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 AGHUWAR DAYAL 
 
 SOMETIME WIEST OF VISHNU 
 
 ADELAIDE GAIL FROST
 
 RAGHUWAR DAYAL 
 
 Sometime Priest of Vishnu 
 
 The true story of his life as related by himself to 
 
 ADELAIDE GAIL FROST 
 
 Missionary of the Christian Woman's Board of Missions 
 
 A CENTENNIAL OFFERING FROM 
 MAHOBA, INDIA 
 
 Dedicated to all who have share:! in effort for the 
 redemption of idol-cursed India
 
 Copyright, 1910, by the 
 Christian Woman's Board of Missions.
 
 
 
 Om/ /Von; meditate upon the excellent glory of the divine 
 
 Dreather-of-Life, 
 Shine thy light into our darkness! 
 
 The Gaitri Mantra to the Sun. 
 In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And 
 the light shineth in darkness ; and the darkness comprehendeth it 
 not. A figure referring to Jesus spoken of by John the Disciple.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THIS book is the product of "between-whiles" of work, 
 during extra and late hours, faithfully rendered by a 
 devoted servant of the King. 
 
 The subject of the sketch is an interesting character and 
 wins his way into the heart. With careful training he should 
 be a mighty power for good in the warfare against principalities 
 and powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world and 
 spiritual wickedness in high places. 
 
 He is an example of what the power of Christianity may ac- 
 complish. 
 
 Formerly a high caste man, a Brahmin of the Brahmins, 
 dedicated the eighth year, concerning zeal a priest in the chief 
 temple of Mahoba, one who all his life has lived in an atmosphere 
 of superstition, strict caste observance and idolatry, but now a 
 humble follower of the lowly Jesus. 
 
 It is an increasing source of wonder to us how he has 
 completely broken away from all that he held to be life and 
 religion and God, but which he now counts as refuse and loss 
 for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, his Lord. 
 
 We ask of those who read this life-story that they lift up 
 their hearts in prayer for Raghuwar Dayal, and for those who 
 have been entrusted with the training of this new disciple of 
 our Lord. 
 
 W. E. Gordon. 
 
 Christian Mission, Mahoba, U. P., Julv 8, 1909.
 
 RULES FOR PRONUNCIATION 
 
 OF 
 Hindi and Sanskrit Words in this Book. 
 
 a as u in us. 
 
 d as a in father. 
 
 i as i in it. 
 
 i as e in feet. 
 
 u as u in pull. 
 
 (i as oo in moon. 
 
 e as a in ate. 
 
 ai as i in ice. 
 
 o as o in old. 
 
 au as ok in out. 
 
 s as s in such. 
 
 ch as c/i in church. 
 
 th as / only aspirated.
 
 AUTHORS' STATEMENT. 
 
 THIS is an unusual story to hear, sitting at an ordinary din- 
 ing table. To be sure all dishes have been removed to 
 transform its surface into that of the usual writing desk, 
 but from the pictures on the wall to the doily in the 
 center of the table, these are but commonplace surroundings, 
 and the story we are to hear in their midst is the strange story of 
 a divinity student of the East, the far tropical East. Have you 
 patience to listen with me, O friends? Shall we try, together, 
 to understand what Hinduism is? The way is a tangled one 
 through a jungle of peculiar and ancient beliefs. The student 
 before us would lead us, would make us understand the traditions, 
 the attitude, the need of his people. Will you try to know what 
 Arya's children believe, and through some tiring explanations of 
 a Hindu scholar catch his view-point, understand his need, know 
 the wonder that has come into his life? Your opportunity is a 
 rare one, for through the years I, at least, have known of no 
 voice from the dark interior of a great Hindu temple penetrating 
 the thick stone walls and coming to western ears ! 
 
 In the face across the table from me is intensity and keen 
 tl ought. A few weeks ago he was as effectually prevented from 
 sitting in this easy, natural way at the table of a Mission House 
 as though he had been bound hand and foot with heavy chains! 
 
 As I take up my pen and look expectantly toward the face 
 across the table, I know I must ask those who are to read the 
 recital to walk in a winding way; that I must attempt to illumi- 
 nate what is so difficult for western minds to understand, but if 
 this man, Raghuwar Dayal, cannot make you and me under- 
 stand, then we can never know. 
 
 In the preliminary conversation with the narrator of this story 
 I learn of that dim past in whose shadows strange shapes waver, 
 who are believed by millions of India's men and women to be 
 authentic historical characters, and so I arrange for you in begin- 
 ning tie founding of a famous Hindu family.
 
 RAGHUWAR DAYAL
 
 
 Raghuwar Dayal, Sometime Priest of Vishnu
 
 RAGHUWAR DAYAL. 
 
 IN the village of Nand, in a Hindu kingdom in the heart of 
 India, lives a Brahmin family of the Kashyap muni tribe who 
 trace their ancestry back five thousand years, so far back 
 into history that it becomes more poetry than truth, and all the 
 narrative of events is in slofys of varying names and measures. 
 Kashyap Muni lived in the days of King Parikshat, a grandson 
 of one of the five Pandavas who played so important a part in 
 India's mythological history as related in the Mahdbhdrat. 
 
 In those days an impure mlecha (foreigner) was killing the 
 cattle so sacred to the Hindus, and, therefore, greatly offend- 
 ing them. When called before the King this barbarian said: 
 "Your reign and the age of Dwapar is over, and I, Kaliyug, 
 the Age of Blackness, have come to reign four hundred and 
 thirty-two thousand years." 
 
 The King replied: "I shall depart, but thou shalt remain." 
 Kaliyug then asked: "Where shall I abide?" Parikshat an- 
 swered: "You shall dwell in all gold, you, the Age of Black- 
 ness, shall find an abiding place in shining gold." The great 
 King had forgotten that on his head was a crown of this same 
 shining gold and straightway Kaliyug took his place there 
 which caused the once good king to change into a different mind 
 and heart. Before him, by the roadside, sat an holy man with 
 closed eyes meditating. Near him was a dead snake, which 
 the King picked up on the point of his bow and flung around the 
 neck of the saint. When the chela (disciple) of the Muni saw
 
 10 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 how his master had been dishonored, he took the snake from 
 around his neck and threw it to the ground, sprinkling it in the 
 act with water from his sacred drinking cup, which brought 
 the snake to life. And when the chela saw this he said: "Seven 
 days from this day, this snake shall bite and kill Rajah Parik- 
 shat." Upon this the holy man opened his eyes and said: 
 "You have not done right, this Rajah has spread goodness and 
 truth and peace over the whole earth, and what matters this he 
 has done to me?" But the curse remained, and when it came 
 to the King's ears he gave over his royal cushion to his son and 
 went to spend his last days on the banks of the sacred Ganges. 
 As he sat there, awaiting his death, came Sukhdev, the god of joy, 
 from whose mouth sweet words grew a hundred fold sweeter, 
 and through all the seven days he composed and recited the famous 
 poem of eighteen thousand verses, called by the Hindus "Sapta 
 Bhagwata" (the story of Seven Days). The pandits say of 
 all the poetic recitals of their ancient literature this is the most 
 famous. It fell from the lips of a shining, beautiful child, 
 Sukhdev, and as he sat and listened the King was filled with a 
 wondrous joy that took from him all fear of death. 
 
 Near the Ganges in a forest dwelt the great Muni Kashyap, a 
 physician in the glance of whose eyes dwelt immortality. When 
 the doom of King Parikshat came through the whispering leaves 
 of the forest to him, he decided to be present on the seventh day, 
 that when the deadly snake bit the King he might restore the 
 monarch's life by a glance of his eyes in which amrit (immor- 
 tality) lived. As he journeyed toward the Ganges, the fatal 
 mystic serpent stood in his path in the form of a Brahmin, and 
 said: "The errand upon which you go is fruitless; if you wish 
 money, here it is, take it and return." The Muni replied: "I 
 will go on, I want not your rupees; I will save the life of King 
 Parikshat, doomed to be bitten by the deadly serpent." "Ah," 
 sneered the disguised one, "by my bite I will dry up yonder green
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 
 
 I 1 
 
 mango tree and if you can restore it to its green I shall know you 
 can save the life of the King." By the bite of the serpent the tree 
 withered, and by the glance of the Muni it came back to its 
 fresh greenness. "Thou hast restored the tree, but if I bite thee, 
 canst thou bring thyself back to live among men?" With that 
 the Brahmin disappeared and there was but vacancy before 
 Kashyap Muni, so he arose and went on his mission. As he 
 journeyed, he saw in the road a curious crooked stick which at- 
 tracted his attention. He picked it up and slung it across his 
 shoulder, and, like a flash, the crooked stick was the deadly 
 crooked serpent which at once inserted its poisonous fangs into 
 Kashyap Muni's back beyond the reach of his eyes of life-giving 
 power. He knew he must die, so he called hie disciples and told 
 
 Ancient Brahminical Temple, Gwalior
 
 1 2 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 them if they would cut his body up into pieces and cook and eat, 
 every piece would make from one who ate it another Kashyap 
 Muni with eyes restoring life wherever their glances fell, but no one 
 would commit the sacrilege of eating human flesh. So the great 
 Muni died with his mission to the King unfulfilled, and on the 
 fatal seventh day he, too, bitten by the serpent, left his garment 
 of flesh. 
 
 Kashyap Muni left behind him many sons, and one of 
 these was the ancestor of the Brahmin family of Nandpura, 
 who, for four generations, had lived in that spot and read and 
 taught the sacred books of the Hindus to the people. One of the 
 sons of that family sits before me, a small man with a keen, 
 eager face, and carefully he explains the story of his life; its 
 language, its customs, its religion is as far from those of my child- 
 hood "as the east is from the west" ! 
 
 He leans forward and this is what he says: "I, Raghuwar 
 Dayal, am the youngest of four sons. When a child is born into 
 a Brahmin family, from that very hour he is surrounded 
 by religious rites and ceremonies. First of all comes the 
 astrologer and makes out his map of destiny. To this day 
 in my father's house is my janma-kundali (astrologer's chart 
 forecasting the future of a new born babe). I was born under 
 the fortunate star of Swanti (Arcturus), the fifteenth lunar 
 asterism, in October, 1 883. This is considered a most pro- 
 pitious time. Every drop of rain falling into a shell in the time of 
 Swanti becomes a pearl, and only the showers of this season 
 can quench the thirst of the bird papaya, which cries through 
 so many months, 'Pio! PioT (I am thirsty! I am thirsty!) In 
 our ancient mythology Swanti is one of the wives of the sun. 
 My map of destiny said that I should be well known and a 
 saint; that I should have for my friends kings and princes. I 
 used to fancy that meant the rulers of my country, now I feel that 
 it must mean being a friend of sons of the King of kings! Every
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 13 
 
 child of Brahmin parents is a Shudra (lowest caste, really out- 
 caste) until he is eight years old, when he is invested with the 
 sacred cord and becomes a dxvij, a twice born one among the 
 Hindus. When I had reached the age of eight, a number of 
 pandits came to assist in the ceremonies of such an occasion, but 
 one was chosen as my guru, or master, who, as long as we both 
 lived, was to be my religious instructor. The chief part the 
 guru takes in such a ceremony is the whispering into the ear of 
 the young neophyte that mystic sentence called a mantra, which 
 may be nothing more than the exclamation 'OmT with this added: 
 'I bow to Ram.' 'Om' is a sacred word which came down from 
 heaven from the only voice of that realm, that is from Vishnu. 
 So its repetition makes all holy and banishes evil. Even before 
 this is whispered a ring of }(usd grass has been placed on either 
 hand to make the whole body pure. 
 
 "This is the story of the l(usd grass, and from it you may 
 gather how much is interwoven into every ceremony of the 
 Hindus. Long ago, in the Age of Truth, Vishnu came to 
 earth in the form of the wild boar, that is, he had the head of 
 a wild boar but the body of a man. Vishnu's proper abode is 
 in Paradise behind its seven gates, but one day four sons of 
 Brahma, created by the thought of his heart, strayed into Para- 
 dise, past the two watchmen of each gate till they came to the 
 seventh where they were forbidden entrance by Jai and Vijai 
 (victorious ones). The young sons of Brahma, the Creator, said: 
 'for this offense we doom you to be ral(shas (demons) through 
 three births.' Thereupon a great noise arose in Paradise and 
 the throne of Vishnu trembled, indicating that there was a 
 disturbance in his realm. Out the monarch came and the doom 
 of his watchmen was told him. He said: 'Be not troubled, 
 when you become demons I will slay you and set you free; after 
 the third slaying you shall take your place again by the seventh 
 gate of Paradise.' The first birth of these two sentinels of Vishnu
 
 14 
 
 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 The Demon Rawan 
 
 was as the demons Hiranank (Golden-eyed) and Hirankashyap 
 (Golden-bodied), demons like shining gold. It was to slay 
 these, and, therefore, to set his sentinels free from one demon 
 birth, that Vishnu came to earth in the wild boar incarnation. 
 When he had performed this liberation he shook his great head 
 with the long tusks and shaggy hair of the wild boar till the hair 
 fell to earth and sprang up as long green }(usa grass which ever 
 afterward was used to make holy the Hindu, and to set him 
 apart for any vocation. Then a common hemp cord is extended 
 across one shoulder and tied loosely under the other arm. In
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 15 
 
 his hand a staff of chewala wood is next placed, and, on his feet, 
 shoes of the same material, for this is the wood sacred to great 
 Brahma, the Creator. The boy now enters his age of 
 Brahmacharya when he must think only upon religious questions, 
 must always sleep upon the ground, and read only the Vedas. 
 He may not live with his parents, but must go to dwell with his 
 religious teacher, nor may he marry until he is twenty-four. He 
 is only to study and meditate on the Vedas." "But how many 
 Brahmins keep to this religious rule?" I asked. "Very, very 
 few. Once when I was the priest of the temple here a 
 Brahmacharya came. He spoke only Sanskrit, but I under- 
 stood he wished food, and, of course, arranged that he receive it. 
 "I was not sent from home as I should have been, according to 
 the Hindu Scriptures, but a guru or master was called to the 
 house, not to teach me to read, for that I was taught in my home, 
 but just to teach me religion. Being a Kashyap Brahmin I was 
 taught the Yajur Veda. There are four Vedas believed to have 
 proceeded from the four mouths of Brahma, for it is written in 
 the Bhagavata Purana: 
 
 'From Brahma, the Creator, with his faces four, 
 
 Sprang from several mouths the Vedas four. 
 
 When in meditation, vast and deep, 
 
 He thought upon the Worlds To-Be for evermore! 
 
 From his eastern mouth, Rig-Ved; 
 
 From his southern, Yajur; from the ivest, 
 
 Sam; from the north, Alhdravdn; 
 
 Beside praise, sacrifice, hymns and all Best.' 
 
 "Brahm, the all pervading essence without form, called the 
 Great Spirit, commanded Brahma to create all things; there 
 was no restriction good, bad and indifferent, the great All of the 
 universe was to be created and so Brahma obeyed, though him- 
 self unknowing Good from Evil until the Vedas themselves
 
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 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 17 
 
 springing from his four mouths enlightened him, showing to him 
 the difference between Right and Wrong. As it is written in 
 the Ramadan of Tulsi: 
 
 'Both Good and Evil Brahma, with his own hand, made. 
 When came the Veds and taught the nature and the quality of 
 each and which should be obeyed.' 
 
 "There is then a distinction between Brahm and Brahma, 
 the former is believed the divine essence, while the latter is the 
 first of the Hindu Triad; Vishnu the Preserver is the second and 
 Siva, or Shiv, the Destroyer, is the third. 
 
 "The Yajur-Ved treats of the attributes of divinities and of 
 the order of temple services. It is supposed to be especially use- 
 ful to the Hindu student of divinity to prepare him in all the 
 rites and ceremonies of an idolatrous priesthood. Of course, I 
 studied Sanskrit, the very language of the gods, and committed to 
 memory hundreds of mantras and prayers. This is the one 
 I have so often reiterated in the temple just outside these walls. 
 I said it in the morning when I entered the temple and again 
 when I passed out into a night of stars: 
 
 'O/j, God, Parmdtma, Spirit great and high, 
 Most lowly, useless and unworthy, / 
 To come within Thy temple's sacred walls, 
 So ignorant I of habits suited to these holy halls! 
 And coming know I not how fitly I should part 
 From Thy great Presence with an unoffending heart. 
 Nor know I how to worship Thee; 
 Nor way to do Thy work all righteously! 
 In the deep wisdom Thou alone dost give 
 
 Strong grows my hand and ready for all deeds while I shall 
 live!' " 
 
 How I wish I could fittingly write what Raghuwar recites!
 
