It was after this and some more dusks and dawns, Hamsa found itself at the edge of what seemed to be a huge bowl of earth clad in lush green.
In this was a vast circle of buildings and camps, with roads radiating from a central building. People were moving about. It reminded Hamsa vaguely of something seen before.
As Hamsa was searching for a path to descend into the bowl, it found itself walking on something like a drawbridge, skirted by trees and shrubs in flower. Hamsa walked on amidst lawns, lakes, meadows and ponds; a clear luscent air pervaded the place. Birds of delicate hues sparkled in the sunshine and sang in mystic notes.
There were quite a few persons around, variously occupied. Some were at the site of buildings under construction; some at some machinery or other, some at farms, some stood and watched from under trees. Games and circuses were in progress.
Hamsa was greatly interested. "Wonderful place, this," it said to a man standing under a tree.
"Yes, it is Her Grace," he said.
"That building, there," said Hamsa pointing to an unfinished building with rafters and scaffolding poking out, "may be some day it will be completed."
"Completed! What is completed! That building is changing itself. That man working on it is changing himself!"
Soon Hamsa found himself amongst many things that were engaged in changing themselves. Everyone appeared to be working on themselves, changing themselves.
Hamsa saw Balu at the building. He was carrying bricks up a ladder and changing himself.
Thimmy was watching over the lunch basket under a tree, changing himself.
Hamsa hailed Balu and played with Thimmy.
Then Hamsa came upon a vast lake of sparkling blue. A narrow bridge led on to an emerald green island in the lake.
The sign board said: CHANGE OF STATIONS.
Hamsa walked on. In the centre of the island was a huge magnificent tree whose branches and shade seemed to cover the whole island.
Here Hamsa met Swamiji. Swamiji was sitting under the tree along with a few others. A sort of staircase led up into the branches of the tree.
Hamsa sat next to the Swamiji, a little behind. They sat looking up with an intense, longing look in their eyes. There was a vibrant stillness in the air. Lightning streaked through the branches of the tree making mystic patterns - Wonder - Hope - Humility - Aspiration - Perfection -Change and so on.
"Delightful," whispered Hamsa.
"Not yet," said Swamiji. "Pure delight burns like the sun. When we can be delighted and delightful without the need to utter the words, maybe, - but right now the Great Mother is searching for a form and a body that can hold pure delight and sustain it. Long way, your body has come - for You, Yourself neither come nor go. It is now your Body's prayer to hold delight; not being able to house it perfectly your Body has come searching. We are at the threshold - for delight is searching for a house, for many houses may be."
And then there was a hush - all eyes turned up, and there she stood at the top of the stair, her radiant face wreathed in smiles - The Mother of Delight: the trees, the sky, the air, the lake and the faces sparkled in the Light. She sat on a high golden throne smiling at us.
"The Queen, the mother of Delight," Hamsa said.
"She brings the radiance of change, and many a body comes here to the crucibles of her alchemy, and out of all this, Delight shall build her house here, on this earth," said Swamiji.
The expectant stillness around was broken by a group of persons coming running towards the tree. Kesav, frantic and dishevelled, with torn clothes and bloody scratches on his face, was being escorted by a group of young men, who formed a circle around him. At the edge of the circle was a well dressed young man with numerous pockets. He was brandishing a huge syringe in one hand and a bottle in the other. Ancillary arms carried trays and burners emanating sulphurous fumes. He was hopping around the group screaming - 'let me get at him, let me! He is infected - it will spread, he will die without proper care; let me in, leave him alone, put a face mask, all of you will catch it, I won't let him get away with this!' and long pokers and pincers were jumping out of him, elongating and angulating to reach Kesav from above, below or from under or through the cordon. 'I am Doctor Toto, let me get at him!'
At the far edge of the group was a frantic woman, wringing her hands in despair. It was Kesav's wife.
The leader of the escort saluted the queen - "Here is someone, Lady, who comes in despair - there is the Devil behind him. He has come a long way - He will tell his story."
"Yes," smiled the Queen.
"He is not a Devil, madam," said Kesav. I made this monster myself - as a sample for more things like that. - To save humanity from error, I planned a model of an efficient man devoid of all human failings. This Doctor Toto is a sample. I have educated him to be the most competent, contemporary doctor with no human weakness whatsoever. The first thing this ungrateful monster does is find a pimple on my own face, and he is at me, and the things he proposes to do with me! I have educated him to locate infection and infected persons and to do the needful with single minded devotion. He is after me, now, and there is no way of dodging him - he is equipped with detectors of various kinds. I have not stopped running, barely escaping his clutches.
