Who is wise
Tears from his soul this Trishna, feeds his sense
No longer on false shows, files his firm mind
To seek not, strive not, wrong not; bearing meek
All ills which flow from foregone wrongfulness,
And so constraining passions that they die
Famished; till all the sum of ended life —
The Karma — all that total of a soul
Which is the things it did, the thoughts it had,
The "Self" it wove — the woof of viewless time,
Crossed on the warp invincible of acts —
The outcome of him on the Universe,
Grows pure and sinless; either nevermore
Needing to find a body and a place,
Or so informing what fresh frame it takes
In new existence that the new toils prove
Lighter and lighter not to be at all,
Thus "finishing the Path;" free from
Earth's cheats; Released from all the skandhas of the flesh;
Broken from ties — from Upadanas — saved
From whirling on the wheel; aroused and sane
As is a man wakened from hateful dreams.
Until — greater than kings, than gods more glad! —
The aching craze to live ends, and life glides —
Lifeless — to nameless quiet, nameless joy,
Blessed Nirvana — sinless, stirless rest —
That change which never changes!
— Light of Asia.