Observations placeholder
Narayenanand - would rise from the ground to the height of four fingers, and remain suspended for four and five minutes at a time
Identifier
024413
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Mr Joshi Ootamram Doolabrahm, was once Guru of the School of Astrology and Astronomy in Baroda. Mr Doolabrahm encountered his guru in 1856, when he was trying to learn something of ancient Hindu theories about chemistry. After much searching, he tells us that he located an authority on that subject in the city of Broach, an ascetic attached to the temple of Mahadev, which was built on the banks of the river Narbada. The guru’s name was Narayenanand, and he was a native of the Punjab.
A description of the experience
Mr Joshi Ootamram Doolabrahm – Another Aethrobat – The Theosophist April 1880
He was a man of about thirty-five years of age, above the average size of man, and with a beautiful countenance animated with a great intelligence of expression and cheeks suffused with a very peculiar roseate hue which I have never seen on any mortal’s face before or since. His head was shaved, and he wore a saffron robe of a sanyasi. Like all men of his class, he was exceedingly difficult to approach, and would neither accept me as a pupil, nor allow me to put myself on terms of any intimacy until he had satisfied himself by the closest questioning as to my real intentions and capacity to learn the science of Yoga.
I will pass over these details and simply state that, at last, I gained my object, was accepted as a pupil, received his blessing, and served him, first and last, for more than two years. During this time I learned many things practically, which I had previously known only from reading our sacred Shastras. I discovered many secrets of nature, my preceptor among other things practising pranayam, sitting in the prescribed posture of Padmasan [sic], his body would rise from the ground to the height of four fingers, and remain suspended in the air for four and five minutes at a time, while I was allowed to pass my hand beneath him three or four times, to satisfy myself beyond a doubt that the levitation was a positive fact.