CHAPTER: 7
The Levitating Saint
"I saw a yogi remain in the air, several feet above the ground, last night at a
group meeting." My friend, Upendra Mohun Chowdhury, spoke impressively.
I gave him an enthusiastic smile. "Perhaps I can guess his name. Was it Bhaduri
Mahasaya, of Upper Circular Road?"
Upendra nodded, a little crestfallen not to be a news-bearer. My
inquisitiveness about saints was well-known among my friends; they delighted in
setting me on a fresh track.
"The yogi lives so close to my home that I often visit him." My words brought
keen interest to Upendra's face, and I made a further confidence.
"I have seen him in remarkable feats. He has expertly mastered the various
pranayamas 7-1 of the ancient eightfold yoga outlined by Patanjali. 7-2 Once
Bhaduri Mahasaya performed the Bhastrika Pranayama before me with such amazing
force that it seemed an actual storm had arisen in the room! Then he
extinguished the thundering breath and remained motionless in a high state of
superconsciousness. 7-3 The aura of peace after the storm was vivid beyond
forgetting."
"I heard that the saint never leaves his home." Upendra's tone was a trifle
incredulous.
"Indeed it is true! He has lived indoors for the past twenty years. He slightly
relaxes his self-imposed rule at the times of our holy festivals, when he goes
as far as his front sidewalk! The beggars gather there, because Saint Bhaduri
is known for his tender heart."
"How does he remain in the air, defying the law of gravitation?"
"A yogi's body loses its grossness after use of certain pranayamas. Then it
will levitate or hop about like a leaping frog. Even saints who do not practice
a formal yoga 7-4 have been known to levitate during a state of intense
devotion to God."
"I would like to know more of this sage. Do you attend his evening meetings?"
Upendra's eyes were sparkling with curiosity.
"Yes, I go often. I am vastly entertained by the wit in his wisdom.
Occasionally my prolonged laughter mars the solemnity of his gatherings. The
saint is not displeased, but his disciples look daggers!"
On my way home from school that afternoon, I passed Bhaduri Mahasaya's cloister
and decided on a visit. The yogi was inaccessible to the general public. A lone
disciple, occupying the ground floor, guarded his master's privacy. The student
was something of a martinet; he now inquired formally if I had an "engagement."
His guru put in an appearance just in time to save me from summary ejection.
"Let Mukunda come when he will." The sage's eyes twinkled. "My rule of
seclusion is not for my own comfort, but for that of others. Worldly people do
not like the candor which shatters their delusions. Saints are not only rare
but disconcerting. Even in scripture, they are often found embarrassing!"
I followed Bhaduri Mahasaya to his austere quarters on the top floor, from
which he seldom stirred. Masters often ignore the panorama of the world's ado,
out of focus till centered in the ages. The contemporaries of a sage are not
alone those of the narrow present.
"Maharishi, 7-5 you are the first yogi I have known who always stays indoors."
"God plants his saints sometimes in unexpected soil, lest we think we may
reduce Him to a rule!"
The sage locked his vibrant body in the lotus posture. In his seventies, he
displayed no unpleasing signs of age or sedentary life. Stalwart and straight,
he was ideal in every respect. His face was that of a rishi, as described in
the ancient texts. Noble-headed, abundantly bearded, he always sat firmly
upright, his quiet eyes fixed on Omnipresence.
The saint and I entered the meditative state. After an hour, his gentle voice
roused me.
"You go often into the silence, but have you developed anubhava?" 7-6 He was
reminding me to love God more than meditation. "Do not mistake the technique
for the Goal."
He offered me some mangoes. With that good-humored wit that I found so
delightful in his grave nature, he remarked, "People in general are more fond
of Jala Yoga (union with food) than of Dhyana Yoga (union with God)."
His yogic pun affected me uproariously.
"What a laugh you have!" An affectionate gleam came into his gaze. His own face
was always serious, yet touched with an ecstatic smile. His large, lotus eyes
held a hidden divine laughter.
"Those letters come from far-off America." The sage indicated several thick
envelopes on a table. "I correspond with a few societies there whose members
are interested in yoga. They are discovering India anew, with a better sense of
direction than Columbus! I am glad to help them. The knowledge of yoga is free
to all who will receive, like the ungarnishable daylight.
"What rishis perceived as essential for human salvation need not be diluted for
the West. Alike in soul though diverse in outer experience, neither West nor
East will flourish if some form of disciplinary yoga be not practiced."
The saint held me with his tranquil eyes. I did not realize that his speech was
a veiled prophetic guidance. It is only now, as I write these words, that I
understand the full meaning in the casual intimations he often gave me that
someday I would carry India's teachings to America.
BHADURI MAHASAYA
"The Levitating Saint"
"Sir," I inquired, "why do you not write a book on yoga for the benefit of the
world?"
