Courtesy of YouTube, I found some rather nice video footage of some of India's finest twentieth-century spiritual Masters:
Here is a brief clip of Sri Anandamayi Ma (1896-1982), one of the greatest yoginis (female spiritual adepts) that ever lived. From early childhood, without any spiritual training, she was constantly immersed in visions of the Divine. She travelled all over India so that aspiring seekers of truth could be in her presence. This clip appears to be quite early, taken maybe in the late thirties. As you can see the great Masters often have a very childlike quality too.
Another Master who did much to bring India's wealth to the West was Paramhansa Yogananda (1893-1952). Quite a few students of Sri Chinmoy were first drawn to Eastern spirituality by reading Yogananda's wonderful book, "Autobiography of a Yogi". I was actually re-reading a couple of chapters of it last night. Again, this appears to be from the late twenties or early thirties.
There are also videos of Yogananda with the great spiritual Masters Sri Yukteswar (1855-1936, Yogananda's Master, left) and Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950, right), unfortunately the quality is a bit blurred in both.
- Video with Ramana Maharshi; he is seated to the left
- Video with Sri Yukteswar; he is walking towards the camera
Related links:
- Sri Anandamayi Ma on AspiringIndia.org
- Paramhansa Yogananda on WriteSpirit.net - along with selected chapters from Autobiography of a Yogi.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi on AspiringIndia.org
- Sri Yukteswar on WriteSpirit.net