TOWARDS GOKARN-GOKARN 41
from his upturned mouth, as if it were the funnel of a.
railway engine belching out a cloud of smoke.
The cMlam was now handed to the guest, the other
sadhu, who was awaiting his turn with the eyes of a hawk.
While he was manipulating the chilam the gurnji by way
of digression said:
"Raingiri is a perfect ass," referring to his chela. "He
is a stnpid and useless fellow. He was worse but has ini-
proTed somewhat since he fell into my company."'
These words of the guru seemed to have entered lite
iron into the soul of the chela. They must have rankled
and boiled his interior. He flushed red and his tightly
compressed lips showed that he was trying to suppress his
feelings. His turn of chilam canie. He took it out of the
guest-sadhu, and having his own safi, for the gum
would always consider it below his dignity to allow
the chela to use his safi, commenced smoking. Again
it was guruji's turn and it was handed to him. A few
minutes passed. The ganja had started its work on the
brain of the smokers. While its intoxication lulled the
mind of the guru, it raised the spirit of revolt in the
chela. His long pent-up wrath—a flame nourished by the
constant insults and ill-treatment of his guru—burst in all
its fury. With a look of withering scorn and contemptuous
smile at his guru, he broke out:
641 have had enough of you, yon beast. For twelve long
years have I borne the insults yon heaped on me—you were
cruel and heartless. You treated me worse than a dog. All
along I was meek, submissive and obedient. I served you
sincerely to the best of my ability. I thought at first I
could, by serving you, -understand the ways of devotion
and knowledge. I craved for a life of freedom based upon
the vision of G-od. I have now found out that you are
merely an adventurer, vile and despicable, ignorant and
conceited,—but too late. For, the vice of ganja smoking you
taught me has enslaved me and bound me to