"My guru's glance was quizzical. 'So! Once more you indispose
yourself.'

"'Gurudeva, I realize now that day by day you have been ridiculing
me.' My patience was exhausted. 'I don't understand why you disbelieve
my truthful reports.'

"'Really, it has been your thoughts that have made you feel
alternately weak and strong.' My master looked at me affectionately.
'You have seen how your health has exactly followed your expectations.
Thought is a force, even as electricity or gravitation. The human
mind is a spark of the almighty consciousness of God. I could show
you that whatever your powerful mind believes very intensely would
instantly come to pass.'

"Knowing that Lahiri Mahasaya never spoke idly, I addressed him
with great awe and gratitude: 'Master, if I think I am well and
have regained my former weight, shall that happen?'

"'It is so, even at this moment.' My guru spoke gravely, his gaze
concentrated on my eyes.

"Lo! I felt an increase not alone of strength but of weight. Lahiri
Mahasaya retreated into silence. After a few hours at his feet, I
returned to my mother's home, where I stayed during my visits to
Benares.

"'My son! What is the matter? Are you swelling with dropsy?' Mother
could hardly believe her eyes. My body was now of the same robust
dimensions it had possessed before my illness.