The Razor's Edge and spiritual awakening

The path to Enlightenment is as sharp and narrow as a razor's edge".




Just saw the 1946 film, The Razor's Edge, for the first time on PBS. Or perhaps I saw it as a child and forgot it. It stars Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney, among others. I'm not familiar with the book that it was based on, but it seems to encapsulate an authentic spiritual awakening. The story is about a young man (Larry) who returns from WW1 and is set to marry and live an upper class life in a burgeoning industrial era America. He and his fiancee seem very much in love, but he is haunted by an experience in the war in which a close friend died and Larry is left pondering why he was spared. How can he make his life count for something? These and many other profound questions of his troubled soul derail his plans marriage and are the catalyst for a spiritual quest to Paris, India and other parts of the world.

After conversing with Larry who has returned to Paris after his "enlightenment" experience, an acquaintence who knew him as a younger man commented (paraphrasing), "He seems extremely happy and so calm, but oddly aloof".



* If anyone can find more relevant quotations from the movie or book, please post them. I couldn't find but a few online. I'm particularly interested in the quote by the main character Larry when he describes his 'awakening' to his guru in India.


BTW - this film was remade in the 80's and starred Bill Murray. I think that version tried to introduce humor into the story, but I didn't see it so don't know.