri Master’s attitude. Remorse seized me that I Yukteswar replied with a chuckle. “But I had been trying to thwart my guru’s will. hardly think you will enjoy the visit.” “Mukunda, wouldn’t you like to stay Apprehensive but rebellious, I left my awhile longer with me?” Sri Yukteswar guru and entered Serampore Courthouse. My inquired. “Rajendra and the others can go paternal uncle, Sarada Ghosh, a government ahead now, and wait for you at Calcutta. attorney, welcomed me affectionately. There will be plenty of time to catch the last evening train leaving Calcutta for Kashmir.”

139 “Sir, I don’t care to go without you,” I worked his will through Behari and my Uncle said mournfully. Sarada and Rajendra and the others in such an My friends paid not the slightest attention inconspicuous manner that probably everyone to my remark. They summoned a hackney but myself thought the situations had been carriage and departed with all the luggage. logically normal. Kanai and I sat quietly at our guru’s feet. As Sri Yukteswar never failed to observe After a half hour of complete silence, Master his social obligations, he instructed Kanai to rose and walked toward the second-floor go for a specialist, and to notify my uncle. dining patio. “Master,” I protested, “only you can heal “Kanai, please serve Mukunda’s food. me. I am too far gone for any doctor.” His train leaves soon.” “Child, you are protected by the Divine Getting up from my blanket seat, I Mercy. Don’t worry about the doctor; he will staggered suddenly with nausea and a ghastly not find you in this state. You are already churning sensation in my stomach. The healed.” stabbing pain was so intense that I felt I had With my guru’s words, the excruciating been abruptly hurled into some violent hell. suffering left me. I sat up feebly. A doctor Groping blindly toward my guru, I collapsed soon arrived and examined me carefully. before him, attacked by all symptoms of the dread Asiatic cholera. Sri Yukteswar and “You appear to have passed through the Kanai carried me to the sitting room. worst,” he said. “I will take some specimens with me for laboratory tests.” Racked with agony, I cried, “Master, I surrender my life to you;” for I believed it The following morning the physician was indeed fast ebbing from the shores of my arrived hurriedly. I was sitting up, in good body. spirits. Sri Yukteswar put my head on his lap, “Well, well, here you are, smiling and stroking my forehead with angelic tenderness. chatting as though you had had no close call with death.” He patted my hand gently. “I “You see now what would have hardly expected to find you alive, after I had happened if you were at the station with your discovered from the specimens that your friends,” he said. “I had to look after you in disease was Asiatic cholera. You are this strange way, because you chose to doubt fortunate, young man, to have a guru with my judgment about taking the trip at this divine healing powers! I am convinced of it!” particular time.” I agreed wholeheartedly. As the doctor I understood at last. Inasmuch as great was preparing to leave, Rajendra and Auddy masters seldom see fit to display their powers appeared at the door. The resentment in their openly, a casual observer of the day’s events faces changed into sympathy as they glanced would have imagined that their sequence was at the physician and then at my somewhat quite natural. My guru’s intervention had wan countenance. been too subtle to be suspected. He had

140 “We were angry when you didn’t turn up as agreed at the Calcutta train. You have been sick?” “Yes.” I could not help laughing as my friends placed the luggage in the same corner it had occupied yesterday. I quoted: “There was a ship that went to Spain; when it arrived, it came back again!” Master entered the room. I permitted myself a convalescent’s liberty, and captured his hand lovingly. “Guruji,” I said, “from my twelfth year on, I have made many unsuccessful attempts to reach the Himalayas. I am finally convinced that without your blessings the Goddess * will not receive me!”

*Literally, “of the mountains.” Parvati, mythologically represented as a daughter of Himavat or the sacred mountains, is a name given to the shakti or “consort” of Shiva.

141 CHAPTER: 21 We Visit Kashmir “You are strong enough now to travel. I will picked up her fork and mashed my berries, accompany you to Kashmir,” Sri Yukteswar adding cream and sugar. “The fruit is rather informed me two days after my miraculous tart; I think you will like it fixed this way,” recovery from Asiatic cholera. she remarked. That evening our party of six entrained I took a mouthful. “What delicious for the north. Our first leisurely stop was at strawberries!” I exclaimed. At once my guru’s Simla, a queenly city resting on the throne of prediction in Simla emerged from the Himalayan hills. We strolled over the steep fathomless cave of memory. It was staggering streets, admiring the magnificent views. to realize that long ago Sri Yukteswar’s God- “English strawberries for sale,” cried an tuned mind had sensitively detected the old woman, squatting in a picturesque open program of karmic events wandering in the market place. ether of futurity. Master was curious about the strange Our party soon left Simla and entrained little red fruits. He bought a basketful and for Rawalpindi. There we hired a large offered it to Kanai and myself, who were landau, drawn by two horses, in which we near-by. I tasted one berry but spat it hastily started a seven-day trip to Srinagar, capital on the ground. city of Kashmir. The second day of our northbound journey brought into view the true “Sir, what a sour fruit! I could never like Himalayan vastness. As the iron wheels of strawberries!” our carriage creaked along the hot, stony My guru laughed. “Oh, you will like roads, we were enraptured with changing them—in America. At a dinner there, your vistas of mountainous grandeur. hostess will serve them with sugar and cream. “Sir,” Auddy said to Master, “I am After she has mashed the berries with a fork, greatly enjoying these glorious scenes in your you will taste them and say: ‘What delicious holy company.” strawberries!’ Then you will remember this day in Simla.” I felt a throb of pleasure at Auddy’s appreciation, for I was acting as host on this Sri Yukteswar’s forecast vanished from trip. Sri Yukteswar caught my thought; he my mind, but reappeared there many years turned to me and whispered: later, shortly after my arrival in America. I was a dinner guest at the home of Mrs. Alice “Don’t flatter yourself; Auddy is not T. Hasey (Sister Yogmata) in West nearly as entranced with the scenery as he is Somerville, Massachusetts. When a dessert of with the prospect of leaving us long enough to strawberries was put on the table, my hostess have a cigaret.” I was shocked. “Sir,” I said in an and prepared our own food. Sri Yukteswar undertone, “please do not break our harmony took special care of my diet, insisting that I by these unpleasant words. I can hardly have lime juice at all meals. I was still weak, believe that Auddy is hankering for a but daily improving, though the rattling smoke.”* I looked apprehensively at my carriage was strictly designed for discomfort. usually irrepressible guru. Joyous anticipations filled our hearts as “Very well; I won’t say anything to we neared central Kashmir, paradise land of Auddy.” Master chuckled. “But you will soon lotus lakes, floating gardens, gaily canopied see, when the landau halts, that Auddy is houseboats, the many-bridged Jhelum River, quick to seize his opportunity.” and flower-strewn pastures, all ringed round The carriage arrived at a small by the Himalayan majesty. Our approach to caravanserai. As our horses were led to be Srinagar was through an avenue of tall, watered, Auddy inquired, “Sir, do you mind if welcoming trees. We engaged rooms at a I ride awhile with the driver? I would like to double-storied inn overlooking the noble hills. get a little outside air.” No running water was available; we drew our supply from a near-by well. The summer Sri Yukteswar gave permission, but weather was ideal, with warm days and remarked to me, “He wants fresh smoke and slightly cold nights. not fresh air.” We made a pilgrimage to the ancient The landau resumed its noisy progress Srinagar temple of Swami Shankara. As I over the dusty roads. Master’s eyes were gazed upon the mountain-peak hermitage, twinkling; he instructed me, “Crane up your standing bold against the sky, I fell into an neck through the carriage door and see what ecstatic trance. A vision appeared of a hilltop Auddy is doing with the air.” mansion in a distant land. The lofty Shankara I obeyed, and was astounded to observe ashram before me was transformed into the Auddy in the act of exhaling rings of cigaret structure where, years later, I established the smoke. My glance toward Sri Yukteswar was Self-Realization Fellowship headquarters in apologetic. America. When I first visited Los Angeles, and saw the large building on the crest of “You are right, as always, sir. Auddy is Mount Washington, I recognized it at once enjoying a puff along with a panorama.” I from my long-past visions in Kashmir and surmised that my friend had received a gift elsewhere. from the cab driver; I knew Auddy had not carried any cigarets from Calcutta. A few days at Srinagar; then on to Gulmarg (“mountain paths of flowers”), We continued on the labyrinthine way, elevated by six thousand feet. There I had my adorned by views of rivers, valleys, first ride on a large horse. Rajendra mounted a precipitous crags, and multitudinous mountain small trotter, whose heart was fired with tiers. Every night we stopped at rustic inns, ambition for speed. We ventured onto the

*It is a mark of disrespect, in India, to smoke in the presence of one’s elders and superiors.

143 very steep Khilanmarg; the path led through a Kashmir grapes are considered a rare dense forest, abounding in tree-mushrooms, delicacy in Calcutta. Rajendra, who had been where the mist-shrouded trails were often promising himself a veritable feast on precarious. But Rajendra’s little animal never reaching Kashmir, was disappointed to find permitted my oversized steed a moment’s there no large vineyards. Now and then I rest, even at the most perilous turns. On, on, chaffed him jocosely over his baseless untiringly came Rajendra’s horse, oblivious to anticipation. all but the joy of competition. “Oh, I have become so much gorged with Our strenuous race was rewarded by a grapes I can’t walk!” I would say. “The breath-taking view. For the first time in this invisible grapes are brewing within me!” life, I gazed in all directions at sublime snow- Later I heard that sweet grapes grow capped Himalayas, lying tier upon tier like abundantly in Kabul, west of Kashmir. We silhouettes of huge polar bears. My eyes consoled ourselves with ice cream made of feasted exultingly on endless reaches of icy rabri, a heavily condensed milk, and flavored mountains against sunny blue skies. with whole pistachio nuts. I rolled merrily with my young We took several trips in the shikaras or companions, all wearing overcoats, on the houseboats, shaded by red-embroidered sparkling white slopes. On our downward trip canopies, coursing along the intricate we saw afar a vast carpet of yellow flowers, channels of Dal Lake, a network of canals like wholly transfiguring the bleak hills. a watery spider web. Here the numerous Our next excursions were to the famous floating gardens, crudely improvised with royal “pleasure gardens” of the Emperor logs and earth, strike one with amazement, so Jehangir, at Shalimar and Nishat Bagh. The incongruous is the first sight of vegetables ancient palace at Nishat Bagh is built directly and melons growing in the midst of vast over a natural waterfall. Rushing down from waters. Occasionally one sees a peasant, the mountains, the torrent has been regulated disdaining to be “rooted to the soil,” towing through ingenious contrivances to flow over his square plot of “land” to a new location in colorful terraces and to gush into fountains the many-fingered lake. amidst the dazzling flower-beds. The stream In this storied vale one finds an epitome also enters several of the palace rooms, of all the earth’s beauties. The Lady of ultimately dropping fairy like into the lake Kashmir is mountain-crowned, lake- below. The immense gardens are riotous with garlanded, and flower-shod. In later years, color— roses of a dozen hues, snapdragons, after I had toured many distant lands, I lavender, pansies, poppies. An emerald understood why Kashmir is often called the enclosing outline is given by symmetrical world’s most scenic spot. It possesses some of rows of chinars,* cypresses, cherry trees; the charms of the Swiss Alps, and of Loch beyond them tower the white austerities of the Lomond in Scotland, and of the exquisite Himalayas. English lakes. An American traveler in Kashmir finds much to remind him of the *The Oriental plane tree.

144 rugged grandeur of Alaska and of Pikes Peak stalactite spires, hanging from cave ceilings near Denver. and mirrored in underground waters, present a As entries in a scenic beauty contest, I glimpse of other worlds as fancied by man. offer for first prize either the gorgeous view Most of the Hindus of Kashmir, world- of Xochimilco in Mexico, where mountains, famed for their beauty, are as white as skies, and poplars reflect themselves in Europeans and have similar features and bone myriad lanes of water amidst the playful fish, structure; many have blue eyes and blonde or the jewel-like lakes of Kashmir, guarded hair. Dressed in Western clothes, they look like beautiful maidens by the stern like Americans. The cold Himalayas protect surveillance of the Himalayas. These two the Kashmiris from the sultry sun and places stand out in my memory as the preserve their light complexions. As one loveliest spots on earth. travels to the southern and tropical latitudes of Yet I was awed also when I first beheld India, he finds progressively that the people the wonders of Yellowstone National Park become darker and darker. and of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, and After spending happy weeks in Kashmir, of Alaska. Yellowstone Park is perhaps the I was forced to return to Bengal for the fall only region where one can see innumerable term of Serampore College. Sri Yukteswar geysers shooting high into the air, performing remained in Srinagar, with Kanai and Auddy. year after year with clockwork regularity. Its Before I departed, Master hinted that his body opal and sapphire pools and hot sulphurous would be subject to suffering in Kashmir. springs, its bears and wild creatures, remind “Sir, you look a picture of health,” I one that here Nature left a specimen of her protested. earliest creation. Motoring along the roads of Wyoming to the “Devil’s Paint Pot” of hot “There is a chance that I may even leave bubbling mud, with gurgling springs, this earth.” vaporous fountains, and spouting geysers in “Guruji!” I fell at his feet with an all directions, I was disposed to say that imploring gesture. “Please promise that you Yellowstone deserves a special prize for won’t leave your body now. I am utterly uniqueness. unprepared to carry on without you.” The ancient majestic redwoods of Sri Yukteswar was silent, but smiled at Yosemite, stretching their huge columns far me so compassionately that I felt reassured. into the unfathomable sky, are green natural Reluctantly I left him. cathedrals designed with skill divine. Though “Master dangerously ill.” This telegram there are wonderful falls in the Orient, none from Auddy reached me shortly after my match the torrential beauty of Niagara near return to Serampore. the Canadian border. The Mammoth Caves of Kentucky and the Carlsbad Caverns in New “Sir,” I wired my guru frantically, “I Mexico, with colorful iciclelike formations, asked for your promise not to leave me. are stunning fairylands. Their long needles of

145 Please keep your body; otherwise, I also shall completely fulfilled its purpose; he can then die.” use it in any way he deems fit. His work in “Be it as you wish.” This was Sri the world is to alleviate the sorrows of Yukteswar’s reply from Kashmir. mankind, whether through spiritual means or by intellectual counsel or through will power A letter from Auddy arrived in a few or by the physical transfer of disease. days, informing me that Master had Escaping to the superconsciousness whenever recovered. On his return to Serampore during he so desires, a master can remain oblivious the next fortnight, I was grieved to find my of physical suffering; sometimes he chooses guru’s body reduced to half its usual weight. to bear bodily pain stoically, as an example to Fortunately for his disciples, Sri disciples. By putting on the ailments of Yukteswar burned many of their sins in the others, a yogi can satisfy, for them, the karmic fire of his severe fever in Kashmir. The law of cause and effect. This law is metaphysical method of physical transfer of mechanically or mathematically operative; its disease is known to highly advanced yogis. A workings can be scientifically manipulated by strong man can assist a weaker one by helping men of divine wisdom. to carry his heavy load; a spiritual superman The spiritual law does not require a is able to minimize his disciples’ physical or master to become ill whenever he heals mental burdens by sharing the karma of their another person. Healings ordinarily take place past actions. Just as a rich man loses some through the saint’s knowledge of various money when he pays off a large debt for his methods of instantaneous cure in which no prodigal son, who is thus saved from dire hurt to the spiritual healer is involved. On rare consequences of his own folly, so a master occasions, however, a master who wishes to willingly sacrifices a portion of his bodily greatly quicken his disciples’ evolution may wealth to lighten the misery of disciples.* then voluntarily work out on his own body a By a secret method, the yogi unites his large measure of their undesirable karma. mind and astral vehicle with those of a Jesus signified himself as a ransom for suffering individual; the disease is conveyed, the sins of many. With his divine powers,† his wholly or in part, to the saint’s body. Having body could never have been subjected to harvested God on the physical field, a master death by crucifixion if he had not willingly no longer cares what happens to that material cooperated with the subtle cosmic law of form. Though he may allow it to register a cause and effect. He thus took on himself the certain disease in order to relieve others, his mind is never affected; he considers himself fortunate in being able to render such aid. *Many Christian saints, including Therese Neumann (see page 372), are familiar with the metaphysical The devotee who has achieved final transfer of disease. †Christ said, just before he was led away to be salvation in the Lord finds that his body has crucified: “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?”—Matthew 26:53-54.

146 consequences of others’ karma, especially saw that it had become whole through the that of his disciples. In this manner they were Divine Mercy.” highly purified and made fit to receive the A historical healing incident concerns omnipresent consciousness which later King Baber (1483-1530), founder of the descended on them. Mogul empire in India. His son, Prince Only a self-realized master can transfer Humayun, was mortally ill. The father prayed his life force, or convey into his own body the with anguished determination that he receive diseases of others. An ordinary man cannot the sickness, and that his son be spared. After employ this yogic method of cure, nor is it all physicians had given up hope, Humayun desirable that he should do so; for an unsound recovered. Baber immediately fell sick and physical instrument is a hindrance to God- died of the same disease which had stricken meditation. The Hindu scriptures teach that his son. Humayun succeeded Baber as the first duty of man is to keep his body in Emperor of Hindustan. good condition; otherwise his mind is unable Many people imagine that every spiritual to remain fixed in devotional concentration. master has, or should have, the health and A very strong mind, however, can strength of a Sandow. The assumption is transcend all physical difficulties and attain to unfounded. A sickly body does not indicate God-realization. Many saints have ignored that a guru is not in touch with divine powers, illness and succeeded in their divine quest. St. any more than lifelong health necessarily Francis of Assisi, severely afflicted with indicates an inner illumination. The condition ailments, healed others and even raised the of the physical body, in other words, cannot dead. rightfully be made a test of a master. His I knew an Indian saint, half of whose distinguishing qualifications must be sought body was once festering with sores. His in his own domain, the spiritual. diabetic condition was so acute that under Numerous bewildered seekers in the ordinary conditions he could not sit still at West erroneously think that an eloquent one time for more than fifteen minutes. But speaker or writer on metaphysics must be a his spiritual aspiration was undeterrable. master. The rishis, however, have pointed out “Lord,” he prayed, “wilt Thou come into my that the acid test of a master is a man’s ability broken temple?” With ceaseless command of to enter at will the breathless state, and to will, the saint gradually became able to sit maintain the unbroken samadhi of daily in the lotus posture for eighteen nirbikalpa.* Only by these achievements can continuous hours, engrossed in the ecstatic a human being prove that he has “mastered” trance. maya or the dualistic Cosmic Delusion. He “And,” he told me, “at the end of three alone can say from the depths of realization: years, I found the Infinite Light blazing “Ekam sat,”—“Only One exists.” within my shattered form. Rejoicing in the joyful splendour, I forgot the body. Later I

*See pp. 246, 415 note.

147 “The Vedas declare that the ignorant man have suffered in Kashmir unless he had who rests content with making the slightest received permission from the Spirit within distinction between the individual soul and him to help his disciples in that strange way. the Supreme Self is exposed to danger,” Few saints were ever more sensitively Shankara the great monist has written. equipped with wisdom to carry out divine “Where there is duality by virtue of commands than my God-tuned Master. ignorance, one sees all things as distinct from When I ventured a few words of the Self. When everything is seen as the Self, sympathy over his emaciated figure, my guru then there is not even an atom other than the said gaily: Self. . . . “It has its good points; I am able now to “As soon as the knowledge of the Reality get into some small ganjis (undershirts) that I has sprung up, there can be no fruits of past haven’t worn in years!” actions to be experienced, owing to the unreality of the body, in the same way as Listening to Master’s jovial laugh, I there can be no dream after waking.” remembered the words of St. Francis de Sales: “A saint that is sad is a sad saint!” Only great gurus are able to assume the karma of disciples. Sri Yukteswar would not

148 CHAPTER: 22 The Heart of a Stone Image “As a loyal Hindu wife, I do not wish to brother-in-law, Satish Chandra Bose, amused complain of my husband. But I yearn to see himself by deriding spiritual gurus of the past, him turn from his materialistic views. He present, and future. I noticed that Roma was delights in ridiculing the pictures of saints in quietly weeping. my meditation room. Dear brother, I have “Sister, cheer up!” I whispered. “Don’t deep faith that you can help him. Will you?” give your husband the satisfaction of My eldest sister Roma gazed believing that we take his mockery seriously.” beseechingly at me. I was paying a short visit “Mukunda, how can you admire at her Calcutta home on Girish Vidyaratna worthless humbugs?” Satish was saying. “A Lane. Her plea touched me, for she had sadhu’s very appearance is repulsive. He is exercised a profound spiritual influence over either as thin as a skeleton, or as unholily fat my early life, and had lovingly tried to fill the as an elephant!” void left in the family circle by Mother’s death. I shouted with laughter. My good-natured reaction was annoying to Satish; he retired “Beloved sister, of course I will do into sullen silence. As our cab entered the anything I can.” I smiled, eager to lift the Dakshineswar grounds, he grinned gloom plainly visible on her face, in contrast sarcastically. to her usual calm and cheerful expression. “This excursion, I suppose, is a scheme Roma and I sat awhile in silent prayer for to reform me?” guidance. A year earlier, my sister had asked me to initiate her into Kriya Yoga, in which As I turned away without reply, he she was making notable progress. caught my arm. “Young Mr. Monk,” he said, “don’t forget to make proper arrangements An inspiration seized me. “Tomorrow,” I with the temple authorities to provide for our said, “I am going to the Dakshineswar temple. noon meal.” Please come with me, and persuade your husband to accompany us. I feel that in the “I am going to meditate now. Do not vibrations of that holy place, Divine Mother worry about your lunch,” I replied sharply. will touch his heart. But don’t disclose our “Divine Mother will look after it.” object in wanting him to go.” “I don’t trust Divine Mother to do a Sister agreed hopefully. Very early the single thing for me. But I do hold you next morning I was pleased to find that Roma responsible for my food.” Satish’s tones were and her husband were in readiness for the trip. threatening. As our hackney carriage rattled along Upper I proceeded alone to the colonnaded hall Circular Road toward Dakshineswar, my which fronts the large temple of Kali, or

149 Mother Nature. Selecting a shady spot near “Divine Mother,” I silently remonstrated, one of the pillars, I arranged my body in the “Thou didst not come to me in vision, and lotus posture. Although it was only about now Thou art hidden in the temple behind seven o’clock, the morning sun would soon closed doors. I wanted to offer a special be oppressive. prayer to Thee today on behalf of my brother- The world receded as I became in-law.” devotionally entranced. My mind was My inward petition was instantly concentrated on Goddess Kali, whose image acknowledged. First, a delightful cold wave at Dakshineswar had been the special object descended over my back and under my feet, of adoration by the great master, Sri banishing all discomfort. Then, to my Ramakrishna Paramhansa. In answer to his amazement, the temple became greatly anguished demands, the stone image of this magnified. Its large door slowly opened, very temple had often taken a living form and revealing the stone figure of Goddess Kali. conversed with him. Gradually it changed into a living form, “Silent Mother with stony heart,” I smilingly nodding in greeting, thrilling me prayed, “Thou becamest filled with life at the with joy indescribable. As if by a mystic request of Thy beloved devotee Ramakrishna; syringe, the breath was withdrawn from my why dost Thou not also heed the wails of this lungs; my body became very still, though not yearning son of Thine?” inert. My aspiring zeal increased boundlessly, An ecstatic enlargement of consciousness accompanied by a divine peace. Yet, when followed. I could see clearly for several miles five hours had passed, and the Goddess whom over the Ganges River to my left, and beyond I was inwardly visualizing had made no the temple into the entire Dakshineswar response, I felt slightly disheartened. precincts. The walls of all buildings Sometimes it is a test by God to delay the glimmered transparently; through them I fulfillment of prayers. But He eventually observed people walking to and fro over appears to the persistent devotee in whatever distant acres. form he holds dear. A devout Christian sees Though I was breathless and my body in Jesus; a Hindu beholds Krishna, or the a strangely quiet state, yet I was able to move Goddess Kali, or an expanding Light if his my hands and feet freely. For several minutes worship takes an impersonal turn. I experimented in closing and opening my Reluctantly I opened my eyes, and saw eyes; in either state I saw distinctly the whole that the temple doors were being locked by a Dakshineswar panorama. priest, in conformance with a noon-hour Spiritual sight, x-raylike, penetrates into custom. I rose from my secluded seat under all matter; the divine eye is center the open, roofed hall, and stepped into the everywhere, circumference nowhere. I courtyard. Its stone floor was scorching under realized anew, standing there in the sunny the midday sun; my bare feet were painfully courtyard, that when man ceases to be a burned. prodigal child of God, engrossed in a physical

150 world indeed dream, baseless as a bubble, he sweltered under the fierce rays of the sun. I reinherits his eternal realms. If “escapism” be jumped to the shelter of the pillared hall, a need of man, cramped in his narrow where Satish pursued me angrily. I looked at personality, can any escape compare with the my watch. It was one o’clock; the divine majesty of omnipresence? vision had lasted an hour. In my sacred experience at “You little fool,” my brother-in-law Dakshineswar, the only extraordinarily- blurted out, “you have been sitting there enlarged objects were the temple and the form cross-legged and cross-eyed for six hours. I of the Goddess. Everything else appeared in have gone back and forth watching you. its normal dimensions, although each was Where is my food? Now the temple is closed; enclosed in a halo of mellow light—white, you failed to notify the authorities; we are left blue, and pastel rainbow hues. My body without lunch!” seemed to be of ethereal substance, ready to The exaltation I had felt at the Goddess’ levitate. Fully conscious of my material presence was still vibrant within my heart. I surroundings, I was looking about me and was emboldened to exclaim, “Divine Mother taking a few steps without disturbing the will feed us!” continuity of the blissful vision. Satish was beside himself with rage. Behind the temple walls I suddenly “Once and for all,” he shouted, “I would like glimpsed my brother-in-law as he sat under to see your Divine Mother giving us food here the thorny branches of a sacred bel tree. I without prior arrangements!” could effortlessly discern the course of his thoughts. Somewhat uplifted under the holy His words were hardly uttered when a influence of Dakshineswar, his mind yet held temple priest crossed the courtyard and joined unkind reflections about me. I turned directly us. to the gracious form of the Goddess. “Son,” he addressed me, “I have been “Divine Mother,” I prayed, “wilt Thou observing your face serenely glowing during not spiritually change my sister’s husband?” hours of meditation. I saw the arrival of your party this morning, and felt a desire to put The beautiful figure, hitherto silent, aside ample food for your lunch. It is against spoke at last: “Thy wish is granted!” the temple rules to feed those who do not I looked happily at Satish. As though make a request beforehand, but I have made instinctively aware that some spiritual power an exception for you.” was at work, he rose resentfully from his seat I thanked him, and gazed straight into on the ground. I saw him running behind the Satish’s eyes. He flushed with emotion, temple; he approached me, shaking his fist. lowering his gaze in silent repentance. When The all-embracing vision disappeared. No we were served a lavish meal, including out- longer could I see the glorious Goddess; the of-season mangoes, I noticed that my brother- towering temple was reduced to its ordinary in-law’s appetite was meager. He was size, minus its transparency. Again my body bewildered, diving deep into the ocean of

151 thought. On the return journey to Calcutta, The thought came to me that my brother- Satish, with softened expression, occasionally in-law’s life span would not be a long one. glanced at me pleadingly. But he did not Roma must have read my mind. speak a single word after the moment the “Dear brother,” she said, “I am well, and priest had appeared to invite us to lunch, as my husband is sick. Nevertheless, I want you though in direct answer to Satish’s challenge. to know that, as a devoted Hindu wife, I am The following afternoon I visited my going to be the first one to die.† It won’t be sister at her home. She greeted me long now before I pass on.” affectionately. Taken aback at her ominous words, I yet “Dear brother,” she cried, “what a realized their sting of truth. I was in America miracle! Last evening my husband wept when my sister died, about a year after her openly before me. prediction. My youngest brother Bishnu later “‘Beloved devi,’* he said, ‘I am happy gave me the details. beyond expression that this reforming scheme “Roma and Satish were in Calcutta at the of your brother’s has wrought a time of her death,” Bishnu told me. “That transformation. I am going to undo every morning she dressed herself in her bridal wrong I have done you. From tonight we will finery. use our large bedroom only as a place of “‘Why this special costume?’ Satish worship; your small meditation room shall be inquired. changed into our sleeping quarters. I am sincerely sorry that I have ridiculed your “‘This is my last day of service to you on brother. For the shameful way I have been earth,’ Roma replied. A short time later she acting, I will punish myself by not talking to had a heart attack. As her son was rushing out Mukunda until I have progressed in the for aid, she said: spiritual path. Deeply I will seek the Divine “‘Son, do not leave me. It is no use; I Mother from now on; someday I must surely shall be gone before a doctor could arrive.’ find Her!’” Ten minutes later, holding the feet of her Years later, I visited my brother-in-law in husband in reverence, Roma consciously left Delhi. I was overjoyed to perceive that he had her body, happily and without suffering. developed highly in self-realization, and had “Satish became very reclusive after his been blessed by the vision of Divine Mother. wife’s death,” Bishnu continued. “One day he During my stay with him, I noticed that Satish and I were looking at a large smiling secretly spent the greater part of every night photograph of Roma. in divine meditation, though he was suffering “‘Why do you smile?’ Satish suddenly from a serious ailment, and was engaged exclaimed, as though his wife were present. during the day at his office.

†The Hindu wife believes it is a sign of spiritual advancement if she dies before her husband, as a proof *Goddess. of her loyal service to him, or “dying in harness.”

152 ‘You think you were clever in arranging to go Thus prophetically passed my dearly before me. I shall prove that you cannot long beloved eldest sister Roma, and her husband remain away from me; soon I shall join you.’ Satish—he who changed at Dakshineswar “Although at this time Satish had fully from an ordinary worldly man to a silent recovered from his sickness, and was saint. enjoying excellent health, he died without apparent cause shortly after his strange remark before the photograph.”

153 CHAPTER: 23 I Receive My University Degree “You ignore your textbook assignments in “Come along; I want a witness,” I told philosophy. No doubt you are depending on my companion. “I shall be very much an unlaborious ‘intuition’ to get you through disappointed if I have not succeeded in the examinations. But unless you apply outwitting the instructor.” yourself in a more scholarly manner, I shall Professor Ghoshal shook his head after I see to it that you don’t pass this course.” had inquired what rating he had given my Professor D. C. Ghoshal of Serampore paper. College was addressing me sternly. If I failed “You are not among those who have to pass his final written classroom test, I passed,” he said in triumph. He hunted would be ineligible to take the conclusive through a large pile on his desk. “Your paper examinations. These are formulated by the isn’t here at all; you have failed, in any case, faculty of Calcutta University, which numbers through non-appearance at the examination.” Serampore College among its affiliated branches. A student in Indian universities who I chuckled. “Sir, I was there. May I look is unsuccessful in one subject in the A.B. through the stack myself?” finals must be examined anew in all his The professor, nonplused, gave his subjects the following year. permission; I quickly found my paper, where My instructors at Serampore College I had carefully omitted any identification usually treated me with kindness, not mark except my roll call number. Unwarned untinged by an amused tolerance. “Mukunda by the “red flag” of my name, the instructor is a bit over-drunk with religion.” Thus had given a high rating to my answers even summing me up, they tactfully spared me the though they were unembellished by textbook embarrassment of answering classroom quotations.* questions; they trusted the final written tests Seeing through my trick, he now to eliminate me from the list of A.B. thundered, “Sheer brazen luck!” He added candidates. The judgment passed by my hopefully, “You are sure to fail in the A.B. fellow students was expressed in their finals.” nickname for me—“Mad Monk.” For the tests in my other subjects, I I took an ingenious step to nullify received some coaching, particularly from my Professor Ghoshal’s threat to me of failure in philosophy. When the results of the final tests *I must do Professor Ghoshal the justice of admitting were about to be publicly announced, I asked that the strained relationship between us was not due to a classmate to accompany me to the any fault of his, but solely to my absences from classes and inattention in them. Professor Ghoshal was, and is, professor’s study. a remarkable orator with vast philosophical knowledge. In later years we came to a cordial understanding.

154 dear friend and cousin, Prabhas Chandra ride to the boardinghouse, Master questioned Ghose,* son of my Uncle Sarada. I staggered me gravely. painfully but successfully—with the lowest “When do your A.B. examinations start?” possible passing marks—through all my final tests. “Five days hence, sir.” Now, after four years of college, I was “I hope you are in readiness for them.” eligible to sit for the A.B. examinations. Transfixed with alarm, I held one shoe in Nevertheless, I hardly expected to avail the air. “Sir,” I protested, “you know how my myself of the privilege. The Serampore days have been passed with you rather than College finals were child’s play compared to with the professors. How can I enact a farce the stiff ones which would be set by Calcutta by appearing for those difficult finals?” University for the A.B. degree. My almost Sri Yukteswar’s eyes were turned daily visits to Sri Yukteswar had left me little piercingly on mine. “You must appear.” His time to enter the college halls. There it was tone was coldly peremptory. “We should not my presence rather than my absence that give cause for your father and other relatives brought forth ejaculations of amazement from to criticize your preference for ashram life. my classmates! Just promise me that you will be present for My customary routine was to set out on the examinations; answer them the best way my bicycle about nine-thirty in the morning. you can.” In one hand I would carry an offering for my Uncontrollable tears were coursing down guru—a few flowers from the garden of my my face. I felt that Master’s command was Panthi boardinghouse. Greeting me affably, unreasonable, and that his interest was, to say Master would invite me to lunch. I invariably the least, belated. accepted with alacrity, glad to banish the thought of college for the day. After hours “I will appear if you wish it,” I said with Sri Yukteswar, listening to his amidst sobs. “But no time remains for proper incomparable flow of wisdom, or helping preparation.” Under my breath I muttered, “I with ashram duties, I would reluctantly depart will fill up the sheets with your teachings in around midnight for the Panthi. Occasionally answer to the questions!” I stayed all night with my guru, so happily When I entered the hermitage the engrossed in his conversation that I scarcely following day at my usual hour, I presented noticed when darkness changed into dawn. my bouquet with a certain mournful One night about eleven o’clock, as I was solemnity. Sri Yukteswar laughed at my putting on my shoes† in preparation for the woebegone air.

“Mukunda, has the Lord ever failed you, *Although my cousin and I have the same family na m e at an examination or elsewhere?” of Ghosh, Prabhas has accustomed himself to transliterating his name in English as Ghose; therefore “No, sir,” I responded warmly. Grateful I follow his own spelling here. memories came in a revivifying flood. †A disciple always removes his shoes in an Indian hermitage.

155 “Not laziness but burning zeal for God I hastened to the home of my Uncle has prevented you from seeking college Sarada and borrowed an atlas. Romesh honors,” my guru said kindly. After a silence, marked the European map at the places he quoted, “‘Seek ye first the kingdom of visited by Byron’s romantic traveler. God, and His righteousness; and all these A few classmates had gathered around to things shall be added unto you.’”* listen to the tutoring. “Romesh is advising For the thousandth time, I felt my you wrongly,” one of them commented to me burdens lifted in Master’s presence. When we at the end of a session. “Usually only fifty per had finished our early lunch, he suggested cent of the questions are about the books; the that I return to the Panthi. other half will involve the authors’ lives.” “Does your friend, Romesh Chandra When I sat for the examination in English Dutt, still live in your boardinghouse?” literature the following day, my first glance at “Yes, sir.” the questions caused tears of gratitude to pour forth, wetting my paper. The classroom “Get in touch with him; the Lord will monitor came to my desk and made a inspire him to help you with the sympathetic inquiry. examinations.” “My guru foretold that Romesh would “Very well, sir; but Romesh is unusually help me,” I explained. “Look; the very busy. He is the honor man in our class, and questions dictated to me by Romesh are here carries a heavier course than the others.” on the examination sheet! Fortunately for me, Master waved aside my objections. there are very few questions this year on “Romesh will find time for you. Now go.” English authors, whose lives are wrapped in deep mystery so far as I am concerned!” I bicycled back to the Panthi. The first person I met in the boardinghouse compound My boardinghouse was in an uproar was the scholarly Romesh. As though his when I returned. The boys who had been days were quite free, he obligingly agreed to ridiculing Romesh’s method of coaching my diffident request. looked at me in awe, almost deafening me with congratulations. During the week of the “Of course; I am at your service.” He examinations, I spent many hours with spent several hours of that afternoon and of Romesh, who formulated questions that he succeeding days in coaching me in my thought were likely to be set by the various subjects. professors. Day by day, Romesh’s questions “I believe many questions in English appeared in almost the same form on the literature will be centered in the route of examination sheets. Childe Harold,” he told me. “We must get an The news was widely circulated in the atlas at once.” college that something resembling a miracle was occurring, and that success seemed probable for the absent-minded “Mad Monk.”

*Matthew 6:33. I made no attempt to hide the facts of the

156 case. The local professors were powerless to “Long-haired monk,” he said laughingly, alter the questions, which had been arranged “why this sudden interest in scholastic by Calcutta University. matters? Why cry in the eleventh hour? But it Thinking over the examination in English is true that the passing mark has just been literature, I realized one morning that I had lowered to 33 points.” made a serious error. One section of the A few joyous leaps took me into my own questions had been divided into two parts of room, where I sank to my knees and praised A or B, and C or D. Instead of answering one the mathematical perfections of my Divine question from each part, I had carelessly Father. answered both questions in Group I, and had Every day I thrilled with the failed to consider anything in Group II. The consciousness of a spiritual presence that I best mark I could score in that paper would be clearly felt to be guiding me through Romesh. 33, three less than the passing mark of 36. I A significant incident occurred in connection rushed to Master and poured out my troubles. with the examination in Bengali. Romesh, “Sir, I have made an unpardonable who had touched little on that subject, called blunder. I don’t deserve the divine blessings me back one morning as I was leaving the through Romesh; I am quite unworthy.” boardinghouse on my way to the examination “Cheer up, Mukunda.” Sri Yukteswar’s hall. tones were light and unconcerned. He pointed “There is Romesh shouting for you,” a to the blue vault of the heavens. “It is more classmate said to me impatiently. “Don’t possible for the sun and moon to interchange return; we shall be late at the hall.” their positions in space than it is for you to Ignoring the advice, I ran back to the fail in getting your degree!” house. I left the hermitage in a more tranquil “The Bengali examination is usually mood, though it seemed mathematically easily passed by our Bengali boys,” Romesh inconceivable that I could pass. I looked once told me. “But I have just had a hunch that this or twice apprehensively into the sky; the Lord year the professors have planned to massacre of Day appeared to be securely anchored in the students by asking questions from our his customary orbit! ancient literature.” My friend then briefly As I reached the Panthi, I overheard a outlined two stories from the life of classmate’s remark: “I have just learned that Vidyasagar, a renowned philanthropist. this year, for the first time, the required I thanked Romesh and quickly bicycled passing mark in English literature has been to the college hall. The examination sheet in lowered.” Bengali proved to contain two parts. The first I entered the boy’s room with such speed instruction was: “Write two instances of the that he looked up in alarm. I questioned him charities of Vidyasagar.” As I transferred to eagerly. the paper the lore that I had so recently acquired, I whispered a few words of

157 thanksgiving that I had heeded Romesh’s last- Father was wreathed in smiles at my minute summons. Had I been ignorant of graduation. “I hardly thought you would pass, Vidyasagar’s benefactions to mankind Mukunda,” he confessed. “You spend so (including ultimately myself), I could not much time with your guru.” Master had have passed the Bengali examination. Failing indeed correctly detected the unspoken in one subject, I would have been forced to criticism of my father. stand examination anew in all subjects the For years I had been uncertain that I following year. Such a prospect was would ever see the day when an A.B. would understandably abhorrent. follow my name. I seldom use the title The second instruction on the sheet read: without reflecting that it was a divine gift, “Write an essay in Bengali on the life of the conferred on me for reasons somewhat man who has most inspired you.” Gentle obscure. Occasionally I hear college men reader, I need not inform you what man I remark that very little of their crammed chose for my theme. As I covered page after knowledge remained with them after page with praise of my guru, I smiled to graduation. That admission consoles me a bit realize that my muttered prediction was for my undoubted academic deficiencies. coming true: “I will fill up the sheets with On the day I received my degree from your teachings!” Calcutta University, I knelt at my guru’s feet I had not felt inclined to question and thanked him for all the blessings flowing Romesh about my course in philosophy. from his life into mine. Trusting my long training under Sri “Get up, Mukunda,” he said indulgently. Yukteswar, I safely disregarded the textbook “The Lord simply found it more convenient to explanations. The highest mark given to any make you a graduate than to rearrange the sun of my papers was the one in philosophy. My and moon!” score in all other subjects was just barely within the passing mark. It is a pleasure to record that my unselfish friend Romesh received his own degree cum laude.

158 CHAPTER: 24 I Become a Monk of the Swami Order “ Master, my father has been anxious for me to To allot God a secondary place in life accept an executive position with the Bengal- was, to me, inconceivable. Though He is the Nagpur Railway. But I have definitely refused sole Owner of the cosmos, silently showering it.” I added hopefully, “Sir, will you not make us with gifts from life to life, one thing yet me a monk of the Swami Order?” I looked remains which He does not own, and which pleadingly at my guru. During preceding each human heart is empowered to withhold years, in order to test the depth of my or bestow—man’s love. The Creator, in determination, he had refused this same taking infinite pains to shroud with mystery request. Today, however, he smiled His presence in every atom of creation, could graciously. have had but one motive—a sensitive desire “Very well; tomorrow I will initiate you that men seek Him only through free will. into swamiship.” He went on quietly, “I am With what velvet glove of every humility has happy that you have persisted in your desire He not covered the iron hand of omnipotence! to be a monk. Lahiri Mahasaya often said: ‘If The following day was one of the most you don’t invite God to be your summer memorable in my life. It was a sunny Guest, He won’t come in the winter of your Thursday, I remember, in July, 1914, a few life.’” weeks after my graduation from college. On “Dear master, I could never falter in my the inner balcony of his Serampore hermitage, goal to belong to the Swami Order like your Master dipped a new piece of white silk into a revered self.” I smiled at him with dye of ocher, the traditional color of the measureless affection. Swami Order. After the cloth had dried, my guru draped it around me as a renunciate’s “He that is unmarried careth for the robe. things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: but he that is married careth “Someday you will go to the West, where for the things of the world, how he may silk is preferred,” he said. “As a symbol, I please his wife.”* I had analyzed the lives of have chosen for you this silk material instead many of my friends who, after undergoing of the customary cotton.” certain spiritual discipline, had then married. In India, where monks embrace the ideal Launched on the sea of worldly of poverty, a silk-clad swami is an unusual responsibilities, they had forgotten their sight. Many yogis, however, wear garments of resolutions to meditate deeply. silk, which preserves certain subtle bodily currents better than cotton.

*I Corinthians 7:32-33.

159 “I am averse to ceremonies,” Sri I am He, I am He, Blessed Spirit, I am He! Yukteswar remarked. “I will make you a No birth, no death, no caste have I; swami in the bidwat (non-ceremonious) manner.” Father, mother, have I none. The bibidisa or elaborate initiation into I am He, I am He, Blessed Spirit, I am He! swamiship includes a fire ceremony, during Beyond the flights of fancy, formless am I, which symbolical funeral rites are performed. Permeating the limbs of all life; The physical body of the disciple is represented as dead, cremated in the flame of Bondage I do not fear; I am free, ever free, wisdom. The newly-made swami is then I am He, I am He, Blessed Spirit, I am He!” given a chant, such as: “This atma is Brahma”* or “Thou art That” or “I am He.” Every swami belongs to the ancient Sri Yukteswar, however, with his love of monastic order which was organized in its simplicity, dispensed with all formal rites and present form by Shankara.† Because it is a merely asked me to select a new name. formal order, with an unbroken line of saintly representatives serving as active leaders, no “I will give you the privilege of choosing man can give himself the title of swami. He it yourself,” he said, smiling. rightfully receives it only from another “Yogananda,” I replied, after a moment’s swami; all monks thus trace their spiritual thought. The name literally means “Bliss lineage to one common guru, Lord Shankara. (ananda) through divine union (yoga).” By vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the spiritual teacher, many Catholic “Be it so. Forsaking your family name of Christian monastic orders resemble the Order Mukunda Lal Ghosh, henceforth you shall be of Swamis. called Yogananda of the Giri branch of the Swami Order.” In addition to his new name, usually ending in ananda, the swami takes a title As I knelt before Sri Yukteswar, and for which indicates his formal connection with the first time heard him pronounce my new one of the ten subdivisions of the Swami name, my heart overflowed with gratitude. Order. These dasanamis or ten agnomens How lovingly and tirelessly had he labored, include the Giri (mountain), to which Sri that the boy Mukunda be someday Yukteswar, and hence myself, belong. Among transformed into the monk Yogananda! I joyfully sang a few verses from the long Sanskrit chant of Lord Shankara: †Sometimes called Shankaracharya. m e a n s “Mind, nor intellect, nor ego, feeling; “religious teacher.” Shankara’s date is a center of the usual scholastic dispute. A few records indicate that the Sky nor earth nor metals am I. peerless monist lived from 510 to 478 B.C.; Western historians assign him to the late eighth century A.D. Readers who are interested in Shankara’s famous *Literally, “This soul is Spirit.” The Supreme Spirit, exposition of the Brahma will find a careful the Uncreated, is wholly unconditioned (, neti, not English translation in Dr. Paul Deussen’s System of the this, not that) but is often referred to in Vedanta as Sat- Vedanta (Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, Chit-Ananda, that is, Being-Intelligence-Bliss. 1912). Short extracts from his writings will be found in

160 the other branches are the Sagar (sea), but a yogi engages himself in a definite, step- Bharati (land), Aranya (forest), Puri (tract), by-step procedure by which the body and (place of pilgrimage), and Saraswati mind are disciplined, and the soul liberated. (wisdom of nature). Taking nothing for granted on emotional The new name received by a swami thus grounds, or by faith, a yogi practices a has a twofold significance, and represents the thoroughly tested series of exercises which attainment of supreme bliss (ananda) through were first mapped out by the early rishis. some divine quality or state—love, wisdom, Yoga has produced, in every age of India, devotion, service, yoga—and through a men who became truly free, truly Yogi- harmony with nature, as expressed in her Christs. infinite vastness of oceans, mountains, skies. Like any other science, yoga is applicable The ideal of selfless service to all to people of every clime and time. The theory mankind, and of renunciation of personal ties advanced by certain ignorant writers that yoga and ambitions, leads the majority of swamis is “unsuitable for Westerners” is wholly false, to engage actively in humanitarian and and has lamentably prevented many sincere educational work in India, or occasionally in students from seeking its manifold blessings. foreign lands. Ignoring all prejudices of caste, Yoga is a method for restraining the natural creed, class, color, sex, or race, a swami turbulence of thoughts, which otherwise follows the precepts of human brotherhood. impartially prevent all men, of all lands, from His goal is absolute unity with Spirit. Imbuing glimpsing their true nature of Spirit. Yoga his waking and sleeping consciousness with cannot know a barrier of East and West any the thought, “I am He,” he roams contentedly, more than does the healing and equitable light in the world but not of it. Thus only may he of the sun. So long as man possesses a mind justify his title of swami—one who seeks to with its restless thoughts, so long will there be achieve union with the Swa or Self. It is a universal need for yoga or control. needless to add that not all formally titled The ancient rishi Patanjali defines “yoga” swamis are equally successful in reaching as “control of the fluctuations of the mind- their high goal. stuff.”* His very short and masterly Sri Yukteswar was both a swami and a expositions, the Yoga Sutras, form one of the yogi. A swami, formally a monk by virtue of his connection with the ancient order, is not always a yogi. Anyone who practices a *“Chitta vritti nirodha”—Yoga I:2. Patanjali’s scientific technique of God-contact is a yogi; date is unknown, though a number of scholars place he may be either married or unmarried, either him in the second century B.C. The rishis gave forth a worldly man or one of formal religious ties. treatises on all subjects with such insight that ages have been powerless to outmode them; yet, to the A swami may conceivably follow only the subsequent consternation of historians, the sages made path of dry reasoning, of cold renunciation; no effort to attach their own dates and personalities to their literary works. They knew their lives were only temporarily important as flashes of the great infinite Selected Works of Sri Shankaracharya (Natesan & Co., Life; and that truth is timeless, impossible to Madras). trademark, and no private possession of their own.

161 six systems of Hindu philosophy.* In (withdrawal of the senses from contradistinction to Western philosophies, all external objects). six Hindu systems embody not only The last steps are forms of yoga proper: theoretical but practical teachings. In addition (6) dharana (concentration); holding the mind to every conceivable ontological inquiry, the to one thought; (7) dhyana (meditation), and six systems formulate six definite disciplines (8) samadhi (superconscious perception). This aimed at the permanent removal of suffering is the Eightfold Path of Yoga† which leads and the attainment of timeless bliss. one to the final goal of Kaivalya The common thread linking all six (Absoluteness), a term which might be more systems is the declaration that no true comprehensibly put as “realization of the freedom for man is possible without Truth beyond all intellectual apprehension.” knowledge of the ultimate Reality. The later “Which is greater,” one may ask, “a Upanishads uphold the Yoga Sutras, among swami or a yogi?” If and when final oneness the six systems, as containing the most with God is achieved, the distinctions of the efficacious methods for achieving direct various paths disappear. The Bhagavad Gita, perception of truth. Through the practical however, points out that the methods of yoga techniques of yoga, man leaves behind are all-embracive. Its techniques are not forever the barren realms of speculation and meant only for certain types and cognizes in experience the veritable Essence. temperaments, such as those few who incline The Yoga system as outlined by Patanjali toward the monastic life; yoga requires no is known as the Eightfold Path. The first formal allegiance. Because the yogic science steps, (1) yama and (2) , require satisfies a universal need, it has a natural observance of ten negative and positive universal applicability. moralities—avoidance of injury to others, of A true yogi may remain dutifully in the untruthfulness, of stealing, of incontinence, of world; there he is like butter on water, and not gift-receiving (which brings obligations); and like the easily-diluted milk of unchurned and purity of body and mind, contentment, self- undisciplined humanity. To fulfill one’s discipline, study, and devotion to God. earthly responsibilities is indeed the higher The next steps are (3) (right path, provided the yogi, maintaining a mental posture); the spinal column must be held uninvolvement with egotistical desires, plays straight, and the body firm in a comfortable his part as a willing instrument of God. position for meditation; (4) pranayama There are a number of great souls, living (control of , subtle life currents); and (5) in American or European or other non-Hindu bodies today who, though they may never

*The six orthodox systems (saddarsana) are Sankhya, Yoga, Vedanta, Mimamsa, , and Vaisesika. †Not to be confused with the “Noble Eightfold Path” of Readers of a scholarly bent will delight in the subtleties , a guide to man’s conduct of life, as follows and broad scope of these ancient formulations as (1) Right Ideals, (2) Right Motive, (3) Right Speech, summarized, in English, in History of Indian (4) Right Action, (5) Right Means of Livelihood, (6) Philosophy, Vol. I, by Prof. Surendranath DasGupta Right Effort, (7) Right Remembrance (of the Self), (8) (Cambridge University Press, 1922). Right Realization (samadhi).

162 have heard the words yogi and swami, are yet a physiological hygiene which is superior to true exemplars of those terms. Through their ordinary gymnastics and breathing exercises, disinterested service to mankind, or through inasmuch as it is not merely mechanistic and their mastery over passions and thoughts, or scientific, but also philosophical; in its through their single hearted love of God, or training of the parts of the body, it unites through their great powers of concentration, them with the whole of the spirit, as is quite they are, in a sense, yogis; they have set clear, for instance, in the Pranayama themselves the goal of yoga—self-control. exercises where Prana is both the breath and These men could rise to even greater heights the universal dynamics of the cosmos. if they were taught the definite science of “When the thing which the individual is doing yoga, which makes possible a more conscious is also a cosmic event, the effect experienced direction of one’s mind and life. in the body (the innervation), unites with the Yoga has been superficially emotion of the spirit (the universal idea), and misunderstood by certain Western writers, but out of this there develops a lively unity which its critics have never been its practitioners. no technique, however scientific, can Among many thoughtful tributes to yoga may produce. Yoga practice is unthinkable, and be mentioned one by Dr. C. G. Jung, the would also be ineffectual, without the famous Swiss psychologist. concepts on which Yoga is based. It combines “When a religious method recommends itself the bodily and the spiritual with each other in as ‘scientific,’ it can be certain of its public in an extraordinarily complete way. the West. Yoga fulfills this expectation,” Dr. “In the East, where these ideas and practices Jung writes.* “Quite apart from the charm of have developed, and where for several the new, and the fascination of the half- thousand years an unbroken tradition has understood, there is good cause for Yoga to created the necessary spiritual foundations, have many adherents. It offers the possibility Yoga is, as I can readily believe, the perfect of controllable experience, and thus satisfies and appropriate method of fusing body and the scientific need of ‘facts,’ and besides this, mind together so that they form a unity which by reason of its breadth and depth, its is scarcely to be questioned. This unity venerable age, its doctrine and method, which creates a psychological disposition which include every phase of life, it promises makes possible intuitions that transcend undreamed-of possibilities. consciousness.” “Every religious or philosophical practice The Western day is indeed nearing when means a psychological discipline, that is, a the inner science of self-control will be found method of mental hygiene. The manifold, as necessary as the outer conquest of nature. purely bodily procedures of Yoga† also mean This new Atomic Age will see men’s minds sobered and broadened by the now *Dr. Jung attended the Indian Science Congress in 1937 and received an honorary degree from the University of Calcutta. longevity. Hatha is useful, and produces spectacular †Dr. Jung is here referring to , a specialized physical results, but this branch of yoga is little used by branch of bodily postures and techniques for health and yogis bent on spiritual liberation.

163 scientifically indisputable truth that matter is in reality a concentrate of energy. Finer forces of the human mind can and must liberate energies greater than those within stones and metals, lest the material atomic giant, newly unleashed, turn on the world in mindless destruction.*

*In Plato’s Timaeus story of Atlantis, he tells of the inhabitants’ advanced state of scientific knowledge. The lost continent is believed to have vanished about 9500 B.C. through a cataclysm of nature; certain metaphysical writers, however, state that the Atlanteans were destroyed as a result of their misuse of atomic power. Two French writers have recently compiled a Bibliography of Atlantis, listing over 1700 historical and other references.

