ere undergoing a
period of penance at Manasarova, and made him their guest for two
months. They approach the sacred peak of Kailasa:

It inspired me with the profoundest feelings of pure reverence,
and I looked up to it as a "natural mandala," the mansion of a
Buddha and Bodhisattvas. Filled with soul-stirring thoughts and
fancies I addressed myself to this sacred pillar of nature,
confessed my sins, and performed to it the obeisance of one
hundred and eight bows. I also took out the manuscript of my
"twenty-two desires," and pledged their accomplishment to the
Buddha. I then considered myself the luckiest of men, to have
thus been enabled to worship such a holy emblem of Buddha's
power and to vow such vows in its sacred presence, and I mused:

Whate'er my sufferings here and dangers dire,
Whate'er befalls me on my onward march,
All, all, I feel, is for the common good
For others treading on Salvation's path

The night of my performance of these devotional practices must
have been a matter of wonder and mystery to my companions. They
had been watching me like gaping and astonished children, and
were all intensely curious to know why I had bowed so many
times, and read out such strange Chinese sentences. I was glad
to explain to them the general meaning of my conduct and they
seemed to be deeply struck with its significance. They said they
had never known the Chinese Lamas were men of such Bodhisattvic
mind! The upshot was that they asked me to preach to them that
night, a request to which I was very glad to accede. The
preaching which followed, which I purposely made as simple and
as appealing to the heart as possible, seemed to affect them
profoundly, and to make the best possible impression on them; so
much so that they even shed tears of joy. The preaching over,
they said in all sincerity that they were glad of companionship,
and even offered to regard me as their guest during the two
months which they intended to spend in pilgrimage to and round
the Kang Rinpoche. They thought that their pilgrimage over such
holy ground, while serving such a holy man as I now was to them,
would absolve them completely from their sins.

It was during this pilgrimage that there occurred the tender episode
already alluded to, from which the Shramana, though "neither a block
of wood, nor a pie