Of Buddha, the Swami said that he was the greatest man that ever lived. 'Above all, he
never claimed worship. Buddha said: "Buddha is not a man, but a state. I have found
the way. Enter all of you!"'
Then the talk would drift to the conception of sin among the Egyptian, Semitic, and
Aryan races. According to the Vedic conception, the Swami said, the Devil is the Lord
of Anger, and with Buddhists he is Mara, the Lord of Lust. Whereas in the Bible the
creation was under the dual control of God and Satan, in Hinduism Satan represented
defilement, never duality.
Next the Swami would speak about the chief characteristics of the different nations.
'You are so morbid, you Westerners', he said one day. 'You worship sorrow! All
through your country I found that. Social life in the West is like a peal of laughter, but
underneath it is a wail. The whole thing ends in a sob. The fun and frivolity are all on
the surface; really, it is full of tragic intensity. Here it is sad and gloomy on the outside,
but underneath are detachment and merriment.'
Once, at Islamabad, as the group sat round him on the grass in an apple orchard, the
Swami repeated what he had said in England after facing a mad bull. Picking up two
pebbles in his hand, he said: 'Whenever death approaches me all weakness vanishes. I
have neither fear nor doubt nor thought of the external. I simply busy myself making
ready to die. I am as hard as that' — and the stones struck each other in his hand — 'for
I have touched the feet of God!'
At Islamabad the Swami announced his desire to make a pilgrimage to the great image
of Siva in the cave of Amarnath in the glacial valley of the Western Himalayas. He
asked Nivedita to accompany him so that she, a future worker, might have direct
knowledge of the Hindu pilgrim's life. They became a part of a crowd of thousands of
pilgrims, who formed at each halting-place a whole town of tents.
A sudden change came over the Swami. He became one of the pilgrims, scrupulously
observing the most humble practices demanded by custom. He ate one meal a day,
cooked in the orthodox fashion, and sought solitude as far as possible to tell his beads
and practise meditation. In order to reach the destination, he had to climb up rocky
slopes along dangerous paths, cross several miles of glacier, and bathe in the icy water
of sacred streams.
On August 2 the party arrived at the enormous cavern, large enough to contain a vast
cathedral. At the back of the cave, in a niche of deepest shadow, stood the image of
Siva, all ice. The Swami, who had fallen behind, entered the cave, his whole frame
shaking with emotion. His naked body was smeared with ashes, and his face radiant
with devotion. Then he prostrated himself in the darkness of the cave before that
glittering whiteness.
A song of praise from hundreds of throats echoed in the cavern. The Swami almost
fainted. He had a vision of Siva Himself. The details of the experience he never told