Living with the Himalayan Masters

Swami Rama’s autobiographical account of his training under Bengali Baba and his decades among the yogis and monks of the Himalayas — Rishikesh, Almora, and the cave traditions of the Kumaon and Garhwal regions — before establishing the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in Honesdale, Pennsylvania in 1971. The fourteen sections of the book proceed through spiritual education, the master-disciple relationship, the path of direct experience, the disciplines of renunciation and humility, encounters with figures including Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo and Ramana Maharshi, and finally the journey to the West.

The text includes accounts of yogic feats — voluntary control of normally-autonomic functions — that Swami Rama later demonstrated for Elmer and Alyce Green in the Menninger Foundation experiments of the early 1970s, work that helped seed biofeedback research in American psychophysiology. The book covers the classical Indian framework Swami Rama brought West (raja yoga, samadhi, pranayama, mantra, the seven systems of Eastern philosophy, and three schools of tantra) together with the stories that made it readable. Pandit Rajmani Tigunait’s introduction, added in later editions, frames the book as the embodiment of Swamiji’s teaching for Western students.

First lines

The Himalayan ranges extend over almost 1,500 miles in length. Mount Everest, towering upward over 29,000 feet on the border of Nepal and Tibet, is the highest of all the mountains in the world. Persians, Indians, Tibetans, and Chinese have all written about the grandeur and beauty of these mountains. The word Himalaya comes from Sanskrit words: hima, meaning "snow," and alaya, meaning "home" — the home of snows.

Contents

Reception

A staple of yoga-tradition reading lists for fifty years and the most-circulated single book from the Himalayan Institute. The Menninger studies of the early 1970s — Elmer and Alyce Green's documentation of Swami Rama's voluntary control of normally-autonomic functions — are real, replicable in some respects, and historically significant for biofeedback research. The institutional history of the Himalayan Institute is complicated by the 1989 Yoga Journal investigation into Swami Rama's conduct; this book predates and is not directly affected by that material, but the institutional context has shifted considerably.

Frequently asked

What is Living with the Himalayan Masters about?

Swami Rama's autobiographical account of his training under Bengali Baba and his decades among the yogis and monks of the Himalayas — Rishikesh, Almora, and the cave traditions of the Kumaon and Garhwal regions — before establishing the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in Pennsylvania in 1971. Fourteen sections move from spiritual education through the path of direct experience, the disciplines of renunciation, encounters with figures including Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo, and the journey to the West.

What are the Menninger experiments referenced in the book?

In the early 1970s Elmer and Alyce Green at the Menninger Foundation documented Swami Rama's voluntary control of normally-autonomic functions — heart rate, body temperature differentials in the hand, and brain-wave states. The work was real, partially replicable, and historically significant for the development of biofeedback research in American psychophysiology.

Is it a good first book to read by Swami Rama?

It is the most-circulated single book from the Himalayan Institute and the standard entry point to Swami Rama's teaching for Western readers. The narrative form makes the classical framework (raja yoga, samadhi, pranayama, mantra, the seven systems of Eastern philosophy) accessible without prior training. Readers who want the technical instruction afterwards typically move to Path of Fire and Light or the Yoga Sutras commentary.