 18 
 
 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
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 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 19 
 
 First he intones the stately Sanskrit verse, then translates it into 
 bald Hindi, lastly I versify it in English. Now he goes on: 
 
 "There is a mantra for every act of life, but few Hindus 
 know them or say them. As a priest I used to repeat this 
 slok each morning before I touched Mother Earth with my 
 feet: 
 
 'Om,* Prithivi! Upholder of all worlds upon your sacred breast, 
 Hail, Devi! Where the feel of Vishnu and all gods did rest! 
 Forgive me that I place these feet impure, these feel of mine, 
 Upon Thy face, that I shall tread upon Thee through the shade 
 
 and shine. 
 For all that I shall do this day Thy greatness to offend, 
 Forgive, and overlook ^ ne deeds which I shall not intend.' 
 
 "When we go to bathe there is many a slok and mantra to 
 be said. The habit of my life has been when entering the water 
 of lake or river to first untie the knot in that one long lock of 
 hair which every Brahman leaves on the crown of his head and 
 to wash it first of all, saying: 
 
 'Oh, Sacred Lock, the daughter of a god. 
 
 Great Brahma s child, his holy seed, 
 Performer of a myriad penances, 
 I make this prayer for thee, wayst thou he freed r 
 
 "Then tying the knot again in that sign of Brahminhood I 
 was used to say: 
 
 'By Brahma's thousand names, and by the hundred names 
 of Shiv; by Vishnu's thousand epithets for thee, O Lock, I 
 give obeisance to all three and tie again the knot!' 
 
 "The next act is the dipping up of water in ihe hand while 
 this mantra is chanted: 
 
 On,' Earth!
 
 20 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 'O/j, Ganges, Jumna and Coddvari, 
 Oh, fair Sarswati and Narhaddha, 
 Oh, Sindhu and Caveri, hail! 
 At this time, oh, pe sacred waters 
 Meet where now I stand! 
 Haste here together with your lord 
 The all-embracing Sea!' 
 
 "If any one should question: 'How is it possible for all 
 these waters to mingle in the well-known lake or tank of our 
 native village?' the priest replies: 'Man's bidding is naught, 
 but by the power of the mantra all this miracle comes to pass, 
 just as the tiny spear of the mahaut (elephant driver) controls a 
 great elephant so the little mantra commands the river goddesses.' 
 
 It happened, the night this part of the life-story was told me, 
 that a very old anfyush, or elephant spear s used in the figure, lay 
 on a table near by. I had purchased it not long before as a 
 very curious piece of mechanism in the capital of the oldest 
 reigning house in India, Oodeypore of the Sun Kings. Raghu- 
 war took it up and by a dramatic turn took me far back to the 
 wars of this eastern land in the days before an English face 
 had been seen amongst her palm trees, and then he proceeded: 
 
 "Those days in Agra I spent much time committing to 
 memory mantras and slofys. As a child accepts the teachings 
 of his elders so I accepted what I was taught quite implicitly up to 
 the age of nineteen. Perhaps it will help you to understand 
 my life in Agra if I tell you the routine of but a single day. In 
 the morning I arose before the Sun because I must do my part in 
 assisting Surya Nardyan (the Sun) to conquer the fourteen thou- 
 and demons of darkness, so I hastened down to the blue Jamna, 
 the daughter of the Sun, and bathed, saying mantras, and then 
 I put on a clean drapery and seated myself on the stone seats of 
 the shore underneath the shadow of the high rose colored walls of
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 
 
 21 
 
 the Fort, where I could look away to the shining marble purity 
 of the Taj Mahal of the mogul, Shah Jahan. You have been 
 there, but have you ever seen the picture along the noble Jamna 
 in the first soft light of the morning when Surya Narayan is 
 fighting the hosts of darkness till streaks of blood-red clouds lie 
 across the faint blue of the First Time (morning) heavens? It is 
 very beautiful even to eyes long accustomed to the scene, and 
 every morning I went down to that richly decorated riverside 
 to help Surya Narayan fight the daily fight with Darkness, I, 
 who knew not the True Light of the World, with my copper 
 dishes and sandal-wood, sat and played in densest darkness by 
 that riverside. You know we use brass dishes generally, but 
 never in the worship of the Sun, only copper may be used in our 
 ceremonies then. I will enumerate all I took with me to use in 
 this morning worship: 
 
 Articles used in the worship of the sun. In the middle is 
 the copper ladle from which oblations are poured 
 
 "A copper lota used only for this purpose. 
 " 1 wo small, straight-sided copper cups. 
 " Two tiny spoons with long handles.
 
 22 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 " Two other spoons of peculiar shape. 
 
 "Two little saucers. 
 
 "Two copper plates. 
 
 "A stone upon which to powder sandal- wood. 
 
 "Sandal-wood. 
 
 "A book of Slofys used in the worship of the Sun. 
 
 "A cow's mouth-bag with a tulsi mala (string of one hun- 
 dred and eight wooden beads). 
 
 "The reason I took with me two of each article was that one 
 of each is necessary for the initial worship of Vishnu, who is 
 believed by the Hindus to make all holy, pure, sanctified. 
 Beginning with the worship of Vishnu before going on to the 
 adoration of the Sun is somewhat, only somewhat, like the 
 preparations one makes before going to church, bathing and 
 dressing in clean clothes. I seated myself near to the water's 
 edge and dipped up a little in my hand with which I touched 
 my lips to purify them before saying the following mantra: 
 
 'This, my unholy boa 1 )), molfe it sacred, pure, 
 With all its members sanctified and full of praise, 
 That xvhen the lotus eyes of Vishnu rest 
 Upon me He may find no spot unworthy of His gaze!' 
 
 "Next I took up the bag made to represent the head of the 
 animal most sacred to the Hindu the row. In this bag, which is 
 called Gaomukhi (cow-face) and which you must often have seen, 
 I kept my tulsi maid, that string of one hundred and eight wooden 
 beads used in the worship of Vishnu, and upon this I repeated 
 once for every bead the tr.anlra whispered in my ear by my guru 
 when I was invested with the sacred cord, supposedly given to him 
 by some occult power. It was in Sanskrit, of course, but I will 
 translate it into Hindi for you: 
 
 'On?, Great One, front this day I Thee obey! 
 And thou, my honored, kingly guru, to
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 23 
 
 Thee my obeisance, Namasfyar! 
 
 The mantra thou didst teach is good exceedingly !' 
 
 "Next I repeated on tre round of the mala five times, that 
 is five hundred and forty repetitions, the Caitri. This mantra is 
 said to be the mother of the Vedas, and the Hindus believe by its 
 repetition a man is saved. Once a Kshatri (warrior) from re- 
 peating this mantra became a Brahmin. No greater miracle could 
 occur! Of course he had to repeat it some thousands of years! 
 It is the most sacred text of all the Vedas and it is the sunrise 
 mantra which I said five hundred and forty times each morning 
 for years. Strange that it should be a cry for light! 
 
 'Om! Now meditate upon the excellent glory of the divine 
 
 Breather -of -Life, 
 Shine thy light into our darkness.' 
 
 How many thousand thousand times every morning is this 
 prayer for light sent up, often from lips that do not understand, but 
 it floats out in a cloud of murmured prayer from the Himalayas to 
 Ceylon "Shine thy lighl into our darkness!" If India were 
 heard for her repetitions the burst of shining glory would have 
 come, for this cry has gone up at the early morning hour through 
 long centuries of idol gloom in India; and who can say that God 
 is not in these days, in His way, answering the prayer of the 
 Gaitri for the Sun of Righteousness is indeed arising "with heal- 
 ing in His wings." 
 
 The young man goes on thoughtfully: "How I think of it 
 now! Do we Hindus think that God is deaf, that we keep on 
 this millionfold cry of the Sunrise mantra? 
 
 "Oh, how familiar is the Gaitri to me, more so than my own 
 name. I wonder if I shall ever forget, perhaps I shall continue 
 to remember in order to help others to receive the True Light ! 
 
 "After many vain repetitions I made my libation of Jumna's 
 water to the Sun. I placed in the special copper spoon for this,
 
 24 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 the water, took it in my hands put together to form a bowl, 
 and said as I poured the libation slowly into the Jumna: 
 
 'Oh, Surya Nardyan, hail, thou thousandfold light. 
 
 Lord of the Earth, thou art a mound of radiant might! 
 
 Hail, Surya Nardyan, I love thee with an holy love most high. 
 
 This water which I offer thee do thou accept and hear my cry. 
 
 Oh, Maker of the Day, do thou accept and heed my sigh!' 
 
 "I had to do this twenty-one times and then I read a lesson 
 from my book, the sun Purdnd, which is chiefly made up of 
 sloks in praise of the Sun. This is a chief slot?. You may 
 remember that the Sun is the leader, the general of the hosts of 
 the gods of light. Demons are black, and where the Sun does 
 not lead with his light the gods cannot see to make battle with 
 their midnight foes! 
 
 'Oh, Surya Nardyon! On every side your ears do hear; 
 
 All things you make most shining clear; 
 
 You taste each flower and fruit and tree; 
 
 You lead the shining hosts of realms most free; 
 
 You are the Chief and Captain of the Army of the Day!' 
 
 "When this was done and Usha, the Dawn-wife of the Sun, 
 began to touch the Taj with her pale gold fingers, I took up a 
 spoonful of water and tossed it into my mouth to purify it as I 
 must have done all through my worship if my mind became dis- 
 tracted in any way from my religious duties. 
 
 "Next came the dutiful worship of ancestors. Manu, the 
 Moses of the Hindus, writer of laws, established that between 
 sunrise and four o'clock the fathers may be worshiped. At 
 this morning time I always worshipped the forefathers and the 
 second metal plate, on which was rice and other grains, was 
 for an offering to them. I placed the grains in my hands and 
 then dipped them in and out of the water while I said, 'May 
 the Vedas be satisfied, may the Moon be satisfied, may Vishnu
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 25 
 
 be filled, Brahma, Earth, Mountains, Wise Sages, Ancestors, 
 Sacred Rivers, the Ten Pillars that support the Earth, may 
 all be satisfied!' The Hindu believes if he has no son to 
 perform this pujd (worship) his soul will remain in Hades." 
 
 At this point I asked Raghuwar if a man should die leaving 
 a son, who should also die later without a son, what would 
 happen. He answered promptly that the whole line back to 
 the beginning would fall into the Under World of pain and 
 darkness, and there remain through one hundred and sixty ages! 
 "However, there is this provision," he added, "If a man die 
 leaving a son who has no son, this son hastens at once, if he be 
 dutiful, to the city of Gaya, a famous place of pilgrimage, where 
 he makes an offering called pind. This is a ball of rice and pulse 
 or of flour, or, if this be impossible to get, or the suppliant be very 
 poor, a ball of sand may be bestowed. By this offering the dead 
 ancestors are saved from falling into the depths, but woe to the 
 man who has no son. Straight the whole line go to the realms of 
 Darkness for the one hundred and sixty ages which Brahma re- 
 volves ! 
 
 "My early morning devotions were over; indeed, the morn- 
 ing was well advanced, for these ceremonies require four and a 
 half hours. We were twenty-two students who went through all 
 this each morning, and where we sat no common nor unclean per- 
 son was allowed to come. We went back to our Vedic college for 
 we were all students of Sanskrit, the difficult Sanskrit of the 
 Vedas, full of matras. The Upanishads change the poetic forms 
 of the Vedas into prose forms. 
 
 "Perhaps you would like to know how our college 
 was arranged. From one long veranda opened twenty- 
 two tiny rooms like cells. In each room was a raised 
 place upon which to spread the sleeping mat. Our books 
 and brass dishes and a roll of clothing were the sole furnishings 
 of the room, excepting the pictures of gods and goddesses on
 
 26 Raghuwar dayal, 
 
 the walls. We had no idols there because we did not have time 
 to serve them with propriety. I had a picture of Ram Chandra 
 and of him and his queen Sita in my room, for of all books I liked 
 my Valmikfs Ramadan the best. My copy was all separate 
 leaves, oblong in shape, perhaps eighteen inches long, and the 
 leaves piled one above another reached a height of about the same 
 number of inches. I came to know the book so well that if 
 the wind scattered the pages I could put them together in order 
 again. The four Vedas were similarly arranged, each a great, 
 high pile of leaves. As I said before, my especial study was the 
 Yajur Ved, which is in two sections, the White and Black. You 
 must know that each god has his own special color, and Brahma's 
 is white; Vishnu and the Sun each claim red; Indra, the Sky-god, 
 who holds the lightning's sword in his hand, whose bow is the 
 rain-bow, owns the color of his ethereal abode, blue. Many 
 believe the White Yajur-Ved gets its name from Brah- 
 ma's color. I studied the Black especially, which we called the 
 Partridge Veda, because when Vyasa, the original teacher of 
 it, became displeased with one of his disciples he told him to 
 return all the knowledge he had imparted ! Forthwith the disciple 
 was compelled to eject it from his mouth, and the other pupils, 
 seizing this opportunity to obtain knowledge second-hand, be- 
 came partridges and appropriated the wisdom of their Master 
 in the way approved of at certain periods in the school-boy's life, 
 that is, they ate it ! 
 
 "There is also this story about the White Veda, that the 
 Sun from the mouth of the horse, Vajur, taught the disappointed 
 disciple of Vyasa the White or Bright Yajur Veda which is 
 thought to be the clearer of the two. 
 
 "As I have said I learned hundreds of rnanlras, and in the 
 few words of each, pages on pages of meaning might be written. 
 If I repeat to you four lines the explanation will fill four pages,
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 27 
 
 but I will say a short one from the Yajur which pandits often 
 say when they are together; it is in praise of Vishnu: 
 
 'To thee are thousand lines like veins that reach into all worlds, 
 To thee a hundred eyes, to thee that hundredfold wisdom, 
 Thou fynowest the secrets of the heavens, 
 Lord, nor in no World is hidden aught 
 Which is unknown to thee.' 
 
 "There are eighteen Puranas, that is, teachings handed down 
 from ancient times. I read the Vishnu Purana the most, which 
 treats of Krishna. You probably know some of the stories of 
 Krishna. He is the ninth and last incarnation of Vishnu, and not 
 at all like the one expected as the tenth incarnation, for the one 
 to come is to be the Blameless Incarnation. He is to be born 
 in Moradabad of a Brahmin family, and this is commonly spoken 
 of him, that he will go about on a white horse with black ears. 
 To all who accept him he will have a sweet fragrance, but 
 to those who will not receive him he will have an odor deadly 
 and evil. But we are wandering from the last incarnation of 
 Vishnu Krishna. He often helped the weak and his dark 
 deeds the Hindus can put in a white light, but it is certain that 
 he has left behind him many a low and evil practice. Krishna 
 was the son of Vasudeva, and there was a prophecy that the 
 eighth son of this same Vasudeva would kill his uncle Kansa, 
 King of Mathura, who was indeed a demon-born one. Kansa 
 had so afflicted gods and men that Earth went to the parlia- 
 ment of the gods and threatened to throw herself down into the 
 lower regions unless Vishnu did something to relieve her of her 
 burdens! He promised to come as the son of Vasudeva's wife, 
 her eighth son. 
 
 "The attendant of Vishnu is the many headed snake Shesha. 
 Whenever the god became incarnate the snake also took some form 
 in order to remain his servant. He came as the seventh son of
 
 28 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 Vasudeva. He was miraculously saved from Kansa, and when 
 Krishna was born his earth-father carried him away from the 
 palace while Indra rained upon the earth and drove all the 
 inhabitants into their houses that no one might know of 
 Krishna's birth and tell Kansa. Shesha accompanied this last 
 incarnation of Vishnu and held his many heads over the babe 
 as an umbrella ! When V asudeva reached the Jumna it rose up 
 to kiss the feet of Vishnu incarnate, and would have drowned 
 Vasudeva had the babe not reached down his foot and touched 
 the Jumna before it got over his earth-father's head! Vasudeva 
 took Krishna to the house of the herdsman, Nand. Shesha be- 
 came Balaram, his companion and protector. Krishna lived among 
 the cowherds and married Radha, a milkmaid who was really 
 Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and Vishnu's queen. Once 
 there was a peculiar battle when fever sent out by Shiv fought 
 with fever engendered by Krishna and the latter was victorious. 
 When fever of Shiv departed he said: 'Whoso recalleth this 
 battle shall be exempt from all febrile diseases.' Still is this 
 believed by the Hindus and the story told to fever-stricken people. 
 "How many hours I have spent learning stories of the gods, 
 tales I studied as solemn truth. We lived in a busy city where there 
 is the thunder of trains and factories, where there are modern 
 colleges and schools, but we pursued our lives in our most ancient 
 hall of learning as our fellows did hundreds of years ago. Each 
 cooked his own food, sitting on the place specially consecrated 
 for this purpose, and there each ate his rice and pulse and bread 
 and vegetables quite alone. We were all Kashyap Brahmins, but 
 we never sit and eat together unless born of the same parents, 
 and some brothers are so afraid of tarnishing their caste that 
 they eat apart from others of their own family! Food that is 
 cooked in butter or syrup we may eat away from the consecrated 
 spot, and, perhaps, you have observed that Hindu travellers eat 
 only sweets and those cakes called puns cooked in melted butter.
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 29 
 
 We could have the outcaste drawer of water called a Kahar 
 to wash up our brass dishes. Such outcastes are called Antij ; 
 that is those who are born at the end of the line and who must 
 travel through successive births and rebirths, through countless 
 generations, yes, even countless ages! So my day passed by in 
 what is very like a monastery. When sunset approached we 
 again went to the blue Jamna to help Surya Narayan on his 
 way. We bathed and each put on a silk drapery and sat down 
 for the evening worship. Figuratively, at such times we put on 
 our armour by saying this mantra. It is short, but as we say it 
 heart, eyes, head are touched and much is enfolded in it: 
 
 'This life no weapon can wound, no fire can burn, no water 
 drown, no wind parch, all, all is guarded.' 
 
