Chapter XV
Emil told us that there would be a meeting that evening somewhat like the one we had attended at his home village the year before and invited us all to attend. We accepted with keen delight.
Just before the appointed time for the meeting, Emil, his mother, and I went to the child’s house for the mother and sister, as they had asked to go with us. On the way from the house to the meeting place, we passed a number of dilapidated mud huts. The little girl stopped before the door of one of these, saying that a blind woman lived there and asked Emil if she might go in and bring her to the meeting if she wished to come. This he gave her permission to do. The girl opened the door and stepped into the hut, while we stood waiting outside. In a few moments she reappeared in the doorway and said the woman was afraid and motioned for Emil to come to her. He went to the door and they conversed for a few moments. Then both entered the place.
Emil’s mother said, “That child will yet be a power for good among these people for she has the ability and determination to carry out whatever she undertakes. We have decided to let her handle this in her own way, except that we direct and assist her, guided by what we perceive as the thing best suited to give her more confidence in herself. Let us see the method she takes to induce this woman to be present at the meeting. The fear that these dear ones hold toward us is beyond belief. Many are moving away from the vicinity of the little one’s home, when you would think they would besiege us to assist them in obtaining homes like it. This is the reason we are obliged to be so careful of their feelings. While we desire to lift them all from their surroundings, as we did those dear ones, they flee from us at the first sign of our approach.”
I asked how she was able to help the child and her parents as she had.
She answered, “That was through the attitude of the child and through her we could help them all. She is the balance wheel in that household and through her we will reach this dear soul and many more here,” indicating the huts that were about. “It is these that we love to bring close to our hearts. That little home was not brought forth in vain.”
Here Emil and the girl appeared, saying that the woman wished the girl to wait for her and they would come on in a short time. We went on, leaving the girl with the blind woman.
When we arrived at the meeting place, nearly everyone had assembled and we found that the High Priest of the monastery was to be the head spokesman of the evening. We were told that Emil had met this Lama about eighteen months before and a warm friendship had been formed at that time. This meeting had been arranged and we were there at the Lama’s special request. This had been the occasion for their visit to us the last day on the desert. We were also told that the Governor was next in authority under this man. A number of the surmises of our leader were confirmed but our friends showed no fear whatever.
Emil said that both of these men were going to be their close friends from that time on and that it was seldom they were able to reach those as high in authority as these two, but they were content to let matters move on slowly. We were told that the preceding evening was the third time that Jesus and Buddha had appeared visibly to help them and they seemed pleased that we had been there to witness the scene. They did not seem to look upon it as an added triumph but as an opportunity to enable them to cooperate and work with these people.
At this time the girl entered, leading the blind woman. She found a seat for her charge, a little to the rear and at one side of the room. After the woman was seated, the girl stood facing her, holding both of her hands and, in a moment, she stooped forward as though she were speaking to the woman in a low voice. Then she straightened up and, letting go of the woman’s hands, placed her little hands over the woman’s eyes and held them there for two or three moments. This movement seemed to attract the attention of everyone in the room, from the High Priest down. All arose and stood looking at the child and the woman, while the High Priest walked rapidly over and placed his hand upon the child’s head. As he did this the child’s frame shook visibly but she did not change her position. The three remained thus for a few moments, then the child removed her hands and cried out joyously, “Why, you are not blind at all, you can see.” She pressed her lips to the woman’s forehead, then turned and walked over to our Chief.
She seemed somewhat bewildered and said, “I spoke in your language. How did I do that?” Then she said, “Why does not the woman see she is not blind any more? She can see.”
We looked again at the woman; she had risen and, clasping the robe of the High Priest in both her hands, she said in the native tongue, “I can see you.” Then she looked around the room with a half- dazed air, saying, “I can see you all.” She let go of the Priest’s robe and burying her face in her hands, sank back into the seat she had been occupying, sobbing, “I can see, I can see, but you are all so clean and I am so dirty. Let me go away.”
