Moon Night: A Vietnamese Poem by Mai Van Phan Explicated

Translated into English by Pompen Hantrakool
Explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

Text

Moon night

Putting hands on a pillow
Breathing silently and listening to a colony of bats
Flying through a cage of beaming light

Explicatio

After a whole days bone breaking labour the poet is left alone in the night ,his hand placed on a pillow.The hand on the pillow might mean the poets reliance on the tender things of the existence.The poets breath becomes slower . The poet breathes silently. It is the breath that keeps us in touch with the world busy getting and spending.The madding crowds ignoble strife makes us breathe fast and loud.But when breath becomes slower our emotions are soothered and our body becomes relaxed. And a time comes when breath is as it were silent. No doubt the poet with his hand on the pillow concentrates on his breath or else how can he observe that his breath becomes silent? With his breath silent the noise without and the noise within also die. His mind becomes silent. Once breath is silent and the noise of the mind quelled there is a sound within that is never heard on sea or land. It might be compared with the ultrasonic sound that the bats hear. Now the poet can hear a colony of bats flying through a cage of beaming light.Hearing is universal among the vertebrates. It connects the creatures with the vibrations that are the world.Hearing tells us much about the surrounding world and enriches us. Think of the murmuring leaves or gurgling brooks. Speech and music are however uniquely human. They are dependant on hearing only. The bats could be there without. The poet doesnot see them. The poet hears them. The bats could be there within as well. There are different kinds of bats. Quite a few of them take fruits and the nectar of flowers. Some others eat the very insects that destroy our harvests trees and plants. They keep awake throughout the night and hide in the caves during the day . Thus they are the type of the wise who keep awake during the time which is night to the common run of men. With us common men a life sans pleasures is the night. But the bats renounce pleasures in search of truth. In the light of the day differences show up and create the world of illusion. The differences are drowned in the one darkness of night enveloping the world. The darkness stands for the emptiness that sublates into it all the differences.Oedipus in Greek myth complained that Tieresias the fortune teller was blind. The blind Tiresias retorted that though he had no eyes ight he could see better than Oedipus who had eyes. Although bats can see in the night they are commonly deemed to be blind. But they do see better because of their inner light.During the winter they go in colonies or packs or sanghas to hibernate Bats are the only mammals who can fly for long. Although western cultures are not fond of bats bats stand for happiness in Chinese culture. Five bats together that is a colony of bats means five blessings in the light of Chinese wisdom. They are longevity. Wealth, health and composure, virtue and desire to die a natural death. The caves the bats inhabit are believed to be the gateways to beyond.The poet with breath slowed down relaxed in body and silent at heart can hear the colony of bats flying through the cage of beaming light.The sound of the flying could be the primordial sound Aum or the Word of the Bible which created the world. The birds are flying in a cage. The bird could be the soul and the cage could be the body. The bird could be an individual who is caged in the capitalist society forged with the wires of custom and brands. Well cages are a protection also.The reality and the infinitude cannot devour an individual if he or she is pent up in a cage. A cage is there to indicate that there is a world beyond. But here is a colony of souls or individuals flying in a cage beaming with light. It is surely moon light. The moon stands for the mind imagination wisdom soul and the like. When body becomes inert and the senses go to hibernate When no light from without could influence the mind the cage of the body becomes alight with the inner light or wisdom or the light of the soul.May be moon is not there in the physical world. What is day with the common men could be night with poets. And the poets can see the moon awake in their heart. May be he cannot see the moon , But he feels that it is there. And he can hear the primordial sound raised by the flight of a colony of souls in a cage beaming with light. It should be noted that the souls are flying after all in a cage.That is once the inner world is alight it reminds us that there are many more worlds beyond

A Sweet Fruit: A Vietnamese Poem by Mai Van Phan Explicated

Translated into English by Pompen Hantrakool
Explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

Text

Extruded roots
Aiming at the sky
A little stem

Explicatio

Roots do not always dive underground. The roots of the banyan tree often emerge from the branches and dangle in the air. They are of course prop roots directed to wards the ground. But there are also plants whose roots are aerial. They directly drink water from the air. This happens in rain forests. Mangroves have roots feeding on air. They exchange gases from the atmosphere. The oxygen content of the soil where mangroves grow are not enough. Hence there are extruded roots to take oxygen from the air. The present poem dwells on a plant with extruded roots aimimg at the sky. May be the mangrove plants in the Red River delta where the poet was born has inspired this imagery.But what does the plant stand for? Deuteronomy 20-19 says that man is a tree of the field. According Torah mans roots are deep underground unmoving and serene drawing sustenance from the forefathers .The roots of the plants also go deep into the soil . Or else they are aerobic perhaps. But here is a plant with extruded or forced roots aiming at the sky.


Trees are a recurrent feature in Vietnamese myths. A banyan tree went up from the earth and struck its roots in the Moon.A tree gave fruits. A bird ate the fruits In exchange it gave the poor but honest owner of the tree ample gold






Then there is the tree of life or the tree with its roots going down to netherlands and excelsioring to the skies and beyond.


The shamans go up and down the tree and visit the heaven and the worlds below the earth in trances


Unlike these trees the Shrimadbhagavadgita a Hindu scripture describes the cosmic tree as an inverted one with its leaves and branches constituting the world and roots diving into heaven. In Jewish Kabalah the inverted tree stands for the nervous system in man which has the roots in the cranial and branches distributed among the other limbs of the body









In a vision the poet finds a plant with extruded roots aiming at the skies and a little stem. One wonders whether the image of this plant speaks of an aesthetics and the poets aspirations. Literature commonly has its roots in the earthiness of the earth and in the everyday world ; but its efflorescence is above the world. And there is a qualitative difference between the world of the flower and everyday world of ours ;between the world of mud from which the lotus springs and the world above the water where the lotus blooms; between the world of literature and the war-torn jealousy-lorn everyday world of ours. But our poet has different aims.He seeks sustenance from heaven and ether and air. The senses of the common run of poets draw the material of poetry from the worldly life. its tears and smiles. But the poet toils hard and forces his senses to draw the material from supra mundane plane. He extrudes his roots aiming at the sky. He will cull the pearls of wisdom from heaven and the skies and reproduce the same in human language or poetry so that humanity could feed on the heavenly beauty and fragrance of his poetry. The poet is an unacknowledged leader of men. Although the stem or the poets body is little if he can derive his sustenance from the skies he can move the world into melting mood and charge it with the spirit of universal love and kindness. And everyman can emulate the poet. Vietnamese myths describe the people as descendants from heaven. Hence the poems nostalgia for heaven

To Be Aware: A Vietnamese Poem by Mai Van Phan Explicated

Translated by Pompen Hantrakool
Explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mujhopadhyaya

Text

To Be Aware
Moonlight on a tree
Scattered away
What little else to be gathered

Explicatio

It is night. It is night all over the existence and the globe. We are shattered from within driven by our multiplying desires. The world is jealousy lorn and wartorn. It is night indeed. And the true votary of peace and truth keeps awake in the night only. He is not carried off by the darkness of consumerism to dreams of material pleasures. Not deluded by dreams the poet keeps awake. The poet restrains his senses and goes out in the night. In search of moon light he goes out and braves the evil spirits that gambol in the night. Because it is in the night that mind not contaminated by the longing for this mans talents and that mans riches shines as the Moon in the skies.Unlike others who crave the articles displayed in the shopping malls for sensual pleasure the poet seeks something that bestows eternal life and deathless love for all things great and and small in the existence. The shopping malls are the night mares. Night mares take place in the night ; but the spectators of the night mares are oblivious of the night and darkness enveloping the world.Because being asleep they awake in an unreal world alight with artificial light. They are not aware of anything like moonlight that promises peace and love and eternal life. But the poet not led astray by desires and not driven to dreams is wide awake in what is night to common run of men . He goes out in quest of the moonlight in the middle of the night.While we the common run of men are in search of pleasures and objects of pleasures in the shopping malls made of the stuff of false dreams the poet is wide awake . Because he knows that when the world is flooded with the darkness of sorrow and ignorance truth and knowledge shines in its lunar glory cool and mellow. In the Upanishads –ancient Indian philosophical treatises there is a woman character in Maiteyee. When she is offered material wealth she exclaims what should she do with material pleasures. That which does not give nectar or deathless love and perennial joy and liberation for every one under the Moon is of no use to her. According to Indian mythology nectar is stored in the Moon. The poet also like Maitreyee is aware of the fact that material pleasures are mere tinsels appearing like diamonds.He renounces them in quest of Moonlight. Nothing less than peace love pure consciousness and infinitude can satisfy the poet. But when the poet is outdoor in quest of moonlight he finds that it is the tall trees that scattered away the same.Moonlight obstructed by the web densely woven with the leaves of the tall trees is not filtered on the ground But what else the poet can ask for except moonlight. Here is an aesthetics. A poet is one who goes out at the hour which is called by the worldly men Night to retrieve moonlight. True the poet finds it scattered. But one wonders whether Moon has espied the poets longing for moonlight or not. Because Moon is always a witness to all human efforts to achieve love and knowledge. We find the Moon as the witness to love. Was not the Moon only witness to the love vows taken by Kieu and Kim Trong?