 "Next I poured out from the copper spoon dedicated to the 
 Sun the evening oblation, and then I clapped my hands three 
 times in honor of the Creator, the Preserver, the Destroyer ; then 
 I threw water about me in a circle to keep any evil spirit from 
 interrupting my devotions. I said again and again the Gailri, and 
 finally when the Sun sank, throwing back crimson and gold glows 
 upon the shining purity of the Taj, I went back to the college 
 with my fellows. 
 
 "I have not told you about our recitations. Our pandit was 
 Sitaram, a very learned Hindu. We twenty-two novices sat in 
 a line before him with our 'Leviticus' open before us, though we 
 were not supposed to look into it. Indeed, so alert was our 
 master that he saw any glance downward, and the offender was 
 thrown out of the recitation. So trained was his ear that, though 
 we recited in concert, any slip in the recitation of a slolf or 
 mantra was at once detected by him as a money changer knows 
 which rupee rings false when a handful is thrown on the ground 
 and quickly tosses out the spurious coin ! We, also, who mis- 
 quoted, were dropped out! 
 
 "We did not go often to the town or the bazar, but there
 
 V 
 
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 Qu 
 <
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 31 
 
 was one place by the railway bridge where we sometimes paused to 
 see a band of men whom we knew as men bent on spreading 
 some new religion ; we noticed, too, that the speakers were young 
 men of India, with a white man accompanying them, a different 
 one each week." 
 
 "Probably young men from the Agra Bible College came 
 there to preach." 
 
 I interrupted him with this remark, and he went on to say, 
 "Yes, I now know that on those days I was near to the answer 
 to my prayer for light. We were all, however, quite wrapped 
 up in our devotions and in the long lessons to be learned by rote. 
 I was very ambitious to go to Benares also. 
 
 "We believed in those days that the seven great shrines of 
 our country were pieces of the abode of the gods, and every one of 
 these portions of Paradise dropped down upon India from above 
 is a place of pilgrimage, but Benares, of all, is the religious cap- 
 ital of the Hindus. It is said and believed by the majority that 
 every living creature which dies in Benares expires with the right 
 ear upward, and Shiva himself whispers this mantra in the ex- 
 posed ear: 
 
 'Om! Rama, Giver of Salvation, all is a burnt offering to 
 Brahm!' 
 
 "So the Hindus say one who dies in Kashi, the Splendid, is 
 certain of salvation. Of course, the Hindu idea of salvation is 
 not the Christian's; the Hindu is saved from going backward in 
 the line of reincarnations, hastened toward unconscious absorp- 
 tion into the Deity ; this is mulfii, salvation. 
 
 "It may be as well here to state the Hindu idea of degrees in 
 salvation. The first salvation is called that of nearness to Cod; 
 one may be in any form or condition, but near to Cod. The sec- 
 ond is in being of god-lil(e form in any one of the ivorlds; the 
 third is being in any form, but abiding in Cod's world, and yet 
 not necessarily near to Cod; the fourth and highest salvation is
 
 32 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 absorption into the deity with no separate existence. When I 
 was a Hindu / did not desire this last and so-called greatest sal- 
 vation. I did not wish my individuality swallowed up, rubbed 
 out," so said Raghuwar earnestly to me. 
 
 "I attended in Benares a much larger Hindu college than 
 in Agra. There were five hundred students, all Brahmins, of 
 course. It is called the Vedanta Pathshala (school), and its 
 patron is the Rajah of Benares, who is a worshipper of Shiv, 
 and the college is near his palace. The head or president of this 
 religious training school is Dulichand Shastri, and there must be 
 twenty-five or thirty pandits under him. We did not have to 
 cook our food there, but each separate division of the Brahmin 
 caste had its separate cook, and the school gave us free one meal 
 a day. The parents of the pupils usually furnished them with 
 enough money to buy an evening meal also. 
 
 "We had to study incessantly in this college of the sacred 
 books, excepting that from four to eight each morning we wor- 
 shipped by the riverside." 
 
 I could not but note here how truly the Hindu student of re- 
 ligion keeps his Morning Watch. The young priest of Vishnu 
 still observes this watch, but oh, how differently ! 
 
 "We went to worship Surya Narayan by the bathing place 
 of Brahma. We believed the Creator himself had sanctified it 
 by here performing his ablutions. There were fifteen hundred 
 huge umbrellas made of matting where we could sit at our ease 
 during those long morning devotions. We returned to the col- 
 lege and studied till ten, when came the meal of the day, fol- 
 lowed by study again until noon, when we began our recita- 
 tions. My principal subject in this college was the Rig- Veda. It 
 is a very large book and a towering pile of leaves ! This Veda 
 is made up of praises. My favorite of the Vedas, however, was 
 the Sama Veda, which has a peculiar history. \ ou remember 
 that the King of Birds, Garud, as he bore Vishnu through the
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 33 
 
 air, made a rythmical beating with his wings, from which came 
 the Sama Veda. Its subject is Vishnu, and as I was preparing 
 for his priesthood, I studied this book with especial diligence. 
 This is a mantra which I very much liked: 
 
 " '77ie Invisible Vishnu, in whose light the world lies at 
 peace; he calms the storm; by him all healing arts bring perfect 
 health; he quiets the murmur of the forest leaves; to the Creaw 
 himself he gives peace.' 
 
 "I stayed and studied in this stronghold of the Hindu re- 
 ligion for two years. I lived in a dense atmosphere of idolatry ; 
 every incident of daily life was bound up with ceremony. I was 
 preparing for temple service. I performed no priestly of- 
 fices as yet, but my mind was being packed with words in praise 
 of the gods or petition to them. After the two years were over 
 I went to my home for a little while, and while there spent my 
 time on the Ramayan. My mother did not like for me to go off 
 to school again, but my father and grandfather wished that we 
 brothers should all be great pandits, so my elder brother, Chan- 
 drawan, went with me to Brindaban, the scene of the youth of 
 Krishna. It is near his city, Mathura, and is a town of tem- 
 ples; there are three hundred and sixty of them, and nearly all are 
 magnificent in their proportions. A number are of radiant white 
 marble, pure against the green of their forest surroundings. The 
 daily labor of the workmen on one temple cost eighty thousand 
 rupees ($26,000) ; the materials were far more. Almost all of 
 these rich buildings are for the enshrining of idols of Krishna and 
 Radha, his milkmaid spouse. In the days of this incarnation of 
 Vishnu, Brindaban was a wild and beautiful forest on the banks 
 of the Jumna. Krishna lived in the village of Nand with his 
 foster parents, the keeper of herds and his wife. Grand old 
 trees still shadow this collection of temples. One bathing pool 
 is called the Banvan Chat; there is still a widely spreading ban- 
 yan tree there, and it is written in the Bhdgavat that Krishna sat
 
 34 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 on the branches of this tree and played such wondrously sweet 
 music on his flute that all the inhabitants of the forest stopped 
 their work charmed and stood motionless! 
 
 "From the bathing places of Brindaban the Jumna never de- 
 parts as it does recede from many other of its banks. There is 
 one bathing place known as 'The Conquered Thought.' Once 
 when Krishna succumbed to the childish temptation to eat clay, 
 his foster mother told him to open his mouth and show her what 
 he had in it! He did so, and, behold, the whole earth unrolled 
 before her in the boy's mouth, mountains, rivers and seas! She 
 recognized then that the child she had come to chastise with her 
 stick was a changeling, a child of the gods ! So, as it was by the 
 riverside she changed her opinion of Krishna, this bathing place 
 is called 'The Place of the Conquered Thought.' 
 
 "I lived on Krishna Street in the house of a pandit and 
 learned amidst the scene of Krishna's youth about this incarna- 
 tion of Vishnu. I studied with a learned pandit the Bhagavata 
 Purana, the subject of which is the Krishna incarnation. There 
 were four of us who read together. We had to tell the mean- 
 ings of the slofys to our master as we sat before him with our 
 Sanskrit books. 
 
 "As Brindaban is a favorite place of pilgrimage and the latest 
 incarnation of Vishnu very popular, I saw my brothers in race 
 and religion thronging into this forest place of temples by the 
 thousands, all seeking, seeking! Perhaps I should relate here 
 what a pilgrim generally does when he comes to such a place of 
 idolatrous worship. 
 
 " 1 here is a narrow-guage railway from the city of Mathura 
 to Brindaban and the fare is four pice (two cents). The train 
 stops at a station which is but a part of a Krishna temple. At 
 train time the station is simply thronged with priests, each with a 
 large-paged book bound in red, which is rolled up like a scroll. 
 You must often have seen such in a merchant's shop. What do
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 35 
 
 you suppose this register is? Well, it is full of the names of the 
 townspeople and of the neighboring villagers of this certain priest's 
 native place. All the Hindus in this particular district are en- 
 rolled in his curious brown paper book, the names of the heads 
 of families and all their descendants. As soon as a pilgrim gets 
 off the train a priest approaches him and asks his village or dis- 
 trict first; if it happens to be also the district of the priest he 
 ascertains the pilgrim's name, and can tell him if any of his an- 
 cestors far back ever trod in the footprints of Krishna in the for- 
 est of Brindaban. If he nor other priests can find the name, there 
 is this provision: A certain distinguished priest is appointed as 
 the guide of all such. You must remember that these priests are 
 not the same as those who perform the rites of a temple. These 
 are guides to worship." As Raghuwar described the pandas to 
 me they seemed perfectly expressed by the words "religious drum- 
 mer." Raghuwar continues: 
 
 "If the pilgrim's name be enrolled in the panda's register, he 
 says, 'Yes, here your father came; he gave me such and such a 
 gift; here are the names of your ancestors further back than you 
 yourself know. Your great grandfather, Vijai Singh, came here 
 and gave my predecessor a cow!" He shows the eagerly listen- 
 ing and delighted pilgrim his long, scroll-like book, with some 
 old, old pages. Is it strange that there is a singular feeling of 
 homelikeness, of being known, of great hope of great things? Ah, 
 the pilgrims feel that they are on holy ground at Brindaban, for 
 every place Krishna's young feet trod is sacred, and my feet from 
 touching his pathway shall be fit and cleansed for Paradise! You 
 will find this hard to understand as I proceed with my story, for 
 all that enters into worship is not what you have learned from 
 your, no, oar Book." 
 
 "Are the pilgrims satisfied?" I asked. "I know most are not. 
 I hey believe sin rolls from them there, and yet right in the very 
 footprints of Krishna, sin after sin is committed; thev believe that
 
 36 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 they actually receive freedom from the power of sin, and they go 
 back with even new impulses toward sinning. Oh, it is sad, sad ! 
 "I was telling you of the pandas' registers. In every great 
 place of pilgrimage in India the names of my ancestors are writ- 
 ten, yes, and my name is written in every one of the seven great 
 centers. When a pilgrim has found his priestly guide he is taken 
 to some famous bathing place in the Jumna for his cleansing, and 
 then the priest conducts him to his own home. By gifts of the 
 rich for generations, this house is large and can easily accommo- 
 date, in our style of living, a hundred guests. There are the 
 little fireplaces where each may cook his own meals; there is a 
 shelter off the courtyard and a place to put away his foodstuffs 
 and dishes. Oh, monkeys simply swarm in the forests ! For cen- 
 turies they have been considered soldiers of Ram?c and this gen- 
 eration is most bold and daring, troublesome, destructive and ill- 
 tempered ! To eat in peace one must go in the house and shut 
 the door or the food will be straightway snatched ! The windows 
 of all houses in Brindaban are barred, so one can get some air 
 together with protection from the marauding army of Rama ! The 
 pandas are ever ready with all kinds of information about every 
 sacred spot and will gladly guide strange feet in the footprints 
 of Krishna, so the eager pilgrim says: 'Great King, I pray you 
 show me all the main places bur religion makes most sacred.' 
 The panda assents and starts out with a group of pilgrims. If he 
 be a scholar, as very few of them are, he has a perfect guide to 
 Brindaban in the Bhagavat Purana. Few of the pilgrims can 
 even read Hindi, to say nothing of Sanskrit. It is not pleasant 
 reading about Krishna in all parts of his Purana, mischievous and 
 disobedient as a child, and as he grew up often stealing from the 
 herdsmen and disgracing his foster parents. Some say he is only 
 a portion of a portion of the essence of Vishnu; some say he was 
 nothing short of Vishnu himself. In the Bhagavad Gita there is 
 a different presentation of Krishna. This song is a part of a large
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 37 
 
 book of our land called the Mahabharat or the great war. It 
 is the philosophy of Krishna as related to his cousin Arjuna, 
 and one forgets in this the mischievous boy who stole the milk- 
 maid's butter and the youth who danced with the queens of the 
 dairy. He is a philosopher, and, in the Mahabharat itself, a great 
 warrior. 
 
 "This is an example of the wisdom of Krishna as expressed 
 poetically in this small but compact part of the story of the 
 great war: 
 
 'The wise man and the doer of wisdom, 
 
 One indeed are they 
 Where worker finds reward, the wis? man finds the same-- 
 
 This in equal Way.' 
 
 "We must return to the pilgrims and their guide. The 
 largest temple of all will be one of the first places visited. It is 
 of red sandstone, and in it is the golden image of an incarnation 
 of Rama's younger brother, Laksl.man. It is called Shrirang. 
 I ruly it is a temple to a god of gold. Here very much gold and 
 silver is probably offered, it is also the Bank of a great merchant 
 family in the city of Mathura. 1 hree or four hundred years 
 ago an ancester of this house invested his vast estate and treasures 
 of gold and jewels in this immense temple. Quite a sum remained 
 over and it was placed in the temple coffers, and to this day, ac- 
 cording to the provision in the great merchant's will, his 
 descendants may receive necessary money from the temple. 
 
 "When the pilgrims visit this place some one of them may 
 promise, for instance, that he will give a hundred rupees to the 
 god if his son recovers from a certain illness, and he is thoroughly 
 informed that if he does not fulfill his vow he will be stricken 
 dumb ! 
 
 "Next the guide may direct his party to the beautiful white 
 marble temple of Bihari Lai, whose great fortune built it. In
 
 38 
 
 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 this is a leaden image of Krishna, his proper color, the blue- 
 gray of lead. I used to like to go to these temples because the 
 most learned pandits were there. 
 
 "Three years of the valuable time of my youth were spent 
 there, and then I returned to my home town and began my 
 calling of Reader of the Puranas. 
 
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 Puran Reading in a Temple 
 
 "I read to the people, in many portions I recited, for these 
 great books, the Bhagavat Purana of Krishna and Valmikfs 
 Ramayan, I still know almost entirely by rote; as my English 
 lesson is most plain to you so the difficult s/o/fs of the Puranas 
 are to me! I recited the entire Bhagavat Purana in one village, 
 and in another near the Ramayan. Each took me four months. 
 1 here was no small preparation made for my entertainment, and 
 it meant a very continuous and almost arduous occupation. How- 
 ever, I loved to recite and explain, and every day I received 
 the worship of the host of the village. That is, some man of the 
 village who wished to attain merit for himself called me, provided
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 39 
 
 the place for the reading, my food for the day and paid me 
 money beside giving presents. The place of the reading was 
 beautifully decorated with feathery green bamboos, a little throne 
 was made of soft rugs and cushions, and on this I would sit 
 from six in the morning until one in the afternoon, and from 
 four to eight in the afternoon, and recite the Puranas. Each 
 day for four months, twice a day, a palanquin and a horse were 
 sent to my home. The palanquin was to bear the sacred book, 
 wrapped in silken coverings ; mine had first red and then green 
 and gold spotted silk. The horse was for me. Perhaps four or 
 five hundred men, women and children were gathered to hear me 
 read and explain the difficult poetical meanings. They questioned 
 me also when they did not understand. When I was seated on 
 my cushion the host worshipped the book; he threw, with the 
 little spoon called the cichman, a few drops of water in his mouth 
 to purify him, then he rubbed on the holy volume powdered 
 sandalwood and fragrant flowers and heaped garlands upon it ; 
 rice, tulsi leaves, sweets and money were offered and incense 
 burned. Then came my turn. He touched my feet worshipfully, 
 on my fore-head he placed red paint and a few grains of rice, 
 garlanded me and burnt incense, and then music struck up and I 
 began to read immediately afterward. When the incense was 
 burned all the people stood up. The host and hostess must 
 always be present, their draperies are usually tied together and 
 he has on his hands the sanctifying rings of }(usd grass. As I 
 read, five or seven Brahmins sat before me, saying on their beads 
 the whole time: 'Om! We salute the son of Basdev (Krishna) !' 
 " 1 o each of these Brahmins the host had to give four annas 
 (eight cents) each day besides food. At the end I received, in one 
 village, three hundred and fifty rupees and a shawl of fine wool 
 embroidered with gold thread which cost probably two hundred 
 and fifty rupees. (In all about two hundred dollars, a very 
 large sum in India.)
 
