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In order to further emphasize this influence of Indian gurus on Jumblat, I
have found it worthwhile and valuable here -however long- to present the way
Jumblat’s insightful and incisive words described a half an hour rencontre he had
with an Indian spiritual leader Shri Atmatanda, whom Jumblat called his “teacher”
and “guide”, and to whom he dedicated his book Farah. In his description,
Jumblat makes us share with him the ethereal effect and ecstasy of that meeting
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and makes us wish if we could ever have the privilege to make such an influential
character’s acquaintance in our life.

Jumblat describes:
It was quite amazing- I did not concentrate on the words he spoke, but the
experience was like an exploration of one’s own depths, a revelation of the
Impersonal in oneself, the Truth within oneself communicating with the
Truth within him. I was completely won over- he was so powerful, yet at
the same time so simple and humble. I felt he was one of the greatest
expressions of India throughout the ages. His works complete the
teachings of Adi Shankara, Rama, Krishna, and others. His conversation
had an extraordinary luminosity. It was as if Ancient Greece itself was
speaking…When he spoke of Truth, it was as if the Truth within him was
surging forth from some hidden wellspring. It was a striking moment of
union, that ecstasy of understanding which arises in the presence of a
sage: Knowledge that transcends both the senses and the intellect; true
Samadhi [mystical ecstasy].
Even without ever having seen him before, I would have recognized him
instantly. When someone has achieved Truth, it shines forth from him. As
Mahatma Gandhi put it, he becomes genuine, even his body becomes
Truth. These things cannot really be out into words…he seemed different
every time I looked at him, like a wave of images passing through his
eternity…It was an inexpressibly direct vision of the divine, perhaps even
a vision of God in human form, or more than God, since while God is the
highest conception of the spirit, the sage is the reality of God. …Even
ordinary people [at Cairo Airport where the rencontre took place] must
have been intrigued by his presence, even if they were not at all affected
by it; his radiance reaches out to every body and every thing… (Jumblat,
1982, p.35).

We can sense as well the depth of this influence on Jumblat when he
explains that everything that exists partakes of a divine nature, for in our
understanding, the divine exists only in terms of or in contradiction with the
material or non-divine. But every being is physically and psychically formed out of
this divine substratum. So that when Shri Atmatanda or Raman Maharishi
achieved Truth, their bodies achieved it with them and attained their own
Essence; these men, according to Jumblat, barely have a body any more, their
body is present to our senses as an image, but is itself beyond all images, as
pure Truth shining forth from the Consciousness of being (Jumblat, 1982).

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