Vang trang vang vac gia tro


Dinh ninh hai mieng mot loi song song


Toc to can van tac long


Tram nam lac mot chu dong den xuong






The Moon shines brightly from above


And we speak to each other love


Our deeper passions will bind us to gether


Like finest silk threads


For all time to come


This is what we pledge









Queen Moon from the empyrean heights has surely witnessed the pledge of the poet Mai Van that nothing less than moonlight can satisfy his longings in life.

A Vietnamese Poem Written by Mai Van Phan Explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

Text

At Dawn

A water spider

Is awakened

In the middle of the lotus flower

Explication

Dawn comes out from the tenebrous wombs of darkness and nothingness. It is the beginning of a new day.  Expansion and contraction and expansion again is the order of the universe. Birth death and rebirth is the order of existence. Creation destruction and creation is the way of the world. And if night is deemed to be disappearance of the creation then dawn is deemed to be the hour before the gods awake—the hour in between night and day when nothingness fast disappears to make room  for fresh creation. The very line where the opposites meet where night and day meet is the source of jouissance. It is at the hour of unspeakable delight that there is the efflorescence of lotus . There is nothing as beautiful as lotus in the pond-so goes a saying in a folk song of Vietnam. The  pond could be the metaphor of the receptacle of existence or the creation . Lotus is the national flower of Vietnam. Just as the lotus has its roots in mud so Vietnam has raised its head from  years of bloodshed where the soil mingled with the blood of the patriotic  Vietnamese people became muddy.Vietnam has raised its proud and beautiful crown from that muddy soil. Vietnam  itself sprang from the waters of the Red Riverjust as the lotus  rises from the waters.The world winning beauty of Vietnam both natural and cultural can be likened to the beauty of the lotus flower only. Springing from the mud under water the lotus rises above the surface of the waters to bloom in its world winning beauty. It shows how the individuals as well as  the nations now grovelling in the mud and blood   of the world today might rise up above the sphere of sorrow  enshrining in it the deity of peace and disseminating love and peace. Creation however means difference.Unless difference is born there cannot be any creation. There cannot be the lotus alone. Unless there is the other a thing cannot exist. When the poet finds the water spider he knows that the process of creation is there and one wonders whether the poet rejoices in the difference and in the creation. Here is a poet who simply revels in pencil sketches of what he observes and leaves the same for the readers to explicate. And of course  the readers can  peruse the same from different standpoints. Just as Nature is satisfied in creating the sights and sounds so is the poet satisfied creating imagery made of words. Just as Nature has no comment on what it creates  so  is the poet  reticent in his comments on what he  observes. Just as each spectator reads his own mind in Nature so does the reader reads his own mind in the poems of Mai Vam Phan. The poet Mai Van finds a water spider in a lotus. To find is to create. The poet creates a lotus and a water spider in the lotus. It is the difference between the water spider and the lotus that indicates creation. If the lotus stands for the beautiful and elegant the water spider might stand for the ugly and the ignoble.It is these opposites that make the creation possible.But if the beautiful has the ugly at its heart or if ugliness implies the existence of the beautiful neither  ugliness nor the beautiful could be the object of our love. If we ever love the dawn or creation we enjoy both the beautiful and the ugly both the  good and the evil . Differences must be there. But we must not love this or hate that.We must be as compassionate towards everything in the creation no matter whether so called good or evil  just as the poet is all things both beautiful and ugly. He prayeth best who loveth best all things both great and small. Vietnam might be likened to a lotus But there could be some people who are not as openhearted as the lotus that  welcomes the sun with petals unfurled. But no one should be deprived of our love and compassion. But this is not all. The lotus catches  unsuspecting  insects  for the spider to eat.. Hence may we take the liberty to infer that  we are drawn to the beauties of the world only to be eaten away by death.On another level  the beautiful exists in the world to support the ugly.And  furthermore that thing or person is good who does not hate the ugly. On the contrary the beautiful and the good always heip others to survive be they good or ugly. The water spiders live in waters . But they are found to float on leaves and sticks. The lotus here lets the spider to rise above water and have a stay on the surface of waters. The Mississipian culture looks upon the grand mother spider as the teacher who taught us how to weave and spin. It was the spider which created the web of life. With the Mississipian culture a water spider is a symbol of creative spirit. And when one espies water spider in a lotus, one might interpret the  same as the creative spirit awakened in the lotus or the womb of the creation with the advent of dawn. A  beautiful portrayal of dawn indeed

An Essay on 'On Human Road' by Pompen Hantrakool a Thai English Poet by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

On the Human Road is the second part of Hantrakools book of poems entitled Springs and Autumns Speeding  Through Time. On the Human Road is a sequence of poems and it is evident from their title that the poems under study dwell on the human predicament in the journey of life

The book opens with the growing of a custard apple or noina in Thai language and with the growing of a mango tree.Birds peck at the fruits and sing. The squirrels nibble on the mangoes and and raise their greeting tails.But the speaker observes that when the speaker cultivates human beings no songs no greetings.   The poem is in the first person and one wonders who could be the speaker of these. Is this the parole of God who creates the multiverse ? Or is the speaker a male who cultivates  a child in the womb of a woman? The Holy Quran points out that the women are the field and men cultivate children there. Sura Al Baqarah verse 221 states ---your wives are place of sowing of seed for you so come to your place of cultivation however you wish and put forth.Whoever the speaker might be God or a man his observation is candid .The speaker hints at Green Economics. The crucial problem of Economics is production of wealth and its distribution. The trees produce fruits for ages to gether. Some specimens of mango tree still  fruit even after three hundred years.Think of a factory. Does it last for more than fifty years?And  how much is spent to raise a factory and how much is spent to raise a mango tree? Besides Economics  only takes in account  the effective buyers- that is those buyers who have the money to buy  goods. Nature caters to all those who have demands. It does not ask for any money in exchange of what it gives. The tree gives shelter to squirrels birds and many other creatures without taking any rent. Thus unlike a factory the trees and rivers and the earth—the different agents of production belonging to Nature produce  multiple  commodities and comforts for our use.But it is a pity that the birth of a human child is not celebrated by Nature. Because what we call civilization today is an antithesis to Nature. This is not all .Life is too much with man getting and spending. And the prophecy of Malthus has pronounced a curse upon men lest they multiply beyond a limit set from the standpoint of distribution of wealth through the market The poet Hantrakool  puts in our mind Shakespeare. If love were universal Gonzalo in Tempest observes: 
All things in common nature should produce
Without sweat or endeavour: treason, felony,
Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,
Would I not have; but nature should bring forth,
Of its own kind, all foison, all abundance,
To feed my innocent people.

But what man has made of man. Now a days as soon as a child is born the parents start thinking whether they can afford to give them a good bringing up which needs money and not love.

The next poem dwells on human trade. Trade in humans could mean human trafficking . But this is not all. Thanks to the economist Mr Schultz  a human being is to be evaluated in the context of how much he can contribute to the interest of the capitalist.In short man is no longer judged as a man or loved as a man. By the magic touch of the Gospel of Mammon he has turned into capital meant for further production the way the capitalist chooses. But suppose what happens if one is not groomed to become a human capital? Pompen describes him in telling word:

He lives a really wretched life

Raking up for food like chickens

Guess who he is?

A vagrant  living by eating scraps

He is a man and yet he does not look like a man . He gathers scraps or rakes up  in quest of food perhaps in the bins just as chickens do. He is dehumanized ,a man turned into subhuman species who lives on scraps or the food that is left over after the greater part is used. Since he cannot be employed in any production activity he has no value in the society. But capitalism can add value to what it calls worth nothing. The photograph of the wretch however sells. That is man seeks to make money from selling the portraits of misfortune  of man. Man lives on the misfortunes of his fellowmen. Pompen tells us that the man  who collects the scraps of food does not know that he is being photographed for the entertainment of the fortunate few among men. Pompen says:

The watchers laugh

 he is hungry

The  makers make money

He is dying

This reminds us of Nero  who fiddles while Rome is aburning.Now  a days Nero is espied in every man who is rich and fortunate. Pompen  uses  a sequence of photogenic imagery to bring home to the readers her keen observation about the predicament of man.And she is right. One Bollywood actor  Salman Khan ran over five people sleeping outside a bakery killing one while driving without a licence. A famous singer Abhijit by name defended Salman Khan by saying that roads are meant for cars and dogs, not for people sleeping on them. So people who  sleep on the streets can be run over just as dogs are run over!! Pompens poem depicting human trade has revealed the horrors of hell where men feed on men in the name of trade hiding behind  the masks of civilization

Thus our civilization is two faced.. One face always smiles as though very kind and the other is strained and horrendous. One face is open seen trusted adored and loved but the other unknown and unknowable.But one wonders whether the existence itself is two faced or not with appearance and reality phenomenon and noumenon  surface and underground as its two aspects. The poet is in the surface and she surmises that the Doomsday will show up one day and the dark visage of the existence  will be revealed reft of its accidental visage of unwitting love . Thus in her poem Two Faced Pompen is weighed down with deep depression

And why should not the poet be depressed with the world as it is? Man is the mirror of the universe. The poet is swayed to an autobiographical mood. She met a man noble and trustworthy on the surface. But  the friend turned out to be mean with his mouth maligninig  his fellowmen eyes aburning with wrath and vengeance and plans pernicious. This is character -study reminding one of Shakespeare. A friend turning hostile is an instance of peripetiea. And through the sudden reversal of situation the truth is found out. There is the serpent in the grass. There are devils in human demeanour.

