A blaze of illumination came over me with possession of the amulet;
many dormant memories awakened. The talisman, round and anciently
quaint, was covered with Sanskrit characters. I understood that it
came from teachers of past lives, who were invisibly guiding my
steps. A further significance there was, indeed; but one does not
reveal fully the heart of an amulet.

How the talisman finally vanished amidst deeply unhappy circumstances
of my life; and how its loss was a herald of my gain of a guru,
cannot be told in this chapter.

But the small boy, thwarted in his attempts to reach the Himalayas,
daily traveled far on the wings of his amulet.

{FN2-1} Sanskrit root meaning of SWAMI is "he who is one with his
Self (SWA)." Applied to a member of the Indian order of monks, the
title has the formal respect of "the reverend."

{FN2-2} The Indian custom, whereby parents choose the life-partner
for their child, has resisted the blunt assaults of time. The
percentage is high of happy Indian marriages.

{FN2-3} An anchorite; one who pursues a SADHANA or path of spiritual
discipline.

{FN2-4} When I discovered by these words that Mother had possessed
secret knowledge of a short life, I understood for the first time
why she had been insistent on hastening the plans for Ananta's
marriage. Though she died before the wedding, her natural maternal