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which, though completely closed to the idler and the superstitious in selfish quest of personal holiness and personal salvation, are ever open to receive the earnest and devoted searcher after truth. The statement may be boldly made and the support of all true mystics confidently expected on its behalf, that there is no important place of pilgrimage in India which does not enjoy the presence, in most cases permanent, of some adept or initiate of a high order, who is ever ready to point the path to the higher life into which he himself has entered. It is a matter of common experience that people's spiritual eyes has opened in these holy cities under the benign influence of some great Sadhu (sinless man). But, for reasons which will be readily understood, the pious hand must not seek to withdraw the veil of obscurity which shrouds the holy men and their work. The members of the silent brotherhood will but speak to those whose Karma deserves it. Shankaracharya says:—
दुर्लभं त्रयमेवैतत् देवानुग्रहहेतुकं। मुमुक्षत्वं मनुष्यत्वंमहापुरूषसंश्रयः॥
"These three are difficult to attain and are due to the favour of the gods*[1] (i. e. the good karma of previous births):—Humanity, desire for liberation, and contact with great spiritually-minded men."
"The holy cities were built, or at all events completed, in the later epochs of Brahmanic history. When the spirituality of mankind began to be clouded by progressive materiality-consequent upon the desire of selfish enjoyment, the seclusion of the adepts became greater and the sacred Sanskrit language became daily less understood. As a remedy for this great cyclic evil, the holy ones of the earth left to the profane vulgar the symbolical architecture of the great temples, which yet serve as finger-posts to the mystical student. Very few persons are aware that as the pilgrim stands on the bridge of boats on the Ganges before Benares he is face to face with a most sublime and awful mystery, the full import of which none but the higher initiates comprehend. This mystery is
- ↑ * This interpretation of the term "gods" is accepted by all mystics.