And what disaster is caused by these devils in human skin? The poet knows that whatever is born is destined to death and annihilation. The flower that is born is sure to wither away . The child that is born is sure to grow old and die.But flowers are culled before they wither and are thro wn away. Men are killed even in their child hood. Civilisation does not wait to see the natural fructification of things. Impelled by greed and hurry it cuts the tree before it is dead.Lust for luxury impels them to borrow money before it is earned. The earth not yet decayed is being dragged to early and untimely  doom and destruction by man made contamination. Indeed the earth is the only spaceship where we can inhabit. If it is damaged we cannot alight from it and board on another. But who cares ? Because it is the devils in human attire who rule the earth.True that nothing is permanent under the sun.Human race also might be wiped off from the face of earth in times to come. But pollution makes the earth impossible for man to live in and since man cannot migrate from earth to any other space ship man must be extinct from the face of the existence before its time

Pompen is deft in creating situations. In the poem Voice it was Midnight. She says that the streets around were retiring.In the dimly corner of a restaurant which was already closed a girl hung on talking with a guy.Pompen has love and goodwill for everyone. She recognized the girl. She was a waitress with a restaurant. And young boys and girls might be engaged in love affair. May they be happy! She passed by blessing them. But alas ! After some time  she heard an inscrutable groan of a woman. Just imagine how the heart of the sleeping city in the night  moaned  inarticulately. It is an eerie  situation  built by the poet with great power and force. Coleridge had to hark back to the middle ages to forge his supernatural tales. But Pompen forges an eerie situation out of the materials of our every day urban life. In a moment our much known cities turn into a veritable inferno. Pompens  physical response to the voice is noteworthy. She says that the voice stopped her walking legs and then penetrated into heart and soul.This is significant.The chief aim of poetry is to appeal to the senses unlike that of philosophy that appeals to intellect. Thus Pompens poems are philosophical poems  where philosophy has been the stuff of poetry. And the message created by the voice seems to pass from the senses to purer soul. In this context one is apt to remember a few lines from Wordsworths Tintern Abbey:

...I have owed to them
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration:...

Wordsworth owed his pleasant sensations to the sights and sounds of Nature.The sights and sounds of the city are just the opposite of pleasant sensation Pompens  comment on the situation is brief and poignant:

In that moment I felt a bitterness

In womans destiny.

Pompen is a poet who loves to show a situation instead of describing  the same.Through the revelation of a critical situation the poet reveals herself as well. Here is a dramatic lyric in the right sense of the term.

In the earlier poem Pompen has described how everything in Nature is being destroyed before its hour of death. Civilisation does not let things grow the Natures way or natural way. And the groan we heard at the heart of a city in the middle of the night could be the groan of Nature animated through the lamenting voice of a youthful woman. And indeed women and Nature are identical. Pompen shows this with the aid of a wonderful penpicture of a cowherd woman in the poem –her name is tua lek. The title of the poem is significant because there is no capital letter there. The first letter of the title—h-- is not  put in capital letter. Why? Because the protagonist of the poem a cowherd is not at all significant in the light of modern civilization.The sequence of the motifs in the poem  is significant. First comes a herd of cows on the gravel road. May be we can hear the hoofs  on the pounded stones.It surely suggests the neighbourhood of villages.They stop at the roadside to graze. This ironically tells us how pastures are contracting even in the country side.Then comes the next motif. After them is a young woman holding a stick This is a familiar picture not only in Thailand but also in India. The portrait of a vagrant searching food in the bins drawn by the poet earlier is also a familiar one in Calcutta India.Thus Pompens poems are as much Indian as it is Thai at least to the present reader who lives in India.So to repeat the cows came first and then we came across the cow herd girl. We the spectators of this film in words want to know the cowherd girl. Pompen tells that her name is tua lek—a name that sounds like the chirping of a bird. Is she a bird or ? Unlike the highland girl of William Wordsworth she does not sing and bind the grain single in the field. Here she drives the cattle. But she does .not know anything about herself  She does not know how old she is. She does not have even the three R’s. Only thing that she has learnt since her childhood is to look after the cows.Here the poet shoots a sharp shaft of satire at modern education system. 

But look at her. 
She is exceedingly beautiful

Her eyes are shining

Her lips lay a big smile

Revealing her white teeth

On her dark face

 sweating all over

We readers can see in our minds eye the sweats dangling from her dark face shining like pearls in the sun.Here is an aesthetics. The beauties of the plants of the garden have been outdone by a creeper uncared for grown up and groomed in Nature. The cowherd is truly a creature belonging to Nature like a bird or like a creeper. She is the portrait of womanhood. She is one with the Nature. And  her road joins the road of the cows!!

This is a civilization that is out to destroy women and Nature.

And this grim situation has impelled the poet to mope an instance of antipoetry in the poem entitled Death. In traditional poetry morning is associated with birth and fresh hopes. But with the poet our birth is but sleep and forgetfulness. As long as we sleep or rather live in this world we are haunted by nightmares where we see vagrant people nibbling food from scraps. And if such a person steals and is caught redhanded surely he will be deemed to be a criminal. It is the society that turns men into thieves and then sends them to jail The poem entitled Death opens with a morning that witnesses the withering away of Satinwood flowers  that bloomed in full fragrance during the night before the morning.The flowers are strewn along the path. Thus morning opens up the path littered with fragrant satinwood flowers. And Pompen says that this is the path which will lead an old prisoner presently dead beyond the sphere of sorrow. Because with her Death is kind and extremely just.Death does not distinguish between a free person and a prisoner between good and evil between rich and poor. Sceptre and crown must tumble down along with scythe and spade. Just as the satinwood  flowers are shed in the morning so does a prisoner die in the morning. Who is not a prisoner in the human society? Custom hangs heavy upon man. The poet says that the prisoner is set free during the morning. Pompen recalls:

This morning…

It freed

And took him (that is the prisoner) to the land of freedom

Forever

Thus contrary to poetic tradition morning brings death in its train and liberates the prisoners from the trammels of earth. With Pompen death does not have any sting. Death is the liberator. But the morning that the poet depicts is not a mellow one. She says that during the morning she refers to:

Rain poured

Wind blew

Heaven hailed

Here a pun on the hail is clearly descried With the poet Pompen therefore life brings suffering with it.Death might relieve us from that. Does the poet mean nirvana by the word death. Because the death that frees us from birth and death cycle could be called nirvana

Be that as it may the life we live is death in life haunted by nightmares and harrowed by the tortures let loose by our fellowmen. In this waste land what could protect us and protect the poet?Well the poet puts on a vest that her mother once sewed during a live long night.The poet says:

As this vest I will never discard

Has been close to my flesh and  my heart

Though time has since passed for fifty springs

My mothers embrace is still here around me

It is the love of the mother that can protect one in this vale of tears or the world. Though the mother has been long dead the poet still remembers her warm love and lives with a sense of security .If we remember the love of our mother for us  and make it a part of our being we could defend ourselves from the odds of life. This is not ancestor worship. What the  poet speaks of is mother cult perhaps

By the by it is the vest sewn by the poets mother that sticks to the body of the poet and gives the poet the pleasure of being embraced by the mother even when mother is long dead.Here is sensuousness which is time and again.

. This speaks of fetishism and worship of the relics of our loved ones

And now the poet recalls how someone asked for a pound  from her while she was walking along the streets of London.Does it not point out that the poet has in her mind the fact that there is stark poverty looming large below the surface of the so called developed countries? It was a biting cold evening and there was a man struck with chill penury asking for a pound. The poet had a pound only in her pocket and she walked aside and went away. A little after the poet thought to herself----I should do almsgiving. But in the meantime the man had disappeared.The poet laments:

 the giving only one pound could be a humane deed

I denied helping a human being.

Little acts of kindness like that could change the world

Hence the poet bursts into a hymn praising heart

Heart is beautiful when it gives

Heart is missing when it is mean

Heart deceives when it pretends

Heart can express at any time

Heart has much for giving

It depends on its nature rich or poor

Loving mother when remembered fills our hearts with the milk of compassion.

