{FN16-12} MATTHEW 12:50.
{FN16-13} JOHN 8:31-32. St. John testified: "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of G.o.d, even to them that believe on his name (even to them who are established in the Christ Consciousness)."-JOHN 1:12.
{FN16-14} "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, G.o.d hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."-GENESIS 3:2-3.
{FN16-15} "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. The woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."-GEN. 3:12-13.
{FN16-16} "So G.o.d created man in his own image, in the image of G.o.d created he him; male and female created he them. And G.o.d blessed them, and G.o.d said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it."-GEN. 1:27-28.
{FN16-17} "And the Lord G.o.d formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."-GEN. 2:7.
{FN16-18} "Now the serpent (s.e.x force) was more subtil than any beast of the field" (any other sense of the body).-GEN. 3:1.
{FN16-19} "And the Lord G.o.d planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed."-GEN. 2:8. "Therefore the Lord G.o.d sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken."-GEN. 3:23. The divine man first made by G.o.d had his consciousness centered in the omnipotent single eye in the forehead (eastward). The all-creative powers of his will, focused at that spot, were lost to man when he began to "till the ground" of his physical nature.
CHAPTER: 17
SASI AND THE THREE SAPPHIRES
"Because you and my son think so highly of Swami Sri Yukteswar, I will take a look at him." The tone of voice used by Dr. Narayan Chunder Roy implied that he was humoring the whim of half-wits. I concealed my indignation, in the best traditions of the proselyter.
My companion, a veterinary surgeon, was a confirmed agnostic. His young son Santosh had implored me to take an interest in his father.
So far my invaluable aid had been a bit on the invisible side.
Dr. Roy accompanied me the following day to the Serampore hermitage.
After Master had granted him a brief interview, marked for the most part by stoic silence on both sides, the visitor brusquely departed.
"Why bring a dead man to the ashram?" Sri Yukteswar looked at me inquiringly as soon as the door had closed on the Calcutta skeptic.
"Sir! The doctor is very much alive!"
"But in a short time he will be dead."
I was shocked. "Sir, this will be a terrible blow to his son. Santosh yet hopes for time to change his father"s materialistic views. I beseech you, Master, to help the man."
"Very well; for your sake." My guru"s face was impa.s.sive. "The proud horse doctor is far gone in diabetes, although he does not know it. In fifteen days he will take to his bed. The physicians will give him up for lost; his natural time to leave this earth is six weeks from today. Due to your intercession, however, on that date he will recover. But there is one condition. You must get him to wear an astrological bangle; he will doubtless object as violently as one of his horses before an operation!" Master chuckled.
After a silence, during which I wondered how Santosh and I could best employ the arts of cajolery on the recalcitrant doctor, Sri Yukteswar made further disclosures.
"As soon as the man gets well, advise him not to eat meat. He will not heed this counsel, however, and in six months, just as he is feeling at his best, he will drop dead. Even that six-month extension of life is granted him only because of your plea."
The following day I suggested to Santosh that he order an armlet at the jeweler"s. It was ready in a week, but Dr. Roy refused to put it on.
"I am in the best of health. You will never impress me with these astrological superst.i.tions." The doctor glanced at me belligerently.
I recalled with amus.e.m.e.nt that Master had justifiably compared the man to a balky horse. Another seven days pa.s.sed; the doctor, suddenly ill, meekly consented to wear the bangle. Two weeks later the physician in attendance told me that his patient"s case was hopeless. He supplied harrowing details of the ravages inflicted by diabetes.
I shook my head. "My guru has said that, after a sickness lasting one month, Dr. Roy will be well."
The physician stared at me incredulously. But he sought me out a fortnight later, with an apologetic air.
"Dr. Roy has made a complete recovery!" he exclaimed. "It is the most amazing case in my experience. Never before have I seen a dying man show such an inexplicable comeback. Your guru must indeed be a healing prophet!"
After one interview with Dr. Roy, during which I repeated Sri Yukteswar"s advice about a meatless diet, I did not see the man again for six months. He stopped for a chat one evening as I sat on the piazza of my family home on Gurpar Road.
"Tell your teacher that by eating meat frequently, I have wholly regained my strength. His unscientific ideas on diet have not influenced me." It was true that Dr. Roy looked a picture of health.
But the next day Santosh came running to me from his home on the next block. "This morning Father dropped dead!"
This case was one of my strangest experiences with Master. He healed the rebellious veterinary surgeon in spite of his disbelief, and extended the man"s natural term on earth by six months, just because of my earnest supplication. Sri Yukteswar was boundless in his kindness when confronted by the urgent prayer of a devotee.
It was my proudest privilege to bring college friends to meet my guru. Many of them would lay aside-at least in the ashram!-their fashionable academic cloak of religious skepticism.
One of my friends, Sasi, spent a number of happy week ends in Serampore. Master became immensely fond of the boy, and lamented that his private life was wild and disorderly.
"Sasi, unless you reform, one year hence you will be dangerously ill." Sri Yukteswar gazed at my friend with affectionate exasperation.
"Mukunda is the witness: don"t say later that I didn"t warn you."
Sasi laughed. "Master, I will leave it to you to interest a sweet charity of cosmos in my own sad case! My spirit is willing but my will is weak. You are my only savior on earth; I believe in nothing else."
"At least you should wear a two-carat blue sapphire. It will help you."
"I can"t afford one. Anyhow, dear guruji, if trouble comes, I fully believe you will protect me."
"In a year you will bring three sapphires," Sri Yukteswar replied cryptically. "They will be of no use then."
Variations on this conversation took place regularly. "I can"t reform!" Sasi would say in comical despair. "And my trust in you, Master, is more precious to me than any stone!"
A year later I was visiting my guru at the Calcutta home of his disciple, Naren Babu. About ten o"clock in the morning, as Sri Yukteswar and I were sitting quietly in the second-floor parlor, I heard the front door open. Master straightened stiffly.
"It is that Sasi," he remarked gravely. "The year is now up; both his lungs are gone. He has ignored my counsel; tell him I don"t want to see him."
Half stunned by Sri Yukteswar"s sternness, I raced down the stairway.
Sasi was ascending.
"O Mukunda! I do hope Master is here; I had a hunch he might be."
"Yes, but he doesn"t wish to be disturbed."
Sasi burst into tears and brushed past me. He threw himself at Sri Yukteswar"s feet, placing there three beautiful sapphires.
"Omniscient guru, the doctors say I have galloping tuberculosis!
They give me no longer than three more months! I humbly implore your aid; I know you can heal me!"
"Isn"t it a bit late now to be worrying over your life? Depart with your jewels; their time of usefulness is past." Master then sat sphinxlike in an unrelenting silence, punctuated by the boy"s sobs for mercy.