Himalayas Abode of Light: (A Himalayan Diary) By Nicholas Roerich (Nalanda
Publication, Bombay, 1947. Pp. 130, 24 illustrations. Price Rs. 15/-)
This book, by the great mystic, painter, and
interpreter of the Himalayas, the late Dr. Roerich, is, as the publishers
claim, both ‘fascinating’ and ‘unusual’. While the illustrations give us an
idea of his intuitive approach to the world of peaks and valleys, there are
word-pictures too in plenty, like ‘the cosmic ocean of clouds’, ‘the ramparts
of endless rocks’, ‘the deodars discussing matters between themselves’. Dr.
Roerich describes also the folklore that the Himalayas have inspired among the
simple peoples who dwell under their shadows and the rites and dances, that
serve to propitiate the Beings, Spirits and Presence’s who haunt them. He
speaks of the legends of the birth-place of the sacred Swastika, the
heaven-sent Chalice of the Buddha; of huge spheroid bodies that career across
the sky, of endless hidden passages, of extensive underground vaults, poisonous
fumes, treacherous perfumes, black flowers that emanate light, mysterious
tinkles under the horses, feet and spontaneous fires! The strangeness of this
subjective super-sensory world is heightened by glimpses of Lamas, Rishis
Messengers and Prophets, and of Ashrams where “Millikan’s cosmic rays and
Rhine’s thought-sequence and the reality of psychic energy are studied and
affirmed!” In fact, Roerich, in this book, has dwelt so much on esoteric cults
and mysteries that all but the elect will find it, merely ‘unusual’. He says,
“He who yet knows nothing of Shambhala, has no right to state that he has
studied the East and knows contemporary Asia.” And what is Shambhala? “Now let
us summarize these scattered indications about Shambhala,” says the author on
page 121.
“The teaching of Shambhala is a Teaching of
Life….how to use the finest energies, filling the macrocosmos, which energies
can as mightily be manifested in our microcosmos. Therefore the Azaras and
Khuthumphas are related to Shambhala? Yes. And the Great Mahatmas and Rishis?
Yes. And the Warriors of Rigden-Japo? Of course. And the whole cycle of
Ghessar-Khan? In certain parts. And Kalachakra? Yes. And Aryavarsha from where
the Kalki Avatar is expected? Yes. And the Ming-ste? And the great Yarkhas? And
the Great Holders of Mongolia? And the Dwellers of Kalapa? And the Belovodye of
Altai? And Shabistan? And the valley of Lao-tsin? And the Black Stone and the
Grail–Lapis Exilis? And the Tchud, the subterranean?….And Dedjung? And the book
of Utaishan?….And the White Burkhan?….Yes! Yes! Yes!”
For the uninitiated, it is enough to know that the
Reign of Shambhala will soon be inaugurated and that “The Lord of Shambhala
breathes with Truth and affirms Truth. The Lord of Shambhala is unvanquishable
and transforms destruction into constructions.”
Toward the Absolute
1.
God and Divine Incarnations: By Swami Ramakrishnananda. Golden Jubilee Memorial
Edition, 1947, (Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Madras. Rs. 2-4-0.)
2.
The Master and
the Disciple: By Principal D. S.
Sarma, (Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Madras Rs. 2-0-0).
3
Tales and
Parables of Sri Ramakrishna: Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Madras. Rs. 3-8-0.
Religion is what a man does with his own
solitariness. Swami Ramakrishnananda, in his book God and Divine
incarnations, takes the soul in its solitariness and gently leads it on to
recognise its kinship with its Maker. His book is conceived and expressed in
the spirit of the Upanishads. The god-less reality of formal science, and the unreal
God of formal theology are alike left behind. Swamiji points out that the world
comes not out of nothing, but from God. But if the creator remains apart from
His creation, we can never know Him. Hence the need for Divine self-revelation
in the form of Avataras and world-teachers.
The second part of the book is a practical
exposition of the general conclusions arrived at earlier. Bergson distinguishes
in his Two sources of morality and religion between the static and the
dynamic. From his point of view all folk-lore may be regarded as the static
aspect of religion. Much the same may be said of the various stories given in
the Bhagavata, which may be regarded as poetical attempts at reconstruction. We
may make them intellectually satisfying by allegorising them, but as all such
allegorical interpretations are essentially subjective, there is no finality
about them. Swamiji has followed a different method. He has tried to explain
them in the light of the cosmic symbolism of the Chandogya Upanishad.
By piercing through the crust of tradition, he has
liberated the dynamic spirit of religion, and in the lava flow of the spirit
even what is hardened partially melts. The book is conceived and written in the
spirit of Brahma Vada with its stress upon earnest action.
Swami Ramakrishnananda says that an incarnation of
God is one who lives in limitless consciousness. In Principal D. S. Sarma’s
book Master and Disciple we get an intellectual and an emotional
approach to the consciousness of the God-intoxicated Sri Ramakrishna and his
masterly disciple.
Carlyle considered reverence for the author to be
the basis of all sound criticism. It seems to be even more true of biography,
Principal Sarma’s book is characterised by a subdued glow of emotion. It leaves
the reader with a sense of divine discontent, and a desire to know more of the
objects of the biography.
In the main the distinction between the master and
the disciple is clearly brought out. The master is a mass of consciousness
using bhakti as a screen between himself and the outer world. The
disciple is a mass of emotion using the intellect as a screen between himself
and the overflowing abundance of his heart. The master’s life is a discovery in
the realm of the spirit. It is the stuff out of which religion is made. The
disciple’s life is an exploration in the realm of achievement. Between them
they break the formal distinction between the spirit within and the world
outside, between the Jnana and Karma. They show that the spirit within is also
the spirit without. At the present time when freedom has brought with it
greater opportunities for service, as also greater opportunities for
exploitation, Swami Vivekananda, the bare-footed monk wandering over the length
and breadth of India carrying his gospel of melioration should be the ideal of
young India.
It has been said that the truly great man is he who
knows how to bend. In the Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna we see
the master bending to the understanding of children. The Bible says, “Suffer
the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of God.” The
profound truths of religion, the unapprehended relation of things find
expression in homely language, in the day to day incidents of life. They show
to us that the truths of religion can be taught mainly through parables, the
language of symbols, because all language is symbolic, and man himself is a
symbol.
These parables deal with the world, the path, the
goal and having attained the goal, how to stay there. They are not mere
stories, they are pages torn from the book of life. They come mingled with the
joys and sorrows of life, enriched with a kindly humour. But one feels at times
that it were well if some of the stories had been left out.