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. |