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and read the books of the saints, but the answer will not come only from these sources. I can give you the maps and put up the milestones, but you have to walk the road yourself. Dive deep into your Self. The key to the quest lies with you, in your own practice."
“For that I have come,” Rup whispered.
“Then, with the permission of your father, you may take some time to train for the monkhood and then join the Shramana Order," he told him.
Rup turned to his father who was sitting silently in the back of the room. His father nodded a silent approval to them both. He was too moved to speak. In his own heart, the inner life was moving, growing. Within the year, it would change the direction of his life as well. Meanwhile, he returned to his shop in Tumkur, while Rup remained at Pälitānā with his new Master.
Rup's Quest
For Rup, certain glimpses which had occurred in his childhood and young adulthood had revealed a depth greater than his years, and yet, it took the painful blows and crises in his life to reignite his quest and set his feet firmly upon a purposeful path. Though this path fell within the framework of the itinerant life of a Jain monk, yet the real framework was his own soul's hunger for meaning and peace. What mattered to him was not a label or a religion, but a courage to conquer and persist. That he had in abundance.
At this point, his quest lay hidden in a well of emotion. He had no thoughts of attaining some vague notion of salvation. Rather, it was his personal anguish which called out for solace and truth. He saw that the meditative retreats he had taken at various ashrams had been only shallow experiences. There he
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