When the poet says –heart deceives when it pretends- she might allude to the protagonist of the poem Demon. And in reality we pose and pose and take our poses to be the reality and thereby hearts become mean. Heart mean when it poses. Heart is mean when it does not give. But heart is always very wealthy.Heart has much for giving. Heart does not consult almanacs to know when one should give and when one should not give. May be any time is not tea time. But any time is auspicious for giving away. And in other words heart can express any time And it is through giving that ones heart becomes beautiful. This is a significant poem. It tells us that everyman has untold wealth because everyman has a human heart. The wealth of a man is proved by way of his giving away the same to the needy and poor. If we had cultivated our heart there would be no one poor . The world would witness abundance and abandon

Everyone in the world does not possess a deceiving heart. The poet remembers her mother. Mothers love remembered protects the poet from the encircling dangers of being cheated and duped. Memory of a friend keeps the lamp of love aburning in the heart of the poet. The poem entitled A Forever Friend is a woberful elegy composed in an epistolary form in which a deceased friend has been addressed. The friend passed away without farewell to the poet. But his image is still bright in her heart. And here is recollection of emotions in tranquility. The friends smiling image reminds her of her erstwhile friendship with the deceased person which was erected on wisdom and sincerity. Such memories of mothers love for a child or a friends love for a friend protect a person in the weird wilderness of civilization. Here the poet seems to underline the need of right memory.

But this is not all . May be like the author of Walden the poet also took refuge somewhere away from human locality and madding crowds iignoble strife. For a time she felt a bit uneasy being away from the herd. She seemed to be a little scared in the utter silence that surrounded her. But we are never alone. Even in the womb silence there is lot of noise. Even in the womb of loneliness there are lot of friends.The poet discovered some houselizards moving along the wall. Done. The poet found her friends living under the same roof hence onwards.True compassion or cultivation of heart could discover the bond between man and man and between man and nature. And once we could be friendly with one and all there will be a. world beyond the sphere of fear. A world beyond the sphere of sorrow and fear is all that the poet Pompen looks forward to. Could we follow the poet in her striving for or trying to get rid of …

Bhagavadgita or krishna Speaks at the Battleground chapter 3 by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