 40 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 "In the next village I received two hundred and fifty rupees 
 and a pair of gold bracelets and three beautiful draperies for 
 women's dress which I gave to my sisters-in-law. 
 
 "After reading these two books to the people I started on 
 my pilgrimages. I took the train at Gwalior, which is the large 
 and beautiful capital of the Mahratta King Jiwaji Maharaj. 
 There are many temples there, the oldest one is beneath the fort 
 and is a Rama Lakshman temple. I had received my certificate 
 of worship, I had passed in the art and form of religious de- 
 votion, I could perform worship where common people were not 
 allowed ! 
 
 "My destination was Allahabad, and the temples of Gwalior 
 seemed tame affairs to me after Brindaban or Benares. I had 
 to take with me a man to carry my books, for the weight of each 
 was twenty or twenty-two pounds ! I knew many people in 
 Allahabad, but I stayed in the house of a Hindu saint who 
 belonged to our part of the country. His house was on the edge 
 of the Ganges and from its balconies we could see Ganga's yellow 
 tide stretch far, far away to where tie Jumna meets it. You 
 remember how it looks at the junction of the two rivers?" 
 
 "Yes," I answer, "it is wonderful that in a straight line one 
 cdn see the joining of the two rivers, for the Ganges is yellow 
 from the soil it devours in the first stages of its journey from the 
 hJirnalayas to the Bay of Bengal. By the time it reaches 
 Allahabad it has attained a majestic flow, but it is still yellow 
 while the Jumna is clear and blue and the place of the meeting 
 of the waters is a distinct /inc." 
 
 By questioning I found out these facts from Raghuwar about 
 sacred rivers: " The Ganges came down from heaven to bring 
 to life the sixty thousand sons of Rajah Sagar which were so 
 many heaps of ashes in the lower regions. She was afraid that 
 when she struck the earth she would destroy everything, so Shiv 
 said he would catch her mighty volume in his long matted hair.
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 41 
 
 He felt he could diminish the pride of the goddess somewhat, 
 loo, so he held her, imprisoned in the tangles of his thick locks, 
 but because of long austerities practiced by a devotee he allowed 
 one drop to trickle to the earth and it lit on the Himalayas and 
 became a mighty river. Hence Shiv or Siva is always pictured 
 with a figure of the goddess of the Ganges perched on his head! 
 The Jumna is a daughter of the Sun, and therefore, also a god- 
 dess. 1 he junction of any two rivers is sacred in Hindustan, 
 hence how very much the more sacred is the junction of two 
 such holy streams as Cangd and Yamuna! 
 
 "I stayed in this monastery four months and read the 
 Puranas to large audiences, but the real reason for my residing 
 there was to learn the ways and habits of a temple of Vishnu. 
 It was really erected for the idols of Rama, Lakshman and 
 Sita, but, of course, Rama is a Vishnu incarnation. In this 
 temple are five hundred round, shining black stones called Sdli- 
 grdm, and one of my chief works was to see that each of the 
 three pujdris (those who perform the rites of a temple) properly 
 attended to the worship of these stones. They are considered 
 most sacred for they are believed to possess the very essence of 
 Vishnu. They are always found in temples erected to Vishnu or 
 any of his nine incarnations. It says in the Sat Nardvan: 
 
 'The Sdligrdm, the sacred stone, 
 It must he fyepl, an holy sign, 
 In hoivl of copper, and each morn 
 Pour n>ater on its surface shine.' 
 
 "We were taught in our divinity college that Lakshmi, the 
 wife of Vishnu, dwells in the tulsi plant. In the worship of 
 the Sahgram each morning I had to sec that two tulsi leaves still 
 joined to the same stem were placed on each of the sacred stones. 
 I was given such work for I had been thoroughly taught the rites 
 and ceremonies of a temple. I omitted telling you that as soon
 
 42 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 as I got back from Brindaban my father took me to Ujjain, that 
 ancient seat of Hinduism, and there I was examined in temple 
 service and idolatrous forms." 
 
 Would you like to know what kind of questions the Hindu 
 brother had to answer when he appeared for his degree of D. D. ? 
 
 "With what n antra should a priest unlock the temple? 
 
 "What kind of clothing should he wear each day of the 
 week? 
 
 "What is the first work of a priest on entering the temple 
 in the morning? 
 
 There were a number of questions on the conduct of 
 worship in the fifteen hours out of each twenty-four that a priest 
 must spend in temple worship. 
 
 "I virtually lived in the temple with the two hundred old 
 holy men. They liked to hear me, a youth, recite from their 
 sacred books. Probably most of these ancients could read Hindi 
 prose, but they could neither read nor understand Sanskrit, so 
 I read and explained to them. 1 hey were very old, with white 
 hair and wrinkled faces; how they listened! The more there 
 were the more I enjoyed reading to them ! When I had finished 
 the daily reading I gave to each of my audience a tiny piece of 
 tulsi leaf, which they ate, for if death occurs and the gods find 
 the tulsi leaf in the mouth of the corpse the soul that once lived 
 there is certain of salvation, and by no mistake of any celestial 
 gate-keeper can that spirit be sent off to the under world. 
 
 "In the mornings and evenings, when the people came to 
 worship, I had to attend to the offerings, as sweets, fruits, 
 rupees, cloth, sometimes jewels, were given by the people 
 even little children brought offerings, an orange, a cocoanut or 
 sweet meats. Sometimes a girl would bring for the image of 
 the goddess Sita a pair of gold ear-rings or a jeweled nose-ring. 
 "Up to this time I had made no pilgrimages, but now it
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 43 
 
 came into my mind that I should set out to visit the places Rama, 
 the eighth incarnation of Vishnu had made sacred. 
 
 "I first took the train for the far southwestward, in the region 
 of Mysore. I went alone, excepting for my servant, who carried 
 my heavy books. My destination, Kishkindhya, is the mountain 
 retreat where Rama tarried four months in his wanderings as a 
 guest of Sugriva, a monkey-headed deity who sprang from a race 
 born from a tear of Brahma, the Creator. Kishkindhya is the 
 place of friendship, because Sugriva and Rama were friends 
 there, and those who wish friends reconciled or enemies turned 
 into friends go there to worship at the Shrine of Friendship. 
 Here Rama related to Sugriva the story of his lost and beloved 
 wife, and found a sincere sympathizer in Sugriva, as he had also 
 lost his wife through treachery. And what was more, Sugriva 
 showed to Rama the jewels of his stolen Sita. It seems when 
 Rawan was carrying Sita off through the air she tied up her royal 
 jewels in one of her silken garments and dropped them down on 
 the mountain of Kishkhindya. Sugriva found them and knew they 
 belonged to a queen and kept them intact. These were Rama's 
 first clue to the course of the captors of his wife. She had 
 dropped them there not only for a sign of the direction of the 
 flight, but that her husband might know she was a true wife, 
 scorning to wear jewels when separated from her lord and 
 master. On the spot where the jewels were found Rama took 
 up his abode for awhile, and now there is a great temple there. 
 
 "One division of the Ramayan is called the Kishhindya Part. 
 1 here Sugriva and Hanuman organized the great army of 
 monkeys which proceeded with Rama in search of Sita. Hanu- 
 man was their General. Laksfman, the loyal brother of the 
 Rama incarnation of Vishnu, I must have told you was an 
 incarnation of Shesha, the serpent slave of the second member 
 of the Hindu 1 riad. 1 le was ever with Rama in his wander- 
 ings. I sat for some time on this templed mountain top and read
 
 44 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 the Puranas, and especially the Ramayan, to the hundreds of 
 pilgrims who came and then I started for the great shrine of 
 Rameshwar, stopping at various sacred places. It took me al- 
 most a year to make this pilgrimage. I would stop at various 
 places en route where I had heard a wise man lived, or where 
 the country looked beautiful, and often I read the Puranas to 
 people in the villages through which I passed. The Sanskrit 
 language was my passport to every Hindu town or home. I here 
 were some in every town, even where a different dialect than 
 Hindi was spoken, who could understand Sanskrit or High 
 Hindi; they could translate any of my explanations of the 
 Puranas which the common people could not understand. One 
 town or village furnished me a guide to the next place in which I 
 planned to read the Puranas. I never stayed in any inn or rest- 
 house ; my profession secured me the best place where all my 
 caste observances would be held sacred, also the best food and 
 gifts. On my sacred books would be placed the offerings, rings 
 and bracelets, clothing, rupees, food. The women's jewelry and 
 clothing I took to my mother and sisters-in-law for, as you know, 
 I was not married. A number of times my betrothal was talked 
 of, but I thank my Guide today that I am not bound to an un- 
 taught child wife with bigoted Hindu parents. Even when I 
 wandered in the dense darkness of idolatry it was as though a 
 Hand had reached down to me through the darkness and touched 
 me. It took the form of doubt sometimes with me. 
 
 "When I reached the great, beautiful temple of Rameshwar, 
 said to have been built by Rama himself, I found the temple rites 
 perfectly performed. It was a delight to my studious mind, but in 
 that sacred enclosure and holy town I found lying, thieving, deceit, 
 and I asked: 'Can this be an holy place where Vishnu dwells and 
 these acts be tolerated?' I hungered so for knowledge, knowl- 
 edge, that I was kept from many temptations. I was truly a 
 pilgrim in search of wisdom. I used my Puranas as guide books
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 45 
 
 and examined everything to see if all was according to rules laid 
 down there. 
 
 "The temple of Rameshwar is probably the largest temple in 
 all India. I have visited all the great temples in my country, 
 but never one so large in extent as Rameshwar. Its court, sur- 
 rounded by high walls, is a thousand feet long and almost seven 
 hundred feet wide ; its gateway is one hundred feet high. Its 
 colonnades are wonderful, and with other pilgrims I remained in- 
 side of this enclosure eleven days. I his temple is on an island 
 very near the Indian coast and between Ceylon and India. It is 
 said to have been built by Rama himself to establish the worship 
 of the gods on a wild coast that he might be remembered to 
 India's southern extremity. He sent Hanuman to Benares to 
 bring the emblem of Shiva to establish that worship in the great 
 temple. I he days went by and Hanuman was slow in returning 
 with the idol. The day appointed for the dedication of the temple 
 arrived and there was yet no symbol, so Rama made with his 
 own hands an idol of sand and the great dedication went on. 
 When the people were returning they met Hanuman with the 
 symbol of Shiva, and then the great monkey knew he was late. 
 He found on his hasty arrival the sand idol established by Rama, 
 and, filled with pride, he determined to uproot it with his tail, 
 when, behold, he could not, and to this day the mark of the 
 three rounds of Hanuman's tail are on a sandstone symbol of 
 Shiva in the Great lemple! I here is also the marble idol irom 
 Benares. I here are twenty-five or thirty priests in the temple. 
 I hey dress each day the shapeless image, put on a jeweled crown 
 and the three horizontal barred sign of Shiva beneath the crown. 
 How this crown sparkles with the very heart of diamonds! 1 he 
 temple has seven gates and only from afar may the pilgrims see the 
 gleam of the jewels on the shapeless stone symbol of Shiva, the 
 Destroyer. I was privileged and could take my offering up to 
 the idol ior I had brought Irom my lather's house a small brass
 
 46 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 jar of water from the very source of the Ganges to offer here. 
 We had purchased it for this purpose from a pilgrim priest. 
 
 "When I was a priest of Vishnu, in Mahoba, the head man 
 you know so well sent to the source of the Ganges for a copper jar 
 of water which weighed ten pounds and it cost him four hundred 
 rupees ($135). The main offering at Rameshwar is Ganges 
 water poured over the idol, and from the source of the Ganges 
 the water is supposed to be peculiarly acceptable to the god. 
 Such as I could go in and pour the water over the idol, but others, 
 not learned in proper rites and ceremonies, even if they were 
 Brahmans, were not allowed inside the temple. They gave their 
 Ganges water to a priestly guide, who, before their eyes, offered 
 it upon the idol. I noticed the priests would often accept money 
 and allow pilgrims to enter who had no right according to our 
 Shastras to do so. When I saw this I felt the Hindu religion 
 was being destroyed. Even fear of vengeance could not keep the 
 devotees from sin. 
 
 "I had learned the rites and was allowed within. As I 
 poured the water of the Ganges over the idol I said this 
 mantra: 
 
 'Had, Shiv, Most Gracious, Only One, 
 Thou who dost Wear the serpent garland 
 I wining 'bout thy necf(. . . '77s thee I hail, 
 Thou, whose power is endless, with thy queen 
 Dost sit upon thy throne above!' 
 
 "When I had done this I felt the purpose of my long journey 
 to Rameshwar was complete, and I could turn my face north- 
 ward again toward Dwarka. This city I believed to have been 
 founded at the command of Vishnu, and built by the sculptor 
 and architect of the gods Visvakarma. It was the son of this 
 celestial architect who built the bridge for Rama and the army of 
 monkeys to cross over from India to Ceylon.
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 47 
 
 "I went by steamship from Bombay to Dwarka. Dwarka 
 means 'Door,' and it is like a gate in the ocean. It is situated 
 on an island on the western coast. Its high walls rise like cliffs 
 in the bay. I went by steamer from Bombay. The island is very 
 near the mainland." It is really a narrow necked peninsula. 
 "As the steamer approaches" ("fireboat," the narrator says), 
 "the sacred island refuge of Krishna appears gay with hundreds 
 of fluttering banners!" 
 
 I could not but think, when Raghuwar described to me his 
 first view of Dwarka, that the Hindus do, indeed, in the name 
 of their gods, "set up their banners." I seemed to see it all, the 
 streaming banners against a western sky, ethereal in their remote- 
 ness and with their foundations almost invisible! The scene 
 evidently impressed him for he lingered in his description. 
 
 "As we approached nearer the towers of many temples ap- 
 peared, and then the walls of the city rose sheer from the blue- 
 green of the sea. I believed that long ago the Krishna incarnation 
 of Vishnu raised these walls guarded by the salt waters of the 
 western sea and prepared here a city for the Yadavas driven from 
 Krishna's own city of Mathura. It was this way. Krishna, see- 
 ing that the inhabitants of Mathura were becoming reduced, re- 
 solved to build a citadel so strong that it might be defended even by 
 women! 1 his was the order he gave to the architect of the gods: 
 'Go build a city in the midst of the sea in which my people may 
 live in peace, unconscious of living in other than their own houses 
 in Mathura. Convey them there in a second!' 
 
 "Vishwakarma departed and built, in a single night, on the 
 discus of Vishnu, a city said to be ninety-six miles in extent. I 
 did not measure it, but it is a great, fortified, many towered 
 city! By the next morning the inhabitants of Mathura were all 
 transported there in their sleep, and they awoke with the un- 
 accustomed sound of the sea in their ears! ITey asked: '1 la- 
 the sea come to Mathura?' Krishna remained behind to meet
 
 48 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 his foes alone, and, of course, was victorious ! I looked with 
 intense interest on this city. Surely here stores of knowledge 
 awaited! I did not find such beautiful temples there as in some 
 other places, namely, Brindaban and Ayodya. Silver and brass 
 gleam amidst the marble and stone of the temples, but, generally 
 speaking, I did not care for this shrine. I saw the Vedas violated 
 there and avarice spoiled the worship. I felt like giving up 
 pilgrimages. When pilgrims are at Dwarka they make such 
 promises as this: 'I will not eat fruit or vegetables until I can 
 feast the Brahmans of my native town.' But such vows as giving 
 up sinful deeds, lying, cheating, giving abuse, these were not 
 made. I have asked many pilgrims what benefits they had re- 
 ceived from their pilgrimages, and they would reply, simply: 7 
 have seen.' 
 
