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RIŞABHA DEVA
rise, when the moon was passing out of the Abhijit (the tail of the Uttarāşādha) constellation, the Lord resorted to the third form of the holy Sukla dhyāna (self-contemplation), termed sukshmakriyāpratipāti (literally having the slightest bodily tinge), and destroyed the three channels of the approach of matter, namely, the mind, speech and the body! He immediately attained to the fourteenth and the last guņasthāna (psychological station on the Path), from where, adopting the last form of the holy selfcontemplation (vyuprata kriyānivșiti, signifying a cessation of all kinds of organic activities), He passed into nirvāna, in the space of time required to articulate the five vowels a, e, u, și and ļi! The next instant marked the appearance of another Perfect One to grace the Holy Land of the Abode of Gods in nirvāna, at the top of the Universe !
The Perfect Souls that reach Nirvāna are free from birth, death, old age, disease, grief, pain, hunger, thirst and worry. They have no bodies, and do not sweat. Pure Spirit by nature, They enjoy uninterruptedly, and for ever, all those incomparably divine attributes and privileges which appertain to the simple substance of Their Being. It is impossible to enumerate all the virtues of even such common substances as silver and gold, and it is equally im
