Be not misled. If this false belief of annihilation be accepted the belief in the Karma and its awful justice falls to the ground, and the Blessed One is made to utter words unreal and deceptive. It is not well to traduce the teaching of the Blessed One, for what he taught he knew, and where he was silent it was from knowledge too great to be uttered save to his high initiates, and they too, knowing, were content. For a man can but receive as he is able, and the Truth needs two servants—the one to speak and the other to hear.
True is it that the Lord before he passed away from the world of the senses said to the beloved Ananda, this:
“I have preached the truth, Ananda, and in respect of the Truth He who has thus Attained had no such thing as the closed fist of the Teacher who holds back his knowledge.”
Yes, but a man can but take what he can, and where the great saints of the Lord knew and were content, the lesser men guessed and stumbled blindly by excess of light and this was unavoidable for they were not prepared, and in future lives they have learned, will learn, and they too be content in wisdom.
Therefore when men ask the disciple of the Nirvana, and say:
“Is it annihilation? Is it the end of all, for so many teach?” reply thus:
“It is the annihilation of ignorance and passion and all their brood. It is the annihilation of conditioned being and of all the illusion that fettered us. It is the rending of the painted veil of life that hides from us the light. It is the end of all turning of the wheel of the long pilgrimage through self-shaped dream-worlds of deception. It is the end of grief and self-deceit. It is awakening from the dream of life, from the crippling of the ego-self, into freedom. It is beyond all that we call life, and death is unknown to it. It is All and One and above right and wrong and in it are all things reconciled.
“And it is us and in us and we in it for ever.”
Open the eyes of understanding and see and know, as he the Awakened, has taught.
And now must the story turn to the Princess Yashodara, released from grief and grown strong in wisdom.