A Search in Secret India

I picked up this book written by Paul Brunton at Sri Ramanashram, Tiruvannamalai. It is one of the best yoga related books that I have ever read. It is about PB’s search in India to find the great men in India who have figured the mysteries of life a.k.a yogis or seers or rishees.

The year is 1931, pre independence India. PB being a journalist makes for a wonderful travel writer. The search is on for a few good men. It is definitely not easy as he keeps coming across well intentioned fools, scriptural slaves, jugglers with a few tricks and outright frauds. He travels across many parts of India, talking to so many people. Of course, he needs interpreters as he is an English man. He makes friends with people who help him out most of the time.

Here is an excerpt from the book that sets the tone of the book.

That the west has little to learn from present-day India, I shall not trouble to deny, but that we have much to learn from Indian sages of the past and from the few who live to-day, I unhesitatingly assert. Grant that India has nodded and snored for centuries; grant that even to-day there exist millions of peasants who suffer the illiteracy and share the outlook blended of puerile superstition and kindergarten religion. Yet there still remains a small but priceless residue of culture classified under the generic term Yoga, which proffers benefits to mankind as valuable in their own way as any proferred by the Western sciences.

I should remind the reader that the term Yoga in the book is not used as in hatha yoga, meaning a trikonasana or a hanumanasana. Most of the Yogis in the book are described being in a trance when the author gets to know of them. When PB eventually gets to talk to a few, it is usually about getting to know the inner self.

One of my favorite parts of the book is the chapter talking about a yogi from Adyar, Madras. This yogi does not talk to anyone. But the author follows him relentlessly and eventually the yogi talks to him. The yogi’s name is really long and PB shortens his name to Brama. Brama is the only yogi in the book that talks about a system of body control, which I think is hatha yoga. He says that the body and breath must be fought as though they were obstinate mules, and they must be conquered. He narrates to the author how he finds his teacher, which is very interesting. He says that without a master, the books are mere pieces of paper. The word guru means, One who dispels darkness.

PB meets a lot of charlatans, fakes throughout India and eventually finds a teacher that he connects with. It is Sri Ramana Maharishi that makes a deep impact. He explains the silent teaching of Maharishi, which is fascinating. PB stays at the ashram and wins his battle of spiritual certitude.

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