Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 1.djvu/435

385 alternate conditions. He has become a part of Nature. He knows no repose. He is above time; and when death comes to him, it comes to him merely as a passing event but not as a warning. A man of knowledge knows that a big comet is appearing but does not tremble. To such a man there is no change. Death has come and gone. It is neither an alarm nor a call ; but it is a transition. So Maharshi Devendranath Tagore has said that death is merely the tearing of a veil. When Jesus was crucified, the curtain in the Temple of the Jews was torn and the Glory was revealed. Unto such a man, the flesh is crucified but the soul is liberated. While he sinks, he is serene. He has no fear, no anxiety and no anguish. It is all one stretch of flight through the dark portals of death. What is heaven to that man? It is, as it were, the mingling of the river with the ocean, the kindling of a blaze of new light before which the whole world is illumined. Heaven is the abode of peace without tediousness; the realm where law prevails without its rigour; and a fraternity where all people are brought