Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 edition. Excerpt: ... ECSTASY AND VISION Esoteric Character To the Sadhu, as has been already indicated, the great source of illumination, solace and physical refreshment is the recurrent state of Ecstasy in which he feels himself caught up to what he believes to be the place alluded to by St. Paul as "the third heaven" (II Cor. xii. 2). "I never try to go into Ecstasy; nor do I advise other people to try. It is a gift to be accepted, but it should not be sought; if given, it is a pearl of great price. During the fourteen years of my life as a sadhu there have been many times when, suffering from hunger, thirst or persecution, I might have been tempted to give it up but for the gift of these times of Ecstasy, but these I would not give up for the whole world." Clearly, a study of the Sadhu's religion would be gravely misleading which did not include an account of experiences to which he himself attaches such importance. Equally clearly the attempt to give one raises grave difficulties. Educated people, unless indeed they have studied the lives of the Mystics, are apt to question the mental balance of any one who not only sees Visions, but takes them seriously. The uneducated, on the other hand, especially in the East, may be inclined to regard both the seer and his revelations with that kind of superstitious veneration which the Sadhu himself is studiously anxious to preclude. The Sadhu is quite alive to the danger. In public addresses he never alludes to his Visions; he only mentions them, and that but rarely, when speaking to friends whose discernment and discretion he trusts. Giving an explanation of a certain religious difficulty1 he remarked, ' This is a thing I often say in preaching, but I never say that I heard it in an Ecstasy, because people would...
