The guru returned while I was asleep, this I knew since, by my side, I found a sack full of dehydrated fruits and roasted insects when I woke up on the third morning. He came back that same afternoon to continue his non-stop mumbling until nightfall. I guess that he would have continued, but I could not bear it any longer and stood up, saying: "I am wasting my time." And started to walk away.

"Why?" he asked in understandable English. "Wher is trober man to go in dee nite."

"If you know English, why have you kept me here for hours listening to all that nonsense."

"I wars consterin you."

"Counseling me?"

"Nu, consorin you."

"Consoling me. How?"

"Givin you kind words, in di languish I know to say wirs, for givin trober man herp."

"Why do you call me a troubled man?"

"You have come for inspiration to di mountens. Only hiiir sick minds come."

"I do not have a sick mind."

"Nutin that meaning, but in thinking trober."

"Sense, not meaning," I corrected him, only if I understood him correctly.

"Yes, in trober sense." He misunderstood me, but I left it at that.

"Will you help me then."

"Nu, noot me. Di mountens, an di river, an di crouds is your herp."

"But are you not a guru?"

"Is now you who misonderstud me. You and I look for di inside light. Is it noot so?"

"Light! I do not believe in mystic powers, if there is enlightenment is must be purely a mental achievement."

And with a great smile that almost closed his eyes, he offered me a subtle encouragement, "So you understand."

"You are saying then there is no god?"

"Look for hard questions, not easy answers," he said in perfect English, barely a trace of an accent.

"But I want to know."

"Den go an ask di mountens."

"Don't you have the answer?"

"I have not asked."

So I looked around. I looked up to the starry firmament and the waning moon. I looked at the imposing silhouette of the Himalayan mountain range in the foreground. And felt a tiger run at a distance in the night. In the morning I was awakened by the screeching of an eagle and witness it swooping up a snake from the ground. I listened to the flowing Ganges River and experience the cleansing of its water. I observed Nature and was delighted by all its beauty, but it was futile.

"I cannot remain here," I told the guru after many days have passed. "My world is complicated with problems and controversies, but I belong there. I am a creature of that disorder. And it is my purpose to resolve the problems that might come. I cannot remain here. I feel dead here."

With that, the old man smiled, crouched down and closed his eyes to meditate. I knew he understood clearly, even more than I could.

I continued with my journey back home.

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