I see yonder
the sixteen Brahmins who, according to our rites, assemble when one is
to pass at the Shrine of Omkar to _kailas_."
His large luminous eyes rested with tolerant placidity upon the face of
this man whom he must consider, according to his tenets, as a creature
antagonistic to the true gods, and said, in his soft, modulated voice:
"Thou art young, Sahib, and full of the life force which is essential
to the things of the earth--thou art like the blossom of the _mhowa_
tree that comes forth upon bare limbs before the maturity of its
foliage, it is then, as thou art, joyous in the freshness of awaking
life. But life means eternity, the huge cycle that has been since
Indra's birth. Life here is but a step, a transition from condition to
condition, and the woman, by one act of sacrifice, attains to the
blissful peace that many livings of reincarnated body would not
achieve. It is written in the law of Brahm that if one sacrifices his
life, this phase of it, to Omkar, who is Siva, even though he had slain
a Brahmin he shall be forgiven, and sit in heaven with the _Gandharvas_
(angels).
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