Page:Karl Gjellerup - The Pilgrim Kamanita - 1911.djvu/145

 which of necessity they had to borrow all the colouring from this life, would they not, the more they pursued that Beyond, have but clung the more to the Present?

"Like the watch-dog that, bound to a post and trying to free himself, rushes in a circle round the post—even so those worthy disciples, out of sheer hatred for this life, would have rushed in an endless circle around it."

"Though I am certainly compelled to acknowledge this danger," was Kamanita's answer, "I yet hold that the other danger, the uncertainty evoked by silence, is by much the more dangerous, inasmuch as it cripples the energies from the very beginning. For how can the disciple be expected to exert himself with all his might, with decision, and courage, to overcome all suffering, if he doesn't know what is to follow, whether eternal bliss or non-existence?"

"My friend, what wouldst thou think in such a case as this? Let us say that a house is burning, and that the servant runs to waken his master: 'Get up, sir! Fly! the house is on fire. Already the rafters are burning and the roof is about to fall in!' Would the master be likely to answer, 'Go, my good fellow, and see whether there is rain and storm without, or whether it is a fine moonlit night. In the latter case we will betake ourselves outside?

"But how, O Reverend One, could the master give such an answer? For the servant had called to him in terror: 'Fly, sir! The house is on fire. Already the rafters are burning and the roof threatens to fall in.

"Of course the servant had called to him. But if, in spite of that, the master answered: 'Go, my good fellow, and see whether there is rain and storm without