Vichara in Kipling's Kim (and Tennyson)

[Guest guest]

Rob Sacks" <editor (AT) realization (DOT) org>

Earlier today I ran across an interesting description of atma vichara in (of all

places!) Rudyard Kipling's novel "Kim." In the book, the practice happens to the

protagonist spontaneously when he is about sixteen years old -- the same

circumstances under which it happened to Ramana Maharshi.

..

This book appeared in 1901, the same year that Ramana Maharshi began to

"dictate" the first version of the pamphlet "Who Am I" by writing answers to

questions in the sand.

I apologize if I am offending anyone by quoting Kipling here. His works are

offensive in many respects. But if God is not too fastidious to use Kipling as

a medium, perhaps we should not be too fastidious to take an interest in what he

wrote.

..

Here's the whole passage:

A very few white people, but many Asiatics, can throw themselves into a mazement

as it were by repeating their own names over and over again to themselves,

letting the mind go free upon speculation as to what is called personal

identity. When one grows older, the power, usually, departs, but while it

lasts it may descend upon a man at any moment.

..

'Who is Kim - Kim - Kim?'

..

He squatted in a corner of the clanging waiting-room, rapt from all other

thoughts; hands folded in lap, and pupils contracted to pin-points. In a

minute - in another half-second he felt he would arrive at the solution of the

tremendous puzzle; but here, as always happens, his mind dropped away from

those heights with a rush of a wounded bird, and passing his hand before his

eyes, he shook his head.

..

A long-haired Hindu bairagi [holy man], who had just bought a ticket, halted

before him at that moment and stared intently.

..

'I also have lost it,' he said sadly. 'It is one of the Gates

to the Way, but for me it has been shut many years.'

..

'What is the talk?' said Kim, abashed.

..

'Thou wast wondering there in thy spirit what manner of thing thy soul might be.

The seizure came of a sudden. I know. Who should know but I? Whither goest

thou?'

..

>From Chapter 11

One thing that stood out for me is the remark that this is happens mainly to

young people. Coincidentally, just before I stumbled across this passage, a

friend had written to me that people have to start sadhana at a young age in

order to experience the Self directly. All I can say is, I hope they are wrong.

The same thing happened to the famous English poet Tennyson around the same

time. He said that it was a talent he had had from early childhood, but it

didn’t leave him when he grew up. This (from Day by Day, 17th June, 1946) is

what happened when Devaraja Mudaliar read out a description of the experience

to Bhagavan:

In continuation of yesterday’s conversation about Tennyson, the relevant

passage was found in a footnote to the English translation of Upadesa Saram. It

was not in a poem but in a letter to B. P. Blood. Bhagavan asked me to read it

out, so I did: ‘...a kind of waking trance I have frequently had, quite up from

boyhood, when I have been all alone. This has generally come upon me through

repeating my own name two or three times to myself, silently, till all at once,

as it were out of the intensity of consciousness of individuality, the

individuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away into boundless being: and

this is not a confused state, but the clearest of the clearest, the surest of

the surest, the weirdest of the weirdest, utterly beyond words, where death was

a laughable impossibility, the loss of personality (if so it were) seeming no

extinction but the only true life.’

Bhagavan said: ‘That state is called abidance in the Self. It is

described in a number of songs.’

[Guest guest]

Hi David,

 

Thank you for drawing our attention to Tennyson's remark about

his experience of atma-vichara and the Self. It's fascinating to

read about these eruptions of spontaneous Vedanta in 19th

century Europe.

 

It seems to me that Tennyson's and Kipling's remarks fall into two

different categories. On the one hand, Tennyson is describing his

own experience and not something he read about or heard about.

He apparently discovered this technique on his own, and nothing

in the quotation suggests that he was aware that it was a traditional

method associated with Vedanta.

 

Kipling's case is the reverse. He states explicitly that he is

describing a technique associated with Hinduism, but (to my ears

at least) nothing in the passage suggests that he had this

experience for himself.

 

In both cases, the technique involves focusing the attention on

one's own name. Clearly this is atma-vichara even though the

usual Indian instructions for atma-vichara are generally cast in

other language. In fact I can't recall ever seeing Indian instructions

for atma-vichara that involve repeating one's own name. Does

anyone know of such instructions?

 

Perhaps Kipling got his notion of repeating one's own name from

Tennyson. Or perhaps he got it from an Indian yogi who was

influenced by Tennyson. Such a bit of reverse cultural transmission

would not be surprising.

 

-

David Godman

RamanaMaharshi

Friday, May 21, 2004 12:51 AM

[RamanaMaharshi] Vichara in Kipling's Kim (and Tennyson)Rob Sacks"

<editor (AT) realization (DOT) org>Earlier today I ran across an interesting description

of atma vichara in (of all places!) Rudyard Kipling's novel "Kim." In the book,

[Guest guest]

I have not come across the technique involving focusing the attention on one's

own name, but have seen taking up a word and repeating it with attention

focused on the source from where the word arises.

 

At the age of 7, during one of my visits to the wandaring Avadhuta Sri

Parabrahma who was always immersed in Self, I chanted the popular shloka on

Guru:

 

Guru Brahma Gurur Vishnuh Gurur Devo Maheshwaraha |

Gurussakshat Parabrahma Tasmai Sri Gurave Namaha ||

 

He stopped me at the word Tasmai and then went on repeating it

Tasmai...Tasmai...Tasmai... several times and then burst into a roaring

laughter that would stretch the mind of those around into a vast expanse where

the individuality was lost. I was later told by my uncle that this was a

technique to raise to Parabrahmanhood with the attention solely on the source

from where 'Tasmai' came up. On another occasion this was demonstrated again

by Sri Parabrahma. When I chanted:

 

Ananda rupoham akhanda bodhaha......

 

He would stop me and then start repeating Anand....Anand... Anand...Anand....

merge in it and remain Silent. I have a five minute tape of the above

instances recorded in 1976 which I keep listening occasionally.

 

My uncle had also witnessed such practice by His Holiness Sri Abhinava

VIdyatirtha Mahaswaminah the erstwhile Pontiff at Sri Sharada Peetam, Sringeri,

while travelling with him.

 

While my uncle once wrote Om on a paper before writing something, Sri Parabrahma

snatched the paper and pen and drew a line in zig zag manner and said 'this is

how we write Om'.

 

The focus of attention is clearly not on what we write or chant, but the source

from where it arises or to which it points.

 

I feel in case of Tennyson and Kipling, the name was to them their Being and

they simply stay put in the Being by repeating their name. Or, the name was

pointing them to their Being and not to their body or any other limited

identity.

 

In Bhagavan's Grace,

Nagaraja

Hi David,

 

...........

In both cases, the technique involves focusing the attention on

one's own name. Clearly this is atma-vichara even though the

usual Indian instructions for atma-vichara are generally cast in

other language. In fact I can't recall ever seeing Indian instructions for

atma-vichara that involve repeating one's own name. Does anyone know of such

instructions?

.........

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