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CHAPTER: 25 Brother Ananta and Sister Nalini “Ananta cannot live; the sands of his karma I wrote on the bamboo surface: “For my for this life have run out.” beloved Ananta, now gone.” These inexorable words reached my inner My companion, the doctor, was consciousness as I sat one morning in deep observing these proceedings with a sardonic meditation. Shortly after I had entered the smile. Swami Order, I paid a visit to my birthplace, “Save your tears,” he remarked. “Why Gorakhpur, as a guest of my elder brother shed them until you are sure he is dead?” Ananta. A sudden illness confined him to his bed; I nursed him lovingly. When our boat reached Calcutta, Dr. Misra again accompanied me. My youngest The solemn inward pronouncement filled brother Bishnu was waiting to greet me at the me with grief. I felt that I could not bear to dock. remain longer in Gorakhpur, only to see my brother removed before my helpless gaze. “I know Ananta has departed this life,” I Amidst uncomprehending criticism from my said to Bishnu, before he had had time to relatives, I left India on the first available speak. “Please tell me, and the doctor here, boat. It cruised along Burma and the China when Ananta died.” Sea to Japan. I disembarked at Kobe, where I Bishnu named the date, which was the spent only a few days. My heart was too very day that I had bought the souvenirs in heavy for sightseeing. Shanghai. On the return trip to India, the boat “Look here!” Dr. Misra ejaculated. touched at Shanghai. There Dr. Misra, the “Don’t let any word of this get around! The ship’s physician, guided me to several curio professors will be adding a year’s study of shops, where I selected various presents for mental telepathy to the medical course, which Sri Yukteswar and my family and friends. For is already long enough!” Ananta I purchased a large carved bamboo Father embraced me warmly as I entered piece. No sooner had the Chinese salesman our Gurpar Road home. “You have come,” he handed me the bamboo souvenir than I said tenderly. Two large tears dropped from dropped it on the floor, crying out, “I have his eyes. Ordinarily undemonstrative, he had bought this for my dear dead brother!” never before shown me these signs of A clear realization had swept over me affection. Outwardly the grave father, that his soul was just being freed in the inwardly he possessed the melting heart of a Infinite. The souvenir was sharply and mother. In all his dealings with the family, his symbolically cracked by its fall; amidst sobs, dual parental role was distinctly manifest. Soon after Ananta’s passing, my younger Feeling my sympathy, Dr. Bose pointed sister Nalini was brought back from death’s unobtrusively to Nalini, and whispered in my door by a divine healing. Before relating the ear, “Say, what’s this?” story, I will refer to a few phases of her earlier “Why, Doctor,” I replied, “it is a skeleton life. for your observation!” The childhood relationship between Convulsed with mirth, my brother-in-law Nalini and myself had not been of the and I were hard put to it to maintain the happiest nature. I was very thin; she was proper decorum before our assembled thinner still. Through an unconscious motive relatives. or “complex” which psychiatrists will have no difficulty in identifying, I often used to tease As the years went on, Dr. Bose endeared my sister about her cadaverous appearance. himself to our family, who called on him Her retorts were equally permeated with the whenever illness arose. He and I became fast callous frankness of extreme youth. friends, often joking together, usually with Sometimes Mother intervened, ending the Nalini as our target. childish quarrels, temporarily, by a gentle box “It is a medical curiosity,” my brother-in- on my ear, as the elder ear. law remarked to me one day. “I have tried Time passed; Nalini was betrothed to a everything on your lean sister—cod liver oil, young Calcutta physician, Panchanon Bose. butter, malt, honey, fish, meat, eggs, tonics. He received a generous dowry from Father, Still she fails to bulge even one-hundredth of presumably (as I remarked to Sister) to an inch.” We both chuckled. compensate the bridegroom-to-be for his fate A few days later I visited the Bose home. in allying himself with a human bean-pole. My errand there took only a few minutes; I Elaborate marriage rites were celebrated was leaving, unnoticed, I thought, by Nalini. in due time. On the wedding night, I joined As I reached the front door, I heard her voice, the large and jovial group of relatives in the cordial but commanding. living room of our Calcutta home. The “Brother, come here. You are not going bridegroom was leaning on an immense gold- to give me the slip this time. I want to talk to brocaded pillow, with Nalini at his side. A you.” gorgeous purple silk sari* could not, alas, I mounted the stairs to her room. To my wholly hide her angularity. I sheltered myself surprise, she was in tears. behind the pillow of my new brother-in-law and grinned at him in friendly fashion. He had “Dear brother,” she said, “let us bury the never seen Nalini until the day of the nuptial old hatchet. I see that your feet are now firmly ceremony, when he finally learned what he set on the spiritual path. I want to become like was getting in the matrimonial lottery. you in every way.” She added hopefully, “You are now robust in appearance; can you help me? My husband does not come near me, and I love him so dearly! But still more I want *The gracefully draped dress of Indian women.

166 to progress in God-realization, even if I must marriage, begun so inauspiciously, turned out remain thin* and unattractive.” to be ideally happy. My heart was deeply touched at her plea. On my return from Japan, I learned that Our new friendship steadily progressed; one during my absence Nalini had been stricken day she asked to become my disciple. with typhoid fever. I rushed to her home, and “Train me in any way you like. I put my was aghast to find her reduced to a mere trust in God instead of tonics.” She gathered skeleton. She was in a coma. together an armful of medicines and poured “Before her mind became confused by them down the roof drain. illness,” my brother-in-law told me, “she As a test of her faith, I asked her to omit often said: ‘If brother Mukunda were here, I from her diet all fish, meat, and eggs. would not be faring thus.’” He added despairingly, “The other doctors and myself After several months, during which see no hope. Blood dysentery has set in, after Nalini had strictly followed the various rules I her long bout with typhoid.” had outlined, and had adhered to her vegetarian diet in spite of numerous I began to move heaven and earth with difficulties, I paid her a visit. my prayers. Engaging an Anglo-Indian nurse, who gave me full cooperation, I applied to my “Sis, you have been conscientiously sister various yoga techniques of healing. The observing the spiritual injunctions; your blood dysentery disappeared. reward is near.” I smiled mischievously. “How plump do you want to be—as fat as our But Dr. Bose shook his head mournfully. aunt who hasn’t seen her feet in years?” “She simply has no more blood left to shed.” “No! But I long to be as stout as you “She will recover,” I replied stoutly. “In are.” seven days her fever will be gone.” I replied solemnly. “By the grace of God, A week later I was thrilled to see Nalini as I have spoken truth always, I speak truly open her eyes and gaze at me with loving now.† Through the divine blessings, your recognition. From that day her recovery w a s body shall verily change from today; in one swift. Although she regained her usual month it shall have the same weight as mine.” weight, she bore one sad scar of her nearly fatal illness: her legs were paralyzed. Indian These words from my heart found and English specialists pronounced her a fulfillment. In thirty days, Nalini’s weight hopeless cripple. equalled mine. The new roundness gave her beauty; her husband fell deeply in love. Their The incessant war for her life which I had waged by prayer had exhausted me. I went to Serampore to ask Sri Yukteswar’s help. His *Because most persons in India are thin, reasonable eyes expressed deep sympathy as I told him plumpness is considered very desirable. †The Hindu scriptures declare that those who of Nalini’s plight. habitually speak the truth will develop the power of materializing their words. What commands they utter from the heart will come true in life.

167 “Your sister’s legs will be normal at the I returned to Calcutta and purchased a end of one month.” He added, “Let her wear, pearl for Nalini. A month later, her paralyzed next to her skin, a band with an unperforated legs were completely healed. two-carat pearl, held on by a clasp.” Sister asked me to convey her heartfelt I prostrated myself at his feet with joyful gratitude to my guru. He listened to her relief. message in silence. But as I was taking my “Sir, you are a master; your word of her leave, he made a pregnant comment. recovery is enough But if you insist I shall “Your sister has been told by many immediately get her a pearl.” doctors that she can never bear children. My guru nodded. “Yes, do that.” He went Assure her that in a few years she will give on to correctly describe the physical and birth to two daughters.” mental characteristics of Nalini, whom he had Some years later, to Nalini’s joy, she never seen. bore a girl, followed in a few years by another “Sir,” I inquired, “is this an astrological daughter. analysis? You do not know her birth day or “Your master has blessed our home, our hour.” entire family,” my sister said. “The presence Sri Yukteswar smiled. “There is a deeper of such a man is a sanctification on the whole astrology, not dependent on the testimony of of India. Dear brother, please tell Sri calendars and clocks. Each man is a part of Yukteswarji that, through you, I humbly the Creator, or Cosmic Man; he has a count myself as one of his Kriya Yoga heavenly body as well as one of earth. The disciples.” human eye sees the physical form, but the inward eye penetrates more profoundly, even to the universal pattern of which each man is an integral and individual part.”

168 CHAPTER: 26 The Science of Kriya Yoga The science of Kriya Yoga, mentioned so prophets were past masters in the use of Kriya often in these pages, became widely known in or a similar technique, by which they caused modern India through the instrumentality of their bodies to dematerialize at will. Lahiri Mahasaya, my guru’s guru. The Kriya is an ancient science. Lahiri Sanskrit root of Kriya is kri, to do, to act and Mahasaya received it from his guru, Babaji, react; the same root is found in the word who rediscovered and clarified the technique karma, the natural principle of cause and after it had been lost in the Dark Ages. effect. Kriya Yoga is thus “union (yoga) with the Infinite through a certain action or rite.” A “The Kriya Yoga which I am giving to yogi who faithfully follows its technique is the world through you in this nineteenth gradually freed from karma or the universal century,” Babaji told Lahiri Mahasaya, “is a chain of causation. revival of the same science which Krishna gave, millenniums ago, to Arjuna, and which Because of certain ancient yogic was later known to Patanjali, and to Christ, St. injunctions, I cannot give a full explanation of John, St. Paul, and other disciples.” Kriya Yoga in the pages of a book intended for the general public. The actual technique Kriya Yoga is referred to by Krishna, must be learned from a Kriyaban or Kriya India’s greatest prophet, in a stanza of the Yogi; here a broad reference must suffice. Bhagavad Gita: “Offering inhaling breath into the outgoing breath, and offering the Kriya Yoga is a simple, outgoing breath into the inhaling breath, the psychophysiological method by which the yogi neutralizes both these breaths; he thus human blood is decarbonized and recharged releases the life force from the heart and with oxygen. The atoms of this extra oxygen brings it under his control.”† The are transmuted into life current to rejuvenate interpretation is: “The yogi arrests decay in the brain and spinal centers.* By stopping the the body by an addition of life force, and accumulation of venous blood, the yogi is arrests the mutations of growth in the body by able to lessen or prevent the decay of tissues; apan (eliminating current). Thus neutralizing the advanced yogi transmutes his cells into decay and growth, by quieting the heart, the pure energy. Elijah, Jesus, and other yogi learns life control.” Krishna also relates‡ that it was he, in a *The noted scientist, Dr. George W. Crile of Cleveland, explained before a 1940 meeting of the former incarnation, who communicated the American Association for the Advancement of Science indestructible yoga to an ancient illuminato, the experiments by which he had proved that all bodily Vivasvat, who gave it to Manu, the great tissues are electrically negative, except the brain and nervous system tissues which remain electrically positive because they take up revivifying oxygen at a †Bhagavad Gita, IV:29. more rapid rate. ‡Ibid. IV:1-2.

169 legislator.* He, in turn, instructed Ikshwaku, sound of the Vibratory Motor. Even the yoga- the father of India’s solar warrior dynasty. beginner soon inwardly hears the wondrous Passing thus from one to another, the royal sound of Aum. Receiving this blissful spiritual yoga was guarded by the rishis until the encouragement, the devotee becomes assured coming of the materialistic ages.† Then, due that he is in actual touch with divine realms. to priestly secrecy and man’s indifference, the Patanjali refers a second time to the life- sacred knowledge gradually became control or Kriya technique thus: “Liberation inaccessible. can be accomplished by that pranayama Kriya Yoga is mentioned twice by the which is attained by disjoining the course of ancient sage Patanjali, foremost exponent of inspiration and expiration.”†† yoga, who wrote: “Kriya Yoga consists of St. Paul knew Kriya Yoga, or a technique body discipline, mental control, and very similar to it, by which he could switch meditating on Aum.”‡ Patanjali speaks of God life currents to and from the senses. He was as the actual Cosmic Sound of Aum heard in therefore able to say: “Verily, I protest by our meditation.§ Aum is the Creative Word,** the rejoicing which I have in Christ, I die daily.”‡‡ By daily withdrawing his bodily life *The author of Manava Shastras. These force, he united it by yoga union with the institutes of canonized common law are effective in rejoicing (eternal bliss) of the Christ India to this day. The French scholar, Louis Jacolliot, writes that the date of Manu “is lost in the night of the consciousness. In that felicitous state, he was ante-historical period of India; and no scholar has consciously aware of being dead to the dared to refuse him the title of the most ancient delusive sensory world of maya. lawgiver in the world.” In La Bible dans l’Inde, pages 33-37, Jacolliot reproduces parallel textual references In the initial states of God-contact to prove that the Roman Code of Justinian follows closely the Laws of Manu. (sabikalpa samadhi) the devotee’s †The start of the materialistic ages, according to Hindu consciousness merges with the Cosmic Spirit; scriptural reckonings, was 3102 B.C. This was the his life force is withdrawn from the body, beginning of the Descending Dwapara Age (see page 174). Modern scholars, blithely believing that 10,000 which appears “dead,” or motionless and years ago all men were sunk in a barbarous Stone Age, rigid. The yogi is fully aware of his bodily summarily dismiss as “myths” all records and traditions of very ancient civilizations in India, China, condition of suspended animation. As he Egypt, and other lands. progresses to higher spiritual states ‡Patanjali’s Aphorisms, II:1. In using the words Kriya (nirbikalpa samadhi), however, he communes Yoga, Patanjali was referring to either the exact technique taught by Babaji, or one very similar to it. with God without bodily fixation, and in his That it was a definite technique of life control is proved ordinary waking consciousness, even in the by Patanjali’s Aphorism II:49. §Ibid. I:27. midst of exacting worldly duties.§§ ** “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made ††Aphorisms II:49. that was made.”—John 1:1-3. Aum () of the Vedas ‡‡I Corinthians 15:31. “Our rejoicing” is the correct became the sacred word Amin of the Moslems, Hum of translation; not, as usually given, “your rejoicing.” St. the Tibetans, and Amen of the Christians (its meaning Paul was referring to the omnipresence of the Christ in Hebrew being sure, faithful). “These things saith the consciousness. Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of §§Kalpa means time or aeon. Sabikalpa means subject the creation of God.”—Revelations 3:14. to time or change; some link with prakriti or matter

170 “Kriya Yoga is an instrument through One thousand Kriya practiced in eight which human evolution can be quickened,” hours gives the yogi, in one day, the Sri Yukteswar explained to his students. “The equivalent of one thousand years of natural ancient yogis discovered that the secret of evolution: 365,000 years of evolution in one cosmic consciousness is intimately linked year. In three years, a Kriya Yogi can thus with breath mastery. This is India’s unique accomplish by intelligent self-effort the same and deathless contribution to the world’s result which nature brings to pass in a million treasury of knowledge. The life force, which years. The Kriya short cut, of course, can be is ordinarily absorbed in maintaining the taken only by deeply developed yogis. With heart-pump, must be freed for higher the guidance of a guru, such yogis have activities by a method of calming and stilling carefully prepared their bodies and brains to the ceaseless demands of the breath.” receive the power created by intensive The Kriya Yogi mentally directs his life practice. energy to revolve, upward and downward, The Kriya beginner employs his yogic around the six spinal centers (medullary, exercise only fourteen to twenty-eight times, cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal twice daily. A number of yogis achieve plexuses) which correspond to the twelve emancipation in six or twelve or twenty-four astral signs of the zodiac, the symbolic or forty-eight years. A yogi who dies before Cosmic Man. One-half minute of revolution achieving full realization carries with him the of energy around the sensitive spinal cord of good karma of his past Kriya effort; in his man effects subtle progress in his evolution; new life he is harmoniously propelled toward that half-minute of Kriya equals one year of his Infinite Goal. natural spiritual unfoldment. The body of the average man is like a The astral system of a human being, with fifty-watt lamp, which cannot accommodate six (twelve by polarity) inner constellations the billion watts of power roused by an revolving around the sun of the omniscient excessive practice of Kriya. Through gradual spiritual eye, is interrelated with the physical and regular increase of the simple and sun and the twelve zodiacal signs. All men are “foolproof” methods of Kriya, man’s body thus affected by an inner and an outer becomes astrally transformed day by day, and universe. The ancient rishis discovered that is finally fitted to express the infinite man’s earthly and heavenly environment, in potentials of cosmic energy—the first twelve-year cycles, push him forward on his materially active expression of Spirit. natural path. The scriptures aver that man Kriya Yoga has nothing in common with requires a million years of normal, diseaseless the unscientific breathing exercises taught by evolution to perfect his human brain a number of misguided zealots. Their attempts sufficiently to express cosmic consciousness. to forcibly hold breath in the lungs is not only unnatural but decidedly unpleasant. Kriya, on the other hand, is accompanied from the very r e m a i n s . Nirbikalpa means timeless, changeless; this is beginning by an accession of peace, and by the highest state of samadhi.

171 soothing sensations of regenerative effect in The voluntary yogi performs a simple, the spine. natural process consciously, not The ancient yogic technique converts the unconsciously like the slow-paced sleeper. breath into mind. By spiritual advancement, The Kriya Yogi uses his technique to saturate one is able to cognize the breath as an act of and feed all his physical cells with mind—a dream-breath. undecaying light and keep them in a magnetized state. He scientifically makes Many illustrations could be given of the breath unnecessary, without producing the mathematical relationship between man’s states of subconscious sleep or respiratory rate and the variations in his states unconsciousness. of consciousness. A person whose attention is wholly engrossed, as in following some By Kriya, the outgoing life force is not closely knit intellectual argument, or in wasted and abused in the senses, but attempting some delicate or difficult physical constrained to reunite with subtler spinal feat, automatically breathes very slowly. energies. By such reinforcement of life, the Fixity of attention depends on slow breathing; yogi’s body and brain cells are electrified quick or uneven breaths are an inevitable with the spiritual elixir. Thus he removes accompaniment of harmful emotional states: himself from studied observance of natural fear, lust, anger. The restless monkey breathes laws, which can only take him—by circuitous at the rate of 32 times a minute, in contrast to means as given by proper food, sunlight, and man’s average of 18 times. The elephant, harmonious thoughts—to a million-year Goal. tortoise, snake and other animals noted for It needs twelve years of normal healthful their longevity have a respiratory rate which living to effect even slight perceptible change is less than man’s. The tortoise, for instance, in brain structure, and a million solar returns who may attain the age of 300 years,* are exacted to sufficiently refine the cerebral breathes only 4 times per minute. tenement for manifestation of cosmic consciousness. The rejuvenating effects of sleep are due to man’s temporary unawareness of body and Untying the cord of breath which binds breathing. The sleeping man becomes a yogi; the soul to the body, Kriya serves to prolong each night he unconsciously performs the life and enlarge the consciousness to infinity. yogic rite of releasing himself from bodily The yoga method overcomes the tug of war identification, and of merging the life force between the mind and the matter-bound with healing currents in the main brain region senses, and frees the devotee to reinherit his and the six sub-dynamos of his spinal centers. eternal kingdom. He knows his real nature is The sleeper thus dips unknowingly into the bound neither by physical encasement nor by reservoir of cosmic energy which sustains all breath, symbol of the mortal enslavement to life. air, to nature’s elemental compulsions. Introspection, or “sitting in the silence,” is an unscientific way of trying to force apart *According to the Lincoln Library of Essential Information, p. 1030, the giant tortoise lives between the mind and senses, tied together by the life 200 and 300 years.

172 force. The contemplative mind, attempting its the deep air of omnipresence. The thralldom return to divinity, is constantly dragged back of natural living is, in contrast, set in a pace toward the senses by the life currents. Kriya, humiliating. Conforming his life to the controlling the mind directly through the life evolutionary order, a man can command no force, is the easiest, most effective, and most concessionary haste from nature but, living scientific avenue of approach to the Infinite. without error against the laws of his physical In contrast to the slow, uncertain “bullock and mental endowment, still requires about a cart” theological path to God, Kriya m a y million years of incarnating masquerades to justly be called the “airplane” route. know final emancipation. The yogic science is based on an The telescopic methods of yogis, empirical consideration of all forms of disengaging themselves from physical and concentration and meditation exercises. Yoga mental identifications in favor of soul- enables the devotee to switch off or on, at individuality, thus commend themselves to will, life current from the five sense those who eye with revolt a thousand telephones of sight, sound, smell, taste, and thousand years. This numerical periphery is touch. Attaining this power of sense- enlarged for the ordinary man, who lives in disconnection, the yogi finds it simple to unite harmony not even with nature, let alone his his mind at will with divine realms or with the soul, but pursues instead unnatural world of matter. No longer is he unwillingly complexities, thus offending in his body and brought back by the life force to the mundane thoughts the sweet sanities of nature. For him, sphere of rowdy sensations and restless two times a million years can scarce suffice thoughts. Master of his body and mind, the for liberation. Kriya Yogi ultimately achieves victory over Gross man seldom or never realizes that the “last enemy,” death. his body is a kingdom, governed by Emperor So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on Soul on the throne of the cranium, with men: subsidiary regents in the six spinal centers or And Death once dead, there’s no more dying spheres of consciousness. This theocracy then.* extends over a throng of obedient subjects: twenty-seven thousand billion cells— The life of an advanced Kriya Yogi is endowed with a sure if automatic intelligence influenced, not by effects of past actions, but by which they perform all duties of bodily solely by directions from the soul. The growths, transformations, and dissolutions— devotee thus avoids the slow, evolutionary and fifty million substratal thoughts, monitors of egoistic actions, good and bad, of emotions, and variations of alternating phases common life, cumbrous and snail-like to the in man’s consciousness in an average life of eagle hearts. sixty years. Any apparent insurrection of The superior method of soul living frees bodily or cerebral cells toward Emperor Soul, the yogi who, shorn of his ego-prison, tastes manifesting as disease or depression, is due to no disloyalty among the humble citizens, but

*Shakespeare: Sonnet #146. to past or present misuse by man of his

173 individuality or free will, given to him chanted accompaniment, along with the simultaneous with a soul, and revocable incense! never. The advanced yogi, withholding all his Identifying himself with a shallow ego, mind, will, and feeling from false man takes for granted that it is he who thinks, identification with bodily desires, uniting his wills, feels, digests meals, and keeps himself mind with superconscious forces in the spinal alive, never admitting through reflection (only shrines, thus lives in this world as God hath a little would suffice!) that in his ordinary life planned, not impelled by impulses from the he is naught but a puppet of past actions past nor by new witlessnesses of fresh human (karma) and of nature or environment. Each motivations. Such a yogi receives fulfillment man’s intellectual reactions, feelings, moods, of his Supreme Desire, safe in the final haven and habits are circumscribed by effects of past of inexhaustibly blissful Spirit. causes, whether of this or a prior life. Lofty The yogi offers his labyrinthine human above such influences, however, is his regal longings to a monotheistic bonfire dedicated soul. Spurning the transitory truths and to the unparalleled God. This is indeed the freedoms, the Kriya Yogi passes beyond all true yogic fire ceremony, in which all past disillusionment into his unfettered Being. All and present desires are fuel consumed by love scriptures declare man to be not a corruptible divine. The Ultimate Flame receives the body, but a living soul; by Kriya he is given a sacrifice of all human madness, and man is method to prove the scriptural truth. pure of dross. His bones stripped of all “Outward ritual cannot destroy desirous flesh, his karmic skeleton bleached ignorance, because they are not mutually in the antiseptic suns of wisdom, he is clean at contradictory,” wrote Shankara in his famous last, inoffensive before man and Maker. Century of Verses. “Realized knowledge Referring to yoga’s sure and methodical alone destroys ignorance. . . . Knowledge efficacy, Lord Krishna praises the cannot spring up by any other means than technological yogi in the following words: inquiry. ‘Who am I? How was this universe “The yogi is greater than body-disciplining born? Who is its maker? What is its material ascetics, greater even than the followers of the cause?’ This is the kind of inquiry referred path of wisdom (), or of the path to.” The intellect has no answer for these of action (); be thou, O disciple questions; hence the rishis evolved yoga as Arjuna, a yogi!”* the technique of spiritual inquiry.

Kriya Yoga is the real “fire rite” often extolled in the Bhagavad Gita. The purifying fires of yoga bring eternal illumination, and thus differ much from outward and little- effective religious fire ceremonies, where perception of truth is oft burnt, to solemn

*Bhagavad Gita, VI:46.

174 CHAPTER: 27 Founding a Yoga School at Ranchi “Why are you averse to organizational “How you will miss the companionship work?” of a wife in your old age!” he had said. “Do Master’s question startled me a bit. It is you not agree that the family man, engaged in true that my private conviction at the time useful work to maintain his wife and children, was that organizations were “hornets’ nests.” thus plays a rewarding role in God’s eyes?” “It is a thankless task, sir,” I answered. “Sir,” I had protested in alarm, “you “No matter what the leader does or does not, know that my desire in this life is to espouse he is criticized.” only the Cosmic Beloved.” “Do you want the whole divine channa Master had laughed so merrily that I (milk curd) for yourself alone?” My guru’s understood his observation was made merely retort was accompanied by a stern glance. as a test of my faith. “Could you or anyone else achieve God- “Remember,” he had said slowly, “that contact through yoga if a line of generous- he who discards his worldly duties can justify hearted masters had not been willing to himself only by assuming some kind of convey their knowledge to others?” He added, responsibility toward a much larger family.” “God is the Honey, organizations are the The ideal of an all-sided education for hives; both are necessary. Any form is youth had always been close to my heart. I useless, of course, without the spirit, but why saw clearly the arid results of ordinary should you not start busy hives full of the instruction, aimed only at the development of spiritual nectar?” body and intellect. Moral and spiritual values, His counsel moved me deeply. Although without whose appreciation no man can I made no outward reply, an adamant approach happiness, were yet lacking in the resolution arose in my breast: I would share formal curriculum. I determined to found a with my fellows, so far as lay in my power, school where young boys could develop to the the unshackling truths I had learned at my full stature of manhood. My first step in that guru’s feet. “Lord,” I prayed, “may Thy Love direction was made with seven children at shine forever on the sanctuary of my Dihika, a small country site in Bengal. devotion, and may I be able to awaken that A year later, in 1918, through the Love in other hearts.” generosity of Sir Manindra Chandra Nundy, On a previous occasion, before I had the Maharaja of Kasimbazar, I was able to joined the monastic order, Sri Yukteswar had transfer my fast-growing group to Ranchi. made a most unexpected remark. This town in Bihar, about two hundred miles from Calcutta, is blessed with one of the most healthful climates in India. The Kasimbazar Palace at Ranchi was transformed into the to another part, and to sit in perfect poise in headquarters for the new school, which I difficult body postures.† They performed called Brahmacharya Vidyalaya* in feats of strength and endurance which many accordance with the educational ideals of the powerful adults could not equal. My youngest rishis. Their forest ashrams had been the brother, , joined the ancient seats of learning, secular and divine, Ranchi school; he later became a leading for the youth of India. physical culturist in Bengal. He and one of his At Ranchi I organized an educational students traveled to Europe and America, program for both grammar and high school giving exhibitions of strength and skill which grades. It included agricultural, industrial, amazed the university savants, including commercial, and academic subjects. The those at Columbia University in New York. students were also taught yoga concentration At the end of the first year at Ranchi, and meditation, and a unique system of applications for admission reached two physical development, “Yogoda,” whose thousand. But the school, which at that time principles I had discovered in 1916. was solely residential, could accommodate Realizing that man’s body is like an only about one hundred. Instruction for day electric battery, I reasoned that it could be students was soon added. recharged with energy through the direct In the Vidyalaya I had to play father- agency of the human will. As no action, slight mother to the little children, and to cope with or large, is possible without willing, man can many organizational difficulties. I often avail himself of his prime mover, will, to remembered Christ’s words: “Verily I say renew his bodily tissues without burdensome unto you, There is no man that hath left apparatus or mechanical exercises. I therefore house, or brethren or sisters, or father, or taught the Ranchi students my simple mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my “Yogoda” techniques by which the life force, sake, and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an centred in man’s medulla oblongata, can be hundredfold now in this time, houses and consciously and instantly recharged from the brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and unlimited supply of cosmic energy. children, and lands, with persecutions; and in The boys responded wonderfully to this the world to come eternal life.”‡ Sri training, developing extraordinary ability to Yukteswar had interpreted these words: “The shift the life energy from one part of the body devotee who forgoes the life-experiences of marriage and family, and exchanges the problems of a small household and limited *Vidyalaya, school. Brahmacharya here refers to one activities for the larger responsibilities of of the four stages in the Vedic plan for man’s life, as comprising that of (1) the celibate student service to society in general, is undertaking a (brahmachari); (2) the householder with worldly responsibilities (); (3) the hermit (); (4) the forest dweller or wanderer, free †A number of American students also have mastered from all earthly concerns (sannyasi). This ideal scheme various or postures, including Bernard Cole, an of life, while not widely observed in modern India, still instructor in Los Angeles of the Self-Realization has many devout followers. The four stages are carried Fellowship teachings. out religiously under the lifelong direction of a guru. ‡Mark 10:29-30.

176 task which is often accompanied by opened its eyes, stood up, and walked feebly. persecution from a misunderstanding world, The whole school shouted for joy. but also by a divine inner contentment.” But a deep lesson came to me that night, One day my father arrived in Ranchi to one I can never forget. I stayed up with the bestow a paternal blessing, long withheld fawn until two o’clock, when I fell asleep. because I had hurt him by refusing his offer of The deer appeared in a dream, and spoke to a position with the Bengal-Nagpur Railway. me: “Son,” he said, “I am now reconciled to “You are holding me back. Please let me your choice in life. It gives me joy to see you go; let me go!” amidst these happy, eager youngsters; you “All right,” I answered in the dream. belong here rather than with the lifeless figures of railroad timetables.” He waved I awoke immediately, and cried out, toward a group of a dozen little ones who “Boys, the deer is dying!” The children were tagging at my heels. “I had only eight rushed to my side. children,” he observed with twinkling eyes, I ran to the corner of the room where I “but I can feel for you!” had placed the pet. It made a last effort to rise, With a large fruit orchard and twenty-five stumbled toward me, then dropped at my feet, fertile acres at our disposal, the students, dead. teachers, and myself enjoyed many happy According to the mass karma which hours of outdoor labor in these ideal guides and regulates the destinies of animals, surroundings. We had many pets, including a the deer’s life was over, and it was ready to young deer who was fairly idolized by the progress to a higher form. But by my deep children. I too loved the fawn so much that I attachment, which I later realized was selfish, allowed it to sleep in my room. At the light of and by my fervent prayers, I had been able to dawn, the little creature would toddle over to hold it in the limitations of the animal form my bed for a morning caress. from which the soul was struggling for One day I fed the pet earlier than usual, release. The soul of the deer made its plea in a as I had to attend to some business in the dream because, without my loving town of Ranchi. Although I cautioned the permission, it either would not or could not boys not to feed the fawn until my return, one go. As soon as I agreed, it departed. of them was disobedient, and gave the baby All sorrow left me; I realized anew that deer a large quantity of milk. When I came God wants His children to love everything as back in the evening, sad news greeted me: a part of Him, and not to feel delusively that “The little fawn is nearly dead, through over death ends all. The ignorant man sees only the feeding.” unsurmountable wall of death, hiding, In tears, I placed the apparently lifeless seemingly forever, his cherished friends. But pet on my lap. I prayed piteously to God to the man of unattachment, he who loves others spare its life. Hours later, the small creature as expressions of the Lord, understands that at

177 death the dear ones have only returned for a young boys were sitting motionless for hours breathing-space of joy in Him. in yoga meditation, he was profoundly The Ranchi school grew from small and moved. simple beginnings to an institution now well- “Joy comes to my heart,” he said, “to see known in India. Many departments of the that Lahiri Mahasaya’s ideals for the proper school are supported by voluntary training of youth are being carried on in this contributions from those who rejoice in institution. My guru’s blessings be on it.” perpetuating the educational ideals of the A young lad sitting by my side ventured rishis. Under the general name of Yogoda Sat- to ask the great yogi a question. Sanga,* flourishing branch schools have been established at Midnapore, Lakshmanpur, and “Sir,” he said, “shall I be a monk? Is my Puri. life only for God?” The Ranchi headquarters maintains a Though Swami Pranabananda smiled Medical Department where medicines and the gently, his eyes were piercing the future. services of doctors are supplied freely to the “Child,” he replied, “when you grow up, poor of the locality. The number treated has there is a beautiful bride waiting for you.” averaged more than 18,000 persons a year. The boy did eventually marry, after having The Vidyalaya has made its mark, too, in planned for years to enter the Swami Order. Indian competitive sports, and in the Sometime after Swami Pranabananda had scholastic field, where many Ranchi alumni visited Ranchi, I accompanied my father to have distinguished themselves in later the Calcutta house where the yogi was university life. temporarily staying. Pranabananda’s The school, now in its twenty-eighth year prediction, made to me so many years before, and the center of many activities,† has been came rushing to my mind: “I shall see you, honored by visits of eminent men from the with your father, later on.” East and the West. One of the earliest great As Father entered the swami’s room, the figures to inspect the Vidyalaya in its first great yogi rose from his seat and embraced year was Swami Pranabananda, the Benares my parent with loving respect. “saint with two bodies.” As the great master viewed the picturesque outdoor classes, held “Bhagabati,” he said, “what are you under the trees, and saw in the evening that doing about yourself? Don’t you see your son racing to the Infinite?” I blushed to hear his praise before my father. The swami went on, *Yogoda: yoga, union, harmony, equilibrium; da, that which imparts. Sat-Sanga: sat, truth; sanga, fellowship. “You recall how often our blessed guru used In the West, to avoid the use of a Sanskrit name, the to say: ‘Banat, banat, ban jai.’‡ So keep up Yogoda Sat-Sanga movement has been called the Self- Realization Fellowship. †The activities at Ranchi are described more fully in chapter 40. The Lakshmanpur school is in the capable ‡One of Lahiri Mahasaya’s favorite remarks, given as charge of Mr. G. C. Dey, B.A. The medical department encouragement for his students’ perseverance. A free is ably supervised by Dr. S. N. Pal and Sasi Bhusan translation is: “Striving, striving, one day behold! the Mullick. Divine Goal!”

178 Kriya Yoga ceaselessly, and reach the divine and go to the Himalayas, there to throw off portals quickly.” my mortal frame.” The body of Pranabananda, which had My eyes filled with tears at his words, appeared so well and strong during my but the swami smiled tranquilly. He reminded amazing first visit to him in Benares, now me of a little heavenly child, sitting securely showed definite aging, though his posture was on the lap of the Divine Mother. The burden still admirably erect. of the years has no ill effect on a great yogi’s “Swamiji,” I inquired, looking straight full possession of supreme spiritual powers. into his eyes, “please tell me the truth: Aren’t He is able to renew his body at will; yet you feeling the advance of age? As the body sometimes he does not care to retard the aging is weakening, are your perceptions of God process, but allows his karma to work itself suffering any diminution?” out on the physical plane, using his old body as a time-saving device to exclude the He smiled angelically. “The Beloved is necessity of working out karma in a new more than ever with me now.” His complete incarnation. conviction overwhelmed my mind and soul. He went on, “I am still enjoying the two Months later I met an old friend, pensions—one from Bhagabati here, and one Sanandan, who was one of Pranabananda’s from above.” Pointing his finger heavenward, close disciples. the saint fell into an ecstasy, his face lit with a “My adorable guru is gone,” he told me, divine glow—an ample answer to my amidst sobs. “He established a hermitage near question. Rishikesh, and gave us loving training. When Noticing that Pranabananda’s room we were pretty well settled, and making rapid contained many plants and packages of seed, I spiritual progress in his company, he asked their purpose. proposed one day to feed a huge crowd from Rishikesh. I inquired why he wanted such a “I have left Benares permanently,” he large number. said, “and am now on my way to the Himalayas. There I shall open an ashram for “‘This is my last festival ceremony,’ he my disciples. These seeds will produce said. I did not understand the full implications spinach and a few other vegetables. My dear of his words. ones will live simply, spending their time in “Pranabanandaji helped with the cooking blissful God-union. Nothing else is of great amounts of food. We fed about 2000 necessary.” guests. After the feast, he sat on a high Father asked his brother disciple when he platform and gave an inspired sermon on the would return to Calcutta. Infinite. At the end, before the gaze of thousands, he turned to me, as I sat beside “Never again,” the saint replied. “This him on the dais, and spoke with unusual year is the one in which Lahiri Mahasaya told force. me I would leave my beloved Benares forever

179 “‘Sanandan, be prepared; I am going to I inquired where Pranabananda was to be kick the frame.’* reborn. “After a stunned silence, I cried loudly, “That’s a sacred trust I cannot divulge to ‘Master, don’t do it! Please, please, don’t do anyone,” Sanandan replied. “Perhaps you may it!’ The crowd was tongue-tied, watching us find out some other way.” curiously. My guru smiled at me, but his Years later I discovered from Swami solemn gaze was already fixed on Eternity. Keshabananda§ that Pranabananda, a few “‘Be not selfish,’ he said, ‘nor grieve for years after his birth in a new body, had gone me. I have been long cheerfully serving you to Badrinarayan in the Himalayas, and there all; now rejoice and wish me Godspeed. I go joined the group of saints around the great to meet my Cosmic Beloved.’ In a whisper, Babaji. Pranabanandaji added, ‘I shall be reborn shortly. After enjoying a short period of the Infinite Bliss, I shall return to earth and join Babaji.† You shall soon know when and where my soul has been encased in a new body.’ “He cried again, ‘Sanandan, here I kick the frame by the second Kriya Yoga.’‡ “He looked at the sea of faces before us, and gave a blessing. Directing his gaze inwardly to the spiritual eye, he became immobile. While the bewildered crowd thought he was meditating in an ecstatic state, he had already left the tabernacle of flesh and plunged his soul into the cosmic vastness. The disciples touched his body, seated in the lotus posture, but it was no longer the warm flesh. Only a stiffened frame remained; the tenant had fled to the immortal shore.”

*I.e., give up the body. †Lahiri Mahasaya’s guru, who is still living. (See chapter 33.) ‡The second Kriya, as taught by Lahiri Mahasaya, enables the devotee that has mastered it to leave and return to the body consciously at any time. Advanced yogis use the second Kriya technique during the last exit of death, a moment they invariably know §My meeting with Keshabananda is described in beforehand. chapter 42.

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CHAPTER: 28 Kashi, Reborn and Rediscovered “ Please do not go into the water. Let us bathe about twelve years old, a brilliant student, and by dipping our buckets.” beloved by all. I was addressing the young Ranchi “Sir,” he said, “what will be my fate?” students who were accompanying me on an “You shall soon be dead.” The reply eight-mile hike to a neighboring hill. The came from my lips with an irresistible force. pond before us was inviting, but a distaste for it had arisen in my mind. The group around This unexpected disclosure shocked and me followed my example of dipping buckets, grieved me as well as everyone present. but a few lads yielded to the temptation of the Silently rebuking myself as an enfant terrible, cool waters. No sooner had they dived than I refused to answer further questions. large water snakes wiggled around them. The On our return to the school, Kashi came boys came out of the pond with comical to my room. alacrity. “If I die, will you find me when I am We enjoyed a picnic lunch after we reborn, and bring me again to the spiritual reached our destination. I sat under a tree, path?” He sobbed. surrounded by a group of students. Finding I felt constrained to refuse this difficult me in an inspirational mood, they plied me occult responsibility. But for weeks afterward, with questions. Kashi pressed me doggedly. Seeing him “Please tell me, sir,” one youth inquired, unnerved to the breaking point, I finally “if I shall always stay with you in the path of consoled him. renunciation.” “Yes,” I promised. “If the Heavenly “Ah, no,” I replied, “you will be forcibly Father lends His aid, I will try to find you.” taken away to your home, and later you will During the summer vacation, I started on marry.” a short trip. Regretting that I could not take Incredulous, he made a vehement protest. Kashi with me, I called him to my room “Only if I am dead can I be carried home.” before leaving, and carefully instructed him to But in a few months, his parents arrived to remain, against all persuasion, in the spiritual take him away, in spite of his tearful vibrations of the school. Somehow I felt that resistance; some years later, he did marry. if he did not go home, he might avoid the After answering many questions, I was impending calamity. addressed by a lad named Kashi. He was No sooner had I left than Kashi’s father a mass of light floating somewhere amidst arrived in Ranchi. For fifteen days he tried to millions of luminous souls in the astral break the will of his son, explaining that if regions. How was I to tune in with him, Kashi would go to Calcutta for only four days among so many vibrating lights of other to see his mother, he could then return. Kashi souls? persistently refused. The father finally said he Using a secret yoga technique, I would take the boy away with the help of the broadcasted my love to Kashi’s soul through police. The threat disturbed Kashi, who was the microphone of the spiritual eye, the inner unwilling to be the cause of any unfavorable point between the eyebrows. With the antenna publicity to the school. He saw no choice but of upraised hands and fingers, I often turned to go. myself round and round, trying to locate the I returned to Ranchi a few days later. direction in which he had been reborn as an When I heard how Kashi had been removed, I embryo. I hoped to receive response from him entrained at once for Calcutta. There I in the concentration-tuned radio of my heart.* engaged a horse cab. Very strangely, as the I intuitively felt that Kashi would soon vehicle passed beyond the Howrah bridge return to the earth, and that if I kept over the Ganges, I beheld Kashi’s father and unceasingly broadcasting my call to him, his other relatives in mourning clothes. Shouting soul would reply. I knew that the slightest to my driver to stop, I rushed out and glared at impulse sent by Kashi would be felt in my the unfortunate father. fingers, hands, arms, spine, and nerves. “Mr. Murderer,” I cried somewhat With undiminished zeal, I practiced the unreasonably, “you have killed my boy!” yoga method steadily for about six months The father had already realized the wrong after Kashi’s death. Walking with a few he had done in forcibly bringing Kashi to friends one morning in the crowded Calcutta. During the few days the boy had Bowbazar section of Calcutta, I lifted my been there, he had eaten contaminated food, hands in the usual manner. For the first time, contracted cholera, and passed on. there was response. I thrilled to detect My love for Kashi, and the pledge to find electrical impulses trickling down my fingers him after death, night and day haunted me. and palms. These currents translated No matter where I went, his face loomed up themselves into one overpowering thought before me. I began a memorable search for him, even as long ago I had searched for my *The will, projected from the point between the lost mother. eyebrows, is known by yogis as the broadcasting apparatus of thought. When the feeling is calmly I felt that inasmuch as God had given me concentrated on the heart, it acts as a mental radio, and the faculty of reason, I must utilize it and tax can receive the messages of others from far or near. In telepathy the fine vibrations of thoughts in one my powers to the utmost in order to discover person’s mind are transmitted through the subtle the subtle laws by which I could know the vibrations of astral ether and then through the grosser boy’s astral whereabouts. He was a soul earthly ether, creating electrical waves which, in turn, translate themselves into thought waves in the mind of vibrating with unfulfilled desires, I realized— the other person.

182 from a deep recess of my consciousness: “I descended the stairway from the second floor am Kashi; I am Kashi; come to me!” and smiled at me inquiringly. I hardly knew The thought became almost audible as I how to frame my question, at once pertinent concentrated on my heart radio. In the and impertinent. characteristic, slightly hoarse whisper of “Please tell me, sir, if you and your wife Kashi,* I heard his summons again and again. have been expecting a child for about six I seized the arm of one of my companions, months?” Prokash Das,† and smiled at him joyfully. “Yes, it is so.” Seeing that I was a swami, “It looks as though I have located a renunciate attired in the traditional orange Kashi!” cloth, he added politely, “Pray inform me how I began to turn round and round, to the you know my affairs.” undisguised amusement of my friends and the When he heard about Kashi and the passing throng. The electrical impulses promise I had given, the astonished man tingled through my fingers only when I faced believed my story. toward a near-by path, aptly named “A male child of fair complexion will be “Serpentine Lane.” The astral currents born to you,” I told him. “He will have a disappeared when I turned in other directions. broad face, with a cowlick atop his forehead. “Ah,” I exclaimed, “Kashi’s soul must be His disposition will be notably spiritual.” I living in the womb of some mother whose felt certain that the coming child would bear home is in this lane.” these resemblances to Kashi. My companions and I approached closer Later I visited the child, whose parents to Serpentine Lane; the vibrations in my had given him his old name of Kashi. Even in upraised hands grew stronger, more infancy he was strikingly similar in pronounced. As if by a magnet, I was pulled appearance to my dear Ranchi student. The toward the right side of the road. Reaching the child showed me an instantaneous affection; entrance of a certain house, I was astounded the attraction of the past awoke with to find myself transfixed. I knocked at the redoubled intensity. door in a state of intense excitement, holding Years later the teen-age boy wrote me, my very breath. I felt that the successful end during my stay in America. He explained his had come for my long, arduous, and certainly deep longing to follow the path of a unusual quest! renunciate. I directed him to a Himalayan The door was opened by a servant, who master who, to this day, guides the reborn told me her master was at home. He Kashi.

*Every soul in its pure state is omniscient. Kashi’s soul remembered all the characteristics of Kashi, the boy, and therefore mimicked his hoarse voice in order to stir my recognition. †Prokash Das is the present director of our Yogoda Math (hermitage) at Dakshineswar in Bengal.

183 CHAPTER: 29 Rabindranath Tagore and I Compare Schools “Rabindranath Tagore taught us to sing, as a emotionally appealing terms, with little regard natural form of self-expression, like the for the accepted literary forms. birds.” “One influential critic slightingly referred Bhola Nath, a bright fourteen-y e a r -old to Rabindranath as a ‘pigeon-poet who sold lad at my Ranchi school, gave me this his cooings in print for a rupee.’ But Tagore’s explanation after I had complimented him one revenge was at hand; the whole Western morning on his melodious outbursts. With or world paid homage at his feet soon after he without provocation, the boy poured forth a had translated into English his Gitanjali tuneful stream. He had previously attended (“Song Offerings”). A trainload of pundits, the famous Tagore school of “Santiniketan” including his one-time critics, went to (Haven of Peace) at Bolpur. Santiniketan to offer their congratulations. “The songs of Rabindranath have been on “Rabindranath received his guests only my lips since early youth,” I told my after an intentionally long delay, and then companion. “All Bengal, even the unlettered heard their praise in stoic silence. Finally he peasants, delights in his lofty verse.” turned against them their own habitual Bhola and I sang together a few refrains weapons of criticism. from Tagore, who has set to music thousands “‘Gentlemen,’ he said, ‘the fragrant of Indian poems, some original and others of honors you here bestow are incongruously hoary antiquity. mingled with the putrid odors of your past “I met Rabindranath soon after he had contempt. Is there possibly any connection received the Nobel Prize for literature,” I between my award of the Nobel Prize, and remarked after our vocalizing. “I was drawn your suddenly acute powers of appreciation? I to visit him because I admired his am still the same poet who displeased you undiplomatic courage in disposing of his when I first offered my humble flowers at the literary critics.” I chuckled. shrine of Bengal.’ Bhola curiously inquired the story. “The newspapers published an account of the bold chastisement given by Tagore. I “The scholars severely flayed Tagore for admired the outspoken words of a man introducing a new style into Bengali poetry,” unhypnotized by flattery,” I went on. “I was I began. “He mixed colloquial and classical introduced to Rabindranath in Calcutta by his expressions, ignoring all the prescribed secretary, Mr. C. F. Andrews,* who was limitations dear to the pundits’ hearts. His songs embody deep philosophic truth in *The English writer and publicist, close friend of Mahatma Gandhi. Mr. Andrews is honored in India for his many services to his adopted land. simply attired in a Bengali dhoti. He referred literature and poetry, and the self-expression lovingly to Tagore as his gurudeva. through music and song which I had already “Rabindranath received me graciously. noted in the case of Bhola. The Santiniketan He emanated a soothing aura of charm, children observed periods of silence, but were culture, and courtliness. Replying to my given no special yoga training. question about his literary background, The poet listened with flattering attention Tagore told me that one ancient source of his to my description of the energizing “Yogoda” inspiration, besides our religious epics, had exercises and the yoga concentration been the classical poet, Bidyapati.” techniques which are taught to all students at Inspired by these memories, I began to Ranchi. sing Tagore’s version of an old Bengali song, Tagore told me of his own early “Light the Lamp of Thy Love.” Bhola and I educational struggles. “I fled from school chanted joyously as we strolled over the after the fifth grade,” he said, laughing. I Vidyalaya grounds. could readily understand how his innate About two years after founding the poetic delicacy had been affronted by the Ranchi school, I received an invitation from dreary, disciplinary atmosphere of a Rabindranath to visit him at Santiniketan in schoolroom. order to discuss our educational ideals. I went “That is why I opened Santiniketan under gladly. The poet was seated in his study when the shady trees and the glories of the sky.” He I entered; I thought then, as at our first motioned eloquently to a little group studying meeting, that he was as striking a model of in the beautiful garden. “A child is in his superb manhood as any painter could desire. natural setting amidst the flowers and His beautifully chiseled face, nobly patrician, songbirds. Only thus may he fully express the was framed in long hair and flowing beard. hidden wealth of his individual endowment. Large, melting eyes; an angelic smile; and a True education can never be crammed and voice of flutelike quality which was literally pumped from without; rather it must aid in enchanting. Stalwart, tall, and grave, he bringing spontaneously to the surface the combined an almost womanly tenderness with infinite hoards of wisdom within.”* the delightful spontaneity of a child. No I agreed. “The idealistic and hero- idealized conception of a poet could find worshiping instincts of the young are starved more suitable embodiment than in this gentle on an exclusive diet of statistics and singer. chronological eras.” Tagore and I were soon deep in a comparative study of our schools, both founded along unorthodox lines. We discovered many identical features—outdoor *“The soul having been often born, or, as the Hindus say, ‘traveling the path of existence through thousands instruction, simplicity, ample scope for the of births’ . . . there is nothing of which she has not child’s creative spirit. Rabindranath, however, gained the knowledge; no wonder that she is able to laid considerable stress on the study of recollect . . . what formerly she knew. . . . For inquiry and learning is reminiscence all.” —Emerson.

185 The poet spoke lovingly of his father, magnetism. Rare blossom of poesy blooming , who had inspired the in the garden of the Lord, attracting others by Santiniketan beginnings. a natural fragrance! “Father presented me with this fertile In his melodious voice, Rabindranath land, where he had already built a guest house read to us a few of his exquisite poems, newly and temple,” Rabindranath told me. “I started created. Most of his songs and plays, written my educational experiment here in 1901, with for the delectation of his students, have been only ten boys. The eight thousand pounds composed at Santiniketan. The beauty of his which came with the Nobel Prize all went for lines, to me, lies in his art of referring to God the upkeep of the school.” in nearly every stanza, yet seldom mentioning The elder Tagore, Devendranath, known the sacred Name. “Drunk with the bliss of far and wide as “Maharishi,” was a very singing,” he wrote, “I forget myself and call remarkable man, as one may discover from thee friend who art my lord.” his Autobiography. Two years of his manhood The following day, after lunch, I bade the were spent in meditation in the Himalayas. In poet a reluctant farewell. I rejoice that his turn, his father, Dwarkanath Tagore, had been little school has now grown to an international celebrated throughout Bengal for his university, “Viswa-Bharati,” where scholars munificent public benefactions. From this of all lands have found an ideal setting. illustrious tree has sprung a family of “Where the mind is without fear and the head geniuses. Not Rabindranath alone; all his is held high; relatives have distinguished themselves in creative expression. His brothers, Gogonendra Where knowledge is free; and Abanindra, are among the foremost Where the world has not been broken up into artists* of India; another brother, Dwijendra, fragments by is a deep-seeing philosopher, at whose gentle narrow domestic walls; call the birds and woodland creatures respond. Where words come out from the depth of Rabindranath invited me to stay truth; overnight in the guest house. It was indeed a charming spectacle, in the evening, to see the Where tireless striving stretches its arms poet seated with a group in the patio. Time toward perfection; unfolded backward: the scene before me was Where the clear stream of reason has not lost like that of an ancient hermitage—the joyous its way into the singer encircled by his devotees, all aureoled in divine love. Tagore knitted each tie with dreary desert sand of dead habit; the cords of harmony. Never assertive, he Where the mind is led forward by Thee into drew and captured the heart by an irresistible ever-widening thought and action;

*Rabindranath, too, in his sixties, engaged in a serious were given some years ago in European capitals and study of painting. Exhibitions of his “futuristic” work New York.

186 Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake!”* RABINDRANATH TAGORE

*Gitanjali (New York: Macmillan Co.). A thoughtful study of the poet will be found in The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore, by the celebrated scholar, Sir S. Radhakrishnan (Macmillan, 1918). Another expository volume is B. K. Roy’s Rabindranath Tagore: The Man and His Poetry (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1915). Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism (New York: Putnam’s, 1916), by the eminent Oriental art authority, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, contains a number of illustrations in color by the poet’s brother, Abanindra Nath Tagore.

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CHAPTER: 30 The Law of Miracles The great novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote a repeat them.’ The awed bishop shook his delightful story, The Three Hermits. His head. friend Nicholas Roerich* has summarized the “‘Dear ones,’ he replied humbly, tale, as follows: ‘continue to live with your old prayer!’” “On an island there lived three old How did the three saints walk on the hermits. They were so simple that the only water? prayer they used was: ‘We are three; Thou art Three—have mercy on us!’ Great miracles How did Christ resurrect his crucified were manifested during this naive prayer. body? “The local bishop† came to hear about How did Lahiri Mahasaya and Sri the three hermits and their inadmissible Yukteswar perform their miracles? prayer, and decided to visit them in order to Modern science has, as yet, no answer; teach them the canonical invocations. He though with the advent of the atomic bomb arrived on the island, told the hermits that and the wonders of radar, the scope of the their heavenly petition was undignified, and world-mind has been abruptly enlarged. The taught them many of the customary prayers. word “impossible” is becoming less The bishop then left on a boat. He saw, prominent in the scientific vocabulary. following the ship, a radiant light. As it The ancient Vedic scriptures declare that approached, he discerned the three hermits, the physical world operates under one who were holding hands and running upon the fundamental law of maya, the principle of waves in an effort to overtake the vessel. relativity and duality. God, the Sole Life, is an “‘We have forgotten the prayers you Absolute Unity; He cannot appear as the taught us,’ they cried as they reached the separate and diverse manifestations of a bishop, ‘and have hastened to ask you to creation except under a false or unreal veil. That cosmic illusion is maya. Every great

*This famous Russian artist and philosopher has been scientific discovery of modern times has living for many years in India near the Himalayas. served as a confirmation of this simple “From the peaks comes revelation,” he has written. “In pronouncement of the rishis. caves and upon the summits lived the rishis. Over the s n o w y p e aks of the Himalayas burns a bright glow, Newton’s Law of Motion is a law of brighter than stars and the fantastic flashes of lightning.” maya: “To every action there is always an †The story may have a historical basis; an editorial equal and contrary reaction; the mutual note informs us that the bishop met the three monks actions of any two bodies are always equal while he was sailing from Archangel to the Slovetsky Monastery, at the mouth of the Dvina River. and oppositely directed.” Action and reaction are thus exactly equal. “To have a single force perceive the unity of the Creator was is impossible. There must be, and always is, a conceived of as man’s highest goal. Those pair of forces equal and opposite.” who cling to the cosmic illusion must accept Fundamental natural activities all betray its essential law of polarity: flow and ebb, rise their mayic origin. Electricity, for example, is and fall, day and night, pleasure and pain, a phenomenon of repulsion and attraction; its good and evil, birth and death. This cyclic electrons and protons are electrical opposites. pattern assumes a certain anguishing Another example: the atom or final particle of monotony, after man has gone through a few matter is, like the earth itself, a magnet with thousand human births; he begins to cast a positive and negative poles. The entire hopeful eye beyond the compulsions of maya. phenomenal world is under the inexorable To tear the veil of maya is to pierce the sway of polarity; no law of physics, secret of creation. The yogi who thus denudes chemistry, or any other science is ever found the universe is the only true monotheist. All free from inherent opposite or contrasted others are worshiping heathen images. So principles. long as man remains subject to the dualistic Physical science, then, cannot formulate delusions of nature, the Janus-faced Maya is laws outside of maya, the very texture and his goddess; he cannot know the one true structure of creation. Nature herself is maya; God. natural science must perforce deal with her The world illusion, maya, is individually ineluctable quiddity. In her own domain, she called avidya, literally, “not-knowledge,” is eternal and inexhaustible; future scientists ignorance, delusion. Maya or avidya can can do no more than probe one aspect after never be destroyed through intellectual another of her varied infinitude. Science thus conviction or analysis, but solely through remains in a perpetual flux, unable to reach attaining the interior state of nirbikalpa finality; fit indeed to formulate the laws of an samadhi. The Old Testament prophets, and already existing and functioning cosmos, but seers of all lands and ages, spoke from that powerless to detect the Law Framer and Sole state of consciousness. Ezekiel says (43:1-2): Operator. The majestic manifestations of “Afterwards he brought me to the gate, even gravitation and electricity have become the gate that looketh toward the east: and, known, but what gravitation and electricity behold, the glory of the God of Israel came are, no mortal knoweth.* from the way of the east: and his voice was To surmount maya was the task assigned like a noise of many waters: and the earth to the human race by the millennial prophets. shined with his glory.” Through the divine To rise above the duality of creation and eye in the forehead (east), the yogi sails his consciousness into omnipresence, hearing the Word or Aum, divine sound of many waters *Marconi, the great inventor, made the following admission of scientific inadequacy before the finalities: or vibrations which is the sole reality of “The inability of science to solve life is absolute. This creation. fact would be truly frightening were it not for faith. The mystery of life is certainly the most persistent problem ever placed before the thought of man.”

