There came a day when a feeling of discomfort, the consciousness of a void, arose in Kamanita.
And involuntarily his thoughts turned to the hundred-thousandfold Brahma, as the source of all fullness. But the feeling was not thereby removed. On the contrary, it increased almost perceptibly with the passing of the years, from one decade of thousands to another.
For from that awakened feeling, the tranquil stream of time, which had hitherto flowed imperceptibly by, encountered resistance as from an island suddenly risen in its midst, on whose rocky cliffs it began to break in foam as it flowed past. And at once there arose a "before" and an "after" the rapids.
And it seemed to Kamanita as though the hundred-thousandfold Brahma did not now shine quite as brightly as formerly.
After he had observed the Brahma, however, for five millions of years, it seemed to Kamanita as though he had now observed him for a long time without reaching any certainty.
And he turned his attention to Vasitthi.
Upon which he became aware that she also was observing the Brahma attentively.
Which filled him with dismay. And with dismay came feeling; with feeling, came thought; with thought, the speech for its utterance.
And he spoke.
"Vasitthi, dost thou also see it? What is happening to the hundred-thousandfold Brahma?"
After a hundred thousand years, Vasitthi answered—
"What is happening to the hundred-thousandfold Brahma is that his brightness is diminishing."
"It seems so to me also," said Kamanita, after the passage of a like period of time. "True, that can be but a passing phenomenon. And yet I must confess that I am astonished at the possibility of any change whatever in the hundred-thousandfold Brahma."
After a considerable time—after several millions of years—Kamanita spoke again—
"I do not know that I am not perhaps dazzled by the light. Dost thou, Vasitthi, notice that the brightness of the hundred-thousandfold Brahma is again increasing?"
After five hundred thousand years, Vasitthi answered—
"The brightness of the hundred-thousandfold Brahma does not increase, but steadily decreases."
As a piece of iron that, taken white-hot from the smithy fire, very soon after becomes red-hot, so the brightness of the hundred-thousandfold Brahma had now taken on a red shimmer.
"I wonder what that may signify," said Kamanita.
"That signifies, my friend, that the brightness of the hundred-thousandfold Brahma is in process of being extinguished."
"Impossible, Vasitthi, impossible! What would then become of all the brightness and the splendour of this whole Brahma-world?"
"He had that in mind when he said—
"'Upward to heaven's sublimest light, life presses—and decays.
Know, that the future will even quench the glow of Brahma's rays.'"
After the short space of but a few thousand years came Kamanita's anxious and breathless question—
"Who ever uttered that frightful, that world-crushing sentence?"
"Who other than he, the Master, the Knower of Men, the Perfect One, the Buddha."
Then Kamanita became thoughtful. For a considerable length of time he pondered upon these words, and recalled many things. Then he spoke—
"Once already, Vasitthi, in Sukhavati, in the Paradise of the West, thou didst repeat a saying of the Buddha which was fulfilled before our eyes. And I remember that thou didst then faithfully report to me a whole speech of the Master's in which that saying occurred. This world-crushing utterance was not, however, contained in it. So thou hast then, Vasitthi, heard yet other speeches by the Master?"
"Many, my friend, for I saw him daily for more than half a year; yes, I even heard the last words he uttered."
Kamanita gazed upon her with wonder and reverence. Then he said—
"Then thou art, and just for that reason, as I believe, the wisest being in the whole Brahma-world. For all these star-gods round about us are aghast, shine with a wavering light, flicker, and blink; and even the hundred-thousandfold Brahma himself has become restless, and from his dulled radiance dart forth from time to time what seem to me flashes of anger. But thou dost give a steady light as of a lamp in a sheltered spot. And that also is a sign of disturbance that the movement of these heavenly bodies has now become audible—the thundering crashes and mighty accents, as of the distant ringing of bells, proceeding from this Brahma-world, which once reached us on the shores of the heavenly Gunga, far from here, in Paradise, we now hear on all sides. That indicates that the harmony of motion is disturbed, that disunion and separation of the world-forces is taking place. For it has been well said that, 'Where want is, there noise is; but abundance is tranquil.' And so I do not doubt but that thou art right. Come then, Vasitthi, while, round about us, this Brahma-world expires and becomes a prey to destruction, relate to me thy memories of the Perfect One, in order that I may become composed as thou art. Tell me all of thy life, for it may well be that we are united for the last time in a place where it will be possible for spirit to commune with spirit of things that have happened, and it still remains a mystery how Angulimala appeared in Ujjeni, although his becoming an ascetic has been fully explained to me. But his appearance at that time gave the impulse to my pilgrimage and was the reason why I did not take to downward paths, but instead rose again in the Paradise of the West, there to climb by thy help to this highest heaven, where throughout immeasurable ages we have enjoyed the lives of gods. I have an idea, however, that the impulse which led to my becoming a pilgrim went out from thee. Now the truth about this I should like to learn; but also, and before all things else, how it came about that thou, for my salvation, didst enter again into existence in Paradise, and not in some far higher place of bliss."
And while from one hundred thousand years to another, the growing dimness of the Brahma-light became ever more apparent and the gods of the stars grew ever paler;
While these flickered and spluttered with more and more irregularity, and from the duller-growing circle of fire around the Brahma, vast fingers of flame shot forth and swept hither and thither throughout the whole of space, as if the god with a hundred giant arms were seeking the invisible foe who was besetting him;
While, owing to the disturbed movements of the heavenly bodies, whirlwinds arose which rent whole systems of stars out the kingdom of the Brahma, and into their places rushed a wave of darkness from the mighty void, as the sea dashes in where the ship has sprung a leak;
And while, at other points, systems crashed into one another and a universal conflagration broke out, with explosions which hurled sheaves of shooting-stars down into the fiery throat of the Brahma;
While the thunder of the harmonies as they broke down and crashed into one another—the death-rattle of the music of the spheres—rolled and re-echoed with ever-increasing fearfulness from one quarter of the heavens to another—
Vasitthi, untroubled, and speaking in measured language, related to Kamanita her last earthly experiences.