Living with the Himalayan Masters

I read the book Living with the Himalayan Masters written by Swami Rama. Swami Rama was initiated and adopted by a Himalayan sage during his early childhood, and thereafter for several decades he lived in the Himalayas, practicing many Yogic methods, traveling and meeting many sages of the mountains and Tibet. He held the position of Shankaracharya of Karvirpitham in South India for a few years, but he left the position to continue his Yogic practices. He moved to the USA later in his life, and founded Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy. In the book Living with the Himalayan Masters, he remembers his years in the Himalayas.

I was prejudiced while reading this book, as I had read in the Internet about the controversies surrounding Swami Rama's life in the USA. I quickly browsed through the book first, and found several photographs showing various stages of Swami Rama's life, right from his young age. "Does a Sannyasi living in the Himalayas find it amusing to have himself photographed at regular intervals?", I wondered. But, while reading the contents of the book, my opinion gradually changed. Written in simple prose in an extremely readable way, this book makes an excellent reading.

Swami Rama mentions that the Yogis attain superhuman siddhis as a side effect of their practices, though they don't have any significance in the spiritual progress of the person. In the book he describes a lot about miracles performed by various sages; He adds that he is telling about these miracles only to illustrate the vast possibilities and immense potentials of human beings. Actually, reading about these miracles made me feel that I was reading a work of fiction from a world of fantasy - Yogis who read and influence other's thoughts, Yogi's who levitate, Yogis who become invisible, Yogis who are capable to travel thousands of miles in a second, Yogis who "change bodies", Those who die at their will and those who "come back" to their dead-bodies - There are numerous stories of such supernatural feats in this book that things like controlling one's heartbeat at will and moving remote objects through mind-power (which Swami Rama himself is said to have demonstrated during a lab experiment in front of scientists at Menninger Clinic) start looking like pretty common things by the time we finish reading this book.

We may choose to consider these narratives as fictitious stories or otherwise, but there is no denying the fact that they make a good reading, and more than that, the messages the author passes through the stories are very valid. Another likeable aspect of this book is the way Swami Rama draws his own picture in the book - We see in him a somewhat mischievous but inquisitive young man, who many times proves to be a difficult student for his Master. We could easily identifying with him, as he takes us through his journeys, getting bewildered observing the miracles done by the sages, disobeying and questioning his Master occasionally, getting indulged in the luxuries of World at times and then coming back to a Sannyasi's life, and so on.