Living with the Himalayan Masters

Book Overview: Living with the Himalayan Masters

We are currently reading a spiritual classic, Swami Rama’s: “Living with the Himalayan Masters” which is a memoir about his lifetime of experiences with the Himalayan Masters. I would categorize this book in the same vein as another book I read many years ago, “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda. I appreciate the simple beauty of this memoir as it is written in a style that anyone can follow, and I feel that you will love the series of short stories in the book, even though you are not a Hindi renunciate living in a cave, wearing a loin cloth. One reviewer put it this way, “This is a timeless classic by one of the most influential yoga masters of the 20th Century. It transports you into the caves of the Himalayas and introduces you to the great adepts who live there.

This is the real thing from a man whose whole life was an extraordinary spiritual adventure. One of the best books on spirituality ever! To me, the short chapters offer daily inspiration and help to course-correct everyday life.” Swami Rama is one of the great overlooked spiritual figures of our time. His in-depth understanding of the human condition, his selfless service, and his deep attainment of states higher consciousness was profound. In this autobiography he relates his encounters with his early teachers in a humble way. He was raised in a cave monastery from the age of four, so his life was very different from our modern way of life. While some of the stories may stretch credibility, they all supposedly happened even though these experiences may be outside the range of most people’s limited life experience and fixed ideas. Swami Rama definitely challenges our world view in a very real way, and I find that challenge refreshing and inspiring. His core philosophy, is that the goal of human life is spiritual attainment and Self-Realization.

This tugs us out of our limited view of the world. There are many mystics who exhibit extraordinary powers, but Swami Rama doesn’t put these feats on a pedestal. He says they are amazing, but he doesn’t worship those who perform them. To him, these mind-boggling feats show how versatile and ingenious humans can be on the spiritual side, instead of just the technological/scientific side. He also knows that the pursuit of these psychic feats can easily turn into distractions from the honorable pursuit of self-knowledge and knowledge of Higher Reality.

Few people on Earth have attained the spiritual wisdom that Rama did, yet instead of making me feel inferior, I felt inspired to put more of an effort into developing my inner spirituality. In the book you learn that he wasn’t born with wisdom. He was foolish growing up, and his guru had to cut down his ego numerous times. But he persevered and never kept his eyes (Third Eye, intuition included) off his goal of self-realization. Swami Rama is one of the overlooked great figures of our time. You would do well to learn from his wisdom. In my opinion, this is one of the great spiritual classics. I feel that once you start reading this book, you won’t ever want to put it down!