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Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism278
poets and the philosophers; and see how soon you will recognize that the
writers are your brothers. The dark corners and hard sayings will become
plain to you now. You need not be alone—you are one of a great and
growing family.
But, on the other hand, avoid being possessed of an inflated idea of
your own development. You are but on the threshold, and the great hall
of the Occult is before you, and in that hall there are many degrees, and an
initiation must be met and passed before you may go on.
Before we pass to the next stage of the growth of the flower, it may be
interesting to our readers to listen to a description of a peculiar experience
related by that great modern writer, Rudyard Kipling—he who understands
much more than he tells his English and American readers—in his story of East
Indian life, entitled “Kim.” Many read what he has said and can “see nothing
in it,” but those who have had glimpses of this Spiritual Consciousness will
readily understand it. Here it is:
“‘Now am I alone—all alone,’ he thought. ‘In all India is no one else so alone as I! If I
die to-day, who shall bring the news—and to whom? If I live and God is good, there
will be a price upon my head, for I am a Son of the Charm—I, Kim.’
“A very few white people, but many Asiatics, can throw themselves into amazement,
as it were, by repeating their own names over and over again to themselves, letting
the mind go free upon speculation as to what is called personal identity.…
“‘Who is Kim—Kim—Kim?’
“He squatted in a corner of the clanging waiting room, rapt from all other thoughts;
hands folded in lap, and pupils contracted to pin points. In a moment—in another
half-second—he felt that he would arrive at the solution of the tremendous puzzle;
but here, as always happens, his mind dropped away from those heights with the
rush of a wounded bird, and passing his hand before his eyes, he shook his head.
“A long-haired Hindu bairagi (holy man) who had just bought a ticket, halted
before him at that moment and stared intently.