He had a new god, a new heaven and forty different and distinct ways
of torturing one's self while worshiping his deity. Mortifying
the flesh through fasting and self-denial, torturing one's self by
standing with the hands above the head, etc., all were included in the
new creed, besides such things as astral bodies and the other things
that go with a new religion. He first held forth in a sumptuously
furnished city flat, where he managed to draw to him a small gathering
of the select who love to dabble in mysterious oriental affairs.
The flat was a dream in itself, and when to it was added a tall,
ascetic young Hindu, with the look of the fanatic burning brightly
in his eyes, and mystic rites of a religious nature, the effect was
irresistible; at least it proved to be to those foregathered under
the tutelage of the young oriental. There were incense burnings and
incantations galore. At first these things did not cost anything.
No. The young mystic was simply working for the enlightenment of the
world, working to spread light into the stygian darkness of the old
and false dogmas and creeds.
After those who flocked to his standard had been so thoroughly imbued
with the sincerity of his teachings that his word was law to them,
the money question came to the fore. He, the missionary, wanted
nothing for himself--oh, no. But there was need for funds for the
establishment of the cult in India. A school and home must be founded
for the young devotees of the new religion in that country, a place
where they could go and live and be trained in the tenets of the creed
and prepared to go out in the world and teach. And it was for this
that the Hindu had come to this country, to permit the chosen ones
here to acquirement with the new deity by subscribing to the school
fund.
Since the beginning of things, when man first beheld the sun and bowed
humbly before it, it has been the custom to heap offerings on the
altar of worship. So the Hindu went back with funds enough to start
half a dozen schools if he had been at all inclined that way, which he
wasn't, and the people who were his followers are still living in the
hope that he will return.