GITA – CHAPTER – III
Written by Dr. Rameshchandra Mukhopadhyay

                                                      CHAPTER – III
                                                    WAR AS ACTION


        Arjuna knows Krishna for a long time. In the interaction between
Krishna and the society although he has ever put his person last, he
comes first. For example, he drives the chariot; Arjuna rides it. This
personality of Krishna may have been oppressive to Ajuna. Hence he
ignored Krishna’s commands to go to war. Krishna then sets out to
argue. His arguments seem to laugh at Arjuna’s sagacity as
foolishness. For Arjuna speaks with contempt about his enemies and yet
he will not fight them. They are his own; how could he live without
them. Krishna observes, fight it you must, but for God’s sake let
there be no hatred among you. You can call one enemy but not villain.
You can call one invalid but not wretch; you can call one a fool, but
not a sinner. If Arjuna thinks that the Hundred Brothers are his own,
that is good. But Arjuna must kill pride and hatred in him; they are
the part of his being. Why not then kill the brothers, if it is the
call of the hour? No one is killed. For body is not the thing-in-
itself. Besides what matters a long life? What warrior wants to be
spared? So Krishna asks Arjuna to choose and to obey the commands of
his station and duties which others follow blindly. In order to
choose, what others do involuntarily, one must use one’s intelligence
and grow beyond oneself. Arjuna must fight like others and yet he must
fight in the light of the knowledge of the self. Thus a warrior could
become a forerunner of a saint. But Arjuna pulls Krishna and asks why
the hell Krishna goads him to the horrid war, if the cultivation of
the intellect is more important than action. Krishna had earlier
observed in a round about way that Arjuna’s notions were confused. Now
Arjuna straightway charges that Krishna’s words confound him. Arjuna
asks Krishna to tell him unequivocally what course he should follow.
The relation between Krishna and Arjuna is one of deep love; but they
do not spare each other. And surely Arjuna will not be convinced,
before he is convinced.
        Krishna takes the question posed by Arjuna easy. He lovingly calls
Arjuna as one who has no sin. He tells Arjuna that in ancient times,
he classified human tendencies as of two types. Some people are
introvert. They seek knowledge. Others are extrovert. They want to act
in the outer world. But knowledge and action cannot be separated from
one another. If Arjuna thinks that he should understand his own self
with the aid of his intellect and then go to act, he cannot. The one
will be of no help without the other. One must cross the bridge
dividing theory and practice. One must act in the outer world and grow
within simultaneously, just as a bird often wings and sings at the
same time. Those who lean upon knowledge seek to abandon the worldly
activities. If one does not act in the real world; it does not follow
that he does not act in the real world; it does not follow that he
does not act at all. No one can stay without action for a fraction of
a second. One cannot but act; one acts being impelled by nature. Who
says that one who keeps his hands and feet under check, with feline
modesty does not act? If one behaves like an ideal parish priest and
yet covets the neighbour’s maid-servant one acts. Such a fool is no
doubt a hypocrite. Modesty is a thief. He steals softly in the night
of his mind. Krishna asks one to be bold and wrest one’s object of
desire. Often men withdraw from the din and bustle of worldly action
to have conversation with the higher self; but the light of other
days, joys and sorrows, lovers who came near the lovers who refused
flash upon the inward eye; in short they participate in the worldly
life through recollections in solitude; they ruminate patient as cow;
it is like going to the husband only to ogle at the wife. This is
mischievous. On the contrary if a man is at heart indifferent to the
objects of the world and if his senses are perfectly under control, he
can do anything whatever; still he is a gem of a man. Because a man
must be judged not by his actions, but by his motives. And the motive
redeeming all actions is motivelessness unless it is the motive to act
according to the conventions of the society. Krishna asks Arjuna to
act, act in the living present. Any activity whatever is better than
inaction stuffed with day-dreams. Even the body cannot survive without
activity. The heart beats ceaselessly. Blood circulation knows no
rest. The lungs breathe in and breath out. Awake or asleep, the mind
is also restless always. It does not take rest even when we are in the
state of sleep. How is it that we could then live without work? Work
is a biological necessity. Why do they sleep at their chairs in the
office then? This is very frequent in India. That is a kind of protest
against the system. They are at work; the poor fellows do not enjoy
rest. So since, work is sine qua non with human existence, one should
work, one should work whole heartedly.
        But any action binds one in chains. Think of Shakespeare’s Machbeth.
He was a great general. It was natural for him to go higher up. But
the next rung above was the highest rung- it was kingship. Kingship
was hereditary in Machbeth’s world. So it was unattainable. Machbeth
was very imaginative. During as he was in war, daring was he in the
realm of imagination. He wanted to attain the unattainable. Had it
been a modern democracy, he would not perhaps try for American
presidentship. Because it is attainable legally through cunning. But
kingship was not an elected office. So in order to become the king he
killed the king. Had it been a vile king, regicide would be alright.
But the king wore all the royal qualities so meekly that it was a
sacrilege to kill the king. Machbeth knew it. He vacilliated. But his
vaulting ambition got the better of his love and respect for the king.
He assassinated the king and became king himself. He killed the king
and killed sleep. Machbeth heard a voice from within crying out.
Machbeth shall sleep no more. Blood cries out for blood. He killed
other generals and thanes. He was world-weary. Because, when he
realised his ambition, he found it was not the infinitude he thirsted
for. But he could not doff his sceptre and crown, at will. He was much
advanced along the river of blood. Tracing his steps back was as
difficult as pushing ahead. So Machbeth was in a net which was his own
doing.
        Everyone of us is a Machbeth. There is the pro and con of every
action. But our desires are apt to violate the super-ego. Arjuna also
seeks to violate the biddings of his station and duties. The
compunction wrought thereby eats into our hearts. Because the superego
has a parallel structure in our minds. While the external world reacts
in the form of the society that speaks unseemingly against us or that
rises up arms against Machbeth, at heart we suffer from self-pity.
Because, we cannot get rid of the values of the society that have been
engraved in our hearts. What is virtue or vice? It is always created
by man himself through the legitimations of the society. But there
have been other ages and another evil and good. If they got an inkling
of Machbeth’s imagination, even if he had not actually killed the
king, they would call him a villain. But who debunks the chief of the
Indian Navy if he expresses the wishes of becoming the president of
India in a democratic system? We do not live in a world of vacuum
where values do not exist. We try to cultivate in us the many virtues
upheld by the society. What is evil but that which grows out of the
conflict of such virtues. Machbeth is ambitious. That is a virtue. Who
but ambitious men dare do great things in the world? It is in direct
conflict with his innate loyalty to his king-another virtue taught by
the society. We, in the middle class society in India go for
competitive examinations to have a comfortable berth in the work-a-day
world; we wrest our studentship with the best engineering college in
India. We wrest a good job with a multinational company. Despite
ourselves we thus kill many others who do not get it. the deprived
organise themselves into a horde of have-nots who abuse us with their
slogans, “Down with the elite”; we feel pain at that. We grind our
teeth at that. No act in this contingent world is without result. That
fetters us further as a slave to the world. A business man starts his
business. Soon the business flourishes on its own. It delivers bread
to a whole army of workers. Just as blood cried out for blood with
Machbeth, so does money bring further money. The world-weariness that
tied Machbeth down could visit the businessman also; he is now a
tycoon. Even when he is tired of money he cannot get rid of it. He is
bound to it by numerous commitments to his family, to his friends, to
his clients and customers and to his workers. One is at liberty to
raise a business organisation. But one cannot shut down his company at
pleasure. The state will prevent him from doing that. Every one of us
is responsible for what we are. Here is a man who enters his home only
to walk on burning tar; his wife is a fierce maenad. The children are
distanced away from him, through the machinations of their mother. Who
is responsible for that? The man himself. Why did he marry? Is not
misery that he undergoes his own making? All who have sought to teach
them the truths about the universe have suffered persecution and vile
abuse. Such cruelties like crucifixion or inquisition are, however,
unknown in India. But they took place in other parts of the world.
They are also the doings of these saints themselves. They took up arms
against a sea of troubles. Thus the condemned cell of the world, where
we groan, is the creation of our imagination. The causal connection
between the deed and its result might not be always visible to the
eye. In a tale from ancient India, there was a child that
intentionally pinned an insect to the wall. In later years he became a
begging friar. He was suddenly arrested by the king’s men; he was
produced before the court and was proved guilty of theft although
apparently he had committed none. He was sent to the stake where a
trident should be thrust into his head. While the sharp heads of the
trident had already pierced into his head the truth was found out. The
real thief was arrested. And the king and his men apologized to the
friar. But they could not pull out the trident from the friar’s head.
Then the friar asked them not to try for that. Because he must bear
the burnt of his actions done in his childhood. He had pinned an ant
to the wall. Call it fantastic? Modern psychology says those who had
strict toilet habits in the childhood, become chain smoker in their
adult-life. The present author is a chain-smoker himself and he had
indeed a strict toilet in his childhood. His mother was like Mrs.
Murdstone of the David Copperfield. She would not allow me food if I
had to go to the toilet more than once a day. Every bit of thought and
day dream thus act through us silently and create the life that we
undergo. Just as they remain as subtle codes in the ROM of our beings
to fulfil themselves through their manifestations in the external
world, similarly our hopes and desires, every bit of them, not
realised in this life might lead us to another life. Thus perhaps we
are doomed to undergo infinite cycles of birth and death. The class,
the society, the culture, the environment and the time that we are
driven into when we are born was but what we willed in our earlier
birth. Since our hopes and desires are linked with the environment
where we have been born, we are born in the same environment again. If
my desire for an Indian dame remains ungratified in this birth, I must
be born somewhere in her neighbourhood in India. That is why, rarely
is a Calcutta born in California during his next life.
        Let us take a Prime Minister. Let it be a woman without a name. She
sought to rise into the height and nobody trusts her any longer. How
does that happen? She changed too quickly. Her today refused her
yesterday. She often overleaped the steps when she clambered. For
doing so none of the steps pardons. When aloof she finds herself
lonely. No one speaks to her. The frost of solitude chokes her. She
had a husband. His life was cut off in the prime. She has children but
they live in hostel away from her. She is always surrounded by a bunch
of personal body-guards called the Black Cat. Suppose she is on her
way to a public meeting. No civilian can approach her because of the
exigencies of her security. She finds a happy couple along with a
child standing at distance. They have perhaps come to have a glimpse
of her only. But she might think that how happy such families are,
free from the uneasiness that the crown wears. In her next birth she
might be destined to be an office-clerk. The standard of living that a
college teacher in India enjoys, is less than that of a pet-dog hugged
by an American. No wonder if a college teacher in India dies to be
born as a pet dog in the kernel of an American!
        If whatever one does binds him with further chains to the earthiness
of earth. Where is the way out? Krishna says that if a person is
engaged in the sacrificial rites only, his actions do not recoil upon
him. Earlier Krishna seemed to have looked askance at the Vedic rites;
in many parts of the world beyond India in the remote past. Although
Moses ordained sacrifices for the Jews, the Christian abolished it.
Jesus, however, was of the opinion that “not one jot or title of the
law should pas until all these things were fulfilled”. And when it is
said, “it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul”(Lev. XVII
2). One wonders whether a scape-goat has been referred to, to be
sacrificed at the alter, to make atonement for one’s sins.
        But does Krishna simply ask one to devote himself throughout his life
in such rituals? Arjuna should then instantly give up his fight to
raise an alter for the sacrificial fire to be lighted. But that is not
what Krishna means. He must have taken war as the signified and the
sacrificial rite as a signifier. Let us hear him.
        Krishna observes that when the creator made the first man and woman
he bestowed upon them the faculty of self-sacrifice. He also ordained
them to observe the sacrificial rites. What else is the sacrificial
rite but the externalisation of the sacrifices enacted in our beings.
We have the unknown and unknowable caverns of mind in us where resides
the coils of snakes that generate desire. There is in every one of us
the beast of prey. Creator has given us the faculty to sacrifice the
best at the alter of the gods. When the drama at our heart is
externalised, it takes the shape of an animal sacrificed at the alter.
Everyday the devout Brahmins in their prayers three times a day,
breath out into their cupped hand, imagining that the demon of
viciousness is expelled from the body along with the polluted air. Now
they throw the imaginary demon into the ground and think that the
demon is dead. This could be easily expanded into a tale for children
or a drama or a religious rites. The creator asked us to create
through this sacrifice. We men cannot but act. We cannot but observe
the sacrificial rites every second that we live. We cannot but create.
The sacrificial fire burns all over the body. There is the metabolism
going on constantly in the living organism. Every desire is a kind of
sacrifice of ourselves to either gods or devils. When the creator
uttered the word ‘god’ its counterpart was also created in the devil.
Just as we often use religious rites to secular end, similarly we
learnt from the creator the science o sacrifice often to worship
devils. The Greek drama was born of the religious rites in ancient
Greece. It was removed from its progenitor to be offered at the alter
of aesthetic pleasure. Now the worship of the devils that are but the
extrovert faculties of the senses created the evil. The worship of the
gods or the introvert faculties of mind might help one in the external
world. Because the deeper the roots of a tree go into the earth, the
higher goes its trunk into the sky. The extrovert mind might set
higher programmes for itself like teaching the men about the A B C OF
morals, or about the rudiments of the management principles. The mind
set a goal to set up an empire like Henry Ford’s. Any organisations
like the General Motors could give employment to so many jobless men
all over the globe. Or else the mind might set up a missionary
organisation to serve the poor, the ailing, and the illiterate. But
these altruistic activities also bind one.
        Once there was a great king in ancient India named Bali. He would
readily give away anything whatever from his possessions to anyone who
asked for it. He was something like the historical king
Harshavardhana. As the Chinese traveller Hieun Tsang who visited
Harshavardhana’s court reports, the king would give away even his
apparels to one who begged it of him at the fair at Prayag. Now the
fame of king Bali spread far and wide. One day a small dwarf came to
him for alms. The king promised to give him whatever he wanted. The
dwarf asked for land only three feet in area; the standard of
measurement would be his own foot. The king laughed and asked him to
beg more. No, replied the dwarf. The king smiled and agreed to give
him what he wanted. The dwarf laughed in his heart. Lo! In the
twinkling of an eye he grew taller than the skies. With one of his
feet he possessed the earth; with the other he possessed the heaven.
But the giant had another foot yet which was not found in the dwarf.
The giant planted his third foot on the head of the king only. The
poor king had no more than the heaven and earth in his possession. The
Buddhist Jataka narrates the story of a great king like Sibi. A pigeon
flew to him and asked for shelter. The king gave shelter readily.
Presently a vulture rushed to the king and composed its wings. The
vulture asked the king to give away the pigeon. The king would not
give it away to the vulture. Instead he happily gave away flesh from
his own body equal to the weight of the pigeon to appease the hunger
of the vulture. Still the person of Sibi had to undergo numerous
transmigration till it attained its perfection in Tathagata Buddha of
Kpilavastu – the Enlightened one.  Thus any desire whatever binds one
to birth and death cycle. Not to commit oneself to the activities that
bring about birth and death is the summum bonum. What then is the
action that brings about birth and death? Asked a monk to Daishu
Ekai(Ta-chu-Hin-hai)  one of Tang masters. To desire activities not
committed to the activities that bring about birth and death was the
answer. That is, desire to become desireless is also a desire that
commits one to birth. Hence, the sacrificial rites should be observed
for the sake of it. Let the Christians go to the Church. Let the Jews
go to the synagogue. That is, everyone should follow the rituals
belonging to his station in the society. He may be a Jew. He may be a
follower of Shinto religion. He may be a Buddhist. Let him observe the
ritual as prescribed by his religion. But this is not all. Everyone is
born in a station in the society, which entails certain duties. For
example, a man of the warrior class is expected to fight. When he
fights he observes his sacrificial duty. Of course, he must not fight
either to win or to lose. He joins in the battle because the battle
comes on his way.
        If one could observe one’s station and duties without any hope for
fruition, one reaches the state of undying joy. But this is a
mathematical point for the common run of men. We must try to
approximate it and undergo births and deaths with better opportunities
to realise the self in each one of us.
        The five Brothers and the Hundred Brothers lived together in their
childhood, Drone, who is now one among the generals with the Camp of
the Hundred Brothers, used to teach them in the art of war. One day he
asked the boys to appear for a test. He placed a bird on the tree and
asked them to shoot an arrow sharp at a point on the eye-ball of the
bird. Each one of the boys took his chance. Finally Arjuna’s turn
came. When Arjuna concentrated on his target, Drona asked what Arjuna
could see. Arjuna said that could see only the eye of the bird. After
sometime he could see the point only and nothing else of the bird.
Similarly through different births and deaths we should strive for
narrowing the number of desires. We should strive for more and more
altruistic desires. First I might desire the welfare of my family.
Later I might the welfare of my locality. Higher and higher up the
lark of our self should go. The higher it goes, the larger the
landscape it sees and prays for the welfare of what he sees in its
song. Finally it seems to metamorphose into a cloud of fire symbolic
of the blithe spirit whose race is just begun. It showers a rain of
melody upon the earth.
        There was a Buddhist monk. His name was Honen. He went to many wise
men and asked each one of them about the road to freedom. They told
him that elaborate disciplines have to be followed. But Honen was
aware of his poor capabilities. So he thought that he was not fit for
becoming their disciple. He went to the library; he read many books in
search of the easier path for lesser men. To his great joy he found
that one has to do nothing else but to simply repent the name Amida,
walking, talking, sitting, standing, eating. If one could always
repeat the name Amida Amida . . . . as long as one breaths, one is
sure to attain freedom. Repeating the name over and over again is a
sacrificial rite of great merit. The name may be Jesus with the
Christians or Krishna with the Hindus. The chanting of the name always
functions like the Chinese wall to keep away the call of the worldly
life from the domain of mind. When one is left on the lonely couch in
passive or pensive mood, a horde of worldly thoughts flock into one’s
mind like numberless scorpions. The repetition of the name Krishna
will prevent one’s mind from barren thoughts. We often think two
things at the same time. I talk to the husband; at the same time I can
think of his wife. Similarly when I work in the office or talk
business, I can simultaneously repeat the name at my heart. In that
case the mind clinging to the name covertly, does not wander
aimlessly, when I am talking business with someone overtly. The
repetition of the name gradually robs the mind of the desires. Even if
someone repeats the name Krishna out of hatred for Krishna the person,
one will get rid of one’s desire in course of time.
        The creator asked man to create with the faculty of sacrificing
himself at the alter of god. Every action is a kind of sacrifice. Good
and evil both were created. Those who sacrificed themselves at the
alter of demons, created evil on earth!!
        The creator desired us to strengthen the gods through the observation
of sacrifice. The gods should in turn think of the welfare of men.
Thus both the gods and men will attain supreme good. It is said that
sacrificial rites are no longer observed. So the gods must have been
weak than ever now a days. True that the gods live on the sacrifice
offered by men. But it is the Dark Age according to Hindu mythology.
It is the age when men do not offer sacrifice to their gods. They are
godless. The Hindus believe that this Dark Age began with the demise
of Krishna, the protagonist of the Bhagvad Gita, in the year 3101 B.C.
It will continue for 4,32,000 years since then. This Dark Age is the
fourth age in the cycle of history as conceived in Hindu mythology.
Truth was followed by all men during the first age. The proportion of
falsehood and truth, the two constituents of an age will be seventy
five and twenty five respectively when the Dark Age touches its rock-
bottom. Now, if sacrifices are not observed in the Dark Age, gods must
have fled to other worlds to help themselves. Or else, gods can look
after themselves, when men do not recognise them.

