ceiling. The strange perfume of some Eastern incense spreads around the room. It is not unpleasant.

Suddenly my host raises his head and looks at me.

“Did I tell you that two or three still remain?” he asks queerly.

“Ah, yes!” I said that. Once I knew a great sage. It was a privilege about which I rarely speak to others now. He was my father, guide, master and friend. He possessed the wisdom of a god. I loved him as if I were really his own son. Whenever I stayed with him at fortunate intervals, I knew that life at his heart is good. Such was the effect of his wonderful atmosphere. I, who have made art my hobby and beauty my ideal, learnt from him to see the divine beauty in men who were leprous, destitute or deformed; men from whom I formerly shrank in horror. He lived in a forest hermitage far from towns. I stumbled upon his retreat seemingly by accident. From that day I paid him several visits, staying with him as long as I could. He taught me much. Yes—such a man could give greatness to any country.”

“Then why did he not enter public life and serve India?” I question frankly.

The Indian shakes his head.

“It is difficult enough for us to understand the motives of such an unusual man. It would be doubly-difficult for you, a Westerner, to understand him. His answer might probably be that service can be rendered in secret through the telepathic power of the mind; that influence can be exerted from a distance in an unseen yet no less potent manner. He might also say that a degenerate society must suffer its destiny until the fated hour of relief strikes.”

I confess to being puzzled by this answer.

“Quite so, my friend, I expected that,” observes the other.

AFTER THAT memorable evening I visited the Indian’s home many times, drawn by the lure of his unusual knowledge as much as by the attractiveness of his exotic personality. He touches some coiled spring among my ambitions and releases into urgency the desire to fathom life’s meaning. He stimulates me, less to satisfy intellectual curiosity than to win a worthwhile happiness.

Yogis 5

⥳ previous page | next page ⥴