George Gurdjieff was a Russian who, more than any other Westerner had carried the message of self realization to the west, after having worked at it for a number of years in Egypt, Turkey, some central Asian countries including Tibet, and learning much from many masters of the East. Gurdjieff, ably assisted by another outstanding man, P.D. Ouspensky, had lectured in London for some time, influencing brilliant minds like Kenneth Walker, J.B. Priestly, Rudyard Kipling, Frank Lloyd Wright and Katherine Mansfield. Joad, for one reason or the other, but mostly because he was not able to conceive of anything other than the mind in understanding man, the cosmos, and a God if there be one, rejected all that Gurdjieff was reported to have been postulating, as mere hocus pocus.
But as fate would have it, Joad was stricken with an illness which confined
him to bed, and the doctors had told him that he would survive for about six
weeks. With death staring in his face, Joad started wondering whether there
was more to it than what was relayed to him as Gurdjieff's teaching. He could
not reconcile himself to the idea that man simply appeared and disappeared from
the earth at two different points of time, and that there was no other significance
to his life. Most of all he felt remorse in having been unfair to Gurdjieff
all along, and so sent word to him through a common friend imploring Gurdjieff
to come to him and accept his apology. Gurdjieff came to Joad and with a wave
of his hand said-
"Forget the past. It was death that was really instrumental
in your sending for me at this juncture. You were always swearing by the mind
as though it was everything, and it is death that has rudely shaken your belief
in the mind. Anyway we have enough time. Six weeks, why, even six minutes will
do. A man of your intelligence should be able to grasp what I have been teaching,
even in a matter of a few seconds. Just close your eyes while I sit here by
your beside, and watch your own mind. Don't do anything else except watching
it."
Joad could do nothing except experiment with what Gurdjieff was suggesting,
convincing himself that no harm could result, from it even if no benefit was
to be derived.
However, once Joad started watching his mind, really watching it, with no thought
at all, he was simply amazed, forgot about his death, forgot Gurdjieff, and
everything on earth, for full three hours. Gurdjieff woke up Joad to tell him-
"I was happy watching your face slip more and more
into silence. Your eyes were unmoving, I could see that even from the outside.
That means you had no thoughts, no dreams and you were totally relaxed, as though
the fear of death had fled...You have done it. It is good that you have to be
in bed during these six weeks. By the constant watching of your mind, your being
will get crystallized. Before death takes over, you would have known something
which is deathless."
Those who are familiar with the Bhagavatha story of King Parikshith, who learnt everything there was to be learnt over here within seven days, to attain the deathless state, will see the striking similarity of the episode.
Tears of gratitude welled up in Joad's eyes. He saw that the six weeks period
at the end of his life, was the most precious. Before passing out, he told his
friends-
"I never thought that it would be Gurdjieff who would
put me on the road for this new journey beyond life, and, who would help me
realize something immortal and eternal in this terrestrial life itself."