VII

(Translated from Bengali VI & VII)

REMINISCENCES — PRANAYAMA — THOUGHT-READING — KNOWLEDGE OF PREVIOUS BIRTHS

[Shri Priya Nath Sinha]

A day or two later, as I was coming out of my house intending to pay a visit to Swamiji, I met two of my friends who expressed a wish to accompany me, for they wanted to ask Swamiji something about Prānāyāma. I had heard that one should not visit a temple or a Sannyāsin without taking something as an offering; so we took some fruits and sweets with us and placed them before him. Swamiji took them in his hands, raised them to his head, and bowed to us before even we made our obeisance to him. One of the two friends with me had been a fellow-student of his. Swamiji recognised him at once and asked about his health and welfare. Then he made us sit down by him. There were many others there who had come to see and hear him. After replying to a few questions put by some of the gentlemen, Swamiji, in the course of his conversation, began to speak about Prānāyāma. First of all, he explained through modern science the origin of matter from the mind, and then went on to show what Prānāyāma is. All three of us had carefully read beforehand his book called Rāja-Yoga. But from what we heard from him that day about Prānāyāma, it seemed to me that very little of the knowledge that was in him had been recorded in that book. I understand also that what he said was not mere book-learning, for who could explain so lucidly and elaborately all the intricate problems of religion, even with the help of science, without himself realising the Truth?

His conversation on Prānāyāma went on from half past three o’clock till half past seven in the evening. When the meeting dissolved and we came away, my companions asked me how Swamiji could have known the questions that were in their hearts, and whether I had communicated to him their desire for asking those questions.

A few days after this occasion, I saw Swamiji in the house of the late Priya Nāth Mukherjee at Baghbazar. There were present Swami Brahmānanda, Swami Yogānanda, Mr. G. C. Ghosh, Atul Bābu, and one or two other friends. I said, “Well, Swamiji, the two gentlemen who went to see you the other day wanted to ask you some questions about Prānāyāma, which had been raised in their minds by reading your book on Rāja-Yoga some time before you returned to this country, and they had then told me of them. But that day, before they asked you anything, you yourself raised those doubts that had occurred to them and solved them! They were very much surprised and inquired of me if I had let you know their doubts beforehand.” Swamiji replied: “Similar occurrences having come to pass many times in the West, people often used to ask me, ‘How could you know the questions that were agitating our minds?’ This knowledge does not happen to me so often, but with Shri Ramakrishna it was almost always there.”

In this connection Atul Bābu asked him: “You have said in Rāja-Yoga that one can come to know all about one’s previous births. Do you know them yourself?”

Swamiji: Yes, I do.

Atul Bābu: What do you know? Have you any objection to tell?

Swamiji: I can know them—I do know them—but I prefer not to say anything in detail.