THE MOUNTAIN PATH April 1964

[Guest guest]

after the first edition of MOUNTAIN PATH January 1964

 

 

Letters to the Editor

 

Having read your books, I am sure that your journal will be a great success. The title itself is most inspiring, and so are the contents of the first issue.

With my best wishes for the success of your journal.

LAMA ANAGARIKA GOVINDA, Dinapani, Almora District

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I offer my congratulations on the magazine may it fulfil its mission of being a help to all those who - East or West - seek some real teachings of the path that lies beyond all the conventional creeds... Long may it flourish.

SRI KRISHNA PREM, Mirtola, Almora District

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The Mountain Path is a very good beginning towards the radiation of Bhagavan's Atmic rays through the word. The get-up is excellent and the substance valuable. Let it be a legacy of spiritual treasure bequeathed to pilgrims of eternity.

YOGI SHUDDANANDA BHARATI, Madras.

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May we send you our congratulations and gratitude for the production of such a fine publication. It will enable us to feel more deeply in our hearts the ever living presence of our beloved Master and it will throw new vistas and light on the Path of Truth and Peace which he has traced for modern times.

INSTITUT UNIVERSEL SOUFI, Suresnes, France.

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I think you have made a good job of 'The mountain Path'. It is full of variety and interest. I liked your own article on Religion and Art especially. It is very much how I look at it.

Dom BEDE GRIFFITHS, O.S.B., Kurizmala Ashram, Kerala.

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Among so many quite excellent articles I have to give your own on 'The Relations between Religion and Art' the priority, but I was enchanted by two of the shorter ones, called 'Is Sufism Islamic?' by Abdullah Qutbuddin and 'A Visit to Anandashram' by Unnamulai. Dr. Krishnaswami's 'Outside the Scriptures' seems to me to be a truly remarkable intellectual achievement, bringing the outlook of Ch'an Buddhism into harmony with that of Vedanta, by means of Maharshi's words, with extraordinary success .... If you can maintain this standard the circulation can hardly fail to increase rapidly, and it will be recognised as the best quarterly in English dealing with the esoteric aspects of religion,

A real triumph is the English itself; to anyone used to suffering from the anglo-oriental language of, I think, all other such publications, i.e. from English as she is written in the East, its impeccable style is like balm to the suffering palate.

TERENCE GRAY, Monte Carlo.

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The article 'Outside the Scriptures' by Dr. T. N. Krishnaswami was interesting at the first reading, whereas on the second reading, after a month, it was lovely. I feel like expressing my appreciation to T. N. Khishnaswami direct, but for an inner warning that it would be rank impertinence on my part to do so.

K. G. RATHNAM, Bombay.

Not at all. A writer always likes to know that his work is appreciated. - EDITOR

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I congratulate you on a very good publication. I thought your own articles, especially the editorial, very good indeed; and the article about Moral Rearmament most illuminating.

MARIE B. BYLES.

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Reading Wei Wu Wei's article in the first issue of The Mountain Path, I feel strongly that he can explain Sri Bhagavan's significant preaching through 'silence' in his cryptic style better than most people in long articles. I hope we shall have more contributions from him.

'SEIN', Tiruvannamalai.

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I have just read in The Mountain Path Unnamulai's article about Anandashram. It culminates at the very end in the inexpressible experience that Papa and Ram-Nam are one. This experience of hers is mine also. The Being who was manifesting Itself through that vehicle called Papa is directly experienced within oneself as oneself by taking the Name. It is true to say that Papa or Ram and his Name are One. But we cannot comment on this most subtle awareness of the Oneness uniting our heart with all hearts or we should obscure this bright sky with dark clouds of concepts which mean division. It is a knowledge direct from heart to heart. I am very happy that Unnamulai hinted at it in what she wrote.

H. M., Anandashram

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I loved the leader in the first issue of The Mountain Path and the poem 'The Few' that followed it. I had to read the poem aloud, it was so beautiful. I liked the two poems in the article on 'The Relations between Religion and Art' too, but not as much as 'The Few'. You were really inspired when you wrote that.

But I hope you won't take anything more from Sagittarius. 'An Aggressive Teacher' is such nonsense that it just made me laugh. I couldn't even take it seriously enough to criticise it.

VALERIE FREEMAN, Melbourne, Australia

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Each reader will have his preference, but I was particularly impressed by the refreshing viewpoint and vigorous style of 'An Aggressive Teacher'. Only I could have wished that Sagittarius had lengthened it by pointing out that Christ was in the aggressive tradition of the Hebrew Prophets, all of whom had denounced the vices of the people and the sins of their rulers, whereas Buddha was in the aloof tradition of the Hindu Rishis who retired to the forest and waited for disciples to come to them.

W. Mc. K. AITKEN, Kausani, U. P.

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Assuming, as Sagittarius apparently does, that Christ was a private individual expressing his personal opinions and uninvested with any divine authority, his teachings and actions were certainly arrogant. To the Jews they were more than arrogant and therefore they crucified him. For though it may be permissible in the Hindu tradition for a man to equate himself with God, to the strictly monotheistic Jew it could be no less Than blasphemy.

