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18
MIRA AND MAHAVIR
whatever may happen to him after death, he docs not
know, and may not care. MAHAVIR--Yes, it has occurred to me that all this life is
fruitless and full of pain. Just think of the great war that is raging in the world. In my own little sphere of lifc, I somctimes grow weary of the struggle and strife, specially when I think of my future, and wish to die. But the mood soon passes, and I wish to live
and do something in the world. KRISHNA_That is right. But you cannot deny that
Nature, subject as it is to the law of Change, may give you everything else you desire but permanent Happiness, and it is this permanent Happinees that
you seek in life above everything else. MAHAVIR-I agree. But what has that to do with God ? KRISHNA—If you seek permanent Happiness or something
Good in all your actions, that is the ideal of your perfection, the goal of your life, the highest thing in the world you can conceive; and so you should be able to picture to yourself the image of this permanent Happiness or Good, according to your own conception; that is to say, a perfectly happy Being, after whose pattern, however imperfectly, you yourself would seek to strive. That is your own idca of God and it is a real thing and exists for you. But, as this Happiness or Good, so far as we have discussed the matter, is not possible in the midst of Nature, this God lives beyond the forces of Nature,
