Magic and Miracles in the Himalayas: What to Read after Autobiography of a Yogi? (Part 3 of 4)
In part 1 of this series, we explored the history and impact of the international bestseller Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda, and asked the question if there were other books that captured the “magic and mystery” of “old India”, particularly around the holy men, sadhus, fakirs, gurus that Yogananda.
Read Part I of the series here, which went over some background on Autobiography of a Yogi, and our first recommended book to capture some of the magic — the fact that the author (Sri M) claims to have met the same immortal avatar Babaji who started Yogananda’s lineage of Kriya Yoga, makes it a good first choice.
Here is the next book in our series:
Living With The Himalayan Masters, by Swami Rama
Another book that is chock full of (almost) unbelievable feats performed by sadhus and gurus in the Himalayas was written by Swami Rama. Swami Rama is the founder of the Himalayan Institute in the US, though this book, like AOY, is about his time as a student of his master in caves in the Himalayas in India and in Tibet.
Swami Rama became well known in the west because he was able to demonstrate certain yogic feats in a scientifically controlled experiment. This fame helped his Institute and teachings spread quickly in the US and in Europe. Unfortunately, he also became well known because of allegations of sexual misconduct later in life (which seems to be a common failling of Eastern gurus when they come to the west); though again, this book takes place well before any of those things so I can’t really comment on that phase.
Swami Rama was born in one of India’s Himalayan regions and lost his mother and father quite young, and he was taken in by his master. In the book and elsewhere, his guru is identified as Bengali Baba. Like the enigmatic gurus in the other books, Swami Rama’s master didn’t like to be photographed — in fact, there were several stories where the it seemed like divine intervention prevented photographs from being developed (and when they were, only a haze showed up where the guru was).
There was a Bengali Baba who was well known because of a case that Swami Rama describes in detail, of a member of a royal family from Bangal who was supposedly murdered, lost his position, was re-invigorated by Bengali Baba, and then who went to court to get his position and belongings back.
Not only was Bengali Baba well known in the Himalayas, Bengali Baba’s teacher (who Swami Rama calls his “Grandmaster”) was living in the mountains in Tibet in the 1940s and the young Swami Rama visited him just before India’s independence. Rumor has it that this Grandmaster was somehow related to the tradition of Yogananda’s Babaji, though it’s just speculation, since Swami Rama doesn’t say.
Swami Rama at one point was appointed Shankacharya, one of a number in India, which is like being a cardinal to the Pope (or even the Pope) within the Hindu traditions, whose recent organization into swami’s was put together by Shankara. He decided to resign the position and return to his master in the himalayas because it became too much about pomp and circumstance and ceremony, and not enough time for his own meditation.
Where the book really shines, and is most believable (and unbelievable, but in the most fun way), is when his master sends him to study with other teachers. There are stories of him having met many accomplished sages, including Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo, and many others.
Some of the stories I found particularly intriguing are below, though I have to say that Swami Rama himself and his guru both say how these “powers” are really distractions on the road to liberation. A w
- A Yogi who decides to leave his bod voluntarily, but then, after his followers are arguing what to do with his body, comes back into his body (which had died) because he was tired of them arguing.
- A Sage who takes the young monk and another to the “Valley of the flowers” in the Himalayas, where the flowers are so strong they serve like a drug, making you completely forget why you came there. Some sages described in the book were able to show that he was unaffected by western drugs like LSD.
- A mantra for bees, but which should only be attempted by adept yogis. You’ll have to read the story for yourself!
- A swami that could produce fire from his mouth.
- A woman swami who never slept.
- An ageless swami, Devraha Baba, who lives in East Utter Pradesh, who is said to be more than 150. This age was attested by Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India.
- In one of the only stories I saw which rivals the “hazrat story” was a mystic that Swami Rama met when he was young, whom he called a “haji”. Assuming that this meant someone who has done the has, then this was another muslim mystic. The haji was able to materialize any object from somehwere else. In one example, he asks the young Swami Rama of a hotel that he knows to be a luxury hotel, and the author replies “The Savoy in London”. The mystic then proceeded to materialize a meal and objects from the Savoy in London, while he was in India. Next he did the same from a hotel in Hamburg Germany, including the bill for the food (in GermanQ!). Next the mystic asks young Swami Rama what type of watch he would like, and he responds, a Swiss watch, and the mystic materialized a swatch that was clearly manufacturing them”. The mystic wasn’t creating these objects, Swami Rama concluded, he had found out a way to transport them from one place to another. When another man, who worked at a sewing machine store in Deli asked the mystic to bring him a machine, the man was able to produce it. This is where the story gets interesting, because the original man was worried that he would be accused of stealing the machine and asked the haji to send it back. But in a parallel to the hazard story, the haji suddenly lost his powers. You see, even though he was transporting them, it was as if he had stolen the objects from their original location, albeit by mystical means.
When he was younger, writes Swami Rama, he was often tempted to go follow these miracle workers rather than his master, who had raised him. His master always told him that was fine, but that the siddhis aren’t aren’t the goal of the spiritual path. In fact, his master tells him that many of the adepts who perform these miracles have gotten stuck on the path and don’t progress further because they become obsessed with the power and never make it to liberation. “Misuse of a siddhi is the downfall of a Yogi”, writes Swami Rama.
But they sure as hell are fun to read about!
In this book, he describes a bit about the advaita tradition of Shankara and that his own lineage combines this with an older tradition. He doesn’t necessarily get into details about this tradition, which presumably are the techniques taught in his Himalayan Institute. He also shows pictures of the area in Kashmir where it is rumored that Jesus went in his “lost years”.
Whatever you think of Swami Rama and his Himalayan Institute, this book is a great read for anyone who loved AOY and I recommend reading it. The chapters are super short so you don’t have to digest it all at once — in fact, there are too many stories to do so. I recommend reading a bit at a time over a longer period of time.
