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AN IDEAL MONK
accomplished. There was the ideal of the Monk, an ideal that might be summed up as that of the soul approaching Moksha or liberation,—liberation from the bonds of imperfection, liberation from the thraldom of matter-which asked no longer the goods of the earth, which desired no longer for any gifts of wealth, or power, or fame, which aspired no longer after the pleasures of the body or the enjoyments of the flesh.
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THE OLD IDEAL REALIZED
This was the old ideal of the Monk, which Vijaya Dharma Suri had chosen for himself; this was the true old ideal which he had resolved to make the object of his life; this ideal, and nothing less than this, was the goal which he had set himself to reach. Even in his early years he had realized what he ought to be, and he strove with precision to become that which he aspired to achieve. It was a deliberate self-training towards an aim that had been definitely recognized, a distinct and a positive building of the character towards a definite end, a carving in permanent material of a statue of which the mould had already been made. Seeing thoroughly the goal which was before him, and realizing thoroughly the magnitude of the task which lay before him, he set to work deliberately in order to reach the definite end, the definite goal. And this work, this building of the character, was not a thing of fits and starts, it was not a casual building and leaving off, it was not an effort in this direction one day and in another direction
