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THE POWER OF KARMA accompanied a Sanskrit scholar on a tour of exploration, and that his presence in India was, in great measure, due to accident.
"You talk like a true Sutukaran" (man from the West), said Coomra Sami, as he led the way to a tree close by, at the foot of which was a rude bench on which they both sat down. “With you everything is accident; you come into the world by accident, and you are shortsighted enough to imagine the union of your parents was also due to accident. Your whole life is a series of accidents, and, when finally the soul quits the carcass, your death is, in most cases, attributed to accident.”
"You are mistaken as to the latter point," replied his visitor, impressed by the solemnity and dignity of Coomra's manner. “We only speak of such deaths as due to accident as are entirely unforeseen. For instance, when a person is drowned, shot through misadventure, or killed by lightning, and these, after all, are exceptions."
"I have lived among your people,” said the Adept thoughtfully, "and I noticed that even in ordinary cases of death through disease they would say: 'Oh, if he had not caught cold on such and such an occasion,' or 'if he had not spent two days in that fever-stricken village,'
