Collected Works (Vol. II)

THE THREE CHARACTERISTICS 229 British Government, when he was a baby Nat. ‘“The Queen of Heaven and the Lord of the Gods chewed betel for quite a long time, conversed of the weather, the crops: the affaire Humbert, and the law in relation to motor-cars, with ease and affability. But far was it from Indra’s pious mind to flirt with his distinguished guest! Rather, he thought of the hollow nature of the Safe, the change of money and of position; the sorrow of the too confiding bankers, and above all the absence of an Ego in the Brothers Crawford. ‘While he was thus musing, Bhavani got fairly mad at him. The Spretae Injuria Formae gnawed her vitals with pangs un- assuageable: so, shaking him quite roughly by the arm, she Put It To Him Straight. ‘O Madam !’ said Indra. ‘‘This part of the story has been told before—about Joseph; but Bhavani simply lolled her ‘tongue out, opened her mouth, and gulped him down at a swallow. ‘fJehjaour simply wallowed. Indra had passed in seven days. X. “There is only one more birth,’ he groaned. ‘This time we must win or die.’ ‘Goetia! expects every God to do his duty,’ he excitedly lunographed to Swarga.? But Ganesha was already on his way. ‘©The elephant-headed God was in great spirits. ‘ Never say die!’ he cried genially, on beholding the downcast appearance of his fellow-conspirator. ‘This’ll break the slate. There is no change in the Arupa- Brahma-Loka!’2 ‘Rupe me no rupes!’ howled the necromancer. ‘Get up, fool!’ roared the God. ‘I have got Perdu’ R Abu elected Maha Brahma.’ ‘Oh Lord, have you really?’ said the wizard, looking a little 1 The world of black magic. 2 Heaven. . 3 The highest heaven of the Hindu. ‘‘ Form- less place of Brahma”’ is its name. have to. less glum. ‘Ay!’ cried Ganesha impres- sively, ‘let Aeon follow Aeon down the vaulted and echoing corridors of Eternity: pile Mahakalpa upon Mahakalpa until an Asankhya! of Crores? have passed away: and Maha Brahma will still sit Jone and meditate upon his Jotus throne.’ ‘Good, good !’ said the magus, ‘though there seems a reminiscence of the Bhagavad-Gita and the Light of Asia somewhere. Surely you don’t read Edwin Arnold?’ ‘I do,’ said the God disconsolately, ‘we Hindu Gods It’s the only way we can get any clear idea of who we really are.’ ‘*Well, here was Perdw’ R Abu, after his latest fiasco, installed as a Worthy, Respect- able, Perfect, Ancient and Accepted, Just, Regular Mahabrahma. His only business was to meditate, for as long as he did this, the worlds—the whole system of 10,000 worlds— would go on peaceably. Nobody had better read the lesson of the Bible— the horrible results to mankind of ill-timed, though possibly well-intentioned, interference on the part ofa deity. ‘*Well, he curled himself up, which was rather clever for a formless abstraction, and began. There was a grave difficulty in his mind—an obstacle right away from the word ‘Jump!’ Of course there was really a yood deal: he didn’t know where the four clements ceased, for example :* but his own identity was the real worry. The other questions he could have stilled; but this was too near his pet Chakra.4 ‘Here I am,’ he meditated, ‘above all change; and yet an hour ago I was Indra; and before that his flute-girl; and then a Nat; and then a parrot; and then a Hathi—‘‘ Oh, the Hathis pilin’ teak in the sludgy, squdgy creek!” sang Parameshvara. Why, it goes 1‘ Innumerable,”’ the highest unit of the fantastic Hindu arithmetic, 2 10,000. 3 See the witty legend in the Questions of King Milinda. 4 Meditation may be performed on any of seven ‘‘Chakra’’ (wheels or centres) in the body. |