XLVI. THE LIFE TO COME

Think awhile, Brothers, of what will be after death. This is the question that all debate.

Some say that thou wilt become a ghost,[170] some a restless shade;[171] some that we go to bliss,[172] some that we attain to where God dwells,[173] some that the soul is withdrawn into the Deity.[174]

Thou art the revelation of the Vedas; thou art the sky reflected in the earthen pot: death is but the shattering of the pot.[175] When all things are over, in the void our sins and virtue are weighed. Five are they who dwell in this one house;[176] and each, when time comes, will go to his own place.

[60]

Prasād says: What you were, Brother, you will become again at death; even as the bubbles that rise in water, becoming water, mix with water.

FOOTNOTES:

[170] Bhūta; a ghost, usually a malevolent spirit. See note to XXVI. The word is used also of the Five Elements that make up the body. See note 8 below.

[171] Preta; a ghost whose obsequies have not been performed, or the ghost of a deformed person. For an excellent account of the village demonology of the United Provinces, which resembles that of Bengal in general, see Briggs, The Chamārs, pp. 128-47. But Bhūta preta is used as a collective term, and the text here may not mean much more than 'we become ghosts and spectres'— spectre standing for the slightly more attenuated and less malevolent existence of a preta.

[172] Swarga; Indra's paradise.

[173] Sālōkya; 'dwelling in the same region with' (God).

[174] Sāyujya; 'union with' (God).

[175] The central doctrine of the Vedānta is the identity of the human and the divine spirit: Kālī, to Rāmprasād, is the divine spirit. The doctrine of identity is commonly illustrated by the reflection of the sky in the water in an earthen pot: it is the same sky you see, whether you look up or down. The phrase in the text, ghaṭākāśa, 'the sky in the earthen pot,' comes from Gauḍa-pāda's Kārikās, III, 4, and is frequently quoted. Hence 'earthen pot' is often used for the human body.

[176] The Five Elements (bhūtas); Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. The body is supposed to be made up of them. They dissolve partnership at death.

XLVII. KĀLĪ THE ONLY REFUGE

Mind, worship her who saves on the other side of the Ocean of the World.[177] Know once for all what worth is in the trash of wealth. Vain is hope in men or money, this was said of old time. Where wast thou, whence hast thou come, and whither, O whither, wilt thou go?

The world is glass,[178] and ever amid its snares delusion makes men dance. Thou art in the lap of an enchantress, held fast in thy prison. Pride, malice, anger, attachment to thy lovers, by what wisdom of judgment was it that thou didst divide the kingdom of thy body among these? The day is nearly done: think therefore in thy heart, the resting-place of Kālī, that island filled with jewels, think upon the things that day has brought thee.

Prasād says: The name of Durgā is my promised Land of Salvation, fields flowing with nectar. Tell thy tongue evermore to utter her name.

FOOTNOTES:

[177] The Ocean of Being; the Cycle of Births and Deaths.

[178] Brittle and worthless.

XLVIII. LIFE'S AFFLICTIONS

It is not over yet, not yet, this gloomy fate of mine. Not over yet, not yet! Ever is it passing, passing; but it does not pass. My mother's sister,[179] what a plague she is!

For me, I'd have a mind that's well content; that aunt of mine brings me sorrows manifold. Her snares delude me, Oh, what tricks they play me! A double portion of affliction does she bring me, and swells the sum of my adversities.

[61]

Within the mind of twice-born Rāmprasād there is this fear, that in this life I have not lived where dwell my Mother's family; and having had to live without my Mother's milk, my body has wasted. How long do you think the child will live if it is hand-fed?

A very obscure song. Our suggestion is that the 'aunt' is the religion of ceremonial and ritual, thought of as represented by Ganges, the co-wife of Kālī, Rāmprasād's 'Mother.' His experience of the exacting Hindu 'Law' has been St. Paul's of the Jewish 'Law.' But our colleague, Professor Ramsaran Ghosh, suggests that the 'aunt' may be Māyā, Illusion.

FOOTNOTES:

[179] Gaṅgā and Umā, being both daughters of the Himālaya, are sisters.