Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/122

102 his improvements in the mixing up of several colours. The dull monotony of prison-life would have broken a less ardent spirit. But like a Yogi, Mr. Tilak had withdrawn all thoughts from the living present and had concentrated them on the vicissitudes of the ancient Aryans. His happiest moments were those when obscure Vedic passages yielded their meaning to his searching intellect, and when he could correctly interpret the verse commencing with * Taneedahani bahulanyasan in the Rig Veda (VII, 76, 3) he could not sleep for joy. Mr. Tilak's prison-life shows that he was possessed not only of the qualities of the soldier and the scholar but also those of the sage, who has transcended pleasure and plain, happiness and misery and looks at the petty struggles of the world from the sublime heights of his controlled mind.

The sudden and unexpected release of Mr. Tilak sent a thrill of joy throughout the country. He came out of the gaol a broken man—broken physically, never mentally or morally. Old age put its ineffaceable marks upon his face. His first duty, therefore, was to recoup his health. He spent a few months at his favourite sanitorium, the Sinhgad, hallowed by the exploits of Shivaji. Then he attended the Congress (Dec. 1898) at Madras; thence he went to Ceylon and) returned Poona in February 1899. During his tours in Ceylon, he pushed on his study of the Buddhistic culture and philisophy, commenced as early as 1890.

Though the excitement of the Anglo-Indian mind had much to do with the troubles of Mr, Tilak, still when the case was going on, the Advocate-General had