"There was no means of stopping him once he is set in motion. That's what is wrong with humans, I thought, resting and diverting themselves. Ouch! (Here Toto succeeded in nipping a slice of Kesav's ear) I remembered putting a negative signal against fun and play. Then someone suggested why not I go to playgrounds and pleasure houses where I could be safe from Toto. So I ran to football grounds, cricket fields, and theatres and circuses. They had but little effect - I found that though they called it play and fun all these people were deadly serious in their play, very efficient, very stern and grim, even the circus clowns were grimly clownish. Toto is very sensitive to this and I think he became more efficient at some of these play and fun places.
"Then someone suggested why not Nature's Playground; I didn't know where it was. But I began learning that by simply observing Toto I could try: I avoided the roads where he seemed to be full of pep and took to lanes where his feet dragged.
"That is how I reached here, madam - as you see he is still quite agile, but not a fraction of what he can be. I am at your mercy," Kesav could hardly stand.
The Queen smiled. "Stand aside," she said. "Let me see this other child, dancing there."
The escort parted to reveal Doctor Toto waving his arms and gnashing his teeth, which were really a row of test tubes.
The Queen looked at him. "Child," she said, "look, there is a bombillus on your left foot."
Immediately Doctor Toto stopped, and looked at his foot. "Terrible - I am infected - Horrible Bombillus - fatal, rapidly growing," and with eyes rolling about in panic, he produced various gadgets with which he pricked and pinched himself, all the while screaming, "BOMBILLUS - type xmz 142 - insensitive to Hoxalin and Hexalin - copper up by 2% - gold down by 1.04 gms. Goblins falling, Gibbons rising - oh, god what to do - Antigibbons up again - now Bombillus has come upto the knee - disinfect, disintegrate - oh, no try Hexa-gamma-dubbins in the right arm and - look up under y for jaundice type B, quick! Bombillus at hip - oh. oh I am doomed," Toto was sobbing.
Since he was thus self-occupied, the escort let him be.
"Leave him alone, the silly child," said the Queen, "No Bombillus anywhere - only you are a big Baboon with a Brain," and she smiled.
And Doctor TOTO dissolved, laughing, in one glorious sparkle of DELIGHT.
And Hamsa glided softly down the Lake.
In this was a vast circle of buildings and camps, with roads radiating from a central building. People were moving about. It reminded Hamsa vaguely of something seen before.
As Hamsa was searching for a path to descend into the bowl, it found itself walking on something like a drawbridge, skirted by trees and shrubs in flower. Hamsa walked on amidst lawns, lakes, meadows and ponds; a clear luscent air pervaded the place. Birds of delicate hues sparkled in the sunshine and sang in mystic notes.
There were quite a few persons around, variously occupied. Some were at the site of buildings under construction; some at some machinery or other, some at farms, some stood and watched from under trees. Games and circuses were in progress.
Hamsa was greatly interested. "Wonderful place, this," it said to a man standing under a tree.
"Yes, it is Her Grace," he said.
"That building, there," said Hamsa pointing to an unfinished building with rafters and scaffolding poking out, "may be some day it will be completed."
"Completed! What is completed! That building is changing itself. That man working on it is changing himself!"
Soon Hamsa found himself amongst many things that were engaged in changing themselves. Everyone appeared to be working on themselves, changing themselves.
Hamsa saw Balu at the building. He was carrying bricks up a ladder and changing himself.
Thimmy was watching over the lunch basket under a tree, changing himself.
Hamsa hailed Balu and played with Thimmy.
Then Hamsa came upon a vast lake of sparkling blue. A narrow bridge led on to an emerald green island in the lake.
The sign board said: CHANGE OF STATIONS.
Hamsa walked on. In the centre of the island was a huge magnificent tree whose branches and shade seemed to cover the whole island.
Here Hamsa met Swamiji. Swamiji was sitting under the tree along with a few others. A sort of staircase led up into the branches of the tree.
Hamsa sat next to the Swamiji, a little behind. They sat looking up with an intense, longing look in their eyes. There was a vibrant stillness in the air. Lightning streaked through the branches of the tree making mystic patterns - Wonder - Hope - Humility - Aspiration - Perfection -Change and so on.
"Delightful," whispered Hamsa.
