92. Paul Brunton. Part Four

There are two spiritually noteworthy episodes during his travels in Egypt (‘a search in secret Egypt’). One is an account of the night he spent in the Great Pyramid and the other is his meeting with an Adept.

Night in Great Pyramid. Brunton spent a night in King’s chamber. The place was pitch dark and there was oppressive death like silence. Brunton was a psychic. He soon felt implacably hostile forces surrounding him. At first he could not see them, but could only feel them with absolute certainty. The atmosphere became uncanny and frightening. With intense concentration of mind he became able to see them. At first there were shadows flitting in shadowless room. Soon they took form. Malevolent faces took form quite close to his face. A dark apparition advanced, looked at him sinisterly, and raised its hands menacingly.

After some time the climax came. Monstrous elemental fiendish creations surrounded him and filled him with unimaginable revulsion. In a few minutes he suffered such torment that he could not forget it for the rest of his life

Atmosphere suddenly changed to peace and benevolence. He was soon aware of two tall beings clad in white robes and sandals. They appeared to be high priests of some ancient Egyptian order. One of them said, in a voice “why dost thou come to this place, seeking to evoke the secret powers? Are mortal ways not enough for you? ”

“They are not”

The priest warned him of the dangers, but Brunton was adamant

“He who gains touch with us loses kin with the world. Are you prepared to walk alone?”

“I do not know” Brunton replied

“So be it. Thou hast chosen. There is no recall………” And he left.

The other priest made him lie flat on the stone sarcophagus. He did something. Brunton felt an ascending paralysis, which started from his feet and rose to his brain. He was conscious but completely paralyzed. He felt like being going out of a hole and passing out in space.

He was free.

He had changed into a mental being. He felt blissfully free, in this fourth dimension.

Somebody turned him from a horizontal to a standing position. He was both standing and floating simultaneously.

He gazed down upon the deserted body of flesh and bone, which was lying prone and motionless on the stone block.

He noted an umbilical cord like faint silvery string connecting him, the new him, to the motionless body on the stone.

A distinct idea formed in his mind;

“………..now I have proven that I am a soul. I do not need convincing anymore. I can exist apart from my body.”

The priest appeared at his side and said prayers “O AMEN, O AMEN……………….”

Then he said “thou hast learnt a great lesson. Man whose soul was born out of Undying, can never really die…………”

The priest told him some other things and also took him to a secret chamber.

The reader can read the details in Brunton’s book.

He regained consciousness. He had fever for three months.

Meeting with an adept. Brunton was doing studies in the Valley of the Tombs of Kings. One morning, he climbed up the Theban hills with his donkey.  On the summit he saw a man sitting on a low boulder. When the man looked at him, Brunton was so impressed by the stranger’s eyes that he became speechless. He became aware that he was in the presence of an utterly unusual man. The eyes were large and beautiful, perfect circles of luminous color, and the whites were so pronounced as to give supernatural depth to the jet-black pupils. They were penetrating and hypnotic. Brunton felt that they read his soul and then ruled it.

Suddenly Brunton saw a radiant spoked wheel of light revolve before him ………..at high speed. With its working there was a receding of his physical moorings………

“Sir, I feel sure that you will understand a peculiar experience which I have just had whilst standing near to you”

“I do”

Brunton said something else.

The stranger said “I deliberately wanted you to have this experience. I willed that it should silently carry to you a certain message; and it has”.

“You mean----?”

“That now you recognize the Order to which I belong”

The Adept told him that this was not a chance meeting, but a higher power had first ordained and then arranged it.

The Adept told him about himself and the ways of fellow Adepts. They preferred to work in secrecy. They could communicate with each other at will and at any distance. They could temporarily take over the body of a willing person-------usually a disciple.

They hold the spiritual welfare of mankind at heart, and battle against the dark forces at their own level. They are not permitted to destroy evil forces or evil men by Nature’s laws. Their powers were restricted to protection of persons and institutions which were under their shield.

The purpose of this meeting was, for Brunton to warn mankind, through his writing, that with digging of these ancient tombs, evil spirits which were captive in these tombs for thousands of years, were being released. The people buried in some of these tombs dealt in black magic. These malevolent forces were going to harm humanity, and if the digging was not stopped, mankind will have to pay a price ( this warning was off course ignored by governments. Few years later there was 2nd World war in which over 60 million people were killed, over 2.5% of the world population.). However, there were good sages too. Pharoah Akhnaton , who preached one God, 3500 years ago, was one such.( see footnote)

In their next meeting the Adept gave this astonishing statement, that some of the Adepts of ancient Egypt were still alive!

