The Divine Possibilities in Man (An Old and Rare Book)

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IN EARLY 1968 SOME GERMAN FRIENDS ASKED me to meet Pandit Gopi Krishna of Srinagar, Kashmir, who at that time was completely unknown to me. I was tempted to make excuses, pleading lack of time. Since my student years I have been fully aware of the fundamental significance of the Oriental tradition of meditation and philosophy. I felt close to it but waited a long time before I studied it seriously. It seemed to me that most of us, who have been born into Western culture, ought first to trace the innermost patterns of our culture until our own development itself would lead us into fellowship with Eastern culture.

The current flood of salvation literature, of traveling Yoga masters, and of generally superficial imitations of Eastern practices in Western countries seems to me a rather desperate re action to the crisis in our own consciousness, a false answer to a valid question.

Fortunately, I did overcome my initial reluctance. When the announced guest entered my room, I felt in the fraction of a second: This man is genuine. He was unassuming and sure of himself, a man who did not show his almost seventy years, who looked his partner firmly in the eyes, was dressed in the native clothing of a Brahman from Kashmir (that light-skinned social class to which Nehru's family also belongs); he answered precise questions precisely, in a sometimes surprising way and with a deeply human sincerity which was often enhanced by a smile. His presence was good for me, and I could feel within me the traces of his simple and good emanations for as long as a month afterwards. I received and read his first book, Kundalini, which is the story of his life. From my conversation with him and from the book I learned that he had spent almost his whole life in his native Kashmir. He had been a government official for decades. He is married, his three children are now also married, and to this day he has remained the head of his family in the classical Indian sense. When I recently had the opportunity to visit him for a week in his simple, middle-class home in Srinagar, I saw how much he is an integral part of the society from which he comes.

ON THE BASIS OF MY OWN EXPERIENCE, extending to more than thirty years, I have come to the conclusion that mankind is slowly evolving towards a sublime state of consciousness of which fleeting glimpses have been afforded to us by all great seers and mystics of the past and present.

There is no doubt that some of the leading intellectuals of this era accept the existence of an evolutionary impulse in the race, but the ultimate goal and the modus operandi of the impulse-according to them-are still shrouded in mystery.

The purport of this work-which is only an introduction to the work that is to follow is that there is a specific psychosomatic power center in man, and that it is by the action of the center that human evolution has proceeded so far. This Divine organ is naturally active in born sages, mystics, prophets, and all men of genius and can be roused to activity with appropriate methods in those already advanced on the path of evolution.

This power center, known in India by the name of Kundalini, has been used for the attainment of higher consciousness from times immemorial. In fact, there is every reason to believe that the extraordinary exuberance of religious genius in India in the Vedic Age-which was never surpassed in any subsequent epoch-was due to an intimate knowledge of this mighty mechanism, coupled with a social order more in harmony with evolutionary laws.

The existence of the power center and methods to rouse it were known in almost all ancient cultures of Asia, Europe, America, and even in Africa. I believe that a voluntary arousal of Kundalini, under satisfactory conditions and observed by competent investigators, can furnish unquestionable proof of the existence of this center in the body and its capacity to bestow psychic gifts, genius, and cosmic consciousness.

The experiments, when proved empirically, would effect a radical change in some current concepts about life and narrow the gulf existing between religion and science. It would also draw the attention of scholars towards the spiritual laws of evolution of which they have no knowledge at present.