 "Early in my pilgrim life I grew cold. Neither mind 
 nor heart were satisfied. Empty-hearted and empty-handed was 
 the condition of most of the seekers after God when they left the 
 ancient shrines of our people. However, I went on. I think I 
 have visited every one of the great places of pilgrimage of our 
 idolatrous land. I here is a country through which I passed on 
 my way back to Central India for which I have a great hope, 
 the Stale of Kdthiaivdr. I want to reveal my vision to you later, 
 but now, in the darkness of heathenism, I trudge on, this time 
 to Badnnath in the fastnesses of the Abode of Snow (Himalayas). 
 Badnnath, Jagannath (Juggernaut), Rameshwar, Dwarka. 
 I hese are the four corners of the earth. Badnnath guards on the 
 north; Jagannath on the east; Rameshwar on the south; Dwarka 
 on the west. The king of all shrines is Prayag or Allahabad. 
 1 his latter is the Mohammedan name which the Hindus do not 
 accept. In Ajmere is Pushkar, the Guru (Religious Master) cf 
 all sacred places. I left none unvisited. I hree hundred miles I 
 toiled over hill and mountain to Badnnath in the far fastnesses of 
 the Himalayas. Stony, narrow, difhcult indeed is the way. but
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 49 
 
 I, a Hindu pandit, with the magic of Sanskrit on the tip of my 
 tongue, how much better my condition than that of ordinary 
 pilgrims ! All along the way are caves, and in these dwell the 
 mahdtmds of the Hindus, that is, as you know, the great spirits; 
 there are three classes of them the young men who are students 
 of the Vedas, passing through the same stage as was I myself, 
 the Brahmacharya; then there is a class of householders who are 
 also mahdtmds, in a way the husband is under the dominion of 
 his wife for twelve years, if he wishes during that time to repair 
 to a strictly religious life she has the choice of remaining with 
 their children or going about with him in a wandering or secluded 
 life of devotion as he chooses; the third class are the Sanydsis, 
 old men who are liberated from all ties of the flesh. They have 
 passed through the student and householder stages, now they 
 may go where they will. They get so holy sometimes that they 
 walk straight into wells. They don't know what they are eating 
 when their disciples feed them. They are simply oblivious. They 
 carry about with them a bamboo rod on which they hang their 
 Brahminical cord. All others wear theirs sacredly, but at the San- 
 yasi stage they take off this cord and hang it on their walking stick 
 and thus say: 'All life lives in my heart and my life lives in all 
 hearts.' 
 
 Just here Raghuwar brought his clenched fist down 
 on the table and said in a tense way: "What donkeys we 
 Hindus have made ourselves! We haven't the sense of mules!" 
 "Why do you speak so, brother?" I questioned. "Listen," he 
 replied, "the Sanyasi says all life is the same to me, caste is 
 abolished, I know it no more; he can say this by taking off his 
 sacred cord, he can rep"at this famous sloka from the BhaSavat 
 Gild: 
 
 'The man ivho sees all life alike (equal). 
 
 And the soul thai dwells in all, 
 
 U ho l-noirs the World-Soul in his flesh, 
 
 His rvisdoni cannot fall!'
 
 50 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 "For hundreds of years such words have been written in our 
 sacred books, but the Hindu goes on with his garments drawn 
 tightly about him lest he touch an outcaste or even a lower caste 
 than himself; he sits apart with the key of knowledge in his 
 hand, neither unlocking the door nor allowing others to enter; 
 they proudly assert themselves Sanskrit scholars, and yet each 
 day they go against their slofys. 
 
 "See here," and Raghuwar hastily arose, flew to our drawing- 
 room table and brought my Hindi Bible. In a moment he had 
 found his place and read with great force Christ's invective 
 against the Pharisees in the eleventh chapter of Luke. "Here it 
 is written down, just the state of affairs today!" 
 
 I looked at his keen, eager face and thought: Eight 
 months ago he took for the first time a small Hindi copy 
 of the Gospel, according to Matthew, and stole away to the 
 inner shrine of an idol temple to read it, and now with what ease 
 he finds the exact passage he wishes! "May we write 'Brahmin' 
 in place of Pharisee?" I asked. "Certainly" he replied. "And 
 may we not ourselves fall into a sinful pride?" "Yes, indeed," 
 he answered, "not long ago I went to prayer meeting late when 
 it was my work to arrange the chairs and benches and distribute 
 the singing books. As I sat there the Sahib (Mr. Gordon) 
 began speaking. He said something in a warning, admonitory 
 way that I felt was said directly to me. Of course, I suppose 
 he was speaking to the whole church, hut I felt he Was speaking 
 to me. I thought, I shall never be late again. What, shall I let 
 a Hindu think God's work comes second with me now? Never, 
 never!" 
 
 "Your experience is not unique," I said, smiling, "others 
 have felt that the preacher meant 'mc' ! Shall we go back to 
 the heart of the Himalayas and the Mahatmas?" 
 
 I lien Raguwar went on: "I always had free entrance to 
 these caves of the Great Spirits, for could I not repeat Sanskrit.
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 51 
 
 the certain passage to such an abode? I stood before the open- 
 ing of a cave dwelling and this was the usual dialogue in 
 Sanskrit: 
 
 'Pilgrim Oh, Brahman, who abides in this place? Of the 
 three grades of great spirits which one finds rest here? 
 
 'Mahdtmd (from within) A sanyasi lives here. O, friend, 
 from whither are you journeying? 
 
 'Pilgrim From one of the four corners of the earth." 
 
 Here Raghuwar stops to make an explanation which would 
 have delighted our Prof. Peckham of Hiram College. "By the 
 change of a final letter, a prolongation even of its pronunciation, 
 in one word I could let him know if I was a pilgrim having visited 
 one or two or many great shrines. 
 
 'Pilgrim I have come seeking a boon. 
 
 'Mahdtmd What boon, O, Pilgrim? 
 
 'Pilgrim To discuss with you some question of our sacred 
 writings. 
 
 'Mahdtmd Enter. 
 
 " 1 hen many questions were asked me and I was always 
 made most welcome when they found I could repeat slok 
 after slol( and expound the Vedas. I was fed with roast roots 
 from the mountain side. I hey tasted like rice and milk. When it 
 grew cold fires were built in the cave. Roots of different kinds in 
 whose lore the Great Spirits were wise, were roasted in the ashes 
 and we ate freely and abundantly. I recited to them by the 
 glow of their fires, and they would beseech me to remain with 
 them. I would stay sometimes eight days in one cave dwelling. 
 I need take no tl ought of time. It took me eight months to go 
 three hundred miles and return. 
 
 "I shall not forget my first sight of the great temple 
 of Badrfnath, made from the granite of the mountains, un- 
 carven by man, as the temples of the plains are, and 
 looking small, indeed, in its setting of loftiest mountains
 
 52 RAG HU WAR DAYAL, 
 
 There are a few shops where food stuffs are sold, grains which 
 have been brought on the backs of goats clear from Hardwar, 
 very expensive food, too, I assure you. The pilgrims live mostly 
 under the shelter of some thatch. Oh, it is cold in the nights! 
 I was privileged as I could find a shelter with some holy men in 
 the warmth of a cave. This is a shrine of Vishnu. It is said that 
 the idol of Badrinath was, in the old days, made from the 
 philosopher's stone which changed iron to gold, but it is made of 
 white marble in these days, and who knows if it were ever made 
 from the paras stone? There is so much that is confusing in 
 heathen tales!'' Raghuwar sighs as he turns to his Bible, which 
 he studies as I write. 
 
 "I did not tarry long, but set out for Kedarnath, the 
 Shrine of Shesh, the Serpent Companion of Vishnu. As 
 I was traveling from Badrinath to Kedarnath I passed 
 boiling hot springs. They were wonderful to me and I had 
 no explanation for them, but I was told that the power of the 
 mahdlmds had made them so. Kedarnath is famous for its tune, 
 at the singing of which the strings of the necklace of the gods 
 break. I did not see any of them break at Kedarnath when 
 the tune was sung in the temple however ! These words are 
 sung to it: 
 
 'Oh, Gangd,* your waves beat in mVi heart!' 
 "I tarried here but a short time for the sacred source of the 
 Ganges lay beyond. The place is called Gangotri. From a 
 distance the mountain from whose hidden springs the Ganges 
 begins to run, at least to our Hindu imagination, is shaped like 
 the head of a great cow, the most sacred animal of all to millions 
 of our people. You know the Ganges is believed to be in her 
 earthly form, the daughter of the Lord of the Himalayas: 
 'Caned, whose waves in heaven flow. 
 Is daughter of the Lord of Snow.' 
 ^Ganges.
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 53 
 
 "I hastened to fill my brass jug with water from that sacred 
 source and carefully screwed in the brass stopper. This was for 
 a special purpose, to pour out a libation to Shiv, the Great God: 
 
 ' J he man who pours from Ganges' source, 
 /is sacred waters stream 
 Upon Rdmeshwar's idol far, 
 Where Ceylon s tides bright gleam. 
 He shall the last salvation find, 
 7 o Cod's own inner self consigned.' 
 
 "That is, the man who offers this libation shall be absorbed 
 into the Deity. I looked over the long way back to Rameshwar 
 and decided to carry my brass jar of water from Ganga's source 
 to that little image on India's southern point, for what is more 
 important than the making sure of salvation? I was young and 
 strong, devoted to my religious books, preparing to be a priest of 
 Vishnu. While I had been disappointed, yet I hoped it at least 
 could do no harm. I thought to try every means laid down in 
 my books to gain the final goal of extinction in the personality of 
 God. I bathed in the sacred waters and then I began my long 
 descent of the mountains, tarrying with the cave dwelling n a- 
 hcitmds. 
 
 I went along with pilgrims when they were wise and 
 patient, but if they said: 'Brother, we must reach a certain 
 place today,' I told them it was not my habit to travel in that 
 way, that I went as I pleased, with no certain route that could not 
 be changed, and urged them to go on and leave me. I walked 
 hack to Hardwar, that is, ' 1 iie Door of Han or Krishna.' ' I 
 remember seeing that place of pilgrimage and the pilgrims bathing 
 in the Ganges there. 1 his is its story as Raghuwar told me: 
 
 "It is said that when Shiv reached Hardwar, bearing the 
 goddess of the Ganges in his long locks, he wrung them out on 
 mat spot and straightway the river began a broader flow. Al-
 
 54 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 ready the Ganges had begun her course toward the underworld to 
 bring to life the sixty thousand sons of King Sagar, and another 
 stream had gone to gladden and refresh the immortals, and now a 
 grandson of King Sagar wished a blessing for the earth as well. 
 Through his endless austerities he won the favor of the goddess, 
 and she told him to hitch to his chariot the swiftest pair of horses 
 in the Universe! Bhagirath knew that Indra's chariot wheels 
 cause the thunder, while the gleam of his sword is the lightning's 
 flash, and that his swift horses know the mind of their master 
 and go whither he silently wills. He besought from Indra one 
 of his shining white steeds, which was granted, while the Sun-God 
 furnished the second of the pair, a pure white horse with black 
 ears. They were so swift that they could, if necessary, make 
 the circuit of the earth seven times in a day ! When Bhagirath 
 mounted the chariot Ganga followed whither he drove clear to 
 the sea ! So three worlds were blest by her who is the water 
 in which the sacred feet of Vishnu have been bathed ! In my 
 journeyings I stopped at Bharatpur, near Agra, because I 
 remembered when I was a student in Agra I used to go to 
 the forest near Bharatpur where lived a company of pandits and 
 holy men. There again I sought for knowledge. I have not 
 told you the exact order of my pilgrimages, but I know you will 
 want to hear of my trip to Jagannath over in Orissa, on the 
 eastern coast, one of the Four Corners of the Earth.'' 
 
 Just here I feel I must pause in Raghuwar's story to tell you 
 that in my present hurried condition, preparing to leave India, I 
 cannot calmly sift and write down everything he says. I can- 
 not tell you how many times during the writing of the one 
 hundred and one pages of manuscript I have thus far 
 inscribed I have had to stop to talk with or listen to 
 him as he asked me questions about ordinary yet great 
 world subjects, or those things that touch the springs of life 
 and religion, or to tell me his dreams, sometimes very remote from
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 55 
 
 the subject just then in hand. For instance, while telling me of 
 the hermit-like religious men in the forest of Bharatpur, he ran 
 off into an enthusiastic dissertation on his hope of learning Eng- 
 lish just so he could read all great books and learn what men who 
 have known Him, say of Jesus. Then he spoke very plainly of 
 his surprise that in the East so little has been done to fulfill Christ's 
 command, "Go ye into all the world." "Why is it? Why is it?" 
 he asks so frequently. I tell him the reason good men and wo- 
 men give. "But then," he says, "is it not the work given to all 
 Christians? What greater work has been given to them? It 
 is also a work, in a way, self propagating." Someway here he 
 talked of the recent murders of English people in England by 
 Indians. He said: "They were not prepared by Christians to 
 live in a Christian land," that is, the Indians were unprepared for 
 English life. 
 
 However, we are back on a journey to Jagannath now, 
 and Raghuwar says: "When we reached the temple of the 
 Blue Wheel, six miles from Jagannath, there is a test that will 
 seem strange to you. The pilgrim who can see from the Nilchakra 
 (Blue Wheel) Temple the dome of the temple of Jagannath, that 
 pilgrim will be able to see the gods there and receive a benefit, 
 but the eyes of some are believed to be holden ! Of course, I 
 know now that in such cases defective eyesight is the reasonable 
 cause of the withholden vision. 
 
 "From the Nil Chakra temple on to Jagannath, caste is 
 abolished. All, from the despised worker in leather to the Brah- 
 min, may sit there and eat together. In not one other place in all 
 India may this occur without loss of caste for him of the so-called 
 higher birth. 1 he pictures and shrines of Jagannath always 
 represent him accompanied by his brother Balarama and his 
 sister, Subhadra, for remember that Jagannath is generally 
 believed an incarnation of Krishna, therefore, also of Vishnu. 
 The color of Vishnu is blue (though red is sacred to him), but
 
 56 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 Krishna's color changed to black once when a serpent hissed at 
 him, and so Jagannath is black instead of blue! Balarama was 
 the incarnation of Shesha, the serpent companion of Vishnu, and 
 Subhadra of Lakshmi, Vishnu's wife. There are different stories 
 about this deformed, black, wooden idol called 'The Lord of the 
 Earth.' I will tell you the version I believed. Krishna realized 
 that he had done deeds with his hands which are not lawful for 
 men so he decided to cut off those hands and sit always as a 
 mutilated figure." 
 
 I thought as Raghuwar related this version that Krishna 
 certainly made an "awful warning" of himself! The 
 story I have heard is that a king called down the Architect 
 of the Gods (Viswakarma) to make an idol for a temple he had 
 built at Puri. This idol was to be the receptacle of the bones 
 of Krishna. The divine architect said he would make the idol 
 on the condition that no one looked at it until it was finished, 
 but the king could not restrain his curiosity and he looked in on 
 the workman too soon and Viswakarma disappeared leaving an 
 ugly, shapeless figure which Brahma, the Creator, afterwards gave 
 eyes. 
 
 Raghuwar continued: "When I reached the temple en- 
 closure and entered, a gate-keeper struck me lightly with a cane. 
 This he did with each, otherwise the thronging press of pilgrims 
 through the gates would result in constant disasters. It was not 
 the time of the great festival when Jagannath is drawn in a 
 chariot to the sea shore. This occurs once a year. I have never 
 been there at this great festival time; thousands on thousands of 
 pilgrims go there and they are mad with anxiety to help draw the 
 chariot, believing to do so is, as we say, 'the root of Joy' ! 1 here 
 were multitudes of pilgrims at Jagannath, though, when I was 
 there. I could not like it in the crowd as I did wandering amidst 
 the cave-dwelling hermits of God's mountains. That was a clean 
 road, washed bv God's rain and snow and wild winds. No one
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 57 
 
 may cook his own food at Pun', all pilgrims must eat food cooked 
 within the temple enclosure and sold in the bazar. Jagannath 
 did not greatly appeal to me. I bathed in the sea there. I bought 
 my souvenirs which every pilgrim to this shrine buys, namely, a 
 picture of the deities, costing from one to ten cents, and a light 
 cane which is sold in the temple veranda for one cent. These are 
 carried home to be worshipped in the family circle. As I have 
 said before we must buy our rice already cooked, and pilgrims 
 often dry a part to carry back for distribution among friends and 
 relatives. 
 
