Page 27 - Vedanta Sandesh_Aug 2020

Jivanmukta

existence long before the time of Gautama Buddha, the last of

the Buddhas.

Every year pilgrims from Tibet and other countries pay their vis-

its to the holy shrine. The local people told me that in the very

year of my visit a very holy lama from Tibet had performed a mi-

raculous penance—had successfully completed his Pranati yatra,
filling all beholders with wonder and admiration Seeing how dif-

ficult it is for an ordinary person even to climb the high, steep,

snowclad peaks, and how much more dangerous to climb down,

we are left to wonder at the tremendous power of faith that en-
ables man to perform the entire journey in the course of sever-

al months or even years, prostrating himself at every step Such

penance cannot fail to inspire beholders with awe and devotion.

The sight of the somewhat circular and uneven central plain of

Nepal with the capital city at its centre and extensive rice-fields

dotted with villages surrounding it, as well as the far off Himala-

yan peaks spotlessly white with snow raised my mind to a higher
plane of joy I could not return to the city before I had my fill of

that divine bliss The paddy fields in the vicinity of the city re-

minded me often of our own Kerala.

In the year 450 B C Lord Buddha himself toured this region and

converted the local Brahmins and the members of the other castes

into Buddhism About two hundred years later, in 249 B C the

Mauryan Emperor Asoka, travelled over these places, propagat-
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