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108
RIŞABHA DEVA
TEACHER was spent, the Indra of the first heaven came down one day with the materials for worship, and arranged a dance in the Assembly Hall. One of the celestial dancers was a certain nymph whose clock of life had only a few moments left to run. She was called Nilānjanā. Knowing that the time for the WORLD TEACHER'S Great Renunciation was ripe, Indra had brought her with him to inflame the spirit of vairāgya (detachment or world-flight) in the mind of the Lord. At a signal from the Indra, she rose to dance, and entertained the audience with her superb performance. She probably knew the reason why she of all others had been asked to dance at that particular moment, and she danced as she had never danced before. The presence of the WORLD TEACHER in the closing moments of life filled her with courage and contentment and joy; she knew that her end was quite safe, and cared for nothing else. All present. enjoyed her superb performance. All at once, while still in the middle of a process of crazy vigorous movements and turns, she staggered, then reeled back, and stopped, and the next instant her form dissolved' and was no more! Nilānajanā was dead!
The incident filled the assembled men and women with a sense of instability of life. They
