KRISHNA PREM

Ronald Nixon, aka Krishna Prem, was among those considered the model for Larry Darrell, the central character in W. Somerset Maugham’s 1944 novel The Razor’s Edge.  In the novel, Larry is an American pilot traumatized by his experiences in World War I.  He sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life, traveling through Europe and eventually to India where he has significant spiritual adventures.
  
Ronald Nixon was not an American but an Englishman, but he became a fighter pilot in the First World War as well, and likewise experienced a crisis of meaninglessness in his life.  He also went to India where he was one of the first Europeans to pursue orthodox Vaishnavite Hinduism.  Following his initiation in the sect, he adopted the monastic name Krishna Prem.

Another candidate for the model of Larry was novelist Christopher Isherwood, who had assisted Maugham in interpreting Verse 1.3.14 of the Katha Upanishad which became the novel’s theme.  But Isherwood, who was an initiate of Advaita Vedanta in Swami Prabhavananda’s Vedanta Society of Southern California, went so far as to write Time magazine denying he was the model.

A man named Guy Hague was believed to have influenced the Larry Darrell character, but on closer examination he proved not to be the most plausible model.  The English poet and translator Lewis Thompson was thought to be a stronger possibility.

Still, on the surface at least, Ronald Nixon, aka Krishna Prem, best fits the situation of Larry Darrell.  But Maugham wanted Larry to be “nobody,” as he put it, so real life models for the character, if there were any, will likely never be known.

FINE EDGE

Verse 1.3.14 of the Katha Upanishad reads “The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard.” The line served as the epigraph for W. Somerset Maugham’s 1944 novel The Razor’s Edge. 
 
The verse, however, has an additional meaning.  Once Salvation has been realized, it is equally walking a razor’s edge to maintain it.  The reason for this is Maya, illusion in the world.   

Aja Dasa, a Vedic priest in Oregon, aptly describes the two features of Maya:  the first, he says, is to pull you down, and the second is to cover you over.

Worldly distractions, such as the cellphones everyone stares into all day these days, are the perfect example of Maya.  Maya is the Tempter.  Even a long-liberated devotee will find himself at the precipice at times; one step further and he’s down and covered over.

This is why sadhana, the practice of spiritual disciplines, is so important.  Even if it is only ten minutes of meditation per day, it is a reference point.  It assures one’s footing on the fine edge.

LINES

And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.--Anais Nin

Don’t drink by the water’s edge.  Throw yourself in.  Become the water.  Only then will your thirst end.--Jeanette Berson

You can outdistance that which is running after you but not what is running inside you.--Rwandan Proverb

What is in one is in the whole, and therefore, ultimately, each soul is responsible for the whole world.--Gary Zukav

How do I know about the world?  By what is within me.--Lao Tzu

We do not live life.  Life lives us.--Joko Beck

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.--Maori Proverb

ECKHART TOLLE ON NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ

Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle described on YouTube the guru Nisargadatta Maharaj:

. . . Many of you know the teachings of Nisargadatta who wrote one of the greatest spiritual books--well, he didn’t write it, he spoke it--I AM THAT.

He was--had a stall in Bombay selling handmade cigarettes.  One would have thought “this is not making very good karma; you are making other people ill,”--and he smoked quite heavily himself apparently--and he just visited a guru, a teacher who said to him, “Well, just remember that you are consciousness, just be aware of the ‘I am,’ in whatever you do, and feel yourself as consciousness.”  “Oh, okay.”

And then Nisargadatta went off, back to his daily business, and he applied--can we call that a technique?--it’s too simple to be called a technique.  All he was--all he remembered was that “I am consciousness,” and he felt--attempted to feel the “I,” the deeper “I” that underlies all experiences, awareness itself.

And a few years later, it had emerged fully.  It didn’t come all at once, but it didn’t take very long, and then suddenly he started speaking wisdom.  A cigarette seller, almost illiterate, suddenly people would come and ask him questions, and intensely alive and wise answers came out of his mouth.