"I am training disciples," He replied. "They and their students will be living
volumes, proof against the natural disintegrations of time and the unnatural
interpretaations of the critics."
"Maharishi, I wish you would write a book on yoga for the benefit of the
world."
"I am training disciples. They and their students will be living volumes, proof
against the natural disintegrations of time and the unnatural interpretations
of the critics." Bhaduri's wit put me into another gale of laughter.
I remained alone with the yogi until his disciples arrived in the evening.
Bhaduri Mahasaya entered one of his inimitable discourses. Like a peaceful
flood, he swept away the mental debris of his listeners, floating them Godward.
His striking parables were expressed in a flawless Bengali.
This evening Bhaduri expounded various philosophical points connected with the
life of Mirabai, a medieval Rajputani princess who abandoned her court life to
seek the company of sadhus. One great-sannyasi refused to receive her because
she was a woman; her reply brought him humbly to her feet.
"Tell the master," she had said, "that I did not know there was any Male in the
universe save God; are we all not females before Him?" (A scriptural conception
of the Lord as the only Positive Creative Principle, His creation being naught
but a passive maya.)
Mirabai composed many ecstatic songs which are still treasured in India; I
translate one of them here:
"If by bathing daily God could be realized
Sooner would I be a whale in the deep;
If by eating roots and fruits He could be known
Gladly would I choose the form of a goat;
If the counting of rosaries uncovered Him
I would say my prayers on mammoth beads;
If bowing before stone images unveiled Him
A flinty mountain I would humbly worship;
If by drinking milk the Lord could be imbibed
Many calves and children would know Him;
If abandoning one's wife would summon God
Would not thousands be eunuchs?
Mirabai knows that to find the Divine One
The only indispensable is Love."
Several students put rupees in Bhaduri's slippers which lay by his side as he
sat in yoga posture. This respectful offering, customary in India, indicates
that the disciple places his material goods at the guru's feet. Grateful
friends are only the Lord in disguise, looking after His own.
"Master, you are wonderful!" A student, taking his leave, gazed ardently at the
patriarchal sage. "You have renounced riches and comforts to seek God and teach
us wisdom!" It was well-known that Bhaduri Mahasaya had forsaken great family
wealth in his early childhood, when single-mindedly he entered the yogic path.
"You are reversing the case!" The saint's face held a mild rebuke. "I have left
a few paltry rupees, a few petty pleasures, for a cosmic empire of endless
bliss. How then have I denied myself anything? I know the joy of sharing the
treasure. Is that a sacrifice? The shortsighted worldly folk are verily the
real renunciates! They relinquish an unparalleled divine possession for a poor
handful of earthly toys!"
I chuckled over this paradoxical view of renunciation-one which puts the cap of
Croesus on any saintly beggar, whilst transforming all proud millionaires into
unconscious martyrs.
"The divine order arranges our future more wisely than any insurance company."
The master's concluding words were the realized creed of his faith. "The world
is full of uneasy believers in an outward security. Their bitter thoughts are
like scars on their foreheads. The One who gave us air and milk from our first
breath knows how to provide day by day for His devotees."
I continued my after-school pilgrimages to the saint's door. With silent zeal
he aided me to attain anubhava. One day he moved to Ram Mohan Roy Road, away
from the neighborhood of my Gurpar Road home. His loving disciples had built
him a new hermitage, known as "Nagendra Math." 7-7
Although it throws me ahead of my story by a number of years, I will recount
here the last words given to me by Bhaduri Mahasaya. Shortly before I embarked
for the West, I sought him out and humbly knelt for his farewell blessing:
"Son, go to America. Take the dignity of hoary India for your shield. Victory
is written on your brow; the noble distant people will well receive you."
7-1: Methods of controlling life-force through regulation of breath.
7-2: The foremost ancient exponent of yoga.
7-3: French professors were the first in the West to be willing to
scientifically investigate the possibilities of the superconscious mind.
Professor Jules-Bois, member of the L'Ecole de Psychologie of the Sorbonne,
lectured in America in 1928; he told his audiences that French scientists have
accorded recognition to the superconsciousness, "which is the exact opposite of
Freud's subconscious mind and is the faculty which makes man really man and not
just a super-animal." M. Jules-Bois explained that the awakening of the higher
consciousness "was not to be confused with Coueism or hypnotism. The existence
of a superconscious mind has long been recognized philosophically, being in
reality the Oversoul spoken of by Emerson, but only recently has it been
recognized scientifically." The French scientist pointed out that from the
superconsciousness come inspiration, genius, moral values. "Belief in this is
not mysticism though it recognized and valued the
qualities which mystics preached."
7-4: St. Theresa of Avila and other Christian saints were often observed in a
state of levitation.
7-5: "Great sage."
7-6: Actual perception of God.
7-7: The saint's full name was Nagendranath Bhaduri. Math means hermitage or
ashram.
