Recording intelligenceAI-generated brief · check the source for context

Escape to the Himalayas

12:26 recording · EN · 1 speaker

Listen to the original

Brief overview

A boy's flight to the Himalayas collapses at a police station, yet his resolve hardens.

  1. The escape was planned down to the leatherRubber-soled shoes, a stripped Gita cover and English clothes were chosen so no animal was slaughtered and no detective could spot them.
  2. A companion's betrayal became a test of faithJatinda split the money, bought his own ticket and vanished at Burdwan; Amar called it a divine test and Mukunda's heart steadied.
  3. Truth was kept even inside the disguiseAmar insisted he would not speak untruth, then outwitted the official as Thomas and Thompson while Mukunda kept still.
Executive Summary AI
  • Mukunda plans an uninterrupted flight to the Himalayas with his friend Amar, hiding the scheme from his watchful brother Ananta, who suspects an escape.
  • On a rainy morning he throws a bundle of blanket, sandals, Lahiri Mahasaya's picture, a Bhagavad Gita, prayer beads and two loincloths from a third-story window, meets Amar, buys English clothes at Chudney Chowk with saved tiffin money, collects his cousin Jatinda, and replaces all leather with rubber-soled shoes before taking tickets to Burdwan.
  • At Burdwan Jatinda proposes dividing the money so each buys his own ticket, then disappears for fifteen minutes and never returns, which Amar reframes as a divine test.
  • Warned by Ananta's telegram, a European station agent questions them at Mogil Saray, but Amar, refusing to lie outright, gives the names Thomas and Thompson and the official puts the supposed half-English boys into a European compartment.
  • At Rishikesh a policeman detains them until Ananta arrives and tells how he nearly severed a sadhu's arm with an axe, only to find the arm rejoined and unscarred three days later, leaving the boys' search ended in a police station rather than at a master's feet.
Key Quote
“Each of us should buy his own ticket at Burdwan. Thus no one at the station will surmise that we are running away together.”
— Jatinda
Key Quote
“No matter what the outcome, I will not speak untruth. All I ask of you, Mukunda, is to keep still.”
— Amar
Key Quote
“Are you running away from home in anger?”
— European station agent

Transcript

0:00 CHAPTER IV. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI. my uninterrupted flight toward the himalayas leave your classroom on some following day for our flight. Precautions were necessary,
0:46 as Ananta exercised a vigilant eye. He was determined to foil the plans of escape which
0:52 he suspected were uppermost in my mind. The amulet, like a spiritual yeast, was silently
0:59 at work within me. Amidst the Himalayan snows i hoped to find the master whose face often appeared to me in visions the family was living now in cal meditations and prepared my mind for the divine search,
1:27 the memorable morning arrived with inauspicious rain.
1:31 Hearing the wheels of Amar's carriage in the road,
1:34 I hastily tied together a blanket, a pair of sandals,
1:38 Lahiri Mahasaya's picture, a copy of the Bhagavad Gita,
1:42 a string of prayer beads, and two loincloths.
2:07 This bundle I threw from my third-story window i ran down the steps and passed my uncle buying fish at the door what is the excitement his gaze robed suspiciously over my person the lane. Retrieving my bundle, I joined Amar with conspiratorial caution. We drove to Chudney Chowk, a merchandise centre. For months we had been saving our tiffin money to buy English clothes.
2:13 Knowing that my clever brother could easily play the part of a detective, we thought to outwit him
2:19 by European garb. On the way to the station, we stopped for my cousin jotin gush whom i called jatinda he was a new convert longing for a guru in the himalayas he donned the new suit we had in readiness well camouflage we hoped shoes. I led my companions to a shop, displaying rubber-soled footwear. Articles of leather gotten
2:47 only through the slaughter of animals must be absent on this holy trip. I halted on the street
2:52 to remove the leather cover from my Bhagavad Gita, and the leather straps from my English-made
2:57 Sulatopi helmet. At the station we bought tickets to Burdwan, where we planned to transfer for Hardwar in the Himalayan foothills.
3:07 As soon as the train, like ourselves, was in flight, I gave utterance to a few of my glorious
3:12 anticipations. Just imagine, I ejaculated, we should be initiated by the masters and experience
3:20 the trance of cosmic consciousness. Our flesh will be charged with such magnetism that wild animals
3:26 of the Himalayas will come tamely near us. Tigers will be no more than meek house-cats awaiting our
3:32 caresses. This remark, picturing a prospect I considered entrancing, both metaphorically and
3:38 literally, brought an enthusiastic smile from Amar. But Jatinda averted his gaze, directing it through the window at the scampering
3:47 landscape. Let the money be divided in three portions. Jatinda broke a long silence with
3:53 this suggestion. Each of us should buy his own ticket at Burdwan. Thus no one at the station
3:58 will surmise that we are running away together. I unsuspectingly agreed. At dusk our train stopped at Burdwan.
4:06 Jatinda entered the ticket office.
4:08 Amar and I sat on the platform.
4:11 We waited fifteen minutes, then made unavailing inquiries.
4:15 Searching in all directions, we shouted Jatinda's name with the urgency of fright,
4:19 but he had faded into the dark unknown surrounding the little station.
4:23 I was completely unnerved, shocked to a peculiar numbness that god would countenance this depressing episode the romantic occasion of't you stand the little test of a treacherous companion through amma's suggestion of a divine test my heart steadied itself sweetmeats, sitabog, food for the goddess, and mutichur, nuggets of sweet pearl.
5:07 In a few hours we entrained for Hardwar via Barayli. Changing trains at Mogil Saray,
5:14 we discussed a vital matter as we waited on the platform. Amar, we may soon be closely
5:20 questioned by railroad officials. I'm not underrating my brother's ingenuity. No matter
5:25 what the outcome, I will not speak untruth. All I ask of you, Mukunda, is to keep still.
5:32 Don't laugh or grin while I'm talking. At this moment a European station agent accosted me.
5:37 He waved a telegram, whose import I immediately grasped.
5:41 Are you running away from home in anger? No.
5:45 I was glad his choice of words permitted me to make emphatic reply.
5:50 Not anger, but divinest melancholy was responsible, I knew, for my unconventional behaviour.
5:56 The official then turned to Amar.

Showing the first 40 of 93 lines.