189 Among the trillion mysteries of the law, Einstein* reaches across the ages to the cosmos, the most phenomenal is light. Unlike rishis who proclaimed a sole texture of sound-waves, whose transmission requires air creation—that of a protean maya. or other material media, light-waves pass On the epochal Theory of Relativity have freely through the vacuum of interstellar arisen the mathematical possibilities of space. Even the hypothetical ether, held as the exploring the ultimate atom. Great scientists interplanetary medium of light in the are now boldly asserting not only that the undulatory theory, can be discarded on the atom is energy rather than matter, but that Einsteinian grounds that the geometrical atomic energy is essentially mind-stuff. properties of space render the theory of ether unnecessary. Under either hypothesis, light “The frank realization that physical remains the most subtle, the freest from science is concerned with a world of shadows material dependence, of any natural is one of the most significant advances,” Sir manifestation. Arthur Stanley Eddington writes in The Nature of the Physical World. “In the world In the gigantic conceptions of Einstein, of physics we watch a shadowgraph the velocity of light—186,000 miles per performance of the drama of familiar life. The second—dominates the whole Theory of shadow of my elbow rests on the shadow Relativity. He proves mathematically that the table as the shadow ink flows over the velocity of light is, so far as man’s finite mind shadow paper. It is all symbolic, and as a is concerned, the only constant in a universe symbol the physicist leaves it. Then comes of unstayable flux. On the sole absolute of the alchemist Mind who transmutes the light-velocity depend all human standards of symbols. . . . To put the conclusion crudely, time and space. Not abstractly eternal as the stuff of the world is mind-stuff. . . . The hitherto considered, time and space are realistic matter and fields of force of former relative and finite factors, deriving their physical theory are altogether irrelevant measurement validity only in reference to the except in so far as the mind-stuff has itself yardstick of light-velocity. In joining space as spun these imaginings. . . . The external world a dimensional relativity, time has surrendered has thus become a world of shadows. In age-old claims to a changeless value. Time is removing our illusions we have removed the now stripped to its rightful nature—a simple substance, for indeed we have seen that essence of ambiguity! With a few equational substance is one of the greatest of our strokes of his pen, Einstein has banished from illusions.” the cosmos every fixed reality except that of light. With the recent discovery of the electron microscope came definite proof of the light- In a later development, his Unified Field essence of atoms and of the inescapable Theory, the great physicist embodies in one duality of nature. The New York Times gave mathematical formula the laws of gravitation and of electromagnetism. Reducing the cosmical structure to variations on a single *A clue to the direction taken by Einstein’s genius is given by the fact that he is a lifelong disciple of the

190 the following report of a 1937 demonstration “The stream of knowledge,” Sir James of the electron microscope before a meeting Jeans writes in The Mysterious Universe, “is of the American Association for the heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the Advancement of Science: universe begins to look more like a great “The crystalline structure of tungsten, thought than like a great machine.” hitherto known only indirectly by means of Twentieth-century science is thus sounding X-rays, stood outlined boldly on a fluorescent like a page from the hoary Vedas. screen, showing nine atoms in their correct From science, then, if it must be so, let positions in the space lattice, a cube, with one man learn the philosophic truth that there is atom in each corner and one in the center. The no material universe; its warp and woof is atoms in the crystal lattice of the tungsten maya, illusion. Its mirages of reality all break appeared on the fluorescent screen as points down under analysis. As one by one the of light, arranged in geometric pattern. reassuring props of a physical cosmos crash Against this crystal cube of light the beneath him, man dimly perceives his bombarding molecules of air could be idolatrous reliance, his past transgression of observed as dancing points of light, similar to the divine command: “Thou shalt have no points of sunlight shimmering on moving other gods before Me.” waters. . . . In his famous equation outlining the “The principle of the electron microscope equivalence of mass and energy, Einstein was first discovered in 1927 by Drs. Clinton proved that the energy in any particle of J. Davisson and Lester H. Germer of the Bell matter is equal to its mass or weight Telephone Laboratories, New York City, who multiplied by the square of the velocity of found that the electron had a dual personality light. The release of the atomic energies is partaking of the characteristic of both a brought about through the annihilation of the particle and a wave. The wave quality gave material particles. The “death” of matter has the electron the characteristic of light, and a been the “birth” of an Atomic Age. search was begun to devise means for Light-velocity is a mathematical standard ‘focusing’ electrons in a manner similar to the or constant not because there is an absolute focusing of light by means of a lens. value in 186,000 miles a second, but because “For his discovery of the Jekyll-Hy d e no material body, whose mass increases with quality of the electron, which corroborated the its velocity, can ever attain the velocity of prediction made in 1924 by De Broglie, light. Stated another way: only a material French Nobel Prize winning physicist, and body whose mass is infinite could equal the showed that the entire realm of physical velocity of light. nature had a dual personality, Dr. Davisson This conception brings us to the law of also received the Nobel Prize in physics.” miracles. The masters who are able to materialize and dematerialize their bodies or any other great philosopher Spinoza, whose best-known work is Ethics Demonstrated in Geometrical Order. object, and to move with the velocity of light,

191 and to utilize the creative light-rays in spiritual eye has enabled the yogi to destroy bringing into instant visibility any physical all delusions concerning matter and its manifestation, have fulfilled the necessary gravitational weight; thenceforth he sees the Einsteinian condition: their mass is infinite. universe as an essentially undifferentiated The consciousness of a perfected yogi is mass of light. effortlessly identified, not with a narrow “Optical images,” Dr. L. T. Troland of body, but with the universal structure. Harvard tells us, “are built up on the same Gravitation, whether the “force” of Newton or principle as the ordinary ‘half-tone’ the Einsteinian “manifestation of inertia,” is engravings; that is, they are made up of powerless to compel a master to exhibit the minute dottings or stripplings far too small to property of “weight” which is the be detected by the eye. . . . The sensitiveness distinguishing gravitational condition of all of the retina is so great that a visual sensation material objects. He who knows himself as can be produced by relatively few Quanta of the omnipresent Spirit is subject no longer to the right kind of light.” Through a master’s the rigidities of a body in time and space. divine knowledge of light phenomena, he can Their imprisoning “rings-pass-not” have instantly project into perceptible yielded to the solvent: “I am He.” manifestation the ubiquitous light atoms. The “Fiat lux! And there was light.” God’s actual form of the projection—whether it be a first command to His ordered creation tree, a medicine, a human body—is in (Genesis 1:3) brought into being the only conformance with a yogi’s powers of will and atomic reality: light. On the beams of this of visualization. immaterial medium occur all divine In man’s dream-consciousness, where he manifestations. Devotees of every age testify has loosened in sleep his clutch on the to the appearance of God as flame and light. egoistic limitations that daily hem him round, “The King of kings, and Lord of lords; who the omnipotence of his mind has a nightly only hath immortality, dwelling in the light demonstration. Lo! there in the dream stand which no man can approach unto.”* the long-dead friends, the remotest continents, A yogi who through perfect meditation the resurrected scenes of his childhood. With has merged his consciousness with the that free and unconditioned consciousness, Creator perceives the cosmical essence as known to all men in the phenomena of light; to him there is no difference between dreams, the God-tuned master has forged a the light rays composing water and the light never-severed link. Innocent of all personal rays composing land. Free from matter- motives, and employing the creative will consciousness, free from the three dimensions bestowed on him by the Creator, a yogi of space and the fourth dimension of time, a rearranges the light atoms of the universe to master transfers his body of light with equal satisfy any sincere prayer of a devotee. For ease over the light rays of earth, water, fire, or this purpose were man and creation made: air. Long concentration on the liberating that he should rise up as master of maya, knowing his dominion over the cosmos.

*I Timothy 6:15-16.

192 “And God said, Let us make man in our seated in the lotus posture in my Gurpar Road image, after our likeness: and let them have room. dominion over the fish of the sea, and over Hysterical tears poured forth as I joyfully the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and stroked and pinched my regained over all the earth, and over every creeping possession—a body free from any bullet hole thing that creepeth upon the earth.”* in the breast. I rocked to and fro, inhaling and In 1915, shortly after I had entered the exhaling to assure myself that I was alive. Swami Order, I witnessed a vision of violent Amidst these self-congratulations, again I contrasts. In it the relativity of human found my consciousness transferred to the consciousness was vividly established; I captain’s dead body by the gory shore. Utter clearly perceived the unity of the Eternal confusion of mind came upon me. Light behind the painful dualities of maya. “Lord,” I prayed, “am I dead or alive?” The vision descended on me as I sat one morning in my little attic room in Father’s A dazzling play of light filled the whole Gurpar Road home. For months World War I horizon. A soft rumbling vibration formed had been raging in Europe; I reflected sadly itself into words: on the vast toll of death. “What has life or death to do with Light? As I closed my eyes in meditation, my In the image of My Light I have made you. consciousness was suddenly transferred to the The relativities of life and death belong to the body of a captain in command of a battleship. cosmic dream. Behold your dreamless being! The thunder of guns split the air as shots were Awake, my child, awake!” exchanged between shore batteries and the As steps in man’s awakening, the Lord ship’s cannons. A huge shell hit the powder inspires scientists to discover, at the right time magazine and tore my ship asunder. I jumped and place, the secrets of His creation. Many into the water, together with the few sailors modern discoveries help men to apprehend who had survived the explosion. the cosmos as a varied expression of one Heart pounding, I reached the shore power—light, guided by divine intelligence. safely. But alas! a stray bullet ended its The wonders of the motion picture, of radio, furious flight in my chest. I fell groaning to of television, of radar, of the photo-electric the ground. My whole body was paralyzed, cell—the all-seeing “electric eye,” of atomic yet I was aware of possessing it as one is energies, are all based on the electromagnetic conscious of a leg gone to sleep. phenomenon of light. “At last the mysterious footstep of Death The motion picture art can portray any has caught up with me,” I thought. With a miracle. From the impressive visual final sigh, I was about to sink into standpoint, no marvel is barred to trick unconsciousness when lo! I found myself photography. A man’s transparent astral body can be seen rising from his gross physical form, he can walk on the water, resurrect the dead, reverse the natural sequence of *Genesis 1:26.

193 developments, and play havoc with time and To my intense surprise, an instant answer space. Assembling the light images as he came in the form of a vision of the actual pleases, the photographer achieves optical European battlefields. The horror of the wonders which a true master produces with struggle, filled with the dead and dying, far actual light rays. surpassed in ferocity any representation of the The lifelike images of the motion picture newsreel. illustrate many truths concerning creation. “Look intently!” A gentle voice spoke to The Cosmic Director has written His own my inner consciousness. “You will see that plays, and assembled the tremendous casts for these scenes now being enacted in France are the pageant of the centuries. From the dark nothing but a play of chiaroscuro. They are booth of eternity, He pours His creative beam the cosmic motion picture, as real and as through the films of successive ages, and the unreal as the theater newsreel you have just pictures are thrown on the screen of space. seen—a play within a play.” Just as the motion-picture images appear to be My heart was still not comforted. The real, but are only combinations of light and divine voice went on: “Creation is light and shade, so is the universal variety a delusive shadow both, else no picture is possible. The seeming. The planetary spheres, with their good and evil of maya must ever alternate in countless forms of life, are naught but figures supremacy. If joy were ceaseless here in this in a cosmic motion picture, temporarily true world, would man ever seek another? Without to five sense perceptions as the scenes are cast suffering he scarcely cares to recall that he on the screen of man’s consciousness by the has forsaken his eternal home. Pain is a prod infinite creative beam. to remembrance. The way of escape is A cinema audience can look up and see through wisdom! The tragedy of death is that all screen images are appearing through unreal; those who shudder at it are like an the instrumentality of one imageless beam of ignorant actor who dies of fright on the stage light. The colorful universal drama is when nothing more is fired at him than a similarly issuing from the single white light of blank cartridge. My sons are the children of a Cosmic Source. With inconceivable light; they will not sleep forever in delusion.” ingenuity God is staging an entertainment for Although I had read scriptural accounts His human children, making them actors as of maya, they had not given me the deep well as audience in His planetary theater. insight that came with the personal visions One day I entered a motion picture house and their accompanying words of consolation. to view a newsreel of the European One’s values are profoundly changed when he battlefields. World War I was still being is finally convinced that creation is only a waged in the West; the newsreel recorded the vast motion picture, and that not in it, but carnage with such realism that I left the beyond it, lies his own reality. theater with a troubled heart. As I finished writing this chapter, I sat on “Lord,” I prayed, “why dost Thou permit my bed in the lotus posture. My room was such suffering?” dimly lit by two shaded lamps. Lifting my

194 gaze, I noticed that the ceiling was dotted For a long time I experienced this motion with small mustard-colored lights, picture of my body in the dimly lighted scintillating and quivering with a radiumlike theater of my own bedroom. Despite the luster. Myriads of pencilled rays, like sheets many visions I have had, none was ever more of rain, gathered into a transparent shaft and singular. As my illusion of a solid body was poured silently upon me. completely dissipated, and my realization At once my physical body lost its deepened that the essence of all objects is grossness and became metamorphosed into light, I looked up to the throbbing stream of astral texture. I felt a floating sensation as, lifetrons and spoke entreatingly. barely touching the bed, the weightless body “Divine Light, please withdraw this, my shifted slightly and alternately to left and humble bodily picture, into Thyself, even as right. I looked around the room; the furniture Elijah was drawn up to heaven by a flame.” and walls were as usual, but the little mass of This prayer was evidently startling; the light had so multiplied that the ceiling was beam disappeared. My body resumed its invisible. I was wonder-struck. normal weight and sank on the bed; the “This is the cosmic motion picture swarm of dazzling ceiling lights flickered and mechanism.” A voice spoke as though from vanished. My time to leave this earth had within the light. “Shedding its beam on the apparently not arrived. white screen of your bed sheets, it is “Besides,” I thought philosophically, “the producing the picture of your body. Behold, prophet Elijah might well be displeased at my your form is nothing but light!” presumption!” I gazed at my arms and moved them back and forth, yet could not feel their weight. An ecstatic joy overwhelmed me. This cosmic stem of light, blossoming as my body, seemed a divine replica of the light beams streaming out of the projection booth in a cinema house and manifesting as pictures on the screen.

195 CHAPTER: 31 An Interview with the Sacred Mother “Reverend Mother, I was baptized in infancy “My husband, in lotus posture, was by your prophet-husband. He was the guru of levitated in the center of the room, surrounded my parents and of my own guru Sri by angels who were worshiping him with the Yukteswarji. Will you therefore give me the supplicating dignity of palm-folded hands. privilege of hearing a few incidents in your Astonished beyond measure, I was convinced sacred life?” that I was still dreaming. I was addressing Srimati Kashi Moni, the “‘Woman,’ Lahiri Mahasaya said, ‘you life-companion of Lahiri Mahasaya. Finding are not dreaming. Forsake your sleep forever myself in Benares for a short period, I was and forever.’ As he slowly descended to the fulfilling a long-felt desire to visit the floor, I prostrated myself at his feet. venerable lady. She received me graciously at “‘Master,’ I cried, ‘again and again I bow the old Lahiri homestead in the Garudeswar before you! Will you pardon me for having Mohulla section of Benares. Although aged, considered you as my husband? I die with she was blooming like a lotus, silently shame to realize that I have remained asleep emanating a spiritual fragrance. She was of in ignorance by the side of one who is medium build, with a slender neck and fair divinely awakened. From this night, you are skin. Large, lustrous eyes softened her no longer my husband, but my guru. Will you motherly face. accept my insignificant self as your “Son, you are welcome here. Come disciple?’* upstairs.” “The master touched me gently. ‘Sacred Kashi Moni led the way to a very small soul, arise. You are accepted.’ He motioned room where, for a time, she had lived with her toward the angels. ‘Please bow in turn to each husband. I felt honored to witness the shrine of these holy saints.’ in which the peerless master had “When I had finished my humble condescended to play the human drama of genuflections, the angelic voices sounded matrimony. The gentle lady motioned me to a together, like a chorus from an ancient pillow seat by her side. scripture. “It was years before I came to realize the “‘Consort of the Divine One, thou art divine stature of my husband,” she began. blessed. We salute thee.’ They bowed at my “One night, in this very room, I had a vivid feet and lo! their refulgent forms vanished. dream. Glorious angels floated in The room darkened. unimaginable grace above me. So realistic was the sight that I awoke at once; the room was strangely enveloped in dazzling light. *One is reminded here of Milton’s line: “He for God only, she for God in him.”

196 “My guru asked me to receive initiation my initiation, I began to feel forlorn and into Kriya Yoga. neglected. One morning Lahiri Mahasaya “‘Of course,’ I responded. ‘I am sorry not entered this little room to fetch an article; I to have had its blessing earlier in my life.’ quickly followed him. Overcome by violent delusion, I addressed him scathingly. “‘The time was not ripe.’ Lahiri Mahasaya smiled consolingly. ‘Much of your “‘You spend all your time with the karma I have silently helped you to work out. disciples. What about your responsibilities for Now you are willing and ready.’ your wife and children? I regret that you do not interest yourself in providing more money “He touched my forehead. Masses of for the family.’ whirling light appeared; the radiance gradually formed itself into the opal-blue “The master glanced at me for a moment, spiritual eye, ringed in gold and centered with then lo! he was gone. Awed and frightened, I a white pentagonal star. heard a voice resounding from every part of the room: “‘Penetrate your consciousness through the star into the kingdom of the Infinite.’ My “‘It is all nothing, don’t you see? How guru’s voice had a new note, soft like distant could a nothing like me produce riches for music. you?’ “Vision after vision broke as oceanic surf “‘Guruji,’ I cried, ‘I implore pardon a on the shores of my soul. The panoramic million times! My sinful eyes can see you no spheres finally melted in a sea of bliss. I lost more; please appear in your sacred form.’ myself in ever-surging blessedness. When I “‘I am here.’ This reply came from above returned hours later to awareness of this me. I looked up and saw the master world, the master gave me the technique of materialize in the air, his head touching the Kriya Yoga. ceiling. His eyes were like blinding flames. “From that night on, Lahiri Mahasaya Beside myself with fear, I lay sobbing at his never slept in my room again. Nor, thereafter, feet after he had quietly descended to the did he ever sleep. He remained in the front floor. room downstairs, in the company of his “‘Woman,’ he said, ‘seek divine wealth, disciples both by day and by night.” not the paltry tinsel of earth. After acquiring The illustrious lady fell into silence. inward treasure, you will find that outward Realizing the uniqueness of her relationship supply is always forthcoming.’ He added, with the sublime yogi, I finally ventured to ‘One of my spiritual sons will make provision ask for further reminiscences. for you.’ “Son, you are greedy. Nevertheless you “My guru’s words naturally came true; a shall have one more story.” She smiled shyly. disciple did leave a considerable sum for our “I will confess a sin which I committed family.” against my guru-husband. Some months after

197 I thanked Kashi Moni for sharing with Abhoya, near the ticket office, stood me her wondrous experiences.* On the quietly. following day I returned to her home and “Lahiri Mahasaya, I beseech thee to stop enjoyed several hours of philosophical the train!” she silently prayed. “I cannot discussion with Tincouri and Ducouri Lahiri. suffer the pangs of delay in waiting another These two saintly sons of India’s great yogi day to see thee.” followed closely in his ideal footsteps. Both men were fair, tall, stalwart, and heavily The wheels of the snorting train bearded, with soft voices and an old- continued to move round and round, but there fashioned charm of manner. was no onward progress. The engineer and passengers descended to the platform to view His wife was not the only woman the phenomenon. An English railroad guard disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya; there were approached Abhoya and her husband. hundreds of others, including my mother. A Contrary to all precedent, he volunteered his woman chela once asked the guru for his services. photograph. He handed her a print, remarking, “If you deem it a protection, then it is so; “Babu,” he said, “give me the money. I otherwise it is only a picture.” will buy your tickets while you get aboard.” A few days later this woman and Lahiri As soon as the couple was seated and had Mahasaya’s daughter-in-law happened to be received the tickets, the train slowly moved studying the Bhagavad Gita at a table behind forward. In panic, the engineer and which hung the guru’s photograph. An passengers clambered again to their places, electrical storm broke out with great fury. knowing neither how the train started, nor why it had stopped in the first place. “Lahiri Mahasaya, protect us!” The women bowed before the picture. Lightning Arriving at the home of Lahiri Mahasaya struck the book which they had been reading, in Benares, Abhoya silently prostrated herself but the two devotees were unhurt. before the master, and tried to touch his feet. “I felt as though a sheet of ice had been “Compose yourself, Abhoya,” he placed around me to ward off the scorching remarked. “How you love to bother me! As if heat,” the chela explained. you could not have come here by the next train!” Lahiri Mahasaya performed two miracles in connection with a woman disciple, Abhoya visited Lahiri Mahasaya on Abhoya. She and her husband, a Calcutta another memorable occasion. This time she lawyer, started one day for Benares to visit wanted his intercession, not with a train, but the guru. Their carriage was delayed by heavy with the stork. traffic; they reached the Howrah main station “I pray you to bless me that my ninth only to hear the Benares train whistling for child may live,” she said. “Eight babies have departure. been born to me; all died soon after birth.”

*The venerable mother passed on at Benares in 1930.

198 The master smiled sympathetically. philosophical points. At dawn the exalted “Your coming child will live. Please follow guests would depart. I found during my visits my instructions carefully. The baby, a girl, that Lahiri Mahasaya did not once lie down to will be born at night. See that the oil lamp is sleep. kept burning until dawn. Do not fall asleep “During an early period of my and thus allow the light to become association with the master, I had to contend extinguished.” with the opposition of my employer,” Roy Abhoya’s child was a daughter, born at went on. “He was steeped in materialism. night, exactly as foreseen by the omniscient “‘I don’t want religious fanatics on my guru. The mother instructed her nurse to keep staff,’ he would sneer. ‘If I ever meet your the lamp filled with oil. Both women kept the charlatan guru, I shall give him some words to urgent vigil far into the early morning hours, remember.’ but finally fell asleep. The lamp oil was almost gone; the light flickered feebly. “This alarming threat failed to interrupt my regular program; I spent nearly every The bedroom door unlatched and flew evening in my guru’s presence. One night my open with a violent sound. The startled employer followed me and rushed rudely into women awoke. Their astonished eyes beheld the parlor. He was doubtless fully bent on the form of Lahiri Mahasaya. uttering the pulverizing remarks he had “Abhoya, behold, the light is almost promised. No sooner had the man seated gone!” He pointed to the lamp, which the himself than Lahiri Mahasaya addressed the nurse hastened to refill. As soon as it burned little group of about twelve disciples. again brightly, the master vanished. The door “‘Would you all like to see a picture?’ closed; the latch was affixed without visible agency. “When we nodded, he asked us to darken the room. ‘Sit behind one another in a circle,’ Abhoya’s ninth child survived; in 1935, he said, ‘and place your hands over the eyes when I made inquiry, she was still living. of the man in front of you.’ One of Lahiri Mahasaya’s disciples, the “I was not surprised to see that my venerable Kali Kumar Roy, related to me employer also was following, albeit many fascinating details of his life with the unwillingly, the master’s directions. In a few master. minutes Lahiri Mahasaya asked us what we “I was often a guest at his Benares home were seeing. for weeks at a time,” Roy told me. “I “‘Sir,’ I replied, ‘a beautiful woman observed that many saintly figures, danda* appears. She wears a red-bordered sari, and swamis, arrived in the quiet of night to sit at stands near an elephant-ear plant.’ All the the guru’s feet. Sometimes they would engage other disciples gave the same description. The in discussion of meditational and master turned to my employer. ‘Do you recognize that woman?’ *Staff, symbolizing the spinal cord, carried ritually by certain orders of monks.

199 “‘Yes.’ The man was evidently struggling sought to teach men that a yogi’s life does not with emotions new to his nature. ‘I have been depend upon oxygen or ordinary conditions foolishly spending my money on her, though I and precautions. Whether he were above have a good wife. I am ashamed of the water or under it, and whether or not his body motives which brought me here. Will you lay exposed to the fierce solar rays, the master forgive me, and receive me as a disciple?’ proved that he lived by divine consciousness: “‘If you lead a good moral life for six death could not touch him. months, I shall accept you.’ The master The yogi was great not only spiritually, enigmatically added, ‘Otherwise I won’t have but physically. His weight exceeded three to initiate you.’ hundred pounds: a pound for each year of his “For three months my employer refrained life! As he ate very seldom, the mystery is from temptation; then he resumed his former increased. A master, however, easily ignores relationship with the woman. Two months all usual rules of health, when he desires to do later he died. Thus I came to understand my so for some special reason, often a subtle one guru’s veiled prophecy about the known only to himself. Great saints who have improbability of the man’s initiation.” awakened from the cosmic mayic dream and realized this world as an idea in the Divine Lahiri Mahasaya had a very famous Mind, can do as they wish with the body, friend, Swami Trailanga, who was reputed to knowing it to be only a manipulatable form of be over three hundred years old. The two condensed or frozen energy. Though physical yogis often sat together in meditation. scientists now understand that matter is Trailanga’s fame is so widespread that few nothing but congealed energy, fully-illumined Hindus would deny the possibility of truth in masters have long passed from theory to any story of his astounding miracles. If Christ practice in the field of matter-control. returned to earth and walked the streets of New York, displaying his divine powers, it Trailanga always remained completely would cause the same excitement that was nude. The harassed police of Benares came to created by Trailanga decades ago as he passed regard him as a baffling problem child. The through the crowded lanes of Benares. natural swami, like the early Adam in the garden of Eden, was utterly unconscious of On many occasions the swami was seen his nakedness. The police were quite to drink, with no ill effect, the most deadly conscious of it, however, and poisons. Thousands of people, including a unceremoniously committed him to jail. few who are still living, have seen Trailanga General embarrassment ensued; the enormous floating on the Ganges. For days together he body of Trailanga was soon seen, in its usual would sit on top of the water, or remain entirety, on the prison roof. His cell, still hidden for very long periods under the waves. securely locked, offered no clue to his mode A common sight at the Benares bathing ghats of escape. was the swami’s motionless body on the blistering stone slabs, wholly exposed to the The discouraged officers of the law once merciless Indian sun. By these feats Trailanga more performed their duty. This time a guard

200 was posted before the swami’s cell. Might The well-purged sinner, healed by again retired before right. Trailanga was soon Trailanga’s words, slunk feebly away. observed in his nonchalant stroll over the The reversal of pain was not due to any roof. Justice is blind; the outwitted police volition of the master, but came about through decided to follow her example. unerring application of the law of justice The great yogi preserved a habitual which upholds creation’s farthest swinging silence.* In spite of his round face and huge, orb. Men of God-realization like Trailanga barrel-like stomach, Trailanga ate only allow the divine law to operate occasionally. After weeks without food, he instantaneously; they have banished forever would break his fast with potfuls of clabbered all thwarting crosscurrents of ego. milk offered to him by devotees. A skeptic The automatic adjustments of once determined to expose Trailanga as a righteousness, often paid in an unexpected charlatan. A large bucket of calcium-lime coin as in the case of Trailanga and his would mixture, used in whitewashing walls, was be murderer, assuage our hasty indignance at placed before the swami. human injustice. “Vengeance is mine; I will “Master,” the materialist said, in mock repay, saith the Lord.”† What need for man’s reverence, “I have brought you some brief resources? the universe duly conspires clabbered milk. Please drink it.” for retribution. Dull minds discredit the Trailanga unhesitatingly drained, to the possibility of divine justice, love, last drop, the containerful of burning lime. In omniscience, immortality. “Airy scriptural a few minutes the evildoer fell to the ground conjectures!” This insensitive viewpoint, in agony. aweless before the cosmic spectacle, arouses a train of events which brings its own “Help, swami, help!” he cried. “I am on awakening. fire! Forgive my wicked test!” The omnipotence of spiritual law was The great yogi broke his habitual silence. referred to by Christ on the occasion of his “Scoffer,” he said, “you did not realize when triumphant entry into Jerusalem. As the you offered me poison that my life is one with disciples and the multitude shouted for joy, your own. Except for my knowledge that God and cried, “Peace in heaven, and glory in the is present in my stomach, as in every atom of highest,” certain Pharisees complained of the creation, the lime would have killed me. Now undignified spectacle. “Master,” they that you know the divine meaning of protested, “rebuke thy disciples.” boomerang, never again play tricks on anyone.” “I tell you,” Jesus replied, “that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”‡

*H e w a s a muni, a monk who observes mauna, spiritual silence. The Sanskrit root muni is akin to Greek monos, “alone, single,” from which are derived †Romans 12:19. the English words monk, , etc. ‡Luke 19:37-40.

201 In this reprimand to the Pharisees, Christ childhood. She lived for forty years in a series was pointing out that divine justice is no of lonely Himalayan caves near Badrinath, figurative abstraction, and that a man of Kedarnath, Amarnath, and Pasupatinath. The peace, though his tongue be torn from its brahmacharini (woman ascetic), born in roots, will yet find his speech and his defense 1826, is now well over the century mark. Not in the bedrock of creation, the universal order aged in appearance, however, she has retained itself. her black hair, sparkling teeth, and amazing “Think you,” Jesus was saying, “to energy. She comes out of her seclusion every silence men of peace? As well may you hope few years to attend the periodical melas or to throttle the voice of God, whose very religious fairs. stones sing His glory and His omnipresence. This woman saint often visited Lahiri Will you demand that men not celebrate in Mahasaya. She has related that one day, in the honor of the peace in heaven, but should only Barackpur section near Calcutta, while she gather together in multitudes to shout for war was sitting by Lahiri Mahasaya’s side, his on earth? Then make your preparations, O great guru Babaji quietly entered the room Pharisees, to overtopple the foundations of the and held converse with them both. world; for it is not gentle men alone, but On one occasion her master Trailanga, stones or earth, and water and fire and air that forsaking his usual silence, honored Lahiri will rise up against you, to bear witness of His Mahasaya very pointedly in public. A Benares ordered harmony.” disciple objected. The grace of the Christlike yogi, “Sir,” he said, “why do you, a swami and Trailanga, was once bestowed on my sajo a renunciate, show such respect to a mama (maternal uncle). One morning Uncle householder?” saw the master surrounded by a crowd of devotees at a Benares ghat. He managed to “My son,” Trailanga replied, “Lahiri edge his way close to Trailanga, whose feet Mahasaya is like a divine kitten, remaining he touched humbly. Uncle was astonished to wherever the Cosmic Mother has placed him. find himself instantly freed from a painful While dutifully playing the part of a worldly chronic disease.* man, he has received that perfect self- realization for which I have renounced even The only known living disciple of the my loincloth!” great yogi is a woman, Shankari Mai Jiew. Daughter of one of Trailanga’s disciples, she received the swami’s training from her early

*The lives of Trailanga and other great masters remind us of Jesus’ words: “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name (the Christ consciousness) they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”—Mark 16:17-18.

202 CHAPTER: 32 Rama is Raised from the Dead “Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus. unction. “Lahiri Mahasaya resurrected one of . . . When Jesus heard that, he said, This my friends from the dead.” sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of The young lads at my side smiled with God, that the Son of God might be glorified keen interest. There was enough of the boy in thereby.’”* me, too, to enjoy not only the philosophy but, Sri Yukteswar was expounding the in particular, any story I could get Sri Christian scriptures one sunny morning on the Yukteswar to relate about his wondrous balcony of his Serampore hermitage. Besides experiences with his guru. a few of Master’s other disciples, I was “My friend Rama and I were present with a small group of my Ranchi inseparable,” Master began. “Because he was students. shy and reclusive, he chose to visit our guru “In this passage Jesus calls himself the Lahiri Mahasaya only during the hours of Son of God. Though he was truly united with midnight and dawn, when the crowd of God, his reference here has a deep impersonal daytime disciples was absent. As Rama’s significance,” my guru explained. “The Son closest friend, I served as a spiritual vent of God is the Christ or Divine Consciousness through which he let out the wealth of his in man. No mortal can glorify God. The only spiritual perceptions. I found inspiration in his honor that man can pay his Creator is to seek ideal companionship.” My guru’s face Him; man cannot glorify an Abstraction that softened with memories. he does not know. The ‘glory’ or nimbus “Rama was suddenly put to a severe around the head of the saints is a symbolic test,” Sri Yukteswar continued. “He witness of their capacity to render divine contracted the disease of Asiatic cholera. As homage.” our master never objected to the services of Sri Yukteswar went on to read the physicians at times of serious illness, two marvelous story of Lazarus’ resurrection. At specialists were summoned. Amidst the its conclusion Master fell into a long silence, frantic rush of ministering to the stricken the sacred book open on his knee. man, I was deeply praying to Lahiri “I too was privileged to behold a similar Mahasaya for help. I hurried to his home and miracle.” My guru finally spoke with solemn sobbed out the story. “‘The doctors are seeing Rama. He will

*John 11:1-4. be well.’ My guru smiled jovially.

203 “I returned with a light heart to my will see his body, before it is carried to the friend’s bedside, only to find him in a dying crematory grounds.’ I broke down and state. moaned openly. “‘He cannot last more than one or two “‘Yukteswar, control yourself. Sit calmly hours,’ one of the physicians told me with a and meditate.’ My guru retired into samadhi. gesture of despair. Once more I hastened to The afternoon and night passed in unbroken Lahiri Mahasaya. silence; I struggled unsuccessfully to regain “‘The doctors are conscientious men. I an inner composure. am sure Rama will be well.’ The master “At dawn Lahiri Mahasaya glanced at me dismissed me blithely. consolingly. ‘I see you are still disturbed. “At Rama’s place I found both doctors Why didn’t you explain yesterday that you gone. One had left me a note: ‘We have done expected me to give Rama tangible aid in the our best, but his case is hopeless.’ form of some medicine?’ The master pointed to a cup-shaped lamp containing crude castor “My friend was indeed the picture of a oil. ‘Fill a little bottle from the lamp; put dying man. I did not understand how Lahiri seven drops into Rama’s mouth.’ Mahasaya’s words could fail to come true, yet the sight of Rama’s rapidly ebbing life kept “‘Sir,’ I remonstrated, ‘he has been dead suggesting to my mind: ‘All is over now.’ since yesterday noon. Of what use is the oil Tossing thus on the seas of faith and now?’ apprehensive doubt, I ministered to my friend “‘Never mind; just do as I ask.’ Lahiri as best I could. He roused himself to cry out: Mahasaya’s cheerful mood was “‘Yukteswar, run to Master and tell him I incomprehensible; I was still in the am gone. Ask him to bless my body before its unassuaged agony of bereavement. Pouring last rites.’ With these words Rama sighed out a small amount of oil, I departed for heavily and gave up the ghost.* Rama’s house. “I wept for an hour by his beloved form. “I found my friend’s body rigid in the Always a lover of quiet, now he had attained death-clasp. Paying no attention to his ghastly the utter stillness of death. Another disciple condition, I opened his lips with my right came in; I asked him to remain in the house finger and managed, with my left hand and until I returned. Half-dazed, I trudged back to the help of the cork, to put the oil drop by my guru. drop over his clenched teeth. “‘How is Rama now?’ Lahiri Mahasaya’s “As the seventh drop touched his cold face was wreathed in smiles. lips, Rama shivered violently. His muscles vibrated from head to foot as he sat up “‘Sir, you will soon see how he is,’ I wonderingly. blurted out emotionally. ‘In a few hours you “‘I saw Lahiri Mahasaya in a blaze of light,’ he cried. ‘He shone like the sun. *A cholera victim is often rational and fully conscious right up to the moment of death.

204 “Arise; forsake your sleep,” he commanded “Sir,” he said, “why did your guru use me. “Come with Yukteswar to see me.”’ castor oil?” “I could scarcely believe my eyes when “Child, giving the oil had no meaning Rama dressed himself and was strong enough except that I expected something material and after that fatal sickness to walk to the home of Lahiri Mahasaya chose the near-by oil as an our guru. There he prostrated himself before objective symbol for awakening my greater Lahiri Mahasaya with tears of gratitude. faith. The master allowed Rama to die, “The master was beside himself with because I had partially doubted. But the mirth. His eyes twinkled at me mischievously. divine guru knew that inasmuch as he had said the disciple would be well, the healing “‘Yukteswar,’ he said, ‘surely henceforth must take place, even though he had to cure you will not fail to carry with you a bottle of Rama of death, a disease usually final!” castor oil! Whenever you see a corpse, just administer the oil! Why, seven drops of lamp Sri Yukteswar dismissed the little group, oil must surely foil the power of Yama!’* and motioned me to a blanket seat at his feet. “‘Guruji, you are ridiculing me. I don’t “Yogananda,” he said with unusual understand; please point out the nature of my gravity, “you have been surrounded from error.’ birth by direct disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya. The great master lived his sublime life in “‘I told you twice that Rama would be partial seclusion, and steadfastly refused to well; yet you could not fully believe me,’ permit his followers to build any organization Lahiri Mahasaya explained. ‘I did not mean around his teachings. He made, nevertheless, the doctors would be able to cure him; I a significant prediction. remarked only that they were in attendance. There was no causal connection between my “‘About fifty years after my passing,’ he two statements. I didn’t want to interfere with said, ‘my life will be written because of a the physicians; they have to live, too.’ In a deep interest in yoga which the West will voice resounding with joy, my guru added, manifest. The yogic message will encircle the ‘Always know that the inexhaustible globe, and aid in establishing that brotherhood † can heal anyone, doctor or no of man which results from direct perception doctor.’ of the One Father.’ “‘I see my mistake,’ I acknowledged “My son Yogananda,” Sri Yukteswar remorsefully. ‘I know now that your simple went on, “you must do your part in spreading word is binding on the whole cosmos.’” that message, and in writing that sacred life.” As Sri Yukteswar finished the awesome Fifty years after Lahiri Mahasaya’s story, one of the spellbound listeners ventured passing in 1895 culminated in 1945, the year a question that, from a child, was doubly of completion of this present book. I cannot understandable. but be struck by the coincidence that the year 1945 has also ushered in a —the era

*The god of death. †Literally, “Supreme soul.”

205 of revolutionary atomic energies. All given the worthiest answer of any people to thoughtful minds turn as never before to the the challenge of time. urgent problems of peace and brotherhood, The Biblical story* of Abraham’s plea to lest the continued use of physical force banish the Lord that the city of Sodom be spared if all men along with the problems. ten righteous men could be found therein, and Though the human race and its works the divine reply: “I will not destroy it for ten’s disappear tracelessly by time or bomb, the sun sake,” gains new meaning in the light of does not falter in its course; the stars keep India’s escape from the oblivion of Babylon, their invariable vigil. Cosmic law cannot be Egypt and other mighty nations who were stayed or changed, and man would do well to once her contemporaries. The Lord’s answer put himself in harmony with it. If the cosmos clearly shows that a land lives, not by its is against might, if the sun wars not with the material achievements, but in its masterpieces planets but retires at dueful time to give the of man. stars their little sway, what avails our mailed Let the divine words be heard again, in fist? Shall any peace indeed come out of it? this twentieth century, twice dyed in blood ere Not cruelty but good will arms the universal half over: No nation that can produce ten sinews; a humanity at peace will know the men, great in the eyes of the Unbribable endless fruits of victory, sweeter to the taste Judge, shall know extinction. Heeding such than any nurtured on the soil of blood. persuasions, India has proved herself not The effective League of Nations will be a witless against the thousand cunnings of time. natural, nameless league of human hearts. The Self-realized masters in every century have broad sympathies and discerning insight hallowed her soil; modern Christlike sages, needed for the healing of earthly woes cannot like Lahiri Mahasaya and his disciple Sri flow from a mere intellectual consideration of Yukteswar, rise up to proclaim that the man’s diversities, but from knowledge of science of yoga is more vital than any man’s sole unity—his kinship with God. material advances to man’s happiness and to a Toward realization of the world’s highest nation’s longevity. ideal—peace through brotherhood—m a y Very scanty information about the life of yoga, the science of personal contact with the Lahiri Mahasaya and his universal doctrine Divine, spread in time to all men in all lands. has ever appeared in print. For three decades Though India’s civilization is ancient in India, America, and Europe, I have found a above any other, few historians have noted deep and sincere interest in his message of that her feat of national survival is by no liberating yoga; a written account of the means an accident, but a logical incident in master’s life, even as he foretold, is now the devotion to eternal verities which India needed in the West, where lives of the great has offered through her best men in every modern yogis are little known. generation. By sheer continuity of being, by intransitivity before the ages—can dusty scholars truly tell us how many?—India has *Genesis 18:23-32.

206 Nothing but one or two small pamphlets River changed its course and disappeared into in English has been written on the guru’s life. the depths of the Ganges. One of the Shiva One biography in Bengali, Sri Sri* Shyama temples founded by the Lahiris went into the Charan Lahiri Mahasaya, appeared in 1941. river along with the family home. A devotee It was written by my disciple, Swami rescued the stone image of Lord Shiva from Satyananda, who for many years has been the the swirling waters and placed it in a new acharya (spiritual preceptor) at our Vidyalaya temple, now well-known as the Ghurni Shiva in Ranchi. I have translated a few passages Site. from his book and have incorporated them Gaur Mohan Lahiri and his family left into this section devoted to Lahiri Mahasaya. Nadia and became residents of Benares, It was into a pious Brahmin family of where the father immediately erected a Shiva ancient lineage that Lahiri Mahasaya was temple. He conducted his household along the born September 30, 1828. His birthplace was lines of Vedic discipline, with regular the village of Ghurni in the Nadia district near observance of ceremonial worship, acts of Krishnagar, Bengal. He was the youngest son charity, and scriptural study. Just and open- of Muktakashi, the second wife of the minded, however, he did not ignore the esteemed Gaur Mohan Lahiri. (His first wife, beneficial current of modern ideas. after the birth of three sons, had died during a The boy Lahiri took lessons in Hindi and pilgrimage.) The boy’s mother passed away Urdu in Benares study-groups. He attended a during his childhood; little about her is known school conducted by Joy Narayan Ghosal, except the revealing fact that she was an receiving instruction in Sanskrit, Bengali, ardent devotee of Lord Shiva,† scripturally French, and English. Applying himself to a designated as the “King of Yogis.” close study of the Vedas, the young yogi The boy Lahiri, whose given name was listened eagerly to scriptural discussions by Shyama Charan, spent his early years in the learned Brahmins, including a Marhatta ancestral home at Nadia. At the age of three pundit named Nag-Bhatta. or four he was often observed sitting under Shyama Charan was a kind, gentle, and the sands in the posture of a yogi, his body courageous youth, beloved by all his completely hidden except for the head. companions. With a well-proportioned, The Lahiri estate was destroyed in the bright, and powerful body, he excelled in winter of 1833, when the near-by Jalangi swimming and in many skillful activities.

In 1846 Shyama Charan Lahiri was *Sri, a prefix meaning “holy,” is attached (generally married to Srimati Kashi Moni, daughter of twice or thrice) to names of great Indian teachers. Sri Debnarayan Sanyal. A model Indian †One of the trinity of Godhead—Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva—whose universal work is, respectively, that of housewife, Kashi Moni cheerfully carried on creation, preservation, and dissolution-restoration. her home duties and the traditional Shiva (sometimes spelled Siva), represented in mythology as the Lord of Renunciates, appears in householder’s obligation to serve guests and visions to His devotees under various aspects, such as the poor. Two saintly sons, Tincouri and Mahadeva, the matted-haired Ascetic, and , the Ducouri, blessed the union. Cosmic Dancer.

207 At the age of 23, in 1851, Lahiri ash-hidden flame, long smouldering, received Mahasaya took the post of accountant in the its opportunity to burst into flame. A divine Military Engineering Department of the decree, resting beyond the gaze of human English government. He received many beings, works mysteriously to bring all things promotions during the time of his service. into outer manifestation at the proper time. He Thus not only was he a master before God’s met his great guru, Babaji, near Ranikhet, and eyes, but also a success in the little human was initiated by him into Kriya Yoga. drama where he played his given role as an This auspicious event did not happen to office worker in the world. him alone; it was a fortunate moment for all As the offices of the Army Department the human race, many of whom were later were shifted, Lahiri Mahasaya was transferred privileged to receive the soul-awakening gift to Gazipur, Mirjapur, Danapur, Naini Tal, of Kriya. The lost, or long-vanished, highest Benares, and other localities. After the death art of yoga was again being brought to light. of his father, Lahiri had to assume the entire Many spiritually thirsty men and women responsibility of his family, for whom he eventually found their way to the cool waters bought a quiet residence in the Garudeswar of Kriya Yoga. Just as in the Hindu legend, Mohulla neighborhood of Benares. where Mother Ganges offers her divine It was in his thirty-third year that Lahiri draught to the parched devotee Bhagirath, so Mahasaya saw fulfillment of the purpose for the celestial flood of Kriya rolled from the which he had been reincarnated on earth. The secret fastnesses of the Himalayas into the dusty haunts of men.

208 CHAPTER: 33 Babaji, the Yogi-Christ of Modern India The northern Himalayan crags near Badrinarayan are still blessed by the living presence of Babaji, guru of Lahiri Mahasaya. The ground.* These are outward symbolic proofs secluded master has retained his physical of an inward lack of darkness and material form for centuries, perhaps for millenniums. bondage. Such a God-man alone knows the The deathless Babaji is an avatara. This Truth behind the relativities of life and death. Sanskrit word means “descent”; its roots are Omar Khayyam, so grossly misunderstood, ava, “down,” and tri, “to pass.” In the Hindu sang of this liberated man in his immortal scriptures, avatara signifies the descent of scripture, the Rubaiyat: Divinity into flesh. “Ah, Moon of my Delight who know’st no “Babaji’s spiritual state is beyond human wane, comprehension,” Sri Yukteswar explained to The Moon of Heav’n is rising once again; me. “The dwarfed vision of men cannot pierce to his transcendental star. One attempts How oft hereafter rising shall she look in vain even to picture the ’s attainment. Through this same Garden after me—in It is inconceivable.” vain!” The Upanishads have minutely classified The “Moon of Delight” is God, eternal every stage of spiritual advancement. A Polaris, anachronous never. The “Moon of (“perfected being”) has progressed Heav’n” is the outward cosmos, fettered to from the state of a (“freed while the law of periodic recurrence. Its chains had living”) to that of a paramukta (“supremely free”—full power over death); the latter has *The question could arise: “If avatars don’t completely escaped from the mayic thralldom cast a shadow, why do Yogananda and Sri and its reincarnational round. The paramukta Yukteswar have shadows in photos of them?” therefore seldom returns to a physical body; if The answer is that since avatars are free of any karma and are one with God’s light, he does, he is an avatar, a divinely appointed nothing impedes the flow of light through medium of supernal blessings on the world. them. However, they have the power to hold An avatar is unsubject to the universal their consciousness down to the earthly plane economy; his pure body, sometimes visible as depending on the God-ordained mission that they undertake. Therefore one could say that only a light image, is free from any debt to whether an avatar casts a shadow depends on nature. The casual gaze may see nothing the degree of his outward involvement in the extraordinary in an avatar’s form but it casts human scene. Certainly in the case of Sri no shadow nor makes any footprint on the Yukteswar and Yogananda they are central to the spiritual transformation of the world, both outwardly and inwardly. —Swami Kriyananda

209 been dissolved forever by the Persian seer for this age. The work of these two fully- through his self-realization. “How oft illumined masters—one with the body, and hereafter rising shall she look . . . after me— one without it—is to inspire the nations to in vain!” What frustration of search by a forsake suicidal wars, race hatreds, religious frantic universe for an absolute omission! sectarianism, and the boomerang-evils of Christ expressed his freedom in another materialism. Babaji is well aware of the trend way: “And a certain scribe came, and said of modern times, especially of the influence unto him, Master, I will follow thee and complexities of Western civilization, and whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus saith realizes the necessity of spreading the self- unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds liberations of yoga equally in the West and in of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath the East. not where to lay his head.”* That there is no historical reference to Spacious with omnipresence, could Babaji need not surprise us. The great guru Christ indeed be followed except in the has never openly appeared in any century; the overarching Spirit? misinterpreting glare of publicity has no place in his millennial plans. Like the Creator, the Krishna, Rama, Buddha, and Patanjali sole but silent Power, Babaji works in a were among the ancient Indian avatars. A humble obscurity. considerable poetic literature in Tamil has grown up around , a South Indian Great prophets like Christ and Krishna avatar. He worked many miracles during the come to earth for a specific and spectacular centuries preceding and following the purpose; they depart as soon as it is Christian era, and is credited with retaining accomplished. Other avatars, like Babaji, his physical form even to this day. undertake work which is concerned more with the slow evolutionary progress of man during Babaji’s mission in India has been to the centuries than with any one outstanding assist prophets in carrying out their special event of history. Such masters always veil dispensations. He thus qualifies for the themselves from the gross public gaze, and scriptural classification of Mahavatar (Great have the power to become invisible at will. Avatar). He has stated that he gave yoga For these reasons, and because they generally initiation to Shankara, ancient founder of the instruct their disciples to maintain silence Swami Order, and to Kabir, famous medieval about them, a number of towering spiritual saint. His chief nineteenth-century disciple figures remain world-unknown. I give in these was, as we know, Lahiri Mahasaya, revivalist pages on Babaji merely a hint of his life— of the lost Kriya art. only a few facts which he deems it fit and The Mahavatar is in constant helpful to be publicly imparted. communion with Christ; together they send No limiting facts about Babaji’s family or out vibrations of redemption, and have birthplace, dear to the annalist’s heart, have planned the spiritual technique of salvation ever been discovered. His speech is generally in Hindi, but he converses easily in any *Matthew 8:19-20.

210 language. He has adopted the simple name of does not always employ this method of astral Babaji (revered father); other titles of respect travel; sometimes he goes on foot from peak given him by Lahiri Mahasaya’s disciples are to peak. Mahamuni Babaji Maharaj (supreme ecstatic “Babaji can be seen or recognized by saint), Maha Yogi (greatest of yogis), others only when he so desires. He is known Trambak Baba and Shiva Baba (titles of to have appeared in many slightly different avatars of Shiva). Does it matter that we know forms to various devotees—sometimes not the patronymic of an earth-released without beard and moustache, and sometimes master? with them. As his undecaying body requires “Whenever anyone utters with reverence no food, the master seldom eats. As a social the name of Babaji,” Lahiri Mahasaya said, courtesy to visiting disciples, he occasionally “that devotee attracts an instant spiritual accepts fruits, or rice cooked in milk and blessing.” clarified butter. The deathless guru bears no marks of age “Two amazing incidents of Babaji’s life on his body; he appears to be no more than a are known to me,” Kebalananda went on. youth of twenty-five. Fair-skinned, of “His disciples were sitting one night around a medium build and height, Babaji’s beautiful, huge fire which was blazing for a sacred strong body radiates a perceptible glow. His Vedic ceremony. The master suddenly seized eyes are dark, calm, and tender; his long, a burning log and lightly struck the bare lustrous hair is copper-colored. A very strange shoulder of a chela who was close to the fire. fact is that Babaji bears an extraordinarily “‘Sir, how cruel!’ Lahiri Mahasaya, who exact resemblance to his disciple Lahiri was present, made this remonstrance. Mahasaya. The similarity is so striking that, in his later years, Lahiri Mahasaya might have “‘Would you rather have seen him passed as the father of the youthful-looking burned to ashes before your eyes, according Babaji. to the decree of his past karma?’ Swami Kebalananda, my saintly Sanskrit “With these words Babaji placed his tutor, spent some time with Babaji in the healing hand on the chela’s disfigured Himalayas. shoulder. ‘I have freed you tonight from painful death. The karmic law has been “The peerless master moves with his satisfied through your slight suffering by fire.’ group from place to place in the mountains,” Kebalananda told me. “His small band “On another occasion Babaji’s sacred contains two highly advanced American circle was disturbed by the arrival of a disciples. After Babaji has been in one stranger. He had climbed with astonishing locality for some time, he says: ‘Dera danda skill to the nearly inaccessible ledge near the uthao.’ (‘Let us lift our camp and staff.’) He camp of the master. carries a symbolic danda (bamboo staff). His “‘Sir, you must be the great Babaji.’ The words are the signal for moving with his man’s face was lit with inexpressible group instantaneously to another place. He reverence. ‘For months I have pursued a

211 ceaseless search for you among these Jesus knew from the beginning the forbidding crags. I implore you to accept me sequence of his life; he passed through each as a disciple.’ event not for himself, not from any karmic “When the great guru made no response, compulsion, but solely for the upliftment of the man pointed to the rocky chasm at his reflective human beings. His four reporter- feet. disciples—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John— recorded the ineffable drama for the benefit of “‘If you refuse me, I will jump from this later generations. mountain. Life has no further value if I cannot win your guidance to the Divine.’ For Babaji, also, there is no relativity of past, present, future; from the beginning he “‘Jump then,’ Babaji said unemotionally. has known all phases of his life. Yet, ‘I cannot accept you in your present state of accommodating himself to the limited development.’ understanding of men, he has played many “The man immediately hurled himself acts of his divine life in the presence of one or over the cliff. Babaji instructed the shocked more witnesses. Thus it came about that a disciples to fetch the stranger’s body. When disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya was present when they returned with the mangled form, the Babaji deemed the time to be ripe for him to master placed his divine hand on the dead proclaim the possibility of bodily immortality. man. Lo! he opened his eyes and prostrated He uttered this promise before Ram Gopal himself humbly before the omnipotent one. Muzumdar, that it might finally become known for the inspiration of other seeking “‘You are now ready for discipleship.’ hearts. The great ones speak their words and Babaji beamed lovingly on his resurrected participate in the seemingly natural course of chela. ‘You have courageously passed a events, solely for the good of man, even as difficult test. Death shall not touch you again; Christ said: “Father . . . I knew that thou now you are one of our immortal flock.’ Then hearest me always: but because of the people he spoke his usual words of departure, ‘Dera which stand by I said it, that they may believe danda uthao’; the whole group vanished from that thou hast sent me.”* the mountain.” During my visit at Ranbajpur with Ram An avatar lives in the omnipresent Spirit; Gopal, “the sleepless saint,”† he related the for him there is no distance inverse to the wondrous story of his first meeting with square. Only one reason, therefore, can Babaji. motivate Babaji in maintaining his physical form from century to century: the desire to “I sometimes left my isolated cave to sit furnish humanity with a concrete example of at Lahiri Mahasaya’s feet in Benares,” Ram its own possibilities. Were man never Gopal told me. “One midnight as I was vouchsafed a glimpse of Divinity in the flesh, he would remain oppressed by the heavy mayic delusion that he cannot transcend his *John 11:41-42. mortality. †The omnipresent yogi who observed that I failed to bow before the Tarakeswar shrine (chapter 13).