Their bodies were buried in secret tombs. Their bodies were intact. To all intents and purposes, they were dead , with no respiration or heart beat. Their tremendous spirituality protected their bodies from insects and decay. But they were not dead but entranced. Their spirits roamed freely in the world. They communicated with each other and alive  Adepts

There was one Adept who was in his tomb since 260 B.C., another more than 3000 B.C., and still another for 10,000 years. They were all working very actively in secret for the spiritual welfare of mankind.

As I am writing these lines, a strange thought comes to me, that maybe Data Gunj Bakhash ( blog 62-4 ) is an Adept just like those described above. His intense interest for welfare of humanity and active help to needy for a thousand years, resembles those of Adepts who are dead but not really dead.

Who knows such sublime secrets, certainly, not this unworthy mote.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Note. Some times after Brunton’s death his son had a dream. In the dream Brunton said that over here his teacher was Amenhotep. His son, after some search, found out that Amenhotep was the original name of Akhnaton (in ‘ Paul Brunton, a personal view by Kenneth Hurst )

91. Paul Brunton. Part Three

 

One day, while motoring, he saw a holy man and his disciple by the road. The holy man was meditating. He was dressed in a loin cloth only. Something in the man’s face attracted Brunton. He offered them a ride to the nearby village. The yogi’s name was Chandi Das, and according to the disciple, was gifted with exceptional powers. They had been wandering, village to village, now for two years.

At night, he interviewed the yogi. During the interview the conversation turned to time. The yogi asked Brunton if he was sure there was such a thing as time. Brunton implied, that there was present, past, and future, therefore, there was time, because, otherwise, past and future should be here at this time, but that was not our experience. The yogi countered that such was Brunton’s experience, not necessarily true. Puzzled, Brunton asked Chandi Das whether he could see future. The yogi replied “if I wished……yes.”

Then he uttered this sentence, which this mote has thought about for years.

“Only in part. The lives of men do not move so smoothly that every detail is ordained for them.”

In the discussion about fate versus free will, this sentence carries great significance, because this pronouncement was uttered by somebody who knew what he was talking about.

The yogi told him many things about his future. Some of them had already come true by the time the book was written while others still waited the verdict of time ( see footnote )

One of the things, the yogi said, was that to achieve his goal; he must turn his car back to Bombay. He also said that he will get his wish before the next full moon. A sage awaited him, with whom he was tied by ancient ties. (These predictions came true).

Brunton followed the advice. After great mental conflict and ill health, he decided to cancel his berth in the ship, sailing next week to England, and returned to Maharishee in Arunachala.

Brunton asked Maharishee to become his master. Maharishee refused, and said, “You must find the master within you, within your own spiritual self.” He spent several weeks with Maharishee. Sometimes Maharishee would visit his hut. One day he told Brunton, “The same force which drew you to this place from Bombay, drew me to it from Madura (his hometown )”.

Brunton would get ineffable tranquility by sitting for a while in the neighborhood of Maharishee. Maharishee was not a yogi in the orthodox sense, he had never studied any system of yoga, and he had never practiced under a teacher.

One night, while sitting in the hall, Brunton got his first smadhi. It lasted for about two hours. He lost all consciousness of his surroundings. He felt rapture. He found himself outside the rim of world consciousness. Earth disappeared.  He found himself in the midst of blazing light………………………..

Brunton has described his experience in six pages of his book.

His friend, sitting next to him, told, “the Maharishee watched you closely all the time………” Brunton lost his power of speech for fifteen minutes.

Maharishee returned to his divan and looked intently at Brunton. Their eyes met. Their eyes were locked, across the room, for the next forty minutes. They did not exchange a word. His eyes, as always, had a strange luster.

Brunton reminded himself that never had he met any man with such remarkable eyes. In so for human eyes could mirror divine power, it was a fact that the sage’s did that.

Brunton was happy to achieve certitude. He was also happy that he did not sacrifice his rational way of thinking to blind credulity (also called faith or belief in religion)

What was the purpose of Maharishee’s life, which many Westerners would consider a waste?

This mote thinks his life served three purposes:

1. According to Brunton, people like Maharishee, ensure the continuity down history of a divine message from regions not easily accessible to us all. They make us believe in God

2. They tell us of a method to reach God, or one’s own self. They tell us  what self was and what were its characteristics, and why should one try to reach it. Why is such quest the noblest of all quests?