 "I did not stay long in Jagannath, but went on to Calcutta 
 to worship Mother Ganges where she meets the Lord of Rivers, 
 the great salt sea ! Kapila is the deity worshipped at Ganga's 
 Sea. He is an incarnation of Vishnu, taken one time in order 
 to save one of his wives, the Earth, from destruction. This 
 sphere was being sadly mutilated by the sons of King Sagar 
 digging to find one of the horses of Indra stabled in the lower 
 regions! Kapila stopped the work of destruction." The whole 
 story is too long to write. Raghuwar sat down on the floor and 
 acted it all out as well as he could with the stage scenery at his 
 command! I wish there were time to describe this private re- 
 hearsal to you in detail. He made quite graphic the giant ex- 
 cavations, the appearance of Vishnu incarnate and all this myth- 
 ological drama of the wonderful ancient Hindus! 
 
 In his recital up to this point Raghuwar had not told of his 
 visit to Ayodhya, the but! place ol Ins favorite incarnation, Rarn- 
 chandra or Rama, so I asked him to tell me about this celebrated 
 place of pilgrimage, and this is what he said: 
 
 " 1 here are several celebrated spots in Ayodhya. I here is 
 first the 1 lgh place where the Monkey-God, Hanuman, was es- 
 tablished Master of Ayodhya. I le had been such a faithful 
 ally of Rd:na's that, in gratitude for the Monkeys services, 
 Rama said: 'As long as the Sun and Moon shine or Ganga flows
 
 58 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 on the Earth you shall reign in the place of my birth, Ayodya.' 
 Beside this high place there is the Golden Palace (though the 
 gold is not there now) and the Jewel Throne (though the jewels 
 also are gone) and the temple at the place where Rama was born. 
 
 "My long pilgrimages were over at last. I must say that 
 perhaps I did not make this round as most pilgrims do, or rather, 
 with the same purposes. I hated ignorance on any question ; 
 I went with a burning desire for religious knowledge. When I 
 reached a sacred shrine if I found no learned pandit who could 
 explain to me the Vedas or some difficult slol( of our holy books, 
 I was dissatisfied. I was a questioner, and, for the most part, a 
 doubter. Some go ready to believe anything, accepting every 
 tale, but I wished to investigate, to know for myself. Ah, I can- 
 not think of those days of wandering, seeking for knowledge, 
 without deep sadness that I lost very much of the time of my 
 youth! The one thing that comforts me is that perhaps, through 
 them, I was being prepared to work amongst my own wandering 
 people. / know the Way over which they are stumbling unsatis- 
 fied. 
 
 "I went back to my old place in Allahabad at the temple 
 by the Ganges and remained there eight months. In my favorite 
 Purdna, the Bhagavat, from which I was never parted, I had 
 read that in the most illustrious Age of Treta, or the Era of the 
 Three Incarnations, the event I will relate occurred: 
 
 "The Mountains of the Dawn must first be conquered by the 
 Sun, and in those long-ago days when his splendor arose from 
 behind the Morning Hills, there yet loomed beyond far higher, 
 far more precipitous, the Vindhya range. So great was the 
 height of this mountain wall that the Sun's beams were 
 so long in scaling it that the people on the other side 
 were late with the morning Sun-worship. Then were the immor- 
 tals in great pain and unrest, for until the Brahmins of earth have 
 performed the morning worship of the Sun, the gods remain thirst-
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 59 
 
 ing for the water poured out from thousands of argas (the copper 
 ladle used in oblations to the sun) quenching the thirst of the 
 shining ones. Thus the gods fainted with longing each day until 
 the Sun had conquered the stupendous heights of the Vindhyas. 
 Now these mountains were the disciples of Agastya Muni, so 
 the gods made this petition of the lord of the heights: 'Oh, Great 
 King, thy disciples give us great trouble, for so long as the Sun 
 remains in their shadow the priests do not pour out oblations 
 which satisfy our thirst.' Upon hearing this, Agastya Muni went 
 to his pupils, and, as proper disciples must ever do, they pros- 
 trated themselves before their master, who, as he stretched out 
 his hand in blessing, said: 'Thus remain, O sons!' To this day, 
 then, these heights are bowed down ! 
 
 "Amongst the famous hills of the Vindhyas, I read of one 
 shaped like a cow's head, and therefore most sacred. On inquiry I 
 found it to be near a place called Mahoba! I felt I must see it in 
 order to verify my favorite purana. Being so near Allahabad, I 
 was soon in this little town, where I was to indeed see ike Sun 
 arise! I looked with interest at the hills of fantastic shape by which 
 the train flew. I recalled the Ramayan and remembered that Han- 
 uman and the Vanar chiefs and allies, carried great mountains to 
 help Rama build a bridge from India to Ceylon, and when the 
 work was finished the monkey hosts were still flying through the air 
 carrying mountains southward. When they received word that the 
 bridge was built they dropped their burdens wherever they hap- 
 pened to be, for they were no longer needed! A lot of hills fell 
 down in Central India, and they are the Vindhyas, who obey 
 the mandate of their master, Agastya Muni, to this day! 
 
 "When I reached the town I was at once directed to the well- 
 known head man of the town. You all know him, I need not tell 
 you of his riches nor of his power here. In the surrounding 
 villages we all know his name: 1 he Honorable Feet of Shiv. He 
 gave me a place to abide, and soon discovered that I could read
 
 60 
 
 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 and expound the scriptures of the Hindus, so he asked me to 
 remain. 1 he foundations of a large new temple had been laid 
 and there was already some anxious thought as to the securing 
 of a proper pujciri, or priest, to perform temple services. They 
 wanted some one learned and fitted to give the temple a name 
 and fame. They took me as one sent. Usually in erecting such 
 a temple four or five years are consumed, but so many workmen 
 were engaged that this large temple was finished in a year's time! 
 It was dedicated to Rama, his brother Lakshman and wife, Sita. 
 It cost ten thousand rupees ($3,330). In the course of its erection 
 I was often called to see if all was right and properly arranged. 
 "That is almost six years ago, and save for short pilgrimages, I 
 
 "My New Temple" 
 
 have remained here ever since. When the new temple was com- 
 pleted I was asked to remain indefinitely and perform the wor- 
 ship of the idols. I felt it were better to go from place to place 
 in my search for knowledge, but here I was constrained to stay. 
 and now I believe I see a part at least of God's purpose in this.
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 61 
 
 He set me down in the midst of the people of Mahoba for nearly 
 six years. They learned to know that I was well acquainted 
 with the holy books of the Hindus. I gathered quite a large 
 library here of such books as the Mahdbhdrat, with its one million 
 eight hundred thousand s/0^5, costing, for a rather plain copy, 
 fifty rupees, or sixteen dollars. They are very large books 
 you know. The people knew I was of a famous family, 
 famous even with the gods, for Hindus believe that Ram 
 Chandra's earthly father, King Dasarath himself, was of 
 this Kashyap Muni tribe. They knew I understood all the 
 idolatrous formulas, could read Sanskrit, etc. When I left the 
 temple door they knew an educated priest of Vishnu left it, and 
 not an unlearned, wandering beggar. Yes, God had a purpose 
 for me as well as Mahoba. He meant that I should cease wan- 
 dering in search of vain knowledge and find it just by my door. 
 "I was, of course, right on the road from the Mission House to 
 the bazar. I saw Christian young men going by, and there was 
 something in their conduct that attracted me thei) were different 
 from Hindus. As I learned of their straight walk I had a long- 
 ing to know their Book. I believed that there should be a cor- 
 respondence between the Pusta!? (Book) and the life of its be- 
 lievers, but I had not found it so among the Hindus; that is, they 
 lived up to the worst in our Books and not to the best. There 
 was no teaching, in all the philosophy of my favorite pur ana, 
 which kept men from sin, and I felt in my inmost being that this 
 was wrong; something was certainly wrong! I kept on ringing 
 the great bell with the image of Garud, the eagle servant of Vish- 
 nu, upon it, to waken the gods of the temple; I made the bed 
 each night for the idols with mattress, sheets and pillows; I 
 spread and sprinkled it with flowers; I placed each morning 
 sweetmeats before the idols, at noon a full dinner and in the even- 
 ing a supper (of which I myself afterwards partook). So my 
 days passed by. I read and explained our books; I went through
 
 62 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 the many, many idolatrous formulae; every morning I worshipped 
 the Sun by Ramkund here in Mahoba. I was a priest of Vish- 
 nu, but I felt I was doing not the work of heaven, but of earth. 
 I had an unsatisfied soul. 
 
 "One day, early in this year, about seven months ago, I 
 decided to come over to the Mission House and ask 
 the Sahib (Mr. Gordon) for his holy book. I had often 
 seen him and he had always spoken politely to me as he 
 passed the temple. I had also often asked Miss Burgess to help 
 me out with English, as I was beginning the study of your lan- 
 guage. I would bring my book out and ask her words as she 
 was on her way to or from the bazar. I only remember seeing 
 you once, when you were distributing sweetmeats to the school- 
 girls over on the lake front. I decided this day that I would find 
 out the root of that of which I caught glimpses in the Mission 
 compound. / believed I would find it in their boofy. 
 
 "So I came over here to Mr. Gordon's office and asked him if 
 he would let me take some portion of his sacred book. He replied 
 by putting in my hand a Hindi Gospel according to Matthew, and 
 telling me to read it, and if there was aught I did not understand he 
 would be glad to explain it to me. You will scarcely be able to 
 realize how soon, how almost immediately, I longed to break 
 away from the temple; it seemed like a prison to me. / just 
 Wanted to read and study mX) neT book. I knew it would be 
 limited by certain hours. I felt like deserting my temple's hand- 
 some walls, its rich food, the adoration it brought to me, for daily 
 I, myself, was worshipped! I wrapped my book up carefully in 
 my drapery and turned reluctantly back to the temple. As soon 
 as I could, which was about noon, I locked the temple door and 
 sat down with delight to my new feast the Bool(! I he people 
 understood that the hours between noon and four o'clock daily 
 were mine uninterruptedly. 1 did not read it rapidly. I felt I 
 must understand this book. So I read it slowly. I compared it
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 63 
 
 with what I saw in life; I meditated upon it; it was full of rich- 
 
 " People said about my becoming a Christian: How can he 
 
 W . E. Gord 
 
 on 
 
 know? Me has never heard a hymn; he has never heard a ser- 
 mon. No one has explained the Gospel to him. I low can he 
 know? But I, as I sat all alone in the shadow of our ancient
 
 64 RAG HU WAR DAYAL, 
 
 idols, had a Teacher. 1 understood that Gospel. I compared 
 it with my Hindu books. I saw the truth shining clear in Mat- 
 thew's Gospel, clear like a transparent jewel. In our old books 
 the truth was also, but so blackened and soiled, so mixed up with 
 lies, it is almost impossible to find. I, alone with the Holy Spirit 
 of God and His written Word, in a heathen temple, was con- 
 vinced clearly, unmistakably, that there is but one incarnation to 
 meet men's needs, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world; that 
 Jesus knew that I sat alone in that temple of Vishnu with a hun- 
 gry mind and a hungry soul. He had placed me there alone 
 that I might have a certain freedom to search for Himself. It 
 says in our Ramuyan something that is like 'Seek and ye shall 
 find:' 
 
 'That man who desires above all things, one thing, 
 
 And places his heart upon that alone, 
 That thing he shall receive 
 
 And hold it as his onm!' 
 
 "I did not seem to need a human interpreter; the words 
 glistened clear as jewels. I did not go to ask Mr. Gordon ques- 
 tions, but when I had carefully read the whole book I went to 
 ask him for another book, and he gave me the Gospel according 
 to John. After Jesus, I was most interested in the character and 
 work of John the Baptist; he was a grand forerunner, the pre- 
 parer of the way! I think I could never, or not for years, have 
 found my way out of the darkness into the light if I had not 
 been given the directions in a book. I could not have had Chris- 
 tians in the temple, and if I had gone to the Christian's church, 
 or come often to speak to the Sahib, the owner of the temple and 
 the Hindus would have, in some way, stopped my doing so, 
 but no one noticed the little Book. I kept it wrapped in a cloth 
 when I was not reading it. I had always been of studious habits, 
 so easily tie Book was to me both teacher and preacher. I must
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 65 
 
 say that in the beginning, the walk of Christians attracted me so 
 much, that when Mr. Gordon asked me what I had heard that 
 made me wish to become a Christian, I replied: 'It is not what I 
 have heard, but what I have seen.' The living epistle truly first 
 attracted me and sent me to the Bool(. God's Word converted me 
 from a priest of Vishnu to be a disciple of Christ! 
 
 When I had finished reading John's Gospel I decided I must 
 not tarry; I must go at once, confessing my faith and become a 
 Christian ! I studied for a while and then decided to go to the 
 Sahib. He said: 'Do you know? Do you understand? You must 
 think this over carefully.' I went back to the temple, but, 
 oh, I felt / must get rid of this burden! Only my body served 
 in the temple ; there was no heart in my service. My heart lay 
 on the ground! Then I thought of a way out. It was the time 
 of a great meld (religious fair or convention) which occurs every 
 twelve years in Ujjain. I would go there and get away from 
 my temple prison! Different ones tried to persuade me to stay; 
 said the temple service could not go on without me, etc., but when 
 I remained determined, the money for traveling expenses was 
 placed in my hand and I was escorted to the station. I went to 
 Ujjain in Central India, where you went this summer." 
 
 Yes, how I recalled my day in Ujjain, one of, if not, the most 
 ancient of India's cities. I was told of that awful Hindu conven- 
 tion, of thousands of holy (?) men appearing in a procession of 
 absolute nakedness. So gross is it that this year the leavening in- 
 fluence of Christianity was shown by the fact that Hindus them- 
 selves said: " This will be impossible to us in another twelve years!" 
 I hen Raghuwar proceeded: "I decided that when I returned 
 from Ujjain I would stop off at Bina. I said nothing to anyone, not 
 even the Sahib, but I remembered another missionary. You know 
 Doctor Mama (Mis. Gordon) dedicated her new hospital here 
 in the spring, and one of the speakers was Mr. Rlsam, of Bina.
 
 66 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 I liked what he said so very much that I felt if I could find that 
 Sahib again he could help me. I had gone to the opening of the 
 hospital that day with my best friend, a young man by the name 
 of Bihari Lai. He lives, you know, just across the road from 
 the temple. From the beginning we have been close friends. To- 
 day my two little copies of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 are in his hands for safekeeping! When I went to Ujjain I 
 gave them to him. I pray they may do their work in his proud 
 Brahmin home as they did in the temple of that rich Mahoba 
 family! 
 
 "Well, I stopped off at Bina and went to the Mission 
 House. I had told no one my plans. I went eagerly to give my- 
 self to my Savior, when, behold! the Sahib had gone to the for- 
 eign land ! My heart sank, but when I thought it came to me 
 that there must be some one in the Mission House, some one who 
 knew the Way! Then Miss Gordon came, and I liked her 
 gentle, clear way of speaking of her Best Friend. She knew my 
 need. She wrote to her brother, Sahib Gordon of Mahoba, 
 and he wrote that he would come in June, and if 1 
 wished I could wait in Bina, but if I desired to re- 
 turn to Mahoba, to come and he would help me. 
 The Christians in Bina advised me to stay there, that in Ma- 
 hoba I would probably be bitterly persecuted, but oh, I was 
 eager ! I felt I could not wait. I knew not what night was 
 coming, and decided to return at once to Mahoba! 
 
 "When I got to Jhansi I selected the train which gets in here so 
 early in the morning that it is dark and long before dawn. In the 
 daytime people would likely see me and compel me to go to the 
 temple. Always, for the whole twenty-four hours, the rich owner 
 of the temple has watchmen at the station to guard his bags of 
 grain and cotton. In the daytime they would see me and tell of 
 my arrival. I reached Mahoba at two o'clock in the morning 
 and hastened along the moonlit road to the Mission House. I
 
 aOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 67 
 
 was as a man who has long lost his dearest treasure, and after the 
 many days he suddenly finds it, before him, in his hands ! What 
 joy! I was inside the Mission grounds, the long lost treasure was 
 in my grasp the saving religion! I entered the gate with intense 
 eagerness. 
 
 "It was a night filled with moonlight, and first of all 
 I went down to the lake, all silver in the glow. I sat down on 
 the stone steps of the bathing place. I looked out upon the dark 
 leaves of the lotus and on beyond to the shining stretch of moon- 
 lighted water. I was travel stained, so I removed my clothes and 
 bathed in the cool waters. My Brahminical cord had been cut. 
 I had in Bina, with my own hands removed that sacred sign of 
 the twice born. Then I had my si^hd (lock of hair left long on 
 top of head) cut off. The cord, the lock, the idolatrous mark in 
 my forehead, the beads about my neck, the four signs, were gone. 
 I was clean from them. I hoped the Sahib would be asleep out- 
 doors by his office. I would creep up and see and then sit quietly 
 near him till the dawn. I was safe, / n>as safe! I certainly now 
 had freedom and could follow the desires and prayers of my 
 heart! 
 
