The Real Is Unknowable, The Knowable Is Unreal by Robert Powell

Author:Robert Powell [Powell, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Published: 2011-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

Dear Mr. Powell,

I am sorry to tell you that I wasn’t at all convinced by the word of the Maharaj. I found it full of contradictions, especially where exercises, practicing, meditation, and rituals are concerned. You see, Krishnamurti showed us so clearly that everything that is created by thought cannot lead to Truth. I feel this so deeply that the simple mention of self-imposed practices makes me turn away. I see it today as complete nonsense.

Nisargadatta’s language (at least through reading) seemed aggressive, and I missed that infinite sense of compassion that K.’s message possesses. It is not a matter of comparing the two, but since K. remains to me at least, the most objective, clear, simple, humble, and cohesive of all philosophers I have read, it is a situation difficult to avoid.

I understand that the Maharaj means a lot to you, but I am sure you will agree that on these matters you have to be deeply hit, and I wasn’t. How can one be a revolutionary, while fixed in tradition?

I send you my best regards, N.

Dear N.,

I feel you are giving up on Nisargadatta a little too soon. Maharaj, too, was a revolutionary who had little or no time for orthodoxy. This will come out particularly clearly in a new book that I have just finished editing. (I suspect that certain things were left out of Nectar of Immortality by the devotees who forwarded me the manuscript; the new work is based directly on tapes of the meetings, which I transcribed.) Maharaj addressed different audiences according to their level of understanding; this accounts for the apparent contradictions. Maharaj also saw quite clearly the futility of all self-imposed practices; he would completely agree with you on that point. This is also brought out quite clearly in the new work.

His language may seem aggressive, but he was not one who suffered fools gladly. In this respect, it would be a mistake to take K., or anyone else for that matter, as “standard.”

Yes, Maharaj means a lot to me, as you say, but not as a personality or master per se, but for the message. From that point of view, every master (and actually everything) that expresses the Ultimate is glorious and meaningful. As far as modern masters to whom I am indebted, I should mention also Ramana Maharshi and Krishna Menon (Sri Atmananda), whom I hold in as equally high esteem as Nisargadatta. I feel it is important to be a devotee of the truth rather than of a particular mouthpiece of that truth.

Krishnamurti has been helpful to me, too, but primarily in the beginning. As a psychological teaching, it is indeed supreme, but this is a mere stepping stone for one who is on the spiritual path. In the Introduction to a new book (Path without Form: A Journey into the Realm Beyond Thought), I have gone into the relationship between K. and the great advaitic masters somewhat more fully.

Talking about contradictions, have you read Mary Lutyens’ third volume of the K.

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