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JOURNAL, R.A.S. ( CEYLON). [VOL. XXI. 



The whole universe, continues Rama, is fleeting and unreal. 

 It is born and dies, it dies and is born, without end. The 

 deluded mind faints with desire. Youth wasted flies, the 

 friendship of the wise unsought, freedom and truth far away. 

 Attachment to the fleeting things of the world is the chain 

 that binds to birth. 1 All living things perish. The names of 

 countries change. Mighty mountains become dust. Oceans 

 disappear. The quarters of the sky vanish. The starry 

 worlds, the celestial hosts, the holy Rishis pass away. The 

 lord of the polar star dies. Time, space, law cease. Brahma, 

 Vishnu, Siva, merge in the One Reality, the pure substance 

 ineffable. The whole universe is mean and naught by It. 



Sunk in petty enjoyments, thinking them so wonderful, the 

 world perisheth. If the day is not spent in treading in the 

 footsteps of the wise, whence cometh sleep at night ? Wives 

 and children and gold are sought and loved as ambrosia. For 

 them nothing is left undone. When the time of parting 

 comes, they are more painful than deadly poison. Every 

 foe overcome, surrounded by every prosperity, one liveth 

 happily, sole emperor. Lo, from somewhere comes sudden 

 death and cuts him off. Wife, children, and the rest are 

 travellers meeting at a fair. The lives of Brahmas 2 are but 

 a second. The difference between long life and short life 

 is a delusion. Mighty power and prosperity, learning, deeds 

 all pass away and become mere fancies — so do we. Pain 

 and pleasure, greatness and smallness, birth and death, all 

 are for a moment. A hero is killed by a weakling, one man 

 kills a hundred, the mighty become low and the low mighty. 

 All goes round and round. 4 ' I care for none of these things. 

 I care for neither life nor death. Grant me, sages, calm 

 and peace of mind. My heart yearns for union with its Lord, 

 and is distressed as a woman parted from her beloved. 

 What is that state without pain, fault, doubt, or delusion ? 



1 Reincarnation, to which the soulis subject until it becomes pure 

 and ripe for union with God. 



2 A day of Brahma = 432 million years of man. 360 such days 

 constitute a year of Brahma, and 100 such years his life time, or a 

 kalpa, which is equal to 36,000 times 432 million years, the duration 

 of the world. 