Something had come through the form, and so the cigarette seller became Nisargadatta Maharaj--in India they like giving people names; maharaj means “the great king,” spiritually, of course.  So this is one teacher to whom it (awakening) came not suddenly, although it didn’t take very long.  After a few years it became a continuous living presence.  Presence was continuous in him.

CONTEMPORARIES

Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj (1888-1936) was guru to Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981).  I posted excerpts from the latter’s book “I AM THAT” on 1/14/15.  It was the former who taught Nisargadatta about self-enquiry.  He said to Nisargadatta, “You are not what you take yourself to be.  Find out what you are.  What’s the sense ‘I am’?  Find your real self.”

In Nisargadatta’s words, “I obeyed my guru because I trusted him.  I did as he told me.  All my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence.  And what a difference it made, and how soon.  It took me only three years to realize my true nature.  My guru died soon after I met him, but it made no difference.  I remembered what he told me and proceeded.  The fruit of it is here with me.”

If the notion of self-enquiry sounds familiar, it should.  Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950), a contemporary of Siddharameshwar’s and Nisargadatta’s, originated the idea.
   
Self-enquiry, according to Ramana Maharshi, was the constant attention to the inner awareness of “I” or “I am.”  He warned against considering it merely an intellectual exercise.  Properly done, it involved fixing the attention firmly and intensely on the feeling of “I,” without thinking on it.  Attention must be fixed on the “I,” he said, until the sense of “I” disappears and the true self is realized.

Maurice Frydman, aka Swami Bharatananda, translated Nisargadatta’s talks for the book “I Am That.” Frydman, it so happened, was deeply influenced by Ramana Maharshi’s teachings which would have been a factor regarding Nisargadatta.

TWO EXCERPTS FROM “I AM THAT” BY NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ

“Give up all questions except one: ‘Who am I?’  After all, the only fact that you are sure of is that you are.  The ‘I am’ is certain.  The ‘I am this’ is not.  Struggle to find out what you are in reality.  To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are not. 
 
Discover all that you are not--body, feelings, thoughts, time, space, this or that--nothing, concrete or abstract, which you  perceive can be you.  The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive. The clearer you understand that you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and realize that you are the limitless being.”

“That which is alive in you is immortal.  In reality there is only the source, dark in itself, making everything shine.  Unperceived, it causes perception.  Unfelt, it causes feeling.  Unthinkable, it causes thought.  Non-being, it gives birth to being.  It is the immovable background of motion.  Once you are there, you are at home everywhere.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981) was an Indian guru of Shiva (Advaita) Vedanta.  His book I AM THAT, published in 1973, is an English translation of his talks.  It brought him worldwide recognition and followers, especially from North America and Europe.

THE WILL

The will is something that the thinking mind does, not something that the Atman, background consciousness, does.  The Atman does not involve itself in a person’s life at all, so it does not need a will.

KOSHAS VS. SKANDHAS

In Vedanta, there are five koshas or sheaths that are located one within the other that envelop the Atman.  The outermost sheath is the body, followed by the vital-energy sheath that holds together body and mind, followed by the sheath of the mind that perceives sense impressions, followed by the intellect, followed by the ego.
 
In Buddhism, there are five skandhas or aggregates so-called. The first skandha is form or matter, generally the body, followed by sensation or feeling, followed by perception or cognition, followed by mental formations or thoughts, followed lastly by consciousness or that which discerns.

According to Vedanta, when a person dies, the sheaths vanish, leaving the Atman to rejoin its source the Brahman and be reborn again.  This continues until moksha, liberation is achieved, which ends reincarnation.
 
Buddhism, on the other hand, teaches that when a person dies the skandhas scatter, leaving behind an “impression” that reincarnates.  The reincarnation continues until enlightenment is achieved, whereupon rebirth ends.

BEGINNING THE END

When I was a kid I was beginning the beginning.  When I became an adult I was beginning the middle.  Now that I am an old man I am beginning the end.

What does beginning the end mean, really?  It means undoing everything that I’ve done so far, deconstructing my life.  Becoming pure again, is what it means, as pure as I was when I was born.

How am I to go about this ending, this deconstruction, this purification?  It turns out that there is a way for me to accomplish it that is instant and painless.  I do it by accepting, realizing really, that I am nothing, never was, and never will be, the Buddhist view.

