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CHAPTER VIII
WORLD-FLIGHT AND SANNYASA
“ This man is freed from servile bands
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall, Lord of himself, though not of lands; And having nothing, yet hath all !"
-Sir H. IT'atton. “Giving His kingdom to His son Bharata, Rişabha entered the vaņaprastha stage; and took to austerities .... His body became very feeble on account of austerities.*
“Rişabha Deva having ruled with equity and Tisdom . ... l'esigned the sovereignty of the earth to the heroic Bharata, ..... adopted the life of an anchoret, practising religious penance, and performing all prescribed ceremonies, until, emaciated by his austerities, so as to be left a collection of skin and fibres, and, naked, went the way of the great road' (ElSa57).”+
Great men cannot remain idle ; they have their work to do, which they have set before them, whether in this life or in the previous one or ones! When a major portion of the life of the WORLD
* The Kurma Purāņa, (Hindu), LXI, 38-39.
+ See Wilson's Vishnu Purāņa, Vol. II (Book II, Chapter I), pp. 103-104.
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