While we know for sure that “Yogi Ramacharaka” was one of the pseudonyms of New Thought writer William Walker Atkinson, it’s still a mystery where he picked up his information about Hindu philosophy and Yoga. It’s entirely possible that he found much of his material in books available at the time. We know that he had access to “various good translations of Hindu and English translators” [BG 7] of the Bhagavad Gita–which ones aren’t specified–from which he “compiled” a translation from these texts–Atkinson was Sanskrit illiterate–that tried to capture the “spirit of the teachings.” He also drew on one or more translations (again uncredited) of various Upanishads for a collection of quotes titled The Spirit of the Upanishads (1907) (even though the book includes quotes from non-Upanishadic sources like the Yoga Vasishtha, Viveka Chudamani, and the Panchadashi).
One researcher, Rosicrucian historian Christian Rebisse, in his History of Rosicrucianism (a book I haven’t been able to find in print), maintains that Atkinson was schooled in these subjects through his association with the Theosophical Society and by Swami Vivekananda. Atkinson may have been a Theosophist, but there’s absolutely no solid evidence that he ever had any contact with Swami V.
Now what about our Baba Bharati as Atkinson’s informer? Obviously if YR was a fiction, then his Baba was one too, though if he was 8 years old, as the story goes, when he joined the old Yogi in 1865, he was born just about the same year as our Baba, say 1857 or 1858. There are however some strong indications that our Baba and Atkinson were somehow acquainted. It might be just a coincidence, but Baba arrived in New York City a year before YR’s first book was published in 1903, and YR’s books then dried up in 1909, not long after Baba returned to India. As Carney notes, though doesn’t expand on, Baba’s teaching included New Thought elements, and it’s hard to imagine if this is true that he hadn’t read at least one of Atkinson’s books or articles. In fact, Atkinson’s first book, published in 1900, was titled Thought-Force in Business & Everyday Life. In Light on Life, a compilation of Baba’s lectures published 10 years later, we find an essay intriguingly titled “Thought Force.”
But the strongest piece of evidence we have for the two being in contact was that Atkinson published at least two articles in Baba’s magazine, the Light of India. In the very first issue of October, 1906, Atkinson glowingly wrote in “The Message of the East”:
It is to deliver this message that the East has sent us men like Baba Bharati, with his Krishna song of Love–Love Absolute. And the message is being delivered, and many of those of the Western world who have been “weary and heavy laden” are at last finding within them “that peace which passeth all understanding,” and that calm which comes even amidst the storms of life, in the silence of which calm they may hear the sound of Krishna’s flute from which flows that melody and harmony of which the first and last note–yes, every note–is LOVE. [carney lix]
Then in November, in “Positive not Negative,” Atkinson seemed to suggest he had direct contact with Baba:
If you are fortunate enough to know Baba Bharati, personally, you will have a practical demonstration of the truth of what I have written. In him you will recognize the intense, positive power of the spiritually developed Oriental–a power that is making itself felt strongly even in this land of the strenuous and the noisy. [carney lx]
So again the question: Was Baba Premanand Bharati Yogi Ramacharaka’s Hindu Yogi informer?
And the answer is: It’s hard to say, and we’ll probably never know for sure. A careful search of three of YR’s books–Fourteen Lessons in Yoga Philosophy and Oriental Occultism, Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism, and The Inner Teachings of the Philosophies and Religions of India–where Baba’s influence might be expected, reveal no evidence that he was Atkinson’s source.
Panchadasi (Sanskrit “fifteen”) is the title of a book of 15 chapters attributed to Swami Vidyaranya (b. ca. 1314 CE), a Vedanta scholar (shankara charya of Sringeri Math from 1377-1386). His guru was Bharati Tirtha, who is sometimes credited with writing the last 5 chapters of the book. Vidyaranya goal was to “teach in an easy way the supreme Truth.” This book is a kind of Vedanta primer.
One researcher, Rosicrucian historian Christian Rebisse, in his History of Rosicrucianism (a book I haven’t been able to find in print), maintains that Atkinson was schooled in these subjects through his association with the Theosophical Society and by Swami Vivekananda. Atkinson may have been a Theosophist, but there’s absolutely no solid evidence that he ever had any contact with Swami V.
Now what about our Baba Bharati as Atkinson’s informer? Obviously if YR was a fiction, then his Baba was one too, though if he was 8 years old, as the story goes, when he joined the old Yogi in 1865, he was born just about the same year as our Baba, say 1857 or 1858. There are however some strong indications that our Baba and Atkinson were somehow acquainted. It might be just a coincidence, but Baba arrived in New York City a year before YR’s first book was published in 1903, and YR’s books then dried up in 1909, not long after Baba returned to India. As Carney notes, though doesn’t expand on, Baba’s teaching included New Thought elements, and it’s hard to imagine if this is true that he hadn’t read at least one of Atkinson’s books or articles. In fact, Atkinson’s first book, published in 1900, was titled Thought-Force in Business & Everyday Life. In Light on Life, a compilation of Baba’s lectures published 10 years later, we find an essay intriguingly titled “Thought Force.”
But the strongest piece of evidence we have for the two being in contact was that Atkinson published at least two articles in Baba’s magazine, the Light of India. In the very first issue of October, 1906, Atkinson glowingly wrote in “The Message of the East”:
It is to deliver this message that the East has sent us men like Baba Bharati, with his Krishna song of Love–Love Absolute. And the message is being delivered, and many of those of the Western world who have been “weary and heavy laden” are at last finding within them “that peace which passeth all understanding,” and that calm which comes even amidst the storms of life, in the silence of which calm they may hear the sound of Krishna’s flute from which flows that melody and harmony of which the first and last note–yes, every note–is LOVE. [carney lix]
Then in November, in “Positive not Negative,” Atkinson seemed to suggest he had direct contact with Baba:
If you are fortunate enough to know Baba Bharati, personally, you will have a practical demonstration of the truth of what I have written. In him you will recognize the intense, positive power of the spiritually developed Oriental–a power that is making itself felt strongly even in this land of the strenuous and the noisy. [carney lx]
So again the question: Was Baba Premanand Bharati Yogi Ramacharaka’s Hindu Yogi informer?
And the answer is: It’s hard to say, and we’ll probably never know for sure. A careful search of three of YR’s books–Fourteen Lessons in Yoga Philosophy and Oriental Occultism, Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism, and The Inner Teachings of the Philosophies and Religions of India–where Baba’s influence might be expected, reveal no evidence that he was Atkinson’s source.
Panchadasi (Sanskrit “fifteen”) is the title of a book of 15 chapters attributed to Swami Vidyaranya (b. ca. 1314 CE), a Vedanta scholar (shankara charya of Sringeri Math from 1377-1386). His guru was Bharati Tirtha, who is sometimes credited with writing the last 5 chapters of the book. Vidyaranya goal was to “teach in an easy way the supreme Truth.” This book is a kind of Vedanta primer.
