In the Gem Store, Jaipur, India from “A Poet’s Progress,” Newtopia Magazine #20
In the Gem Store, Jaipur, April 7, 2011
After driving for eight hours through the desperately poor areas from Delhi to Jaipur, Bill is obviously shaken. “That was really something,” he says, as we get off the bus. And I, stretching my legs, agree. “Yeah, that was a long time on a bus.”
23 02 The Amber Fort, Jaipur, IndiaThe Amber Fort, Jaipur, India
After a tour of the gem merchant’s shop, I find a comfortable place to sit because I won’t be shopping. I happen to sit beside a table filled with books, and I pick up the top one, which turns out to be an illustrated history of Indian miniatures. One of the clerks comes over and puts his hand on mine. “No,” he says, going through the stack until he finds the one he’s looking for. “No, thank you,” I tell him, “This the one I want to read. I’m interested in Indian miniatures.” “No,” he insists. “This one.” “Okay.”
23 03 WaitingWaiting
It’s a collection of poorly printed mediocre watercolor illustrations beside extended quotations from the Vedas. I almost immediately take out my notebook and begin to copy down my favorite passages.
23 04 Lintel, Red Fort, Delhi“Lintel, Red Fort, Delhi”
from The Book of Doctrines
This
is all we have, or need
23 05 Watch Where You’re Going!“Watch Where You’re Going!”
But thou, want not! ask not! find full reward
Of doing, right in right! Let right deeds be
Thy motive, not the fruit which comes from them.
And live in action! Labor! Make things acts
Thy piety….
23 06 Block Printing Fabric“Block Printing Fabric”
aroused no more, conquer this
in midnight’s gloom.
23 07 Roots B
“Roots B”
from The Book of Virtue in Work
For thought is art and fancy.
23 08 Lakshmi and Ganesh
“Lakshmi and Ganesh”
from Bhagavad Gita
He that abstains
to help the rolling wheels of this great world
… lives a lost life….
23 09 Arriving at the Amber Fort
“Arriving at the Amber Fort”
The fool … thinks “This I did.”
And “That I wrought,” but …
A better-lessoned mind …
Standeth aloof even from his acts.
23 10 The Red Fort A“The Red Fort A”
Krishna: Look on me …
I am not bound to any toil, no height
Awaits to scale, no gift remains to gain
Yet last here! and, if I acted not—
Earnest and Watchful—those who look to me
For guidance, sinking back to sloth again
Because I slumbered, would decline for good
23 11 Arjuna and Krishna on the Battlefield“Arjuna and Krishna on the Battlefield”
Bill is an ex-Air Force captain who served two terms in Viet Nam and one in Cambodia, and he’s found me easy to talk to. On the bus he asks me what I was reading in the gem store, “It seemed like you were getting a lot out of it.” I tell him it was selections from the Vedas. “The what?” he laughs. I explain that it’s the Hindu bible—it contains a lot of their holy stories. He asks me what my favorite part was and I tell him that the opening was pretty spectacular. It’s about the necessity to take action, to speak up, to risk your life for what you believe in. It begins with Krishna—who is a god—standing in a chariot with a king named Arjuna. Two armies are assembled on either side of a field, and Krishna has commanded Arjuna to give the command to begin the battle. Arjuna looks across the field and sees his uncles and cousins, and he realizes that he is about to start a war that will annihilate both sides of the same family. And everyone on both sides is somebody’s father, husband, or son—it will be husband killing husband, and son killing father and father killing son. And he sees behind them the thousands upon thousands of wives and daughters and mothers grieving for those who are about to die, and he sees the madness on both sides as the losing side is overrun.
And Arjuna sees how the many suffer for the few’s pleasures, and he sees how many lifetimes have come and gone without a moment of free will or understanding for anyone. And he sees that he is playing a part that was written for him too—and that he, like them, was asleep and subject to the whims of forces set in motion long ago, forces that have nothing to do with him personally.
And he sees how even at its very end, even after a deepest level of truth is revealed to someone about to die, how little all the wit and wisdom amounts to in the end. It would have been better if he knew nothing, if he was still asleep. And what if there are other visions beyond this one, awakenings that leap as far as this one from the last? What if to awaken is only to lose yourself inside another dream?
And Arjuna is angry that they put him to sleep in the first place and he’s angry that they’ve waited until it was too late to do anything about it to wake him. And why wake him at all if only to show him that there is nothing that can be done even if he wanted to?
And Arjuna sees in the smoke above the field the God of War, whose hunger has grown so great that a slaughter of this magnitude is now required to satisfy him. And he sees the many generations of wars that will follow and how each one will be bigger than the one before. And he sees that the power of the gods comes from feasting on our greatest strengths—by enriching him, we make ourselves poor. And Arjuna decides that although nothing could be done, he will no longer willingly participate. And he decides to speak his mind, even though it will put him in danger and benefit nothing.
So he tells Krishna that he will not give the command. He says that instead he will walk into the mountains and find a cave and meditate without food or water until he dies. He says that from that moment on he will take no action, even to protect himself. And Arjuna puts down his sword and challenges Krishna to kill him on the spot for refusing the will of a god.
And Krishna says, “Hey, I’m a god and I was here before mankind began and I will be here when he is no more, and I can see the whole play from beginning to end … and I’m still working my ass off down here.” And he calls Arjuna a coward. How dare he deny free will when he uses it to defy a God! Not to act is to act. One charitable deed can redeem all mankind. Why question the motivation if climbing the mountain itself is good for the heart? Sometimes the loss of a simple kindness gives birth to great tragedy. And even if we see that nothing can be done, we can still encourage others. Would it not be better—even at the chance of doing something wrong or wasting time—to spend what little time we have left assisting others, in the best ways we know how in every moment, learning as we go forward? Who could deny this to be true?
23 12 The Red Fort B“The Red Fort B”
After a long silence Bill laughs and says, So, what Krishna is asking of Arjuna is what he’s demonstrating himself.
Yes, I laugh and slap my hands together. That’s it exactly.
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