Krishna's Advice To Arjuna - Part One
14: If the soul meets death when Sattva prevails, then it goes to the pure regions of those who are seeking truth.
15: If a man meets death in a state of Rajas, he is reborn amongst those who are bound by their restless activity;and if he dies in Tamas, he is reborn in the wombs of the irrational.
The Bhagavad Gita , XIV, transl. Juan Mascaro.
« It is incorrect to assume that Hindu thought strained excessively after the unattainable and was guilty of indifference to the problems of the world. (...) The Gita asks us to live in the world and save it. »
S. Radhakrishnan, The Bhagavadgita.
When Thodti was born at Nelveli in the latter half of the XXth century
his ancestors had been living out-of-right
for the past *** centuries hovering
on never-never land under villages with-out-back twenty-hutments
now overgrown to two one-thousand hovels in towncentre marshalling yards
no sewers gurglecourse under their feet
nor piped potable water flush their long-curdled alimentary canals
nor showers chase the clinging cloaca stench
nor even un-broken drains tarred roads garbage removal vans
find mouth on election platforms
the towncentre = the bus-terminal churning flipping putrid mud after three-day
drubbing storms and bulging human fleshed trains run on forgotten time
the lav’s stinging week-long turds splashvomits the feast of flies
temples carved with mantric-mouthed hands from the VIIteenth & VIIIteenth
gopurams in congested tiered runaway curlicue rococo-baroque fantasy
rose chalk kunkumam ripe mango yellow pitch black indigo
bulging fuming thick mascara eyes Zapata moustaches dangling over burgeoning bellies
lithe white cows gracing Ganesha’s flanks
garlands of roses hibiscus jasmine
identical buxomy lasses ballooning commodious backs ample thighs their sarees
a deliberately clasped transparent veneer of pudeur
the jingling nautch girl anklets
vain reminders of Kannagi
bangles bracelets armlets tiaras talis earrings noserings fingerings toerings kolusus
the prancing stained eyelashes the full lascivious lips
and that eternally round-eyed vacant supercilious stare
past the invisible sanctum sanctorum
the vast sinking steps of the holy tank murky with blodok
torn bookmatches ceremonial paper ferns water-lilies lotuses and centuries-old ooze
caked ulcerous washing feet and tick-milling matted hair
see how trailing reams of wishes and private wants
rise in pre-paid puja-thin mantric magic smoke to high heaven
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