to be continued . . .

Bhagavadgita or Krishna speaks at the Battlefield Chapter 1

CHAPTER – 1

THE GRIEF OF ARJUNA

Dhritarastra asks what did they do, his own children and the Pandavas, after they assemble in the holy place of crying out for war among themselves?

This is indeed an ironical question on the part of Dhritarastra. The very name Dhritarastra means one who holds the state under control. So when his own children go forth to war with his nephews, one wonders whether the king himself has sent his children to a blood-feud. Or else he is a king in name. His commands are not heeded. The state is out of joints. The site chosen for the battle is Kurukshetra a place for pilgrimage. How is it that the contenders choose such a sacred spot for blood-shed? Is it not a sacrilege?

          Kurukshetra has a history. It was a place of sacrifice for the gods. To avenge his father’s death Parasurama had killed the warrior class all over the globe, repeatedly for twenty one times then he came to Kurukshetra to offer food to his dead fathers. Again one of the forefathers of both the contending sides observed hard penance at Kurukshetra. He was assured that whoever observes penance or dies at Kurukshetra should be earmarked for heaven in life hereafter.

          Is it with the hope for a golden life hereafter that they have assembled at Kurukshetra? The warrior class seems to bring ruin upon themselves. Or else, why should they choose a place for battle where their archenemy Parasurama celebrated his bloody victory over them? Or does the king Dhritarastra himself hope that the genius of the holy place might influence them? The war might stop at the last moment. Sanjay in reply to Dhritarastra’s query observes that at the sight of the army of the five brothers in battle array, the king Duryodhana goes to his teacher and speaks. Duryodhana points out to him how vast is the army of the five brothers. It is his disciple, the wise son of Drupada who has put it in battle order. Archers as great as Bhima and Arjuna have crowded there. Satyaki, Virata, the great Drupada, Dhristaketu, Chekitana, and the valiant King of Kasi,, Purujit, Kuntibhoja and Saibya, the excellent mighty Yadhamanyu and brave Uttamauja the son of Subhadra and the children of Draupadi are warriors par excellence. Each one of them can fight against ten thousand archers single handed. Duryodhana now appraises his teacher of the noble warriors on his side who commands his army. The teacher himself, Bhisma, Karna, Kripa, Asvathama. Vikarna and Saumadatta are only to name a few among them. There are many other great warriors prepared to lay down their lives for Duryodhana’s sake. They know the use of numerous kinds of arms. All of them are adept in the art of war.

          Thus the chief protagonists of the war have been introduced. They are a common motif in epics. In the Iliad Helen at the instance of the Trojan King Priam acquaints us with the names of the greatest heroes on the Greek side. The names of the great princes on both sides suggest the extent to which different nations willingly participate in the war. Virata hails from Matsya. Satyaki belongs to Yadava clan whose capital is Dwaraka. King Drupada has come all the way from Panchala and so on. This shows that a great war is at hand. The readiness to give up their own lives for the sake of their ally only points out that it will be a fight to the finish. The warriors who have assembled belong to different generations. Bhisma is the grand old sire. The participation of the five children of Draupadi and the son of Subhadra shows that tender children as well as their fathers and grand fathers and great grand fathers will take on one another in the fray. This is a pitiable sight indeed. Duryodhana, the proud king keen on war though does not miss the salient features of the assembly of warriors. He rejoices in war. He is all praise for his enemy generals. His mention of the sons of Draupadi and Subhadra perhaps covertly signifies his warm affection for his nephews though they are his antagonists. He is however reticent as to the names of the army chiefs on his side. However much proud he might be he submits his report of the armed forces of the two sides to his teacher Drona. Drone as Duryodhana’s speech itself shows has been the preceptor of many generals on both sides. He will nevertheless fight with Duryodhana.

          Once we know of the great generals of both the contending sides, we ask which is stronger. There Duryodhana maintains a statesman like ambiguity. He says with tongue in check that his own side guided by Bhisma is unequal to the opposite camp led by Bhisma which has enough might. In other words, Bhisma’s army has enough strength no doubt, but their strength is not measureless. On the other hand he does not spell out his assessment of the strength of his own side. He simply says that it is an unequal fight between two sides. One could argue that his side is immensely stronger than his enemies. Or else, Duryodhana’s army does not have enough power to contend with the foes. Be it whatever it may. Duryodhana implores that everyone stand firm in his position and support Bhisma the chief of his army. Bhisma the grandfather of both the five brothers and the hundred brothers as well as Drona their teacher have been always of the opinion that the five should be given their due. That hurt the feelings of Duryodhana. But when war became inevitable both of them joined Duryodhana. Duryodhana also in turn pays his due respect to his teacher when he informs him about the leaders of both sides. He is keen on protecting his grandfather in the battle-field.

