Paul Brunton is the pen name of an English bookseller cum journalist Raphael Hurst. Always interested in the mystical, Brunton came to India to seek a spiritual guru and went through many hardships in his search for a guru, in his fight to maintain the balance between being open to stuff that was beyond the pale of scientific explanation. He however does an admirable job of holding both ends together, being very honest to his feelings and thoughts and quickly reversing his opinion wherever he feels it merits that.
Straight up in Bombay he meets a Muslim holy man of Persian descent perhaps, Muhammed Bey, who shows him some extraordinary feats like asking Brunton to write a question on a piece of paper and without touching it making an answer appear on the same paper. Impressive but then Muhammed says he is only doing this to collect money to build a mausoleum for his master. Brunton then meets Meher Baba, a Parsee from Pune who had been ordained into the spiritual life by a Baloch master, a lady called Hazrat Babajan (apparently there is a shrine in her name at Camp in Pune and I must visit it next time). Brunton however is not impressed with Meher Baba. Brunton's travels take him to Madras where he meets a yogi, whom he calls the anchorite from Adyar, from whom he learns much. In the same trip he also meets the man who does not speak and learns much from him as well. From there he meets the Shankaracharya who guides him to Ramana Maharshi saying that he is the right guru for Brunton. Brunton travels to Thiruvanmalai to meet Ramana Maharshi and finds some amount of solace there in many conversations with the Maharshi. Onwards to Calcutta where he meets Mahasaya, a dsiciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Brunton fully identifies with him - however Mahasaya is aged and close to passing on. In Benares he meets Sudhei Babu an astrologer of great fame who patiently teaches Brunton many things about astrology. From there to Nasik to spend some more time with Meher Baba which appears fruitless and then he, by destiny, goes back to meet Ramana Maharshi once more. This time he does find illumination and by the time he returns to England believes that there is more to India's ancient secrets than science can explain.
Along the way Brunton meets many small time magicians, yogis who perform serious miracles for short term gains, and keeps his quest going without becoming too skeptical. Towards the end of his trip he fals severely ill and one can imagine that happening to a foreigner in India in the 1920s travelling by train, by bullock carts, staying in hotels and guest houses, surviving flies, mosquitoes, water..its a miracle he survived the trip at all.
Its an impressive tale though and one that he tells with great honesty and integrity, never trying to project himself as someone he is not, showing himself in his full vulnerability, his western superciliousness, and stays on to seek what he came to seek with single minded focus. Excellent read.
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