212 silently meditating in a group of his disciples, materialized itself into the body of a beautiful the master made a surprising request. youth who, I understood at once, was Babaji. “‘Ram Gopal,’ he said, ‘go at once to the He looked like Lahiri Mahasaya, the only Dasasamedh bathing ghat.’ difference being that Babaji appeared much younger, and had long, bright hair. “I soon reached the secluded spot. The night was bright with moonlight and the “Lahiri Mahasaya, Mataji, and myself glittering stars. After I had sat in patient knelt at the guru’s feet. An ethereal sensation silence for awhile, my attention was drawn to of beatific glory thrilled every fiber of my a huge stone slab near my feet. It rose being as I touched his divine flesh. gradually, revealing an underground cave. As “‘Blessed sister,’ Babaji said, ‘I am the stone remained balanced in some intending to shed my form and plunge into the unknown manner, the draped form of a young Infinite Current.’ and surpassingly lovely woman was levitated “‘I have already glimpsed your plan, from the cave high into the air. Surrounded by beloved master. I wanted to discuss it with a soft halo, she slowly descended in front of you tonight. Why should you leave your me and stood motionless, steeped in an inner body?’ The glorious woman looked at him state of ecstasy. She finally stirred, and spoke beseechingly. gently. “‘What is the difference if I wear a “‘I am Mataji,* the sister of Babaji. I visible or invisible wave on the ocean of my have asked him and also Lahiri Mahasaya to Spirit?’ come to my cave tonight to discuss a matter of great importance.’ “Mataji replied with a quaint flash of wit. ‘Deathless guru, if it makes no difference, “A nebulous light was rapidly floating then please do not ever relinquish your over the Ganges; the strange luminescence form.’† was reflected in the opaque waters. It approached nearer and nearer until, with a “‘Be it so,’ Babaji said solemnly. ‘I will blinding flash, it appeared by the side of never leave my physical body. It will always Mataji and condensed itself instantly into the remain visible to at least a small number of human form of Lahiri Mahasaya. He bowed people on this earth. The Lord has spoken His humbly at the feet of the woman saint. own wish through your lips.’ “Before I had recovered from my “As I listened in awe to the conversation bewilderment, I was further wonder-struck to between these exalted beings, the great guru behold a circling mass of mystical light turned to me with a benign gesture. traveling in the sky. Descending swiftly, the flaming whirlpool neared our group and

†This incident reminds one of Thales. The great Greek *“Holy Mother.” Mataji also has lived through the philosopher taught that there was no difference centuries; she is almost as far advanced spiritually as between life and death. “Why, then,” inquired a critic, her brother. She remains in ecstasy in a hidden “do you not die?” “Because,” answered Thales, “it underground cave near the Dasasamedh ghat. makes no difference.”

213 “‘Fear not, Ram Gopal,’ he said, ‘you are go—still the deathless master,* beholding the blessed to be a witness at the scene of this drama of the centuries, shall be present on this immortal promise.’ stage terrestrial.” “As the sweet melody of Babaji’s voice faded away, his form and that of Lahiri Mahasaya slowly levitated and moved backward over the Ganges. An aureole of dazzling light templed their bodies as they vanished into the night sky. Mataji’s form floated to the cave and descended; the stone slab closed of itself, as if working on an invisible leverage. “Infinitely inspired, I wended my way back to Lahiri Mahasaya’s place. As I bowed before him in the early dawn, my guru smiled at me understandingly. “‘I am happy for you, Ram Gopal,’ he said. ‘The desire of meeting Babaji and Mataji, which you have often expressed to me, has found at last a sacred fulfillment.’ “My fellow disciples informed me that Lahiri Mahasaya had not moved from his dais since early the preceding evening. “‘He gave a wonderful discourse on immortality after you had left for the Dasasamedh ghat,’ one of the chelas told me. For the first time I fully realized the truth in the scriptural verses which state that a man of self-realization can appear at different places in two or more bodies at the same time. “Lahiri Mahasaya later explained to me many metaphysical points concerning the hidden divine plan for this earth,” Ram Gopal concluded. “Babaji has been chosen by God to remain in his body for the duration of this particular world cycle. Ages shall come and

*“Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying (remain unbrokenly in the Christ Consciousness), he shall never see death.”—John 8:51.

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CHAPTER: 34 Materializing a Palace in the Himalayas “Babaji’s first meeting with Lahiri Mahasaya “My office duties were not onerous; I is an enthralling story, and one of the few was able to spend many hours roaming in the which gives us a detailed glimpse of the magnificent hills. A rumor reached me that deathless guru.” great saints blessed the region with their These words were Swami Kebalananda’s presence; I felt a strong desire to see them. preamble to a wondrous tale. The first time he During a ramble one early afternoon, I was recounted it I was literally spellbound. On astounded to hear a distant voice calling my many other occasions I coaxed my gentle name. I continued my vigorous upward climb Sanskrit tutor to repeat the story, which was on Drongiri Mountain. A slight uneasiness later told me in substantially the same words beset me at the thought that I might not be by Sri Yukteswar. Both these Lahiri able to retrace my steps before darkness had Mahasaya disciples had heard the awesome descended over the jungle. tale direct from the lips of their guru. “I finally reached a small clearing whose “My first meeting with Babaji took place sides were dotted with caves. On one of the in my thirty-third year,” Lahiri Mahasaya had rocky ledges stood a smiling young man, said. “In the autumn of 1861 I was stationed extending his hand in welcome. I noticed with in Danapur as a government accountant in the astonishment that, except for his copper- Military Engineering Department. One colored hair, he bore a remarkable morning the office manager summoned me. resemblance to myself. “‘Lahiri,’ he said, ‘a telegram has just “‘Lahiri, you have come!’ The saint come from our main office. You are to be addressed me affectionately in Hindi. ‘Rest transferred to Ranikhet, where an army post* here in this cave. It was I who called you.’ is now being established.’ “I entered a neat little grotto which “With one servant, I set out on the 500- contained several woolen blankets and a few mile trip. Traveling by horse and buggy, we kamandulus (begging bowls). arrived in thirty days at the Himalayan site of “‘Lahiri, do you remember that seat?’ Ranikhet.† The yogi pointed to a folded blanket in one corner.

*Now a military sanatorium. By 1861 the British “‘No, sir.’ Somewhat dazed at the Government had already established certain telegraphic strangeness of my adventure, I added, ‘I must communications. leave now, before nightfall. I have business in †Ranikhet, in the Almora district of United Provinces, is situated at the foot of Nanda Devi, the highest the morning at my office.’ Himalayan peak (25,661 feet) in British India. “The mysterious saint replied in English, tumultuous waves of the life beyond death. ‘The office was brought for you, and not you The magic wand of your karma touched you, for the office.’ and you were gone! Though you lost sight of “I was dumbfounded that this forest me, never did I lose sight of you! I pursued ascetic should not only speak English but also you over the luminescent astral sea where the paraphrase the words of Christ.* glorious angels sail. Through gloom, storm, upheaval, and light I followed you, like a “‘I see my telegram took effect.’ The mother bird guarding her young. As you lived yogi’s remark was incomprehensible to me; I out your human term of womb-life, and inquired his meaning. emerged a babe, my eye was ever on you. “‘I refer to the telegram that summoned When you covered your tiny form in the lotus you to these isolated parts. It was I who posture under the Nadia sands in your silently suggested to the mind of your childhood, I was invisibly present! Patiently, superior officer that you be transferred to month after month, year after year, I have Ranikhet. When one feels his unity with watched over you, waiting for this perfect mankind, all minds become transmitting day. Now you are with me! Lo, here is your stations through which he can work at will.’ cave, loved of yore! I have kept it ever clean He added gently, ‘Lahiri, surely this cave and ready for you. Here is your hallowed seems familiar to you?’ asana-blanket, where you daily sat to fill your expanding heart with God! Behold there your “As I maintained a bewildered silence, bowl, from which you often drank the nectar the saint approached and struck me gently on prepared by me! See how I have kept the the forehead. At his magnetic touch, a brass cup brightly polished, that you might wondrous current swept through my brain, drink again therefrom! My own, do you now releasing the sweet seed-memories of my understand?’ previous life. “‘My guru, what can I say?’ I murmured “‘I remember!’ My voice was half- brokenly. ‘Where has one ever heard of such choked with joyous sobs. ‘You are my guru deathless love?’ I gazed long and ecstatically Babaji, who has belonged to me always! on my eternal treasure, my guru in life and Scenes of the past arise vividly in my mind; death. here in this cave I spent many years of my last incarnation!’ As ineffable recollections “‘Lahiri, you need purification. Drink the overwhelmed me, I tearfully embraced my oil in this bowl and lie down by the river.’ master’s feet. Babaji’s practical wisdom, I reflected with a quick, reminiscent smile, was ever to the fore. “‘For more than three decades I have waited for you here—waited for you to return “I obeyed his directions. Though the icy to me!’ Babaji’s voice rang with celestial Himalayan night was descending, a love. ‘You slipped away and vanished into the comforting warmth, an inner radiation, began to pulsate in every cell of my body. I

*“The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.”—Mark 2:27.

216 marveled. Was the unknown oil endued with a paean of welcome, rejoicing at the end of a cosmical heat? your long exile. Behold!’ “Bitter winds whipped around me in the “A vast palace of dazzling gold stood darkness, shrieking a fierce challenge. The before us. Studded with countless jewels, and chill wavelets of the Gogash River lapped set amidst landscaped gardens, it presented a now and then over my body, outstretched on spectacle of unparalleled grandeur. Saints of the rocky bank. Tigers howled near-by, but angelic countenance were stationed by my heart was free of fear; the radiant force resplendent gates, half-reddened by the glitter newly generated within me conveyed an of rubies. Diamonds, pearls, sapphires, and assurance of unassailable protection. Several emeralds of great size and luster were hours passed swiftly; faded memories of imbedded in the decorative arches. another life wove themselves into the present “I followed my companion into a brilliant pattern of reunion with my divine spacious reception hall. The odor of incense guru. and of roses wafted through the air; dim “My solitary musings were interrupted by lamps shed a multicolored glow. Small groups the sound of approaching footsteps. In the of devotees, some fair, some dark-skinned, darkness, a man’s hand gently helped me to chanted musically, or sat in the meditative my feet, and gave me some dry clothing. posture, immersed in an inner peace. A “‘Come, brother,’ my companion said. vibrant joy pervaded the atmosphere. ‘The master awaits you.’ “‘Feast your eyes; enjoy the artistic “He led the way through the forest. The splendors of this palace, for it has been somber night was suddenly lit by a steady brought into being solely in your honor.’ My luminosity in the distance. guide smiled sympathetically as I uttered a few ejaculations of wonderment. “‘Can that be the sunrise?’ I inquired. ‘Surely the whole night has not passed?’ “‘Brother,’ I said, ‘the beauty of this structure surpasses the bounds of human “‘The hour is midnight.’ My guide imagination. Please tell me the mystery of its laughed softly. ‘Yonder light is the glow of a origin.’ golden palace, materialized here tonight by the peerless Babaji. In the dim past, you once “‘I will gladly enlighten you.’ My expressed a desire to enjoy the beauties of a companion’s dark eyes sparkled with wisdom. palace. Our master is now satisfying your ‘In reality there is nothing inexplicable about wish, thus freeing you from the bonds of this materialization. The whole cosmos is a karma.’* He added, ‘The magnificent palace materialized thought of the Creator. This will be the scene of your initiation tonight heavy, earthly clod, floating in space, is a into Kriya Yoga. All your brothers here join in dream of God. He made all things out of His consciousness, even as man in his dream consciousness reproduces and vivifies a *The karmic law requires that every human wish find creation with its creatures. ultimate fulfillment. Desire is thus the chain which binds man to the reincarnational wheel.

217 “‘God first created the earth as an idea. Whoever realizes himself as a son of God, Then He quickened it; energy atoms came even as Babaji has done, can reach any goal into being. He coordinated the atoms into this by the infinite powers hidden within him. A solid sphere. All its molecules are held common stone locks within itself the secret of together by the will of God. When He stupendous atomic energy;† even so, a mortal withdraws His will, the earth again will is yet a powerhouse of divinity.’ disintegrate into energy. Energy will dissolve “The sage picked up from a near-by table into consciousness; the earth-idea will a graceful vase whose handle was blazing disappear from objectivity. with diamonds. ‘Our great guru created this “‘The substance of a dream is held in palace by solidifying myriads of free cosmic materialization by the subconscious thought rays,’ he went on. ‘Touch this vase and its of the dreamer. When that cohesive thought is diamonds; they will satisfy all the tests of withdrawn in wakefulness, the dream and its sensory experience.’ elements dissolve. A man closes his eyes and “I examined the vase, and passed my erects a dream-creation which, on awakening, hand over the smooth room-walls, thick with he effortlessly dematerializes. He follows the glistening gold. Each of the jewels scattered divine archetypal pattern. Similarly, when he lavishly about was worthy of a king’s awakens in cosmic consciousness, he will collection. Deep satisfaction spread over my effortlessly dematerialize the illusions of the mind. A submerged desire, hidden in my cosmic dream. subconsciousness from lives now gone, “‘Being one with the infinite all- seemed simultaneously gratified and accomplishing Will, Babaji can summon the extinguished. elemental atoms to combine and manifest “My stately companion led me through themselves in any form. This golden palace, ornate arches and corridors into a series of instantaneously created, is real, even as this chambers richly furnished in the style of an earth is real. Babaji created this palatial emperor’s palace. We entered an immense mansion out of his mind and is holding its hall. In the center stood a golden throne, atoms together by the power of his will, even encrusted with jewels shedding a dazzling as God created this earth and is maintaining it medley of colors. There, in lotus posture, sat intact.’ He added, ‘When this structure has the supreme Babaji. I knelt on the shining served its purpose, Babaji will dematerialize floor at his feet. it.’ “‘Lahiri, are you still feasting on your “As I remained silent in awe, my guide dream desires for a golden palace?’ My made a sweeping gesture. ‘This shimmering palace, superbly embellished with jewels, has ’Tis an implicit satire on mankind.” not been built by human effort or with —Edward Young, in Night Thoughts. laboriously mined gold and gems. It stands †The theory of the atomic structure of matter was solidly, a monumental challenge to man.* expounded in the ancient Indian Vaisesika and Nyaya treatises. “There are vast worlds all placed away within the hollows of each atom, multifarious as the motes in *“What is a miracle?—’Tis a reproach, a sunbeam.” —Yoga Vasishtha.

218 guru’s eyes were twinkling like his own “‘The purpose for which the palace was sapphires. ‘Wake! All your earthly thirsts are created has now been served,’ Babaji about to be quenched forever.’ He murmured explained. He lifted an earthen vessel from some mystic words of blessing. ‘My son, the ground. ‘Put your hand there and receive arise. Receive your initiation into the whatever food you desire.’ kingdom of God through Kriya Yoga.’ “As soon as I touched the broad, empty “Babaji stretched out his hand; a bowl, it became heaped with hot butter-fried (sacrificial) fire appeared, surrounded by luchis, curry, and rare sweetmeats. I helped fruits and flowers. I received the liberating myself, observing that the vessel was ever- yogic technique before this flaming altar. filled. At the end of my meal I looked around “The rites were completed in the early for water. My guru pointed to the bowl before dawn. I felt no need for sleep in my ecstatic me. Lo! the food had vanished; in its place state, and wandered around the palace, filled was water, clear as from a mountain stream. on all sides with treasures and priceless objets “‘Few mortals know that the kingdom of d’art. Descending to the gorgeous gardens, I God includes the kingdom of mundane noticed, near-by, the same caves and barren fulfillments,’ Babaji observed. ‘The divine mountain ledges which yesterday had boasted realm extends to the earthly, but the latter, no adjacency to palace or flowered terrace. being illusory, cannot include the essence of “Reentering the palace, fabulously reality.’ glistening in the cold Himalayan sunlight, I “‘Beloved guru, last night you sought the presence of my master. He was demonstrated for me the link of beauty in still enthroned, surrounded by many quiet heaven and earth!’ I smiled at memories of disciples. the vanished palace; surely no simple yogi “‘Lahiri, you are hungry.’ Babaji added, had ever received initiation into the august ‘Close your eyes.’ mysteries of Spirit amidst surroundings of more impressive luxury! I gazed tranquilly at “When I reopened them, the enchanting the stark contrast of the present scene. The palace and its picturesque gardens had gaunt ground, the skyey roof, the caves disappeared. My own body and the forms of offering primitive shelter—all seemed a Babaji and the cluster of chelas were all now gracious natural setting for the seraphic saints seated on the bare ground at the exact site of around me. the vanished palace, not far from the sunlit entrances of the rocky grottos. I recalled that “I sat that afternoon on my blanket, my guide had remarked that the palace would hallowed by associations of past-life be dematerialized, its captive atoms released realizations. My divine guru approached and into the thought-essence from which it had passed his hand over my head. I entered the sprung. Although stunned, I looked trustingly nirbikalpa samadhi state, remaining at my guru. I knew not what to expect next on unbrokenly in its bliss for seven days. this day of miracles. Crossing the successive strata of self- knowledge, I penetrated the deathless realms

219 of reality. All delusive limitations dropped civic, and spiritual duties. A sweet new breath away; my soul was fully established on the of divine hope will penetrate the arid hearts of eternal altar of the Cosmic Spirit. On the worldly men. From your balanced life, they eighth day I fell at my guru’s feet and will understand that liberation is dependent on implored him to keep me always near him in inner, rather than outer, renunciations.’ this sacred wilderness. “How remote seemed my family, the “‘My son,’ Babaji said, embracing me, office, the world, as I listened to my guru in ‘your role in this incarnation must be played the high Himalayan solitudes. Yet adamantine on an outward stage. Prenatally blessed by truth rang in his words; I submissively agreed many lives of lonely meditation, you must to leave this blessed haven of peace. Babaji now mingle in the world of men. instructed me in the ancient rigid rules which “‘A deep purpose underlay the fact that govern the transmission of the yogic art from you did not meet me this time until you were guru to disciple. already a married man, with modest business “‘Bestow the Kriya key only on qualified responsibilities. You must put aside your chelas,’ Babaji said. ‘He who vows to thoughts of joining our secret band in the sacrifice all in the quest of the Divine is fit to Himalayas; your life lies in the crowded unravel the final mysteries of life through the marts, serving as an example of the ideal science of meditation.’ yogi-householder. “‘Angelic guru, as you have already “‘The cries of many bewildered worldly favored mankind by resurrecting the lost men and women have not fallen unheard on Kriya art, will you not increase that benefit by the ears of the Great Ones,’ he went on. ‘You relaxing the strict requirements for have been chosen to bring spiritual solace discipleship?’ I gazed beseechingly at Babaji. through Kriya Yoga to numerous earnest ‘I pray that you permit me to communicate seekers. The millions who are encumbered by Kriya to all seekers, even though at first they family ties and heavy worldly duties will take cannot vow themselves to complete inner new heart from you, a householder like renunciation. The tortured men and women of themselves. You must guide them to see that the world, pursued by the threefold the highest yogic attainments are not barred to suffering,* need special encouragement. They the family man. Even in the world, the yogi may never attempt the road to freedom if who faithfully discharges his responsibilities, Kriya initiation be withheld from them.’ without personal motive or attachment, treads “‘Be it so. The divine wish has been the sure path of enlightenment. expressed through you.’ With these simple “‘No necessity compels you to leave the words, the merciful guru banished the world, for inwardly you have already rigorous safeguards that for ages had hidden sundered its every karmic tie. Not of this world, you must yet be in it. Many years still remain during which you must *Physical, mental, and spiritual suffering; manifested, conscientiously fulfill your family, business, respectively, in disease, in psychological inadequacies or “complexes,” and in soul-ignorance.

220 Kriya from the world. ‘Give Kriya freely to “‘Oh, in these days India is destitute of all who humbly ask for help.’ saints!’ “After a silence, Babaji added, ‘Repeat to “‘Babu,’ I protested warmly, ‘of course each of your disciples this majestic promise there are still great masters in this land!’ from the Bhagavad Gita: “Swalpamasya “In a mood of exalted fervor, I felt dharmasya, trayata mahato bhoyat”—“Even impelled to relate my miraculous experiences a little bit of the practice of this religion will in the Himalayas. The little company was save you from dire fears and colossal politely incredulous. sufferings.”’* “‘Lahiri,’ one man said soothingly, ‘your “As I knelt the next morning at my guru’s mind has been under a strain in those rarefied feet for his farewell blessing, he sensed my mountain airs. This is some daydream you deep reluctance to leave him. have recounted.’ “‘There is no separation for us, my “Burning with the enthusiasm of truth, I beloved child.’ He touched my shoulder spoke without due thought. ‘If I call him, my affectionately. ‘Wherever you are, whenever guru will appear right in this house.’ you call me, I shall be with you instantly.’ “Interest gleamed in every eye; it was no “Consoled by his wondrous promise, and wonder that the group was eager to behold a rich with the newly found gold of God- saint materialized in such a strange way. Half- wisdom, I wended my way down the reluctantly, I asked for a quiet room and two mountain. At the office I was welcomed by new woolen blankets. my fellow employees, who for ten days had thought me lost in the Himalayan jungles. A “‘The master will materialize from the letter soon arrived from the head office. ether,’ I said. ‘Remain silently outside the door; I shall soon call you.’ “‘Lahiri should return to the Danapur office,’ it read. ‘His transfer to Ranikhet “I sank into the meditative state, humbly occurred by error. Another man should have summoning my guru. The darkened room been sent to assume the Ranikhet duties.’ soon filled with a dim aural moonlight; the luminous figure of Babaji emerged. “I smiled, reflecting on the hidden crosscurrents in the events which had led me “‘Lahiri, do you call me for a trifle?’ The to this furthermost spot of India. master’s gaze was stern. ‘Truth is for earnest seekers, not for those of idle curiosity. It is “Before returning to Danapur,† I spent a easy to believe when one sees; there is few days with a Bengali family at Moradabad. nothing then to deny. Supersensual truth is A party of six friends gathered to greet me. deserved and discovered by those who As I turned the conversation to spiritual overcome their natural materialistic subjects, my host observed gloomily: skepticism.’ He added gravely, ‘Let me go!’

“I fell entreatingly at his feet. ‘Holy guru, *Chapter II:40. I realize my serious error; I humbly ask †A town near Benares.

221 pardon. It was to create faith in these After we had eaten, Babaji blessed each of us spiritually blinded minds that I ventured to in turn. There was a sudden flash; we call you. Because you have graciously witnessed the instantaneous appeared at my prayer, please do not depart dechemicalization of the electronic elements without bestowing a blessing on my friends. of Babaji’s body into a spreading vaporous Unbelievers though they be, at least they were light. The God-tuned will power of the master willing to investigate the truth of my strange had loosened its grasp of the ether atoms held assertions.’ together as his body; forthwith the trillions of “‘Very well; I will stay awhile. I do not tiny lifetronic sparks faded into the infinite wish your word discredited before your reservoir. friends.’ Babaji’s face had softened, but he “‘With my own eyes I have seen the added gently, ‘Henceforth, my son, I shall conqueror of death.’ Maitra,‡ one of the come when you need me, and not always group, spoke reverently. His face was when you call me.’* transfigured with the joy of his recent “Tense silence reigned in the little group awakening. ‘The supreme guru played with when I opened the door. As if mistrusting time and space, as a child plays with bubbles. their senses, my friends stared at the lustrous I have beheld one with the keys of heaven and figure on the blanket seat. earth.’ “‘This is mass-hypnotism!’ One man “I soon returned to Danapur. Firmly laughed blatantly. ‘No one could possibly anchored in the Spirit, again I assumed the have entered this room without our manifold business and family obligations of a knowledge!’ householder.” “Babaji advanced smilingly and Lahiri Mahasaya also related to Swami motioned to each one to touch the warm, solid Kebalananda and Sri Yukteswar the story of flesh of his body. Doubts dispelled, my another meeting with Babaji, under friends prostrated themselves on the floor in circumstances which recalled the guru’s awed repentance. promise: “I shall come whenever you need me.” “‘Let halua† be prepared.’ Babaji made this request, I knew, to further assure the “The scene was a Kumbha Mela at group of his physical reality. While the ,” Lahiri Mahasaya told his porridge was boiling, the divine guru chatted disciples. “I had gone there during a short affably. Great was the metamorphosis of these vacation from my office duties. As I doubting Thomases into devout St. Pauls.

*In the path to the Infinite, even illumined masters like ‡The man, Maitra, to whom Lahiri Mahasaya is here Lahiri Mahasaya may suffer from an excess of zeal, referring, afterward became highly advanced in self- and be subject to discipline. In the Bhagavad Gita, we realization. I met Maitra shortly after my graduation read many passages where the divine guru Krishna from high school; he visited the Mahamandal gives chastisement to the prince of devotees, Arjuna. hermitage in Benares while I was a resident. He told †A porridge made of cream of wheat fried in butter, me then of Babaji’s materialization before the group in and boiled with milk. Moradabad. “As a result of the miracle,” Maitra

222 wandered amidst the throng of monks and sadhus who had come from great distances to attend the holy festival, I noticed an ash- smeared ascetic who was holding a begging bowl. The thought arose in my mind that the man was hypocritical, wearing the outward symbols of renunciation without a corresponding inward grace. “No sooner had I passed the ascetic than my astounded eye fell on Babaji. He was kneeling in front of a matted-haired anchorite. “‘Guruji!’ I hastened to his side. ‘Sir, what are you doing here?’ “‘I am washing the feet of this renunciate, and then I shall clean his cooking utensils.’ Babaji smiled at me like a little child; I knew he was intimating that he wanted me to criticize no one, but to see the Lord as residing equally in all body-temples, whether of superior or inferior men. The great guru added, ‘By serving wise and ignorant sadhus, I am learning the greatest of virtues, pleasing to God above all others—humility.’”

explained to me, “I became a lifelong disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya.”

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CHAPTER: 35 The Christlike Life of Lahiri Mahasaya “Thus it becometh us to fulfill all Lord,” was born slightly earlier to serve as a righteousness.”* In these words to John the herald for Christ. An angel appeared to Baptist, and in asking John to baptize him, Zacharias the father to testify that his coming Jesus was acknowledging the divine rights of son John would be no other than Elijah his guru. (Elias). From a reverent study of the Bible from “But the angel said unto him, Fear not, an Oriental viewpoint,† and from intuitional Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy perception, I am convinced that John the wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou Baptist was, in past lives, the guru of Christ. shalt call his name John. . . . And many of the There are numerous passages in the Bible children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord which infer that John and Jesus in their last their God. And he shall go before him§ in the incarnations were, respectively, Elijah and his spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of disciple Elisha. (These are the spellings in the the fathers to the children, and the disobedient Old Testament. The Greek translators spelled to the wisdom of the just; to make read y a the names as Elias and Eliseus; they reappear people prepared for the Lord.”** in the New Testament in these changed Jesus twice unequivocally identified forms.) Elijah (Elias) as John: “Elias is come already, The very end of the Old Testament is a and they knew him not. . . . Then the disciples prediction of the reincarnation of Elijah and understood that he spake unto them of John Elisha: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the the Baptist.”†† Again, Christ says: “For all prophet before the coming of the great and the prophets and the law prophesied until dreadful day of the Lord.”‡ Thus John John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, (Elijah), sent “before the coming . . . of the which was for to come.”‡‡

When John denied that he was Elias *Matthew 3:15. (Elijah),§§ he meant that in the humble garb †Many Biblical passages reveal that the law of of John he came no longer in the outward reincarnation was understood and accepted. Reincarnational cycles are a more reasonable elevation of Elijah the great guru. In his explanation for the different states of evolution in former incarnation he had given the “mantle” which mankind is found, than the common Western theory which assumes that something (consciousness of his glory and his spiritual wealth to his of egoity) came out of nothing, existed with varying degrees of lustihood for thirty or ninety years, and then §“Before him,” i.e., “before the Lord.” returned to the original void. The inconceivable nature ** Luke 1:13-17. of such a void is a problem to delight the heart of a ††Matthew 17:12-13. medieval Schoolman. ‡‡Matthew 11:13-14. ‡Malachi 4:5. §§John 1:21. disciple Elisha. “And Elisha said, I pray thee, need me.” What mortal lover can bestow that let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. infinite promise? And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: Unknown to society in general, a great nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken spiritual renaissance began to flow from a from thee, it shall be so unto thee. . . . And he remote corner of Benares. Just as the took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him.”* fragrance of flowers cannot be suppressed, so The roles became reversed, because Lahiri Mahasaya, quietly living as an ideal Elijah-John was no longer needed to be the householder, could not hide his innate glory. ostensible guru of Elisha-Jesus, now perfected Slowly, from every part of India, the devotee- in divine realization. bees sought the divine nectar of the liberated When Christ was transfigured on the master. mountain† it was his guru Elias, with Moses, The English office superintendent was whom he saw. Again, in his hour of extremity one of the first to notice a strange on the cross, Jesus cried out the divine name: transcendental change in his employee, whom “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My he endearingly called “Ecstatic Babu.” God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? “Sir, you seem sad. What is the trouble?” Some of them that stood there, when they Lahiri Mahasaya made this sympathetic heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. inquiry one morning to his employer. . . . Let us see whether Elias will come to save him.”‡ “My wife in England is critically ill. I am torn by anxiety.” The eternal bond of guru and disciple that existed between John and Jesus was present “I shall get you some word about her.” also for Babaji and Lahiri Mahasaya. With Lahiri Mahasaya left the room and sat for a tender solicitude the deathless guru swam the short time in a secluded spot. On his return he Lethean waters that swirled between the last smiled consolingly. two lives of his chela, and guided the “Your wife is improving; she is now successive steps taken by the child and then writing you a letter.” The omniscient yogi by the man Lahiri Mahasaya. It was not until quoted some parts of the missive. the disciple had reached his thirty-third year “Ecstatic Babu, I already know that you that Babaji deemed the time to be ripe to are no ordinary man. Yet I am unable to openly reestablish the never-severed link. believe that, at will, you can banish time and Then, after their brief meeting near Ranikhet, space!” the selfless master banished his dearly- beloved disciple from the little mountain The promised letter finally arrived. The group, releasing him for an outward world astounded superintendent found that it mission. “My son, I shall come whenever you contained not only the good news of his wife’s recovery, but also the same phrases which, weeks earlier, Lahiri Mahasaya had *II Kings 2:9-14. †Matthew 17:3. repeated. ‡Matthew 27:46-49.

225 The wife came to India some months pay him similar honor, even though such later. She visited the office, where Lahiri obeisance toward the guru is an ancient Mahasaya was quietly sitting at his desk. The Oriental custom. woman approached him reverently. A significant feature of Lahiri “Sir,” she said, “it was your form, haloed Mahasaya’s life was his gift of Kriya in glorious light, that I beheld months ago by initiation to those of every faith. Not Hindus my sickbed in London. At that moment I was only, but Moslems and Christians were completely healed! Soon after, I was able to among his foremost disciples. Monists and undertake the long ocean voyage to India.” dualists, those of all or of no established Day after day, one or two devotees faith, were impartially received and instructed besought the sublime guru for Kriya by the universal guru. One of his highly initiation. In addition to these spiritual duties, advanced chelas was Abdul Gufoor Khan, a and to those of his business and family life, Mohammedan. It shows great courage on the the great master took an enthusiastic interest part of Lahiri Mahasaya that, although a high- in education. He organized many study caste Brahmin, he tried his utmost to dissolve groups, and played an active part in the the rigid caste bigotry of his time. Those from growth of a large high school in the every walk of life found shelter under the Bengalitola section of Benares. His regular master’s omnipresent wings. Like all God- discourses on the scriptures came to be called inspired prophets, Lahiri Mahasaya gave new his “Gita Assembly,” eagerly attended by hope to the outcastes and down-trodden of many truth-seekers. society. By these manifold activities, Lahiri “Always remember that you belong to no Mahasaya sought to answer the common one, and no one belongs to you. Reflect that challenge: “After performing one’s business some day you will suddenly have to leave and social duties, where is the time for everything in this world—so make the devotional meditation?” The harmoniously acquaintanceship of God now,” the great guru balanced life of the great householder-guru told his disciples. “Prepare yourself for the became the silent inspiration of thousands of coming astral journey of death by daily riding questioning hearts. Earning only a modest in the balloon of God-perception. Through salary, thrifty, unostentatious, accessible to delusion you are perceiving yourself as a all, the master carried on naturally and bundle of flesh and bones, which at best is a happily in the path of worldly life. nest of troubles.* Meditate unceasingly, that you may quickly behold yourself as the Though ensconced in the seat of the Infinite Essence, free from every form of Supreme One, Lahiri Mahasaya showed misery. Cease being a prisoner of the body; reverence to all men, irrespective of their using the secret key of Kriya, learn to escape differing merits. When his devotees saluted into Spirit.” him, he bowed in turn to them. With a childlike humility, the master often touched the feet of others, but seldom allowed them to *“How many sorts of death are in our bodies! Nothing is therein but death.”—Martin Luther, in “Table-Talk.”

226 The great guru encouraged his various has the answer to every dilemma of life. students to adhere to the good traditional Though man’s ingenuity for getting himself discipline of their own faith. Stressing the all- into trouble appears to be endless, the Infinite inclusive nature of Kriya as a practical Succor is no less resourceful.” technique of liberation, Lahiri Mahasaya then The master’s omnipresence was gave his chelas liberty to express their lives in demonstrated one day before a group of conformance with environment and up disciples who were listening to his exposition bringing. of the Bhagavad Gita. As he was explaining “A Moslem should perform his namaj* the meaning of Kutastha Chaitanya or the worship four times daily,” the master pointed Christ Consciousness in all vibratory creation, out. “Four times daily a Hindu should sit in Lahiri Mahasaya suddenly gasped and cried meditation. A Christian should go down on out: his knees four times daily, praying to God and “I am drowning in the bodies of many then reading the Bible.” souls off the coast of Japan!” With wise discernment the guru guided The next morning the chelas read a his followers into the paths of Bhakti newspaper account of the death of many (devotion), Karma (action), Jnana (wisdom), people whose ship had foundered the or Raja (royal or complete) , according preceding day near Japan. to each man’s natural tendencies. The master, who was slow to give his permission to The distant disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya devotees wishing to enter the formal path of were often made aware of his enfolding monkhood, always cautioned them to first presence. “I am ever with those who practice reflect well on the austerities of the monastic Kriya,” he said consolingly to chelas who life. could not remain near him. “I will guide you to the Cosmic Home through your enlarging The great guru taught his disciples to perceptions.” avoid theoretical discussion of the scriptures. “He only is wise who devotes himself to Swami Satyananda was told by a devotee realizing, not reading only, the ancient that, unable to go to Benares, the man had revelations,” he said. “Solve all your nevertheless received precise Kriya initiation problems through meditation.† Exchange in a dream. Lahiri Mahasaya had appeared to unprofitable religious speculations for actual instruct the chela in answer to his prayers. God-contact. Clear your mind of dogmatic If a disciple neglected any of his worldly theological debris; let in the fresh, healing obligations, the master would gently correct waters of direct perception. Attune yourself to and discipline him. the active inner Guidance; the Divine Voice “Lahiri Mahasaya’s words were mild and healing, even when he was forced to speak *The chief prayer of the Mohammedans, usually repeated four or five times daily. openly of a chela’s faults,” Sri Yukteswar †“Seek truth in meditation, not in moldy books. Look once told me. He added ruefully, “No disciple in the sky to find the moon, not in the pond.”—Persian proverb. ever fled from our master’s barbs.” I could

227 not help laughing, but I truthfully assured Sri occasionally sought his interpretation on Yukteswar that, sharp or not, his every word involved scriptural points. Innocent alike of was music to my ears. sin and syntax, little Brinda won renown in Lahiri Mahasaya carefully graded Kriya the domain of learned pundits. into four progressive initiations.* He Besides the numerous Benares disciples bestowed the three higher techniques only of Lahiri Mahasaya, hundreds came to him after the devotee had manifested definite from distant parts of India. He himself spiritual progress. One day a certain chela, traveled to Bengal on several occasions, convinced that his worth was not being duly visiting at the homes of the fathers-in-law of evaluated, gave voice to his discontent. his two sons. Thus blessed by his presence, “Master,” he said, “surely I am ready Bengal became honeycombed with small now for the second initiation.” Kriya groups. Particularly in the districts of Krishnagar and Bishnupur, many silent At this moment the door opened to admit devotees to this day have kept the invisible a humble disciple, Brinda Bhagat. He was a current of spiritual meditation flowing. Benares postman. Among many saints who received Kriya “Brinda, sit by me here.” The great guru from Lahiri Mahasaya may be mentioned the smiled at him affectionately. “Tell me, are illustrious Swami Vhaskarananda Saraswati you ready for the second technique of Kriya?” of Benares, and the Deogarh ascetic of high The little postman folded his hands in stature, Balananda Brahmachari. For a time supplication. “Gurudeva,” he said in alarm, Lahiri Mahasaya served as private tutor to the “no more initiations, please! How can I son of Maharaja Iswari Narayan Sinha assimilate any higher teachings? I have come Bahadur of Benares. Recognizing the today to ask your blessings, because the first master’s spiritual attainment, the maharaja, as divine Kriya has filled me with such well as his son, sought Kriya initiation, as did intoxication that I cannot deliver my letters!” the Maharaja Jotindra Mohan Thakur. “Already Brinda swims in the sea of A number of Lahiri Mahasaya’s disciples Spirit.” At these words from Lahiri with influential worldly position were Mahasaya, his other disciple hung his head. desirous of expanding the Kriya circle by publicity. The guru refused his permission. “Master,” he said, “I see I have been a One chela, the royal physician to the Lord of poor workman, finding fault with my tools.” Benares, started an organized effort to spread The postman, who was an uneducated the master’s name as “Kashi Baba” (Exalted man, later developed his insight through One of Benares).† Again the guru forbade it. Kriya to such an extent that scholars

*As Kriya Yoga is capable of many subdivisions, Lahiri Mahasaya wisely sifted out four steps which he †Other titles bestowed on Lahiri Mahasaya by his discerned to be those which contained the essential disciples were Yogibar (greatest of yogis), Yogiraj marrow, and which were of the highest value in actual (king of yogis), and Munibar (greatest of saints), to practice. which I have added Yogavatar (incarnation of yoga).

228 “Let the fragrance of the Kriya flower be Yoga, and prepared for public benefit certain wafted naturally, without any display,” he yogic herbal† medicines. said. “Its seeds will take root in the soil of In accordance with ancient custom, the spiritually fertile hearts.” master gave to people in general a neem‡ oil Although the great master did not adopt for the cure of various diseases. When the the system of preaching through the modern guru requested a disciple to distil the oil, he medium of an organization, or through the could easily accomplish the task. If anyone printing press, he knew that the power of his else tried, he would encounter strange message would rise like a resistless flood, difficulties, finding that the medicinal oil had inundating by its own force the banks of almost evaporated after going through the human minds. The changed and purified lives required distilling processes. Evidently the of devotees were the simple guarantees of the master’s blessing was a necessary ingredient. deathless vitality of Kriya. Lahiri Mahasaya’s handwriting and signature, In 1886, twenty-five years after his in Bengali script, are shown above. The lines Ranikhet initiation, Lahiri Mahasaya was retired on a pension.* With his availability in the daytime, disciples sought him out in ever- †Vast herbal knowledge is found in ancient Sanskrit increasing numbers. The great guru now sat in treatises. Himalayan herbs were employed in a rejuvenation treatment which aroused the attention of silence most of the time, locked in the tranquil the world in 1938 when the method was used on Pundit lotus posture. He seldom left his little parlor, Madan Mohan Malaviya, 77-year-old Vice-Chancellor even for a walk or to visit other parts of the of Benares Hindu University. To a remarkable extent, the noted scholar regained in 45 days his health, house. A quiet stream of chelas arrived, strength, memory, normal eyesight; indications of a almost ceaselessly, for a darshan (holy sight) third set of teeth appeared, while all wrinkles vanished. The herbal treatment, known as Kaya Kalpa, is one of of the guru. 80 rejuvenation methods outlined in Hindu To the awe of all beholders, Lahiri or medical science. Pundit Malaviya underwent the treatment at the hands of Sri Kalpacharya Swami Mahasaya’s habitual physiological state Beshundasji, who claims 1766 as his birth year. He exhibited the superhuman features of possesses documents proving him to be more than 100 years old; Associated Press reporters remarked that he breathlessness, sleeplessness, cessation of looked about 40. pulse and heartbeat, calm eyes unblinking for Ancient Hindu treatises divided medical science hours, and a profound aura of peace. No into 8 branches: salya (surgery); salakya (diseases above the neck); kayachikitsa (medicine proper); visitors departed without upliftment of spirit; bhutavidya (mental diseases); kaumara (care of all knew they had received the silent blessing infancy); agada (toxicology); rasayana (longevity); vagikarana (tonics). Vedic physicians used delicate of a true man of God. surgical instruments, employed plastic surgery, The master now permitted his disciple, understood medical methods to counteract the effects of poison gas, performed Caesarean sections and brain Panchanon Bhattacharya, to open an “Arya operations, were skilled in dynamization of drugs. Mission Institution” in Calcutta. Here the Hippocrates, famous physician of the 5th century B.C., borrowed much of his materia medica from Hindu saintly disciple spread the message of Kriya sources. ‡The East Indian margosa tree. Its medicinal values *He had given, altogether, thirty-five years of service have now become recognized in the West, where the in one department of the government. bitter neem bark is used as a tonic, and the oil from

229 occur in a letter to a chela; the great master commentaries of Lahiri Mahasaya which interprets a Sanskrit verse as follows: “He brought to light, clear of allegories, the very who has attained a state of calmness wherein science of religion that had been so cleverly his eyelids do not blink, has achieved put out of sight in the riddle of scriptural Sambhabi .” letters and imagery. No longer a mere (signed) “Sri Shyama Charan Deva unintelligible jugglery of words, the otherwise Sharman” unmeaning formulas of Vedic worship have been proved by the master to be full of The Arya Mission Institution undertook scientific significance. . . . the publication of many of the guru’s scriptural commentaries. Like Jesus and other “We know that man is usually helpless great prophets, Lahiri Mahasaya himself against the insurgent sway of evil passions, wrote no books, but his penetrating but these are rendered powerless and man interpretations were recorded and arranged by finds no motive in their indulgence when various disciples. Some of these voluntary there dawns on him a consciousness of amanuenses were more discerning than others superior and lasting bliss through Kriya. Here in correctly conveying the profound insight of the give-up, the negation of the lower the guru; yet, on the whole, their efforts were passions, synchronizes with a take-up, the successful. Through their zeal, the world assertion of a beatitude. Without such a possesses unparalleled commentaries by course, hundreds of moral maxims which run Lahiri Mahasaya on twenty-six ancient in mere negatives are useless to us. scriptures. “Our eagerness for worldly activity kills Sri Ananda Mohan Lahiri, a grandson of in us the sense of spiritual awe. We cannot the master, has written an interesting booklet comprehend the Great Life behind all names on Kriya. “The text of the Bhagavad Gita is a and forms, just because science brings home part of the great epic, the Mahabharata, to us how we can use the powers of nature; which possesses several knot-points (vyas- this familiarity has bred a contempt for her kutas),” Sri Ananda wrote. “Keep those knot- ultimate secrets. Our relation with nature is points unquestioned, and we find nothing but mythical stories of a peculiar and easily- and warrant the inference that even at that time some of misunderstood type. Keep those knot-points the rudiments of Yoga were already known. We may not unreasonably draw the conclusion that systematic unexplained, and we have lost a science introspection with the aid of studied methods has been which the East has preserved with practiced in India for five thousand years. . . . India has developed certain valuable religious attitudes of mind superhuman patience after a quest of and ethical notions which are unique, at least in the thousands of years of experiment.* It was the wideness of their application to life. One of these has been a tolerance in questions of intellectual belief— doctrine—that is amazing to the West, where for many seeds and fruit has been found of utmost worth in the centuries heresy-hunting was common, and bloody treatment of leprosy and other diseases. wars between nations over sectarian rivalries were *“A number of seals recently excavated from frequent.”—Extracts from an article by Professor W. archaeological sites of the Indus valley, datable in the Norman Brown in the May, 1939 issue of the Bulletin third millennium B.C., show figures seated in of the American Council of Learned Societies, meditative postures now used in the system of Yoga, Washington, D.C.

230 one of practical business. We tease her, so to books on mathematics, the logically-minded speak, to know how she can be used to serve will always rediscover such truths; destroy all our purposes; we make use of her energies, the sacred books on yoga, its fundamental whose Source yet remains unknown. In laws will come out whenever there appears a science our relation with nature is one that true yogi who comprises within himself pure exists between a man and his servant, or in a devotion and consequently pure knowledge.” philosophical sense she is like a captive in the Just as Babaji is among the greatest of witness box. We cross-examine her, challenge avatars, a Mahavatar, and Sri Yukteswar a her, and minutely weigh her evidence in Jnanavatar or Incarnation of Wisdom, so human scales which cannot measure her Lahiri Mahasaya may justly be called hidden values. On the other hand, when the Yogavatar, or Incarnation of Yoga. By the self is in communion with a higher power, standards of both qualitative and quantitative nature automatically obeys, without stress or good, he elevated the spiritual level of strain, the will of man. This effortless society. In his power to raise his close command over nature is called ‘miraculous’ disciples to Christlike stature and in his wide by the uncomprehending materialist. dissemination of truth among the masses, “The life of Lahiri Mahasaya set an Lahiri Mahasaya ranks among the saviors of example which changed the erroneous notion mankind. that yoga is a mysterious practice. Every man His uniqueness as a prophet lies in his may find a way through Kriya to understand practical stress on a definite method, Kriya, his proper relation with nature, and to feel opening for the first time the doors of y o g a spiritual reverence for all phenomena, freedom to all men. Apart from the miracles whether mystical or of everyday occurrence, of his own life, surely the Yogavatar reached in spite of the matter-of-factness of physical the zenith of all wonders in reducing the science.* We must bear in mind that what was ancient complexities of yoga to an effective mystical a thousand years ago is no longer so, simplicity not beyond the ordinary grasp. and what is mysterious now may become lawfully intelligible a hundred years hence. It In reference to miracles, Lahiri Mahasaya is the Infinite, the Ocean of Power, that is at often said, “The operation of subtle laws the back of all manifestations. which are unknown to people in general should not be publicly discussed or published “The law of Kriya Yoga is eternal. It is without due discrimination.” If in these pages true like mathematics; like the simple rules of I have appeared to flout his cautionary words, addition and subtraction, the law of Kriya can it is because he has given me an inward never be destroyed. Burn to ashes all the reassurance. Also, in recording the lives of Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Sri Yukteswar, *One thinks here of Carlyle’s observation in Sartor Resartus: “The man who cannot wonder, who does not I have thought it advisable to omit many true habitually wonder (and worship), were he president of miraculous stories, which could hardly have innumerable Royal Societies and carried . . . the been included without writing, also, an epitome of all laboratories and observatories, with their results, in his single head,—is but a pair of spectacles explanatory volume of abstruse philosophy. behind which there is no eye.”

231 New hope for new men! “Divine union,” Through use of the Kriya key, persons the Yogavatar proclaimed, “is possible who cannot bring themselves to believe in the through self-effort, and is not dependent on divinity of any man will behold at last the full theological beliefs or on the arbitrary will of a divinity of their own selves. Cosmic Dictator.”

232 CHAPTER: 36 Babaji’s Interest in the West “Master, did you ever meet Babaji?” “‘Oh, this fair is nothing but a chaos of It was a calm summer night in noise and beggars,’ I thought in Serampore; the large stars of the tropics disillusionment. ‘I wonder if Western gleamed over our heads as I sat by Sri scientists, patiently enlarging the realms of Yukteswar’s side on the second-story balcony knowledge for the practical good of mankind, of the hermitage. are not more pleasing to God than these idlers who profess religion but concentrate on alms.’ “Yes.” Master smiled at my direct question; his eyes lit with reverence. “Three “My smouldering reflections on social times I have been blessed by the sight of the reform were interrupted by the voice of a tall deathless guru. Our first meeting was in sannyasi who halted before me. Allahabad at a Kumbha Mela.” “‘Sir,’ he said, ‘a saint is calling you.’ The religious fairs held in India since “‘Who is he?’ time immemorial are known as Kumbha “‘Come and see for yourself.’ Melas; they have kept spiritual goals in constant sight of the multitude. Devout “Hesitantly following this laconic advice, Hindus gather by the millions every six years I soon found myself near a tree whose to meet thousands of sadhus, yogis, swamis, branches were sheltering a guru with an and ascetics of all kinds. Many are hermits attractive group of disciples. The master, a who never leave their secluded haunts except bright unusual figure, with sparkling dark to attend the melas and bestow their blessings eyes, rose at my approach and embraced me. on worldly men and women. “‘Welcome, Swamiji,’ he said “I was not a swami at the time I met affectionately. Babaji,” Sri Yukteswar went on. “But I had “‘Sir,’ I replied emphatically, ‘I am not a already received Kriya initiation from Lahiri swami.’ Mahasaya. He encouraged me to attend the “‘Those on whom I am divinely directed mela which was convening in January, 1894 to bestow the title of “swami” never cast it at Allahabad. It was my first experience of a off.’ The saint addressed me simply, but deep kumbha; I felt slightly dazed by the clamor conviction of truth rang in his words; I was and surge of the crowd. In my searching gazes engulfed in an instant wave of spiritual around I saw no illumined face of a master. blessing. Smiling at my sudden elevation into Passing a bridge on the bank of the Ganges, I noticed an acquaintance standing near-by, his begging bowl extended.

233 the ancient monastic order,* I bowed at the “‘Sir,’ I commented, ‘I have been feet of the obviously great and angelic being thinking of the scientific men of the West, in human form who had thus honored me. greater by far in intelligence than most people “Babaji—for it was indeed he—motioned congregated here, living in distant Europe and me to a seat near him under the tree. He was America, professing different creeds, and strong and young, and looked like Lahiri ignorant of the real values of such melas as Mahasaya; yet the resemblance did not strike the present one. They are the men who could me, even though I had often heard of the benefit greatly by meetings with India’s extraordinary similarities in the appearance of masters. But, although high in intellectual the two masters. Babaji possesses a power by attainments, many Westerners are wedded to which he can prevent any specific thought rank materialism. Others, famous in science from arising in a person’s mind. Evidently the and philosophy, do not recognize the essential great guru wished me to be perfectly natural unity in religion. Their creeds serve as in his presence, not overawed by knowledge insurmountable barriers that threaten to of his identity. separate them from us forever.’ “‘What do you think of the Kumbha “‘I saw that you are interested in the Mela?’ West, as well as the East.’ Babaji’s face beamed with approval. ‘I felt the pangs of “‘I was greatly disappointed, sir.’ I added your heart, broad enough for all men, whether hastily, ‘Up until the time I met you. Oriental or Occidental. That is why I Somehow saints and this commotion don’t summoned you here. seem to belong together.’ “‘East and West must establish a golden “‘Child,’ the master said, though middle path of activity and spirituality apparently I was nearly twice his own age, combined,’ he continued. ‘India has much to ‘for the faults of the many, judge not the learn from the West in material development; whole. Everything on earth is of mixed in return, India can teach the universal character, like a mingling of sand and sugar. methods by which the West will be able to Be like the wise ant which seizes only the base its religious beliefs on the unshakable sugar, and leaves the sand untouched. Though foundations of yogic science. many sadhus here still wander in delusion, yet the mela is blessed by a few men of God- “‘You, Swamiji, have a part to play in the realization.’ coming harmonious exchange between Orient and Occident. Some years hence I shall send “In view of my own meeting with this you a disciple whom you can train for yoga exalted master, I quickly agreed with his dissemination in the West. The vibrations observation. there of many spiritually seeking souls come floodlike to me. I perceive potential saints in America and Europe, waiting to be awakened.’” *Sri Yukteswar was later formally initiated into the Swami Order by the Mahant (monastery head) of Buddh Gaya.

234 At this point in his story, Sri Yukteswar “‘Do you know Lahiri?’† the master turned his gaze fully on mine. inquired. ‘He is a great soul, isn’t he? Tell “My son,” he said, smiling in the him of our meeting.’ He then gave me a moonlight, “you are the disciple that, years message for Lahiri Mahasaya. ago, Babaji promised to send me.” “After I had bowed humbly in farewell, I was happy to learn that Babaji had the saint smiled benignly. ‘When your book is directed my steps to Sri Yukteswar, yet it was finished, I shall pay you a visit,’ he promised. hard for me to visualize myself in the remote ‘Good-by for the present.’ West, away from my beloved guru and the “I left Allahabad the following day and simple hermitage peace. entrained for Benares. Reaching my guru’s “Babaji then spoke of the Bhagavad home, I poured out the story of the wonderful Gita,” Sri Yukteswar went on. “To m y saint at the Kumbha Mela. astonishment, he indicated by a few words of “‘Oh, didn’t you recognize him?’ Lahiri praise that he was aware of the fact that I had Mahasaya’s eyes were dancing with laughter. written interpretations on various Gita ‘I see you couldn’t, for he prevented you. He chapters. is my incomparable guru, the celestial “‘At my request, Swamiji, please Babaji!’ undertake another task,’ the great master said. “‘Babaji!’ I repeated, awestruck. ‘The ‘Will you not write a short book on the Yogi-Christ Babaji! The invisible-visible underlying basic unity between the Christian savior Babaji! Oh, if I could just recall the and Hindu scriptures? Show by parallel past and be once more in his presence, to references that the inspired sons of God have show my devotion at his lotus feet!’ spoken the same truths, now obscured by “‘Never mind,’ Lahiri Mahasaya said men’s sectarian differences.’ consolingly. ‘He has promised to see you “‘Maharaj,’* I answered diffidently, again.’ ‘what a command! Shall I be able to fulfill “‘Gurudeva, the divine master asked me it?’ to give you a message. “Tell Lahiri,” he said, “Babaji laughed softly. ‘My son, why do “that the stored-up power for this life now you doubt?’ he said reassuringly. ‘Indeed, runs low; it is nearly finished.”’ Whose work is all this, and Who is the Doer “At my utterance of these enigmatic of all actions? Whatever the Lord has made words, Lahiri Mahasaya’s figure trembled as me say is bound to materialize as truth.’ though touched by a lightning current. In an “I deemed myself empowered by the instant everything about him fell silent; his blessings of the saint, and agreed to write the smiling countenance turned incredibly stern. book. Feeling reluctantly that the parting-hour Like a wooden statue, somber and immovable had arrived, I rose from my leafy seat. †A guru usually refers to his own disciple simply by his name, omitting any title. Thus, Babaji said “Lahiri,” *“Great King”—a title of respect. not “Lahiri Mahasaya.”

235 in its seat, his body became colorless. I was “In the quiet of night I busied myself alarmed and bewildered. Never in my life had over a comparison of the Bible and the I seen this joyous soul manifest such awful scriptures of Sanatan Dharma.* Quoting the gravity. The other disciples present stared words of the blessed Lord Jesus, I showed apprehensively. that his teachings were in essence one with “Three hours passed in utter silence. the revelations of the Vedas. To my relief, my Then Lahiri Mahasaya resumed his natural, book was finished in a short time; I realized cheerful demeanor, and spoke affectionately that this speedy blessing was due to the grace to each of the chelas. Everyone sighed in of my Param-Guru-Maharaj.† The chapters relief. first appeared in the Sadhusambad journal; later they were privately printed as a book by “I realized by my master’s reaction that one of my Kidderpore disciples. Babaji’s message had been an unmistakable signal by which Lahiri Mahasaya understood “The morning after I had concluded my that his body would soon be untenanted. His literary efforts,” Master continued, “I went to awesome silence proved that my guru had the Rai Ghat here to bathe in the Ganges. The instantly controlled his being, cut his last cord ghat was deserted; I stood still for awhile, of attachment to the material world, and fled enjoying the sunny peace. After a dip in the to his ever-living identity in Spirit. Babaji’s sparkling waters, I started for home. The only remark had been his way of saying: ‘I shall be sound in the silence was that of my Ganges- ever with you.’ drenched cloth, swish-swashing with every step. As I passed beyond the site of the large “Though Babaji and Lahiri Mahasaya were omniscient, and had no need of *Literally, “eternal religion,” the name given to the communicating with each other through me or body of Vedic teachings. Sanatan Dharma has come to any other intermediary, the great ones often be called since the time of the Greeks who condescend to play a part in the human designated the people on the banks of the river Indus as Indoos, or Hindus. T h e w o r d Hindu, properly speaking, drama. Occasionally they transmit their refers only to followers of Sanatan Dharma or prophecies through messengers in an ordinary Hinduism. The term Indian applies equally to Hindus and Mohammedans and other inhabitants of the soil of way, that the final fulfillment of their words India (and also through the confusing geographical may infuse greater divine faith in a wide error of Columbus, to the American Mongoloid circle of men who later learn the story. aboriginals). The ancient name for India is Aryavarta, literally, “I soon left Benares, and set to work in “abode of the .” The Sanskrit root of arya is “worthy, holy, noble.” The later ethnological misuse of Serampore on the scriptural writings to signify not spiritual, but physical, requested by Babaji,” Sri Yukteswar characteristics, led the great Orientalist, Max Muller, to continued. “No sooner had I begun my task say quaintly: “To me an ethnologist who speaks of an Aryan race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as than I was able to compose a poem dedicated great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a to the deathless guru. The melodious lines dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar.” flowed effortlessly from my pen, though †Param-Guru is literally “guru supreme” or “guru never before had I attempted Sanskrit poetry. beyond,” signifying a line or succession of teachers. Babaji, the guru of Lahiri Mahasaya, was the param- guru of Sri Yukteswar.

