CHAPTER: 4

MY INTERRUPTED FLIGHT TOWARD THE HIMALAYAS

"Leave your classroom on some trifling pretext, and engage a hackney
carriage. Stop in the lane where no one in my house can see you."

These were my final instructions to Amar Mitter, a high school
friend who planned to accompany me to the Himalayas. We had chosen
the following day for our flight. Precautions were necessary,
as Ananta exercised a vigilant eye. He was determined to foil the
plans of escape which he suspected were uppermost in my mind. The
amulet, like a spiritual yeast, was silently at work within me.
Amidst the Himalayan snows, I hoped to find the master whose face
often appeared to me in visions.

The family was living now in Calcutta, where Father had been
permanently transferred. Following the patriarchal Indian custom,
Ananta had brought his bride to live in our home, now at 4 Gurpar
Road. There in a small attic room I engaged in daily meditations
and prepared my mind for the divine search.

The memorable morning arrived with inauspicious rain. Hearing the
wheels of Amar's carriage in the road, I hastily tied together a
blanket, a pair of sandals, Lahiri Mahasaya's picture, a copy of
the BHAGAVAD GITA, a string of prayer beads, and two loincloths.
This bundle I threw from my third-story window. I ran down the
steps and passed my uncle, buying fish at the door.