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That afternoon, the town leaders came to propose a special plan for the temple project. Muni Chandrakant Sāgarji saw his dream coming closer to becoming a reality. The day passed in joy.
An hour or so before sundown, it was time for the monks to take their last meal of the day. Muni Chandrakant Sāgarji offered his son a drink of water. It was a final gift from father to son, a last act of silent communion, a gesture of which only father was quietly aware. After a light supper, the two sat together with a small group of students to watch the setting sun. A little while later, he told his son, “I am feeling a little tired and there is some pain here in my chest.”
"Here," his son offered gently, “why do you not put your head in my lap and rest?" While he caressed his father's chest, his father began to chant slowly and almost inaudibly,
"Aum namo arihantānam Aum namo siddhānam Aum namo āyariyāņam Aum namo uvuajhāyānam Namo he sauva sāhūņam Eso pañcha namukkāro Savva pāvua panāsaņo Mangalānañch sauvesim Padhamum hauai mangalam.”
In a few moments, he opened his mouth and lay still in his son's arms. "He is gone,” said one of Gurudev's students who was a doctor.
"What are you talking about?" Gurudev asked him a little sharply.
“It is over. Your father has expired," he told him.
Gurudev could not grasp what had really happened. He felt a little anger. Just one minute before, his father had been alive. One moment later, he had felt a little pain and was gone. It was too much to bear. For hours he remained'in a daze, confused. Then he fell into a deep and troubled sleep.
For three days he felt waves of intense emotion and grief. He kept watching, experiencing, recognizing, and accepting 210
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