[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
manifestations and extraordinary phenomena exhibited by mediums and psychics all over
Europe, although most startling and absorbing, often left me unconvinced, unable to reconcile
the otherwise ordered harmony of nature with the erratic displays sometimes noticed at
mediumistic seances. I could not bring myself to believe that law-abiding nature, at the peak
of her glory in the beauty and perfection of the marvellous human organism, could be so
inconsistent in the case of a few specially constituted men and women, themselves as ignorant
about the nature of the power manifesting itself through them as the spectators of their
extraordinary feats, as to take a sudden plunge from perfect order in the material universe to
freakish sport in the spiritual realm.
That some, at least, of the manifestations were genuine there could be no doubt. But how were
they to be accounted for? It was only after many years that I was able to locate the source of
the bewildering phenomena and trace it to a marvellous super-intelligent power in man, which
is both illuminating and mystifying illuminating in the revealing flashes of genius and
mystifying in the baffling masquerades of spirits and demons in mediums and the possessed;
which is both blissful and awful blissful in the enrapturing visions of ecstatics and awful in
the appalling shadows of insanity.
My interest in the study and practice of Yoga was not the outcome of any deep desire to
possess psychic gifts. The tricks and deception sometimes practised by men of this class, the
exhortations against the exhibition and abuse of spiritual powers contained in the scriptures,
and above all the utter futility of an effort useless as a means to secure lasting benefits either
for one's own self or for other men were all, to my mind, sufficient reasons to rise above the
temptation for acquiring the powers to flout the laws of Matter without possessing at the same
time the necessary strength of will to obey the laws of the spirit. The emphasis laid in some of
the books on Yoga, both of the East and the West, on the development of psychic powers
merely for the sake of gaining success in worldly enterprise invariably made me wonder at the
incongruity in human nature, which, even in the case of a system designed to develop the
spiritual side of man, focusses the attention more on the acquisition of visible, wonder-
exciting properties of the body or mind than on the invisible but tranquil possessions of the
soul.
The target I had in mind was far higher and nobler than what in the most attractive form I
could expect, from the acquirement of the much coveted supernormal gifts. I longed to attain
the condition of consciousness, said to be the ultimate goal of Yoga, which carries the
embodied spirit to regions of unspeakable glory and bliss, beyond the sphere of opposites,
free from the desire for life and fear of death. This extraordinary state of consciousness,
internally aware of its own surpassing nature, was the supreme prize for which the true
aspirants of Yoga had to strive. The possession of supernormal powers of the usual kind,
whether of the body or mind, which kept a man still floundering in the stormy sea of existence
18
without carrying him any nearer to the solution of the great mystery, seemed to me to be of no
greater consequence than the possession of other earthly treasures, all bound to vanish with
life. The achievements of science had brought astounding possibilities within the reach of
man, possibilities no less amazing than what is related of even the most wonderful
performances of the supernatural type with but one supreme exception the miracle of
transcendental experience and revelation, periodically vouchsafed to specially constituted
individuals, which by accelerating ethical progress necessary for a peaceful and productive
social order, has not only contributed the largest share in raising mankind to her present
materially high pedestal but also made the miracles of science possible and profitable. It was
towards this surpassing state of pure cognition, free from the limitations of time and space,
about which the ancient ages of India had sung in rapturous terms, treating it as the highest
objective of human life and endeavour, that I desired with all my heart to soar.
Commentary to Chapters One and Two
(On a hot day in the early summer 0f 1952, I remember going to the house of Gopi Krishna in Srinagar with my
wife and two friends, Gerald Hanley and F.J. Hopman who has done so much to see that this book finally
reached the public. We were all living in Kashmir and had come upon the work of Gopi Krishna at a local fair
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]