LIVING WITH THE HIMALAYAN MASTERS

Spiritual Experiences of Swami Rama

EDITED BY

Swami Ajaya

ISBN 0-89389-034-0 (hardback)

ISBN 0-89389-070-7 (paperback)

HIMALAYAN INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE

OF YOGA SCIENCE & PHILOSOPHY OF THE U S A

HONESDALE, PENNSYLVANIA

Contents

Introduction

At Thy Lotus Feet-Sri Swami Rama

Map of the Himalayas

Map of Northern India

I SPIRITUAL EDUCATION IN THE HIMALAYAS

The Sacred Himalayas

My Gurudeva and Parents

My Master and the Prince Swami

Footprints of Delusion

How We Live in the Caves

II THE MASTER TEACHES

Learning to Give

How a Master Tests His Students

An All-night Journey through the Forest

Crossing a Flooded River

My Offering to My Master

Loneliness

Maya, the Cosmic Veil

Bitter Truth with Blessed Effects

You Teach Others but Deprive Me

Discipline Is a Must

Blessings in a Curse

III THE PATH OF DIRECT EXPERIENCE

Direct Experience Alone Is the Means

Real Knowledge Removes Suffering

A Mantra for Happiness

A Mantra for Bees

Misuse of Mantra

I Receive a Beating

Unique Practice of Tantra

You Have Committed Many Thefts

A Firethrower Swami

An Astounding Mystic

My Mother Teacher

An Ageless Yogi

IV LEARNING HUMILITY

Ego and Vanity Are in Vain

My Swollen Ego

Cultivating Inner Qualities

I Thought I Was Perfect

Practice Makes Perfect

The Sage from the Valley of Flowers

V CONQUERING FEAR

The Devil

Mistaken for a Ghost

My Fear of Snakes

In a Tiger’s Cave

VI THE PATH OF RENUNCIATION

My Whole Being Is an Eye

My Experience with a Dancing Girl

Transformation of a Murderer

A Lesson in Non-attachment

Taste the World and then Renounce

Jewels or Fire?

My First Days as a Swami

A Constant Persecution

Living on a Mount of Pebbles

Temptations on the Path

Should I Get Married?

Spiritual Dignity Is Also Vanity

A Miserable Experiment

Charms of the World

Two Naked Renunciates

In the World and Yet Above

To Lose Is to Gain

VII EXPERIENCES ON VARIOUS PATHS

A Renowned Lady Sage

With My Heart on My Palms &Tears in My Eyes

Karma Is the Maker

In the Ashram of Mahatma Gandhi

“Not Sacrifice but Conquest”-Tagore

Setting History Straight

Maharshi Raman

Meeting with Sri Aurobindo

The Wave of Bliss

Three Schools of Tantra

The Seven Systems of Eastern Philosophy

Soma

VIII BEYOND THE GREAT RELIGIONS

A Christian Sage of the Himalayas

My Meeting with a Jesuit Sadhu

Jesus in the Himalayas

A Vision of Christ

Judaism in Yoga

I Belong to None but God

IX DIVINE PROTECTION

Protecting Arms

Lost in the Land of Devas

Land of Hamsas

An Atheistic Swami

An Appointment with Death

X POWERS OF THE MIND

Lessons on the Sands

Transmutation of Matter

Where Is My Donkey?

Who Was that Other Gopinath?

An Experience with a Psychic

XI HEALING POWER

My First Exposure to the Power of Healing

My Master Sends Me to Heal Someone

Unorthodox Ways of Healing

Healing in a Himalayan Shrine

At the Feet of the Masters

XII GRACE OF THE MASTER

Guru Is a Stream and a Channel of Knowledge A Weeping Statue

My Master’s Photograph

Who Can Kill the Eternal?

Half “Here” Half “There

How a Young Widow Was Rescued

My Master Saves a Drowning Man

Shaktipata- Bestowing Bliss

My Grandmaster in Sacred Tibet

Preparing to Tear the Veil

XIII MASTERY OVER LIFE AND DEATH

Birth and Death Are but Two Commas Attitudes Toward Dying

The Techniques of Casting Off the Body Living in a Dead Body

My Master Casts Off His Body

XIV JOURNEY TO THE WEST

A Doctor’s Recurring Vision

Transformation in the Cave

Ways of East and West

Our Tradition

The Himalayan Institute

Glossary