A hermit in the Himalayas

___„. iW Attt HIMALAYAS

flies all over the flesh so that I grind my teeth to keep it in restraint
and plunge the nails of my fingers into the palms.

This sudden accession of strength, seemingly out of nowhere, is
both physical and moral. My slight body is transformed and feels
capable of performing herculean feats of labour, achievement and
endurance, whilst my character absorbs fresh courage, determination
and aspiration.

I feel that legions of guardian angels and helpful spirits have
trooped up to support me, and will aid me to bring to successful
fruition whatsoever I attempt. I feel a second Signor Mussolini, with
the invisible world as my Abyssinia. I feel like that Army officer
who once described to me his sensations whilst "going over the top"
at the head of his troop of men. 'The consciousness of having twelve
hundred men behind me, ail of them utterly ready to obey my
slightest word of command and to follow wherever I led them, gave
me a prodigious self-confidence which I normally do not possess,"
he confessed.

This mysterious mood continues for a whole hour or more. Then
it gradually takes to its heels, not, however, without leaving a mark
upon me. I realize that I have accidentally loosed some subtle
psycho-physical-spiritual force, though how, why, and where is less
easy to ascertain with exactness.

Suddenly a sharp wind blows up and sweeps across the gorges.
The yellowed leaves dance madly around me and then hurtle before
the wind into the drop. A crow calls to its mate, which answers from
a nearby tree.

A peculiar premonition then takes possession of me. It predicts
the frequent return of this mood, with a consequent raising of the
whole vibration of living in every sphere. With this indescribable
force that has welled up from I know not where gripping rne, I know
that the future can be faced optimistically, fearlessly, even trium-
phantly. These ideas of victory will help me in the future, I feel sure.
I remember that the Yogi masters of old used to talk of a power
that lay hid in the etheric body of man, which although invisible
was yet closely ramified with his physical body. They pictured this
power under the symbol of a serpent and said that it lay coiled up at
the base of the spine* Once uncoiled, awakened and forced upwards,
it would regenerate a man and bestow upon him incredible psychic,
magical and spiritual powers, they said. Ultimately, it might help
him to break into the kingdom of heaven by violence.

But anatomists can find no trace of the habitation of such a
marvellous power. Whether it be fact or fiction is immaterial to me.
I have made one'discovery, anyway.

1 have found that stillness is strength,
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