50 GOLDEN LIVES OF THE EAST. [FART I.
dangerous more than you think. Don't you see that he alone among you dares criticise my teachings ? If he be not removed from amongst us, you may rest assured that the days of Advaitism are numbered. Now, find me out some means of doing it, sure and secret.” Beautiful suggestions were offered, each one more fiendish than the other ; but Ytkdava discarded them all as sinful. ” Let us entice him to join us in a pilgrimage to the holy Benares, and once there, he would easily find his way to the bottom of the Ganges. It will effectually secure our ends and avert any consequent sinful effects.” The proposal was applauded to the echo; and kind friends w'ere not wanting who offered to bring Ramanuja back to the school. “Really, it is very hard on us,” said one to him, ”that we should have to pay for the vagaries of our teacher. Believe me, when I tell you, that we miss you sadly, more than you would give us credit for. The old man had a very hot hour of it, when we pitched into him and made him see that he was wrong as wrong can be. He himself now feels that his lectures are insipid and fall upon dull ears. You were unconsciously the heart and soul of us all. Verily, we realise the value of a thing only after we lose it. Forget and forgive, like a good boy, and come back to us.” Ramanuja, who was the soul of candour, was melted at their disinterested affection and came to feel that he was rather hasty and imprudent. So, he went back and was welcomed by Y4dava with covert kindness. “ I never thought I would feel your absence so badly. You should make allowances, you know, for the hasty temper of an old man and put up with my little eccentricities.”
Sometime after, Vadava said to his disciples — “ I am getting old and am drawing near my end. I should very much like to breathe my last on the banks of the sacred Ganges. ” So they all prepared for a grand yatra ; and on the
