Muses of Murari

Many of us will turn away, having seen the title of the book, on which I am going to give a small review kind of. As like any book lover would like to hear on different kinds of books, curious to know what the books offer, so I am here with this book. It is always good to be open to any topic, even to the vague & arcane topics like spirituality!

This book has something special in it. It is a book written by a well known yogi (yoga practitioner) of 1930s, Paramahamsa Yoganandha. I learnt from this book, that he was one of the elite group, responsible for spreading yoga in the west. What is special in this book is, he has written about his Guru, another yogi and also about his yogic masters. It is always queering to know what one yogi tells about another one. 

The book starts with the author’s childhood, his interests in spirituality, his urges to go to Himalayas and the failed attempts to reach there and his contact with his guru Yukteswar. Then his spiritual journey, his apathy towards his studies and how his guru insisted to pursue his education, his dream of founding yoga institution, his touching experiences with his guru and so on. 

Another interesting part is, in the book, he mentioned about a great yogi called “Baba”,  who lives in Himalayas for thousand of years. This is the same yogi mentioned in a famous kollywood movie “Baba” starred by Rajinikanth. After watching the movie, I was taken aback by the fact that the saint is thousand years old. I completely disbelieved it. But in this book, a well known yogi talks on the same great saint and tells that he is thousand year old, which hurled me in a bewilderment – to believe it or brush it aside. To an atheist, this book will look like utter non sense, unless (s)he introspects and reflect. But to those who believe in spiritual side of life, this book is a treasure. 

The author talks on kriya yoga, a yogic technique. The author explained many spiritual terms of kriya yoga, which is beyond me. I enjoyed reading the book and it is some what fascinated me on some of the incidents mentioned in the book like, a lion which was tamed by a saint and it ate only milk and rice, the lady who never ate anything for five decades, a humble and silent husband serving his saint turned wife, many mystic saints performing paranormal things, a meeting with Mahatma Gandhi and also with Rabindranath Tagore and his observations on their lives and so on. He also spoke on another great saint Lahiri Mahasaya, who was his guru’s Guru, and described how he became enlightened soul. 

The one part which I hated and skipped pages was when the author described something vague terms like astral bodies. I really didn’t like that part. He also narrated how fate turned him towards America. How he started his journey in an unknown land with his yogic knowledge and went on to recount the incidents and his founding of Self-Realization Fellowship program. He also established yogic school for young boys in Ranchi, India.

After completing the book, which took few days, my mind was bombarded with questions, which is a good sign I think. This book would certainly change the views of anyone on “spirituality”, but given the preconditions – an open mind, slow read and meaningful reflection on it.

Related posts:

• My Views on “Fooled by Randomness”
• My views on “God Does Not Play Dice”
• Views on “Good to Great”
• Views on “The Science & Philosophy of Religion”
• Views on “The three mistakes of my life” by Chetan Bhagat