Page:Karl Gjellerup - The Pilgrim Kamanita - 1911.djvu/132

 But he decided that the time was not yet come, and that such knowledge could not be helpful to the pilgrim in his efforts.

The Master, therefore, spoke and said—

"To be separated from what we love is suffering, to be united to what we do not love is suffering. When this was said, it was said of such an experience as thine."

"Oh! how true," called out Kamanita, in an agitated voice," how profoundly, deeply true! Who, O stranger, uttered those wonderful words?"

"Give thyself no concern about that, pilgrim. It is all the same who uttered them, if thou dost but feel and recognise their truth."

"How should I not? They contain indeed in a few words all my life-trouble. Had I not already chosen a master, I should seek no other than the admirable one with whom these words originated."

"Then thou hast, O pilgrim, a Master, whose teaching thou dost acknowledge, and in whose name thou hast gone forth."

"In truth, O Reverend One, I went forth in the name of no master. On the contrary, my idea at that time was that I should win my way to the goal unaided. And when I rested by day in the neighbourhood of a village, at the foot of a tree, or in the recesses of a forest, then I gave myself up with fervour to the deepest thought. And to such thoughts as these, O Reverend One:—'What is the soul? What is the world? Is the world eternal? Is the soul eternal? Is the world temporal? Is the soul temporal? Is the soul eternal and the world temporal? Is the world eternal and the soul temporal? Or: Why has the highest Brahma caused the world to go forth from