 "How thankful I was when I saw Mr. Gordon and Khet 
 Singh were asleep in the moonlight outdoors! I he dogs ran 
 barking to meet me. I put out my land and patted them and 
 they ceased. I tried to walk softly over the gravel, but Mr. Gor- 
 don sat up in bed and asked, 'Who is it?' I just answered, 'It 
 is I,' and Khet Singh recognized my voice. 1 hen I sat down 
 on his (Khet Singh's) bed and we talked till daylight. I told 
 them my experiences and my plans. I wanted a place to stay 
 indoors so the people would not know I was here until I E>as 
 baptized! I had come all the way, I had run from the station 
 to the Mission, with this burning desire in my heart, which only 
 baptism could quench ! I hen I felt the burden would roll off, 
 the Hindus would give up hope of me. It was baptism in the
 
 68 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 name of Jesus that I wanted. I thought of it when I bathed in 
 the lake out there in the moonlight, just beyond the garden we 
 see, that the next time I came down to the bathing place it 
 would be to baptismal waters ! Mr. Gordon gave me a place 
 in Khet Singh's house. At noon, you remember, Mr. Gordon 
 called the grown Christians to his dining room.'' 
 
 Yes, I remembered. We asked "the Pandit," as he is 
 generally called, to come in. I recall how my heart went out 
 to the bright face with a veil of diffidence over the eagerness re- 
 vealed there. We did not know him then as we soon came to 
 know him. It seemed almost unbelievable that he should have 
 "left all" so suddenly; we did not know how he regarded that 
 "all." Strange that we should ever be slow to believe in the 
 power of the Gospel? We expressed to him our joy in his 
 decision, but pointed out the path of bitter ostracism and almost 
 certain persecution that lay before him. He was reassured of 
 the ever present Helper, and then when he had expressed his 
 desire to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ and of His 
 superiority over all the gods, he was allowed to go to Khet 
 Singh's room again. 
 
 Then came the school of this young church in Asia. 
 Mr. Gordon carefully explained to the adult members that 
 we must all stand by this convert from a very stronghold of 
 idolatry. The head-man, whose great temple was empty of its 
 priest, had not only Mahoba but all the villages for miles about 
 largely in his power on account of his great wealth. Many other 
 head men were in debt deeply to him, and, therefore, completely 
 in his power. The wheat market was in the control of this 
 bigoted Brahmin. It would be, indeed, strange if no attempts 
 were made to get Raghuwar back or injure him. They might 
 also attempt to hurt, in some way, those who had influenced him. 
 He recalled to them that their new brother came to them with 
 but the clothes he was wearing, and the single green silk drapery
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 69 
 
 which he had worn away from the temple. He had not a pice 
 of money, and his hands were all unused to labor. There was a 
 bright intellect, untrained in Christianity, and soft hands which 
 had never worked. Was the church willing to take the responsi- 
 bility of providing for their new brother? 
 
 Then the Christian young men considered how far and how 
 much and by whom he should be helped. Finally they decided he 
 should be given a living allowance, two dollars a month, and should 
 have time to study, and they would try to devise some way by 
 which he might earn something with his hands till he 
 knew "more perfectly." That was Wednesday, May 12, 1909. 
 Then this occurred, as Raghuwar relates it: "I was sit- 
 ting in the house I now occupy by the side of the road. 
 Khet Singh had prepared my dinner and I sat alone eating it. 
 When I had finished I called to him to please bring me some water 
 to wash my hands, when a familiar voice cried, 7s it \)ou, Bdbd ji? 
 Oh, Babci ji, Biibd ji!' and here came one of Mr. Gordon's big 
 schoolboys, whom you all know and like, Baji Lai! He was 
 standing near and recognized my voice. He came straight into 
 the house and sat down beside me and said: 'Are you going to 
 become a Christian?' I said, 'Yes.' Then he began: 'Oh, don't 
 become a Christian ; much badness comes from being a Christian. 
 You will have much trouble. You will wander about hungry 
 and despised. The Christians will be good to you now, but aft- 
 erward turn you out. Don't you remember that Christian man, 
 W , who could get no work nor help?' 'That will hap- 
 pen,' I said, 'only if a man is unworthy.' 
 
 'No one gives us pain or joy, 
 1 he roots lie in ourselves,' 
 
 so I repeated lo Baji Lai from the Ramayan. ' That may be all 
 true,' he said, 'but come now with me to the temple; your cushion 
 waits you there, your old place; here you will only have trouble.'
 
 70 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 "I said: 'Let trouble come; we are not made for joy alone. 
 / will do this upon which I have set mp mind.' While we were 
 talking it seemed like magic, for all along by the house where 
 I was then, the very house where I live now, was a line of men 
 from the Headman's house, himself, his nephews and relatives. 
 He stood under the fig tree there and called 'Baba ji, Baba ji, 
 come, hear what I have to say!' I remained silent. They were 
 quiet, too. 
 
 "Soon they began to go, but one remained one with 
 whom I had a deep friendship, the nephew of the Headman 
 Hira Lai. He came up to the door and said, 'Open, I am alone. 
 Let me come in. I cannot prevent your doing as you wish ; only 
 let n:e come in and talk with you ! ' I believed him and opened 
 the door, when, behold, here came the others crowding! They 
 had hidden along the wall ! I am so thankful for my house by 
 the side of the road, but then I was troubled. Why was I trou- 
 bled? I was not afraid, but I wanted to sit in that house alone 
 and think. A wonderful step was before me, the climax of my 
 longings, my strivings. I had been saying to myself, 'Freedom! 
 Freedom!' the temple of the gods and the bondage of it were 
 behind! I was free now to follow the Savior of Men! Soon 
 I would keep my tryst with Him and be baptized. 
 
 "I wanted to meditate on it all, and now they came bursting in 
 with their words and petitions so unutterably far from mine! They 
 threw their hats and turbans at my feet, a Hindu custom which 
 means 'I am the dust of your feet, I beg of you!' They said: 'We 
 plead with you, do not become a Christian.' I answered: 'I make 
 no promises, I bind myself not, I must first do my duty Godward.' 
 'Oh,' they pleaded, 'do not make us ashamed!' I replied: 'One 
 is not shamed by the deeds of another, but by his own deeds!' 
 They plead most politely: 'Only come over to the temple; let us 
 talk with you; please, kindly come!' So I just arose quietly and 
 went.
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 71 
 
 "When I got to the office there were a hundred and fifty 
 or two hundred men assembled there, all the leading Hindus of 
 the town. They began such conversation as this: 'Why are you 
 doing this way, Baba ji? You are wise, so wise that you teach 
 us. What is your meaning?' And the Headman came up to 
 me. You know him, how sharp he is in worldly matters and the 
 accumulating of wealth. He spoke of those things of which he 
 knew, which were not matters of the soul. 'If you want to get 
 married,' he said, 'I will make four marriages for you at once; 
 I will give you a horse to ride, a fine house and villages. If you 
 do not wish to be a priest, that is all right. We will set you up 
 in fine shape in another service.' I replied: 'I am not hungry for 
 these things. I want to know God's will for me.' They were 
 puzzled and silent. Then I asked for a drink, and one of the 
 Brahmins went out and scoured a lota or drinking cup and brought 
 it in. I said: 'Brothers, I have just eaten with Christians. I 
 can never again be allowed to touch a drinking cup of yours 
 unless you, as I, throw aside forever caste! Kindly pour the 
 water into my hand that I may not need to touch your drinking 
 cup.' Sadly they did so." 
 
 "'Were you not pained, pandit ji," I asked, "that you found 
 the chasm of your ancient faith between your once best friends 
 and you?" He looked earnestly at me and replied: "No, and I 
 will tell you why. From the moment I left the temple, feeling 'n 
 my heart of hearts that it was forever, I was filled with an abund- 
 ant joy, that remains with me to this moment! Nothing else mat- 
 tered, nothing can!" 
 
 "No man can take it from you," I said. I wish you could 
 see his face as I do this night. 1 here is that intellectual look that 
 redeems unhandsome features ; just now there is the light of a 
 high joy. He is satisfied. I wish Miss Graybiel could see him 
 and be glad once more that God Himself directed her to Mahoba, 
 if only that this one longing soul might be filled!
 
 72 
 
 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 Miss Mary Graybiel. 
 
 I must get on with his story, for Raghuwar is excited now, 
 like a soldier who relates the greatest battle of his life! 
 
 "When I said to them that I had eaten with Christians, their 
 faces fell, and when I added that I had partaken of flesh food, 
 they could but say: 'Alas! What is to be done now?' The 
 people about began to say: 'Baba ji is honest; he tells right out 
 what he has done!' 1 hen for three hours I, alone, sat in the 
 midst of all the leading Hindus of Mal.oba and debated with 
 them against the Shcistras of the Hindus, which I had studied for 
 years, and for the Shcisira of the Christians I had known for 
 seven months, and then only in part. As I debated they began 
 to murmur: 'Where did he learn this? He must have known this
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 73 
 
 book for years!' They asked me such questions as these: 'What 
 riski (devotee) have Christians? Have they Valmiki, Bharat, 
 Dwajya,' etc. Many long names of our Hindu devotees they re- 
 peated. 'Yes,' I told them, 'there are Paul and Barnabas and 
 Peter, who were ready to die for truth.' I told them of Paul's 
 vision. You see, I read the Acts of the Apostles in Bina, which 
 was a very good thing for me then. They told of unconquerable 
 Rama. They said: 'What, did your Christ ever /// anybody? 
 Rama killed thousands of enemies!' 'No,' I replied, 'but He 
 conquered Death itself! Did Ram Chandra conquer death? I 
 know that Jesus, on the third day in the tomb, arose from the 
 dead!' They were speechless. Then they said: 'Christians will 
 touch a Basor. Do they bathe and keep themselves holy and 
 apart?' You know, a Basor is the lowest of outcasts, the scav- 
 engers and keepers of fogs. I replied to them: 'It is written in 
 your book in the Bhagavad Gita: 
 
 'God, the Blameless One, is like Surya Narayan (the Sun), 
 who, in the water jar of the Brahmin and Basor alike reflects his 
 image, touching both the clean and the unclean.' 
 
 "Now, does he become unclean because he touches the Ba- 
 sor's water jar? You become polluted under like circumstances. 
 Is God an outcast and impure? 
 
 'We do not see the connection,' they said. My answer was, 
 'God placed souls in the Basor and the Brahmin you admit 
 that. He reached down and touched both lives; therefore, he 
 does not observe what you do caste. According to your own 
 reasoning God is unclean!' Again they were puzzled. 'Does God 
 put caste marks on men?' I asked when they were silent. 'Is the 
 Brahminical cord, the sacred lock of hair growing longer than 
 the rest of the hair, does the worship mark of clay in the forehead, 
 the string of wooden beads around the neck do these four signs 
 grorv on men, placed there by God?' 
 
 " I hree hours we talked, and I learned in that time that I had
 
 74 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 unfailing weapons of truth in mp hands! The Headman's eldest 
 son and the doctor from the Government Dispensary took me away 
 from the crowd to the cotton gin near the temple. They said: 'Why 
 did you tell that you had eaten with Christians, and, above all 
 things, that you had eaten meat? We could have gotten you out of 
 this net for a few rupees if you had not confessed publicly ! Now it 
 will take many rupees, but we will give them. We will get you back 
 into caste or help you to become a member of the Arya Samaj 
 (Advanced Hindu Association) ; we will get you another work, 
 make you a grand wedding, only don't go back to the Chris- 
 tians!' They were strong on the marriage question, feeling, per- 
 haps that that was the reason I had left them to get a wife. 
 
 "I said: 'All these things are of this world. I am in search of 
 the things of another world, and / have found them! As I sat there 
 with them I felt like a prisoner. I wanted more than anything 
 else, then, to get where I could breathe the air, anything but 
 this awful shelter ! But they brought in a cot and told me to go 
 to sleep if I wished, so I just lay down, asking God to deliver 
 me from their hands and all idolatrous thrall, and fell asleep. I 
 knew four men were stationed there as watchmen, that there was 
 no chance of escape. I did not fear any bodily injury; I only 
 felt I was there with Hindus without having kept my tryst with 
 Jesus! I thought, too, that it was Khet Singh's wedding day, 
 and I could not see the marriage. 
 
 In the evening I sat outside with relatives and de- 
 pendants of the Headman, who were doing all they could 
 to interest me, when I saw Mr. Gordon coming with a 
 bundle. He had brought me my clothes, and as he handed 
 them to me he said: 'Do you wish to remain here?' How the 
 people listened for my reply, for they had been teaching me what 
 to say if the Sahib came. Oh, how I wished to say one word of 
 comfort to Mr. Gordon! I could only look at him and say: 'I 
 will not come now.' Khet Singh was with the Sahib. I made a
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 75 
 
 sign to him as though to say, 'It will be all right,' and afterward 
 Khet Singh told me he spoke the word of comfort to the Sahib 
 which I had wished to speak! He said: 'I feel that the pandit's 
 heart is with us, he will never go back. We must persevere.' 
 
 "I saw them turn away, but I kept talking to them in my heart! 
 I slept there with men on all four sides. I lay awake for a long 
 time and longed for freedom. I hoped they would take me 
 away, so I could get out some way and escape in some unguarded 
 moment of theirs. I prayed, too. There were two Moham- 
 medan watchmen, and they spoke good words to me; they told 
 me not to give up, to keep hold of a better truth than I had ever 
 had before. God sent help to me in my prison, too, through 
 their words." 
 
 Mr. Gordon has told me his side of the story also. He says 
 the pandit had such a look in his eyes when he said, "I will not 
 come now," that he knew he was longing to come. Our hearts 
 did go out to him, surrounded as he was by Hindus, and we met 
 to pray as did the church so long ago for Paul. We spoke sev- 
 eral times of our "Acts of the Apostles." That evening, Thurs- 
 day, May 1 3, I was to leave for a trip on Mission business to 
 Central India. The others promised to send me a telegram when 
 the baptism occurred. 
 
 Raghuwar says he lay awake much that night and thought. 
 He tried to plan a way to get a message to Mr. Gordon; he 
 looked forward into the future, feeling he would in some way 
 escape and be able to keep his tryst. He says: "I did not think 
 Christians could get near enough to help me any, hut, oh, I did 
 want them to know I fi>as true! The next day, Friday, May 14, 
 I was without any sign of my new brothers. I spent a sad day, 
 a long, sad day. In the evening I asked to be allowed to look 
 into the temple, which could be done without leaving the house 
 where I was confined. I must tell you that I exercised still a sort 
 of authority over the men. If I looked at them sternly they turned
 
 76 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 away. As I went to the door I gave them such a look and told 
 them to stand back, and there, near the door, outside in the road, 
 between the house and the temple, was one of your Christian 
 teachers, Bihari Lai Boaz ! He was quick to see and started 
 when he saw me, and then he just carelessly walked up as near 
 as he could get to me and I said quietly to him: 'Brother, they 
 take me to Banda today. Tell the Sahib not to be troubled. / 
 shall escape!' He assented, and that was all I could say, but it 
 gave me great comfort. I was not leaving without a sign. 
 
 "In the night I was taken in a closed vehicle to the station. I 
 was told that I was going to Banda to be made a member of the 
 Arya Samaj, to be then married, restpred to caste and my temple 
 service! I was to be a dummy in their hands! Well, there was 
 nothing to do but to go on, so I did. They took me a detour 
 quite out of the way, so the people at the Mission House would 
 not hear any one going to the station, but they drove right by 
 Claudius' house. He heard the noise of the cart and up he 
 jumped! Ah, they could not escape His messengers! 
 
 "Claudius ran over here, told Mr. Gordon, and soon three 
 Christian young men were on their way to the station. The mid- 
 night favored. They ran swiftly, Claudius, Khet Singh and Bhash- 
 kar. I knew afterward they had money and were prepared to help 
 me. They wanted to take clubs, but Mr. Gordon would not let the 
 excited boys take any weapons. Well, they got their tickets, and, 
 you know, Bhashkar is always ready for theatricals. He took off 
 his cap and put on a turban instead, made his drapery long hke 
 a pandit, and strode the whole length of the train, and, behold, 
 he saw n:e ! Quick as a flash the others were beckoned to, and 
 just as the train was ready to pull out all three got into our com- 
 partment! It was too late for the Hindus to get themselves and 
 me out and off into another compartment ! I took my mat and 
 spread it on the seat and asked Khet Singh and the other two to 
 sit on it. One of the Hindus afterwards told me that that act
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 77 
 
 of mine showed him where my heart was! They sat down be- 
 side me and Khet Singh said politely to the Hindu companions: 
 'Where are your honors going?' 'To Banda.' 'Is the Pandit 
 jf accompanying you?' 'Yes.' 'May we speak to him?' 'Cer- 
 tainly,' they answered. They thought they were sitting so near 
 they could hear all that was said, and it would not matter, and 
 one Hindu got himself between me and Khet Singh. 
 