          Bhisma the grandsire of the warring brothers however is no mean warrior. In his youth it was he who dared the world conqueror Parasurama in a fight that ended inconclusively. Parasurama’s spirit hovers largely over the impending war. As we have already observed Kurukshetra is a spot associated with Parasurama who massacred the warrior class repeatedly. Ironically enough Parasuram was the direct preceptor of Bhisma, Drona and Karna, the three great generals on Duryodhana’s side. Thus he taught the art of war to the warrior class indeed even though he was their avowed enemy. Drone alone of course did not belong to the warrior class. But he has been serving the warrior class only. And the art of warfare as taught by Parasurama has transmitted to the hundred brothers and five brothers through Drona who happened to be their teacher. Bhisma’s glory does not merely rest on his military prowess. He took the vow of celibacy to marry his father with a woman. He abdicated the right to throne lest his step brothers are deprived of it. But he remained ever a faithful watch dog monitoring the royal family and the kingdom so that there is no unrest. It is a pity indeed that this old guard of the Kuru family which ruled Hastinapur has not only to witness the ripping of the vast family of great prowess and fame through inner dissension but also has to participate in it as a soldier and general. He is the symbol of helpless human wishes in the face of the ravages of time. Do what you will no dynasty, no race, no civilization can hold on against time for long. Every order must give in to the forces of anomie.

          Bhisma the grand-sire of the Kurus is overjoyed with the attention of his grandson upon him. Since he has been ever a fighter let there be one fight more and if it is the last one, let it be the best and the last. The warrior’s instinct leaps up in his blood he gives out a lion’s roar and blows conch. It reminds the younger generation that though he is old they cannot outbrave or outfight him. This sends a thrill of joy to Duryodhana.

          The rule of the war in the Mahabharata is that the eldest among the generals should give the battle cry first. With the loud sound of the powerful conch of Bhisma at once there are replies from the different parts of the battlefield. The many kings from different parts of the world have assembled to take part in the war. They have their own banners raging in the sky. They have their own trumpets and bugles. Each of them blows his horn to show his readiness for war. Thus conchs, kettle drums, tabors, drums and trumpets suddenly blare forth and the noise is tumultuous.

          Krishna and Arjuna also blow their celestial horns. They ride a grand chariot drawn by white steed. Thus the chief protagonists of the Bhagavad Gita have been introduced late. Arjuna has been mentioned once only by Duryodhana when he said that archers equal to him are many in the camp of the five brothers. So they leap into the action only when the narrative journeys far from where it began. The further we sail off-shore the more formidable waves appear in the ken. The narrator qualifies the horns of Krishna and Arjuna with the word celestial. Thus he sets apart the two from the rest of the heroes. While the word Krishna means black. Arjuna means white. When the opposites unite it is the Yang-yin.

          Now the narrator true to the epic convention gives the names of the horns of each hero of the Pandava Camp. In epics and romances the sword the horse, the chariot of the hero have often a name. They seem to be individual characters in themselves. Homer elaborately describes the shield of Achilles. Here also the horn Krishna blows is Panchajanya. Arjun blows his Devadatta horn. Bhisma blows his mighty Paundra. Yudhisthira blows his Anantavijaya and Nakula and Sahadeva blow their Sughosa and Manipushpak. The king of Kasi the great archer, Sikhandi the great warrior, Dhristadyumna, Virata and the invincible Satyaki. Drupada and sons of Draupadi and the mighty armed son of Subhadra, on all sides blow their horns. Thus there is a symphony of proper names a mix of the names of the heroes and their horn. They all belong to the Camp of the five brothers. Duryodhana in his list of the heroes of the Pandava camp did not name Yudhisthira, Nakula and Sahadeva. Krishna will act as a charioteer only. He will not take up arms. So Duryodhana also omitted him. But Sanjaya mentions Krishna and his horn first. He refers to Krishna once as Madhava and another time as Hrisikesa. Madhava means the Lord of Lakshmi, the goddess. Thus Krishna’s god-head is remembered. He is no ordinary mortal. He is Visnu whose abode is in Golaka and who is in charge of the maintenance of the whole creation. Again he is Hrisikesha or the lord of the senses. Sanjaya in course of his narration gives first the details about the hundred brothers who show fight. Then Sanjaya shifts the focus towards the five brothers who are ready to meet their enemies. They blow their horns.

          The sound of the horns echoes vehemently through heaven and earth and read the heart of Dhritarastra’s sons. When the grand sire Bhisma had sounded his horn. Duryodhana’s heart leapt up with joy. But now when there is the response from the battlefield all over. Dhritarastra’s sons become heavily weighed down with anxiety and fear. The tumult of the horns however seems to fill the universe with one sound reminiscent of the creative logos. The world of appearance seems to be drowned in it for a time.

          Arjuna’s banner bears the crest of Hanumana. Hanumana or the monkey hero was the model of devotion to his lord Ramachandra, the God-incarnate of an earlier age. His heroics were  legendary. Does not such a banner signify that Arjuna should be as devoted to his mentor Krishna the god incarnate as Hanumana was to Ramchandra? Arjuna with flying colours finds the sons of Drritarastra ready for war. The first missiles are shot. In no time a great war will burst upon the earth. Arjuna holds his bow aloft and asks his charioteer to take the car right at the centre of the battle field.

          As we have already pointed out Krishna does not actively take part in the war. So Arjuna is the greatest warrior in the battlefield. Right at the hour of the war to begin he wants to survey the camp of the hundred brothers so that he can punish them according to each one’s deserts. Krishna presently parks the magnificent chariot between two armies in the very hub of the battle field surrounded by a concourse of kings Bhisma and Drona stand out among them. Krishna now asks Arjuna to behold the hundred brothers and their army. Eternal war rages in the existence between the forces of nomos and anomie. Does Arjuna really stand between the two?

Listless of the missiles whizzing past him Arjuna minutely observes all those who have come for war. He finds his fathers, grandfathers, preceptors, uncles, brothers, children, grandchildren, friends, in both the armies. We can imagine how Arjuna’s eyes slowly scan the army of the hundred brothers and then they turn towards his own camp. Seeing friends in both the camps, Arjuna’s enthusiasm evaporates in a moment. He is overwhelmed with great compassion. Thus the protagonists of the myth are human. Duryodhana’s heart exulted to hear his grandfather the next moment it sank with the sound of the horns. Now Arjuna wants to see who stand by his vicious enemy, now his heart is full of the milk of human kindness. Of course Duryodhana’s motive is egoistic, his sole aim is to defend the throne of Hastinapur against the challengers. But Arjuna seems to have wielded his bow to right the wrongs, his motive is partially altruistic no doubt. But the unpredictable change in their moods only show the frailty of human mind. Our mind is like the autumnal sky of Bengal. Now it is gloomy with rain clouds, now it is grinning in the sun without any trace of grief. Why do such flux of human emotions take place? Ignorance is perhaps to blame. When Arjuna did not have a total view of the battlefield he had thought something which becomes reversed with his overview of the same. But is it at all mortally possible to view the same thing simultaneously from the periphery and the centre? When we look upon the whole we forget the part and vice versa. Could we not look upon the whole as unique and yet remember that it is made up of parts? Hopes and fears stern sense of duty and compassion alternately overmaster our mind. Because we do not know which seed will grow and which seed will not in the field of life. We shudder at someone else’s death because we are scared of our own. Every fear is an apprehension of death. We do not know what is death. The veil of future is impenetrable. If we look inward we do not know what is mind. We simply observe our own moods, they are like visible actors who strut and fret in an invisible theatre.

          In a keening voice Arjuna tells Krishna that his limbs are rendered powerless and his mouth and face become dry at the sight of his kinsmen plunged in the war. His body trembles his hair stand on end. His bow the famous Gandiva slips from his hand. His skin seems to burn all over. His mind reels. He cannot stand any longer. He finds ill-omens. Perhaps the kites are wheeling in the skies greedily waiting for the carrion. In short all the arguments that he had mentally conceived in favour of war has been turned upside down.

          Arjuna frankly tells Krishna that he does not find any good in killing his own people. He does not want victory over his enemies. Fie upon kingdoms. Fie upon life and property. Those for whom men desire kingdoms, pleasure and pleasures, stand here staking their life and property. Teachers, fathers, sons and also grand fathers, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brother-in law and other relatives. He does not want to kill them, even if they kill him. Why rejoice in the death of the children of Dhritarastra? He does not want that, even if, he were offered the kingdom of the three worlds. What to talk of the small earth? True that the sons of Dhritarastra have tried every kind of felony upon the five brothers. Still what good will come of slaying these fellows?

          Yes, Arjuna cannot forget the mischief that Duryodhana played upon him and his brothers. When they were children Duryodhana had given poison to Bhima, the elder brother of Arjuna. Under the spell of poison Bhima would have died in childhood. The snake-gods intervened and brought him back to life. Later when they came of age, Duryodhana sent the five brothers and their mother to a house which was made of combustible material. The family however got the hunch of it in time and put the house in flames themselves only to escape into the forests secretly. It was falsely given out that the five brothers as well as their mother were killed in the fire. Duryodhana at a later stage bragged Yudhisthira the eldest of the five brothers into a wager and fraudulently seized upon their wealth and property. To crown it all Duryodhana tried to strip the common wife these five brothers, Draupadi of her clothing in public.

