Frank.H. HUMPHREYS - by Arthur Osborne #2

[Guest guest]

Frank .H. HUMPHREYS

 

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

 

 

It was not long before Humphreys repeated his visit.

“I went by motorcycle and climbed up to the cave.

The Sage smiled when he saw me but was not in the least

surprised. We went in and before we sat down he asked me

a question private to myself, of which he knew. Evidently

he recognised me the moment he had seen me. Everyone

who comes to him is an open book, and a single glance

suffices to reveal to him its contents.

‘You have not yet had any food,’ he said, ‘and are hungry.’

“I admitted that it was so and he immediately called

in a chela (disciple) to bring me food — rice, ghee, fruit,

etc., eaten with the fingers, as Indians do not use spoons.

Though I have practised eating this way I lack dexterity.

So he gave me a coconut spoon to eat with, smiling and

talking between whiles. You can imagine nothing more

beautiful than his smile. I had coconut milk to drink,

whitish, like cow’s milk, and delicious, to which he had

himself added a few grains of sugar.

“When I had finished I was still hungry and he knew

it and ordered more. He knows everything, and when others

pressed me to eat fruit when I had had enough he stopped

them at once.

“I had to apologise for my way of drinking. He only

said, ‘Never mind’. The Hindus are particular about this.

They never sip nor touch the vessel with their lips but pour

the liquid straight in. Thus many can drink from the same

cup without fear of infection.

“Whilst I was eating he was relating my past history

to others, and accurately too. Yet he had seen me but

once before and many hundreds in between. He simply

turned on, as it were, clairvoyance, even as we would

refer to an encyclopaedia. I sat for about three hours

listening to his teaching.

“Later on I was thirsty, for it had been a hot ride, but

I would not have shown it for worlds. Yet he knew and

told a chela to bring me some lemonade.

“At last I had to go, so bowed, as we do, and went

outside the cave to put on my boots. He came outside too

and said I might come to see him again.

“It is strange what a change it makes in one to have

been in his Presence!”

 

There is no doubt that anyone who sat before Sri Bhagavan

was an open book to him; nevertheless Humphreys was probably

wrong about the clairvoyance. Although Sri Bhagavan saw

through people in order to help and guide them, he did not use

any such powers on the human plane. His memory for faces was

as phenomenal as for books. Of all the thousands who came, he

never forgot a devotee who had once visited him. Even though

one returned years later he would be recognised. Nor did he

forget the life story of a devotee, and Narasimhayya must have

spoken to him about Humphreys. When any matter was best

not talked about he showed the utmost discretion, but in general

he had the simplicity and disingenuousness of a child and, like a

child, would talk about somebody before his face, quite

unembarrassed and without causing embarrassment. As for the

food and drink, Sri Bhagavan was not only considerate but

incredibly observant and would see whether a guest was satisfied.

Thaumaturgic powers began to manifest themselves in

Humphreys, but Sri Bhagavan warned him not to indulge them,

and he was strong enough to resist the temptation. Indeed,

under the influence of Sri Bhagavan, he soon lost all his interest

in the occult.

 

Moreover, he outgrew the fallacy, almost universal in the

West and increasingly common in the modern East, that it is

possible to help mankind only by outer activity. He had been told

that by helping oneself one helps the world; this dictum which

the laissez faire school falsely supposed to be true economically is

in fact true spiritually, since spiritually the wealth of one does not

detract from that of others but increases it. Just as he had seen Sri

Bhagavan at his very first meeting as a “motionless corpse from

which God is radiating terrifically,” so everyone, according to his

capacity, is a broadcasting station of invisible influences. Insofar

as anyone is in a state of harmony and free from egoism he is

inevitably and involuntarily emitting harmony, whether he is

outwardly active or not; and insofar as his own nature is turbulent

and his ego strong he is emitting disharmony even though he may

outwardly be performing service............

 

from Ramana Maharshi and The Path of Self-Knowledge

Arthur Osborne