He was enjoying the familial
warmth. But I knew I would never abandon the quest for my guru.
Our party entrained for Benares. There I had a singular and instant
response to my prayers.
A clever scheme had been prearranged by Ananta. Before seeing me
at Hardwar, he had stopped in Benares to ask a certain scriptural
authority to interview me later. Both the pundit and his son had
promised to undertake my dissuasion from the path of a SANNYASI.
{FN4-1}
Ananta took me to their home. The son, a young man of ebullient
manner, greeted me in the courtyard. He engaged me in a lengthy
philosophic discourse. Professing to have a clairvoyant knowledge
of my future, he discountenanced my idea of being a monk.
"You will meet continual misfortune, and be unable to find God, if
you insist on deserting your ordinary responsibilities! You cannot
work out your past karma {FN4-2} without worldly experiences."
Krishna's immortal words rose to my lips in reply: "'Even he with
the worst of karma who ceaselessly meditates on Me quickly loses
the effects of his past bad actions. Becoming a high-souled being,
he soon attains perennial peace. Arjuna, know this for certain:
the devotee who puts his trust in Me never perishes!'" {FN4-3}
But the forceful prognostications of the young man had slightly
shaken my confidence. With all the fervor of my heart I prayed
silently to God:
"Please solve my bewilderment and answer me, right here and now, if
Thou dost desire me to lead the life of a renunciate or a worldly
man!"
I noticed a SADHU of noble countenance standing just outside
the compound of the pundit's house.
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