          Lust for property turns them into such beasts. It was there during the days of Kurukshetra war. It is still true in the world today. They tried to kill the president of Egypt in Ethiopia. They killed Israeli players at Olympic in Germany. They drove away Dalai Lama and a host of Tivetans from their traditional home in the snow-capped Himalayan plateau. The tribe of Duryodhana is not dead.

          When Arjuna sees Duryodhana and his brothers Arjuna’s blood hots up. Arjuna cannot forget how Duryodhana and his men grievously wronged him and his family. Presently however a cold shiver runs down his spine he knows the dire consequences of a great war.

When a dog bites a man it is no news. But when a man bites a dog it is news. To kill anyone be it a wrongdoer is sin. Hence Arjuna says that they should kill the children of Dhritarastra and their friends. How could one be happy at the cost of the blood of one’s kinsfolk? These fools do not find the evils of the break-down of families. They do not know the sins of treason. Their heads are fogged with greed. But why should he not back out from war, once he knows these evil consequences of war? With the destruction of the families the time honoured customs will be shattered. That which binds the society will fail. And there will be sheer anarchy. Once the women folk become notorious the distinction among the different social classes will be wiped off. The dead fathers will not get their offering from their children. Thus these people who have come to fight are out to destroy the family. That will lead to the mixing up of different castes. Family traditions and caste tradition will be in shambles. It will be a throwback to barbarism. It is common knowledge that it will put them in eternal hell.

          The society of the Mahabharata is made up of four castes in the priests, warriors, merchants, traders and others. It is hereditary. The son of a priest should be a priest. The son of a warrior should be a warrior. But if all the men of the warrior class are killed their women folk will be in great disarray. They must find their mates in other classes. That will shatter the tradition. The children will not get the necessary environment to grow up to fit in their station and duties. Unless we observe the time honoured traditions how do we pay our homage to our ancestors who toiled hard to build the society as it should be? Once the social ethos is shattered chaos will take over and there will be veritable hell upon earth. No woman seems to take part in the war, moreover it is largely the warrior class that are present in the battle field.

          The reflections on war and its aftermath damps the enthusiasm of Arjuna. Alas! They are committing great sins. They are about to kill their own people for the pleasures of kingdom. Arjuna says no to the war. Even if the children of Dhritarastra kill him when he is unarmed it will be better. Sanjaya comments that Arjuna is in deep despondency. He throws aside his bow and arrow and sinks into the aft of the chariot. King Dhritarastra should be happy at this. Because if Arjuna retires from the war the victory of his hundred sons is a foregone conclusion. There is no other hero among the army of the five brothers who can match Bhisma, Drona or Karna.

          There is the sudden reversal of events or peripetia. A similar incident takes place in Homer’s Iliad. There Achilles the greatest Greek hero withdrew from war all of a sudden. But the motives are different. Achilles fell out with Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek side over the possession of a wench. No such quarrel takes place among the five brothers. They have a common wife in Draupadi. They never quarrel over her. The five brothers live with her by rotation. If one man can have two or more wives here is a woman who has five husbands. She often reproves her husbands. They often take her advice. They are proud of their common possession. Unlike Achilles Arjuna recoils from war foreboding what havoc it might cause.but what are a hundred million corpses? When one has served a war one hardly knows what a dead man is. Standing at the centre of the battle field Arjuna slowly surveys all the warriors assembled on both sides. There are196830 foot soldiers, 1180980 cavalry, 393660 elephant riders and 393660 charioteers. What man knows ten thousand faces? Although they are numerous in count Arjuna seems to know each one of them. He feels his kinship with all of them. He cannot let them die. At least he can himself refrain from killing them. He will not put up a fight even if they kill him. His own death is preferable to the killing of his fellowmen. This is non- violence no doubt. But this is not the nonviolence that says we cannot beat you through power so we will win you through submission. Still this will mean that there is none to dispute the rights of Duryodhana. It is a throw-back to the dark-age when virtue stealthily roams in the forests and felony remains ever on the throne. Still one might argue that the quality of mercy is never strained. One wonders however that since this is not the first time that Arjuna encounters a war how is it that he recoils from the fear of mass-massacre. Arjuna belongs to the warrior class. He has been brought up and educated as a warrior ought to be. He has ridden into battle no man more as well in the world only to be crowned always with victory. Why should he then shudder at the horrors of the war like women?

          Arjuna knows the difference between war and war. Earlier also he fought the hundred brothers and the horde of their followers alone. They came to steal the cows of king Virata who had given shelter to the wandering five brothers. On that occasion the hundred brothers fled the battle field overwhelmed by Arjuna. But this time at Kurukshetra Arjuna knows that no one will fly for life. It will be a do or die battle. The warrior class looks upon the like of it as an opportunity in a life time. Here every insignificant soldier is a hero preferring life-in-death to death-in-life. Hence Arjuna trembles at horrid imaginings of the hecatomb hereafter reeking to the heavens. The red glow of the pyres and the battling yules gyrating in the darkness and thick fetid fumes ascending the indifferent sky. And they are not beyond the bounds of possibility. But what man knows ten thousand faces? How is it that Arjuna can feel for all things both great and small? The answer is simple. Knowledge is a priori and we never in fact come to know that of which we were ignorant. Rather we recall that which we once knew. One who is aware of the whole humanity in one’s greater self is the hero. That is why Arjuna stands out among the whole array of heroes fit to be taught in the divine lore to follow. Arjuna is the hero as a poet who gives a tongue to the dumb dread of the multitude. The dread is the dread of unknown. We do not know what death is. We have to choose between the tradition and the unknown.

          But does not tradition ordain the opposites at the same time? To right the wrongs is to command of tradition. When this leads to a mass-massacre upsetting the social ethos, one is confused. One knows not whether to take up arms against a sea of troubles or sojourn into the world from whose bourn no man returns. Shakespeare’s Hamlet wavered from to be or not to be. Arjuna’s earlier self looked forward to the war with hopes of future happiness and kingdom of the righteous. But the pleasures of hopefully travelling from his own camp to the centre of the battlefield are destroyed by his actually arriving there. Now all of a sudden he attains his tribal self and gives a tongue to the forebodings of the collective subconscious which is but drowned in the collective frenzy for war. The greater self in Arjuna is still Hamletic predicament of everyman. He is ready to give up his personal right and wrong for the sake of humanity. His identity with the radical mind is so great that he does not mind his own death for that. Still he has grudge against the hundred brothers. He cannot forget their ill nature. So the conflict lurks in his heart.

          Though Krishna can never be blamed for goading the five brothers to war, still it seems from Arjuna’s speech that as if he blames Krishna for the war. How is it that Krishna the God of the universe, who is supposed to maintain it, hurled mankind into the jaws of death? Arjuna’s is the voice of Man challenging the wilful god to a debate. This is clear from repeated references to Krishna by the names Keshava, Govinda, Madhusudna, Janardana and Madhava. The word Govinda for example means the centre of the universe from which the latter manifested. Krishna is therefore Visnu entered into every heart. He maintains the universe. Why should he then destroy man and society? He should instead look after them and protect them from every evil as a mother. The loud laments of Arjuna addressed to Krishna suspends the war for a time. The reasons are not far to seek. The camp of the five brothers is surely stunned. If Arjuna is not there with them they cannot hold out against the hundred brothers who have Bhisma and Drona, Kripa and Karna with them. The hundred brothers are also dumb with expectation. They will not provoke Arjuna to war. On the contrary they will patiently wait and watch. They know that Arjuna has no peer in the war. Krishna can destroy the universe in nanosecond. But since he will not take up arms Arjuna is the greatest warrior in the field, he can destroy the universe in seconds. Once he retires from war it will be all over with the five brothers. There might be no war at all. The hundred brothers will get a walk over. Dhritarastra seems to have been right in his doubts that there may be no war in the holy place of Kurukshestra.

          Everyone knows Arjuna. He is made of sterner stuff. It was he who fought with the god of destruction just as Jacob wrestled with an angel in the Bible (Genesis 32, 24-30). Pleased with Arjuna god blessed him with a missile that can destroy the universe instantly. He is no ordinary man, he had the resolve to try his strength against the destroyer of the world. Hence it will not be easy to persuade Arjuna to recant his resolution.

          So for hours together a discourse between Arjuna and Krishna goes on in the public place at the centre of the battlefield. The warriors come from the different parts of the globe for a mortal battle, listen to it with great anxiety. Sanjaya relays the dialogue to Dhritarastra on a third level, the readers of the Bhagavad Gita hear it on another level. One does not know what will be its final outcome just as one does not know who will win a battle until and unless the hurly-burly is done.