The Equinox (Volume I, Number III)

THE EQUINOX On the 7th of March P. left Calcutta for Benares, arriving there on the following day, and lodging at the Hétel de Paris he continued his concentration practices. In his diary on this date he writes: “The fear of the future seems practically destroyed, and during the last six months I have worked well. This removes all possible selfishness of incentive (after 4% years) Maitri-Bhavana is left, and that alone. Aum!” At Benares he visited the temples, and had a long conver- sation with Sri Swami Swayam Prakashananda Maithila; and then after three days’ sojourn there journeyed to Agra. “JT saw the Taj. A dream of beauty,” he writes, “ with appallingly evil things dwelling therein. I actually had to use H.P.K. formula! The building soon palls; the aura is apparent, and disgust succeeds. But the central hall is of strained aura, like a magic circle after the banishing.” At Agra P. met Astrologer and Geomancer Munshi Elihu Bux; who told him that by looking hard at a point on the wall constantly and without winking for many days he would be able to obtain an hypnotic power even to Deadly and Hostile Current of Will. On the 16th P. left Agra and went to Delhi, and there on the 23rd he was joined by D. A., and these two with their companions on the following day journeyed to Rawal Pindi and from this city they set out together to travel for five months in the northern and little frequented districts of Baltistan, and to seek that great solemnity and solitude which is only to be found amongst the greatest mountains of earth. With the Dhydna Visions and Trance we arrive at another turning point in Frater P.’s magical ascent. For several years he had worked by the aid of Western methods, and with them he had laid a mighty and unshakable foundation upon which 172