But for Christians he is the Son of God and for Muslims a Prophet of God. He was acting and teaching not of himself but simply as the agent and mouthpiece of the One who had sent him. Christ himself frequently insists on this point in the Gospels. Similarly we find the more arrogant of the earlier Hebrew prophets complaining bitterly of the dangerous and troublesome office that had been thrust upon them. They had been entrusted with a message and had to 'get it across' to a generation many of whom had more than a little dust in their eyes. In the context the complaint of arrogance is surely out of place.

SCORPIO - Nagore

I am amused by Miss Freeman's amusement, I agree with Mr. Aitken that it would have been better to lengthen my article so as to link Christ up with the aggressive tradition of the Jewish Prophets and Buddha with aloof tradition of the Hindu Rishis. I would like to remind 'Scorpio' that I do not speak of Christ's manner as 'arrogant', a term which implies moral reprobation, but as 'aggressive', which it undoubtedly was. An aggressive manner may be demanded by circumstances, an arrogant manner never. I would also remind him that I distinguished between the 'vertical' and 'horizontal' aspects of a divine message, that is between the message itself and the mode of delivery. The former is universal and divine - the latter specific and individual. - SAGITTARIUS

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I wish some pages could be set apart in The Mountain Path in which devotees could describe their spiritual experiences and narrate incidents when Bhagavan's Grace has brought them solace or conferred some benefits on them.

G. R. TRIVEDI, Rajahmundry

Any such accounts will be welcomed by the editor and carefully considered for publication either as items in the magazine or as letters to the editor - EDITOR.

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Ramana Maharshi's books are certainly wonderful. They agree in entirety with Ch'an and Zen Masters, who speak or point at the pure and clean Self-nature.

Sri Ramana said again and again that the body is the main obstruction to the realisation of the Self, 'that man identifies his real Self with the mind and body and that that is the main, thing to go beyond. In other words the real Self is not the physical mind-body as everyone supposes. The Buddha would say that body and mind just don't exist in the Self-nature.

My question is why do you have so many pictures of Sri Ramana in all of the books and even on your letterhead? It would seem to me that this would be very misleading to devotees.

It looks like you are trying to eternalise the physical body rather than the pure spirit or as Sri Ramana would say Pure Consciousness.

Please don't for a minute think that I am being critical or disrespectful, it is that it seems so incongruous to see a physical body photographed so often when Sri Ramana's chief message was "you are not the body."

It would seem to misdirect devotees back to the body as against the Self or Pure Consciousness that seems to me to have been Sri Ramana's chief message.

Sri Ramana said "a sage knows his bodiless existence just as an ordinary man knows his bodily existence."

J. G. Alabama.

It is true that you are not the body; but so long as you feel that you are you also feel that there are other bodies and you are influenced by them in various ways and to varying extent. The most powerful of all these influences is that of the Guru. It may happen that, just as an ordinary person's way of living and thinking shows in his face, so the grace and wisdom and power and beauty of a Guru do. This was so with Bhagavan. Many people were moved to the heart by just seeing him. Some people have been so powerfully moved by seeing a picture of him as to lose consciousness. One German devotee was awe-struck and taken immediately inward, when she saw a photo of Sri Bhagavan in a hut in the middle of a forest in Germany, after the second world war. She did not then know that it was Bhagavan. One Englishman who came here told us that he was the owner of an antique shop. One day a lady came in as a customer and as she opened her bag a picture of Bhagavan fell out. He fetched a chair and made her sit down and tell him about it, and from that day, his intuition told him that Bhagavan was his Guru.

Certainly Bhagavan said that the outer Guru serves only to awaken the inner Guru in the heart and ceases to be necessary when that has been done; but it may take some time to do that, and until it has been done the impact of grace from the outer Guru can be terrifically powerful. As long as, for instance, a man's wife or child or parents are real to him, the outer Guru is even more so. And as long as an evil contact can harm him, so long can a blessed contact help him.

The question is not whether a Sage knows his bodiless existence, but whether you do. Until you do, other bodies influence you, and the more blessed that influence is the better it will be for you - EDITOR

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Ever since I first read about the late Sri Ramana, I have been a great admirer of Him and His teachings, He is exactly the kind of master I would have liked to have known and followed.

What I would like to know is whether there exist here in the West, either in Canada or the U.S., any fellowships, societies etc. devoted to the study and application of his teachings. I do know of some other spiritual societies here but they have been founded by Yogis and Swamis of a different type than Sri Ramana. They follow mostly the Bhakti approach and I am more of the Jnana type. If no fellowships exist here, how would it be possible to come into contact with other people in the West who share my admiration for Sri Ramana?

I hope that you will be able to help me a little bit on the road to Self-realization. It becomes very lonesome at times when one's interests are so very different from those of one's neighbours.