236 banyan tree near the river bank, a strong “‘Why, no,’ I answered in surprise. impulse urged me to look back. There, under “‘Come here.’ Lahiri Mahasaya touched the shade of the banyan, and surrounded by a me gently on the forehead; at once I beheld, few disciples, sat the great Babaji! near the door, the form of Babaji, blooming “‘Greetings, Swamiji!’ The beautiful like a perfect lotus. voice of the master rang out to assure me I “I remembered my old hurt, and did not was not dreaming. ‘I see you have bow. Lahiri Mahasaya looked at me in successfully completed your book. As I astonishment. promised, I am here to thank you.’ “The divine guru gazed at me with “With a fast-beating heart, I prostrated fathomless eyes. ‘You are annoyed with me.’ myself fully at his feet. ‘Param-guruji,’ I said imploringly, ‘will you and your chelas not “‘Sir, why shouldn’t I be?’ I answered. honor my near-by home with your presence?’ ‘Out of the air you came with your magic group, and into the thin air you vanished.’ “The supreme guru smilingly declined. ‘No, child,’ he said, ‘we are people who like “‘I told you I would see you, but didn’t the shelter of trees; this spot is quite say how long I would remain.’ Babaji laughed comfortable.’ softly. ‘You were full of excitement. I assure you that I was fairly extinguished in the ether “‘Please tarry awhile, Master.’ I gazed by the gust of your restlessness.’ entreatingly at him. ‘I shall be back at once with some special sweetmeats.’ “I was instantly satisfied by this unflattering explanation. I knelt at his feet; the “When I returned in a few minutes with a supreme guru patted me kindly on the dish of delicacies, lo! the lordly banyan no shoulder. longer sheltered the celestial troupe. I searched all around the ghat, but in my heart I “‘Child, you must meditate more,’ he knew the little band had already fled on said. ‘Your gaze is not yet faultless—you etheric wings. could not see me hiding behind the sunlight.’ With these words in the voice of a celestial “I was deeply hurt. ‘Even if we meet flute, Babaji disappeared into the hidden again, I would not care to talk to him,’ I radiance. assured myself. ‘He was unkind to leave me so suddenly.’ This was a wrath of love, of “That was one of my last visits to course, and nothing more. Benares to see my guru,” Sri Yukteswar concluded. “Even as Babaji had foretold at “A few months later I visited Lahiri the Kumbha Mela, the householder- Mahasaya in Benares. As I entered his little incarnation of Lahiri Mahasaya was drawing parlor, my guru smiled in greeting. to a close. During the summer of 1895 his “‘Welcome, Yukteswar,’ he said. ‘Did stalwart body developed a small boil on the you just meet Babaji at the threshold of my back. He protested against lancing; he was room?’ working out in his own flesh the evil karma of

237 some of his disciples. Finally a few chelas his lotus posture, and gloriously entered the became very insistent; the master replied final maha-samadhi.‡ cryptically: “Lahiri Mahasaya’s beautiful body, so “‘The body has to find a cause to go; I dear to the devotees, was cremated with will be agreeable to whatever you want to do.’ solemn householder rites at Manikarnika Ghat “A short time later the incomparable guru by the holy Ganges,” Keshabananda gave up his body in Benares. No longer need I continued. “The following day, at ten o’clock seek him out in his little parlor; I find every in the morning, while I was still in Benares, day of my life blessed by his omnipresent my room was suffused with a great light. Lo! guidance.” before me stood the flesh and blood form of Lahiri Mahasaya! It looked exactly like his Years later, from the lips of Swami old body, except that it appeared younger and Keshabananda,* an advanced disciple, I heard more radiant. My divine guru spoke to me. many wonderful details about the passing of Lahiri Mahasaya. “‘Keshabananda,’ he said, ‘it is I. From the disintegrated atoms of my cremated body, “A few days before my guru relinquished I have resurrected a remodeled form. My his body,” Keshabananda told me, “he householder work in the world is done; but I materialized himself before me as I sat in my do not leave the earth entirely. Henceforth I hermitage at Hardwar. shall spend some time with Babaji in the “‘Come at once to Benares.’ With these Himalayas, and with Babaji in the cosmos.’ words Lahiri Mahasaya vanished. “With a few words of blessing to me, the “I entrained immediately for Benares. At transcendent master vanished. Wondrous my guru’s home I found many disciples inspiration filled my heart; I was uplifted in assembled. For hours that day† the master Spirit even as were the disciples of Christ and expounded the Gita; then he addressed us Kabir§ when they had gazed on their living simply. gurus after physical death. “‘I am going home.’ ‡Facing the north, and thrice revolving the body, are “Sobs of anguish broke out like an parts of a Vedic rite used by masters who know irresistible torrent. beforehand when the final hour is about to strike for the physical body. The last meditation, during which “‘Be comforted; I shall rise again.’ After the master merges himself in the Cosmic AUM, is called the maha, or great, samadhi. this utterance Lahiri Mahasaya thrice turned §Kabir was a great sixteenth-century saint whose large his body around in a circle, faced the north in following included both Hindus and Mohammedans. At the time of his death, the disciples quarreled over the manner of conducting the funeral ceremonies. The exasperated master rose from his final sleep, and gave his instructions. “Half of my remains shall be buried by *My visit to Keshabananda’s ashram is described on the Moslem rites;” he said, “let the other half be pp. 405-408. cremated with a Hindu sacrament.” He then vanished. †September 26, 1895 is the date on which Lahiri When the disciples opened the coffin which had Mahasaya left his body. In a few more days he would contained his body, nothing was found but a dazzling have reached his sixty-eighth birthday. array of gold-colored champak flowers. Half of these

238 “When I returned to my isolated Hardwar could not leave immediately. As I was in the hermitage,” Keshabananda went on, “I carried midst of my travel preparations, about ten with me the sacred ashes of my guru. I know o’clock in the morning, I was suddenly he has escaped the spatio-temporal cage; the overwhelmed with joy to see the shining bird of omnipresence is freed. Yet it figure of my guru. comforted my heart to enshrine his sacred “‘Why hurry to Benares?’ Lahiri remains.” Mahasaya said, smiling. ‘You shall find me Another disciple who was blessed by the there no longer.’ sight of his resurrected guru was the saintly “As the import of his words dawned on Panchanon Bhattacharya, founder of the me, I sobbed broken-heartedly, believing that Calcutta Arya Mission Institution.* I was seeing him only in a vision. I visited Panchanon at his Calcutta home, “The master approached me and listened with delight to the story of his comfortingly. ‘Here, touch my flesh,’ he said. many years with the master. In conclusion, he ‘I am living, as always. Do not lament; am I told me of the most marvelous event in his not with you forever?’” life. From the lips of these three great “Here in Calcutta,” Panchanon said, “at disciples, a story of wondrous truth has ten o’clock of the morning which followed his emerged: At the morning hour of ten, on the cremation, Lahiri Mahasaya appeared before day after the body of Lahiri Mahasaya had me in living glory.” been consigned to the flames, the resurrected Swami Pranabananda, the “saint with two master, in a real but transfigured body, bodies,” also confided to me the details of his appeared before three disciples, each one in a own supernal experience. different city. “A few days before Lahiri Mahasaya left “So when this corruptible shall have put his body,” Pranabananda told me at the time on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put he visited my Ranchi school, “I received a on immortality, then shall be brought to pass letter from him, requesting me to come at the saying that is written, Death is swallowed once to Benares. I was delayed, however, and up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”† were obediently buried by the Moslems, who revere his shrine to this day. In his youth Kabir was approached by two disciples who wanted minute intellectual guidance along the mystic path. The master responded simply: “Path presupposes distance; If He be near, no path needest thou at all. Verily it maketh me smile To hear of a fish in water athirst!” *Panchanon established, in a seventeen-acre garden at has been set by disciples in the little parlor of his Deogarh in Bihar, a temple containing a stone statue of Benares home. Lahiri Mahasaya. Another statue of the great master †I Corinthians 15:54-55.

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CHAPTER: 37 I Go to America “America! Surely these people are newspaper.† I summoned the bewildered Americans!” This was my thought as a faculty and gave the school into its charge. panoramic vision of Western faces passed “I know you will keep Lahiri Mahasaya’s before my inward view. yoga ideals of education ever to the fore,” I Immersed in meditation, I was sitting said. “I shall write you frequently; God behind some dusty boxes in the storeroom of willing, someday I shall be back.” the Ranchi school. A private spot was Tears stood in my eyes as I cast a last difficult to find during those busy years with look at the little boys and the sunny acres of the youngsters! Ranchi. A definite epoch in my life had now The vision continued; a vast multitude,* closed, I knew; henceforth I would dwell in gazing at me intently, swept actorlike across far lands. I entrained for Calcutta a few hours the stage of consciousness. after my vision. The following day I received The storeroom door opened; as usual, one an invitation to serve as the delegate from of the young lads had discovered my hiding India to an International Congress of place. Religious Liberals in America. It was to convene that year in , under the “Come here, Bimal,” I cried gaily. “I auspices of the American Unitarian have news for you: the Lord is calling me to Association. America!” My head in a whirl, I sought out Sri “To America?” The boy echoed my Yukteswar in Serampore. words in a tone that implied I had said “to the moon.” “Guruji, I have just been invited to address a religious congress in America. Shall “Yes! I am going forth to discover I go?” America, like Columbus. He thought he had found India; surely there is a karmic link “All doors are open for you,” Master between those two lands!” replied simply. “It is now or never.” Bimal scampered away; soon the whole “But, sir,” I said in dismay, “what do I school was informed by the two-legged know about public speaking? Seldom have I given a lecture, and never in English.”

†Swami Premananda, now the leader of the Self- *Many of those faces I have since seen in the West, Realization Church of All in Washington, and instantly recognized. D.C., was one of the students at the Ranchi school at “English or no English, your words on just realization had come to him during the yoga shall be heard in the West.” preceding night that no ordinary desire for I laughed. “Well, dear guruji, I hardly foreign travel was motivating my voyage. think the Americans will learn Bengali! “Perhaps we shall not meet again in this Please bless me with a push over the hurdles life.” Father, who was sixty-seven at this of the English language.”* time, spoke sadly. When I broke the news of my plans to An intuitive conviction prompted me to Father, he was utterly taken aback. To him reply, “Surely the Lord will bring us together America seemed incredibly remote; he feared once more.” he might never see me again. As I went about my preparations to leave “How can you go?” he asked sternly. Master and my native land for the unknown “Who will finance you?” As he had shores of America, I experienced not a little affectionately borne the expenses of my trepidation. I had heard many stories about education and whole life, he doubtless hoped the materialistic Western atmosphere, one that his question would bring my project to an very different from the spiritual background embarrassing halt. of India, pervaded with the centuried aura of “The Lord will surely finance me.” As I saints. “An Oriental teacher who will dare the made this reply, I thought of the similar one I Western airs,” I thought, “must be hardy had given long ago to my brother Ananta in beyond the trials of any Himalayan cold!” Agra. Without very much guile, I added, One early morning I began to pray, with “Father, perhaps God will put it into your an adamant determination to continue, to even mind to help me.” die praying, until I heard the voice of God. I “No, never!” He glanced at me piteously. wanted His blessing and assurance that I would not lose myself in the fogs of modern I was astounded, therefore, when Father utilitarianism. My heart was set to go to handed me, the following day, a check made America, but even more strongly was it out for a large amount. resolved to hear the solace of divine “I give you this money,” he said, “not in permission. my capacity as a father, but as a faithful I prayed and prayed, muffling my sobs. disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya. Go then to that No answer came. My silent petition increased far Western land; spread there the creedless in excruciating crescendo until, at noon, I had teachings of Kriya Yoga.” reached a zenith; my brain could no longer I was immensely touched at the selfless withstand the pressure of my agonies. If I spirit in which Father had been able to cried once more with an increased depth of quickly put aside his personal desires. The my inner passion, I felt as though my brain would split. At that moment there came a knock outside the vestibule adjoining the the time I left there for America. (He was then Gurpar Road room in which I was sitting. Brahmachari Jotin.) *Sri Yukteswar and I ordinarily conversed in Bengali. Opening the door, I saw a young man in the

241 scanty garb of a renunciate. He came in, “Do not try to follow me,” he said. “You closed the door behind him and, refusing my will not be able to do so.” request to sit down, indicated with a gesture “Please, Babaji, don’t go away!” I cried that he wished to talk to me while standing. repeatedly. “Take me with you!” “He must be Babaji!” I thought, dazed, Looking back, he replied, “Not now. because the man before me had the features of Some other time.” a younger Lahiri Mahasaya. Overcome by emotion, I disregarded his He answered my thought. “Yes, I am warning. As I tried to pursue him, I Babaji.” He spoke melodiously in Hindi. “Our discovered that my feet were firmly rooted to Heavenly Father has heard your prayer. He the floor. From the door, Babaji gave me a commands me to tell you: Follow the behests last affectionate glance. He raised his hand by of your guru and go to America. Fear not; you way of benediction and walked away, my will be protected.” eyes fixed on him longingly. After a vibrant pause, Babaji addressed After a few minutes my feet were free. I me again. “You are the one I have chosen to sat down and went into a deep meditation, spread the message of Kriya Yoga in the unceasingly thanking God not only for West. Long ago I met your guru Yukteswar at answering my prayer but for blessing me by a a Kumbha Mela; I told him then I would send meeting with Babaji. My whole body seemed you to him for training.” sanctified through the touch of the ancient, I was speechless, choked with devotional ever-youthful master. Long had it been my awe at his presence, and deeply touched to burning desire to behold him. hear from his own lips that he had guided me Until now, I have never recounted to to Sri Yukteswar. I lay prostrate before the anyone this story of my meeting with Babaji. deathless guru. He graciously lifted me from Holding it as the most sacred of my human the floor. Telling me many things about my experiences, I have hidden it in my heart. But life, he then gave me some personal the thought occurred to me that readers of this instruction, and uttered a few secret autobiography may be more inclined to prophecies. believe in the reality of the secluded Babaji “Kriya Yoga, the scientific technique of and his world interests if I relate that I saw God-realization,” he finally said with him with my own eyes. I have helped an artist solemnity, “will ultimately spread in all lands, to draw a true picture of the great Yogi-Christ and aid in harmonizing the nations through of modern India; it appears in this book. man’s personal, transcendental perception of The eve of my departure for the United the Infinite Father.” States found me in Sri Yukteswar’s holy With a gaze of majestic power, the presence. master electrified me by a glimpse of his “Forget you were born a Hindu, and cosmic consciousness. In a short while he don’t be an American. Take the best of them started toward the door. both,” Master said in his calm way of

242 wisdom. “Be your true self, a child of God. English, I finally abandoned all preparations; Seek and incorporate into your being the best my thoughts, like a wild colt eyeing a saddle, qualities of all your brothers, scattered over refused any cooperation with the laws of the earth in various races.” English grammar. Fully trusting in Master’s Then he blessed me: “All those who past assurances, however, I appeared before come to you with faith, seeking God, will be my Thursday audience in the saloon of the helped. As you look at them, the spiritual steamer. No eloquence rose to my lips; current emanating from your eyes will enter speechlessly I stood before the assemblage. into their brains and change their material After an endurance contest lasting ten habits, making them more God-conscious.” minutes, the audience realized my predicament and began to laugh. He went on, “Your lot to attract sincere souls is very good. Everywhere you go, even The situation was not funny to me at the in a wilderness, you will find friends.” moment; indignantly I sent a silent prayer to Master. Both of his blessings have been amply demonstrated. I came alone to America, into a “You can! Speak!” His voice sounded wilderness without a single friend, but there I instantly within my consciousness. found thousands ready to receive the time- My thoughts fell at once into a friendly tested soul-teachings. relation with the English language. Forty-five I left India in August, 1920, on The City minutes later the audience was still attentive. of Sparta, the first passenger boat sailing for The talk won me a number of invitations to America after the close of World War I. I had lecture later before various groups in been able to book passage only after the America. removal, in ways fairly miraculous, of many I never could remember, afterward, a “red-tape” difficulties concerned with the word that I had spoken. By discreet inquiry I granting of my passport. learned from a number of passengers: “You During the two-months’ voyage a fellow gave an inspiring lecture in stirring and passenger found out that I was the Indian correct English.” At this delightful news I delegate to the Boston congress. humbly thanked my guru for his timely help, realizing anew that he was ever with me, “Swami Yogananda,” he said, with the setting at naught all barriers of time and first of many quaint pronunciations by which space. I was later to hear my name spoken by the Americans, “please favor the passengers with Once in awhile, during the remainder of a lecture next Thursday night. I think we the ocean trip, I experienced a few would all benefit by a talk on ‘The Battle of apprehensive twinges about the coming Life and How to Fight It.’” English-lecture ordeal at the Boston congress. Alas! I had to fight the battle of my own “ L o rd,” I prayed, “please let my life, I discovered on Wednesday. Desperately inspiration be Thyself, and not again the trying to organize my ideas into a lecture in laughter-bombs of the audience!”

243 The City of Sparta docked near Boston in With the help of large-hearted students, late September. On the sixth of October I b y the end of 1925 I had established an addressed the congress with my maiden American headquarters on the Mount speech in America. It was well received; I Washington Estates in Los Angeles. The sighed in relief. The magnanimous secretary building is the one I had seen years before in of the American Unitarian Association wrote my vision at Kashmir. I hastened to send Sri the following comment in a published Yukteswar pictures of these distant American account* of the congress proceedings: activities. He replied with a postcard in “Swami Yogananda, delegate from the Bengali, which I here translate: Brahmacharya Ashram of Ranchi, India, 11th August, 1926 brought the greetings of his Association to the Child of my heart, O Yogananda! Congress. In fluent English and a forcible delivery he gave an address of a philosophical Seeing the photos of your school and character on ‘The Science of Religion,’ which students, what joy comes in my life I cannot has been printed in pamphlet form for a wider express in words. I am melting in joy to see distribution. Religion, he maintained, is your yoga students of different cities. universal and it is one. We cannot possibly Beholding your methods in chant universalize particular customs and affirmations, healing vibrations, and divine convictions, but the common element in healing prayers, I cannot refrain from religion can be universalized, and we can ask thanking you from my heart. Seeing the gate, all alike to follow and obey it.” the winding hilly way upward, and the beautiful scenery spread out beneath the Due to Father’s generous check, I was Mount Washington Estates, I yearn to behold able to remain in America after the congress it all with my own eyes. was over. Four happy years were spent in humble circumstances in Boston. I gave Everything here is going on well. Through the public lectures, taught classes, and wrote a grace of God, may you ever be in bliss. book of poems, Songs of the Soul, with a SRI YUKTESWAR GIRI preface by Dr. Frederick B. Robinson, Years sped by. I lectured in every part of president of the College of the City of New my new land, and addressed hundreds of York.† clubs, colleges, churches, and groups of every Starting a transcontinental tour in the denomination. Tens of thousands of summer of 1924, I spoke before thousands in Americans received yoga initiation. To them the principal cities, ending my western trip all I dedicated a new book of prayer thoughts with a vacation in the beautiful Alaskan north. in 1929—Whispers From Eternity, with a preface by Amelita Galli-Curci.‡ I give here,

*New Pilgrimages of the Spirit (Boston: Beacon Press, ‡Mme. Galli-Curci and her husband, Homer Samuels, 1921). the pianist, have been Kriya Yoga students for twenty †Dr. and Mrs. Robinson visited India in 1939, and years. The inspiring story of the famous prima donna’s were honored guests at the Ranchi school. years of music has been recently published (Galli-

244 from the book, a poem entitled “God! God! In waking, eating, working, dreaming, God!”, composed one night as I stood on a sleeping, lecture platform: Serving, meditating, chanting, divinely From the depths of slumber, loving, As I ascend the spiral stairway of My soul constantly hums, unheard by any: wakefulness, God! God! God! I whisper: Sometimes—usually on the first of the God! God! God! month when the bills rolled in for upkeep of Thou art the food, and when I break my fast the Mount Washington and other Self- Realization Fellowship centers!—I thought Of nightly separation from Thee, longingly of the simple peace of India. But I taste Thee, and mentally say: daily I saw a widening understanding between West and East; my soul rejoiced. God! God! God! I have found the great heart of America No matter where I go, the spotlight of my expressed in the wondrous lines by Emma mind Lazarus, carved at the base of the Statue of Ever keeps turning on Thee; Liberty, the “Mother of Exiles”: And in the battle din of activity From her beacon-hand My silent war cry is ever: God! God! God! Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes When boisterous storms of trials shriek, command And when worries howl at me, The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. I drown their clamor, loudly chanting: “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she God! God! God! With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your When my mind weaves dreams poor, With threads of memories, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe Then on that magic cloth will I emboss: free, God! God! God! The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Every night, in time of deepest sleep, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, My peace dreams and calls, Joy! Joy! Joy! I lift my lamp beside the golden door. And my joy comes singing evermore: God! God! God!

Curci’s Life of Song, by C. E. LeMassena, Paebar Co., New York, 1945).

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CHAPTER: 38 Luther Burbank—A Saint Amidst the Roses “The secret of improved plant breeding, apart “In only sixteen years,” he said, “this from scientific knowledge, is love.” Luther walnut tree reached a state of abundant nut Burbank uttered this wisdom as I walked production to which an unaided nature would beside him in his Santa Rosa garden. We have brought the tree in twice that time.” halted near a bed of edible cacti. Burbank’s little adopted daughter came “While I was conducting experiments to romping with her dog into the garden. make ‘spineless’ cacti,” he continued, “I often “She is my human plant.” Luther waved talked to the plants to create a vibration of to her affectionately. “I see humanity now as love. ‘You have nothing to fear,’ I would tell one vast plant, needing for its highest them. ‘You don’t need your defensive thorns. fulfillments only love, the natural blessings of I will protect you.’ Gradually the useful plant the great outdoors, and intelligent crossing of the desert emerged in a thornless variety.” and selection. In the span of my own lifetime I was charmed at this miracle. “Please, I have observed such wondrous progress in dear Luther, give me a few cacti leaves to plant evolution that I look forward plant in my garden at Mount Washington.” optimistically to a healthy, happy world as A workman standing near-by started to soon as its children are taught the principles strip off some leaves; Burbank prevented him. of simple and rational living. We must return to nature and nature’s God.” “I myself will pluck them for the swami.” He handed me three leaves, which later I “Luther, you would delight in my Ranchi planted, rejoicing as they grew to huge estate. school, with its outdoor classes, and atmosphere of joy and simplicity.” The great horticulturist told me that his first notable triumph was the large potato, My words touched the chord closest to now known by his name. With the Burbank’s heart—child education. He plied indefatigability of genius, he went on to me with questions, interest gleaming from his present the world with hundreds of crossed deep, serene eyes. improvements on nature—his new Burbank “Swamiji,” he said finally, “schools like varieties of tomato, corn, squash, cherries, yours are the only hope of a future plums, nectarines, berries, poppies, lilies, millennium. I am in revolt against the roses. educational systems of our time, severed from I focused my camera as Luther led me nature and stifling of all individuality. I am before the famous walnut tree by which he with you heart and soul in your practical had proved that natural evolution can be ideals of education.” telescopically hastened.

247 As I was taking leave of the gentle sage, a plant. But see how this whole plant’s he autographed a small volume and presented lifelong stubbornness is broken simply by it to me.* blending a new life with it, making, by “Here is my book on The Training of the crossing, a complete and powerful change in Human Plant,”† he said. “New types of its life. Then when the break comes, fix it by training are needed—fearless experiments. At these generations of patient supervision and times the most daring trials have succeeded in selection, and the new plant sets out upon its bringing out the best in fruits and flowers. new way never again to return to the old, its Educational innovations for children should tenacious will broken and changed at last. likewise become more numerous, more “When it comes to so sensitive and courageous.” pliable a thing as the nature of a child, the I read his little book that night with problem becomes vastly easier.” intense interest. His eye envisioning a Magnetically drawn to this great glorious future for the race, he wrote: “The American, I visited him again and again. One most stubborn living thing in this world, the morning I arrived at the same time as the most difficult to swerve, is a plant once fixed postman, who deposited in Burbank’s study in certain habits. . . . Remember that this plant about a thousand letters. Horticulturists wrote has preserved its individuality all through the him from all parts of the world. ages; perhaps it is one which can be traced “Swamiji, your presence is just the backward through eons of time in the very excuse I need to get out into the garden,” rocks themselves, never having varied to any Luther said gaily. He opened a large desk- great extent in all these vast periods. Do you drawer containing hundreds of travel folders. suppose, after all these ages of repetition, the plant does not become possessed of a will, if “See,” he said, “this is how I do my you so choose to call it, of unparalleled traveling. Tied down by my plants and tenacity? Indeed, there are plants, like certain correspondence, I satisfy my desire for of the palms, so persistent that no human foreign lands by a glance now and then at power has yet been able to change them. The these pictures.” human will is a weak thing beside the will of My car was standing before his gate; Luther and I drove along the streets of the little town, its gardens bright with his own *Burbank also gave me an autographed picture of himself. I treasure it even as a Hindu merchant once varieties of Santa Rosa, Peachblow, and treasured a picture of Lincoln. The Hindu, who was in Burbank roses. America during the Civil War years, conceived such an admiration for Lincoln that he was unwilling to return “My friend Henry Ford and I both to India until he had obtained a portrait of the Great believe in the ancient theory of Emancipator. Planting himself adamantly on Lincoln’s doorstep, the merchant refused to leave until the reincarnation,” Luther told me. “It sheds light astonished President permitted him to engage the on aspects of life otherwise inexplicable. services of Daniel Huntington, the famous New York artist. When the portrait was finished, the Hindu Memory is not a test of truth; just because carried it in triumph to Calcutta. man fails to remember his past lives does not †New York: Century Co., 1922.

248 prove he never had them. Memory is blank article he had written on “Science and concerning his womb-life and infancy, too; Civilization.” but he probably passed through them!” He “This will go in the first issue of East- chuckled. West,” I said gratefully. The great scientist had received Kriya As our friendship grew deeper, I called initiation during one of my earlier visits. “I Burbank my “American saint.” “Behold a practice the technique devoutly, Swamiji,” he man,” I quoted, “in whom there is no guile!” said. After many thoughtful questions to me His heart was fathomlessly deep, long about various aspects of yoga, Luther acquainted with humility, patience, sacrifice. remarked slowly: His little home amidst the roses was austerely “The East indeed possesses immense simple; he knew the worthlessness of luxury, hoards of knowledge which the West has the joy of few possessions. The modesty with scarcely begun to explore.” which he wore his scientific fame repeatedly Intimate communion with nature, who reminded me of the trees that bend low with unlocked to him many of her jealously the burden of ripening fruits; it is the barren guarded secrets, had given Burbank a tree that lifts its head high in an empty boast. boundless spiritual reverence. I was in New York when, in 1926, my “Sometimes I feel very close to the dear friend passed away. In tears I thought, Infinite Power,” he confided shyly. His “Oh, I would gladly walk all the way from sensitive, beautifully modeled face lit with his here to Santa Rosa for one more glimpse of memories. “Then I have been able to heal sick him!” Locking myself away from secretaries persons around me, as well as many ailing and visitors, I spent the next twenty-four plants.” hours in seclusion. He told me of his mother, a sincere The following day I conducted a Vedic Christian. “Many times after her death,” memorial rite around a large picture of Luther said, “I have been blessed by her Luther. A group of my American students, appearance in visions; she has spoken to me.” garbed in Hindu ceremonial clothes, chanted the ancient hymns as an offering was made of We drove back reluctantly toward his flowers, water, and fire—symbols of the home and those waiting thousand letters. bodily elements and their release in the “Luther,” I remarked, “next month I am Infinite Source. starting a magazine to present the truth- Though the form of Burbank lies in Santa offerings of East and West. Please help me Rosa under a Lebanon cedar that he planted decide on a good name for the journal.” years ago in his garden, his soul is enshrined We discussed titles for awhile, and for me in every wide-eyed flower that blooms finally agreed on East-West. After we had by the wayside. Withdrawn for a time into the reentered his study, Burbank gave me an spacious spirit of nature, is that not Luther whispering in her winds, walking her dawns?

249 His name has now passed into the “Beloved Burbank,” I cried after reading heritage of common speech. Listing the definition, “your very name is now a “burbank” as a transitive verb, Webster’s synonym for goodness!” New International Dictionary defines it: “To cross or graft (a plant). Hence, figuratively, to improve (anything, as a process or institution) by selecting good features and rejecting bad, or by adding good features.”

250 CHAPTER: 39 Therese Neumann, the Catholic Stigmatist “Return to india. I have waited for you “I shall be back,” I told my students. patiently for fifteen years. Soon I shall swim “Never shall I forget America.” out of the body and on to the Shining Abode. At a farewell banquet given to me in Los Yogananda, come!” Angeles by loving friends, I looked long at Sri Yukteswar’s voice sounded startlingly their faces and thought gratefully, “Lord, he in my inner ear as I sat in meditation at my who remembers Thee as the Sole Giver will Mt. Washington headquarters. Traversing ten never lack the sweetness of friendship among thousand miles in the twinkling of an eye, his mortals.” message penetrated my being like a flash of I sailed from New York on June 9, 1935* lightning. in the Europa. Two students accompanied Fifteen years! Yes, I realized, now it is me: my secretary, Mr. C. Richard Wright, and 1935; I have spent fifteen years in spreading an elderly lady from Cincinnati, Miss Ettie my guru’s teachings in America. Now he Bletch. We enjoyed the days of ocean peace, recalls me. a welcome contrast to the past hurried weeks. That afternoon I recounted my experience Our period of leisure was short-lived; the to a visiting disciple. His spiritual speed of modern boats has some regrettable development under Kriya Yoga was so features! remarkable that I often called him “saint,” Like any other group of inquisitive remembering Babaji’s prophecy that America tourists, we walked around the huge and too would produce men and women of divine ancient city of London. The following day I realization through the ancient yogic path. was invited to address a large meeting in This disciple and a number of others Caxton Hall, at which I was introduced to the generously insisted on making a donation for London audience by Sir Francis my travels. The financial problem thus Younghusband. Our party spent a pleasant solved, I made arrangements to sail, via day as guests of Sir Harry Lauder at his estate Europe, for India. Busy weeks of preparations in Scotland. We soon crossed the English at Mount Washington! In March, 1935 I had Channel to the continent, for I wanted to the Self-Realization Fellowship chartered make a special pilgrimage to Bavaria. This under the laws of the State of California as a would be my only chance, I felt, to visit the non-profit corporation. To this educational great Catholic mystic, Therese Neumann of institution go all public donations as well as Konnersreuth. the revenue from the sale of my books, magazine, written courses, class tuition, and *The remarkable inclusion here of a complete date is every other source of income. due to the fact that my secretary, Mr. Wright, kept a travel diary.

251 Years earlier I had read an amazing As always, whether in East or West, I account of Therese. Information given in the was eager to meet a saint. I rejoiced as our article was as follows: little party entered, on July 16th, the quaint (1) Therese, born in 1898, had been injured in village of Konnersreuth. The Bavarian an accident at the age of twenty; she became peasants exhibited lively interest in our Ford blind and paralyzed. automobile (brought with us from America) and its assorted group—an American young (2) She miraculously regained her sight in man, an elderly lady, and an olive-hued 1923 through prayers to St. Teresa, “The Oriental with long hair tucked under his coat Little Flower.” Later Therese Neumann’s collar. limbs were instantaneously healed. Therese’s little cottage, clean and neat, (3) From 1923 onward, Therese has abstained with geraniums blooming by a primitive well, completely from food and drink, except for was alas! silently closed. The neighbors, and the daily swallowing of one small consecrated even the village postman who passed by, wafer. could give us no information. Rain began to (4) The stigmata, or sacred wounds of Christ, fall; my companions suggested that we leave. appeared in 1926 on Therese’s head, breast, “No,” I said stubbornly, “I will stay here hands, and feet. On Friday of every week until I find some clue leading to Therese.” thereafter, she has passed through the Passion of Christ, suffering in her own body all his Two hours later we were still sitting in historic agonies. our car amidst the dismal rain. “Lord,” I sighed complainingly, “why didst Thou lead (5) Knowing ordinarily only the simple me here if she has disappeared?” German of her village, during her Friday trances Therese utters phrases which scholars An English-speaking man halted beside have identified as ancient Aramaic. At us, politely offering his aid. appropriate times in her vision, she speaks “I don’t know for certain where Therese Hebrew or Greek. is,” he said, “but she often visits at the home (6) By ecclesiastical permission, Therese has of Professor Wurz, a seminary master of several times been under close scientific Eichstatt, eighty miles from here.” observation. Dr. Fritz Gerlick, editor of a The following morning our party Protestant German newspaper, went to motored to the quiet village of Eichstatt, Konnersreuth to “expose the Catholic fraud,” narrowly lined with cobblestoned streets. Dr. but ended up by reverently writing her Wurz greeted us cordially at his home; “Yes, biography.* Therese is here.” He sent her word of the visitors. A messenger soon appeared with her reply.

*Other books on her life are Therese Neumann: A “Though the bishop has asked me to see Stigmatist of Our Day, and Further Chronicles of no one without his permission, I will receive Therese Neumann, both by Friedrich Ritter von Lama (Milwaukee: Bruce Pub. Co.). the man of God from India.”

252 Deeply touched at these words, I “Your sacred life is a daily demonstration followed Dr. Wurz upstairs to the sitting of the truth uttered by Christ: ‘Man shall not room. Therese entered immediately, radiating live by bread alone, but by every word that an aura of peace and joy. She wore a black proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’”* gown and spotless white head dress. Although Again she showed joy at my explanation. her age was thirty-seven at this time, she “It is indeed so. One of the reasons I am here seemed much younger, possessing indeed a on earth today is to prove that man can live by childlike freshness and charm. Healthy, well- God’s invisible light, and not by food only.” formed, rosy-cheeked, and cheerful, this is the saint that does not eat! “Can you teach others how to live without food?” Therese greeted me with a very gentle handshaking. We both beamed in silent She appeared a trifle shocked. “I cannot communion, each knowing the other to be a do that; God does not wish it.” lover of God. As my gaze fell on her strong, graceful Dr. Wurz kindly offered to serve as hands, Therese showed me a little, square, interpreter. As we seated ourselves, I noticed freshly healed wound on each of her palms. that Therese was glancing at me with naive On the back of each hand, she pointed out a curiosity; evidently Hindus had been rare in smaller, crescent-shaped wound, freshly Bavaria. healed. Each wound went straight through the hand. The sight brought to my mind distinct “Don’t you eat anything?” I wanted to recollection of the large square iron nails with hear the answer from her own lips. crescent-tipped ends, still used in the Orient, “No, except a consecrated rice-flour but which I do not recall having seen in the wafer, once every morning at six o’clock.” West. “How large is the wafer?”

“It is paper-thin, the size of a small coin.” *Matthew 4:4. Man’s body battery is not sustained by She added, “I take it for sacramental reasons; gross food (bread) alone, but by the vibratory cosmic energy (word, or AUM). The invisible power flows if it is unconsecrated, I am unable to swallow into the human body through the gate of the medulla it.” oblongata. This sixth bodily center is located at the back of the neck at the top of the five spinal “Certainly you could not have lived on (Sanskrit for “wheels” or centers of radiating force). that, for twelve whole years?” The medulla is the principal entrance for the body’s supply of universal life force (AUM), and is directly “I live by God’s light.” How simple her connected with man’s power of will, concentrated in the seventh or Christ Consciousness center (Kutastha) reply, how Einsteinian! in the third eye between the eyebrows. Cosmic energy is then stored up in the brain as a reservoir of infinite “I see you realize that energy flows to potentialities, poetically mentioned in the Vedas as the your body from the ether, sun, and air.” “thousand-petaled lotus of light.” The Bible invariably refers to AUM as the “Holy Ghost” or invisible life A swift smile broke over her face. “I am force which divinely upholds all creation. “What? so happy to know you understand how I live.” know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”—I Corinthians 6:19.

253 The saint told me something of her give you a permit. I am very happy you weekly trances. “As a helpless onlooker, I sought me out in Eichstatt.” observe the whole Passion of Christ.” Each Therese shook hands gently, many times, week, from Thursday midnight until Friday and walked with our party to the gate. Mr. afternoon at one o’clock, her wounds open Wright turned on the automobile radio; the and bleed; she loses ten pounds of her saint examined it with little enthusiastic ordinary 121-pound weight. Suffering chuckles. Such a large crowd of youngsters intensely in her sympathetic love, Therese yet gathered that Therese retreated into the house. looks forward joyously to these weekly We saw her at a window, where she peered at visions of her Lord. us, childlike, waving her hand. I realized at once that her strange life is From a conversation the next day with intended by God to reassure all Christians of two of Therese’s brothers, very kind and the historical authenticity of Jesus’ life and amiable, we learned that the saint sleeps only crucifixion as recorded in the New Testament, one or two hours at night. In spite of the many and to dramatically display the ever-living wounds in her body, she is active and full of bond between the Galilean Master and his energy. She loves birds, looks after an devotees. aquarium of fish, and works often in her Professor Wurz related some of his garden. Her correspondence is large; Catholic experiences with the saint. devotees write her for prayers and healing “Several of us, including Therese, often blessings. Many seekers have been cured travel for days on sight-seeing trips through her of serious diseases. throughout Germany,” he told me. “It is a Her brother Ferdinand, about twenty- striking contrast—while we have three meals three, explained that Therese has the power, a day, Therese eats nothing. She remains as through prayer, of working out on her own fresh as a rose, untouched by the fatigue body the ailments of others. The saint’s which the trips cause us. As we grow hungry abstinence from food dates from a time when and hunt for wayside inns, she laughs she prayed that the throat disease of a young merrily.” man of her parish, then preparing to enter The professor added some interesting holy orders, be transferred to her own throat. physiological details: “Because Therese takes On Thursday afternoon our party drove to no food, her stomach has shrunk. She has no the home of the bishop, who looked at my excretions, but her perspiration glands flowing locks with some surprise. He readily function; her skin is always soft and firm.” wrote out the necessary permit. There was no At the time of parting, I expressed to fee; the rule made by the Church is simply to Therese my desire to be present at her trance. protect Therese from the onrush of casual tourists, who in previous years had flocked on “Yes, please come to Konnersreuth next Fridays by the thousands. Friday,” she said graciously. “The bishop will We arrived Friday morning about nine- thirty in Konnersreuth. I noticed that

254 Therese’s little cottage possesses a special quivering lips to persons visible before her glass-roofed section to afford her plenty of inner sight. light. We were glad to see the doors no longer As I was in attunement with her, I began closed, but wide-open in hospitable cheer. to see the scenes of her vision. She was There was a line of about twenty visitors, watching Jesus as he carried the cross amidst armed with their permits. Many had come the jeering multitude.* Suddenly she lifted her from great distances to view the mystic head in consternation: the Lord had fallen trance. under the cruel weight. The vision Therese had passed my first test at the disappeared. In the exhaustion of fervid pity, professor’s house by her intuitive knowledge Therese sank heavily against her pillow. that I wanted to see her for spiritual reasons, At this moment I heard a loud thud and not just to satisfy a passing curiosity. behind me. Turning my head for a second, I My second test was connected with the saw two men carrying out a prostrate body. fact that, just before I went upstairs to her But because I was coming out of the deep room, I put myself into a yogic trance state in superconscious state, I did not immediately order to be one with her in telepathic and recognize the fallen person. Again I fixed my televisic rapport. I entered her chamber, filled eyes on Therese’s face, deathly pale under the with visitors; she was lying in a white robe on rivulets of blood, but now calm, radiating the bed. With Mr. Wright following closely purity and holiness. I glanced behind me later behind me, I halted just inside the threshold, and saw Mr. Wright standing with his hand awestruck at a strange and most frightful against his cheek, from which blood was spectacle. trickling. Blood flowed thinly and continuously in “Dick,” I inquired anxiously, “were you an inch-wide stream from Therese’s lower the one who fell?” eyelids. Her gaze was focused upward on the “Yes, I fainted at the terrifying spiritual eye within the central forehead. The spectacle.” cloth wrapped around her head was drenched in blood from the stigmata wounds of the “Well,” I said consolingly, “you are crown of thorns. The white garment was redly brave to return and look upon the sight splotched over her heart from the wound in again.” her side at the spot where Christ’s body, long Remembering the patiently waiting line ages ago, had suffered the final indignity of of pilgrims, Mr. Wright and I silently bade the soldier’s spear-thrust. Therese’s hands were extended in a gesture maternal, pleading; her face wore an expression both tortured and divine. She * During the hours preceding my arrival, Therese had already passed through many visions of the closing appeared thinner, changed in many subtle as days in Christ’s life. Her entrancement usually starts well as outward ways. Murmuring words in a with scenes of the events which followed the Last foreign tongue, she spoke with slightly Supper. Her visions end with Jesus’ death on the cross or, occasionally, with his entombment.

255 farewell to Therese and left her sacred the house of Martha and Mary, the hall of the presence.* Last Supper. Antiquity unfolded; scene by The following day our little group scene, I saw the divine drama that Christ once motored south, thankful that we were not played for the ages. dependent on trains, but could stop the Ford On to Egypt, with its modern Cairo and wherever we chose throughout the ancient pyramids. Then a boat down the countryside. We enjoyed every minute of a narrow Red Sea, over the vasty Arabian Sea; tour through Germany, Holland, France, and lo, India! the Swiss Alps. In Italy we made a special trip to Assisi to honor the apostle of humility, St. Francis. The European tour ended in Greece, where we viewed the Athenian temples, and saw the prison in which the gentle Socrates† had drunk his death potion. One is filled with admiration for the artistry with which the Greeks have everywhere wrought their very fancies in alabaster. We took ship over the sunny Mediterranean, disembarking at Palestine. Wandering day after day over the Holy Land, I was more than ever convinced of the value of pilgrimage. The spirit of Christ is all- pervasive in Palestine; I walked reverently by his side at Bethlehem, Gethsemane, Calvary, the holy Mount of Olives, and by the River Jordan and the Sea of Galilee. Our little party visited the Birth Manger, Joseph’s carpenter shop, the tomb of Lazarus,

*Therese has survived the Nazi persecution, and is still present in Konnersreuth, according to 1945 American news dispatches from Germany. †A passage in Eusebius relates an interesting encounter between Socrates and a Hindu sage. The passage runs: “Aristoxenus, the musician, tells the following story about the Indians. One of these men met Socrates at Athens, and asked him what was the scope of his philosophy. ‘An inquiry into human phenomena,’ replied Socrates. At this the Indian burst out laughing. ‘How can a man inquire into human phenomena,’ he said, ‘when he is ignorant of divine ones?’” The Aristoxenus mentioned was a pupil of Aristotle, and a noted writer on harmonics. His date is 330 B.C.

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CHAPTER: 40 I Return to India Gratefully I was inhaling the blessed air of India. Our boat Rajputana docked on August 22, 1935 in the huge harbor of Bombay. Even this, my first day off the ship, was a foretaste of the year ahead—twelve months of ceaseless activity. Friends had gathered at the dock with garlands and greetings; soon, at our suite in the Taj Mahal Hotel, there was a stream of reporters and photographers. Bombay was a city new to me; I found it energetically modern, with many innovations from the West. Palms line the spacious boulevards; magnificent state structures vie for interest with ancient temples. Very little time was given to sight-seeing, however; I was impatient, eager to see my beloved guru and other dear ones. Consigning the Ford to a baggage car, our party was soon speeding eastward by train toward Calcutta.* Our arrival at Howrah Station found such an immense crowd assembled to greet us that for awhile we were unable to dismount from the train. The young Maharaja of Kasimbazar and my brother Bishnu headed the reception committee; I was unprepared for the warmth and magnitude of our welcome. Preceded by a line of automobiles and motorcycles, and amidst the joyous sound of drums and conch shells, Miss Bletch, Mr. Wright, and myself, flower-garlanded from head to foot, drove slowly to my father’s home. My aged parent embraced me as one returning from the dead; long we gazed on each other, speechless with joy. Brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts, and cousins, students and friends of years long past were grouped around me, not a dry eye among us. Passed now into the archives of memory, the scene of loving reunion vividly endures, unforgettable in my heart. As for my meeting with Sri Yukteswar, words fail me; let the following description from my secretary suffice. “Today, filled with the highest anticipations, I drove Yoganandaji from Calcutta to Serampore,” Mr. Wright recorded in his travel diary. “We passed by quaint shops, one of them the favorite eating haunt of Yoganandaji during his college days, and finally entered a narrow, walled lane. A sudden left turn, and there before us towered the simple but inspiring two-story ashram, its Spanish-style balcony jutting from the upper floor. The pervasive impression was that of peaceful solitude.

*We broke our journey in Central Provinces, halfway across the continent, to see Mahatma Gandhi at Wardha. Those days are described in chapter 44. “In grave humility I walked behind Yoganandaji into the courtyard within the hermitage walls. Hearts beating fast, we proceeded up some old cement steps, trod, no doubt, by myriads of truth- seekers. The tension grew keener and keener as on we strode. Before us, near the head of the stairs, quietly appeared the Great One, Swami Sri Yukteswarji, standing in the noble pose of a sage. “My heart heaved and swelled as I felt myself blessed by the privilege of being in his sublime presence. Tears blurred my eager sight when Yoganandaji dropped to his knees, and with bowed head offered his soul’s gratitude and greeting, touching with his hand his guru’s feet and then, in humble obeisance, his own head. He rose then and was embraced on both sides of the bosom by Sri Yukteswarji. “No words passed at the beginning, but the most intense feeling was expressed in the mute phrases of the soul. How their eyes sparkled and were fired with the warmth of renewed soul- union! A tender vibration surged through the quiet patio, and even the sun eluded the clouds to add a sudden blaze of glory. “On bended knee before the master I gave my own unexpressed love and thanks, touching his feet, calloused by time and service, and receiving his blessing. I stood then and faced two beautiful deep eyes smouldering with introspection, yet radiant with joy. We entered his sitting room, whose whole side opened to the outer balcony first seen from the street. The master braced himself against a worn davenport, sitting on a covered mattress on the cement floor. Yoganandaji and I sat near the guru’s feet, with orange-colored pillows to lean against and ease our positions on the straw mat. “I tried and tried to penetrate the Bengali conversation between the two Swamijis—for English, I discovered, is null and void when they are together, although Swamiji Maharaj, as the great guru is called by others, can and often does speak it. But I perceived the saintliness of the Great One through his heart-warming smile and twinkling eyes. One quality easily discernible in his merry, serious conversation is a decided positiveness in statement—the mark of a wise man, who knows he knows, because he knows God. His great wisdom, strength of purpose, and determination are apparent in every way. “Studying him reverently from time to time, I noted that he is of large, athletic stature, hardened by the trials and sacrifices of renunciation. His poise is majestic. A decidedly sloping forehead, as if seeking the heavens, dominates his divine countenance. He has a rather large and homely nose, with which he amuses himself in idle moments, flipping and wiggling it with his fingers, like a child. His powerful dark eyes are haloed by an ethereal blue ring. His hair, parted in the middle, begins as silver and changes to streaks of silvery-gold and silvery-black, ending in ringlets at his shoulders. His beard and moustache are scant or thinned out, yet seem to enhance his features and, like his character, are deep and light at the same time.

258 “He has a jovial and rollicking laugh which comes from deep in his chest, causing him to shake and quiver throughout his body—very cheerful and sincere. His face and stature are striking in their power, as are his muscular fingers. He moves with a dignified tread and erect posture. “He was clad simply in the common dhoti and shirt, both once dyed a strong ocher color, but now a faded orange. “Glancing about, I observed that this rather dilapidated room suggested the owner’s non- attachment to material comforts. The weather-stained white walls of the long chamber were streaked with fading blue plaster. At one end of the room hung a picture of Lahiri Mahasaya, garlanded in simple devotion. There was also an old picture showing Yoganandaji as he had first arrived in Boston, standing with the other delegates to the Congress of Religions. “I noted a quaint concurrence of modernity and antiquation. A huge, cut-glass, candle-light chandelier was covered with cobwebs through disuse, and on the wall was a bright, up-to-date calendar. The whole room emanated a fragrance of peace and calmness. Beyond the balcony I could see coconut trees towering over the hermitage in silent protection. “It is interesting to observe that the master has merely to clap his hands together and, before finishing, he is served or attended by some small disciple. Incidentally, I am much attracted to one of them—a thin lad, named Prafulla,* with long black hair to his shoulders, a most penetrating pair of sparkling black eyes, and a heavenly smile; his eyes twinkle, as the corners of his mouth rise, like the stars and the crescent moon appearing at twilight. “Swami Sri Yukteswarji’s joy is obviously intense at the return of his ‘product’ (and he seems to be somewhat inquisitive about the ‘product’s product’). However, predominance of the wisdom- aspect in the Great One’s nature hinders his outward expression of feeling. “Yoganandaji presented him with some gifts, as is the custom when the disciple returns to his guru. We sat down later to a simple but well-cooked meal. All the dishes were vegetable and rice combinations. Sri Yukteswarji was pleased at my use of a number of Indian customs, ‘finger- eating’ for example. “After several hours of flying Bengali phrases and the exchange of warm smiles and joyful glances, we paid obeisance at his feet, bade adieu with a pronam,† and departed for Calcutta with an everlasting memory of a sacred meeting and greeting. Although I write chiefly of my external impressions of him, yet I was always conscious of the true basis of the saint—his spiritual glory. I felt his power, and shall carry that feeling as my divine blessing.” From America, Europe, and Palestine I had brought many presents for Sri Yukteswar. He received them smilingly, but without remark. For my own use, I had bought in Germany a combination umbrella-cane. In India I decided to give the cane to Master.

*Prafulla was the lad who had been present with Master when a cobra approached (see page 116). †Literally, “holy name,” a word of greeting among Hindus, accompanied by palm-folded hands lifted from the heart to the forehead in salutation. A pronam in India takes the place of the Western greeting by handshaking.

259 “This gift I appreciate indeed!” My guru’s eyes were turned on me with affectionate understanding as he made the unwonted comment. From all the presents, it was the cane that he singled out to display to visitors. “Master, please permit me to get a new carpet for the sitting room.” I had noticed that Sri Yukteswar’s tiger skin was placed over a torn rug. “Do so if it pleases you.” My guru’s voice was not enthusiastic. “Behold, my tiger mat is nice and clean; I am monarch in my own little kingdom. Beyond it is the vast world, interested only in externals.” As he uttered these words I felt the years roll back; once again I am a young disciple, purified in the daily fires of chastisement! As soon as I could tear myself away from Serampore and Calcutta, I set out, with Mr. Wright, for Ranchi. What a welcome there, a veritable ovation! Tears stood in my eyes as I embraced the selfless teachers who had kept the banner of the school flying during my fifteen years’ absence. The bright faces and happy smiles of the residential and day students were ample testimony to the worth of their many-sided school and yoga training. Yet, alas! the Ranchi institution was in dire financial difficulties. Sir Manindra Chandra Nundy, the old Maharaja whose Kasimbazar Palace had been converted into the central school building, and who had made many princely donations was now dead. Many free, benevolent features of the school were now seriously endangered for lack of sufficient public support. I had not spent years in America without learning some of its practical wisdom, its undaunted spirit before obstacles. For one week I remained in Ranchi, wrestling with critical problems. Then came interviews in Calcutta with prominent leaders and educators, a long talk with the young Maharaja of Kasimbazar, a financial appeal to my father, and lo! the shaky foundations of Ranchi began to be righted. Many donations including one huge check arrived in the nick of time from my American students. Within a few months after my arrival in India, I had the joy of seeing the Ranchi school legally incorporated. My lifelong dream of a permanently endowed yoga educational center stood fulfilled. That vision had guided me in the humble beginnings in 1917 with a group of seven boys. In the decade since 1935, Ranchi has enlarged its scope far beyond the boys’ school. Widespread humanitarian activities are now carried on there in the Shyama Charan Lahiri Mahasaya Mission. The school, or Yogoda Sat-Sanga Brahmacharya Vidyalaya, conducts outdoor classes in grammar and high school subjects. The residential students and day scholars also receive vocational training of some kind. The boys themselves regulate most of their activities through autonomous committees. Very early in my career as an educator I discovered that boys who impishly delight in outwitting a teacher will cheerfully accept disciplinary rules that are set by

260 their fellow students. Never a model pupil myself, I had a ready sympathy for all boyish pranks and problems. Sports and games are encouraged; the fields resound with hockey and football practice. Ranchi students often win the cup at competitive events. The outdoor gymnasium is known far and wide. Muscle recharging through will power is the Yogoda feature: mental direction of life energy to any part of the body. The boys are also taught asanas (postures), sword and lathi (stick) play, and jujitsu. The Yogoda Health Exhibitions at the Ranchi Vidyalaya have been attended by thousands. Instruction in primary subjects is given in Hindi to the Kols, Santals, and Mundas, aboriginal tribes of the province. Classes for girls only have been organized in near-by villages. The unique feature at Ranchi is the initiation into Kriya Yoga. The boys daily practice their spiritual exercises, engage in Gita chanting, and are taught by precept and example the virtues of simplicity, self-sacrifice, honor, and truth. Evil is pointed out to them as being that which produces misery; good as those actions which result in true happiness. Evil may be compared to poisoned honey, tempting but laden with death. Overcoming restlessness of body and mind by concentration techniques has achieved astonishing results: it is no novelty at Ranchi to see an appealing little figure, aged nine or ten years, sitting for an hour or more in unbroken poise, the unwinking gaze directed to the spiritual eye. Often the picture of these Ranchi students has returned to my mind, as I observed collegians over the world who are hardly able to sit still through one class period.* Ranchi lies 2000 feet above sea level; the climate is mild and equable. The twenty-five acre site, by a large bathing pond, includes one of the finest orchards in India—five hundred fruit trees—mango, guava, litchi, jackfruit, date. The boys grow their own vegetables, and spin at their charkas. A guest house is hospitably open for Western visitors. The Ranchi library contains numerous magazines, and about a thousand volumes in English and Bengali, donations from the

*Mental training through certain concentration techniques has produced in each Indian generation men of prodigious memory. Sir T. Vijayaraghavachari, in the Hindustan Times, has described the tests put to the modern professional “memory men” of Madras. “These men,” he wrote, “were unusually learned in Sanskrit literature. Seated in the midst of a large audience, they were equal to the tests that several members of the audience simultaneously put them to. The test would be like this: one person would start ringing a bell, the number of rings having to be counted by the ‘memory man.’ A second person would dictate from a paper a long exercise in arithmetic, involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. A third would go on reciting from the Ramayana or the Mahabharata a long series of poems, which had to be reproduced; a fourth would set problems in versification which required the composition of verses in proper meter on a given subject, each line to end in a specified word, a fifth man would carry on with a sixth a theological disputation, the exact language of which had to be quoted in the precise order in which the disputants conducted it, and a seventh man was all the while turning a wheel, the number of revolutions of which had to be counted. The memory expert had simultaneously to do all these feats purely by mental processes, as he was allowed no paper and pencil. The strain on the faculties must have been terrific. Ordinarily men in unconscious envy are apt to depreciate such efforts by affecting to believe that they involve only the exercise of the lower functionings of the brain. It is not, however, a pure question of memory. The greater factor is the immense concentration of mind.”

