Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 1.djvu/428

 to sink to a gentle sleep, it was because the soul had been well prepared. Serenity makes death happy. Plato said, ‘The end of all philosophy is to teach us how to die serenely.’ There is no miracle other than a serene death. This is impossible unless there has been an antecedent serene life. To seek a serene death with and after all our petty strifes and rivalries, jealousies and sorrows, is to ask God to reconcile night with light and storm with calm. Serenity of life is the guarantee of serenity in death. No serenity in this world is possible except that of piety, faith and trust in God. People are callous to, unmindful of, of what is going on in the world unto whom, however, the passing days are all in all. That serenity is bad; it is a spurious serenity which in reality is a selfish concern. Indifference to what is passing is not serenity but fatality. True serenity is that which is sensitive to all things around but at the same time composed with the assurance that One is guiding everything. It is this serenity that is the treasure of every pious soul. He may be shedding tears, sighing, rapt in meditation, downcast