Frank H. Humphreys - #1

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PREFATORY NOTE

 

Frank H. Humphreys is a name quite familiar to the devotees of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.

Sri Bhagavan's biography, Self-Realization by B. V. Narasimha Swami, has two chapters on Humphreys,

giving a brief sketch of his life and Sri Bhagavan’s instructions to him.

 

When Humphreys visited Sri Ramana Maharshi in 1911, he conveyed to Felicia Scatcherd,

who was then editing the International Psychic Gazette, London, his impressions of Sri Maharshi

and His instructions. These were compiled into a booklet in 1925 and the chapters in Self-Realization

are only extracts from this. Humphreys' narration of his experiences with Sri Bhagavan is so simple

and arresting that the readers find in it an excellent presentation of Bhagavan's teachings.

 

S. Narasimhayya who wrote the introduction that follows was a Telugu Munshi in Vellore. He was a disciple

of Sri Kavyakanta Ganapathi Muni and Sri Bhagavan. It is he and Kavyakanta that brought Humphreys to

Sri Bhagavan. A brief reference to Humphreys' visit to Sri Bhagavan and the teachings, in Mr. Osborne's

Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self Knowledge concludes thus:

"Police service did not prove congenial to Humphreys. Sri Bhagavan advised him to attend to his service and

meditation at the same time. For some years he did so and then he retired. Being already a Catholic and

having understood the essential unanimity of all religions, he saw no need to change, but returned to England,

where he entered a monastery."

 

 

PUBLISHER--

MAJOR CHADWICK ON HUMPHREYS:

 

"He was the first European to visit Bhagavan as far as is known or at least the first to record his visit. He has given

a beautiful picture of him in the Virupaksha Cave. The teachings are definite and are a guide to all who came after.

Of whom else is it recorded that Bhagavan said:'‘I am giving these instructions as a Guru gives them to a disciple?'

Certainly there was some special tie between these two."

— A Sadhu's Reminiscences of Ramana Maharshi

......................

 

from

GLIMPSES OF THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI

As described by FRANK H. HUMPHREYS Fourth Edition 1999

 

Published by V.S. Ramanan President