3. Maharishee, in his own invisible way, applied balm to the wounds of tortured souls, everyday. He imparted peace and tranquility upon them. Even his close disciple , Ramiah, had this power, as experienced by Brunton himself, in his hour of distress.

Remember in blog 89, Brunton stated, that not too long ago, he thought of God as a delusion. Let me quote from his book, “ a hermit in the Himalayas” published in 1937:

‘ I think the final news which I bring…………………….that of God’s reality. The highest power is no mere article of belief to me, but a verity…..authentic, undeniable and supreme………..’

‘ His language is nothing else than this stillness………….we must learn His language……………..’

‘ be still, and know that I am God’                                         

To be continued
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Note. Chandi Das said that Brunton would not again meet a saint in Bengal, who Brunton was planning to meet, that he would leave India by the next  solstice, that he would become very sick as he left India, and that the would visit India three times in his life.

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90. Paul Brunton. Part two

Next day the swami took Paul Brunton to the hill of Arunachala where the Maharishee lived. The Maharishee had come to that hill about thirty years ago, as a young man of seventeen, and never left that place even for a day. A mysterious force pulled him from his home. He left family, studies, and arrived at Arunachala without money. He sat in meditation, naked, near the temple, and talked to no one for three years. He was persuaded by the priests to wear a loin cloth. After sometime he moved to a cave in the hill and pursued his trance like state for several years. He would go to the village and beg for food. His fame spread. He now lived in a shed (hall). He talked extremely little and sat and slept on a divan in a corner of the hall. Visitors came everyday and sat in semicircles on the red-tiled floor at a respectable distance from the Maharishee.

Brunton saw a man seated in a rigid posture on the divan, completely immobile, gazing outside. After one hour, Brunton was convinced that the Maharishee was in a trance. After one hour of sitting in the hall, Brunton became aware that a deep peace had come upon his soul. All the questions he had prepared in his mind to ask from Maharishee were gone. He did not feel any need for questions.

Brunton had two interviews with the Maharishee. He asked the Maharishee whether he could help him to experience enlightenment, or if his search for Truth was a mere delusion?

After some preliminaries, the Maharishee replied “there is only one thing to be done……look into your own self……..”

He further added “Through deep reflection on the nature of one’s self, and through constant meditation, light can be found.”

Brunton asked that what was the average time required for such a quest.

Maharishee replied that there was no average. It depended on the maturity of the seeker’s mind, gunpowder lighted at once whereas much time was needed to light coal.

That night, in the hall, Brunton fell in half-sleep and had a vivid dream:

‘He had become a boy of five, and was holding the hand of Maharishee, who had become a tall towering figure. They climbed the hill of Arunachala………………………………….Maharishee looked at him and he at Maharishee………………he felt a change occurring in him………………………..all his previous fears, desires changed into nothingness……an indescribable peace fell upon him………………………………….

Maharishee bade him look down. To his astonishment he found the Western hemisphere sprawled far below, with millions of people………………

Maharishee’s distinct voice comes in his ears: ‘ when you go back , you shall have this peace which you now feel…………………..but you shall have to forget your self…………….and turn it over to THAT’

He woke up. He met Maharishee’s eyes. Maharishee was fixedly looking into his eyes.

On his second interview he learnt some more pearls of wisdom:

‘Maharishee said that every person was ever wanting happiness. …………………………Therefore man’s true nature was happiness…………………….his unconscious search for happiness was the search for his true self. The true self was imperishable; therefore when he finds it, he finds everlasting happiness.

When a man finds his true self, something else arises from the depth of his being, which takes possession of him. That something is eternal, divine, and infinite.

Happiness and true self were identical.’

He also became fully convinced that a mysterious power arises from the Maharishee which imparts peace and tranquility over others

 

Brunton resumed his travels of India. In Benares, one of the holiest cities of Hinduism, he heard of an astrologer who was very good in his craft. Since Brunton did not believe in astrology, he was intrigued, and decided to give it a test. He went to the astrologer’s house with a friend. He was startled by the death-like countenance, incredibly lean body, and unearthly slow movements of Sudhei Babu, the astrologer. They discussed some subjects. Sudhei Babu invited him for more talk, next day.