 "Then I said in the best English I could, 'Speak English to 
 me.' They spoke anyway, backwards, crookedly, but we under- 
 stood each other, and the Hindus were in the dark ! They told me 
 the Sahib would help me if I wanted to get away. I said I did and 
 I asked them to what station they had purchased a ticket. They 
 said, To Kabrai.' This is two stations east of Mahoba on the 
 way to Maudha. I told them to get out there and I would also. 
 You know that the mail for Jhansi passes the train from Ma- 
 hoba to Banda at Kabrai. The Christian boys had thought of 
 that and planned to take me back to Mahoba on that train if 
 I were willing. I said to the Christians in English, 'Take my 
 things off.' Quick as a flash they rolled my bedding up, and you 
 should have seen the Hindus! 'Aree! Where are you going?' 
 'What does this mean?' 'You promised to go with us, and now 
 you are leaving us!' 'Hold on!' but we four were clambering 
 into the other train. 
 
 "I don't know what they thought, but they stayed help- 
 lessly on the train for Banada, and we went happily, 
 how happily, back to Mahoba! I suppose the Hindus thought 
 their four people had become three and the Christian three had 
 become four, and so they just sat still and let the train carry them 
 to the place for which they had bought four tickets ! They might 
 have been afraid of the superior numbers! It was half past four 
 on Saturday morning when we reached Mahoba. Mr. Cordon 
 took me into his arms and thanked God when I reached him for 
 the second time in the dark of the morning. At six-thirr ', two
 
 78 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 hours later that morning, all the Christians gathered at the bathing 
 place for mp baptism. At last I could keep my tryst! That 
 morning I could worship the Sun of Righteousness, I could pray 
 to the Light of the World! Oh, how happy I was that lovely 
 
 morning 
 
 I" 
 
 Miss Pope has told me of the perfect spring morning, of the 
 impressiveness of it all, and how quickly the Christians gathered. 
 I missed a great deal, but how happy I was to get the telegram 
 from Miss Burgess: 
 
 "Baptism occurred this morning at six thirty." 
 I was in Indore about to leave for Pandita Ramabai's. 
 
 Raghuwar says: "Mr. Gordon asked me several questions 
 down there on the steps at the lake. 'Do you take this step of 
 your own free will?' 'Did any one entice you into this?' Then 
 he took my confession, and I could say from a full heart that I 
 believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and 
 my Savior! The song that floated across the lake and echoed 
 amongst the fabled hills and stones, that beat against the walls of 
 the little white temples by the lake was: 
 
 CHORUS: My heart falls at the feet of Jesus! 
 
 Some wear the rosaries of prayer, 
 
 Some in their foreheads place the sacred sign. 
 
 Some wind about them ropes of hair, 
 And some, the cord of Brahmin line. 
 
 Some smear with ashes all their limbs, 
 
 Some are with deer sl(in ever found, 
 Some rvear the blanket coarse and black, 
 
 Some Wander nailed o'er the ground. 
 
 Some worship gods and goddesses, 
 
 Some bathe where Ganges river flows, 
 Some sprinkle Water by the peepul tree, 
 
 Some call and feed the hungry crows.
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 79 
 
 Some wander in the jungles wild, 
 
 Some hold their arms as sticks stretched out, 
 
 Some sit where burn five smoking fires, 
 I flee, I flee, from things of doubt! 
 
 "Between every stanza came the chorus, 'A/p heart falls at 
 the feet of Jesus.' It did fall there, and there it remains. Those 
 other things are all back in that lost past of mine." 
 
 "Yes, Brother, all things have become new," I say. 
 
 "The Hindus passing in the road heard the songs, and won- 
 dered at the crowd of Christians on the bank. Of course 
 
 Kirat Sagar where Raghuwar was baptised 
 
 it was soon known in the town. We do not know how the news 
 spread, nor just how it was received, but we do know 
 God worked wonders and there was no disturbance. / felt I Was 
 free! Now I could think on my new life, I could peacefully 
 read my New Book. I had found at last the true way to knowl- 
 edge of Gods truth! It was vacation time then, you know, and
 
 80 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 I went with Mr. Gordon and a number of the young Christian 
 men to our out-station Jaitpur. They did not leave me alone 
 much in Mahoba. Some one stayed near me. There was more 
 freedom in Jaitpur." 
 
 Jaitpur is our interesting station supported by the Mahoba 
 church on the other side of Kulpahar. It was thought wise to 
 take Raghuwar on this tour. 
 
 It seems to me I have never quite so perfectly realized the 
 inadequacy of the written word to express the spoken ones. I 
 have tried a generous use of italics or disfiguring big capitals, but 
 the intensity of the narrator, the earnest fact, the gestured en- 
 thusiasm, I have been unable to portray. I have been so desirous 
 that you across the far seas shall see and hear and understand 
 that I have often clung more closely to Hindi forms of speech 
 than is quite consistent with perfect English. There is no in- 
 direct discourse in the language of the one whose narrative I am 
 trying to faithfully present. Try to fancy you are listening as 
 he proceeds: 
 
 "After a few days we all came back to Kulpahar, as there 
 were some people there Hindus with whom we wished to talk, 
 with one especially who was deeply interested in Christianity. I 
 was left in Kulpahar for the rest of the day and Mr. Gordon and 
 the others came on to Mahoba. I was to join them that even- 
 ing. When I came to the Kulpahar station I saw two Mahoba 
 men, or men who had lived there. One was a Hindu police 
 darogd, who had often spoken to me when I was a priest of 
 Vishnu, and the other was a clerk in the canal department, a mem- 
 ber of the Arya Samaj, who had also lived in Mahoba. One of 
 them recognized me and began to talk with me, said I was a turn- 
 coat and had gone to a book and a religion which was not true. 
 That excited me and we began to argue. The clerk talked much 
 of an Arya book Satya Prakash (Light of Truth). He spoke 
 of its quotations from the Vedas and from the Bible. He made
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 81 
 
 misquotations; that is, either the book or he had made a mistake. 
 I said: I am certain you have made a mistake. 'Well,' he re- 
 plied, 'You just come with me to Banda and I will show you 
 the very passage in the Satya Prakash.' ' 
 
 I must say here that Raghuwar has a keen mind, reveling in 
 debate, and at this time every faculty of mind and heart is awake 
 to the support of his new Book. I have met men like him in my 
 college days, delighting to meet others in such a combat. One 
 thought possessed him just then, to show this clerk he had made 
 a mistake, so he said he would go. Banda is on the other side 
 of Mahoba. I am surprised to think he went so willingly at this 
 time, and yet I know how he was aroused and how fearless he 
 has been right through. He continues: 
 
 "The Arya Society has an orphanage for boys in Banda, and 
 I was taken there. A learned pandit was called, and he and 
 the clerk began to talk in English. I only gathered this much 
 from the conversation, that the Headman had written to them 
 about me. I spoke politely to them and jestingly said: Yes, 
 Christians have gotten my mind into a hubbub, but you will 
 straighten me out. I was eager to get to Satya Prakash ! They 
 brought the book and I looked it over carefully. It quotes in 
 one place as from the Bible this sentence: 'Not anyone that saith 
 unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.' I 
 said, That is a misquotation!' 
 
 I cannot but wonder here that he knew this slight twist of 
 words, "anyone" for "everyone" ! 
 
 "In another place it says that the account of a story just 
 like that in Genesis about Abraham taking his son Isaac to sacri- 
 fice him at God's command in the mount, occurs in the Vedas. I 
 answered at once, ' I he word sacrifice does not occur in the 
 Vedas, therefore how can it be?' I wish you could have seen 
 their faces when I showed it to them ! I hey knew I had studied
 
 82 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 the Vedas. I said about the Satya Prakash, 'This is all a made- 
 up book!' 
 
 "You know, a former Damoh Orphanage boy lives in 
 in Banda. He goes often to talk with the people of the Arya As- 
 sociation, and he is allowed free entrance, because they hope to 
 get a hold on him. I knew of course he would help me to get 
 away if I had trouble, but I could not speak to him then. I kept 
 on talking and arguing with them the next day. When they told 
 me if Christians came to invite them in, but not to go outdoors to 
 meet them, I resented this interference with my liberty again, and 
 felt I must get out! I thought I'd manage to get away to some 
 jungly place and take my bath and be free for awhile again, but 
 Nanhu came again, and he did not ask me to come out to him, 
 but walked right in ! 1 here were none of the leaders there, and 
 he gave me the surprising information that two Mahoba young 
 men had come with the Maulvi Yakub Ali, one of our Maudha 
 Christians! I said: 'Help me with my things, let us go at onceT 
 Do you know, everybody in the Orphanage was silent ; no one 
 said a word ; we just walked out ! What a warm welcome the 
 Mahoba boys gave me, embracing me as the Sahib had done in 
 the dark of that morning I was baptized! The missionary in 
 Banda asked the Magistrate to send four men to the station to 
 see that I got off without trouble at the train. At the station the 
 Arya men came up to Yakub Ali, whom they knew, and said: 
 'You have done a bad thing!' But we got on the train all right 
 and I gladly turned my face towards Mahoba again. You know, 
 I have not been approached since. Yesterday I saw one of the 
 Headman's relatives, and he put his hands together in our way 
 of beseeching and said: 'Oh, don't talk to me! Don't, I beg of 
 you, draw me into the net in rvhich you are entangled /' Only 
 today I met the Headman's uncle. He said if I would only do 
 so, he would yet reinstate me, that we could go off on a long 
 pilgrimage, I, the master and he, the disciple it seems as if they
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 83 
 
 cannot believe I have left Hinduism forever! They know there 
 is a power, but they do not know it is the power of truth and not 
 of witchcraft. 
 
 "Oh, the Bible is such a wonderful mine! I long 
 to dig out its treasures and take them to my people. The field I 
 see ever with the eyes of my heart is the unreached peninsula of 
 Kathiawar, where millions of Hindus live who seemed to me in 
 ignorance of Hinduism, and people with somewhat open minds. 
 They eagerly listened to me when I read to them the purdnas on 
 my return from Dwarka. I enjoyed teaching them, and I feel I 
 must go back there and travel from village to village, expounding 
 the Book that is true. / long to go, not tarrying long in a place, 
 but evangelize Kathiawar first ; and when I have found a good 
 center, to ask our Mahoba church to send some one to abide in 
 that place, where I hope I shall have gathered together, as Paul 
 did, a congregation of believers, and from such centers evange- 
 lists can go out. I want to be free to go, not bound at once by 
 any ties, except to live to preach the Gospel to my people. I 
 seem to see my field stretched out before me, full of villages in 
 ignorance of religion, in the dark. I want to learn to use God's 
 Word and then for freedom to preach the Gospel in 'regions be- 
 yond' ! Paul is my example of the 'sent one.' 
 
 I have inquired about Kathiawar since Raghuwar told me 
 this, his longing, as he thought there are no missionaries amongst 
 the three million people on this peninsula. The Methodist Mis- 
 sion is working in Baroda and they have put a dozen Christian 
 preachers in the heart of Kathiawar, but the Superintendent in the 
 Baroda district. Rev. L. E. Linzell, says, "the problem is a vast 
 one for so few workers." He also adds this information: 
 "Dwarka is situated on a small peninsula which looks like an 
 island. It is a beautiful place, and multitudes go there on pil- 
 grimage. The problem of the evangelization of Kathiawar is in- 
 deed a vast one for a few workers."
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 85 
 
 Shall we not all pray that God may guide in an especial man- 
 ner this sometime priest of Vishnu, that we in no way hinder him 
 if God sends him to "regions beyond," as he did Paul so long 
 ago; that he indeed have freedom to go where he wills according 
 to God's will, and that in no way we dampen the ardor of this 
 disciple of Jesus if he feels thrust forth in untrodden ways of 
 our missions. An oft repeated prayer of ours seems answered in 
 Raghuwar, for his heart is on fire with the missionary spirit, a 
 Pauline spirit, we believe, "not to glory in another's province in 
 regard to things ready to our hand," but eager, when his weapons 
 are ready, to go to unreached provinces and fight for the over- 
 throw of Satan. He has a military spirit and constantly to my 
 surprise uses military figures, often referring to "under the ban- 
 ner of Jesus," "the battle is before us," etc. 
 
 It is with reluctance that I leave this story here, for it is only 
 begun. A year ago Raghuwar was a priest in a heathen temple, 
 thirsting for knowledge and unsatisfied. Now he is full of joy 
 in his "house by the side of the road," where his loved friend 
 Bihari Lai already comes to read with him and has even joined 
 Mr. Gordon's class in the English Bible. His eyes shine when 
 he talks of Bihari Lai. Not long ago a wandering "holy man" 
 came to argue with him, when Raghuwar proved, at least to his 
 own satisfaction, that this man did not know the Hindu sacred 
 books; he showed him the way and the fallacies of Hinduism; he 
 expected him to accept the gospel at once, and he did get far 
 enough to wash idolatrous marks off his face and comb his hair, 
 yes, and he ate with him, but out in the town he was lured off, 
 greatly to Raghuwar's disappointment. He fell as if he must 
 do battle! He still prays for him and bore the test of this dis- 
 appointment well. 
 
 I asked him at last for the parting message to our American 
 brothers and sisters. Raghuwar stood up, as he has so often done
 
 86 RAGHUWAR DAYAL, 
 
 during this narrative, and this is the message he wishes me to 
 deliver to you as nearly as I can put it in his own words: 
 
 "It matters not how far I shall be cast arvay, how much suf- 
 fering, how much trial I want to win my brothers to Christ. 
 You have reached out a hand and placed it on India. I be- 
 seech you not to take it up until she be saved! There is many 
 an empty place, empty of hearing the Word. Oh, send here 
 more sowers ; let us go forth together to see if this place or that 
 be fruitful or not. Until we have examined the great fields how 
 can we know if the land be good or not? True, we shall find 
 many patches and wide fields full of stones and thorns; we must 
 remove the former and uproot the latter. 
 
 'Yadi mahinat \are, parishram t{hdli na jaegi,' i. e. if we 
 work, our labor is not empty (vain). In some we may need 
 harvesters of ripened grain, but, oh, fields unknowing good seed 
 lie all about us; the solvers must go forth to sotv! We must 
 never give up ! As an ant clings to the foot of a man, never 
 losing his hold until the body be torn from the head, so we must 
 keep hold! 
 
 "THIS IS A FIGHT! How many centuries has India lain 
 passive in Satan's hand ! We have begun the battle, let no one be 
 piplayan (a deserter). He has clearly commanded us; let us 
 not be disobedient. What matter if the way be hard and rough? 
 If God says 'Go,' how dare we crouch in our houses, hiding? 
 How dare we question, 'How can I go to this country or that?' 
 when He has plainly said: 'Co vc into all the rvorld' ? We are, 
 in such cases, disobedient cowards! How can any Christian de- 
 cide to just sit in his house and eat? My favorite song of the 
 Christian songs I have heard is: 
 
 Omvard Christian soldiers, 
 Marching as to ivar! 
 
 That hymn makes my heart strong! It makes me want to go
 
 SOMETIME PRIEST OF VISHNU. 87 
 
 anywhere, ANYWHERE the sheltering shadow of the Cross has 
 never fallen. The work needs to be done quickly, NOW. Ra- 
 wan, the Demon, once said: 'I shall make the bitter waters of 
 the oceans sweet,' but what happened? As he tarried Ram 
 Chandra came. Rawan had Indra on his side. He could have 
 accomplished this blessing for his followers, sweet water for salt, 
 but, delaying, he died! We may have to leave some earth work 
 undone, but first we must do the heaven work! India lies under 
 a blanket of sin, a blanket which day by day grows heavier with 
 waters of death. Our poor, poor country, rue must take this wet 
 blanket off! It is smothering our land! I want to go any place 
 where Jesus goes before. First, I must prepare as patiently as in 
 me lies patiently as I can, not knowing how long my life here 
 will be, and knowing my brothers pass out into the night. When 
 I get impatient I think: Wait, Wait, all will come at last! God 
 must get his soldiers ready, even as our king does, strong, well- 
 fed, hearty men. It is as though a campaign in a hostile coun- 
 try were being prepared, for the battle is sore and heavy ahead ! 
 The Hindu shastras say: 'When the battle begins, the door of 
 heaven opens!' Let us not be afraid, let us only be ready. VIC- 
 TORY CERTAINLY WILL BE. The message of Raghuwar, a dis- 
 ciple of Jesus, to His disciples in America." 
 
 Related to ADELAIDE Gail Frost in Mahoha, India, 1909.

 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
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