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… the Bhagat beat with his crutch on the barred windows of the blacksmith’s house, as his torch blazed up in the shelter of the eaves. ‘Up and out!’ cried Purun Bhagat; and he did not know his own voice, for it was years since he had spoken aloud to a man. ‘The hill falls! The hill is falling! Up and out, oh, you within!’ |
This is from “The Miracle of Purun Bhagat.” A very senior Indian administrator, at the peak of his profession, has abandoned power, responsibility, and possessions, and become a wandering holy man. He settles in a little hut, high above a village in the hills, where he lives for many years, pondering the meaning of existence. Then one night he wakes amid torrents of rain to find that the hill is moving. He hastens down to rouse the villagers, and they escape just before a great landslip, that carries their houses away. For the Bhagat it has been a last act of will before his death. They build a shrine in his memory. |
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