“We make war, monk. Therefore are we warriors?” “And for what do we make war, O Leader?” “For perfect virtue, for high endeavour, for sublime wisdom. To see in a world of blindness, to be free in a world of slaves,—therefore, do we make war.” And when is the victory gained?—When the dark night of I-ness is enlightened,—when the man is no longer a swimmer struggling for life in agony against the waves, but the grey gull borne on the winds in bliss or floating at peace on the billows of eternity. This is the victory of the monk Rahula and of the wise. PART IV CHAPTER XIX SO continued our Lord, wandering from place to place, or resting in the season of the rains in the monasteries provided by the supporters of the Brotherhood, and, followed by his own, he taught the Breaking of the Fetters—and the fetters he broke are these: The delusion of self—namely that the individual ego is real and self-existent. For what can exist outside the Universal Self? And egoism is the very root of death. Doubt. For who can advance boldly, doubting the way and where he shall set the next step? Belief in good works and ceremonies. For what good work can open a man’s eyes if his motive is mean, and what value have rites and ceremonies in themselves? Fleshly lust. By no means did the Lord command a cruel asceticism, for this he had tried to the uttermost and having laid it aside, passed on. No, but a joyous temperance, the child of wisdom and duty, the fosterer of endeavour. And duty in all things, a strength by some to be attained now, by others with patience in later lives. Ill-will. For this is a cruel fetter, biting to the very bone of the wretch who carries it, and it is forged indeed from the black iron of egoism and belief in the separate ego. And this being all accomplished the last fetters to be broken are: The desire for separate and individual life in the world of forms we see about us. The desire for separate life in the formless world to which we shall attain. Pride—the very snarer of Divine Beings. Self-righteousness, the womb-sister of pride. And last, the most terrible of fetters— Ignorance—mother of a deadly brood. And where he went these fetters fell before him, and prison doors were opened and they who had sat in darkness walked in light. And they aspired to perfection for he taught that Perfection was their heritage, if not now, then in some future life where the sown seeds of good expanding should throw out strong arms and glorious blossom. And they believed, and some set tottering steps in the path, and some advanced with wings rather than feet, but all were seekers and finders. But he compelled none, nor threatened, for by a man’s true self comes his salvation, and seated among his own he said: “The Tathagata—He who has thus Attained, does not think that it is he who must lead the Brotherhood or that the Order is dependent upon him.”