Page:The Gospel of Râmakrishna.djvu/341

 fore he had to take the sin of killing so many innocent people. As the result of this terrible sin, he lost his power and after death he had to suffer in purgatory. There was another Siddha, who was very proud of his psychic powers. He was a good man and an ascetic. One day the Lord came to him in the form of a saint and said: "Revered sir, I have heard that thou possessest wonderful powers." The good man received him kindly and gave him a seat. At this moment an elephant passed by. The saint asked him: "Sir, if thou desirest, canst thou kill this elephant?" The Siddha replied: "Yes, it is possible"; and taking a handful of dust, he repeated some mantram over it and threw it on the elephant. Imme-diately the animal roared, fell on the ground in agony and died. Seeing this, the saint ex- claimed: "What wonderful power thou possess-est! Thou hast killed such a huge creature in a moment!" The saint then entreated him, saying: "Thou must also possess the power to bring him back to life." The Siddha replied: "Yes, that is also possible." Again he took a handful of dust, chanted a mantram, threw it on the elephant, and lo! the elephant revived and