Arthur Osborne - Adventures on the Path

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ADVENTURES ON THE PATH

 

A small group of us came to Guenon at the same time; I

think the others were all younger than myself and all unmarried.

I was to meet one and another of them under various

circumstances on the path, but at the time I knew only Martin,

or had just met two others as visitors to him. He, I think, knew

them all. I do not mean a group in any organic sense, for that

we never were — the only grouping Guenon would have

approved of was that of guru and disciples. Just a number of

people who were drawn from the circumference towards the

centre at the same time and in the same way.

 

Read with understanding, Malory’s ‘Morte d’Arthur’ is a

very sad story. The whole noble company of knights were

gathered together at Arthur’s court for the feast of Pentecost,

and while they were seated at the Round Table the Sangraal

passed through the hall on a beam of light, but veiled so that

none actually saw it. They were asked who would undertake its

quest and all alike pledged themselves and rode forth with

courage and high hope. Some, however, soon turned back,

finding the tug of the world too strong; some perished by the

way; some were daunted or overthrown by the dragons of the

ego; some bewitched or cast into dungeons by enchanters, the

false guides who beset the path; some turned aside to lesser

adventures or settled down in castles along the way; some

attained a single vision of the Sangraal and recognized that, for

them, that was sufficient achievement for this lifetime; and out

of all that noble company only three pursued the quest to the

end.

 

Guenon had said that the only thing to be done was to find

a guru, in any religion, who had both horizontal and vertical

authenticity, that is to say who was both the validly appointed

successor to an initiatic chain and a realized man, and to seek

initiation and guidance from him. Therefore it was a matter of

mere expedience to us what religion we joined. It simply depended

where we could find a guru — an easy matter, we thought then,

in our simplicity. However, he had also said he had failed to find

any Christian organization which still combined full theoretical

understanding with spiritual potency; and therefore we decided

that it would be necessary to look farther afield. Technically he

may have been right, and certainly my earlier failure to find an

opening in Christianity inclined me to accept his verdict; however

it may be possible to attach too much importance to technical

considerations in spiritual life and not enough to the Grace that

bloweth where it listeth. Later I was to come upon evidence of

spiritual currents in the Christian West, some of whose

representatives seemed by no means inferior in power and

understanding to Westerners who had transplanted themselves

to Eastern religions. Nor were such signs of life confined to the

Catholic Church, to which alone Guenon would allow some

technical legitimacy. In view of this it does not seem absolutely

necessary for Western aspirants in general to seek a path outside

their ancestral religion and even less so to take on themselves the

burden of a foreign orthodoxy. It is, moreover, to be remembered

that the spiritual power of any religion or church is not a fixed

quantum but a living, vibrating force, continually radiating with

greater or less intensity, attaining an incandescent heat or cooling

down and growing inert, according to the fervour and sincerity

and understanding of those within its orbit. And since every

thought, every action, every aspiration has its repercussions, those

who draw sustenance from a spiritual body thereby also increase

its potency, while the reverse is also true, but those who devote

their lives to its services, asking no reward, thereby draw sustenance.

 

Some undoubtedly will be drawn to an eastern religion or

to the formless path of Self-enquiry which will be described

later in this book, and this cannot be considered regrettable.

The characteristic of our age being the mutual acquaintance of

doctrines and paths which had previously remained isolated, it

is a good thing that those of the East should have representatives

in the West to temper the obtuseness and smug superiority to

which the Western intellect is so prone. On a more profound

level also, the existence of various spiritual currents side by

side cannot but increase the present fermentation and renewal

of spiritual life. For this is a time of renewal: even more, it is a

time of division between those who have completely rejected

the mild religious restraints of their ancestors and those who

seek something more vital with fuller understanding and

stronger purpose.

 

And about myself? If I had learnt of the life and testimony

of the Christian mystics and came upon their modern followers

when I was searching so vainly at Oxford, should I have found

a home there and avoided the ten barren, wasteful years that

were to follow before I discovered Guenon? Such a hypothetical

question is always unreal, since things could not really have

happened otherwise than they did. Certain it is that it was only

Guenon’s mode of expression which could fully satisfy my

intellect, and, much as I revere the beauty and profundity of

the various paths, Christian, Islamic and others, only the

quintessential doctrine of Non-duality and the Maharshi’s path

of Self-enquiry based upon it corresponded with my needs and

temperament and offered me perfect fulfilment.

 

Moreover, people’s destinies are so interwoven as to make

any might-have-been illusory. If I had found an opening in

England I should not have drifted to Poland and therefore not

to have met my wife and snatched her, from the chaos that

Europe was to become, to Arunachala, at the feet of the

Maharshi, where she also was to find the only fulfilment this

life could offer.

 

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