Sudhei Babu told him that he was in possession of some parts of a thousands of year old book called Brahma Chinta, written by the sage Bhrigu. It taught a different form of yoga than any other. In this yoga, the spirit of Bhrigu guides the practitioner. One does not need any teacher; one’s own soul becomes his teacher.  The purpose of this yoga was to go into a ‘Holy Trance ‘. In that condition, man becomes free from his surroundings. He discovers the soul as a real living thing within himself; its bliss, peace and power overwhelms him. When one enters into the sacred trance, a kind of vacuum is created in the mind; God…………………………the soul, the higher power, fills this vacuum. There is intense happiness. One feels a great love for the whole of creation.

“Once, during the sacred trance, I saw Jesus.”

Sudhei Babu taught Brunton this secret yoga over the next several days

To be continued

 

 

 

89. Paul Brunton. Part one

Paul Brunton went to India in search of Yogis and Fakirs, in early nineteen thirties.

He had heard that in remote areas of India and Tibet, there exist very very few men who had trained there mental and physical faculties to an extraordinary degree and possessed occult powers. He was determined to find these supermen, if they still existed. The thought of finding spirituality, or divine light was not his main aim, although he considered that too. It is not clear from his book, which he published in 1934, whether he believed in God before he went to India. He writes in the first chapter of his book (‘a search in secret India’) that not too long ago he thought God a hallucination of human mind.

This book is one of the most delightful books to read. It is full of suspense and adventure. The author writes beautiful prose, each word fits nicely like a jewel. It is a story which reminds one of explorers like Magellan, and Columbus. The destination hidden and uncertain.

Brunton landed in Bombay and met a real magician, who had thirty disembodied entities at his command. The magician demonstrated his powers by showing him examples which defied any logical explanation.

His first encounter with a genuine Fakir was with, a hundred or so, years old woman (Hazrat Babajan ), who was famous in that area. She was sick and bedridden. She gazed in Brunton’s eyes and said that he has been called to India. At that time he did not believe it, because he had come to India at his own free will, but at the end of his journey he was not so sure. One other person, subsequently, said the same thing.

He met his first Yogi, Brama, who was still in training. He practiced Yoga of body control. He could stop his heart for few seconds. He could go in trance like condition and stop his breathing. He claimed that his master was four hundred year old. His master was several hundred miles away, but he could communicate with him. His master told Brama that in previous life Brunton was one of them, but now he had come in white skin, and to tell him that soon he will meet a master. Light will come to him after that, and that was certain. He will not go from India empty-handed.

Brunton learnt of a yogi who lived alone in a cottage in strict seclusion. He spent his days in deep trance like condition. He had come to that place eight years ago from nowhere. He squatted in yoga posture, in a piece of wasteland which was close to a field where now his cottage had been built, in the suburbs of busy Madras city. He talked to no one. He did not change his posture. He had no overhead coverage. So he sat there under burning sun and pouring Monsoon rains, clad only in a loincloth. He would sometime go for begging food. One time street boys started beating and persecuting him regularly, but he would never say a word, and undergo the maltreatment patiently. Once police came to know they stopped it. Eventually his fame spread and somebody built this cottage for him. He was a disciple of a famous Fakir, Marakayar, who had since died. He had come to that wasteland at the orders of his master, who had described this place to him, and told him to practice yoga over there till he became perfect.

Brunton saw the man sitting, unmoving, like a statue, on a dais, in a yoga posture. What struck him most was that for two hours that Brunton watched him, he did not blink! His eyes were open, staring straight ahead. Finally he showed signs of awareness of his surroundings. Brunton introduced himself and posed questions. The mystic gave this answer:

“Seek your own self, and you shall know the Truth which is hidden therein”

This mote is struck by the fact, that two other mystics, Sudhei Babu and Maharishee Ramana whom Brunton later met, said exactly the same thing. All three talked of self and not God! Is God and self the same?

There was another swami sitting, he told Brunton to meet his master who could answer all his questions. The swami also said that it was his master’s power which had drawn him to India!

Next day, unexpectedly, he met the spiritual head of South India, His Holiness Shri Shankara Acharya. He told His Holiness that he wanted to meet a high caliber Yogi, who could give some sort of proof of his attainment. His Holiness replied; that he knew of two such men . One of them was a recluse, but the other was the same master that the swami had mentioned.

That night he suddenly woke up around three. The atmosphere seemed to be charged. The room was totally dark. Suddenly he became aware of a bright object at the foot of the bed. He saw the face and form of His Holiness Shri Shankara!

Lips smiled and seem to say “Be humble and then you shall find what you seek!”

To be continued.