nd I would recite
to them verses out of the holy books in return for their kindness,
for I had no money or anything else to give them. In this way I have
travelled many hundreds of miles on foot, and seen many sacred places
and holy men. After each journey I return to my preceptor, and tell
him my experiences, receive fresh counsel and instruction from him,
and now I am just starting on a fresh journey to Dwarka."

Looking down at my bicycle, I felt quite a luxurious traveller
compared with this brave fellow, starting off with no hesitation and
no misgivings on a journey of hundreds of miles, with not a pice in
his wallet, and a kit even more slender than my own.

He had little idea as to where Dwarka was, but was content to ask
his way day by day, and trust to God and the hospitality of his
co-religionists on the way for sustenance.

"Yes," he said, "sometimes I do want to see my family. My brothers are
all gryasthas (married householders) now, and I sometimes take a few
days' leave from my master to visit them and my parents. I am quite
happy in this life, and do not desire money or service or children;
for when my heart is lonely I read in my copy of the Bhagvad Gita and
get consolation, and I like that better than any other book because it
makes my heart glad. No, I have never met anyone who has spoken to me
of Christ, and I do not know anything about Him; but I am quite happy
because I am sure that if I continue a life of penury and celibacy
and pilgrimage I shall attain salvation."

To resume my own experiences at Rishikes. When night came on I was
given shelter in one of the monasteries, and though the floor was
stone, and a chill wind blew through the cloisters, I should have slept
soundly had not my next bed-fellow--or rather floor-fellow, for there
were no beds--thought it incumbent on him to spend the night shouting
out in varying cadence, "Ram, Ram, Jai Sita Ram, Ram, Ram!" I suggested
that keeping a weary fellow-pilgrim awake all night would detract from
the merit he was acquiring, but only received the consolation that if
he kept me awake I was thereby sharing, though in a minor degree, in
that merit; so it perforce went on till, in the early morning hours,
my ears grew duller to the "Ram, Ram," and my mind gradually shaped
itself into an uneasy dream of ash-covered faqirs, chapattis, cows,
and squatting Sadhus. Next day, in the forest road near Rishikes,
I came across a string of hillmen bowed down un