A SPIRITUAL TORCH
Paul Brunton
THE WORLD SELDOM recognises a prophet at his trueworth during his own lifetime, but the Maharshi has been
more fortunate. His repute has begun to ripple out and is destined
to go right around the world.
He has made it possible for us to understand what seems
to exist today only as a mere echo of the words of the great
spiritual teachers of former ages; the blessed nirvana of Buddha,
the kingdom of heaven of Jesus, the liberation of Sri Krishna,
and the supreme good of the early philosophers.
The Maharshi enjoys that divine condition and
demonstrates in his own person this unique attainment. While
metaphysicians argue vainly about the reality of our world,
scientists throw wet blankets around the ardours of religionists
and the average man meekly looks on; this serene Sage knows
the eternal reality, experiences the everlasting bliss and expresses
the highest Truth in his teachings. Withal, he
radiates these things to every sensitive person who comes within
his orbit and to every humble and teachable soul entering his
sanctified presence.
His doctrine is as old as the Hill of Arunachala itself, yet,
being self-found as the result of his own overwhelming spiritual
illumination and not as the result of studying other men's books,
it comes to us as fresh in presentation as the latest words of the
pundits of western science.
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If you can plumb the mind's depths, he teaches, you will
eventually arrive at a point where both the thinking intellect
and personal self seem to disappear, becoming reabsorbed by
the hidden element out of which they were created. That element
is none other than the absolute Being, the partless Reality, the
one Self underlying, the birth and death of mortal men and
material worlds.
The Maharshi's practical course of effort for discovering
this reality is extremely simple, so simple, that our modern
over-active minds may turn away unsatisfied and seek
complicated elaborate yoga disciplines and yet it is extremely
subtle. It is as effective for the devotional type of person as for
the intellectual.
Set up a mental current of self-questioning, teaches the
sage, attempt to ferret out what you really are, and to trace the
living being who thinks and feels within your body. Watch your
thoughts in the process and then endeavour to pin them down
to the stillness out of which they arise. If you persist and apply
yourself to frequent meditation on this topic, you will ultimately
track thought to its origin, Self to its lair and consciousness to
its primal partless state.
The personal sense of `I' will collapse and disappear, being
replaced by the impersonal sense of That, the absolute spirit
which breathes life into us all, which not only maintains the
existence of your mind and body but also the minds and bodies
of all creatures.
This technique of Self-enquiry is really more simple than
the ancient systems of yoga, and should therefore be easy to
practise. Because of its subtle nature, however, and of our
numerous tendencies towards excessive mental and material
activity, it becomes difficult. The most effective way of
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overcoming that difficulty which I know and of which the
ancient Upanishads [?] often remind us, is to seek out the society
of the Brahman-knowers, the spiritually illumined, and to sit at
their feet, as the same texts poetically put it.
The Maharshi, in his modesty, will hardly ever refer to this
fact, but those of us who have basked in his spiritual sunshine
have found the way to the spirit made easier. For he continually
broadcasts telepathically the divine atmosphere which has now
become his very nature. In effect, he mysteriously communicates
his spiritual calm to our troubled souls.
This investigator of the soul's domain has solved stubborn
questions which have puzzled the thinkers amongst men since
reason first evolved. Western scientific psychology is heading
straight for the explanation which he gives of that apparent
mixture of beast and angel called man. The Maharshi's method
of psychoanalysis is far removed from the queer, muddled
method of Freud, whose materialistic and sexual emphasis caused
him to miss the divine.
The reward which waits for those who practise the
technique advocated by the Maharshi is nothing less than nirvana
itself, at the most, and mental tranquillity at the least. Those
who think that the nirvana of the sage is a kind of never ending
boredom should spend a few months in his society. The
experience will correct their mistake and make good their
ignorance.
When I first travelled around India interviewing her holy
and learned men, I was amused to note how their numerous
theories and explanations contradicted each other. The trouble
was that the dust of so many generations has gathered upon the
sacred texts and scholarly books that the real meaning of these
volumes has been overlaid.
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Scarcely one of those who granted me audience could
speak from personal experience, and most could only quote
the opinions of others. But the Maharshi's teachings flow out of
his own original teachings, realization of Truth, and to that
extent he stands solitary as the peak of Arunachala itself. He
illustrates perfectly those words of the great yogi, Patanjali, `The
seer abides within himself, for he ever dwells within that sacred
centre wherein God speaks to man'.
Even while I write, a grey squirrel hops into the Ashram
hall, plays purposelessly for a while, and then squats contentedly
under the Maharshi's divan. You are as safe there, brother squirrel,
as on your own sheltering tree, for the sage's attitude towards
you is no different from your Creator's. There is nothing but
love in his heart towards all creatures and even if, perchance
you were to bite him, he would not hit you in return.
Since that day when I first found him, absorbed in the
mysterious trance of samadhi, I have travelled in many lands
but always my thoughts turned towards Tiruvannamalai as the
Muhammedan turns his face during prayer towards Mecca. I
knew that somewhere in the wilderness of this world there was
a sacred place for me. Since that day, it has become a sacred
place for many others who have never left Europe and America.
For at the sage's feet, I picked up a spiritual torch and carried it
to waiting souls in the lands of the west. They welcomed the
light with eagerness. There should be no virtue to be accredited
to me for that, for whatsoever benefit has accrued to Western
seekers comes from the torch which was lit by the Maharshi
himself. I was only the unimportant "link boy", the humble
carrier. And now that I have returned to the ever luring Hill of
the Holy Beacon, I pray the gods of destiny that they may keep
the captive here for many years.
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