The Sword of Song

APPENDIX I 74 British Governm ent, 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 Hum bert, and the law in relation to motor-cars, with ease and affability. But far was it from Indra’s pious m ind 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 Spretæ Injuria Formæ gnawed her vitals with pangs unassuageable : so, shaking him 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. “Jehjaour simply wallowed. Indra had passed in seven days. X. “ ‘There is only one more birth,’ he groaned. ‘This time we must win or die.’ ‘Goetia1 expects every God to do his duty,’ he excitedly lunographed to Swarga.2 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 !’3 ‘Rupe me no rupes!’ howled the necromancer. ‘Get up, fool!’ roared the God. ‘I have got Perdu R’ Abu elected M aha Brahm a.’ ‘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. “Forml-ess place of Brahma” is its name. less glum. ‘Ay !’ cried Ganesha impas- sively, ‘let Æ on follow Æ on down the vaulted and echoing corridors of Eternity : pile Mahakalpa upon Mahakalpa until an Asankhya1 of Crores 2 have passed away ; and Maha Brahm a will still sit lone and meditate upon his lotus throne.’ ‘Good, good!’ said the magus, ‘though there seems a rem iniscence of the Bhagavad-Gita and the Light of Asia somehwere. Surely y ou don’t read Edwin Arnold ? ’ ‘I do,’ said the God disconsolately, ‘we Hindu Gods have to. It’s the only way we can get any clear idea of who we really are.’ “Well, here was Perdu’ R Abu, after his latest fiasco, installed as a W orthy, R espect- able, Perfect, Ancient and Accepted, J ust, Regular Mahabrahma. His only business was to meditate, for as long as he did this, the worlds—the whole sy stem of 10,000 worlds—would go on peaceably . Nobody had better read the lesson of the Bible— the horrible results to m ankind of ill-timed, though possibly well-intentioned, interference on the part of a deity. “Well, he curled himself up, which was rather clever for a form less abstraction, and began. There was a grave difficulty in his mind—an obstacle right away from the w ord ‘Jump !’ Of course there was really a good deal: he didn’t know where the four elements ceased, for example:3 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 M editation m ay be per formed on any of seven “Chakras” (wheels or centres) in the body.