261 West and the East. There is a collection of the scriptures of the world. A well-classified museum displays archeological, geological, and anthropological exhibits; trophies, to a great extent, of my wanderings over the Lord’s varied earth. The charitable hospital and dispensary of the Lahiri Mahasaya Mission, with many outdoor branches in distant villages, have already ministered to 150,000 of India’s poor. The Ranchi students are trained in first aid, and have given praiseworthy service to their province at tragic times of flood or famine. In the orchard stands a Shiva temple, with a statue of the blessed master, Lahiri Mahasaya. Daily prayers and scripture classes are held in the garden under the mango bowers. Branch high schools, with the residential and yoga features of Ranchi, have been opened and are now flourishing. These are the Yogoda Sat-Sanga Vidyapith (School) for Boys, at Lakshmanpur in Bihar; and the Yogoda Sat-Sanga High School and hermitage at Ejmalichak in Midnapore. A stately Yogoda Math was dedicated in 1939 at Dakshineswar, directly on the Ganges. Only a few miles north of Calcutta, the new hermitage affords a haven of peace for city dwellers. Suitable accommodations are available for Western guests, and particularly for those seekers who are intensely dedicating their lives to spiritual realization. The activities of the Yogoda Math include a fortnightly mailing of Self-Realization Fellowship teachings to students in various parts of India. It is needless to say that all these educational and humanitarian activities have required the self-sacrificing service and devotion of many teachers and workers. I do not list their names here, because they are so numerous; but in my heart each one has a lustrous niche. Inspired by the ideals of Lahiri Mahasaya, these teachers have abandoned promising worldly goals to serve humbly, to give greatly. Mr. Wright formed many fast friendships with Ranchi boys; clad in a simple dhoti, he lived for awhile among them. At Ranchi, Calcutta, Serampore, everywhere he went, my secretary, who has a vivid gift of description, hauled out his travel diary to record his adventures. One evening I asked him a question. “Dick, what is your impression of India?” “Peace,” he said thoughtfully. “The racial aura is peace.”

262 CHAPTER: 41 An Idyl in South India “You are the first Westerner, Dick, ever to thousands of Mysore citizens and students, at enter that shrine. Many others have tried in the Town Hall, the Maharajah’s College, the vain.” University Medical School; and three mass At my words Mr. Wright looked startled, meetings in Bangalore, at the National High then pleased. We had just left the beautiful School, the Intermediate College, and the Chamundi Temple in the hills overlooking Chetty Town Hall where over three thousand Mysore in southern India. There we had persons had assembled. Whether the eager bowed before the gold and silver altars of the listeners had been able to credit the glowing Goddess Chamundi, patron deity of the family picture I drew of America, I know not; but the of the reigning maharaja. applause had always been loudest when I spoke of the mutual benefits that could flow “As a souvenir of the unique honor,” Mr. from exchange of the best features in East and Wright said, carefully stowing away a few West. blessed rose petals, “I will always preserve this flower, sprinkled by the priest with rose Mr. Wright and I were now relaxing in water.” the tropical peace. His travel diary gives the following account of his impressions of My companion and I* were spending the Mysore: month of November, 1935, as guests of the State of Mysore. The Maharaja, H.H. Sri “Brilliantly green rice fields, varied by Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, is a model prince tasseled sugar cane patches, nestle at the with intelligent devotion to his people. A protective foot of rocky hills—hills dotting pious Hindu, the Maharaja has empowered a the emerald panorama like excrescences of Mohammedan, the able Mirza Ismail, as his black stone—and the play of colors is Dewan or Premier. Popular representation is enhanced by the sudden and dramatic given to the seven million inhabitants of disappearance of the sun as it seeks rest Mysore in both an Assembly and a behind the solemn hills. Legislative Council. “Many rapturous moments have been spent in The heir to the Maharaja, H.H. the gazing, almost absent-mindedly, at the ever- Yuvaraja, Sir Sri Krishna Narasingharaj changing canvas of God stretched across the Wadiyar, had invited my secretary and me to firmament, for His touch alone is able to visit his enlightened and progressive realm. produce colors that vibrate with the freshness During the past fortnight I had addressed of life. That youth of colors is lost when man tries to imitate with mere pigments, for the Lord resorts to a more simple and effective *Miss Bletch, unable to maintain the active pace set by Mr. Wright and myself, remained happily with my medium—oils that are neither oils nor relatives in Calcutta.

263 pigments, but mere rays of light. He tosses a as in a jungle, and finally, approaching the splash of light here, and it reflects red; He crest of a hill, we came face-to-face with an waves the brush again and it blends gradually immense artificial lake, reflecting the stars into orange and gold; then with a piercing and fringe of palms and other trees, thrust He stabs the clouds with a streak of surrounded by lovely terraced gardens and a purple that leaves a ringlet or fringe of red row of electric lights on the brink of the oozing out of the wound in the clouds; and so, dam—and below it our eyes met a dazzling on and on, He plays, night and morning alike, spectacle of colored beams playing on ever-changing, ever-new, ever-fresh; no geyserlike fountains, like so many streams of patterns, no duplicates, no colors just the brilliant ink pouring forth—gorgeously blue same. The beauty of the Indian change in day waterfalls, arresting red cataracts, green and to night is beyond compare elsewhere; often yellow sprays, elephants spouting water, a the sky looks as if God had taken all the miniature of the Chicago World’s Fair, and colors in His kit and given them one mighty yet modernly outstanding in this ancient land kaleidoscopic toss into the heavens. of paddy fields and simple people, who have “I must relate the splendor of a twilight visit given us such a loving welcome that I fear it to the huge Krishnaraja Sagar Dam,* will take more than my strength to bring constructed twelve miles outside of Mysore. Yoganandaji back to America. Yoganandaji and I boarded a small bus and, “Another rare privilege—my first elephant with a small boy as official cranker or battery ride. Yesterday the Yuvaraja invited us to his substitute, started off over a smooth dirt road, summer palace to enjoy a ride on one of his just as the sun was setting on the horizon and elephants, an enormous beast. I mounted a squashing like an overripe tomato. ladder provided to climb aloft to the howdah “Our journey led past the omnipresent square or saddle, which is silk-cushioned and rice fields, through a line of comforting boxlike; and then for a rolling, tossing, banyan trees, in between a grove of towering swaying, and heaving down into a gully, too coconut palms, with vegetation nearly as thick much thrilled to worry or exclaim, but hanging on for dear life!” Southern India, rich with historical and *This dam, a huge hydro-electric installation, lights M y s o r e C i t y and gives power to factories for silks, archaeological remains, is a land of definite soaps, and sandalwood oil. The sandalwood souvenirs and yet indefinable charm. To the north of from Mysore possess a delightful fragrance which time does not exhaust; a slight pinprick revives the odor. Mysore is the largest native state in India, Mysore boasts some of the largest pioneer industrial Hyderabad, a picturesque plateau cut by the undertakings in India, including the Kolar Gold Mines, mighty . Broad fertile plains, the Mysore Sugar Factory, the huge iron and steel works at Bhadravati, and the cheap and efficient the lovely Nilgiris or “Blue Mountains,” other Mysore State Railway which covers many of the state’s regions with barren hills of limestone or 30,000 square miles. The Maharaja and Yuvaraja who were my hosts in granite. Hyderabad history is a long, colorful Mysore in 1935 have both recently died. The son of the story, starting three thousand years ago under Yuvaraja, the present Maharaja, is an enterprising the Andhra kings, and continuing under ruler, and has added to Mysore’s industries a large airplane factory. Hindu dynasties until A.D. 1294, when it

264 passed to a line of Moslem rulers who reign to nearly all of modern India, Afghanistan, and this day. Baluchistan. This illustrious emperor, The most breath-taking display of considered even by Western historians to architecture, sculpture, and painting in all have been an incomparable ruler, has left the India is found at Hyderabad in the ancient following wisdom on a rock memorial: rock-sculptured caves of Ellora and Ajanta. This religious inscription has been engraved The Kailasa at Ellora, a huge monolithic in order that our sons and grandsons may not temple, possesses carved figures of gods, think a new conquest is necessary; that they men, and beasts in the stupendous proportions may not think conquest by the sword deserves of a Michelangelo. Ajanta is the site of five the name of conquest; that they may see in it cathedrals and twenty-five monasteries, all nothing but destruction and violence; that rock excavations maintained by tremendous they may consider nothing as true conquest frescoed pillars on which artists and sculptors save the conquest of religion. Such conquests have immortalized their genius. have value in this world and in the next. Hyderabad City is graced by the Osmania Asoka was a grandson of the formidable University and by the imposing Mecca Masjid Chandragupta Maurya (known to the Greeks Mosque, where ten thousand Mohammedans as Sandrocottus), who in his youth had met may assemble for prayer. Alexander the Great. Later Chandragupta Mysore State too is a scenic wonderland, destroyed the Macedonian garrisons left in three thousand feet above sea level, India, defeated the invading Greek army of abounding in dense tropical forests, the home Seleucus in the Punjab, and then received at of wild elephants, bison, bears, panthers, and his Patna court the Hellenic ambassador tigers. Its two chief cities, Bangalore and Megasthenes. Mysore, are clean, attractive, with many parks Intensely interesting stories have been and public gardens. minutely recorded by Greek historians and Hindu architecture and sculpture others who accompanied or followed after achieved their highest perfection in Mysore Alexander in his expedition to India. The under the patronage of Hindu kings from the narratives of Arrian, Diodoros, Plutarch, and eleventh to the fifteenth centuries. The temple Strabo the geographer have been translated by at Belur, an eleventh-century masterpiece Dr. J. W. M’Crindle* to throw a shaft of light completed during the reign of King on ancient India. The most admirable feature Vishnuvardhana, is unsurpassed in the world of Alexander’s unsuccessful invasion was the for its delicacy of detail and exuberant deep interest he displayed in Hindu imagery. philosophy and in the yogis and holy men whom he encountered from time to time and The rock pillars found in northern whose society he eagerly sought. Shortly after Mysore date from the third century B.C., the Greek warrior had arrived in Taxila in illuminating the memory of King Asoka. He northern India, he sent a messenger, succeeded to the throne of the Maurya dynasty then prevailing; his empire included *Six volumes on Ancient India (Calcutta, 1879).

265 Onesikritos, a disciple of the Hellenic school After this chastisement, surely the most of Diogenes, to fetch an Indian teacher, caustic ever sent to assault the ears of the Dandamis, a great sannyasi of Taxila. “Lord of the World,” the sage added “Hail to thee, O teacher of Brahmins!” ironically, “If Alexander’s present dominions Onesikritos said after seeking out Dandamis be not capacious enough for his desires, let in his forest retreat. “The son of the mighty him cross the Ganges River; there he will find God Zeus, being Alexander who is the a region able to sustain all his men, if the Sovereign Lord of all men, asks you to go to country on this side be too narrow to hold him, and if you comply, he will reward you him.* with great gifts, but if you refuse, he will cut “Know this, however, that what off your head!” Alexander offers and the gifts he promises are The yogi received this fairly compulsive things to me utterly useless; the things I prize invitation calmly, and “did not so much as lift and find of real use and worth are these leaves up his head from his couch of leaves.” which are my house, these blooming plants which supply me with daily food, and the “I also am a son of Zeus, if Alexander be water which is my drink; while all other such,” he commented. “I want nothing that is possessions which are amassed with anxious Alexander’s, for I am content with what I care are wont to prove ruinous to those who have, while I see that he wanders with his gather them, and cause only sorrow and men over sea and land for no advantage, and vexation, with which every poor mortal is is never coming to an end of his wanderings. fully fraught. As for me, I lie upon the forest “Go and tell Alexander that God the leaves, and having nothing which requires Supreme King is never the Author of insolent guarding, close my eyes in tranquil slumber; wrong, but is the Creator of light, of peace, of whereas had I anything to guard, that would life, of water, of the body of man and of banish sleep. The earth supplies me with souls; He receives all men when death sets everything, even as a mother her child with them free, being in no way subject to evil milk. I go wherever I please, and there are no disease. He alone is the God of my homage, cares with which I am forced to cumber who abhors slaughter and instigates no wars. m y s e l f . “Alexander is no god, since he must taste “Should Alexander cut off my head, he of death,” continued the sage in quiet scorn. cannot also destroy my soul. My head alone, “How can such as he be the world’s master, then silent, will remain, leaving the body like when he has not yet seated himself on a a torn garment upon the earth, whence also it throne of inner universal dominion? Neither was taken. I then, becoming Spirit, shall as yet has he entered living into Hades, nor ascend to my God, who enclosed us all in does he know the course of the sun through the central regions of the earth, while the *Neither Alexander nor any of his generals ever nations on its boundaries have not so much as crossed the Ganges. Finding determined resistance in heard his name!” the northwest, the Macedonian army refused to penetrate farther; Alexander was forced to leave India and seek his conquests in Persia.

266 flesh and left us upon earth to prove whether, “Which is the cleverest of beasts?” when here below, we shall live obedient to “That one with which man is not yet His ordinances and who also will require of acquainted.” (Man fears the unknown.) us all, when we depart hence to His presence, an account of our life, since He is Judge of all “Which existed first, the day or the proud wrongdoing; for the groans of the night?” oppressed become the punishment of the “The day was first by one day.” This oppressor. reply caused Alexander to betray surprise; the “Let Alexander then terrify with these Brahmin added: “Impossible questions threats those who wish for wealth and who require impossible answers.” dread death, for against us these weapons are “How best may a man make himself both alike powerless; the Brahmins neither beloved?” love gold nor fear death. Go then and tell “A man will be beloved if, possessed Alexander this: Dandamis has no need of with great power, he still does not make aught that is yours, and therefore will not go himself feared.” to you, and if you want anything from Dandamis, come you to him.” “How may a man become a god?”* With close attention Alexander received “By doing that which it is impossible for through Onesikritos the message from the a man to do.” yogi, and “felt a stronger desire than ever to “Which is stronger, life or death?” see Dandamis who, though old and naked, was the only antagonist in whom he, the “Life, because it bears so many evils.” conqueror of many nations, had met more Alexander succeeded in taking out of than his match.” India, as his teacher, a true yogi. This man Alexander invited to Taxila a number of was Swami Sphines, called “Kalanos” by the Brahmin ascetics noted for their skill in Greeks because the saint, a devotee of God in answering philosophical questions with pithy the form of Kali, greeted everyone by wisdom. An account of the verbal skirmish is pronouncing Her auspicious name. given by Plutarch; Alexander himself framed Kalanos accompanied Alexander to all the questions. Persia. On a stated day, at Susa in Persia, “Which be the more numerous, the living Kalanos gave up his aged body by entering a or the dead?” funeral pyre in view of the whole Macedonian army. The historians record the astonishment “The living, for the dead are not.” of the soldiers who observed that the yogi had “Which breeds the larger animals, the sea no fear of pain or death, and who never once or the land?” moved from his position as he was consumed

“The land, for the sea is only a part of land.” *From this question we may surmise that the “Son of Zeus” had an occasional doubt that he had already attained perfection.

267 in the flames. Before leaving for his any harm, for men of this class being regarded cremation, Kalanos had embraced all his close as public benefactors, are protected from all companions, but refrained from bidding injury. The land thus remaining unravaged farewell to Alexander, to whom the Hindu and producing heavy crops, supplies the sage had merely remarked: inhabitants with the requisites to make life “I shall see you shortly in Babylon.” enjoyable.”† Alexander left Persia, and died a year The Emperor Chandragupta who in 305 later in Babylon. His Indian guru’s words had B.C. had defeated Alexander’s general, been his way of saying he would be present Seleucus, decided seven years later to hand with Alexander in life and death. over the reins of India’s government to his son. Traveling to South India, Chandragupta The Greek historians have left us many spent the last twelve years of his life as a vivid and inspiring pictures of Indian society. penniless ascetic, seeking self-realization in a , Arrian tells us, protects the people rocky cave at Sravanabelagola, now honored and “ordains that no one among them shall, as a Mysore shrine. Near-by stands the under any circumstances, be a slave but that, world’s largest statue, carved out of an enjoying freedom themselves, they shall immense boulder by the Jains in A.D. 983 to respect the equal right to it which all possess. honor the saint Comateswara. For those, they thought, who have learned neither to domineer over nor cringe to others The ubiquitous religious shrines of will attain the life best adapted for all M y s ore are a constant reminder of the many vicissitudes of lot.”* great saints of South India. One of these masters, Thayumanavar, has left us the “The Indians,” runs another text, “neither following challenging poem: put out money at usury, nor know how to borrow. It is contrary to established usage for You can control a mad elephant; an Indian either to do or suffer a wrong, and You can shut the mouth of the bear and the therefore they neither make contracts nor tiger; require securities.” Healing, we are told, was You can ride a lion; by simple and natural means. “Cures are effected rather by regulating diet than by the You can play with the cobra; use of medicines. The remedies most By alchemy you can eke out your livelihood; esteemed are ointments and plasters. All others are considered to be in great measure pernicious.” Engagement in war was restricted to the Kshatriyas or warrior caste. †Creative India by Prof. Benoy Kumar Sarkar gives a comprehensive picture of India’s ancient and modern “Nor would an enemy coming upon a achievements and distinctive values in economics, husbandman at his work on his land, do him political science, literature, art, and social philosophy. (Lahore: Motilal Banarsi Dass, Publishers, 1937, 714 pp., $5.00.) *All Greek observers comment on the lack of slavery Another recommended volume is Indian Culture in India, a feature at complete variance with the Through the Ages, by S. V. Venatesvara (New York: structure of Hellenic society. Longmans, Green & Co., $5.00).

268 You can wander through the universe noose like Varuna (Vedic deity of sky and incognito; wind); please all like the moon, burn up You can make vassals of the gods; vicious enemies like the god of fire; and support all like the earth goddess. You can be ever youthful; “In war a king should not fight with You can walk on water and live in fire; poisonous or fiery weapons nor kill weak or But control of the mind is better and more unready or weaponless foes or men who are difficult. in fear or who pray for protection or who run away. War should be resorted to only as a last In the beautiful and fertile State of resort. Results are always doubtful in war.” Travancore in the extreme south of India, where traffic is conveyed over rivers and Madras Presidency on the southeast coast canals, the Maharaja assumes every year a of India contains the flat, spacious, sea-girt hereditary obligation to expiate the sin city of Madras, and Conjeeveram, the Golden incurred by wars and the annexation in the City, capital site of the Pallava dynasty whose distant past of several petty states to kings ruled during the early centuries of the Travancore. For fifty-six days annually the Christian era. In modern Madras Presidency Maharaja visits the temple thrice daily to hear the nonviolent ideals of Mahatma Gandhi Vedic hymns and recitations; the expiation have made great headway; the white ceremony ends with the lakshadipam or distinguishing “Gandhi caps” are seen illumination of the temple by a hundred everywhere. In the south generally the thousand lights. Mahatma has effected many important temple reforms for “untouchables” as well as caste- The great Hindu lawgiver Manu* has system reforms. outlined the duties of a king. “He should shower amenities like Indra (lord of the gods); The origin of the caste system, collect taxes gently and imperceptibly as the formulated by the great legislator Manu, was sun obtains vapor from water; enter into the admirable. He saw clearly that men are life of his subjects as the wind goes distinguished by natural evolution into four everywhere; mete out even justice to all like great classes: those capable of offering Yama (god of death); bind transgressors in a service to society through their bodily labor (Sudras); those who serve through mentality,

*Manu is the universal lawgiver; not alone for Hindu skill, agriculture, trade, commerce, business society, but for the world. All systems of wise social life in general (Vaisyas); those whose talents regulations and even justice are patterned after Manu. Nietzsche has paid the following tribute: “I know of no are administrative, executive, and book in which so many delicate and kindly things are protective—rulers and warriors (Kshatriyas); said to woman as in the Lawbook of Manu; those old those of contemplative nature, spiritually graybeards and saints have a manner of being gallant to women which perhaps cannot be surpassed . . . an inspired and inspiring (Brahmins). “Neither incomparably intellectual and superior work . . . replete birth nor sacraments nor study nor ancestry with noble values, it is filled with a feeling of can decide whether a person is twice-born perfection, with a saying of yea to life, and a triumphant sense of well-being in regard to itself and to (i.e., a Brahmin);” the Mahabharata declares, life; the sun shines upon the whole book.”

269 “character and conduct only can decide.”* Serious evils arose when the caste system Manu instructed society to show respect to its became hardened through the centuries into a members insofar as they possessed wisdom, hereditary halter. Social reformers like virtue, age, kinship or, lastly, wealth. Riches Gandhi and the members of very numerous in Vedic India were always despised if they societies in India today are making slow but were hoarded or unavailable for charitable sure progress in restoring the ancient values purposes. Ungenerous men of great wealth of caste, based solely on natural qualification were assigned a low rank in society. and not on birth. Every nation on earth has its own distinctive misery-producing karma to deal with and remove; India, too, with her

*“Inclusion in one of these four castes originally versatile and invulnerable spirit, shall prove depended not on a man’s birth but on his natural herself equal to the task of caste-reformation. capacities as demonstrated by the goal in life he elected to achieve,” an article in East-West for January, 1935, So entrancing is southern India that Mr. tells us. “This goal could be (1) , desire, activity Wright and I yearned to prolong our idyl. But of the life of the senses (Sudra stage), (2) , gain, fulfilling but controlling the desires (Vaisya stage), (3) time, in its immemorial rudeness, dealt us no dharma, self-discipline, the life of responsibility and courteous extensions. I was scheduled soon to right action (Kshatriya stage), (4) , liberation, address the concluding session of the Indian the life of spirituality and religious teaching (Brahmin stage). These four castes render service to humanity by Philosophical Congress at Calcutta (1) body, (2) mind, (3) will power, (4) Spirit. University. At the end of the visit to Mysore, I “These four stages have their correspondence in the eternal gunas or qualities of nature, , rajas, and enjoyed a talk with Sir C. V. Raman, sattva: obstruction, activity, and expansion; or, mass, president of the Indian Academy of Sciences. energy, and intelligence. The four natural castes are This brilliant Hindu physicist was awarded marked by the gunas as (1) tamas (ignorance), (2) tamas-rajas (mixture of ignorance and activity), (3) the Nobel Prize in 1930 for his important rajas-sattva (mixture of right activity and discovery in the diffusion of light—the enlightenment), (4) sattva (enlightenment). Thus has “Raman Effect” now known to every nature marked every man with his caste, by the predominance in himself of one, or the mixture of two, schoolboy. of the gunas. Of course every human being has all three gunas in varying proportions. The guru will be Waving a reluctant farewell to a crowd of able rightly to determine a man’s caste or evolutionary Madras students and friends, Mr. Wright and I status. set out for the north. On the way we stopped “To a certain extent, all races and nations observe in practice, if not in theory, the features of caste. Where before a little shrine sacred to the memory of there is great license or so-called liberty, particularly in ,† in whose eighteenth- intermarriage between extremes in the natural castes, the race dwindles away and becomes extinct. The century life story miracles cluster thickly. A Purana Samhita compares the offspring of such unions larger Sadasiva shrine at Nerur, erected by the to barren hybrids, like the mule which is incapable of Raja of Pudukkottai, is a pilgrimage spot propagation of its own species. Artificial species are eventually exterminated. History offers abundant proof of numerous great races which no longer have any living representatives. The caste system of India is credited by her most profound thinkers with being the †His full title was Sri Sadasivendra Saraswati Swami. check or preventive against license which has The illustrious successor in the formal Shankara line, preserved the purity of the race and brought it safely Jagadguru Sri Shankaracharya of Sringeri Math, wrote through millenniums of vicissitudes, while other races an inspiring Ode dedicated to Sadasiva. East-West for have vanished in oblivion.” July, 1942, carried an article on Sadasiva’s life.

270 which has witnessed numerous divine saint’s paradoxical advice to be a guide to healings. soul freedom through mastery of the ego. Many quaint stories of Sadasiva, a The village children once expressed a lovable and fully-illumined master, are still desire in Sadasiva’s presence to see the current among the South Indian villagers. Madura religious festival, 150 miles away. Immersed one day in samadhi on the bank of The yogi indicated to the little ones that they the Kaveri River, Sadasiva was seen to be should touch his body. Lo! instantly the carried away by a sudden flood. Weeks later whole group was transported to Madura. The he was found buried deep beneath a mound of children wandered happily among the earth. As the villagers’ shovels struck his thousands of pilgrims. In a few hours the yogi body, the saint rose and walked briskly away. brought his small charges home by his simple Sadasiva never spoke a word or wore a mode of transportation. The astonished cloth. One morning the nude yogi parents heard the vivid tales of the procession unceremoniously entered the tent of a of images, and noted that several children Mohammedan chieftain. His ladies screamed were carrying bags of Madura sweets. in alarm; the warrior dealt a savage sword An incredulous youth derided the saint thrust at Sadasiva, whose arm was severed. and the story. The following morning he The master departed unconcernedly. approached Sadasiva. Overcome by remorse, the Mohammedan “Master,” he said scornfully, “why don’t picked up the arm from the floor and followed you take me to the festival, even as you did Sadasiva. The yogi quietly inserted his arm yesterday for the other children?” into the bleeding stump. When the warrior humbly asked for some spiritual instruction, Sadasiva complied; the boy immediately Sadasiva wrote with his finger on the sands: found himself among the distant city throng. But alas! where was the saint when the youth “Do not do what you want, and then you wanted to leave? The weary boy reached his may do what you like.” home by the ancient and prosaic method of The Mohammedan was uplifted to an foot locomotion. exalted state of mind, and understood the

271 CHAPTER: 42 Last Days with My Guru “Guruji, I am glad to find you alone this His was a strange nature, never utterly to be morning.” I had just arrived at the Serampore known; a nature deep and still, unfathomable hermitage, carrying a fragrant burden of fruit to the outer world, whose values he had long and roses. Sri Yukteswar glanced at me transcended. meekly. A few days later, when I spoke before a “What is your question?” Master looked huge audience at Albert Hall in Calcutta, Sri about the room as though he were seeking Yukteswar consented to sit beside me on the escape. platform, with the Maharaja of Santosh and “Guruji, I came to you as a high-school the Mayor of Calcutta. Though Master made youth; now I am a grown man, even with a no remark to me, I glanced at him from time gray hair or two. Though you have showered to time during my address, and thought I me with silent affection from the first hour to detected a pleased twinkle in his eyes. this, do you realize that once only, on the day Then came a talk before the alumni of of meeting, have you ever said, ‘I love you’?” Serampore College. As I gazed upon my old I looked at him pleadingly. classmates, and as they gazed on their own Master lowered his gaze. “Yogananda, “Mad Monk,” tears of joy showed must I bring out into the cold realms of unashamedly. My silver-tongued professor of speech the warm sentiments best guarded by philosophy, Dr. Ghoshal, came forward to the wordless heart?” greet me, all our past misunderstandings dissolved by the alchemist Time. “Guruji, I know you love me, but my mortal ears ache to hear you say so.” A Winter Solstice Festival was celebrated at the end of December in the Serampore “Be it as you wish. During my married hermitage. As always, Sri Yukteswar’s life I often yearned for a son, to train in the disciples gathered from far and near. yogic path. But when you came into my life, I Devotional sankirtans, solos in the nectar- was content; in you I have found my son.” sweet voice of Kristo-da, a feast served by Two clear teardrops stood in Sri Yukteswar’s young disciples, Master’s profoundly moving eyes. “Yogananda, I love you always.” discourse under the stars in the thronged “Your answer is my passport to heaven.” courtyard of the ashram—memories, I felt a weight lift from my heart, dissolved memories! Joyous festivals of years long past! forever at his words. Often had I wondered at Tonight, however, there was to be a new his silence. Realizing that he was unemotional feature. and self-contained, yet sometimes I feared I “Yogananda, please address the had been unsuccessful in fully satisfying him. assemblage—in English.” Master’s eyes were

272 twinkling as he made this doubly unusual “My task on earth is now finished; you request; was he thinking of the shipboard must carry on.” Master spoke quietly, his eyes predicament that had preceded my first calm and gentle. My heart was palpitating in lecture in English? I told the story to my fear. audience of brother disciples, ending with a “Please send someone to take charge of fervent tribute to our guru. our ashram at Puri,” Sri Yukteswar went on. “His omnipresent guidance was with me “I leave everything in your hands. You will be not alone on the ocean steamer,” I concluded, able to successfully sail the boat of your life “but daily throughout my fifteen years in the and that of the organization to the divine vast and hospitable land of America.” shores.” After the guests had departed, Sri In tears, I was embracing his feet; he rose Yukteswar called me to the same bedroom and blessed me endearingly. where—once only, after a festival of my early The following day I summoned from years—I had been permitted to sleep on his Ranchi a disciple, Swami Sebananda, and sent wooden bed. Tonight my guru was sitting him to Puri to assume the hermitage duties.‡ there quietly, a semicircle of disciples at his Later my guru discussed with me the legal feet. He smiled as I quickly entered the room. details of settling his estate; he was anxious to “Yogananda, are you leaving now for prevent the possibility of litigation by Calcutta? Please return here tomorrow. I have relatives, after his death, for possession of his certain things to tell you.” two hermitages and other properties, which he The next afternoon, with a few simple wished to be deeded over solely for charitable words of blessing, Sri Yukteswar bestowed on purposes. me the further monastic title of Paramhansa.* “Arrangements were recently made for “It now formally supersedes your former Master to visit Kidderpore,§ but he failed to title of swami,” he said as I knelt before him. go.” Amulaya Babu, a brother disciple, made With a silent chuckle I thought of the struggle this remark to me one afternoon; I felt a cold which my American students would undergo wave of premonition. To my pressing over the pronunciation of Paramhansaji.† inquiries, Sri Yukteswar only replied, “I shall go to Kidderpore no more.” For a moment, Master trembled like a frightened child.

(“Attachment to bodily residence, *Literally, param, highest; hansa, swan. The hansa is springing up of its own nature [i.e., arising represented in scriptural lore as the vehicle of Brahma, Supreme Spirit; as the symbol of discrimination, the from immemorial roots, past experiences of white hansa swan is thought of as able to separate the true nectar from a mixture of milk and water. Ham-sa (pronounced hong-sau) are two sacred Sanskrit chant words possessing a vibratory connection ‡At the Puri ashram, Swami Sebananda is still with the incoming and outgoing breath. -Sa is conducting a small, flourishing yoga school for boys, literally “I am He.” and meditation groups for adults. Meetings of saints †They have generally evaded the difficulty by and pundits convene there periodically. addressing me as sir. §A section of Calcutta.

273 death],” Patanjali wrote,* “is present in slight Not sensing Sri Yukteswar’s reluctance degree even in great saints.” In some of his to have me leave him, I went on, “Once you discourses on death, my guru had been wont beheld the blessed sight of Babaji at an to add: “Just as a long-caged bird hesitates to Allahabad kumbha. Perhaps this time I shall leave its accustomed home when the door is be fortunate enough to see him.” opened.”) “I do not think you will meet him there.” “Guruji,” I entreated him with a sob, My guru then fell into silence, not wishing to “don’t say that! Never utter those words to obstruct my plans. me!” When I set out for Allahabad the Sri Yukteswar’s face relaxed in a following day with a small group, Master peaceful smile. Though nearing his eighty- blessed me quietly in his usual manner. first birthday, he looked well and strong. Apparently I was remaining oblivious to Basking day by day in the sunshine of my implications in Sri Yukteswar’s attitude guru’s love, unspoken but keenly felt, I because the Lord wished to spare me the banished from my conscious mind the various experience of being forced, helplessly, to hints he had given of his approaching passing. witness my guru’s passing. It has always happened in my life that, at the death of those “Sir, the Kumbha Mela is convening this dearly beloved by me, God has month at Allahabad.” I showed Master the compassionately arranged that I be distant mela dates in a Bengali almanac.† from the scene.‡ “Do you really want to go?” Our party reached the Kumbha Mela on January 23, 1936. The surging crowd of *Aphorisms: II:9. †Religious melas are mentioned in the ancient nearly two million persons was an impressive Mahabharata. The Chinese traveler Hieuen Tsiang has sight, even an overwhelming one. The left an account of a vast Kumbha Mela held in A.D. peculiar genius of the is the 644 at Allahabad. The largest mela is held every twelfth year; the next largest (Ardha or half) Kumbha reverence innate in even the lowliest peasant occurs every sixth year. Smaller melas convene every for the worth of the Spirit, and for the monks third year, attracting about a million devotees. The four sacred mela cities are Allahabad, Hardwar, Nasik, and and sadhus who have forsaken worldly ties to Ujjain. seek a diviner anchorage. Imposters and Early Chinese travelers have left us many striking hypocrites there are indeed, but India respects pictures of Indian society. The Chinese priest, Fa- Hsien, wrote an account of his eleven years in India all for the sake of the few who illumine the during the reign of Chandragupta II (early 4th century). whole land with supernal blessings. The Chinese author relates: “Throughout the country no one kills any living thing, nor drinks wine. . . . They Westerners who were viewing the vast do not keep pigs or fowl; there are no dealings in cattle, spectacle had a unique opportunity to feel the no butchers’ shops or distilleries. Rooms with beds and pulse of the land, the spiritual ardor to which mattresses, food and clothes, are provided for resident and traveling priests without fail, and this is the same in all places. The priests occupy themselves with ‡I was not present at the deaths of my mother, elder benevolent ministrations and with chanting liturgies; or brother Ananta, eldest sister Roma, Master, Father, or they sit in meditation.” Fa-Hsien tells us the Indian of several close disciples. people were happy and honest; capital punishment was (Father passed on at Calcutta in 1942, at the age of unknown. eighty-nine.)

274 India owes her quenchless vitality before the tinkling, fakirs with thin arms held blows of time. grotesquely aloft, brahmacharis carrying The first day was spent by our group in meditation elbow-props, humble sages whose sheer staring. Here were countless bathers, solemnity hid an inner bliss. High above the dipping in the holy river for remission of sins; din we heard the ceaseless summons of the there we saw solemn rituals of worship; temple bells. yonder were devotional offerings being On our second mela day my companions strewn at the dusty feet of saints; a turn of our and I entered various ashrams and temporary heads, and a line of elephants, caparisoned huts, offering pronams to saintly personages. horses and slow-paced Rajputana camels filed We received the blessing of the leader of the by, or a quaint religious parade of naked Giri branch of the Swami Order—a thin, sadhus, waving scepters of gold and silver, or ascetical monk with eyes of smiling fire. Our flags and streamers of silken velvet. next visit took us to a hermitage whose guru Anchorites wearing only loincloths sat had observed for the past nine years the vows quietly in little groups, their bodies besmeared of silence and a strict fruitarian diet. On the with the ashes that protect them from the heat central dais in the ashram hall sat a blind and cold. The spiritual eye was vividly sadhu, Pragla Chakshu, profoundly learned in represented on their foreheads by a single spot the shastras and highly revered by all sects. of sandalwood paste. Shaven-headed swamis After I had given a brief discourse in appeared by the thousands, ocher-robed and Hindi on Vedanta, our group left the peaceful carrying their bamboo staff and begging bowl. hermitage to greet a near-by swami, Their faces beamed with the renunciate’s Krishnananda, a handsome monk with rosy peace as they walked about or held cheeks and impressive shoulders. Reclining philosophical discussions with disciples. near him was a tame lioness. Succumbing to Here and there under the trees, around the monk’s spiritual charm—not, I am sure, to huge piles of burning logs, were picturesque his powerful physique!—the jungle animal sadhus,* their hair braided and massed in refuses all meat in favor of rice and milk. The coils on top of their heads. Some wore beards swami has taught the tawny-haired beast to several feet in length, curled and tied in a utter “Aum” in a deep, attractive growl—a cat knot. They meditated quietly, or extended devotee! their hands in blessing to the passing throng— Our next encounter, an interview with a beggars, maharajas on elephants, women in learned young sadhu, is well described in Mr. multicolored saris— their bangles and anklets Wright’s sparkling travel diary. “We rode in the Ford across the very low

*The hundreds of thousands of Indian sadhus are Ganges on a creaking pontoon bridge, controlled by an executive committee of seven leaders, crawling snakelike through the crowds and representing seven large sections of India. The present mahamandaleswar or president is Joyendra Puri. This over narrow, twisting lanes, passing the site saintly man is extremely reserved, often confining his on the river bank which Yoganandaji pointed speech to three words—Truth, Love, and Work. A out to me as the meeting place of Babaji and sufficient conversation!

275 Sri Yukteswarji. Alighting from the car a title of Shastri (master of scriptures) from short time later, we walked some distance Benares University. A sublime feeling through the thickening smoke of the sadhus’ pervaded me as I sat at his feet; it all seemed fires and over the slippery sands to reach a to be an answer to my desire to see the real, cluster of tiny, very modest mud-and-straw the ancient India, for he is a true huts. We halted in front of one of these representative of this land of spiritual giants.” insignificant temporary dwellings, with a I questioned Kara Patri about his pygmy doorless entrance, the shelter of Kara wandering life. “Don’t you have any extra Patri, a young wandering sadhu noted for his clothes for winter?” exceptional intelligence. There he sat, cross- legged on a pile of straw, his only covering— “No, this is enough.” and incidentally his only possession—being “Do you carry any books?” an ocher cloth draped over his shoulders. “No, I teach from memory those people “Truly a divine face smiled at us after we had who wish to hear me.” crawled on all fours into the hut and “What else do you do?” pronamed at the feet of this enlightened soul, while the kerosene lantern at the entrance “I roam by the Ganges.” flickered weird, dancing shadows on the At these quiet words, I was overpowered thatched walls. His face, especially his eyes by a yearning for the simplicity of his life. I and perfect teeth, beamed and glistened. remembered America, and all the Although I was puzzled by the Hindi, his responsibilities that lay on my shoulders. expressions were very revealing; he was full of enthusiasm, love, spiritual glory. No one “No, Yogananda,” I thought, sadly for a could be mistaken as to his greatness. moment, “in this life roaming by the Ganges is not for you.” “Imagine the happy life of one unattached to the material world; free of the clothing After the sadhu had told me a few of his problem; free of food craving, never begging, spiritual realizations, I shot an abrupt never touching cooked food except on question. alternate days, never carrying a begging bowl; “Are you giving these descriptions from free of all money entanglements, never scriptural lore, or from inward experience?” handling money, never storing things away, “Half from book learning,” he answered always trusting in God; free of transportation with a straightforward smile, “and half from worries, never riding in vehicles, but always experience.” walking on the banks of the sacred rivers; never remaining in one place longer than a We sat happily awhile in meditative week in order to avoid any growth of silence. After we had left his sacred presence, attachment. I said to Mr. Wright, “He is a king sitting on a throne of golden straw.” “Such a modest soul! unusually learned in the Vedas, and possessing an M.A. degree and the We had our dinner that night on the mela grounds under the stars, eating from leaf

276 plates pinned together with sticks. garden. He ushered us at once into a sitting Dishwashings in India are reduced to a room adorned with an enlargement of Lahiri minimum! Mahasaya’s picture. The swami was Two more days of the fascinating approaching the age of ninety, but his kumbha; then northwest along the Jumna muscular body radiated strength and health. banks to Agra. Once again I gazed on the Taj With long hair and a snow-white beard, eyes Mahal; in memory Jitendra stood by my side, twinkling with joy, he was a veritable awed by the dream in marble. Then on to the patriarchal embodiment. I informed him that I Brindaban ashram of Swami Keshabananda. wanted to mention his name in my book on India’s masters. My object in seeking out Keshabananda was connected with this book. I had never “Please tell me about your earlier life.” I forgotten Sri Yukteswar’s request that I write smiled entreatingly; great yogis are often the life of Lahiri Mahasaya. During my stay uncommunicative. in India I was taking every opportunity of Keshabananda made a gesture of contacting direct disciples and relatives of the humility. “There is little of external moment. Yogavatar. Recording their conversations in Practically my whole life has been spent in voluminous notes, I verified facts and dates, the Himalayan solitudes, traveling on foot and collected photographs, old letters, and from one quiet cave to another. For a while I documents. My Lahiri Mahasaya portfolio maintained a small ashram outside Hardwar, began to swell; I realized with dismay that surrounded on all sides by a grove of tall ahead of me lay arduous labors in authorship. trees. It was a peaceful spot little visited by I prayed that I might be equal to my role as travelers, owing to the ubiquitous presence of biographer of the colossal guru. Several of his cobras.” Keshabananda chuckled. “Later a disciples feared that in a written account their Ganges flood washed away the hermitage and master might be belittled or misinterpreted. cobras alike. My disciples then helped me to “One can hardly do justice in cold words build this Brindaban ashram.” to the life of a divine incarnation,” Panchanon One of our party asked the swami how he Bhattacharya had once remarked to me. had protected himself against the Himalayan Other close disciples were similarly tigers.* satisfied to keep the Yogavatar hidden in their hearts as the deathless preceptor.

Nevertheless, mindful of Lahiri Mahasaya’s *There are many methods, it appears, for outwitting a prediction about his biography, I spared no tiger. An Australian explorer, Francis Birtles, has effort to secure and substantiate the facts of recounted that he found the Indian jungles “varied, beautiful, and safe.” His safety charm was flypaper. his outward life. “Every night I spread a quantity of sheets around my camp and was never disturbed,” he explained. “The Swami Keshabananda greeted our p a r t y reason is psychological. The tiger is an animal of great warmly at Brindaban in his Katayani Peith conscious dignity. He prowls around and challenges Ashram, an imposing brick building with man until he comes to the flypaper; he then slinks away. No dignified tiger would dare face a human massive black pillars, set in a beautiful being after squatting down upon a sticky flypaper!”

277 Keshabananda shook his head. “In those “While roaming last year in the northern high spiritual altitudes,” he said, “wild beasts Himalayas near Badrinarayan,” the swami seldom molest the yogis. Once in the jungle I continued, “I lost my way. Shelter appeared in encountered a tiger face-to-face. At my a spacious cave, which was empty, though the sudden ejaculation, the animal was transfixed embers of a fire glowed in a hole in the rocky as though turned to stone.” Again the swami floor. Wondering about the occupant of this chuckled at his memories. lonely retreat, I sat near the fire, my gaze “Occasionally I left my seclusion to visit fixed on the sunlit entrance to the cave. my guru in Benares. He used to joke with me “‘Keshabananda, I am glad you are here.’ over my ceaseless travels in the Himalayan These words came from behind me. I turned, wilderness. startled, and was dazzled to behold Babaji! “‘You have the mark of wanderlust on The great guru had materialized himself in a your foot,’ he told me once. ‘I am glad that recess of the cave. Overjoyed to see him again the sacred Himalayas are extensive enough to after many years, I prostrated myself at his engross you.’ holy feet. “Many times,” Keshabananda went on, “‘I called you here,’ Babaji went on. “both before and after his passing, Lahiri ‘That is why you lost your way and were led Mahasaya has appeared bodily before me. For to my temporary abode in this cave. It is a him no Himalayan height is inaccessible!” long time since our last meeting; I am pleased to greet you once more.’ Two hours later he led us to a dining patio. I sighed in silent dismay. Another “The deathless master blessed me with fifteen-course meal! Less than a year of some words of spiritual help, then added: ‘I Indian hospitality, and I had gained fifty give you a message for Yogananda. He will pounds! Yet it would have been considered pay you a visit on his return to India. Many the height of rudeness to refuse any of the matters connected with his guru and with the dishes, carefully prepared for the endless surviving disciples of Lahiri will keep banquets in my honor. In India (nowhere else, Yogananda fully occupied. Tell him, then, alas!) a well-padded swami is considered a that I won’t see him this time, as he is eagerly delightful sight.* hoping; but I shall see him on some other occasion.’” After dinner, Keshabananda led me to a secluded nook. I was deeply touched to receive from Keshabananda’s lips this consoling promise “Your arrival is not unexpected,” he said. from Babaji. A certain hurt in my heart “I have a message for you.” vanished; I grieved no longer that, even as Sri I was surprised; no one had known of my Yukteswar had hinted, Babaji did not appear plan to visit Keshabananda. at the Kumbha Mela. Spending one night as guests of the ashram, our party set out the following *After I returned to America I took off sixty-five pounds. afternoon for Calcutta. Riding over a bridge

278 of the Jumna River, we enjoyed a magnificent In a few days our little group reached view of the skyline of Brindaban just as the Calcutta. Eager to see Sri Yukteswar, I was sun set fire to the sky—a veritable furnace of disappointed to hear that he had left Vulcan in color, reflected below us in the still Serampore and was now in Puri, about three waters. hundred miles to the south. The Jumna beach is hallowed by “Come to Puri ashram at once.” This memories of the child Sri Krishna. Here he telegram was sent on March 8th by a brother engaged with innocent sweetness in his lilas disciple to Atul Chandra Roy Chowdhry, one (plays) with the gopis (maids), exemplifying of Master’s chelas in Calcutta. News of the the supernal love which ever exists between a message reached my ears; anguished at its divine incarnation and his devotees. The life implications, I dropped to my knees and of Lord Krishna has been misunderstood by implored God that my guru’s life be spared. many Western commentators. Scriptural As I was about to leave Father’s home for the allegory is baffling to literal minds. A train, a divine voice spoke within. hilarious blunder by a translator will illustrate “Do not go to Puri tonight. Thy prayer this point. The story concerns an inspired cannot he granted.” medieval saint, the cobbler Ravidas, who sang in the simple terms of his own trade of the “Lord,” I said, grief-stricken, “Thou dost spiritual glory hidden in all mankind: not wish to engage with me in a ‘tug of war’ at Puri, where Thou wilt have to deny my Under the vast vault of blue incessant prayers for Master’s life. Must he, Lives the divinity clothed in hide. then, depart for higher duties at Thy behest?” One turns aside to hide a smile on In obedience to the inward command, I hearing the pedestrian interpretation given to did not leave that night for Puri. The Ravidas’ poem by a Western writer: following evening I set out for the train; on “He afterwards built a hut, set up in it an the way, at seven o’clock, a black astral cloud idol which he made from a hide, and applied suddenly covered the sky.* Later, while the himself to its worship.” train roared toward Puri, a vision of Sri Yukteswar appeared before me. He was Ravidas was a brother disciple of the sitting, very grave of countenance, with a great Kabir. One of Ravidas’ exalted chelas light on each side. was the Rani of Chitor. She invited a large number of Brahmins to a feast in honor of her “Is it all over?” I lifted my arms teacher, but they refused to eat with a lowly beseechingly. cobbler. As they sat down in dignified He nodded, then slowly vanished. aloofness to eat their own uncontaminated As I stood on the Puri train platform the meal, lo! each Brahmin found at his side the following morning, still hoping against hope, form of Ravidas. This mass vision an unknown man approached me. accomplished a widespread spiritual revival in Chitor.

279 “Have you heard that your Master is vernal equinox memorial service. The Amrita gone?” He left me without another word; I Bazar Patrika, leading newspaper of Calcutta, never discovered who he was nor how he had carried his picture and the following report: known where to find me. The death Bhandara ceremony for Srimat Stunned, I swayed against the platform Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri Maharaj, aged 81, wall, realizing that in diverse ways my guru took place at Puri on March 21. Many was trying to convey to me the devastating disciples came down to Puri for the rites. news. Seething with rebellion, my soul was One of the greatest expounders of the like a volcano. By the time I reached the Puri Bhagavad Gita, Swami Maharaj was a great hermitage I was nearing collapse. The inner disciple of Yogiraj Sri Shyama Charan Lahiri voice was tenderly repeating: “Collect Mahasaya of Benares. Swami Maharaj was yourself. Be calm.” the founder of several Yogoda Sat-Sanga I entered the ashram room where (Self-Realization Fellowship) centers in India, Master’s body, unimaginably lifelike, was and was the great inspiration behind the yoga sitting in the lotus posture—a picture of movement which was carried to the West by health and loveliness. A short time before his Swami Yogananda, his principal disciple. It passing, my guru had been slightly ill with was Sri Yukteswarji’s prophetic powers and fever, but before the day of his ascension into deep realization that inspired Swami the Infinite, his body had become completely Yogananda to cross the oceans and spread in well. No matter how often I looked at his dear America the message of the masters of India. form I could not realize that its life had His interpretations of the Bhagavad Gita and departed. His skin was smooth and soft; in his other scriptures testify to the depth of Sri face was a beatific expression of tranquillity. Yukteswarji’s command of the philosophy, He had consciously relinquished his body at both Eastern and Western, and remain as an the hour of mystic summoning. e y e -opener for the unity between Orient and “The Lion of Bengal is gone!” I cried in a Occident. As he believed in the unity of all daze. religious faiths, Sri Yukteswar Maharaj I conducted the solemn rites on March established Sadhu Sabha (Society of Saints) 10th. Sri Yukteswar was buried† with the with the cooperation of leaders of various ancient rituals of the swamis in the garden of sects and faiths, for the inculcation of a his Puri ashram. His disciples later arrived scientific spirit in religion. At the time of his from far and near to honor their guru at a demise he nominated Swami Yogananda his successor as the president of Sadhu Sabha. India is really poorer today by the passing of *Sri Yukteswar passed at this hour—7:00 P.M., March 9, 1936. such a great man. May all fortunate enough to †Funeral customs in India require cremation for have come near him inculcate in themselves householders; swamis and monks of other orders are not cremated, but buried. (There are occasional the true spirit of India’s culture and sadhana exceptions.) The bodies of monks are symbolically which was personified in him. considered to have undergone cremation in the fire of wisdom at the time of taking the monastic vow.

280 I returned to Calcutta. Not trusting No answer came. myself as yet to go to the Serampore “It is best that Master has completed his hermitage with its sacred memories, I union with the Cosmic Beloved,” my mind summoned Prafulla, Sri Yukteswar’s little assured me. “He is eternally glowing in the disciple in Serampore, and made dominion of deathlessness.” arrangements for him to enter the Ranchi school. “Never again may you see him in the old Serampore mansion,” my heart lamented. “No “The morning you left for the Allahabad longer may you bring your friends to meet mela,” Prafulla told me, “Master dropped him, or proudly say: ‘Behold, there sits heavily on the davenport. India’s Jnanavatar!’” “‘Yogananda is gone!’ he cried. Mr. Wright made arrangements for our ‘Yogananda is gone!’ He added cryptically, ‘I party to sail from Bombay for the West in shall have to tell him some other way.’ He sat early June. After a fortnight in May of then for hours in silence.” farewell banquets and speeches at Calcutta, My days were filled with lectures, Miss Bletch, Mr. Wright and myself left in classes, interviews, and reunions with old the Ford for Bombay. On our arrival, the ship friends. Beneath a hollow smile and a life of authorities asked us to cancel our passage, as ceaseless activity, a stream of black brooding no room could be found for the Ford, which polluted the inner river of bliss which for so we would need again in Europe. many years had meandered under the sands of “Never mind,” I said gloomily to Mr. all my perceptions. Wright. “I want to return once more to Puri.” “Where has that divine sage gone?” I I silently added, “Let my tears once again cried silently from the depths of a tormented water the grave of my guru.” spirit.

281 CHAPTER: 43 The Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar “Lord krishna!” The glorious form of the months was toll I counted weightless against avatar appeared in a shimmering blaze as I sat the torrential bliss now descending. in my room at the Regent Hotel in Bombay. “Master mine, beloved of my heart, why Shining over the roof of a high building did you leave me?” I was incoherent in an across the street, the ineffable vision had excess of joy. “Why did you let me go to the suddenly burst on my sight as I gazed out of Kumbha Mela? How bitterly have I blamed my long open third-story window. myself for leaving you!” The divine figure waved to me, smiling “I did not want to interfere with your and nodding in greeting. When I could not happy anticipation of seeing the pilgrimage understand the exact message of Lord spot where first I met Babaji. I left you only Krishna, he departed with a gesture of for a little while; am I not with you again?” blessing. Wondrously uplifted, I felt that some spiritual event was presaged. “But is it you, Master, the same Lion of God? Are you wearing a body like the one I My Western voyage had, for the time buried beneath the cruel Puri sands?” being, been cancelled. I was scheduled for several public addresses in Bombay before “Yes, my child, I am the same. This is a leaving on a return visit to Bengal. flesh and blood body. Though I see it as ethereal, to your sight it is physical. From the Sitting on my bed in the Bombay hotel at cosmic atoms I created an entirely new body, three o’clock in the afternoon of June 19, exactly like that cosmic-dream physical body 1936—one week after the vision of Krishna— which you laid beneath the dream-sands at I was roused from my meditation by a beatific Puri in your dream-world. I am in truth light. Before my open and astonished eyes, resurrected—not on earth but on an astral the whole room was transformed into a planet. Its inhabitants are better able than strange world, the sunlight transmuted into earthly humanity to meet my lofty standards. supernal splendor. There you and your exalted loved ones shall Waves of rapture engulfed me as I beheld someday come to be with me.” the flesh and blood form of Sri Yukteswar! “Deathless guru, tell me more!” “My son!” Master spoke tenderly, on his Master gave a quick, mirthful chuckle. face an angel-bewitching smile. “Please, dear one,” he said, “won’t you relax For the first time in my life I did not your hold a little?” kneel at his feet in greeting but instantly “Only a little!” I had been embracing him advanced to gather him hungrily in my arms. with an octopus grip. I could detect the same Moment of moments! The anguish of past faint, fragrant, natural odor which had been

282 characteristic of his body before. The thrilling on Hiranyaloka who have come from the touch of his divine flesh still persists around superior, subtler, causal world.” the inner sides of my arms and in my palms My mind was now in such perfect whenever I recall those glorious hours. attunement with my guru’s that he was “As prophets are sent on earth to help conveying his word-pictures to me partly by men work out their physical karma, so I have speech and partly by thought-transference. I been directed by God to serve on an astral was thus quickly receiving his idea-tabloids. planet as a savior,” Sri Yukteswar explained. “You have read in the scriptures,” Master “It is called Hiranyaloka or ‘Illumined Astral went on, “that God encased the human soul Planet.’ There I am aiding advanced beings to successively in three bodies—the idea, or rid themselves of astral karma and thus attain causal, body; the subtle astral body, seat of liberation from astral rebirths. The dwellers man’s mental and emotional natures; and the on Hiranyaloka are highly developed gross physical body. On earth a man is spiritually; all of them had acquired, in their equipped with his physical senses. An astral last earth-incarnation, the meditation-given being works with his consciousness and power of consciously leaving their physical feelings and a body made of lifetrons.† A bodies at death. No one can enter Hiranyaloka causal-bodied being remains in the blissful unless he has passed on earth beyond the state realm of ideas. My work is with those astral of sabikalpa samadhi into the higher state of beings who are preparing to enter the causal nirbikalpa samadhi.* world.” “The Hiranyaloka inhabitants have “Adorable Master, please tell me more already passed through the ordinary astral about the astral cosmos.” Though I had spheres, where nearly all beings from earth slightly relaxed my embrace at Sri must go at death; there they worked out many Yukteswar’s request, my arms were still seeds of their past actions in the astral worlds. around him. Treasure beyond all treasures, None but advanced beings can perform such my guru who had laughed at death to reach redemptive work effectually in the astral me! worlds. Then, in order to free their souls more fully from the cocoon of karmic traces lodged “There are many astral planets, teeming in their astral bodies, these higher beings were with astral beings,” Master began. “The drawn by cosmic law to be reborn with new inhabitants use astral planes, or masses of astral bodies on Hiranyaloka, the astral sun or light, to travel from one planet to another, heaven, where I have resurrected to help them. There are also highly advanced beings †Sri Yukteswar used the word prana; I have translated it as lifetrons. The Hindu scriptures refer not only to *In sabikalpa samadhi the devotee has spiritually the anu, “atom,” and to the paramanu, “beyond the progressed to a state of inward divine union, but cannot atom,” finer electronic energies; but also to prana, maintain his cosmic consciousness except in the “creative lifetronic force.” Atoms and electrons are immobile trance-state. By continuous meditation, he blind forces; prana is inherently intelligent. The pranic reaches the superior state of nirbikalpa samadhi, where lifetrons in the spermatozoa and ova, for instance, he moves freely in the world and performs his outward guide the embryonic development according to a duties without any loss of God-realization. karmic design.