J. WISPEL WFY, Kinistino, Saskatchewan, Canada

The way to Realization is always a lonely road. It is a turning away from outer fellowship to the Self in the heart. In particular, the path shown by Sri Ramana is less dependent on groups and fellowship than most others, since it is a direct inward seeking free from outer activity.

Perhaps you will best be able to maintain communication with others on the path through this quarterly, and especially through the 'letters to the editor' column - EDITOR.

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For the last two years I have been searching for the Self. I attain stillness within three or four minutes but the voice of the 'I' is not yet found. Kindly help me and instruct me how to proceed further.

VASU BHATIA, Lucknow

Never mind about the voice of the 'I'. There are not two selves in you, for one to hear the other. There is only one Self, and that is pure stillness, which is the same as pure consciousness or pure being. Try to hold on to that. Or rather, since 'holding' is an individual act, try just to let it be without interfering, without stopping it by thinking. - EDITOR.

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Satori seems to be a lower degree in comparison with the highest state of realization or samadhi. Am I correct? To describe satori as a pre-glimpse of the supreme state, as written by you, is rather cloudy.

Wei Wu Wei's writing on Zen with reference to Bhagavan's teaching and attempting to bring out a similarity is rather forced. I have not yet found any Zen book prescribing 'Who am I?' as a koan except in Wei Wu Wei's own writings. Have you heard it from any Zen or Ch'an Masters or met any such?

It is natural for a Realized Man to advise others to remain in samsara while following the quest, but is there any one who has realized his Self while simultaneously carrying on with all the responsibilities of samsara?

Doesn't the sense of 'non-doership' obstruct the whole-hearted attention of the actor to his actions? How can he work efficiently unless he considers himself the doer? On the other hand, can't a murderer defend himself on the plea that he is not the doer?

Latent tendencies, pure and impure, come out in me when I sit in meditation and impede my concentration or holding to one thought. What is still worse, they bring a sense of despair and helplessness and undermine my faith. My mind tells me: "What is the use of doing all this? You won't be able to reach the goal till the end of your life owing to your inherent weakness and faults." Please advise me what to do about this.

K. K. GHOSH, Calcutta.

The term 'satori' is used with different content according to the understanding of the writer, but in its true and highest meaning it is a pre-glimpse of the Supreme State, as I said. There is nothing cloudy about that - it is just what it is.

There is also nothing forced in Wei Wu Wei's showing a similarity between Zen and Bhagavan's teaching. After all, the Goal is the same by whatever road you approach it; the ultimate experience is the same through whatever religion you try to indicate it.

So far as I remember, 'Ch'an and Zen Teaching' by Charles Luk (Rider) and 'The Practice of Zen' by Chang Chen-chi (Rider) both remark on the use of 'Who am I?' as a goan. I have also come across instances of it personally.

There have been saints in all religions who have carried on a normal life in the world. In India King Janaka is the classical example. It is not your work that binds you but your false idea that it is you who are doing it - as if the Brutus in Shakespeare's play were to forget that it is a play and think that he was really the enemy of the stage Caesar. If he did he would have the 'I-am-the-doer' illusion and would be shut up in a mad-house. And he would not act his part any more efficiently, rather less so, because his ego-illusion would break through. In the same way efficient action in your allotted role in life is not at all dependent on the false idea that you are the limited individual who acts. As to your example of a murderer claiming impunity on the plea that he is not the doer, why does he commit the murder? Necessary and harmonious actions can be performed without the intrusion of the ego, without any egoistic motive; but if a murderer has some ego-based motive or believes himself to be judging and deciding that the murder should be committed he also believes himself to be the doer.

Can you imagine somebody who is full of vasanas or latent tendencies attaining Realization? Of course not. Therefore it follows that in the course of practice they must be squeezed out. It is a good thing to see them; it enables you to recognise them and determine not to be influenced by them any more. In that way they are gradually cast out; but it often takes time and requires great perseverance.

One should never give way to despondency. It is one of the worst obstacles to progress and has to be fought. Religiously it is represented as a sin, a temptation of the devil, metaphysically it is an error. The whole purpose of the practice is to realize that you are not the individual self; so as long as you believe that you are and that this individual self is weak and sinful, how can you realize that you are not? - EDITOR.

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You stated in your books about Ramana Maharshi that he attained sahaja samadhi in his 17th year. Yet in his biography B. V. Narasimhaswami quotes Bhagavan on p. 94 of the 5th edition as saying: "One day some years ago I lay down but I was not in samadhi." How are the above statements reconciled?

T. R. NICOLL, London.

Bhagavan was in a permanent state of samadhi with simultaneous awareness of the outer world, that is to say 'sahaja samadhi'. Sometimes, however, he sank into samadhi without this outer awareness and then we used to say, "He is in samadhi." He also sometimes used the expression in this way. In the sentence you quote he meant merely: "I was not unaware of what was happening." - EDITOR.