“Through ages past have I acquired continual merit, That which my heart desired have I now attained, How quickly have I arrived at the ever-constant condition, And landed on the very shore of Nirvâna. The sorrows and opposition of the world, The Lord of the Kâmalokas, Mâra Pisuna, These are unable now to affect, they are wholly destroyed; By the power of religious merit and of wisdom are they cast away. Let a man but persevere with unflinching resolution, And seek Supreme Wisdom, it will not be hard to acquire it; When once obtained, then farewell to all sorrows, All sin and guilt are forever done away.”[140] {338} Viewing the significance of Buddhism in this light, it is evident that Buddha did not emphasise so much the doctrine of Nirvâna in the sense of a total abnegation of human aspirations as the abandonment of egoism and the practical regulation of our daily life in accordance with this view. Nirvâna in which all the passions noble and base are supposed to have been “blown out like a lamp” was not the most coveted object of Buddhist life. On the contrary, Buddhism advises all its followers to exercise most strenuously all their spiritual energy to attain perfect freedom from the bondage of ignorance and egoism; because that is the only way in which we can conquer the vanity of worldliness and enjoy the bliss of eternal life. The following verse from the _Visuddhi Magga_ (XXI) practically {339} sums up the teaching of Buddhism as far as its negative and individual phase is concerned: “Behold how empty is the world, Mogharâja! In thoughtfulness Let one remove belief in self, And pass beyond the realm of death. The king of death will never find The man who thus the world beholds.”[141] _Nirvâna is Positive._