Part 3 (2/2)
”Peace!” was his first word, spoken like one in authority, who ordered peace and dared to do it
He stood looking forand me with, I think, just a flicker of scorn on his thin lips, as if he ondering whether ere h to face the ordeal before us Then indefinably, yet quite perceptibly his ht hand out
”Will you not shake hands withthat no sancti defiled by the touch of a casteless foreigner; so he was either above or below the caste laws, and it is coe and toady So he evidently reckoned himself above it, and the Indian who can do that has met and overco about
I wish I could make exactly clear what happened when I took his outstretched hand
His fingers closed on er than I ae professional; yet I could no more move his hand or pull e with
”That is for your own good,” he said pleasantly, letting go at last ”That other ht have been so unwise as to try using violence”
”I' in a low voice, as I went back to the -seat ”Don't let yourself be bewildered by it There's an explanation for everything They know so that we don't, that's all”
CHAPTER III
FEAR IS DEATH
At a sign from the Gray Mahatma all the women except Yase mood mixed of mischief and amused anticipation
The Mahatma sat down exactly in the middle of the carpet, and his method was unique It looked just as if an unseen hand had taken hiradually, for he crossed his legs and dropped to the floor as evenly and slowly as one of those freight elevators that disappear beneath the city side-walks
He seereat deal of ilanced repeatedly at the walls as if toan inch or two too far to the right or left; however, he had gauged his measurements exactly at the first attempt and did not an, with a slight emphasis on the word sahib, as if he wished to call attention to the fact that he was according us due courtesy, ”you two honorable gentleh, ”have been chosen unknown to yourselves For there is but one Chooser, whose choice is never known until the hour coain Even if you should prefer death, your death could not now be of your own choosing; for, having been chosen, there is no escape froh you would certainly die if courage failed you, your death would be more terrible than life, since it would serve the Purpose without benefiting you
”You are both honest ned honors and e India; the other has accepted toilsome service under a man who seeks, however mistakenly, to serve the world If you were not honest you would never have been chosen If you had made no sacrifices of your own free will, you would not have been acceptable”
Yas the cushi+ons She was reveling in intellectual enjoyment, as sinfully I daresay as sohts The Mahatma took no notice of her, but continued
”You have heard of the Kali-Yug, the age of darkness It is at an end The nations presently begin to beat swords into plowshares because the time has come But there is yetin darkness are but blinded for the present by the light, so that guides are needed, who can see You two shall see-a little!”
It was beco intolerably hot in the roo, but I seemed to be the only one who minded it The candles in the chandelier were kept fro by metal sheaths, but the very flas that wilted
”Corn is corn and grass is grass,” said the Mahatrass that is selected can irass, as they understand who strive with problems of the field Therefore ye tho have been chosen, shall be sent as the seeds of grass to the United States to carry on the work that no Indian can properly accorass That is your destiny”
He paused, as if waiting for the sand to run out of an hour-glass There was no hour-glass, but the suggestion was there just the same
”Nevertheless,” he went on presently, ”there are some who fail their destiny, even as some chosen seeds refuse to sprout You will need besides your honesty such courage as is coan, when the Aryans, of whom you people are descendants, lived in this ancient e of every man, and what to-day are calledof pure law It was nothing in those days for a h fire unscathed, for there was very little difference between the Gods and men, and men knew themselves for masters of the universe, subject only to Parabrah the shadow for the substance And because the least error when extended to infinity produces chaos, the whole world beca but rivalries, sickness, hate, confusion
”Meanwhile, the sons of ht they lost, have spread around the earth, everthe shadow for the substance, until they have i them cannon; they have imitated all the forces of the universe and called theasoline, electricity, chemistry and what not, so that now they fly by s
”And now they grow deathly weary, not understanding why Now they hold councils, one nation with another, seeking to substitute a lesser evil for the greater
”Once in every hundred years men have been sent forth to prove by public dereater science than all that are called sciences None knehen the end of the Kali-Yug s they could not explain, perhaps they would turn and seek the true mastery of the universe But what happened? You, who are froe in all America where icians? For that there are two reasons One is that there are multitudes of Indians who are thieves and liars, who know nothing and seek to conceal their ignorance beneath a cloak of deceit and trickery The other is, that men are so deep in delusion, that when they do see the unexplainable they seek to explain it away Whereas the truth is that there are natural lahich, if understood by all, would at once ive you an exa wireless telephones, enty years ago would haveYet it is coo, for instance, when Roberts the British general led an arht a battle at Kandahar, the news of his victory was known in Bombay, a thousand miles away, as soon as it had happened, whereas the Governraph, had to wait many days for the news[1] How did that occur? Can you or any one explain it?