Page:Karl Gjellerup - The Pilgrim Kamanita - 1911.djvu/278

 interview would be more possible if no others waited to come after me.

After I had bent myself reverently, the Master looked at me with a glance which filled my being with light to its innermost depths, and said—

"And to thee, Vasitthi, I give, on the threshold of this ruined sanctuary of the Sixteen-thousand-one-hundredfold Bridegroom,—to remember me by, and to think of under the leafy shelter of this Sinsapa wood, of which thou dost carry a leaf on, and a shadow in, thy heart,—the following motto: 'Where love is, there is also suffering.

"Is that all?" I foolishly asked.

"All, and enough."

"And it will be permitted me, when I have made its meaning fully my own, to make a pilgrimage to the Master and to receive a new sentence?"

"It will be permitted, if thou dost still feel the need of asking the Master."

"How should I not feel the need? Art thou not, O Reverend Master, our refuge?"

"Seek refuge in thyself; take refuge in the doctrine."

"I shall certainly do so. But thou, O Master, art the very self of the disciples; thou art the living doctrine. And thou hast said: 'It will be permitted.

"If the way do not tire thee."

"No way can tire me."

"The way is long, Vasitthi! The way is longer than thou dost think for, longer than human thought is able to realise."

"And if the way lead through a thousand lives and over a thousand worlds, no way shall tire me."

"Good then, Vasitthi. Farewell, and remember thy motto."