The Sword of Song

THE THREE CHARACTERISTICS 75 back and back, like a biograph out of order, and there’s no sort of connection between one and the other. Hullo, what’s that? Why, there’s a holy man near that Bo-Tree. He’ll tell m e what it all means.’ Poor silly old Lord of the Universe ! Had he carried his memory back one more step he’d have known all about Jehjaour and the con- spiracy, and that he was a Srotapatti and had only one more birth; and might well have put in the 311,040,000,000,000 myriads of æons which would elapse before lunch in rejoicing over his imminent annihilation. “ ‘Venerable Sir!’ said Mahabrahma, who had assumed the guise of a cowherd, ‘I kiss y our worshipful Trilbies :1 I prostrate myself before y our em inent respectability .’ ‘Sir,’ said the holy man, none other than Our Lord Him self ! ‘thou seekest illumina- tion!’ Mahabrahm a sm irked and admitted it. ‘From negative to positive,’ explained the Thrice-Honoured One, ‘through Poten- tial Existence eternally vibrates the Divine Absolute of the Hidden Unity of proces- sional form m asked in the Eternal Aby ss of the Unknowable, the synthetic hiero- glyph of an illim itable, pastless, futureless PRESENT. “ ‘To the uttermost bounds of space rushes the voice of Ages unheard of save in the concentrated unity of the thought-formulated Abstract; and eternally that voice form u- lates a word which is gly phed in the vast ocean of lim itless life.2 Do I make myself clear ?’ ‘Perfectly . Who would have thought it was all so simple ? ’ The God cleared his throat, and rather diffidently, even shamefacedly, went on : “ ‘But what I really wished to know was about my incarnation. How is it I have so suddenly risen from change and death to the unchangeable ?’ “ ‘Child !’ answered Gautama, ‘your facts are wrong—you can hardly expect to make 1 Feet. 2 This astonishing piece of bombastic drivel is verbatim from a note by S. L. M athers to the “Kabbalah Unveiled.” correct deductions.’ ‘Yes, y ou can, if only your logical methods are unsound. That’s the Christian way of getting truth.’ ‘True!’ replied the sage, ‘but precious little they get. Learn, O Mahabrahma (for I penetrate this disguise), that all existin things, even from thee unto this grain of sand, possess Three Characteristics. These are Mutability, Sorrow, and Unsubstantiality.’ “ ‘All right for the sand, but how about Me ? Why , the y define me as unchange- able.’ ‘You can define a quirk as being a two-sided triangle,’ retorted the Saviour, ‘but that does not prove the actual existence of any such oxy moron.1 The truth is that you’re a very spiritual sort of being and a prey to longevity . Men’s lives are so short that yours seems eternal in com parison. But —why, you’re a nice one to talk ! You’ll be dead in a week from now.’ “ ‘I quite appreciate the force of your remarks !’ said the s eeming cowherd; ‘that about the Characteristics is very clever; and curiously enough, my perception of this had always jus t preceded m y death for the las t six goes.’ “ ‘Well, so long, old chap,’ said G autama, ‘I must really be off. I have an appoint- ment with Brother Mara at the Bo-Tree. He has promised to introduce his charming daughters—’ “ ‘Good-bye, and don’t do anything rash !’ “ Rejoice ! our Lord wended unto the Tree !2 As blank verse this scan but ill, but it clearly shows what happened. XI. “The ‘Nineteenth Mahakalpa’ brought ought its April Number. There was a paper by Huxlananda Swami. “Mahabrahma had never been much more than an idea. He had only lived six days. 1 A contradiction in terms. 2 Arnold, “Light of Asia.”