` This very night , ' -- the words came slowly , vibrating with triumph -- ` this very night he will be as free as I am from all taint of sin -- assured as I am , when he quits this body , of Freedom from the Wheel of Things . I have a sign ' -- he laid his hand above the torn chart in his bosom -- ` that my time is short ; but I shall have safeguarded him throughout the years . Remember , I have reached Knowledge , as I told thee only three nights back . ' ` It must be true , as the Tirah priest said when I stole his cousin 's wife , that I am a Sufi -LSB- a free-thinker -RSB- ; for here I sit , ' said Mahbub to himself , ` drinking in blasphemy unthinkable ... I remember the tale . On that , then , he goes to Fannatu l'Adn -LSB- the Gardens of Eden -RSB- . But how ? Wilt thou slay him or drown him in that wonderful river from which the Babu dragged thee ? ' ' I was dragged from no river , ' said the lama simply . ` Thou hast forgotten what befell . I found it by Knowledge . ' ` Oh , ay . True , ' stammered Mahbub , divided between high indignation and enormous mirth . ' I had forgotten the exact run of what happened . Thou didst find it knowingly . ' ` And to say that I would take life is -- not a sin , but a madness simple . My chela aided me to the River . It is his right to be cleansed from sin -- with me . ' ` Ay , he needs cleansing . But afterwards , old man -- afterwards ? ' ` What matter under all the Heavens ?
He is sure of Nibban -- enlightened -- as I XXXXX . '
am cleansed drown found quits said say slay stole torn