Just discovered: a small Traditionalist group in 1930s Thailand, described by Arthur Osborne in My Life and Quest (2001), available online.
Osborne was introduced to the works of Guénon by Martin Lings, who he knew in Gdynia, Poland before the Second World War. Lings gave him two books, one by Guénon and one by Gurdjieff's interpreter P. D. Ouspensky. It is interesting that Lings was recommending Ouspensky at that point.
Guénon's book, the Introduction générale à l'étude des doctrines hindoues had a great impact on Osborne, and Ouspensky did not. When he moved from Poland to Bangkok, Thailand, Osborne joined a small group of Traditionalists there, evidently all Europeans. He also became Muslim, joined an Indian dhikr group in Bangkok, and gave bayat to an unidentified shaykh in India in 1939, along with a number of other Bangkok Traditionalists .
It is not clear what happened to the Bangkok group. Osborne's final destination lay outside it. As the Second World War started and Thailand was threatened by the Japanese, his wife and daughter took refuge in India, where his wife was given "silent initiation" by the Hindu guru Ramana Maharshi, of whom Guénon did not approve. Osborne spent much of the war in an internment camp in Thailand, where he intended to devote himself to "prayer, meditation, incantations and reading the Arabic Quran," but as time passed found himself returning to "profane" life. After the war, he re-joined his family in India, and took Ramana Maharshi as his guru. He edited The collected works of Sri Ramana Maharshi, first published by Rider in 1959.
My thanks to B. H. for bringing Osborne's book to my attention.
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5 comments:
I think they had already the 3 children when Lucia arrived to Ramansahram
BTW - his son was Adam Osborne, the inventor of the first portable computer ....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Osborne
" his wife and daughter took refuge in India, where his wife was given "silent initiation" by the Hindu guru Ramana Maharshi, of whom Guénon did not approve."
what is the source of guenon's disapprovement and why would he get involved it this matter?
it seems a bit contrary to Guenon's general behaviour and specifically since he held Maharshi in high esteem.
" his wife and daughter took refuge in India, where his wife was given "silent initiation" by the Hindu guru Ramana Maharshi, of whom Guénon did not approve."
what is the source of guenon's disapprovement and why would he get involved it this matter?
it seems a bit contrary to Guenon's general behaviour and specifically since he held Maharshi in high esteem.
According to Osborne, Guénon did not approve because earlier reports of Ramana Maharshi had led him to understand that Ramana Maharshi did not give initiation. Osborne wrote to Guénon to try to convince him otherwise. See pp. 113-14.
"Ramana Maharshi, of whom Guénon did not approve". There is no evidence that Guenon disapproved of Ramana Maharshi ( cf " Etudes sur l'Hindouisme" ) . He did disapprove however of people claiming to be his disciples . According to Guenon, Ramana was not a regular guru giving a regular initiation but rather he exercised ' an action of presence ". ( reference " Etudes sur l'Hindouisme ' Editions Traditionnelles 1976 page 191 )
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