The Buddhist view is remarkably liberating, psychologically.  The Buddha taught that a person is a momentary collection of skandhas, or aggregates, such as matter, sensations, thinking, etc. and that when a person dies, the skandhas disperse.  Poof.  The only thing remaining is an impression so-called that reincarnates.

Is death total annihilation, beyond that transmigrating impression?  The Buddha did not say so.  He did not say so because he did not know.  How could he?
 
Vedanta teaches that with death the Atman rendezvous with Brahman, its source, but, again, who can know this?  If I adopt the Buddhist perspective, it does not matter what the Atman does, or even if the Atman exists. 

 It is better for me, psychologically, to know that I am an illusion, that I do not exist in any real way and never did.  This way I am not attached to myself; I’m nothing for me to miss.

RIPPLES

There is a ripple in the universe when a person is born.
 
There is a larger ripple when a person subsequently becomes something, becomes a priest, for example. 

It does not matter that the something, including the priesthood, is relative to the manifested world, that outside the manifested world it does not exist.
 
There is an even larger ripple when a person ceases to be something, stops being a priest, in this instance, as an act of purification.

ONE PLACE

A mountain is many mountains occurring in one place.  A person is many persons occurring in one place.  The universe is many universes occurring in one place.  Brahman is where it is all occurring, the one place.

ON NAMING THINGS

We name a thing as though it were one thing.

MORE ON NAMING THINGS

A lake is lake, but then we call it a lake and it becomes something else.

MORE FROM THE MUNDAKA UPANISHAD

Swami Prabhavananda:

If anyone asks for the evidence of God, the answer is that it is self evident.  In their heart, everyone knows it.  Difficulty comes when we talk in terms of God being some place and having certain characteristics, but these are just ideas.

Getting to God requires self-control.  We must learn how to get within, which does not mean becoming introspective or an introvert.  Rather is it focusing the mind on the center of your consciousness.

Renunciation does not mean running away from life but renouncing the little things, the ephemeral things, ceasing to be attached to them.

The student has to be ready, the soil must be prepared, before he can be taught the truth of That Art Thou.  The student must be tranquil, self-controlled, and have the desire to know.

After we realize God, we see this universe differently.  This universe is not, for instance, a creation of God so much as an emanation of God, like sparks rising from a fire.  We see that from Him, everything has come.  We are all the time living in God.  Until we have awakened, we do not know this.

Knowing God is beyond the senses.  It is transcendental experience.  The purified mind, the purified heart is when there is no longer the desire for anything else but God.

CAMPING OUT

To the Atman, living in the relative world is like camping out.

TO NEWBORN

Breathe early and often.

HAPPENING

Something is happening to make it happen.

LATE BLOOMER: A SHORT STORY

At a luncheon he attended as a young man, the main course was Lobster Newburg.  It was expertly prepared from scratch, including the plunging of the unsuspecting live lobsters into large kettles of boiling water, which, courageously, he witnessed.  The sauce of butter, cream, cognac, and the rest, was created with such care as to be for a state dinner
. 
As it happened, he had never before eaten Lobster Newburg, and even though it was beautifully prepared, he could not get past the first forkful.

When the hostess asked him if there was something wrong with the Newburg, he had to confess that it was too rich for him.  His body would not accept it.   The lady smiled, sympathetically, admitting that lobster anything was an acquired taste. 
 
This was the same lady who had asked him on another occasion what he intended to be after he finished school, and he told her that, frankly, he didn’t know, but that it would certainly be something, more or less.  “Ah,” the lady said, “you are a late bloomer.”  He remembered this all the rest of his life.

The reason he remembered it was because it was true.  Now that he was sixty-four years old, he was able to look back on his life, as though from a mountain top, and observe how it had gone, see all the peaks and valleys.  When he was living those peaks and valleys he did not think they were leading anywhere.  He had accomplishments he was proud of and experience at all kinds of jobs, but none of it, he always knew, was really him.

Which was when, all of a sudden, he bloomed, or, more correctly, awakened.  It was like a rose suddenly discovering it was a rose.