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The Tiger Swami

20:43 recording · EN · 6 speakers

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Brief overview

A tiger fighter's last victory maims him and turns him from taming beasts to taming the mind.

  1. The mind, not the muscle, wins the fightThe Swami insists mind is the wielder of muscles and that the body is manufactured and sustained by mind.
  2. He built the strength he was not born withHe says his will was mighty but his body feeble, and that indomitable persistence in thoughts of health overcame the handicap.
  3. The saint's prediction came true to the letterSevere wounds in the cage, six months near death from blood poisoning, and then the monastic life he had refused.
Executive Summary AI
  • Two schoolboys, the narrator and his friend Chandi, track down the address of the famous Tiger Swami in Bhuvanipur outside Calcutta and are made to wait in his parlour before being shown in to a huge, tiger-skin-clad monk seated on his bed.
  • The Swami tells them that fighting tigers is nothing to him because he regards them as pussycats, demonstrates by knocking mortared bricks out of a solid wall with one blow, and insists that mind, not muscle, is the real subduer of royal Bengals, since he himself began with a mighty will and a feeble body.
  • His father warned him that a saint had predicted his next tiger encounter would bring severe wounds, six months of deathly sickness and a turn to monkhood, but he dismissed the warning as superstition.
  • In Kuch Bihar the prince mocked him as a city Bengali and challenged him to fight the newly caught tiger Raja Begum for several thousand rupees and the animal itself, on pain of being branded an imposter throughout the state.
  • He won before thousands in a storm-proof pavilion, with his right hand torn open, was garlanded and showered with hundreds of gold pieces, then lay near death for six months from blood poisoning and left with the saintly guru to be trained in the Himalayas.
Key Quote
“You look upon tigers as tigers. I know them as pussycats.”
— Tiger Swami
Key Quote
“Mind is the wielder of muscles. The force of a hammer blow depends on the energy applied.”
— Tiger Swami
Key Quote
“The body is literally manufactured and sustained by mind.”
— Tiger Swami

Transcript

0:00 CHAPTER VI. the tiger swami i've discovered the tiger swami's address let us visit him to-morrow this welcome suggestion came from chandai one of my high school friends A boyish enthusiasm over such remarkable feats was strong within me.
0:46 The next day dawned wintry cold, but Chandi and I sallied forth gaily.
0:51 After much vain hunting in Bhuvanipur, outside Calcutta, we arrived at the right house.
0:58 The door held two iron rings, which I sounded piercingly.
1:03 Notwithstanding the clamour, a servant approached with leisurely gait his ironical smile implied that visitors despite their noise were powerless to disturb the calmness of a saint's home
1:14 feeling the silent rebuke my companion and i were thankful to be invited into the parlour our long wait there caused uncomfortable misgivings india's unwritten law for the truth-seeker is patience a master may purposefully make a test of one's eagerness to meet him
1:33 this psychological ruse is freely employed in the west by doctors and dentists finally summoned by the servant chundi and i entered the sleeping apartment. The famous Sohong Swami was seated
1:46 on his bed. The sight of his tremendous body affected us strangely. With bulging eyes we
1:54 stood speechless. We had never before seen a chest or such football-like biceps. An immense
2:03 neck, the Swami's fierce yet calm face was adorned with flowing locks,
2:08 beard and moustache, a hint of dove-like and tiger-like qualities shone in his dark eyes.
2:15 He was unclothed, save for a tiger-skin about his muscular waist. Finding our voices, my friend and
2:22 I greeted the monk, expressing our admiration for his
2:25 prowess in the extraordinary feline arena.
2:29 Will you not tell us, please, how it is possible to subdue with bare fists the most ferocious
2:35 of jungle beasts, the royal Bengals?
2:38 My son, it is nothing to me to fight tigers.
2:42 I could do it today, if necessary.
2:44 He gave a childlike laugh.
2:46 You look upon tigers as tigers. I know them as pussycats.
2:52 Swamiji, I think I could impress my subconsciousness with the thought that tigers are pussycats,
2:58 but could I make tigers believe it? Of course, strength is also necessary one cannot expect victory from a baby who imagines a tiger to be a house-cat powerful hands are my sufficient weapon he asked us to follow him to the patio where gaping lost tooth of the wall. I fairly staggered in astonishment.
3:26 He who can remove mortared bricks from a solid wall with one blow, I thought,
3:30 must surely be able to displace the teeth of tigers.
3:33 A number of men have physical powers such as mine, but still lack in cool confidence.
3:38 Those who are bodily but not mentally stalwart may find themselves fainting at mere sight of a wild beast bounding freely in the converted the man in his own mind to a state as
4:06 nervous as the pussycats. It is possible for a man owning a fairly strong body and an immensely
4:12 strong determination to turn the tables on the tiger, and force it to a conviction of pussycat
4:18 defencelessness. How often I have done just that! I was quite willing to believe that the titan before me was able to perform the tiger
4:26 pussycat metamorphosis. He seemed in a didactic mood. Chandi and I listened respectfully.
4:33 Mind is the wielder of muscles. The force of a hammer blow depends on the energy applied.
4:40 The power expressed by a man's bodily instrument depends on his aggressive will and courage.
4:46 The body is literally manufactured and sustained by mind.
4:50 Through pressure of instincts from past lives,
4:52 strengths or weaknesses percolate gradually into human consciousness.
4:56 They express as habits which in turn ossify into a desirable or undesirable body.
5:03 Outward frailty has mental origin.
5:05 In a vicious circle,
5:07 the habit-bound body thwarts the mind.
5:09 If the master allows himself

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