283 faster than electricity and radioactive the evil spirits are confined to limited zones. energies. In the same way that human beings live on the “The astral universe, made of various surface of the earth, worms inside the soil, subtle vibrations of light and color, is fish in water, and birds in air, so astral beings hundreds of times larger than the material of different grades are assigned to suitable cosmos. The entire physical creation hangs vibratory quarters. like a little solid basket under the huge “Among the fallen dark angels expelled luminous balloon of the astral sphere. Just as from other worlds, friction and war take place many physical suns and stars roam in space, with lifetronic bombs or mental mantric* so there are also countless astral solar and vibratory rays. These beings dwell in the stellar systems. Their planets have astral suns gloom-drenched regions of the lower astral and moons, more beautiful than the physical cosmos, working out their evil karma. ones. The astral luminaries resemble the “In the vast realms above the dark astral aurora borealis—the sunny astral aurora being prison, all is shining and beautiful. The astral more dazzling than the mild-rayed moon- cosmos is more naturally attuned than the aurora. The astral day and night are longer earth to the divine will and plan of perfection. than those of earth. Every astral object is manifested primarily by “The astral world is infinitely beautiful, the will of God, and partially by the will-call clean, pure, and orderly. There are no dead of astral beings. They possess the power of planets or barren lands. The terrestrial modifying or enhancing the grace and form of blemishes—weeds, bacteria, insects, snakes— anything already created by the Lord. He has are absent. Unlike the variable climates and given His astral children the freedom and seasons of the earth, the astral planets privilege of changing or improving at will the maintain the even temperature of an eternal astral cosmos. On earth a solid must be spring, with occasional luminous white snow transformed into liquid or other form through and rain of many-colored lights. Astral natural or chemical processes, but astral solids planets abound in opal lakes and bright seas are changed into astral liquids, gases, or and rainbow rivers. energy solely and instantly by the will of the “The ordinary astral universe—not the inhabitants. subtler astral heaven of Hiranyaloka—is “The earth is dark with warfare and peopled with millions of astral beings who murder in the sea, land, and air,” my guru have come, more or less recently, from the continued, “but the astral realms know a earth, and also with myriads of fairies, happy harmony and equality. Astral beings mermaids, fishes, animals, goblins, gnomes, demigods and spirits, all residing on different *Adjective of mantra, chanted seed-sounds discharged astral planets in accordance with karmic by the mental gun of concentration. The Puranas qualifications. Various spheric mansions or (ancient shastras or treatises) describe these mantric vibratory regions are provided for good and wars between devas and asuras (gods and demons). An asura once tried to slay a deva with a potent chant. But evil spirits. Good ones can travel freely, but due to mispronunciation the mental bomb acted as a boomerang and killed the demon.

284 dematerialize or materialize their forms at “Unlike the spacial, three-dimensional will. Flowers or fish or animals can physical world cognized only by the five metamorphose themselves, for a time, into senses, the astral spheres are visible to the all- astral men. All astral beings are free to inclusive sixth sense—intuition,” Sri assume any form, and can easily commune Yukteswar went on. “By sheer intuitional together. No fixed, definite, natural law hems feeling, all astral beings see, hear, smell, taste, them round—any astral tree, for example, can and touch. They possess three eyes, two of be successfully asked to produce an astral which are partly closed. The third and chief mango or other desired fruit, flower, or indeed astral eye, vertically placed on the forehead, is any other object. Certain karmic restrictions open. Astral beings have all the outer sensory are present, but there are no distinctions in the organs—ears, eyes, nose, tongue, and skin— astral world about desirability of various but they employ the intuitional sense to forms. Everything is vibrant with God’s experience sensations through any part of the creative light. body; they can see through the ear, or nose, or “No one is born of woman; offspring are skin. They are able to hear through the eyes or materialized by astral beings through the help tongue, and can taste through the ears or skin, of their cosmic will into specially patterned, and so forth.* astrally condensed forms. The recently “Man’s physical body is exposed to physically disembodied being arrives in an countless dangers, and is easily hurt or astral family through invitation, drawn by maimed; the ethereal astral body may similar mental and spiritual tendencies. occasionally be cut or bruised but is healed at “The astral body is not subject to cold or once by mere willing.” heat or other natural conditions. The anatomy “Gurudeva, are all astral persons includes an astral brain, or the thousand- beautiful?” petaled lotus of light, and six awakened “Beauty in the astral world is known to centers in the sushumna, or astral cerebro- be a spiritual quality, and not an outward spinal axis. The heart draws cosmic energy as conformation,” Sri Yukteswar replied. “Astral well as light from the astral brain, and pumps beings therefore attach little importance to it to the astral nerves and body cells, or facial features. They have the privilege, lifetrons. Astral beings can affect their bodies however, of costuming themselves at will by lifetronic force or by mantric vibrations. with new, colorful, astrally materialized “The astral body is an exact counterpart bodies. Just as worldly men don new array for of the last physical form. Astral beings retain gala events, so astral beings find occasions to the same appearance which they possessed in bedeck themselves in specially designed youth in their previous earthly sojourn; forms. occasionally an astral being chooses, like myself, to retain his old age appearance.” Master, emanating the very essence of youth, *Examples of such powers are not wanting even on chuckled merrily. earth, as in the case of Helen Keller and other rare beings.

285 “Joyous astral festivities on the higher souls. When the Hiranyaloka beings sleep, astral planets like Hiranyaloka take place they have occasional dreamlike astral visions. when a being is liberated from the astral Their minds are usually engrossed in the world through spiritual advancement, and is conscious state of highest nirbikalpa bliss. therefore ready to enter the heaven of the “Inhabitants in all parts of the astral causal world. On such occasions the Invisible worlds are still subject to mental agonies. The Heavenly Father, and the saints who are sensitive minds of the higher beings on merged in Him, materialize Themselves into planets like Hiranyaloka feel keen pain if any bodies of Their own choice and join the astral mistake is made in conduct or perception of celebration. In order to please His beloved truth. These advanced beings endeavor to devotee, the Lord takes any desired form. If attune their every act and thought with the the devotee worshiped through devotion, he perfection of spiritual law. sees God as the Divine Mother. To Jesus, the Father-aspect of the Infinite One was “Communication among the astral appealing beyond other conceptions. The inhabitants is held entirely by astral telepathy individuality with which the Creator has and television; there is none of the confusion endowed each of His creatures makes every and misunderstanding of the written and conceivable and inconceivable demand on the spoken word which earth-dwellers must Lord’s versatility!” My guru and I laughed endure. Just as persons on the cinema screen happily together. appear to move and act through a series of light pictures, and do not actually breathe, so “Friends of other lives easily recognize the astral beings walk and work as one another in the astral world,” Sri intelligently guided and coordinated images Yukteswar went on in his beautiful, flutelike of light, without the necessity of drawing voice. “Rejoicing at the immortality of power from oxygen. Man depends upon friendship, they realize the indestructibility of solids, liquids, gases, and energy for love, often doubted at the time of the sad, sustenance; astral beings sustain themselves delusive partings of earthly life. principally by cosmic light.” “The intuition of astral beings pierces “Master mine, do astral beings eat through the veil and observes human anything?” I was drinking in his marvelous activities on earth, but man cannot view the elucidations with the receptivity of all my astral world unless his sixth sense is faculties—mind, heart, soul. Superconscious somewhat developed. Thousands of earth- perceptions of truth are permanently real and dwellers have momentarily glimpsed an astral changeless, while fleeting sense experiences being or an astral world. and impressions are never more than “The advanced beings on Hiranyaloka temporarily or relatively true, and soon lose in remain mostly awake in ecstasy during the memory all their vividness. My guru’s words long astral day and night, helping to work out were so penetratingly imprinted on the intricate problems of cosmic government and parchment of my being that at any time, by the redemption of prodigal sons, earthbound transferring my mind to the superconscious

286 state, I can clearly relive the divine in the latest life of any particular soul, the experience. astral being employs his unerring intuition to “Luminous raylike vegetables abound in recognize all those once dear to him in other the astral soils,” he answered. “The astral planes of existence, and to welcome them to beings consume vegetables, and drink a nectar their new astral home. Because every atom in flowing from glorious fountains of light and creation is inextinguishably dowered with from astral brooks and rivers. Just as invisible individuality,† an astral friend will be images of persons on the earth can be dug out recognized no matter what costume he may of the ether and made visible by a television don, even as on earth an actor’s identity is apparatus, later being dismissed again into discoverable by close observation despite any space, so the God-created, unseen astral disguise. blueprints of vegetables and plants floating in “The span of life in the astral world is the ether are precipitated on an astral planet much longer than on earth. A normal by the will of its inhabitants. In the same way, advanced astral being’s average life period is from the wildest fancy of these beings, whole from five hundred to one thousand years, gardens of fragrant flowers are materialized, measured in accordance with earthly returning later to the etheric invisibility. standards of time. As certain redwood trees Although dwellers on the heavenly planets outlive most trees by millenniums, or as some like Hiranyaloka are almost freed from any yogis live several hundred years though most necessity of eating, still higher is the men die before the age of sixty, so some astral unconditioned existence of almost completely beings live much longer than the usual span liberated souls in the causal world, who eat of astral existence. Visitors to the astral world nothing save the manna of bliss. dwell there for a longer or shorter period in “The earth-liberated astral being meets a accordance with the weight of their physical multitude of relatives, fathers, mothers, wives, karma, which draws them back to earth within husbands, and friends, acquired during a specified time. different incarnations on earth,* as they “The astral being does not have to appear from time to time in various parts of contend painfully with death at the time of the astral realms. He is therefore at a loss to shedding his luminous body. Many of these understand whom to love especially; he learns beings nevertheless feel slightly nervous at in this way to give a divine and equal love to the thought of dropping their astral form for all, as children and individualized expressions the subtler causal one. The astral world is free of God. Though the outward appearance of from unwilling death, disease, and old age. loved ones may have changed, more or less These three dreads are the curse of earth, according to the development of new qualities where man has allowed his consciousness to identify itself almost wholly with a frail

*Lord Buddha was once asked why a man should love all persons equally. “Because,” the great teacher †The eight elemental qualities which enter into all replied, “in the very numerous and varied lifespans of created life, from atom to man, are earth, water, fire, each man, every other being has at one time or another air, ether, motion, mind, and individuality. (Bhagavad been dear to him.” Gita: VII:4.)

287 physical body requiring constant aid from air, smell, taste, touch; five instruments of action, food, and sleep in order to exist at all. the mental correspondence for the executive “Physical death is attended by the abilities to procreate, excrete, talk, walk, and disappearance of breath and the disintegration exercise manual skill; and five instruments of of fleshly cells. Astral death consists of the life force, those empowered to perform the dispersement of lifetrons, those manifest units crystallizing, assimilating, eliminating, of energy which constitute the life of astral metabolizing, and circulating functions of the beings. At physical death a being loses his body. This subtle astral encasement of consciousness of flesh and becomes aware of nineteen elements survives the death of the his in the astral world. physical body, which is made of sixteen gross Experiencing astral death in due time, a being metallic and nonmetallic elements. thus passes from the consciousness of astral “God thought out different ideas within birth and death to that of physical birth and Himself and projected them into dreams. death. These recurrent cycles of astral and Lady Cosmic Dream thus sprang out physical encasement are the ineluctable decorated in all her colossal endless destiny of all unenlightened beings. Scriptural ornaments of relativity. definitions of heaven and hell sometimes stir “In thirty-five thought categories of the man’s deeper-than-subconscious memories of causal body, God elaborated all the his long series of experiences in the complexities of man’s nineteen astral and blithesome astral and disappointing terrestrial sixteen physical counterparts. By worlds.” condensation of vibratory forces, first subtle, “Beloved Master,” I asked, “will you then gross, He produced man’s astral body please describe more in detail the difference and finally his physical form. According to between rebirth on the earth and in the astral the law of relativity, by which the Prime and causal spheres?” Simplicity has become the bewildering “Man as an individualized soul is manifold, the causal cosmos and causal body essentially causal-bodied,” my guru are different from the astral cosmos and astral explained. “That body is a matrix of the body; the physical cosmos and physical body thirty-five ideas required by God as the basic are likewise characteristically at variance with or causal thought forces from which He later the other forms of creation. formed the subtle astral body of nineteen The fleshly body is made of the fixed, elements and the gross physical body of objectified dreams of the Creator. The sixteen elements. dualities are ever-present on earth: disease “The nineteen elements of the astral body and health, pain and pleasure, loss and gain. are mental, emotional, and lifetronic. The Human beings find limitation and resistance nineteen components are intelligence; ego; in three-dimensional matter. When man’s feeling; mind (sense-consciousness); five desire to live is severely shaken by disease or instruments of knowledge, the subtle other causes, death arrives; the heavy counterparts of the senses of sight, hearing, overcoat of the flesh is temporarily shed. The

288 soul, however, remains encased in the astral creation is made of the cosmic dream-texture, and causal bodies.* The adhesive force by the soul thinly clothed in the causal has vast which all three bodies are held together is realizations of power. desire. The power of unfulfilled desires is the “A soul, being invisible by nature, can be root of all man’s slavery. distinguished only by the presence of its body “Physical desires are rooted in egotism or bodies. The mere presence of a body and sense pleasures. The compulsion or signifies that its existence is made possible by temptation of sensory experience is more unfulfilled desires.‡ powerful than the desire-force connected with “So long as the soul of man is encased in astral attachments or causal perceptions. one, two, or three body-containers, sealed “Astral desires center around enjoyment tightly with the corks of ignorance and in terms of vibration. Astral beings enjoy the desires, he cannot merge with the sea of ethereal music of the spheres and are Spirit. When the gross physical receptacle is entranced by the sight of all creation as destroyed by the hammer of death, the other exhaustless expressions of changing light. two coverings—astral and causal—still The astral beings also smell, taste, and touch remain to prevent the soul from consciously light. Astral desires are thus connected with joining the Omnipresent Life. When an astral being’s power to precipitate all desirelessness is attained through wisdom, its objects and experiences as forms of light or as power disintegrates the two remaining condensed thoughts or dreams. vessels. The tiny human soul emerges, free at “Causal desires are fulfilled by last; it is one with the Measureless perception only. The nearly-free beings who Amplitude.” are encased only in the causal body see the I asked my divine guru to shed further whole universe as realizations of the dream- light on the high and mysterious causal world. ideas of God; they can materialize anything “The causal world is indescribably and everything in sheer thought. Causal subtle,” he replied. “In order to understand it, beings therefore consider the enjoyment of one would have to possess such tremendous physical sensations or astral delights as gross powers of concentration that he could close and suffocating to the soul’s fine sensibilities. his eyes and visualize the astral cosmos and Causal beings work out their desires by the physical cosmos in all their vastness—the materializing them instantly.† Those who find luminous balloon with the solid basket—as themselves covered only by the delicate veil existing in ideas only. If by this superhuman of the causal body can bring universes into concentration one succeeded in converting or manifestation even as the Creator. Because all

‡“And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, *Body signifies any soul-encasement, whether gross or thither will the eagles be gathered together.”—Luke subtle. The three bodies are cages for the Bird of 17:37. Wherever the soul is encased in the physical Paradise. body or in the astral body or in the causal body, there †Even as Babaji helped Lahiri Mahasaya to rid himself the eagles of desires—which prey on human sense of a subconscious desire from some past life for a weaknesses, or on astral and causal attachments—will palace, as described in chapter 34. also gather to keep the soul a prisoner.

289 resolving the two cosmoses with all their thoughts to be merely ideas. As a man, complexities into sheer ideas, he would then closing his eyes, can visualize a dazzling reach the causal world and stand on the white light or a faint blue haze, so causal borderline of fusion between mind and matter. beings by thought alone are able to see, hear, There one perceives all created things— feel, taste, and touch; they create anything, or solids, liquids, gases, electricity, energy, all dissolve it, by the power of cosmic mind. beings, gods, men, animals, plants, bacteria— “Both death and rebirth in the causal as forms of consciousness, just as a man can world are in thought. Causal-bodied beings close his eyes and realize that he exists, even feast only on the ambrosia of eternally new though his body is invisible to his physical knowledge. They drink from the springs of eyes and is present only as an idea. peace, roam on the trackless soil of “Whatever a human being can do in perceptions, swim in the ocean-endlessness of fancy, a causal being can do in reality. The bliss. Lo! see their bright thought-bodies most colossal imaginative human intelligence zoom past trillions of Spirit-created planets, is able, in mind only, to range from one fresh bubbles of universes, wisdom-stars, extreme of thought to another, to skip spectral dreams of golden nebulae, all over mentally from planet to planet, or tumble the skiey blue bosom of Infinity! endlessly down a pit of eternity, or soar “Many beings remain for thousands of rocketlike into the galaxied canopy, or years in the causal cosmos. By deeper scintillate like a searchlight over milky ways ecstasies the freed soul then withdraws itself and the starry spaces. But beings in the causal from the little causal body and puts on the world have a much greater freedom, and can vastness of the causal cosmos. All the effortlessly manifest their thoughts into separate eddies of ideas, particularized waves instant objectivity, without any material or of power, love, will, joy, peace, intuition, astral obstruction or karmic limitation. calmness, self-control, and concentration melt “Causal beings realize that the physical into the ever-joyous Sea of Bliss. No longer cosmos is not primarily constructed of does the soul have to experience its joy as an electrons, nor is the astral cosmos basically individualized wave of consciousness, but is composed of lifetrons—both in reality are merged in the One Cosmic Ocean, with all its created from the minutest particles of God- waves—eternal laughter, thrills, throbs. thought, chopped and divided by maya, the “When a soul is out of the cocoon of the law of relativity which intervenes to three bodies it escapes forever from the law of apparently separate the Noumenon from His relativity and becomes the ineffable Ever- phenomena. Existent.* Behold the butterfly of “Souls in the causal world recognize one another as individualized points of joyous *“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Spirit; their thought-things are the only temple of my God, and he shall go no more out (i.e., objects which surround them. Causal beings shall reincarnate no more). . . . To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also see the difference between their bodies and overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”—Revelation 3:12, 21.

290 Omnipresence, its wings etched with stars and to the three worlds.” I could listen forever, I moons and suns! The soul expanded into thought, to my omniscient Master. Never in Spirit remains alone in the region of lightless his earth-life had I been able at one time to light, darkless dark, thoughtless thought, assimilate so much of his wisdom. Now for intoxicated with its ecstasy of joy in God’s the first time I was receiving a clear, definite dream of cosmic creation.” insight into the enigmatic interspaces on the “A free soul!” I ejaculated in awe. checkerboard of life and death. “When a soul finally gets out of the three “The physical karma or desires of man jars of bodily delusions,” Master continued, must be completely worked out before his “it becomes one with the Infinite without any permanent stay in astral worlds becomes loss of individuality. Christ had won this final possible,” my guru elucidated in his thrilling freedom even before he was born as Jesus. In voice. “Two kinds of beings live in the astral three stages of his past, symbolized in his spheres. Those who still have earthly karma earth-life as the three days of his experience to dispose of and who must therefore of death and resurrection, he had attained the reinhabit a gross physical body in order to pay power to fully arise in Spirit. their karmic debts could be classified, after physical death, as temporary visitors to the “The undeveloped man must undergo astral world rather than as permanent countless earthly and astral and causal residents. incarnations in order to emerge from his three bodies. A master who achieves this final “Beings with unredeemed earthly karma freedom may elect to return to earth as a are not permitted after astral death to go to the prophet to bring other human beings back to high causal sphere of cosmic ideas, but must God, or like myself he may choose to reside shuttle to and fro from the physical and astral in the astral cosmos. There a savior assumes worlds only, conscious successively of their some of the burden of the inhabitants’ karma* physical body of sixteen gross elements, and and thus helps them to terminate their cycle of of their astral body of nineteen subtle reincarnation in the astral cosmos and go on elements. After each loss of his physical permanently to the causal spheres. Or a freed body, however, an undeveloped being from soul may enter the causal world to aid its the earth remains for the most part in the deep beings to shorten their span in the causal body stupor of the death-sleep and is hardly and thus attain the Absolute Freedom.” conscious of the beautiful astral sphere. After the astral rest, such a man returns to the “Resurrected One, I want to know more material plane for further lessons, gradua l l y about the karma which forces souls to return accustoming himself, through repeated journeys, to the worlds of subtle astral texture. *Sri Yukteswar was signifying that, even as in his earthly incarnation he had occasionally assumed the “Normal or long-established residents of weight of disease to lighten his disciples’ karma, so in the astral universe, on the other hand, are the astral world his mission as a savior enabled him to those who, freed forever from all material take on certain astral karma of dwellers on Hiranyaloka, and thus hasten their evolution into the longings, need return no more to the gross higher causal world.

291 vibrations of earth. Such beings have only go back there, does he remain in the causal astral and causal karma to work out. At astral world. Completing there the work of death these beings pass to the infinitely finer redeeming all causal karma or seeds of past and more delicate causal world. Shedding the desires, the confined soul thrusts out the last thought-form of the causal body at the end of of the three corks of ignorance and, emerging a certain span, determined by cosmic law, from the final jar of the causal body, these advanced beings then return to commingles with the Eternal. Hiranyaloka or a similar high astral planet, “Now do you understand?” Master reborn in a new astral body to work out their smiled so enchantingly! unredeemed astral karma. “Yes, through your grace. I am “My son, you may now comprehend speechless with joy and gratitude.” more fully that I am resurrected by divine decree,” Sri Yukteswar continued, “as a Never from song or story had I ever savior of astrally reincarnating souls coming received such inspiring knowledge. Though back from the causal sphere, in particular, the Hindu scriptures refer to the causal and rather than of those astral beings who are astral worlds and to man’s three bodies, how coming up from the earth. Those from the remote and meaningless those pages earth, if they still retain vestiges of material compared with the warm authenticity of my karma, do not rise to the very high astral resurrected Master! For him indeed existed planets like Hiranyaloka. not a single “undiscover’d country from whose bourn no traveller returns”! “Just as most people on earth have not learned through meditation-acquired vision to “The interpenetration of man’s three appreciate the superior joys and advantages of bodies is expressed in many ways through his astral life and thus, after death, desire to threefold nature,” my great guru went on. “In return to the limited, imperfect pleasures of the wakeful state on earth a human being is earth, so many astral beings, during the conscious more or less of his three vehicles. normal disintegration of their astral bodies, When he is sensuously intent on tasting, fail to picture the advanced state of spiritual smelling, touching, listening, or seeing, he is joy in the causal world and, dwelling on working principally through his physical thoughts of the more gross and gaudy astral body. Visualizing or willing, he is working happiness, yearn to revisit the astral paradise. mainly through his astral body. His causal Heavy astral karma must be redeemed by medium finds expression when man is such beings before they can achieve after thinking or diving deep in introspection or astral death a permanent stay in the causal meditation; the cosmical thoughts of genius thought-world, so thinly partitioned from the come to the man who habitually contacts his Creator. causal body. In this sense an individual may be classified broadly as ‘a material man,’ ‘an “Only when a being has no further energetic man,’ or ‘an intellectual man.’ desires for experiences in the pleasing-to-the- eye astral cosmos, and cannot be tempted to “A man identifies himself about sixteen hours daily with his physical vehicle. Then he

292 sleeps; if he dreams, he remains in his astral eventually burst at a final wakeful touch. body, effortlessly creating any object even as Differentiate, my son Yogananda, between do the astral beings. If man’s sleep be deep dreams and Reality!” and dreamless, for several hours he is able to This idea of Vedantic* resurrection struck transfer his consciousness, or sense of I-ness, me with wonder. I was ashamed that I had to the causal body; such sleep is revivifying. pitied Master when I had seen his lifeless A dreamer is contacting his astral and not his body at Puri. I comprehended at last that my causal body; his sleep is not fully refreshing.” guru had always been fully awake in God, I had been lovingly observing Sri perceiving his own life and passing on earth, Yukteswar while he gave his wondrous and his present resurrection, as nothing more exposition. than relativities of divine ideas in the cosmic “Angelic guru,” I said, “your body looks dream. exactly as it did when last I wept over it in the “I have now told you, Yogananda, the Puri ashram.” truths of my life, death, and resurrection. “O yes, my new body is a perfect copy of Grieve not for me; rather broadcast the old one. I materialize or dematerialize this everywhere the story of my resurrection from form any time at will, much more frequently the God-dreamed earth of men to another than I did while on earth. By quick God-dreamed planet of astrally garbed souls! dematerialization, I now travel instantly by New hope will be infused into the hearts of light express from planet to planet or, indeed, misery-mad, death-fearing dreamers of the from astral to causal or to physical cosmos.” world.” My divine guru smiled. “Though you move “Yes, Master!” How willingly would I about so fast these days, I had no difficulty in share with others my joy at his resurrection! finding you at Bombay!” “On earth my standards were “O Master, I was grieving so deeply uncomfortably high, unsuited to the natures of about your death!” most men. Often I scolded you more than I “Ah, wherein did I die? Isn’t there some should have. You passed my test; your love contradiction?” Sri Yukteswar’s eyes were shone through the clouds of all reprimands.” twinkling with love and amusement. He added tenderly, “I have also come today to tell you: Never again shall I wear the stern “You were only dreaming on earth; on gaze of censure. I shall scold you no more.” that earth you saw my dream-body,” he went on. “Later you buried that dream-image. Now How much I had missed the my finer fleshly body—which you behold and chastisements of my great guru! Each one had are even now embracing rather closely!—is been a guardian angel of protection. resurrected on another finer dream-planet of God. Someday that finer dream-body and *Life and death as relativities of thought only. Vedanta points out that God is the only Reality; all creation or finer dream-planet will pass away; they too separate existence is maya or illusion. This philosophy are not forever. All dream-bubbles must of monism received its highest expression in the Upanishad commentaries of Shankara.

293 “Dearest Master! Rebuke me a million forth like a fountain through endless, newly times—do scold me now!” opened soul-pores. Anciently clogged with “I shall chide you no more.” His divine disuse, they now widened in purity at the voice was grave, yet with an undercurrent of driving flood of ecstasy. Subconscious laughter. “You and I shall smile together, so thoughts and feelings of my past incarnations long as our two forms appear different in the shed their karmic taints, lustrously renewed maya-dream of God. Finally we shall merge by Sri Yukteswar’s divine visit. as one in the Cosmic Beloved; our smiles In this chapter of my autobiography I shall be His smile, our unified song of joy have obeyed my guru’s behest and spread the vibrating throughout eternity to be broadcast glad tiding, though it confound once more an to God-tuned souls!” incurious generation. Groveling, man knows Sri Yukteswar gave me light on certain well; despair is seldom alien; yet these are matters which I cannot reveal here. During perversities, no part of man’s true lot. The day the two hours that he spent with me in the he wills, he is set on the path to freedom. Too Bombay hotel room he answered my every long has he hearkened to the dank pessimism question. A number of world prophecies of his “dust-thou-art” counselors, heedless of uttered by him that June day in 1936 have the unconquerable soul. already come to pass. I was not the only one privileged to “I leave you now, beloved one!” At these behold the Resurrected Guru. words I felt Master melting away within my One of Sri Yukteswar’s chelas was an encircling arms. aged woman, affectionately known as Ma “ M y c hild,” his voice rang out, vibrating (Mother), whose home was close to the Puri into my very soul-firmament, “whenever you hermitage. Master had often stopped to chat enter the door of nirbikalpa samadhi and call with her during his morning walk. On the on me, I shall come to you in flesh and blood, evening of March 16, 1936, Ma arrived at the even as today.” ashram and asked to see her guru. With this celestial promise Sri Yukteswar “Why, Master died a week ago!” Swami vanished from my sight. A cloud-voice Sebananda, now in charge of the Puri repeated in musical thunder: “Tell all! hermitage, looked at her sadly. Whosoever knows by nirbikalpa realization “That’s impossible!” She smiled a little. that your earth is a dream of God can come to “Perhaps you are just trying to protect the the finer dream-created planet of Hiranyaloka, guru from insistent visitors?” and there find me resurrected in a body “No.” Sebananda recounted details of the exactly like my earthly one. Yogananda, tell burial. “Come,” he said, “I will take you to all!” the front garden to Sri Yukteswarji’s grave.” Gone was the sorrow of parting. The pity Ma shook her head. “There is no grave and grief for his death, long robber of my for him! This morning at ten o’clock he peace, now fled in stark shame. Bliss poured passed in his usual walk before my door! I

294 talked to him for several minutes in the bright understand in what transcendent body he had outdoors. visited me this morning!” “‘Come this evening to the ashram,’ he The astounded Sebananda knelt before said. her. “I am here! Blessings pour on this old “Ma,” he said, “what a weight of grief gray head! The deathless guru wanted me to you lift from my heart! He is risen!”

295 CHAPTER: 44 With Mahatma Gandhi at Wardha “ Welcome to Wardha!” Mahadev Desai, secure niche in the hearts of his people that secretary to Mahatma Gandhi, greeted Miss Gandhi occupies for India’s unlettered Bletch, Mr. Wright, and myself with these millions. Their spontaneous tribute is his cordial words and the gift of wreaths of famous title—Mahatma, “great soul.”* For khaddar (homespun cotton). Our little group them alone Gandhi confines his attire to the had just dismounted at the Wardha station on widely-cartooned loincloth, symbol of his an early morning in August, glad to leave the oneness with the downtrodden masses who dust and heat of the train. Consigning our can afford no more. luggage to a bullock cart, we entered an open “The ashram residents are wholly at your motor car with Mr. Desai and his companions, disposal; please call on them for any service.” Babasaheb Deshmukh and Dr. Pingale. A With characteristic courtesy, the Mahatma short drive over the muddy country roads handed me this hastily-written note as Mr. brought us to Maganvadi, the ashram of Desai led our party from the writing room India’s political saint. toward the guest house. Mr. Desai led us at once to the writing Our guide led us through orchards and room where, cross-legged, sat Mahatma flowering fields to a tile-roofed building with Gandhi. Pen in one hand and a scrap of paper latticed windows. A front-yard well, twenty- in the other, on his face a vast, winning, five feet across, was used, Mr. Desai said, for warm-hearted smile! watering stock; near-by stood a revolving “Welcome!” he scribbled in Hindi; it was cement wheel for threshing rice. Each of our a Monday, his weekly day of silence. small bedrooms proved to contain only the Though this was our first meeting, we irreducible minimum—a bed, handmade of beamed on each other affectionately. In 1925 rope. The whitewashed kitchen boasted a Mahatma Gandhi had honored the Ranchi faucet in one corner and a fire pit for cooking school by a visit, and had inscribed in its in another. Simple Arcadian sounds reached guest-book a gracious tribute. our ears—the cries of crows and sparrows, the lowing of cattle, and the rap of chisels being The tiny 100-pound saint radiated used to chip stones. physical, mental, and spiritual health. His soft brown eyes shone with intelligence, sincerity, Observing Mr. Wright’s travel diary, Mr. and discrimination; this statesman has Desai opened a page and wrote on it a list of matched wits and emerged the victor in a thousand legal, social, and political battles. *His family name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. No other leader in the world has attained the He never refers to himself as “Mahatma.”

296 Satyagraha* vows taken by all the In this trifling incident I noted the Mahatma’s strict followers (satyagrahis): Mahatma’s ability to detach his mind from the “Nonviolence; Truth; Non-Stealing; Celibacy; senses at will. I recalled the famous Non-Possession; Body-Labor; Control of the appendectomy performed on him some years Palate; Fearlessness; Equal Respect for all ago. Refusing anesthetics, the saint had Religions; Swadeshi (use of home chatted cheerfully with his disciples manufactures); Freedom from Untouchability. throughout the operation, his infectious smile These eleven should be observed as vows in a revealing his unawareness of pain. spirit of humility.” The afternoon brought an opportunity for (Gandhi himself signed this page on the a chat with Gandhi’s noted disciple, daughter following day, giving the date also—August of an English admiral, Miss Madeleine Slade, 27, 1935.) now called Mirabai.† Her strong, calm face lit with enthusiasm as she told me, in flawless Two hours after our arrival my Hindi, of her daily activities. companions and I were summoned to lunch. The Mahatma was already seated under the “Rural reconstruction work is rewarding! arcade of the ashram porch, across the A group of us go every morning at five courtyard from his study. About twenty-five o’clock to serve the near-by villagers and barefooted satyagrahis were squatting before teach them simple hygiene. We make it a brass cups and plates. A community chorus of point to clean their latrines and their mud- prayer; then a meal served from large brass thatched huts. The villagers are illiterate; they pots containing chapatis (whole-wheat cannot be educated except by example!” She unleavened bread) sprinkled with ghee; laughed gaily. talsari (boiled and diced vegetables), and a I looked in admiration at this highborn lemon jam. Englishwoman whose true Christian humility The Mahatma ate chapatis, boiled beets, enables her to do the scavengering work some raw vegetables, and oranges. On the usually performed only by “untouchables.” side of his plate was a large lump of very “I came to India in 1925,” she told me. bitter neem leaves, a notable blood cleanser. “In this land I feel that I have ‘come back With his spoon he separated a portion and placed it on my dish. I bolted it down with water, remembering childhood days when †False and alas! malicious reports were recently circulated that Miss Slade has severed all her ties with Mother had forced me to swallow the Gandhi and forsaken her vows. Miss Slade, the disagreeable dose. Gandhi, however, bit by bit Mahatma’s Satyagraha disciple for twenty years, was eating the neem paste with as much relish issued a signed statement to the United Press, dated Dec. 29, 1945, in which she explained that a series of as if it had been a delicious sweetmeat. baseless rumors arose after she had departed, with Gandhi’s blessings, for a small site in northeastern India near the Himalayas, for the purpose of founding there her now-flourishing Kisan Ashram (center for *The literal translation from Sanskrit is “holding to medical and agricultural aid to peasant farmers). truth.” Satyagraha is the famous nonviolence Mahatma Gandhi plans to visit the new ashram during movement led by Gandhi. 1946.

297 home.’ Now I would never be willing to atmosphere was serenity itself; I was return to my old life and old interests.” enraptured. We discussed America for awhile. “I am A solemn chant led by Mr. Desai, with always pleased and amazed,” she said, “to see responses from the group; then a Gita the deep interest in spiritual subjects exhibited reading. The Mahatma motioned to me to by the many Americans who visit India.”* give the concluding prayer. Such divine Mirabai’s hands were soon busy at the unison of thought and aspiration! A memory charka (spinning wheel), omnipresent in all forever: the Wardha roof top meditation under the ashram rooms and, indeed, due to the the early stars. Mahatma, omnipresent throughout rural India. Punctually at eight o’clock Gandhi ended Gandhi has sound economic and cultural his silence. The herculean labors of his life reasons for encouraging the revival of cottage require him to apportion his time minutely. industries, but he does not counsel a fanatical “Welcome, Swamiji!” The Mahatma’s repudiation of all modern progress. greeting this time was not via paper. We had Machinery, trains, automobiles, the telegraph just descended from the roof to his writing have played important parts in his own room, simply furnished with square mats (no colossal life! Fifty years of public service, in chairs), a low desk with books, papers, and a prison and out, wrestling daily with practical few ordinary pens (not fountain pens); a details and harsh realities in the political nondescript clock ticked in a corner. An all- world, have only increased his balance, open- pervasive aura of peace and devotion. Gandhi mindedness, sanity, and humorous was bestowing one of his captivating, appreciation of the quaint human spectacle. cavernous, almost toothless smiles. Our trio enjoyed a six o’clock supper as “Years ago,” he explained, “I started my guests of Babasaheb Deshmukh. The 7:00 weekly observance of a day of silence as a P.M. prayer hour found us back at the means for gaining time to look after my Maganvadi ashram, climbing to the roof correspondence. But now those twenty-four where thirty satyagrahis were grouped in a hours have become a vital spiritual need. A semicircle around Gandhi. He was squatting periodical decree of silence is not a torture but on a straw mat, an ancient pocket watch a blessing.” propped up before him. The fading sun cast a I agreed wholeheartedly.† The Mahatma last gleam over the palms and banyans; the questioned me about America and Europe; we hum of night and the crickets had started. The discussed India and world conditions. “Mahadev,” Gandhi said as Mr. Desai entered the room, “please make arrangements *Miss Slade reminded me of another distinguished Western woman, Miss Margaret Woodrow Wilson, eldest daughter of America’s great president. I met her in New York; she was intensely interested in India. sage never speaks; he silently greets his disciples on Later she went to Pondicherry, where she spent the last three annual occasions only. five years of her life, happily pursuing a path of †For years in America I had been observing periods of discipline at the feet of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh. This silence, to the consternation of callers and secretaries.

298 at Town Hall for Swamiji to speak there on God. The appeal of the lower order of yoga tomorrow night.” creation is all the more forceful because it is As I was bidding the Mahatma good speechless.” night, he considerately handed me a bottle of Three daily rituals are enjoined on the citronella oil. orthodox Hindu. One is Bhuta , an “The Wardha mosquitoes don’t know a offering of food to the animal kingdom. This thing about ahimsa,* Swamiji!” he said, ceremony symbolizes man’s realization of his laughing. obligations to less evolved forms of creation, instinctively tied to bodily identifications The following morning our little group which also corrode human life, but lacking in breakfasted early on a tasty wheat porridge that quality of liberating reason which is with molasses and milk. At ten-thirty we were peculiar to humanity. Bhuta Yajna thus called to the ashram porch for lunch with reinforces man’s readiness to succor the Gandhi and the satyagrahis. Today the menu weak, as he in turn is comforted by countless included brown rice, a new selection of solicitudes of higher unseen beings. Man is vegetables, and cardamom seeds. also under bond for rejuvenating gifts of Noon found me strolling about the nature, prodigal in earth, sea, and sky. The ashram grounds, on to the grazing land of a evolutionary barrier of incommunicability few imperturbable cows. The protection of among nature, animals, man, and astral angels cows is a passion with Gandhi. is thus overcome by offices of silent love. “The cow to me means the entire sub- The other two daily are Pitri and human world, extending man’s sympathies Nri. Pitri Yajna is an offering of oblations to beyond his own species,” the Mahatma has ancestors, as a symbol of man’s explained. “Man through the cow is enjoined acknowledgment of his debt to the past, to realize his identity with all that lives. Why essence of whose wisdom illumines humanity the ancient rishis selected the cow for today. Nri Yajna is an offering of food to apotheosis is obvious to me. The cow in India strangers or the poor, symbol of the present was the best comparison; she was the giver of responsibilities of man, his duties to plenty. Not only did she give milk, but she contemporaries. also made agriculture possible. The cow is a In the early afternoon I fulfilled a poem of pity; one reads pity in the gentle neighborly Nri Yajna by a visit to Gandhi’s animal. She is the second mother to millions ashram for little girls. Mr. Wright of mankind. Protection of the cow means accompanied me on the ten-minute drive. protection of the whole dumb creation of Tiny young flowerlike faces atop the long- stemmed colorful saris! At the end of a brief *Harmlessness; nonviolence; the foundation rock of Gandhi’s creed. He was born into a family of strict talk in Hindi† which I was giving outdoors, Jains, who revere ahimsa as the root-virtue. , a sect of Hinduism, was founded in the 6th century B.C. by Mahavira, a contemporary of Buddha. Mahavira †Hindi is the lingua franca for the whole of India. An means “great hero”; may he look down the centuries on Indo-Aryan language based largely on Sanskrit roots, his heroic son Gandhi! Hindi is the chief vernacular of northern India. The

299 the skies unloosed a sudden downpour. celibacy after the birth of several sons.* A Laughing, Mr. Wright and I climbed aboard tranquil heroine in the intense drama that has the car and sped back to Maganvadi amidst been their life together, Kasturabai has sheets of driving silver. Such tropical followed her husband to prison, shared his intensity and splash! three-week fasts, and fully borne her share of Reentering the guest house I was struck his endless responsibilities. She has paid anew by the stark simplicity and evidences of Gandhi the following tribute: self-sacrifice which are everywhere present. I thank you for having had the privilege of The Gandhi vow of non-possession came being your lifelong companion and helpmate. early in his married life. Renouncing an I thank you for the most perfect marriage in extensive legal practice which had been the world, based on brahmacharya (self- yielding him an annual income of more than control) and not on sex. I thank you for $20,000, the Mahatma dispersed all his having considered me your equal in your life wealth to the poor. work for India. I thank you for not being one Sri Yukteswar used to poke gentle fun at of those husbands who spend their time in the commonly inadequate conceptions of gambling, racing, women, wine, and song, renunciation. tiring of their wives and children as the little boy quickly tires of his childhood toys. How “A beggar cannot renounce wealth,” thankful I am that you were not one of those Master would say. “If a man laments: ‘My husbands who devote their time to growing business has failed; my wife has left me; I rich on the exploitation of the labor of others. will renounce all and enter a monastery,’ to what worldly sacrifice is he referring? He did How thankful I am that you put God and not renounce wealth and love; they renounced country before bribes, that you had the him!” courage of your convictions and a complete and implicit faith in God. How thankful I am Saints like Gandhi, on the other hand, for a husband that put God and his country have made not only tangible material before me. I am grateful to you for your sacrifices, but also the more difficult renunciation of selfish motive and private *Gandhi has described his life with a devastating goal, merging their inmost being in the stream candor in The Story of my Experiments with Truth of humanity as a whole. (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Press, 1927-29, 2 vol.) This autobiography has been summarized in Mahatma The Mahatma’s remarkable wife, Gandhi, His Own Story, edited by C. F. Andrews, with Kasturabai, did not object when he failed to an introduction by John Haynes Holmes (New York: Macmillan Co., 1930). set aside any part of his wealth for the use of Many autobiographies replete with famous names herself and their children. Married in early and colorful events are almost completely silent on any youth, Gandhi and his wife took the vow of phase of inner analysis or development. One lays down each of these books with a certain dissatisfaction, as though saying: “Here is a man who knew many notable main dialect of Western Hindi is Hindustani, written persons, but who never knew himself.” This reaction is both in the Devanagari (Sanskrit) characters and in impossible with Gandhi’s autobiography; he exposes Arabic characters. Its subdialect, Urdu, is spoken by his faults and subterfuges with an impersonal devotion Moslems. to truth rare in annals of any age.

300 tolerance of me and my shortcomings of given him a black eye for such an youth, when I grumbled and rebelled against unnecessary public insult!” the change you made in our mode of living, After some good-humored banter had from so much to so little. passed between us on the subject of American As a young child, I lived in your parents’ wives and Hindu wives, I had gone on to a home; your mother was a great and good fuller explanation. woman; she trained me, taught me how to be “Mrs. Gandhi considers the Mahatma not a brave, courageous wife and how to keep the as her husband but as her guru, one who has love and respect of her son, my future the right to discipline her for even husband. As the years passed and you became insignificant errors,” I had pointed out. India’s most beloved leader, I had none of the “Sometime after Kasturabai had been publicly fears that beset the wife who may be cast rebuked, Gandhi was sentenced to prison on a aside when her husband has climbed the political charge. As he was calmly bidding ladder of success, as so often happens in other farewell to his wife, she fell at his feet. countries. I knew that death would still find us ‘Master,’ she said humbly, ‘if I have ever husband and wife. offended you, please forgive me.’”* For years Kasturabai performed the At three o’clock that afternoon in duties of treasurer of the public funds which Wardha, I betook myself, by previous the idolized Mahatma is able to raise by the appointment, to the writing room of the saint millions. There are many humorous stories in who had been able to make an unflinching Indian homes to the effect that husbands are disciple out of his own wife—rare miracle! nervous about their wives’ wearing any Gandhi looked up with his unforgettable jewelry to a Gandhi meeting; the Mahatma’s smile. magical tongue, pleading for the downtrodden, charms the gold bracelets and “Mahatmaji,” I said as I squatted beside diamond necklaces right off the arms and him on the uncushioned mat, “please tell me necks of the wealthy into the collection your definition of ahimsa.” basket! “The avoidance of harm to any living One day the public treasurer, Kasturabai, creature in thought or deed.” could not account for a disbursement of four “Beautiful ideal! But the world will rupees. Gandhi duly published an auditing in always ask: May one not kill a cobra to which he inexorably pointed out his wife’s protect a child, or one’s self?” four rupee discrepancy. I had often told this story before classes *Kasturabai Gandhi died in imprisonment at Poona on of my American students. One evening a February 22, 1944. The usually unemotional Gandhi woman in the hall had given an outraged wept silently. Shortly after her admirers had suggested a Memorial Fund in her honor, 125 lacs of rupees gasp. (nearly four million dollars) poured in from all over “Mahatma or no Mahatma,” she had India. Gandhi has arranged that the fund be used for village welfare work among women and children. He cried, “if he were my husband I would have reports his activities in his English weekly, Harijan.

301 “I could not kill a cobra without violating “I will be sure to send some avocado two of my vows—fearlessness, and non- plants from Los Angeles to Wardha.”* I killing. I would rather try inwardly to calm added, “Eggs are a high-protein food; are they the snake by vibrations of love. I cannot forbidden to satyagrahis?” possibly lower my standards to suit my “Not unfertilized eggs.” The Mahatma circumstances.” With his amazing candor, laughed reminiscently. “For years I would not Gandhi added, “I must confess that I could countenance their use; even now I personally not carry on this conversation were I faced by do not eat them. One of my daughters-in-law a cobra!” was once dying of malnutrition; her doctor I remarked on several very recent insisted on eggs. I would not agree, and Western books on diet which lay on his desk. advised him to give her some egg-substitute. “Yes, diet is important in the Satyagraha “‘Gandhiji,’ the doctor said, ‘unfertilized movement—as everywhere else,” he said with eggs contain no life sperm; no killing is a chuckle. “Because I advocate complete involved.’ continence for satyagrahis, I am always “I then gladly gave permission for my trying to find out the best diet for the celibate. daughter-in-law to eat eggs; she was soon One must conquer the palate before he can restored to health.” control the procreative instinct. Semi- starvation or unbalanced diets are not the On the previous night Gandhi had answer. After overcoming the inward greed expressed a wish to receive the Kriya Yoga of for food, a satyagrahi must continue to follow Lahiri Mahasaya. I was touched by the a rational vegetarian diet with all necessary Mahatma’s open-mindedness and spirit of vitamins, minerals, calories, and so forth. By inquiry. He is childlike in his divine quest, inward and outward wisdom in regard to revealing that pure receptivity which Jesus eating, the satyagrahi’s sexual fluid is easily praised in children, “. . . of such is the turned into vital energy for the whole body.” kingdom of heaven.” The Mahatma and I compared our The hour for my promised instruction had knowledge of good meat-substitutes. “The arrived; several satyagrahis now entered the avocado is excellent,” I said. “There are room—Mr. Desai, Dr. Pingale, and a few numerous avocado groves near my center in others who desired the Kriya technique. California.” I first taught the little class the physical Gandhi’s face lit with interest. “I wonder Yogoda exercises. The body is visualized as if they would grow in Wardha? The divided into twenty parts; the will directs satyagrahis would appreciate a new food.” energy in turn to each section. Soon everyone was vibrating before me like a human motor. It was easy to observe the rippling effect on

*I sent a shipment to Wardha, soon after my return to America. The plants, alas! died on the way, unable to withstand the rigors of the long ocean transportation.

302 Gandhi’s twenty body parts, at all times I fancied I was taking my last breath, the Gita completely exposed to view! Though very was my solace. thin, he is not unpleasingly so; the skin of his Hinduism is not an exclusive religion. In it body is smooth and unwrinkled. there is room for the worship of all the Later I initiated the group into the prophets of the world.‡ It is not a liberating technique of Kriya Yoga. religion in the ordinary sense of the term. It The Mahatma has reverently studied all has no doubt absorbed many tribes in its fold, world religions. The Jain scriptures, the but this absorption has been of an Biblical New Testament, and the sociological evolutionary, imperceptible character. writings of Tolstoy* are the three main Hinduism tells each man to worship God sources of Gandhi’s nonviolent convictions. according to his own faith or dharma,§ and so He has stated his credo thus: lives at peace with all religions. I believe the Bible, the Koran, and the Zend- Of Christ, Gandhi has written: “I am sure Avesta† to be as divinely inspired as the that if He were living here now among men, Vedas. I believe in the institution of Gurus, He would bless the lives of many who but in this age millions must go without a perhaps have never even heard His name . . . Guru, because it is a rare thing to find a just as it is written: ‘Not every one that saith combination of perfect purity and perfect unto me, Lord, Lord . . . but he that doeth the learning. But one need not despair of ever will of my Father.’** In the lesson of His own knowing the truth of one’s religion, because life, Jesus gave humanity the magnificent the fundamentals of Hinduism as of every purpose and the single objective toward great religion are unchangeable, and easily which we all ought to aspire. I believe that He understood. belongs not solely to Christianity, but to the entire world, to all lands and races.” I believe like every Hindu in God and His oneness, in rebirth and salvation. . . . I can no On my last evening in Wardha I more describe my feeling for Hinduism than addressed the meeting which had been called for my own wife. She moves me as no other by Mr. Desai in Town Hall. The room was woman in the world can. Not that she has no ‡The unique feature of Hinduism among the world faults; I daresay she has many more than I see religions is that it derives not from a single great myself. But the feeling of an indissoluble founder but from the impersonal Vedic scriptures. bond is there. Even so I feel for and about Hinduism thus gives scope for worshipful incorporation into its fold of prophets of all ages and Hinduism with all its faults and limitations. all lands. The Vedic scriptures regulate not only Nothing delights me so much as the music of devotional practices but all important social customs, the Gita, or the Ramayana by . When in an effort to bring man’s every action into harmony with divine law. §A comprehensive Sanskrit word for law; conformity to law or natural righteousness; duty as inherent in the *Thoreau, Ruskin, and Mazzini are three other Western circumstances in which a man finds himself at any writers whose sociological views Gandhi has studied given time. The scriptures define dharma as “the carefully. natural universal laws whose observance enables man †The sacred scripture given to Persia about 1000 B.C. to save himself from degradation and suffering.” by Zoroaster. ** Matthew 7:21.

