{FN18-1} A Moslem yogi; from the Arabic faqir,
poor; originally applied to dervishes under a vow
of poverty.
{FN18-2} My father later told me that his company,
the Bengal-Nagpur Railway, had been one of the firms
victimized by Afzal Khan.
{FN18-3} I do not recall the name of Sri Yukteswar’s
friend, and must refer to him simply as “Babu”
(Mister).
MY MASTER, IN CALCUTTA, APPEARS IN SERAMPORE
“I am often beset by atheistic doubts.
Yet a torturing surmise sometimes haunts me:
may not untapped soul possibilities exist? Is
man not missing his real destiny if he fails to explore
them?”
These remarks of Dijen Babu, my roommate at the PANTHI
boardinghouse, were called forth by my invitation
that he meet my guru.
“Sri Yukteswarji will initiate you into Kriya
yoga,” I replied. “It calms
the dualistic turmoil by a divine inner certainty.”
That evening Dijen accompanied me to the hermitage.
In Master’s presence my friend received such
spiritual peace that he was soon a constant visitor.
The trivial preoccupations of daily life are not enough
for man; wisdom too is a native hunger. In Sri
Yukteswar’s words Dijen found an incentive to
those attempts-first painful, then effortlessly liberating-to
locate a realer self within his bosom than the humiliating
ego of a temporary birth, seldom ample enough for
the Spirit.
As Dijen and I were both pursuing the A.B. course
at Serampore College, we got into the habit of walking
together to the ashram as soon as classes were over.
We would often see Sri Yukteswar standing on his second-floor
balcony, welcoming our approach with a smile.
One afternoon Kanai, a young hermitage resident, met
Dijen and me at the door with disappointing news.
“Master is not here; he was summoned to Calcutta
by an urgent note.”
The following day I received a post card from my guru.
“I shall leave Calcutta Wednesday morning,”
he had written. “You and Dijen meet the
nine o’clock train at Serampore station.”
About eight-thirty on Wednesday morning, a telepathic
message from Sri Yukteswar flashed insistently to
my mind: “I am delayed; don’t meet
the nine o’clock train.”
I conveyed the latest instructions to Dijen, who was
already dressed for departure.
“You and your intuition!” My friend’s
voice was edged in scorn. “I prefer to
trust Master’s written word.”
I shrugged my shoulders and seated myself with quiet
finality. Muttering angrily, Dijen made for the
door and closed it noisily behind him.
As the room was rather dark, I moved nearer to the
window overlooking the street. The scant sunlight
suddenly increased to an intense brilliancy in which
the iron-barred window completely vanished. Against
this dazzling background appeared the clearly materialized
figure of Sri Yukteswar!
