Path of Freedom [Vimuttimagga]

In Memoriamgone on, strong and assured, brave and smiling, kind, gentle, untiring.The story is not done. We too must fare onward when our time comes.We shall meet again'.During the last few months of his life he often spoke and wrote on death,quoting from the Suttas and other writings, for instance, his own translationsfrom the Sanskrit of Visnusarman thus:In him who ever and again,Reflects on death's hard hand of pain, -The drive for gross material gainGrows limp like hide soaked through with rain;and from the commentary to the Dhammapada: "Uncertain is life, certainis death; it is necessary that I should die; at the close of my life there is death.Life is indeed unsure but death is sure, death is sure" — Dh.-a. Ill, 170; andfrom the Sutta—S. IV, 211: "Mindfully and with complete awareness shoulda bhikkhu meet his end. This is the advice I give you".*I knew the Venerable Soma Maha Thera intimately for nearly thirty-twoyears. During this period if the number of days we were absent from eachother be added up it will not amount to more than a few months. Yet duringall these years our interests centred round the Dhamma only. When I methim I knew very little Dhamma, having but recently accepted the Teachingof the Buddha. What Dhamma I now know was gleaned from him or inhis company. So when he passed away suddenly the blow was difficult tobear. Before this event "the separation" referred to in the words of theBuddha: Piyehi vippayogo dukkho, "the separation from the loved is ill",did not seem so difficult a thing to bear. Now it appeared in a different light.The passing away of the Venerable Sariputta Thera caused in the VenerableAnanda Thera, who was then only Sotdpanna, Stream-entrant (he becameArahat later), great agitation of mind, in spite of his having been with theBuddha and learned the Dhamma from him for twenty-five years. How heserved the Buddha during those years is shown in the following verses, beautifullyrendered by Mrs. C. A. F. Rhys Davids, thus:For five-and-twenty years a learner I;No sensual consciousness arose in me.O see the seemly order of the Norm!For five-and-twenty years a learner I;No hostile consciousness arose in me.0 see the seemly order of the Norm!For five-and-twenty years on the Exalted One1 waited, serving him by loving deeds,And like his shadow followed after him.For five-and-twenty years on the Exalted OneXXIII