And next, sending his sight through the invisible (for when enlightenment is attained all bars of time and space fall and man is no longer blinded by his eyes and deafened by his ears), he considered all that live, and like a swelling tide there rose in him compassion for their darkness and misery, and in deep contemplation he considered how to gain deliverance for them also, and with this came the thought: “Shall I teach? And how?” for he doubted that any would believe and relinquish that false and illusory self which holds men from the light. And he said: “How can they believe the world is other than it seems and the very sea and sky and mountains far differing from what they have supposed? And they the prisoners of Ignorance.” And a deep voice from the Divine within and without him answered: “O let your heart most loving be moved into pity toward the people, most ignorant, toiling amid deathly illusions to a goal unknown.” And as this purpose rooted and flowered within him—a mighty blossom opening its chalice of perfume to all worlds and heavens, the dawn of the seventh day broke resplendent, as it were a new heaven and a new earth and it was light. Light also within him and a great flooding of light, for not only was the Way opened but the steps now lay clear before him—the Noble Eightfold Path whereby men setting one foot before the other achieve the first heights, the true Self developing as does the body from lowly beginnings to great ends and royalties, but all in order and gradually, each step rising by the stepping stones of dead selves in dead lives to higher. O peace: O bliss inexplicable, not to be confounded with others, but singular, lovely, and alone! Not in the heavens, unattainable save by the strength of Gods, but within reach of all who set their faces to the heights in true and steadfast endeavour, proceeding step by step in love and patience. For the lowly, the little children of the Law, as for the wise and noble. For he who is ruler over a few things in this life shall in lives to come be ruler over many, so he be found faithful. And at the last—not the dewdrop lost in the ocean, but the ocean drawn into the dewdrop and eternal Unity. And in his heart this thought arose. “I will proclaim accordingly the way unto the further shore!” As he saw it, so he told it: He the stainless, the Very Wise, the Passionless, the Desireless Lord; for what reason should he speak falsely? Thus, flooded with sunshine and bathed in peace sat the Perfect One. CHAPTER XII NOW as the Blessed One sat beneath the Tree in the Dawn, two merchants bound on their way passed through the wood, and within them spoke the Voice of Wisdom, saying: “In this wood, outspread upon the spurs of the mountain, dwells a Rishi—a wise ascetic—deeply to be reverenced; go then and make him an offering.”