For some time Utonka remained motionless with wonder and astonishment, but at last he stood up laughing and exclaimed, “Ugh! I have been dreaming again.” Then meditatively and with eyes half closed he went slowly towards the ashram.
As he approached he saw that many Brahmin guests were seated in a circle, their faces radiant with joy, while his Guru Ved was in the centre. They all looked with veneration to the place where the Guru’s wife was seated. She was expressing some anxiety because of Utonka’s delay. “Every one has come,” she was saying; “but why is Utonka so late? Can some accident have happened to him on the way?” To this Ved replied at once, “Do not be anxious, for he will be here immediately.” Even as he spoke Utonka appeared from behind a screen of jasmine flowers, and at the same moment the eyes of both the Guru and his wife met his own.
All were delighted as Utonka first of all did obeisance to his Guru and his Guru’s wife, laying the precious ear-rings at their feet. Then he saluted the rest of the company. The woman’s eyes filled with tears of joy as she took the ear-rings, then she went towards the house looking at them as she went.