Then Emil’s mother stepped forward. Standing directly back of where the woman was sitting, she placed both her hands on the woman’s shoulders. The Priest raised his hands but not a word was spoken. Almost instantly, the woman’s garments changed to clean new ones. Emil’s mother removed her hands from the woman’s shoulders. The woman arose and in a dazed, perplexed way looked around. The Priest asked what she was looking for and she replied that she was looking for her old clothing. Then the Priest said, “Do not look for your old clothes. See, you are clad in clean new garments.” She stood for another moment as though wrapped in perplexed thought; then her face lighted up with a smile, she bowed very low and resumed her seat.
We were told that this woman had been blind for more than twenty-five years and that the blindness had been caused when the eyeballs were pierced by fine shot from a gun in the hands of one of a band of robbers.
The excitement had been so great that our party had crowded around. The leader, meanwhile, had worked his way to the little girl, and they were conversing in low tones. He told us afterwards that the child spoke English very well. Our hostess had interpreted when the conversation was carried on in the native tongue.
Someone suggested that we should be seated at the table. As we began taking our places, the woman arose the told Emil’s mother, who had stood quietly at her side, that she would like to go. The child stepped forward, saying she would go with her and see that she arrived home safely.
Here, the High Priest asked the woman where she lived and, upon being told, said she must not go back to that filthy place. The girl said she was expecting to have the woman stay at her house and, arm in arm, they left the room.
When we were all seated, the dishes were placed on the table as though by unseen hands. At this, we saw the Priest start and look around in wonderment. But when the edibles began to arrive in the same way, he turned to Emil’s mother, who was seated at his right hand, and asked if this was a regular occurrence with them, saying that he had never been privileged to witness this before. He turned to Emil, who was interpreting for us, as though he would like some explanation. Then Emil explained they were able to use the same power that was used to heal the blind woman, to bring forth all that they needed. It was quite plain that he was still puzzled but he said no more until the meal was well under way.
He arose and, with Jast acting as interpreter, said, “I believe I can see more deeply than I imagined human beings could be privileged to see. Although my whole life has been spent in the Order of the Priesthood, in which, as I supposed, I was serving my fellow men, I observe now that I was but serving self far more than I was serving my brother. How this brotherhood has been extended tonight—and my vision has followed that extension! I am just now allowed to see what a narrow life we are living; that we have lived despising everyone but our own people. This vision allows me to see that you are of the sublime as well as we and what a celestial joy that vision allows me to behold.”
Here he paused with his hands half upraised, while a look of surprise and pleasure flooded his countenance. He stood in this position for a moment, then he said, “This is nonsense. I can and will speak in the language you speak. Why can I not do this? I see what your thoughts were when you told me that there was no limit to man’s ability to express. I find that I can speak directly to you so that you may understand.”
He paused for a moment as though to pick up the thread of thought, then spoke without the aid of an interpreter. We were told afterwards that this was the first time he had spoken in English. He continued, “How beautiful it is to be able to speak directly to you in your own language. With the broader vision this has given me, I am consumed with wonder as to why men look upon any of their brothers as enemies. It comes so clearly that we all must be of the same family, the same source, the same cause. Would that not determine that there was room for all? If one brother chooses to see differently than we do, why should we say that he must perish? I see we cannot interfere for, if we interfere, we but retard our own development and isolate ourselves. If we do this our house will fall and crumble about our own heads. Now I see, instead of a limited race, a universal, eternal, limitless All—All coming from the One and returning to the One.
“I see that your Jesus and our Buddha lived by the same light. There lives, as well as all others who live in and by that same light, must merge into the One. I am beginning to see where it all converges. The crystal clear light is shedding its radiance over me. I believe that man elevates himself to a regal position but often, when he has gained that position, he can no more see his brother as regal. He wishes to be regal himself and his brother to be the serf.
