Page:Karl Gjellerup - The Pilgrim Kamanita - 1911.djvu/303

 by the less. And this, that thousands upon thousands of worlds should pass away, is of trifling import compared with the entering of a Perfected Buddha into Nirvana. For all this that we see around us is only a process of change, and all these beings will enter again into existence. Yonder hundred-thousand-foldthousandfold [sic] Brahma who, burning with rage, resists the inevitable and, in all probability, regards even us enviously because we quietly continue to shine, he will reappear on some lower plane, while some aspiring human spirit will arise as the Brahma. Each being will be where the deepest desire of his heart and his spiritual force guide him. On the whole, however, everything will be as it was, neither better nor worse; because it will be created, as it were, out of the same material. For which reason I call this a very small matter. And, for the same reason, I consider it not only not frightful, but a matter of rejoicing to live through this wreck of worlds. For if this Brahma world were eternal, there would be nothing higher."

"Then thou knowest a higher than this Brahma world?"

"This Brahma world, as thou seest, passes away. But there is that which does not pass, which shall have no end, and which has had no beginning. 'There is,' says the Master, 'a place where there is neither earth nor water, neither light nor air, neither infinitude of space nor infinitude of consciousness, neither perception nor the lack of perception. That I call, ye disciples, neither coming nor going, neither birth nor death; that is the end of suffering, the place of rest, the land of peace, the invisible Nirvana.

"Help me, thou sweet and holy one, in order that we may rise again there, in the land of peace!"

That we shall rise again,' the Master has said, 'is not