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THE PALACE OF WISDOM
tellectual callousness of the Pharisees. Equally shocking today to a congregation in our dignificd churches would seem the burning words recorded of him in the gospel according to Matthew: "Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." 23 The point of this rebuke would be lost, however, in India, where harlotry is strictly institutional, and where the gods and the blessed in heaven, as well as the courtesan, are regarded as linked to the virtue (dharma), delights (kāma), and attainments (artha), of the prodigious round of the created world. There, if one is to escape from the dreadful pall of the sell-complacent, sanctified community, the sole recourse is to plunge even below the below, beyond the beyond, to break the mask even of the highest god. This is the work of "release" (moksa), the task of the naked sage.
> Matthew 21: 31.
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