“Why did that child place her hands on the eyes of that dear one whose eyes were closed? I see now that it was because that child saw more deeply than I, who should have had more knowledge. It is what you call a mighty love. It is the same which caused Jesus and Buddha to stand together; at which I did wonder but I wonder no longer. Now I see that it does no harm to include you all for, as we include you, we have the good that you have and that can but benefit us. I can see that the power which will always protect you will protect me. The armor that protects me will in the same way protect you. If it protects you and me, it must protect all. The dividing line has disappeared. What a celestial truth! I see your thought when you say the world is God’s world and the near and far places are His. If we see the near and far places together, they will be the same to us. We live in a place surrounded by our own world, not seeing the fact that outside our little world the whole wide world surrounds us; and that world will help us if we will let it. Then to think that God surrounds one and all!
“I now see the Holy Brother’s thought when he said the doors are to be thrown wide to those who are ready to receive. It is said that man shall not only give ear but he shall become that which he claims to be and, sinking self, he shall be immersed in the Brotherhood of Man. It is deeds, not fine words, that endure. I can see that the way of progress is not only barred by the creeds of others but by those of ourselves. Each is directly claiming the graces of the Most High; each attempting to build up his own by dismantling and tearing down all others. Instead of using energy to tear down, that energy should go to consolidate the whole. The most High not only made one nation of one life but of one life all the nations of the earth. The time is now come when we must choose between creeds and the Brotherhood of Man. Creeds are but the conjurings of man. The faith that moves mountains still slumbers in the seed of the plan. The height and grandeur are still there for man to attain. The law of enlightenment has preceded that of miracle. This law of enlightenment is the higher law of Love and Love is the Universal Brotherhood.
“I now see that all that is needed is for each to return to the fountain of his own religion, to remove all false interpretations and cast out all selfishness. In each will be found the pure gold of the alchemist, the Wisdom of the Most High; your God and my God, not many gods of many people, just one God. It is the same God who spoke to Moses from out of the burning bush; the same God of whom Jesus spoke when he said that through prayer he could summon legions to sustain him in his hour of mortal struggle in doing the work the Father had given him to do; the same God to whom Peter prayed when he was released from prison. I now see the mighty power that can be summoned to the aid of those who will cooperate in the Brotherhood of a consecrated life.”
Here he raised a glass and held it for a moment in the palm of his hand. He became very still and the glass crumbled to dust. Then he continued, “The armies before Jericho knew of this power when they blew their trumpets and the walls of the city fell. Paul and Silas knew of it when they released themselves from prison.”
Again he stood for a moment in perfect silence. The building rocked and swayed, great tongues of lightning flashed, and two great masses of rock became detached from the mountainside about a mile away and came rumbling down into the valley below. The villagers came running from their houses in terror and we could scarcely restrain ourselves from doing the same, so violently did the building rock and sway.
Then he lifted his hand, all became quiet, and he continued: “Of what avail are armies or navies, when man knows that God has this power and that His true sons may use it? You can sweep an army away as a child blows the down from a thistle. As for great battleships, they may be dissolved like this glass.” Here he lifted the plate upon which he had deposited the powder that now represented the glass. He breathed upon it lightly; it burst into flames and disappeared entirely.
He again resumed, “These legions come not to do your work or my work or to use man as their instrument; man may call upon them to encourage, sustain, and comfort him in his work as master of every condition of life. With this power man may still the waves, control the winds, quench the fire, or direct the multitude. One may use them only as he has mastered them. He may use them for the good of the whole human race or he may use them to drive home the meaning of man cooperating with God. One who is able in his divinity to call upon these legions, knows beyond question that he can use this combined power only in true service to humanity, for he knows that it will consume him as well as defend him.”
Here the speaker paused for a moment, stretched forth his hands, and in a measured, reverent voice, said, “Father, it is our great pleasure to have these, our dear friends, with us tonight. It is with a true and humble heart that we say `Thy will be done.’ We bless them and in blessing them we bless the whole world.”
He sat down as calmly as though nothing out of the ordinary had taken place and all our friends were calm; but the members of our party were on tiptoe with excitement. Then the invisible choir broke forth with “All know the power that’s in a name, and man may proclaim himself the King and then with humble mien, that man may rule himself supreme.”
