F.H.HUMPHREYS - by Arthur Osborne #1

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F.H.HUMPHREYS

 

The first Western devotee of Sri Bhagavan was already

grounded in occultism when he came to India in 1911. He

was only twenty-one and had come to take up a post in the

Police service at Vellore. He engaged a tutor, one Narasimhayya,

to teach him Telugu and in the very first lesson asked him

whether he could procure a book in English on Hindu astrology.

It was a strange request from a white sahib, but Narasimhayya

assented and got him one from a library. The next day

Humphreys asked an even more astonishing question, “Do you

know any Mahatma here?”

 

Narasimhayya answered briefly that he did not. This did

not save him from embarrassment for long, for the next day

Humphreys said: “Did you tell me yesterday that you don’t know

any Mahatma? Well, I saw your Guru this morning just before I

woke from sleep. He sat by my side and said something which,

however, I did not understand.”

 

As Narasimhayya still seemed unconvinced, Humphreys

continued, “The first man from Vellore whom I met at Bombay

was you.” Narasimhayya began to protest that he had never been

to Bombay, but Humphreys explained that as soon as he arrived

there he had been taken to hospital in a high fever. In order to

gain some relief from pain, he had directed his mind to Vellore,

where he should have proceeded immediately on landing but

for his illness. He travelled to Vellore in his astral body and saw

Narasimhayya there.

 

Narasimhayya replied simply that he did not know what

an astral body was, or any body but a physical one. However, in

order to test the truth of the dream he next day left a bundle of

photographs on Humphreys’ table before going to give a lesson

to another police officer. Humphreys looked through them and

immediately picked out that of Ganapati Sastri. “There!” he

exclaimed when his teacher returned. “That is your Guru.”

Narasimhayya admitted that it was. After this Humphreys

again fell sick and had to leave for Ootacamund to recuperate. It

was several months before he returned to Vellore. When he did,

he again surprised Narasimhayya, this time by sketching a

mountain cave he had seen in a dream, with a stream running in

front of it and a Sage standing in the entrance. It could only be

Virupaksha. Narasimhayya now told him about Sri Bhagavan.

Humphreys was introduced to Ganapati Sastri and conceived

great respect for him, and the same month, November 1911, all

three of them set out on a visit to Tiruvannamalai.

 

Humphreys’ first impression of the terrific silence of Sri

Bhagavan has been quoted already in an earlier chapter. In the

same letter from which it is taken he also wrote: “The most

touching sight was the number of tiny children, up to about

seven years of age, who climb the hill all on their own to come

and sit near the Maharshi, even though he may not speak a

word nor even look at them for days together. They do not play

but just sit there quietly, in perfect contentment.”

 

Like Ganapati Sastri, Humphreys was eager to help the world.

H: Master, can I help the world?

B: Help yourself and you will help the world.

H: I wish to help the world. Shall I not be helpful?

B: Yes, helping yourself you help the world. You are in the world,

you are the world. You are not different from the world,

nor is the world different from you.

H: (after a pause) Master, can I perform miracles as Sri Krishna

and Jesus did before?

B: Did any of them, when he performed them, feel that it was

he who was performing a miracle?

H: No, Master.

 

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

 

from Ramana Maharshi and The Path of Self-Knowledge

Arthur Osborne