Autobiography of a Yogi

After he completes high school, Mukunda meets an old acquaintance who tells him that Gandha Baba, known as the “Perfume Saint,” lives nearby. Someone tells Mukunda that the saint “can give the natural perfume of any flower to a scentless one, or revive a wilted blossom, or make a person’s skin exude delightful fragrance” (52). Mukunda meets him and questions the relevance of the swami’s powers. In response, Gandha Baba says that he spent 10 years mastering his art. Mukunda replies that he wasted his time since anyone can buy fragrances at a flower shop.

The swami asks Mukunda to extend his right hand and name the perfume he wants. Mukunda asks for rose, and straightaway the fragrance of a rose rises from his palm. Gandha Baba then makes an odorless blossom exude the fragrance of jasmine.

One of the swami’s students tells Mukunda that Gandhu Baba learned many secrets from a master in Tibet. Mukunda, however, is not impressed. Many years later, he writes, he understood how Gandhu Baba created the perfumes. The experiences registered by the senses are a result of “vibratory variations in electrons and protons. The vibrations in turn are regulated by ‘lifetrons,’ subtle life forces or finer-than-atomic energies intelligently charged with the five distinctive sensory idea-substances” (54).