John Levy: The Man who brought Atmananda Menon to the West

John Levy:  The Man who brought Atmananda Krishna Menon to the West

 

Read a Free Chapter from John Levy’s “ The Nature of Man Accordinh to Vedanta” below.

 

 John Levy was born of  a rich, aristocratic Jewish family in London. An expert in Indian folk music, he was an accomplished musician. He spent much of his adult life in India, where he met the venerable Atmananda Krishna Menon, and was taught by him to give instruction. Menon said to him, “ Live only for a short time as a yogi, because I think it is importnant for you to unlearn people about being yogis.”

 

John Levy wrote two well known books, The Nature of Man According to Vedanta and Immediate Kowledga and Happiness (Sadhyomukti), both considered classics by serious students of Vedanta and Krishna Mennon. He was responsbile for assisting Menon with the translation of Atma Darshan and Atma Nivriti, rwo rare books considered by many to be key texts in Advaita.

 

Atmananda urged Levy to bring the knowledge of advaita to the West but in an accessible form.  A close friend of Wolter Keers, reviewed by us here, he taught from his home in London after his return from India.

 

Menon told Levy the difference between being a Saint and a Sage. As recounted by filmaker Peter Vos, “A saint is still busy trying to go beyond his body with techniques, to let go of it, and a sage, that is someone who knows it, who is it.”

 

Merely being in the presence of a sage teaches the student. Peter Vos again: “Those were really nice evenings and not a word about advaita was spoken. All the times that John didn't speak about advaita I learned a great deal from him, just from his presence: that he dropped a cup coffee on the floor, that he bungled his milk-glass eyeglasses.”

 

More Truth about the sage and his experience with Levy:  “The strength of a real guru is that a guru no longer gives something through, a guru Is the self. The intention is that as disciple you learn to stand apart. At first the student looks up to the guru, until he realizes that the he is the teacher. Then you get the process that the student translates everything to his own experiences, to his own adventures. Then there can be periods involving the things that the guru has said, and that can also become one's own discoveries, feelings and conclusions. Then you no longer think; what did Krishna Menon say about that? Just the opposite, John Levy has translated advaita completely for the West.”

 

Click here to read a Free Chapter from John Levy’s The Nature of Man According to Vedanta. 

Click here to get your own copy of The Nature of Man, a very thorough investigation of Self, by John Levy