Product Description

One of the great classic spiritual quest books. Anyone who has looked to India for spiritual enlightenment will find it in A Search in Secret India

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #137075 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

About the Author
Born in London in 1898, Paul Brunton published thirteen books between 1935 and 1952. He is generally recognized as having introduced yoga and meditation to the West, and for presenting their philosophical background in non-technical language. He died in Switzerland, where he lived for 20 years, in 1981.

Excerpted from Search in Secret India, A: The Classic Work on Seeking a Guru - By One of the Greatest Spiritual Explorers of the Twentieth Century by Paul Brunton. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction to the New Edition
From the early days of the twentieth century, Paul Brunton journeyed across the major continents in search of people of high spiritual attainment, regardless of tradition. He travelled by boat, on horseback or donkey or camel and on foot, lugged heavy trunks with pack animals or bearers - without the conveniences, accommodation, places to eat, and modes of communication that make travelling abroad the relatively simple task it is today.
Like the geographers before him, Paul Brunton contributed to a new and vitally important mapping of the world - a map of the spirit, of the greater and small traditions, and of their leaders. When now we set forth for Karnak, Delhi or Dharamsala, we have some foreknowledge and familiarity with what we will find, and what we may hope to contact with our hearts through such journeys.
During his journeys, Paul Brunton ('P.B.' to his friends) met many types of people associated with formal and informal spiritual traditions. Some were sincere, some merely professional; some were out-and-out fakes, and some were authentic in their accomplishments. How can one tell them apart? And, upon the occasion of finding an individual of genuine spiritual insight, how can one determine if that person is to be one's own teacher? These questions arise again and again along our spiritual journey. Sometimes we will believe that they have been answered once and for all; sometimes we may believe that they can never be answered. The reality lies somewhere in between for most questers.
In A Search in Secret India, P.B. has accomplished two tasks at once. First, he has chronicled part of his own spiritual journey; second, he has organized the encounters in this book to stand as true examples which help us answer the aforementioned questions.
As to his own journey, P.B. began following the inward trail to wisdom somewhere in his teens; by the time of the travels chronicled in A Search in Secret India (1931), he was already an accomplished meditator and student of what were then considered the exotic ideas of the East. Although there was much still to learn, at least he knew what he was looking for - and that he must look for it. What he found changed his own life, and opened India to the West at the same time. Within a few years of its publication in 1934, Secret India had sold a quarter of a million copies, and made the names of Ramana Maharshi and Shankaracarya famous throughout the global spiritual community.
When read as such, Secret India is certainly an interesting book, capturing much of the flavour of pre-war India, and telling us a little of Brunton's own journey. However, it is much more than that. It is a careful - and vitally important - parable of the quest itself. P.B. tells us how to look for teachers, and how to find them; he shows us the difference between the religious, the magical and the spiritual. Finally, he reveals the means by which one may recognize - and be recognized by - one's own spiritual guide. This is the real secret of Secret India, and it is as helpful today as it was when P.B. first put pen to paper, all those years ago.
We hope you will be inspired and assisted by your study of this book and, like P.B., we wish to dedicate this edition to those great lights of twentieth-century India: Ramana Maharshi and Shankaracarya of Kanchipuram.

Customer Reviews

A westerner's search for Indian yogis,yoga& self-realisation
This is an amazing book on the experience of a western journalist who traveled in India in search of a spiritual yogi and the yoga. I would recommend this book to any westerner, who would want to explore India from a spiritual point of view. This may also be read by the modern Indian, who may not have the opportunity to experience what the author has. The author travels from Bombay (Mumbai) to Madras (Chennai) to Cuttack to Calcutta, to Benaras and back to Bombay, completes a full circle of travelling in India. He simply takes us into the times and the walks of life at the time he traveled and expressed his inner feelings very generously. On many occasions he has been very respectful to many views/experiences, which can not be taken granted for someone who can be accept anything with out proof. I admire his patience while I ignore his arrogance at times, both are honestly written. During his travel he meets various gurus, yogis, astrologers some great and others not. To note a few of them, "An Egyptian in Bombay", "a Dravidian in Madras", "Saint Sankaracharya of Kanchi Mutt", "The great yogi Sri Ramana Maharishi", "Swami Vishoodhanadha", "Master Mahasya", "An astrologer from Varanasi", "A saint from Dayalbagh", "Ramaiah from Andhra Pradhesh". The author expresses himself well and this makes you feel at times that you are very close to him. The author also acts as a good filter in not accepting magical tricks and other acts of some of the yogis. He was not convinced with any of the gurus he had meet this period, until he meets a yogi who sends him back to Bombay. While in Bombay he experiences a moment wherein he decides to get back to down south to meet the great sage Sri Ramana Maharishi. The author's ability to express and experience some of what he has written is truly amazing. I am sure he underwent a fantastic experience in his final destination Thrivannamalai. The last few chapters where Paul experiences Sri Ramana Maharishi, is the highest point of this book. Conquering quest of "who am I?" was the essence of what he has experienced in the end. I do not want to explain this any further, I guess everyone need to experience this part in their own way. Best Wishes!

A genuine seekers� true account of his spiritual journey
When Paul Brunton decided to take up a long journey into mystical India in search of its secret spirituality he must have had a genuine urge to study Indian spirituality. The thirst to get a real 'Darshan' of a true yogi. He had something more than a journalists' inquiring mind. During his days India was ruled by Gora (white) Sahibs and the Indian treasure in terms of its spirituality, herb medicines, yoga etc. lay hidden from the world. The world was just amazed by the new scientific inventions taking place in the west. Indians themselves had begun doubting their ancient systems and methods. To set his foot in India in those times to discover its hidden mysticism is quite commendable.
Paul Brunton lands in Bombay from where he begins his mystical experiences and travels south in search of a true yogi. His experiences which he jots down in very lucid English are a pleasure to read.

A doorway to another way of seeing the world
If you would like to read about another reality, than this book is for you. It is full of wisdom, insight and hope. I highly recomend this book to anyone who is interested in understanding the nature of the self and the ways of the soul. Enjoy this book. OM.