"Not yet," said Swamiji. "Pure delight burns like the sun. When we can be delighted and delightful without the need to utter the words, maybe, - but right now the Great Mother is searching for a form and a body that can hold pure delight and sustain it. Long way, your body has come - for You, Yourself neither come nor go. It is now your Body's prayer to hold delight; not being able to house it perfectly your Body has come searching. We are at the threshold - for delight is searching for a house, for many houses may be."
And then there was a hush - all eyes turned up, and there she stood at the top of the stair, her radiant face wreathed in smiles - The Mother of Delight: the trees, the sky, the air, the lake and the faces sparkled in the Light. She sat on a high golden throne smiling at us.
"The Queen, the mother of Delight," Hamsa said.
"She brings the radiance of change, and many a body comes here to the crucibles of her alchemy, and out of all this, Delight shall build her house here, on this earth," said Swamiji.
The expectant stillness around was broken by a group of persons coming running towards the tree. Kesav, frantic and dishevelled, with torn clothes and bloody scratches on his face, was being escorted by a group of young men, who formed a circle around him. At the edge of the circle was a well dressed young man with numerous pockets. He was brandishing a huge syringe in one hand and a bottle in the other. Ancillary arms carried trays and burners emanating sulphurous fumes. He was hopping around the group screaming - 'let me get at him, let me! He is infected - it will spread, he will die without proper care; let me in, leave him alone, put a face mask, all of you will catch it, I won't let him get away with this!' and long pokers and pincers were jumping out of him, elongating and angulating to reach Kesav from above, below or from under or through the cordon. 'I am Doctor Toto, let me get at him!'
At the far edge of the group was a frantic woman, wringing her hands in despair. It was Kesav's wife.
The leader of the escort saluted the queen - "Here is someone, Lady, who comes in despair - there is the Devil behind him. He has come a long way - He will tell his story."
"Yes," smiled the Queen.
"He is not a Devil, madam," said Kesav. I made this monster myself - as a sample for more things like that. - To save humanity from error, I planned a model of an efficient man devoid of all human failings. This Doctor Toto is a sample. I have educated him to be the most competent, contemporary doctor with no human weakness whatsoever. The first thing this ungrateful monster does is find a pimple on my own face, and he is at me, and the things he proposes to do with me! I have educated him to locate infection and infected persons and to do the needful with single minded devotion. He is after me, now, and there is no way of dodging him - he is equipped with detectors of various kinds. I have not stopped running, barely escaping his clutches.
"There was no means of stopping him once he is set in motion. That's what is wrong with humans, I thought, resting and diverting themselves. Ouch! (Here Toto succeeded in nipping a slice of Kesav's ear) I remembered putting a negative signal against fun and play. Then someone suggested why not I go to playgrounds and pleasure houses where I could be safe from Toto. So I ran to football grounds, cricket fields, and theatres and circuses. They had but little effect - I found that though they called it play and fun all these people were deadly serious in their play, very efficient, very stern and grim, even the circus clowns were grimly clownish. Toto is very sensitive to this and I think he became more efficient at some of these play and fun places.
"Then someone suggested why not Nature's Playground; I didn't know where it was. But I began learning that by simply observing Toto I could try: I avoided the roads where he seemed to be full of pep and took to lanes where his feet dragged.
"That is how I reached here, madam - as you see he is still quite agile, but not a fraction of what he can be. I am at your mercy," Kesav could hardly stand.
The Queen smiled. "Stand aside," she said. "Let me see this other child, dancing there."
The escort parted to reveal Doctor Toto waving his arms and gnashing his teeth, which were really a row of test tubes.
The Queen looked at him. "Child," she said, "look, there is a bombillus on your left foot."
Immediately Doctor Toto stopped, and looked at his foot. "Terrible - I am infected - Horrible Bombillus - fatal, rapidly growing," and with eyes rolling about in panic, he produced various gadgets with which he pricked and pinched himself, all the while screaming, "BOMBILLUS - type xmz 142 - insensitive to Hoxalin and Hexalin - copper up by 2% - gold down by 1.04 gms. Goblins falling, Gibbons rising - oh, god what to do - Antigibbons up again - now Bombillus has come upto the knee - disinfect, disintegrate - oh, no try Hexa-gamma-dubbins in the right arm and - look up under y for jaundice type B, quick! Bombillus at hip - oh. oh I am doomed," Toto was sobbing.
Since he was thus self-occupied, the escort let him be.
"Leave him alone, the silly child," said the Queen, "No Bombillus anywhere - only you are a big Baboon with a Brain," and she smiled.
And Doctor TOTO dissolved, laughing, in one glorious sparkle of DELIGHT.
And Hamsa glided softly down the Lake.
AUM
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