303 thronged to the window sills with about 400 In India we have had an ocular demonstration people assembled to hear the talk on yoga. I of the operation of this law on the widest spoke first in Hindi, then in English. Our little scale possible. I don’t claim that nonviolence group returned to the ashram in time for a has penetrated the 360,000,000 people in good-night glimpse of Gandhi, enfolded in India, but I do claim it has penetrated deeper peace and correspondence. than any other doctrine in an incredibly short Night was still lingering when I rose at time. 5:00 A.M. Village life was already stirring; It takes a fairly strenuous course of training to first a bullock cart by the ashram gates, then a attain a mental state of nonviolence. It is a peasant with his huge burden balanced disciplined life, like the life of a soldier. The precariously on his head. After breakfast our perfect state is reached only when the mind, trio sought out Gandhi for farewell pronams. body, and speech are in proper coordination. The saint rises at four o’clock for his morning Every problem would lend itself to solution if prayer. we determined to make the law of truth and “Mahatmaji, good-by!” I knelt to touch nonviolence the law of life. his feet. “India is safe in your keeping!” Just as a scientist will work wonders out of Years have rolled by since the Wardha various applications of the laws of nature, a idyl; the earth, oceans, and skies have man who applies the laws of love with darkened with a world at war. Alone among scientific precision can work greater wonders. great leaders, Gandhi has offered a practical Nonviolence is infinitely more wonderful and nonviolent alternative to armed might. To subtle than forces of nature like, for instance, redress grievances and remove injustices, the electricity. The law of love is a far greater Mahatma has employed nonviolent means science than any modern science. which again and again have proved their Consulting history, one may reasonably effectiveness. He states his doctrine in these state that the problems of mankind have not words: been solved by the use of brute force. World I have found that life persists in the midst of War I produced a world-chilling snowball of destruction. Therefore there must be a higher war karma that swelled into World War II. law than that of destruction. Only under that Only the warmth of brotherhood can melt the law would well-ordered society be intelligible present colossal snowball of war karma which and life worth living. may otherwise grow into World War III. This unholy trinity will banish forever the If that is the law of life we must work it out in possibility of World War IV by a finality of daily existence. Wherever there are wars, atomic bombs. Use of jungle logic instead of wherever we are confronted with an human reason in settling disputes will restore opponent, conquer by love. I have found that the earth to a jungle. If brothers not in life, the certain law of love has answered in my then brothers in violent death. own life as the law of destruction has never done. War and crime never pay. The billions of dollars that went up in the smoke of explosive

304 nothingness would have been sufficient to “I would wait, if need be for ages,” have made a new world, one almost free from Gandhi says, “rather than seek the freedom of disease and completely free from poverty. Not my country through bloody means.” Never an earth of fear, chaos, famine, pestilence, the does the Mahatma forget the majestic danse macabre, but one broad land of peace, warning: “All they that take the sword shall of prosperity, and of widening knowledge. perish with the sword.”* Gandhi has written: The nonviolent voice of Gandhi appeals I call myself a nationalist, but my nationalism to man’s highest conscience. Let nations ally is as broad as the universe. It includes in its themselves no longer with death, but with sweep all the nations of the earth.† M y life; not with destruction, but with nationalism includes the well-being of the construction; not with the Annihilator, but whole world. I do not want my India to rise with the Creator. on the ashes of other nations. I do not want “One should forgive, under any injury,” India to exploit a single human being. I want says the Mahabharata. “It hath been said that India to be strong in order that she can infect the continuation of species is due to man’s the other nations also with her strength. Not being forgiving. Forgiveness is holiness; by so with a single nation in Europe today; they forgiveness the universe is held together. do not give strength to the others. Forgiveness is the might of the mighty; President Wilson mentioned his beautiful forgiveness is sacrifice; forgiveness is quiet of fourteen points, but said: “After all, if this mind. Forgiveness and gentleness are the endeavor of ours to arrive at peace fails, we qualities of the self-possessed. They represent have our armaments to fall back upon.” I want eternal virtue.” to reverse that position, and I say: “Our Nonviolence is the natural outgrowth of armaments have failed already. Let us now be the law of forgiveness and love. “If loss of in search of something new; let us try the life becomes necessary in a righteous battle,” force of love and God which is truth.” When Gandhi proclaims, “one should be prepared, we have got that, we shall want nothing else. like Jesus, to shed his own, not others’, blood. By the Mahatma’s training of thousands Eventually there will be less blood spilt in the of true satyagrahis (those who have taken the world.” eleven rigorous vows mentioned in the first Epics shall someday be written on the part of this chapter), who in turn spread the Indian satyagrahis who withstood hate with message; by patiently educating the Indian love, violence with nonviolence, who allowed masses to understand the spiritual and themselves to be mercilessly slaughtered eventually material benefits of nonviolence; rather than retaliate. The result on certain by arming his people with nonviolent historic occasions was that the armed weapons—non-cooperation with injustice, the opponents threw down their guns and fled, willingness to endure indignities, prison, shamed, shaken to their depths by the sight of men who valued the life of another above their own. *Matthew 26:52. †“Let not a man glory in this, that he love his country;

305 death itself rather than resort to arms; by implicit trust in human nature is the very enlisting world sympathy through countless essence of the creed.”* examples of heroic martyrdom among “Mahatmaji, you are an exceptional man. satyagrahis, Gandhi has dramatically You must not expect the world to act as you portrayed the practical nature of nonviolence, do.” A critic once made this observation. its solemn power to settle disputes without war. “It is curious how we delude ourselves, fancying that the body can be improved, but Gandhi has already won through that it is impossible to evoke the hidden nonviolent means a greater number of powers of the soul,” Gandhi replied. “I am political concessions for his land than have engaged in trying to show that if I have any of ever been won by any leader of any country those powers, I am as frail a mortal as any of except through bullets. Nonviolent methods us and that I never had anything extraordinary for eradication of all wrongs and evils have about me nor have I now. I am a simple been strikingly applied not only in the individual liable to err like any other fellow political arena but in the delicate and mortal. I own, however, that I have enough complicated field of Indian social reform. humility to confess my errors and to retrace Gandhi and his followers have removed many my steps. I own that I have an immovable longstanding feuds between Hindus and faith in God and His goodness, and an Mohammedans; hundreds of thousands of unconsumable passion for truth and love. But Moslems look to the Mahatma as their leader. is that not what every person has latent in The untouchables have found in him their him? If we are to make progress, we must not fearless and triumphant champion. “If there repeat history but make new history. We must be a rebirth in store for me,” Gandhi wrote, “I add to the inheritance left by our ancestors. If wish to be born a pariah in the midst of we may make new discoveries and inventions pariahs, because thereby I would be able to in the phenomenal world, must we declare our render them more effective service.” bankruptcy in the spiritual domain? Is it The Mahatma is indeed a “great soul,” impossible to multiply the exceptions so as to but it was illiterate millions who had the make them the rule? Must man always be discernment to bestow the title. This gentle brute first and man after, if at all?”† prophet is honored in his own land. The lowly peasant has been able to rise to Gandhi’s high *“Then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how oft shall challenge. The Mahatma wholeheartedly my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven believes in the inherent nobility of man. The times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until inevitable failures have never disillusioned seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”— Matthew 18:21-22. him. “Even if the opponent plays him false †Charles P. Steinmetz, the great electrical engineer, twenty times,” he writes, “the satyagrahi is was once asked by Mr. Roger W. Babson: “What line of research will see the greatest development during ready to trust him the twenty-first time, for an the next fifty years?” “I think the greatest discovery will be made along spiritual lines,” Steinmetz replied. “Here is a force which history clearly teaches has been Let him rather glory in this, that he love his kind.”— the greatest power in the development of men. Yet we Persian proverb. have merely been playing with it and have never

306 Americans may well remember with new meaning to patriotism and, if I may say pride the successful nonviolent experiment of so in all humility, to life itself.” William Penn in founding his 17th century Before the West dismisses Gandhi’s colony in Pennsylvania. There were “no forts, program as one of an impractical dreamer, let no soldiers, no militia, even no arms.” Amidst it first reflect on a definition of Satyagraha b y the savage frontier wars and the butcheries the Master of Galilee: that went on between the new settlers and the Red Indians, the Quakers of Pennsylvania “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An alone remained unmolested. “Others were eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I slain; others were massacred; but they were say unto you, That ye resist not evil:* but safe. Not a Quaker woman suffered assault; whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, not a Quaker child was slain, not a Quaker turn to him the other also.” man was tortured.” When the Quakers were Gandhi’s epoch has extended, with the finally forced to give up the government of beautiful precision of cosmic timing, into a the state, “war broke out, and some century already desolated and devastated by Pennsylvanians were killed. But only three two World Wars. A divine handwriting Quakers were killed, three who had so far appears on the granite wall of his life: a fallen from their faith as to carry weapons of warning against the further shedding of blood defence.” among brothers. “Resort to force in the Great War (I) failed to bring tranquillity,” Franklin D. Roosevelt has pointed out. “Victory and defeat were alike sterile. That lesson the world should have learned.” “The more weapons of violence, the more misery to mankind,” Lao-tzu taught. “The triumph of violence ends in a festival of mourning.” “I am fighting for nothing less than world peace,” Gandhi has declared. “If the Indian movement is carried to success on a nonviolent Satyagraha basis, it will give a seriously studied it as we have the physical forces. Someday people will learn that material things do not bring happiness and are of little use in making men and women creative and powerful. Then the scientists of the world will turn their laboratories over to the study of God and prayer and the spiritual forces which as yet have hardly been scratched. When this day comes, the world will see more advancement in one generation than it has seen in the past four.” *That is, resist not evil with evil. (Matthew 5:38-39)

307 CHAPTER: 45 The Bengali “Joy-Permeated Mother” “ Sir, please do not leave India without a Wright parked the Ford some distance away, glimpse of Nirmala Devi. Her sanctity is and accompanied me on foot toward the quiet intense; she is known far and wide as Ananda assemblage. The woman saint glanced in our Moyi Ma (Joy-Permeated Mother).” My direction; she alit from her car and walked niece, Amiyo Bose, gazed at me earnestly. toward us. “Of course! I want very much to see the “Father, you have come!” With these woman saint.” I added, “I have read of her fervent words she put her arm around my advanced state of God-realization. A little neck and her head on my shoulder. Mr. article about her appeared years ago in East- Wright, to whom I had just remarked that I West.” did not know the saint, was hugely enjoying “I have met her,” Amiyo went on. “She this extraordinary demonstration of welcome. recently visited my own little town of The eyes of the one hundred chelas were also Jamshedpur. At the entreaty of a disciple, fixed with some surprise on the affectionate Ananda Moyi Ma went to the home of a dying tableau. man. She stood by his bedside; as her hand I had instantly seen that the saint was in a touched his forehead, his death-rattle ceased. high state of samadhi. Utterly oblivious to her The disease vanished at once; to the man’s outward garb as a woman, she knew herself as glad astonishment, he was well.” the changeless soul; from that plane she was A few days later I heard that the Blissful joyously greeting another devotee of God. Mother was staying at the home of a disciple She led me by the hand into her automobile. in the Bhowanipur section of Calcutta. Mr. “Ananda Moyi Ma, I am delaying your Wright and I set out immediately from my journey!” I protested. father’s Calcutta home. As the Ford neared “Father, I am meeting you for the first the Bhowanipur house, my companion and I time in this life, after ages!” she said. “Please observed an unusual street scene. do not leave yet.” Ananda Moyi Ma was standing in an We sat together in the rear seats of the open-topped automobile, blessing a throng of car. The Blissful Mother soon entered the about one hundred disciples. She was immobile ecstatic state. Her beautiful eyes evidently on the point of departure. Mr. glanced heavenward and, half-opened,

308 became stilled, gazing into the near-far inner years ago, soon after their marriage, he took Elysium. The disciples chanted gently: the vow of silence.” “Victory to Mother Divine!” The chela pointed to a broad-shouldered, I had found many men of God-realization fine-featured man with long hair and hoary in India, but never before had I met such an beard. He was standing quietly in the midst of exalted woman saint. Her gentle face was the gathering, his hands folded in a disciple’s burnished with the ineffable joy that had reverential attitude. given her the name of Blissful Mother. Long Refreshed by her dip in the Infinite, black tresses lay loosely behind her unveiled Ananda Moyi Ma was now focusing her head. A red dot of sandalwood paste on her consciousness on the material world. forehead symbolized the spiritual eye, ever open within her. Tiny face, tiny hands, tiny “Father, please tell me where you stay.” feet—a contrast to her spiritual magnitude! Her voice was clear and melodious. I put some questions to a near-by woman “At present, in Calcutta or Ranchi; but chela while Ananda Moyi Ma remained soon I shall be returning to America.” entranced. “America?” “The Blissful Mother travels widely in “Yes. An Indian woman saint would be India; in many parts she has hundreds of sincerely appreciated there by spiritual disciples,” the chela told me. “Her courageous seekers. Would you like to go?” efforts have brought about many desirable “If Father can take me, I will go.” social reforms. Although a Brahmin, the saint recognizes no caste distinctions.* A group of This reply caused her near-by disciples to us always travel with her, looking after her start in alarm. comforts. We have to mother her; she takes “Twenty or more of us always travel with no notice of her body. If no one gave her the Blissful Mother,” one of them told me food, she would not eat, or make any firmly. “We could not live without her. inquiries. Even when meals are placed before Wherever she goes, we must go.” her, she does not touch them. To prevent her disappearance from this world, we disciples Reluctantly I abandoned the plan, as feed her with our own hands. For days possessing an impractical feature of together she often stays in the divine trance, spontaneous enlargement! scarcely breathing, her eyes unwinking. One “Please come at least to Ranchi, with of her chief disciples is her husband. Many your disciples,” I said on taking leave of the saint. “As a divine child yourself, you will enjoy the little ones in my school.” *I find some further facts of Ananda Moyi Ma’s life, printed in East-West. The saint was born in 1893 at “Whenever Father takes me, I will gladly Dacca in central Bengal. Illiterate, she has yet stunned the intellectuals by her wisdom. Her verses in Sanskrit go.” have filled scholars with wonderment. She has brought consolation to bereaved persons, and effected A short time later the Ranchi Vidyalaya miraculous cures, by her mere presence. was in gala array for the saint’s promised

309 visit. The youngsters looked forward to any “My husband knelt before me, folded his day of festivity—no lessons, hours of music, hands, and implored my pardon. and a feast for the climax! “‘Mother,’ he said, ‘because I have “Victory! Ananda Moyi Ma, ki jai!” This desecrated your bodily temple by touching it reiterated chant from scores of enthusiastic with the thought of lust—not knowing that little throats greeted the saint’s party as it within it dwelt not my wife but the Divine entered the school gates. Showers of Mother—I take this solemn vow: I shall be marigolds, tinkle of cymbals, lusty blowing of your disciple, a celibate follower, ever caring conch shells and beat of the mridanga drum! for you in silence as a servant, never speaking The Blissful Mother wandered smilingly over to anyone again as long as I live. May I thus the sunny Vidyalaya grounds, ever carrying atone for the sin I have today committed within her the portable paradise. against you, my guru.’ “It is beautiful here,” Ananda Moyi Ma “Even when I quietly accepted this said graciously as I led her into the main proposal of my husband’s, ‘I was the same.’ building. She seated herself with a childlike And, Father, in front of you now, ‘I am the smile by my side. The closest of dear friends, same.’ Ever afterward, though the dance of she made one feel, yet an aura of remoteness creation change around me in the hall of was ever around her—the paradoxical eternity, ‘I shall be the same.’” isolation of Omnipresence. Ananda Moyi Ma sank into a deep “Please tell me something of your life.” meditative state. Her form was statue-still; she “Father knows all about it; why repeat had fled to her ever-calling kingdom. The it?” She evidently felt that the factual history dark pools of her eyes appeared lifeless and of one short incarnation was beneath notice. glassy. This expression is often present when saints remove their consciousness from the I laughed, gently repeating my question. physical body, which is then hardly more than “Father, there is little to tell.” She spread a piece of soulless clay. We sat together for her graceful hands in a deprecatory gesture. an hour in the ecstatic trance. She returned to “My consciousness has never associated itself this world with a gay little laugh. with this temporary body. Before I came on “Please, Ananda Moyi Ma,” I said, this earth, Father, ‘I was the same.’ As a little “come with me to the garden. Mr. Wright will girl, ‘I was the same.’ I grew into take some pictures.” womanhood, but still ‘I was the same.’ When the family in which I had been born made “Of course, Father. Your will is my will.” arrangements to have this body married, ‘I Her glorious eyes retained the unchanging was the same.’ And when, passion-drunk, my divine luster as she posed for many husband came to me and murmured endearing photographs. words, lightly touching my body, he received Time for the feast! Ananda Moyi Ma a violent shock, as if struck by lightning, for squatted on her blanket-seat, a disciple at her even then ‘I was the same.’ elbow to feed her. Like an infant, the saint

310 obediently swallowed the food after the chela months later on the Serampore station had brought it to her lips. It was plain that the platform, waiting for the train. Blissful Mother did not recognize any “Father, I am going to the Himalayas,” difference between curries and sweetmeats! she told me. “Generous disciples have built As dusk approached, the saint left with me a hermitage in Dehra Dun.” her party amidst a shower of rose petals, her As she boarded the train, I marveled to hands raised in blessing on the little lads. see that whether amidst a crowd, on a train, Their faces shone with the affection she had feasting, or sitting in silence, her eyes never effortlessly awakened. looked away from God. Within me I still hear “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with her voice, an echo of measureless sweetness: all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with “Behold, now and always one with the all thy mind, and with all thy strength:” Christ Eternal, ‘I am ever the same.’” has proclaimed, “this is the first commandment.”* Casting aside every inferior attachment, Ananda Moyi Ma offers her sole allegiance to the Lord. Not by the hairsplitting distinctions of scholars but by the sure logic of faith, the childlike saint has solved the only problem in human life—establishment of unity with God. Man has forgotten this stark simplicity, now befogged by a million issues. Refusing a monotheistic love to God, the nations disguise their infidelity by punctilious respect before the outward shrines of charity. These humanitarian gestures are virtuous, because for a moment they divert man’s attention from himself, but they do not free him from his single responsibility in life, referred to by Jesus as the first commandment. The uplifting obligation to love God is assumed with man’s first breath of an air freely bestowed by his only Benefactor. On one other occasion after her Ranchi visit I had opportunity to see Ananda Moyi Ma. She stood among her disciples some

*Mark 12:30.

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CHAPTER: 46 The Woman Yogi Who Never Eats “Sir, whither are we bound this morning?” “‘I know Giri Bala well,’ Babu told Mr. Wright was driving the Ford; he took his me. ‘She employs a certain yoga technique eyes off the road long enough to gaze at me which enables her to live without eating. I with a questioning twinkle. From day to day was her close neighbor in Nawabganj near he seldom knew what part of Bengal he Ichapur.* I made it a point to watch her would be discovering next. closely; never did I find evidence that she was “God willing,” I replied devoutly, “we taking either food or drink. My interest finally are on our way to see an eighth wonder of the mounted so high that I approached the world—a woman saint whose diet is thin air!” Maharaja of Burdwan† and asked him to conduct an investigation. Astounded at the “Repetition of wonders—after Therese story, he invited her to his palace. She agreed Neumann.” But Mr. Wright laughed eagerly to a test and lived for two months locked up just the same; he even accelerated the speed in a small section of his home. Later she of the car. More extraordinary grist for his returned for a palace visit of twenty days; and travel diary! Not one of an average tourist, then for a third test of fifteen days. The that! Maharaja himself told me that these three The Ranchi school had just been left rigorous scrutinies had convinced him beyond behind us; we had risen before the sun. doubt of her non-eating state.’ Besides my secretary and myself, three “This story of Sthiti Babu’s has remained Bengali friends were in the party. We drank in in my mind for over twenty-five years,” I the exhilarating air, the natural wine of the concluded. “Sometimes in America I morning. Our driver guided the car warily wondered if the river of time would not among the early peasants and the two- swallow the ‡ before I could meet her. wheeled carts, slowly drawn by yoked, hump- She must be quite aged now. I do not even shouldered bullocks, inclined to dispute the know where, or if, she lives. But in a few road with a honking interloper. hours we shall reach Purulia; her brother has a “Sir, we would like to know more of the home there.” fasting saint.” “Her name is Giri Bala,” I informed my companions. “I first heard about her years ago from a scholarly gentleman, Sthiti Lal Nundy. *In northern Bengal. He often came to the Gurpar Road home to †H. H. Sir Bijay Chand Mahtab, now dead. His family doubtless possesses some record of the Maharaja’s tutor my brother Bishnu.” three investigations of Giri Bala. ‡Woman yogi. By ten-thirty our little group was entire life surrounded by her family and conversing with the brother, Lambadar Dey, a friends. They are all well accustomed now to lawyer of Purulia. her strange state. Not one of them who would “Yes, my sister is living. She sometimes not be stupefied if Giri Bala suddenly decided stays with me here, but at present she is at our to eat anything! Sister is naturally retiring, as family home in Biur.” Lambadar Babu befits a Hindu widow, but our little circle in glanced doubtfully at the Ford. “I hardly Purulia and in Biur all know that she is think, Swamiji, that any automobile has ever literally an ‘exceptional’ woman.” penetrated into the interior as far as Biur. It The brother’s sincerity was manifest. Our might be best if you all resign yourselves to little party thanked him warmly and set out the ancient jolt of the bullock cart!” toward Biur. We stopped at a street shop for As one voice our party pledged loyalty to curry and luchis, attracting a swarm of the Pride of Detroit. urchins who gathered round to watch Mr. Wright eating with his fingers in the simple “The Ford comes from America,” I told Hindu manner.† Hearty appetites caused us to the lawyer. “It would be a shame to deprive it fortify ourselves against an afternoon which, of an opportunity to get acquainted with the unknown at the moment, was to prove fairly heart of Bengal!” laborious. “May Ganesh* go with you!” Lambadar Our way now led east through sun-baked Babu said, laughing. He added courteously, rice fields into the Burdwan section of “If you ever get there, I am sure Giri Bala will Bengal. On through roads lined with dense be glad to see you. She is approaching her vegetation; the songs of the maynas and the seventies, but continues in excellent health.” stripe-throated bulbuls streamed out from “Please tell me, sir, if it is absolutely true trees with huge, umbrellalike branches. A that she eats nothing?” I looked directly into bullock cart now and then, the rini, rini, his eyes, those telltale windows of the mind. manju, manju squeak of its axle and iron-shod wooden wheels contrasting sharply in mind “It is true.” His gaze was open and with the swish, swish of auto tires over the honorable. “In more than five decades I have aristocratic asphalt of the cities. never seen her eat a morsel. If the world suddenly came to an end, I could not be more “Dick, halt!” My sudden request brought astonished than by the sight of my sister’s a jolting protest from the Ford. “That taking food!” overburdened mango tree is fairly shouting an invitation!” We chuckled together over the improbability of these two cosmic events.

“Giri Bala has never sought an inaccessible solitude for her yoga practices,” †Sri Yukteswar used to say: “The Lord has given us Lambadar Babu went on. “She has lived her the fruits of the good earth. We like to see our food, to smell it, to taste it—the Hindu likes also to touch it!” One does not mind hearing it, either, if no one else is *“Remover of Obstacles,” the god of good fortune. present at the meal!

313 The five of us dashed like children to the “You are right, Dick,” I sighed as we mango-strewn earth; the tree had benevolently sped along, “I sacrifice the mango paradise on shed its fruits as they had ripened. the altar of Western realism. Photographs we “Full many a mango is born to lie must have!” unseen,” I paraphrased, “and waste its The road became more and more sickly: sweetness on the stony ground.” wrinkles of ruts, boils of hardened clay, the “Nothing like this in America, Swamiji, sad infirmities of old age! Our group eh?” laughed Sailesh Mazumdar, one of my dismounted occasionally to allow Mr. Wright Bengali students. to more easily maneuver the Ford, which the four of us pushed from behind. “No,” I admitted, covered with mango juice and contentment. “How I have missed “Lambadar Babu spoke truly,” Sailesh this fruit in the West! A Hindu’s heaven acknowledged. “The car is not carrying us; without mangoes is inconceivable!” we are carrying the car!” I picked up a rock and downed a proud Our climb-in, climb-out auto tedium was beauty hidden on the highest limb. beguiled ever and anon by the appearance of a village, each one a scene of quaint simplicity. “Dick,” I asked between bites of ambrosia, warm with the tropical sun, “are all “Our way twisted and turned through groves the cameras in the car?” of palms among ancient, unspoiled villages nestling in the forest shade,” Mr. Wright has “Yes, sir; in the baggage compartment.” recorded in his travel diary, under date of “If Giri Bala proves to be a true saint, I May 5, 1936. “Very fascinating are these want to write about her in the West. A Hindu clusters of thatched mud huts, decorated with yogini with such inspiring powers should not one of the names of God on the door; many live and die unknown—like most of these small, naked children innocently playing mangoes.” about, pausing to stare or run wildly from this big, black, bullockless carriage tearing madly Half an hour later I was still strolling in through their village. The women merely peep the sylvan peace. from the shadows, while the men lazily loll “Sir,” Mr. Wright remarked, “we should beneath the trees along the roadside, curious reach Giri Bala before the sun sets, to have beneath their nonchalance. In one place, all enough light for photographs.” He added with the villagers were gaily bathing in the large a grin, “The Westerners are a skeptical lot; we tank (in their garments, changing by draping can’t expect them to believe in the lady dry cloths around their bodies, dropping the without any pictures!” wet ones). Women bearing water to their This bit of wisdom was indisputable; I homes, in huge brass jars. turned my back on temptation and reentered “The road led us a merry chase over mount the car. and ridge; we bounced and tossed, dipped into small streams, detoured around an unfinished causeway, slithered across dry, sandy river

314 beds and finally, about 5:00 P.M., we were sensation we created—a group piloted by an close to our destination, Biur. This minute American and pioneering in a snorting car village in the interior of Bankura District, right into their hamlet fastness, invading the hidden in the protection of dense foliage, is ancient privacy and sanctity! unapproachable by travelers during the rainy “Halting by a narrow lane we found ourselves season, when the streams are raging torrents within a hundred feet of Giri Bala’s ancestral and the roads serpentlike spit the mud-venom. home. We felt the thrill of fulfillment after the “Asking for a guide among a group of long road struggle crowned by a rough finish. worshipers on their way home from a temple We approached a large, two-storied building prayer (out in the lonely field), we were of brick and plaster, dominating the besieged by a dozen scantily clad lads who surrounding adobe huts; the house was under clambered on the sides of the car, eager to the process of repair, for around it was the conduct us to Giri Bala. characteristically tropical framework of “The road led toward a grove of date palms bamboos. sheltering a group of mud huts, but before we “With feverish anticipation and suppressed had reached it, the Ford was momentarily rejoicing we stood before the open doors of tipped at a dangerous angle, tossed up and the one blessed by the Lord’s ‘hungerless’ dropped down. The narrow trail led around touch. Constantly agape were the villagers, trees and tank, over ridges, into holes and young and old, bare and dressed, women deep ruts. The car became anchored on a aloof somewhat but inquisitive too, men and clump of bushes, then grounded on a hillock, boys unabashedly at our heels as they gazed requiring a lift of earth clods; on we on this unprecedented spectacle. proceeded, slowly and carefully; suddenly the “Soon a short figure came into view in the way was stopped by a mass of brush in the doorway—Giri Bala! She was swathed in a middle of the cart track, necessitating a detour cloth of dull, goldish silk; in typically Indian down a precipitous ledge into a dry tank, fashion, she drew forward modestly and rescue from which demanded some scraping, hesitatingly, peering slightly from beneath the adzing, and shoveling. Again and again the upper fold of her swadeshi cloth. Her eyes road seemed impassable, but the pilgrimage glistened like smouldering embers in the must go on; obliging lads fetched spades and shadow of her head piece; we were enamored demolished the obstacles (shades of Ganesh!) by a most benevolent and kindly face, a face while hundreds of children and parents stared. of realization and understanding, free from “Soon we were threading our way along the the taint of earthly attachment. two ruts of antiquity, women gazing wide- “Meekly she approached and silently assented eyed from their hut doors, men trailing to our snapping a number of pictures with our alongside and behind us, children scampering ‘still’ and ‘movie’ cameras.* Patiently and to swell the procession. Ours was perhaps the first auto to traverse these roads; the ‘bullock *Mr. Wright also took moving pictures of Sri cart union’ must be omnipotent here! What a Yukteswar during his last Winter Solstice Festival in Serampore.

315 shyly she endured our photo techniques of The saint lifted her eyes for a minute, posture adjustment and light arrangement. smiling with serene interest. Finally we had recorded for posterity many “Baba (honored father) knows best,” she photographs of the only woman in the world answered meekly. who is known to have lived without food or drink for over fifty years. (Therese Neumann, I was happy that she had taken no of course, has fasted since 1923.) Most offense; one never knows how great yogis or motherly was Giri Bala’s expression as she will react to the thought of publicity. stood before us, completely covered in the They shun it, as a rule, wishing to pursue in loose-flowing cloth, nothing of her body silence the profound soul research. An inner visible but her face with its downcast eyes, sanction comes to them when the proper time her hands, and her tiny feet. A face of rare arrives to display their lives openly for the peace and innocent poise—a wide, childlike, benefit of seeking minds. quivering lip, a feminine nose, narrow, “Mother,” I went on, “please forgive me, sparkling eyes, and a wistful smile.” then, for burdening you with many questions. Mr. Wright’s impression of Giri Bala was Kindly answer only those that please you; I shared by myself; spirituality enfolded her shall understand your silence, also.” like her gently shining veil. She pronamed She spread her hands in a gracious before me in the customary gesture of gesture. “I am glad to reply, insofar as an greeting from a householder to a monk. Her insignificant person like myself can give simple charm and quiet smile gave us a satisfactory answers.” welcome beyond that of honeyed oratory; “Oh, no, not insignificant!” I protested forgotten was our difficult, dusty trip. sincerely. “You are a great soul.” The little saint seated herself cross-legged “I am the humble servant of all.” She on the verandah. Though bearing the scars of added quaintly, “I love to cook and feed age, she was not emaciated; her olive-colored people.” skin had remained clear and healthy in tone. A strange pastime, I thought, for a non- “Mother,” I said in Bengali, “for over eating saint! twenty-five years I have thought eagerly of this very pilgrimage! I heard about your “Tell me, Mother, from your own lips— sacred life from Sthiti Lal Nundy Babu.” do you live without food?” She nodded in acknowledgment. “Yes, “That is true.” She was silent for a few my good neighbor in Nawabganj.” moments; her next remark showed that she had been struggling with mental arithmetic. “During those years I have crossed the “From the age of twelve years four months oceans, but I never forgot my early plan to down to my present age of sixty-eight—a someday see you. The sublime drama that you period of over fifty-six years—I have not are here playing so inconspicuously should be eaten food or taken liquids.” blazoned before a world that has long forgotten the inner food divine.” “Are you never tempted to eat?”

316 “If I felt a craving for food, I would have and even for our brothers and sisters beyond to eat.” Simply yet regally she stated this the seas.” axiomatic truth, one known too well by a Giri Bala put aside her habitual reserve, world revolving around three meals a day! relaxing into a conversational mood. “But you do eat something!” My tone “So be it.” Her voice was low and firm. held a note of remonstrance. “I was born in these forest regions. My “Of course!” She smiled in swift childhood was unremarkable save that I was understanding. possessed by an insatiable appetite. I had been “Your nourishment derives from the finer betrothed in early years. energies of the air and sunlight,* and from the “‘Child,’ my mother often warned me, cosmic power which recharges your body ‘try to control your greed. When the time through the medulla oblongata.” comes for you to live among strangers in your “Baba knows.” Again she acquiesced, her husband’s family, what will they think of you manner soothing and unemphatic. if your days are spent in nothing but eating?’ “Mother, please tell me about your early “The calamity she had foreseen came to life. It holds a deep interest for all of India, pass. I was only twelve when I joined my husband’s people in Nawabganj. My mother- in-law shamed me morning, noon, and night about my gluttonous habits. Her scoldings *“What we eat is radiation; our food is so much quanta were a blessing in disguise, however; they of energy,” Dr. George W. Crile of Cleveland told a roused my dormant spiritual tendencies. One gathering of medical men on May 17, 1933 in Memphis. “This all-important radiation, which releases morning her ridicule was merciless. electrical currents for the body’s electrical circuit, the nervous system, is given to food by the sun’s rays. “‘I shall soon prove to you,’ I said, stung Atoms, Dr. Crile says, are solar systems. Atoms are the to the quick, ‘that I shall never touch food vehicles that are filled with solar radiance as so many coiled springs. These countless atomfuls of energy are again as long as I live.’ taken in as food. Once in the human body, these tense “My mother-in-law laughed in derision. vehicles, the atoms, are discharged in the body’s protoplasm, the radiance furnishing new chemical ‘So!’ she said, ‘how can you live without energy, new electrical currents. ‘Your body is made up eating, when you cannot live without of such atoms,’ Dr. Crile said. ‘They are your muscles, brains, and sensory organs, such as the eyes and ears.’” overeating?’ Someday scientists will discover how man can live “This remark was unanswerable! Yet an directly on solar energy. “Chlorophyll is the only substance known in nature that somehow possesses the iron resolution scaffolded my spirit. In a power to act as a ‘sunlight trap,’” William L. Laurence secluded spot I sought my Heavenly Father. writes in the New York Times. “It ‘catches’ the energy of sunlight and stores it in the plant. Without this no “‘Lord,’ I prayed incessantly, ‘please life could exist. We obtain the energy we need for living from the solar energy stored in the plant-food we send me a guru, one who can teach me to live eat or in the flesh of the animals that eat the plants. The by Thy light and not by food.’ energy we obtain from coal or oil is solar energy trapped by the chlorophyll in plant life millions of “A divine ecstasy fell over me. Led by a years ago. We live by the sun through the agency of beatific spell, I set out for the Nawabganj ghat chlorophyll.”

317 on the Ganges. On the way I encountered the more difficult than the average person could priest of my husband’s family. perform. No medicine or magic is involved; “‘Venerable sir,’ I said trustingly, ‘kindly nothing beyond the kria.” tell me how to live without eating.’ In the manner of the American “He stared at me without reply. Finally newspaper reporter, who had unknowingly he spoke in a consoling manner. ‘Child,’ he taught me his procedure, I questioned Giri said, ‘come to the temple this evening; I will Bala on many matters which I thought would conduct a special Vedic ceremony for you.’ be of interest to the world. She gave me, bit by bit, the following information: “This vague answer was not the one I was seeking; I continued toward the ghat. The “I have never had any children; many morning sun pierced the waters; I purified years ago I became a widow. I sleep very myself in the Ganges, as though for a sacred little, as sleep and waking are the same to me. initiation. As I left the river bank, my wet I meditate at night, attending to my domestic cloth around me, in the broad glare of day my duties in the daytime. I slightly feel the master materialized himself before me! change in climate from season to season. I have never been sick or experienced any “‘Dear little one,’ he said in a voice of disease. I feel only slight pain when loving compassion, ‘I am the guru sent here accidentally injured. I have no bodily by God to fulfill your urgent prayer. He was excretions. I can control my heart and deeply touched by its very unusual nature! breathing. I often see my guru as well as other From today you shall live by the astral light, great souls, in vision.” your bodily atoms fed from the infinite current.’” “Mother,” I asked, “why don’t you teach others the method of living without food?” Giri Bala fell into silence. I took Mr. Wright’s pencil and pad and translated into My ambitious hopes for the world’s English a few items for his information. starving millions were nipped in the bud. The saint resumed the tale, her gentle “No.” She shook her head. “I was strictly voice barely audible. “The ghat was deserted, commanded by my guru not to divulge the but my guru cast round us an aura of guarding secret. It is not his wish to tamper with God’s light, that no stray bathers later disturb us. He drama of creation. The farmers would not initiated me into a kria technique which frees thank me if I taught many people to live the body from dependence on the gross food without eating! The luscious fruits would lie of mortals. The technique includes the use of uselessly on the ground. It appears that a certain mantra* and a breathing exercise misery, starvation, and disease are whips of our karma which ultimately drive us to seek the true meaning of life.”

*Potent vibratory chant. The literal translation of Sanskrit mantra is “instrument of thought,” signifying the ideal, inaudible sounds which represent one aspect of creation; when vocalized as syllables, a mantra powers of sound derive from AUM, the “Word” or constitutes a universal terminology. The infinite creative hum of the Cosmic Motor.

318 “Mother,” I said slowly, “what is the use of your having been singled out to live without eating?” “To prove that man is Spirit.” Her face lit with wisdom. “To demonstrate that by divine advancement he can gradually learn to live by the Eternal Light and not by food.” The saint sank into a deep meditative state. Her gaze was directed inward; the gentle depths of her eyes became expressionless. She gave a certain sigh, the prelude to the ecstatic breathless trance. For a time she had fled to the questionless realm, the heaven of inner joy. The tropical darkness had fallen. The light of a small kerosene lamp flickered fitfully over the faces of a score of villagers squatting silently in the shadows. The darting glowworms and distant oil lanterns of the huts wove bright eerie patterns into the velvet night. It was the painful hour of parting; a slow, tedious journey lay before our little party. “Giri Bala,” I said as the saint opened her eyes, “please give me a keepsake—a strip of one of your saris.” She soon returned with a piece of Benares silk, extending it in her hand as she suddenly prostrated herself on the ground. “Mother,” I said reverently, “rather let me touch your own blessed feet!”

319 CHAPTER: 47 I Return to the West “I have given many yoga lessons in India and Realization Fellowship center, holding their America; but I must confess that, as a Hindu, meditation meetings weekly throughout the I am unusually happy to be conducting a class bitter war y e a r s . for English students.” Unforgettable weeks in England; days of My London class members laughed sight-seeing in London, then over the appreciatively; no political turmoils ever beautiful countryside. Mr. Wright and I disturbed our yoga peace. summoned the trusty Ford to visit the India was now a hallowed memory. It is birthplaces and tombs of the great poets and September, 1936; I am in England to fulfill a heroes of British history. promise, given sixteen months earlier, to Our little party sailed from Southampton lecture again in London. for America in late October on the Bremen. England, too, is receptive to the timeless The majestic Statue of Liberty in New York yoga message. Reporters and newsreel harbor brought a joyous emotional gulp not cameramen swarmed over my quarters at only to the throats of Miss Bletch and Mr. Grosvenor House. The British National Wright, but to my own. Council of the World Fellowship of Faiths The Ford, a bit battered from struggles organized a meeting on September 29th at with ancient soils, was still puissant; it now Whitefield’s Congregational Church where I took in its stride the transcontinental trip to addressed the audience on the weighty subject California. In late 1936, lo! Mount of “How Faith in Fellowship may Save Washington. Civilization.” The eight o’clock lectures at The year-end holidays are celebrated Caxton Hall attracted such crowds that on two annually at the Los Angeles center with an nights the overflow waited in Windsor House eight-hour group meditation on December auditorium for my second talk at nine-thirty. 24th (Spiritual Christmas), followed the next Yoga classes during the following weeks day by a banquet (Social Christmas). The grew so large that Mr. Wright was obliged to festivities this year were augmented by the arrange a transfer to another hall. presence of dear friends and students from The English tenacity has admirable distant cities who had arrived to welcome expression in a spiritual relationship. The home the three world travelers. London yoga students loyally organized themselves, after my departure, into a Self-

320 The Christmas Day feast included “Thank you, sir; it brings the pageant of delicacies brought fifteen thousand miles for India before my eyes.” this glad occasion: gucchi mushrooms from “Mr. Dickinson!” The next parcel Kashmir, canned rasagulla and mango pulp, contained a gift which I had bought in a papar biscuits, and an oil of the Indian keora Calcutta bazaar. “Mr. Dickinson will like flower which flavored our ice cream. The this,” I had thought at the time. A dearly evening found us grouped around a huge beloved disciple, Mr. Dickinson had been sparkling Christmas tree, the near-by fireplace present at every Christmas festivity since the crackling with logs of aromatic cypress. 1925 founding of Mt. Washington. At this Gift-time! Presents from the earth’s far eleventh annual celebration, he was standing corners—Palestine, Egypt, India, England, before me, untying the ribbons of his square France, Italy. How laboriously had Mr. little package. Wright counted the trunks at each foreign “The silver cup!” Struggling with junction, that no pilfering hand receive the emotion, he stared at the present, a tall treasures intended for loved ones in America! drinking cup. He seated himself some Plaques of the sacred olive tree from the Holy distance away, apparently in a daze. I smiled Land, delicate laces and embroideries from at him affectionately before resuming my role Belgium and Holland, Persian carpets, finely as Santa Claus. woven Kashmiri shawls, everlastingly fragrant sandalwood trays from Mysore, The ejaculatory evening closed with a Shiva “bull’s eye” stones from Central prayer to the Giver of all gifts; then a group Provinces, old Indian coins of dynasties long singing of Christmas carols. fled, bejeweled vases and cups, miniatures, Mr. Dickinson and I were chatting tapestries, temple incense and perfumes, together sometime later. swadeshi cotton prints, lacquer work, Mysore “Sir,” he said, “please let me thank you ivory carvings, Persian slippers with their now for the silver cup. I could not find any inquisitive long toe, quaint old illuminated words on Christmas night.” manuscripts, velvets, brocades, Gandhi caps, potteries, tiles, brasswork, prayer rugs—booty “I brought the gift especially for you.” of three continents! “For forty-three years I have been One by one I distributed the gaily waiting for that silver cup! It is a long story, wrapped packages from the immense pile one I have kept hidden within me.” Mr. under the tree. Dickinson looked at me shyly. “The beginning was dramatic: I was drowning. My “Sister Gyanamata!” I handed a long box older brother had playfully pushed me into a to the saintly American lady of sweet visage fifteen-foot pool in a small town in Nebraska. and deep realization who, during my absence, I was only five years old then. As I was about had been in charge at Mt. Washington. From to sink for the second time under the water, a the paper tissues she lifted a sari of golden dazzling multicolored light appeared, filling Benares silk. all space. In the midst was the figure of a man

321 with tranquil eyes and a reassuring smile. My “I left Chicago in a few days,” Mr. body was sinking for the third time when one Dickinson went on, “and never saw the great of my brother’s companions bent a tall Vivekananda again. But every word he had slender willow tree in such a low dip that I uttered was indelibly written on my inmost could grasp it with my desperate fingers. The consciousness. Years passed; no teacher boys lifted me to the bank and successfully appeared. One night in 1925 I prayed deeply gave me first-aid treatment. that the Lord would send me my guru. A few “Twelve years later, a youth of hours later, I was awakened from sleep by seventeen, I visited Chicago with my mother. soft strains of melody. A band of celestial It was 1893; the great World Parliament of beings, carrying flutes and other instruments, Religions was in session. Mother and I were came before my view. After filling the air walking down a main street, when again I saw with glorious music, the angels slowly the mighty flash of light. A few paces away, vanished. strolling leisurely along, was the same man I “The next evening I attended, for the first had seen years before in vision. He time, one of your lectures here in Los approached a large auditorium and vanished Angeles, and knew then that my prayer had within the door. been granted.” “‘Mother,’ I cried, ‘that was the man who We smiled at each other in silence. appeared at the time I was drowning!’ “For eleven years now I have been your “She and I hastened into the building; the Kriya Yoga disciple,” Mr. Dickinson man was seated on a lecture platform. We continued. “Sometimes I wondered about the soon learned that he was silver cup; I had almost persuaded myself that of India.* After he had given a soul-stirring Vivekananda’s words were only talk, I went forward to meet him. He smiled metaphorical. But on Christmas night, as you on me graciously, as though we were old handed me the square box by the tree, I saw, friends. I was so young that I did not know for the third time in my life, the same how to give expression to my feelings, but in dazzling flash of light. In another minute I my heart I was hoping that he would offer to was gazing on my guru’s gift which be my teacher. He read my thought. Vivekananda had foreseen for me forty-three “‘No, my son, I am not your guru.’ years earlier—a silver cup!” Vivekananda gazed with his beautiful, piercing eyes deep into my own. ‘Your teacher will come later. He will give you a silver cup.’ After a little pause, he added, smiling, ‘He will pour out to you more blessings than you are now able to hold.’

*The chief disciple of the Christlike master Sri Ramakrishna.

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CHAPTER: 48 At Encinitas in California “A surprise, sir! During your absence abroad we have had this Encinitas hermitage built; it is a ‘welcome-home’ gift!” Sister Gyanamata virtues of their blessed gifts as widespread as smilingly led me through a gate and up a tree- the earth, as far-flung as the rivers, as high- shaded walk. reaching as the sun, for the furtherance of I saw a building jutting out like a great better men, for the increase of abundance and white ocean liner toward the blue brine. First glory. speechlessly, then with “Oh’s!” and “Ah’s!”, “May obedience conquer disobedience within finally with man’s insufficient vocabulary of this house; may peace triumph here over joy and gratitude, I examined the ashram— discord; free-hearted giving over avarice, sixteen unusually large rooms, each one truthful speech over deceit, reverence over charmingly appointed. contempt. That our minds be delighted, and The stately central hall, with immense our souls uplifted, let our bodies be glorified ceiling-high windows, looks out on a united as well; and O Light Divine, may we see altar of grass, ocean, sky—a symphony in Thee, and may we, approaching, come round emerald, opal, sapphire. A mantle over the about Thee, and attain unto Thine entire hall’s huge fireplace holds the framed companionship!” likeness of Lahiri Mahasaya, smiling his This Self-Realization Fellowship ashram blessing over this far Pacific heaven. had been made possible through the Directly below the hall, built into the generosity of a few American disciples, very bluff, two solitary meditation caves American businessmen of endless confront the infinities of sky and sea. responsibilities who yet find time daily for Verandahs, sun-bathing nooks, acres of their Kriya Yoga. Not a word of the hermitage orchard, a eucalypti grove, flagstone paths construction had been allowed to reach me leading through roses and lilies to quiet during my stay in India and Europe. arbors, a long flight of stairs ending on an Astonishment, delight! isolated beach and the vast waters! Was During my earlier years in America I had dream ever more concrete? combed the coast of California in quest of a “May the good and heroic and bountiful souls small site for a seaside ashram; whenever I of the saints come here,” reads “A Prayer for had found a suitable location, some obstacle a Dwelling,” from the Zend-Avesta, fastened had invariably arisen to thwart me. Gazing on one of the hermitage doors, “and may they go hand in hand with us, giving the healing now over the broad acres of Encinitas,* receptivity of Westerners to the quaintly humbly I saw the effortless fulfillment of Sri devotional airs of the East. The occasion had Yukteswar’s long-ago prophecy: “a hermitage been a public lecture; the time, April 18, by the ocean.” 1926; the place, Carnegie Hall in New York. A few months later, Easter of 1937, I “Mr. Hunsicker,” I had confided to an conducted on the smooth lawns at Encinitas American student, “I am planning to ask the the first of many Sunrise Services. Like the audience to sing an ancient Hindu chant, ‘O magi of old, several hundred students gazed God Beautiful!’” in devotional awe at the daily miracle, the “Sir,” Mr. Hunsicker had protested, early solar fire rite in the eastern sky. To the “these Oriental songs are alien to American west lay the inexhaustible Pacific, booming understanding. What a shame if the lecture its solemn praise; in the distance, a tiny white were to be marred by a commentary of sailing boat, and the lonely flight of a seagull. overripe tomatoes!” “Christ, thou art risen!” Not alone with the vernal sun, but in the eternal dawn of Spirit! I had laughingly disagreed. “Music is a universal language. Americans will not fail to Many happy months sped by; in the feel the soul-aspiration in this lofty chant.”† peace of perfect beauty I was able to complete at the hermitage a long-projected work, During the lecture Mr. Hunsicker had sat Cosmic Chants. I set to English words and behind me on the platform, probably fearing Western musical notation about forty songs, for my safety. His doubts were groundless; some original, others my adaptations of not only had there been an absence of ancient melodies. Included were the Shankara unwelcome vegetables, but for one hour and chant, “No Birth, No Death”; two favorites of twenty-five minutes the strains of “O God Sri Yukteswar’s: “Wake, Yet Wake, O my Beautiful!” had sounded uninterruptedly from Saint!” and “Desire, my Great Enemy”; the three thousand throats. Blasé no longer, dear hoary Sanskrit “Hymn to Brahma”; old New Yorkers; your hearts had soared out in a Bengali songs, “What Lightning Flash!” and simple paean of rejoicing! Divine healings “They Have Heard Thy Name”; Tagore’s had taken place that evening among the “Who is in my Temple?”; and a number of my compositions: “I Will be Thine Always,” “In the Land Beyond my Dreams,” “Come †I translate here the words of Guru Nanak’s song: O God beautiful! O God beautiful! Out of the Silent Sky,” “Listen to my Soul In the forest, Thou art green, Call,” “In the Temple of Silence,” and “Thou In the mountain, Thou art high, Art my Life.” In the river, Thou art restless, In the ocean, Thou art grave! For a preface to the songbook I recounted To the serviceful, Thou art service, my first outstanding experience with the To the lover, Thou art love, To the sorrowful, Thou art sympathy,

*A small town on Coast Highway 101, Encinitas is 100 To the yogi, Thou art bliss! miles south of Los Angeles, and 25 miles north of San O God beautiful! O God beautiful! Diego. At Thy feet, O I do bow!

324 devotees chanting with love the Lord’s companion and myself in a modern, blessed name. artistically decorated suite. The secluded life of a literary minstrel “Sir,” Dr. Lewis said to me, smiling, was not my role for long. Soon I was dividing “during your early years in America you every fortnight between Los Angeles and stayed in this city in a single room, without Encinitas. Sunday services, classes, lectures bath. I wanted you to know that Boston before clubs and colleges, interviews with possesses some luxurious apartments!” students, ceaseless streams of The shadows of approaching carnage correspondence, articles for East-West, were lengthening over the world; already the direction of activities in India and numerous acute ear might hear the frightful drums of small centers in American cities. Much time war. During interviews with thousands in was given, also, to the arrangement of Kriya California, and through a world-wide and other Self-Realization Fellowship correspondence, I found that men and women teachings into a series of studies for the were deeply searching their hearts; the tragic distant yoga seekers whose zeal recognized outer insecurity had emphasized need for the no limitation of space. Eternal Anchorage. Joyous dedication of a Self-Realization “We have indeed learned the value of Church of All Religions took place in 1938 at meditation,” the leader of the London Self- Washington, D.C. Set amidst landscaped Realization Fellowship center wrote me in grounds, the stately church stands in a section 1941, “and know that nothing can disturb our of the city aptly called “Friendship Heights.” inner peace. In the last few weeks during the The Washington leader is Swami meetings we have heard air-raid warnings and Premananda, educated at the Ranchi school listened to the explosion of delayed-action and Calcutta University. I had summoned him bombs, but our students still gather and in 1928 to assume leadership of the thoroughly enjoy our beautiful service.” Washington Self-Realization Fellowship center. Another letter reached me from war-torn England just before America entered the “Premananda,” I told him during a visit conflict. In nobly pathetic words, Dr. L. to his new temple, “this Eastern headquarters Cranmer Byng, noted editor of The Wisdom of is a memorial in stone to your tireless the East Series, wrote: devotion. Here in the nation’s capital you have held aloft the light of Lahiri Mahasaya’s “When I read East-West I realized how far ideals.” apart we seemed to be, apparently living in two different worlds. Beauty, order, calm, and Premananda accompanied me from peace come to me from Los Angeles, sailing Washington for a brief visit to the Self- into port as a vessel laden with the blessings Realization Fellowship center in Boston. and comfort of the Holy Grail to a What joy to see again the Kriya Yoga band beleaguered city. who had remained steadfast since 1920! The Boston leader, Dr. M. W. Lewis, lodged my

325 “I see as in a dream your palm tree grove, and Another Self-Realization Church of All the temple at Encinitas with its ocean Religions was founded in 1943 at San Diego. stretches and mountain views, and above all A quiet hilltop temple, it stands in a sloping its fellowship of spiritually minded men and valley of eucalypti, overlooking sparkling San women, a community comprehended in unity, Diego Bay. absorbed in creative work, and replenished in Sitting one evening in this tranquil haven, contemplation. It is the world of my own I was pouring out my heart in song. Under my vision, in the making of which I hoped to bear fingers was the sweet-toned organ of the my little part, and now . . . church, on my lips the yearning plaint of an “Perhaps in the body I shall never reach your ancient Bengali devotee who had searched for golden shores nor worship in your temple. eternal solace: But it is something and more, to have had the In this world, Mother, none can love me; vision and know that in the midst of war there is still a peace that abides in your harbors and In this world they do not know love divine. among your hills. Greetings to all the Where is there pure loving love? Fellowship from a common soldier, written Where is there truly loving Thee? on the watchtower waiting for the dawn.” There my heart longs to be. The war years brought a spiritual awakening among men whose diversions had My companion in the chapel, Dr. Lloyd never before included a study of the New Kennell, the San Diego center leader, was Testament. One sweet distillment from the smiling a little at the words of the song. bitter herbs of war! To satisfy a growing need, “Tell me truly, Paramhansaji, has it been an inspiring little Self-Realization Church of worth it?” He gazed at me with an earnest All Religions was built and dedicated in 1942 sincerity. I understood his laconic question: at Hollywood. The site faces Olive Hill and “Have you been happy in America? What the distant Los Angeles Planetarium. The about the disillusionments, the heartaches, the church, finished in blue, white, and gold, is center leaders who could not lead, the reflected amidst the water hyacinths in a large students who could not be taught?” pool. The gardens are gay with flowers, a few startled stone deer, a stained-glass pergola, “Blessed is the man whom the Lord doth and a quaint wishing well. Thrown in with the test, Doctor! He has remembered now and pennies and the kaleidoscopic wishes of man then to put a burden on me!” I thought, then, has been many a pure aspiration for the sole of all the faithful ones, of the love and treasure of Spirit! A universal benignity flows devotion and understanding that lay in the from small niches with statues of Lahiri heart of America. With slow emphasis I went Mahasaya and Sri Yukteswar, and of Krishna, on, “But my answer is: Yes, a thousand times Buddha, Confucius, St. Francis, and a yes! It has been worth-while; it has been a beautiful mother-of-pearl reproduction of constant inspiration, more than ever I Christ at the Last Supper. dreamed, to see West and East brought closer in the only lasting bond, the spiritual!”

326 Silently I added a prayer: “May Babaji inspire other ideal communities over the and Sri Yukteswarji feel that I have done my earth.” part, not disappointing the high hope in which “A splendid idea, sir! The colony will they sent me forth.” surely be a success if everyone sincerely does I turned again to the organ; this time my his part!” song was tinged with a martial valor: “‘World’ is a large term, but man must The grinding wheel of Time doth mar enlarge his allegiance, considering himself in Full many a life of moon and star the light of a world citizen,” I continued. “A person who truly feels: ‘The world is my And many a brightly smiling morn— homeland; it is my America, my India, my But still my soul is marching on! Philippines, my England, my Africa,’ will never lack scope for a useful and happy life.

His natural local pride will know limitless Darkness, death, and failures vied; expansion; he will be in touch with creative To block my path they fiercely tried; universal currents.” My fight with jealous Nature’s strong— Dr. Lewis and I halted above the lotus pool near the hermitage. Below us lay the But still my soul is marching on! illimitable Pacific. New Year’s week of 1945 found me at “These same waters break equally on the work in my Encinitas study, revising the coasts of West and East, in California and manuscript of this book. China.” My companion threw a little stone “Paramhansaji, please come outdoors.” into the first of the oceanic seventy million Dr. Lewis, on a visit from Boston, smiled at square miles. “Encinitas is a symbolic spot for me pleadingly from outside my window. Soon a world colony.” we were strolling in the sunshine. My “That is true, Doctor. We shall arrange companion pointed to new towers in process here for many conferences and Congresses of of construction along the edge of the Religion, inviting delegates from all lands. Fellowship property adjoining the coast Flags of the nations will hang in our halls. highway. Diminutive temples will be built over the “Sir, I see many improvements here since grounds, dedicated to the world’s principal my last visit.” Dr. Lewis comes twice religions. annually from Boston to Encinitas. “As soon as possible,” I went on, “I plan “Yes, Doctor, a project I have long to open a Yoga Institute here. The blessed considered is beginning to take definite form. role of Kriya Yoga in the West has hardly In these beautiful surroundings I have started more than just begun. May all men come to a miniature world colony. Brotherhood is an know that there is a definite, scientific ideal better understood by example than technique of self-realization for the precept! A small harmonious group here may overcoming of all human misery!”

327 Far into the night my dear friend—the first Kriya Yogi in America—discussed with me the need for world colonies founded on a spiritual basis. The ills attributed to an anthropomorphic abstraction called “society” may be laid more realistically at the door of Everyman. Utopia must spring in the private bosom before it can flower in civic virtue. Man is a soul, not an institution; his inner reforms alone can lend permanence to outer ones. By stress on spiritual values, self- realization, a colony exemplifying world brotherhood is empowered to send inspiring vibrations far beyond its locale. August 15, 1945, close of Global War II! End of a world; dawn of an enigmatic Atomic Age! The hermitage residents gathered in the main hall for a prayer of thanksgiving. “Heavenly Father, may never it be again! Thy children go henceforth as brothers!” Gone was the tension of war years; our spirits purred in the sun of peace. I gazed happily at each of my American comrades. “Lord,” I thought gratefully, “Thou hast given this monk a large family!”

328 Afterword community! Nevertheless, I hope and fondly by Swami Kriyananda believe that his dream for a model “world brotherhood colony” will become a reality (Revised 2011) someday, in Encinitas itself. Paramhansa Yogananda ended this For this deletion from the book indicated extraordinary book with a brief mention of his no “change of mind,” as a fellow disciple, plan to found the first “world colony,” as he years later, insisted to me that it did. During called it, in Encinitas, California. Often I the three and a half years that I lived with heard him exhort his audiences to gather him, before his entry into final mahasamadhi, together in “world brotherhood colonies.” I frequently heard him declaim on the need in This “colony” concept was central to his our age for “world brotherhood colonies.” mission. Spiritual communities, he said, That removal from his book, then, in no way would inspire millions throughout the world signified that his interest in the vision was to live in peace, and would eventually serve diminished. as models for international harmony. His dream was that the earth’s nations would live On July 31, 1949, I heard him speak at a together in friendliness in this, our common garden party in Beverly Hills, famous for its planetary home. “high society” activity. (What a place, I thought, and what an occasion for that fiery All men must see themselves, he taught, exhortation!) It was the most stirring speech I as “world citizens.” The closing paragraphs of have ever heard. His talk focused on “world his book contain the stirring statement: “A brotherhood colonies.” The seven hundred person who truly feels: ‘The world is my guests must surely have expected him to offer homeland; it is my America, my India, my a few polite expressions of thanks to “our Philippines, my England, my Africa,’ will hostess,” and smiling words of appreciation never lack in scope for a useful and happy for the “delightful” entertainment. No one life. His natural local pride will know dreamed of being blasted with a harangue of limitless expansion; he will be in touch with such divine power! The Master commented creative universal currents.” later, “God spoke through me.” I’ve described Alas, it was not possible for him, during that event in my book, The Path. the exceptionally active years that remained “Never,” I wrote, “had I imagined that to him, to bring this dream to fruition. The the power of human speech could be so great; above-quoted statement was removed from it was the most stirring lecture I have ever subsequent editions of this book. His hopes of heard. founding a “world brotherhood colony” had to be shelved for a time when he would no “‘This day,’ he thundered, punctuating longer be in his physical body. It was he every word, ‘marks the birth of a new era. My himself, I must add, who made, or at least spoken words are registered in the ether, in approved of, this excision. He didn’t want the Spirit of God, and they shall move the readers packing up their belongings and West. . . . We must go on, not only those who moving immediately to an as-y e t -nonexistent are here, but thousands of youths must go

329 North, South, East and West to cover the today, were blessed to be present that earth with little colonies, demonstrating that evening), he movingly declared his belief that simplicity of living plus high thinking lead to the special virtues of every nation should be the greatest happiness.’” combined in friendly cooperation. “Band together in spiritual communities,” Cooperation was always, with him, a basic he often urged his audiences. “Pursue lives of theme: his mission was not to found only a service to God and of divine meditation. That monastery! is the way to inner peace and harmony. What As late as four months before his passing, more can you want from life? Pool your he declared his lifelong belief in “world resources. Keep all your essential activities in brotherhood colonies” to Kamala Silva, a one place: job, home, place of worship, and close disciple who had come on a visit. schools for teaching children ‘how-to-live’ Kamala later reported those words in her principles. This way of life will give you inspiring book of reminiscences, The everything you need: peace of mind, inner Flawless Mirror. freedom, and, above all—happiness!” I myself have been fortunate, by the I vowed, after that speech, to do grace of Guru and God, to fulfill his “world everything in my power to help make his brotherhood colony” vision. I founded the dream a reality. Soon afterward, he began first Ananda Sangha community in August, saying to me, “You have a great work to do, 1968, dedicating it to the spirit, teachings, and Walter.” (This was his special name for me.) ideals of Paramhansa Yogananda. Many times from then on he repeated the The Ananda communities today—May same words, stating them in such a way that 2011—number eight in all. They demonstrate they were an admonition, not a compliment. that it is possible for people from many His community concept was no mere backgrounds to live together in spiritual fancy, lightly tossed out, perhaps, at a tea harmony. These communities are located in party—the sort of thing about which one the American states of California, Oregon, might easily “change his mind” later on. This and Washington; in Italy, near Assisi; and in concept was fundamental to his life mission. Gurgaon and Pune, in India; with a budding He stated it clearly also in his “Aims and ninth community in India. Together they Ideals.” Unfortunately, those “Aims” were house some one thousand residents. altered, in later years, to match the perception Thousands more are associated with these of certain disciples that his vision for the communities, and practice the great Guru’s work had “changed.” (As if such intense teachings. And thousands more come fervor—and from a master!—could ever be annually from around the world on visits to retracted.) the communities to learn the Master’s On the historic occasion of the banquet teachings and study how communities might honoring Binay R. Sen, the ambassador from be established in their own areas. India, toward the end of which the Master left My present dream is that our his body (I and two other disciples, still alive communities in Pune and Gurgaon flourish,

330 and become model Ananda Sangha communities in India. Forty-two years of experience in this field must surely convince people that the concept has been well tested, on the hard soil of this earth. The concept works! Ananda Sangha communities fulfill in part the great legacy Paramhansa Yogananda bequeathed to the world. May all men come to realize that people can indeed live together useful and productive lives in peace and harmony! The Ananda communities are not the usual village, where gossip and self-interest so often prevail and undermine their residents’ tranquility. These communities have demonstrated a way of life that brings, as my Guru put it, “the greatest inner harmony and happiness!”

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