HPB-Caves-16: Difference between revisions

After many nights spent in a tent, it is more than agreeable to sleep in a regular bed, even if it is only a hanging one. The pleasure would, no doubt, have been considerably increased had I but known I was resting on the couch of a “god”. But this latter circumstance was revealed to me only in the morning, when descending the staircase I suddenly discovered the divine ''general en chef<ref>''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General-in-chief General in Chief]'' has been a military rank or title in various armed forces around the world. Here it is used in a meaning of a “main general”. – Ed.</ref>'' (Hanuman) deprived of his cradle and, together with his reg body, stowed away under the stairs. Decidedly, the Hindus of the XIX century are a degenerate and blaspheming race!

It appeared that this swinging throne of his, and an ancient sofa, were the only pieces of furniture in the whole house that could be transformed into beds. Our two gentlemen had spent this night even worse then we did. They slept in an empty tower that was once the ''gapar'' (altar) of a decayed pagoda and was situated behind the main building. In assigning to them this strange resting place, the host was guided by the praiseworthy intention of protecting them from the jackals, which freely penetrate into all the rooms of the ground floor, as they are pierced by numberless arches and have no door and no window frames. The jackals, however, did not trouble the gentlemen much that night, except by giving their nightly concert. But both Mr. Y*** and the colonel had to fight all the night long with a vampire, which, besides being a bat, happened to be a “spirit”, as they learned too late, to their great misfortune. This is how it happened.

In the morning, feeling perfectly innocent, the gentlemen boasted of the heroic deed to their host, and instantly seems to drew down on their heads all the thunder-clouds of heaven. The yard was crowded with people. All the inhabitants of the house stood sorrowfully drooping their heads, at the entrance of the tower. Our host's old mother tore her hair in despair, and shrieked lamentations in all the languages of India. What was the matter with them all?  When we learned the cause of all this, there was no limit to our confusion. By certain mysterious signs, known only to the family Brahmin, it had been decided that the soul of our host's elder brother (the son of raging old woman) had ''incarnated'' in this blood-thirsty vampire-bat right in the death day. For nine years the late man existed under this new shape, carrying out the laws of metempsychosis. He spent the hours in sleep between sunrise and the sunset in an old pipal-tree before the tower (dwelling for spirits from the  ages of old), hanging with his head downwards. But at night he visited the old tower and hunted the insects that sought rest in this out-of-the-way corner. So the vampire lived, gradually redempting of old sins committed in the shape of a Prabhu “patan”. And now? Now his breathless body lay in the dust at the entrance of tower, and his wings were half devoured by the rats... The poor old woman was mad with sorrow, and cast, through her tears, reproachful, angry looks at Mr. Y***, who, in his new capacity of a heartless murderer, looked disgustingly composed.

But the affair was growing muddle and tragic. The comical side of it disappeared before the sincerity and the intensity of her sorrow. The crowd stood around; silent and serious, obviously not daring to express their real feelings to the English “saabs”, but looking at us not very cordially. The family priest and astrologer stood by the old lady with ''Shastras'' in hand, ready to begin the ceremony of tower purification. He already gave the order to cover the corpse of  disgusting vampire with a piece of new linen, and so hid from our eyes the sad remains on which ants were literally swarming...

“Exactly!” exclaimed he joyfully. “This shows that our conceptions are neither silly nor superstitious, as is maintained by some opponents of Manu. The great Manu, anticipated Darwin and Haeckel. Judge for yourself; the latter derives the genesis of man from a group of ''plastides<ref>''Plastids'' are semi-autonomous organelles (permanent components of the cell, vital for its existence) of higher plants, algae and some photosynthetic protozoa. – Ed.</ref>'', from the jelly-like ''moneron<ref>''Monera'' is the name proposed by Haeckel for an intermediate link between inanimate and living matter (single-celled organism). – Ed.</ref>''; this moneron, through the ''ameoba<ref>''Amoeba'' is a genus of microscopic unicellular protozoa, length up to 0.5 mm. – Ed.</ref>'', the ''zinamebia<ref>''Zinamebia'' is the name proposed by Haeckel for the primitive amoeba-like organism. – Ed.</ref>'', the ''ascidian<ref>''Ascidia'' are marine invertebrate bottom animals, length from 0.1 mm to 30 cm. – Ed.</ref>'', the brainless and heartless ''amphioxus<ref>''Amphiox'' (lancelet) is a small, no more than 5 cm long, transparent vertebrate animal which some classify as a fish, and some as the only representative of a very special class of tube-hearted vertebrates. – Ed.</ref>'', and so on, transmigrates in the eighth remove into the lamprey<ref>The ''sea lamprey'' is an aquatic vertebrate animal of the cyclostomes class with a long naked serpentine body. Zoologists do not consider lampreys classic fish due to their unique morphology and physiology. – Ed.</ref>, is transformed, at last, into a vertebrate ''amniote<ref>''Amniotes'' are higher vertebrates (reptiles, birds and mammals). – Ed.</ref>'', into a premammalian<ref>''Promamalia'' are the alleged ancestors of mammals. – Ed.</ref>, into a marsupial animal. The ''vampire'', in its turn, belongs to the species of vertebrates... You, being well read people, cannot contradict this statement.”  

“But, in spite of all my respect for Darwin and his follower Haeckel, I cannot agree with their final conclusions, especially with the conclusions of the latter,” continued speechify Sham Rao. “This hasty and bilious German is perfectly accurate in copying the embryology of Manu and all the metamorphoses of our ancestors, but he forgets the evolution of the ''human soul'', which, as it is stated by Manu, goes hand in hand with the evolution of ''matter'' in all its  changes... The son of ''Swayambhuva'' (“uncreated”) speaks as follows: 'Everything created in a new cycle, in addition to the qualities of its preceding transmigrations, acquires new qualities, and the nearer it approaches to man, the highest type of the earth, the brighter becomes its divine spark,’ and adds ‘but, once it has become a Brahma (that is to say it reached the highest point of transmigration in a form of ''human being''), it will enter the cycle of ''conscious'' transmigrations.' In other words, from this moment, its transformations depend no longer on the blind laws of gradual evolution, but on the least of a man's actions, which brings either a reward or a punishment. Now you see that it depends on the man's will whether, on the one hand, he will start on the way to ''moksha'' (the eternal bliss), passing from one ''loka<ref>There are seven ''major'' ''lokas'' in Hindu religion and many ''lesser significant'' ones!.. "Loka" means a country, a place. Lokas in general are purification worlds, and some sects see them in the stars. Not very sinful souls or liberated from earthly transmigrations ones go to these worlds, gradually passing from one to another, but always in the form of a human, although this image grows and improves with each new "loka". Such spirits liberated from earthly matter become, according to the concepts of the Hindus, ''pitris'' and ''devas'', who are worshiped and sacrificed under the name of "the soul of the ancestors" (''pitris''). The latter correspond to those described by medieval Kabbalists as ''planetary spirits''. (See Heinrich Kunrath ''Amphitheatrum'' etc., works by Paracelsus, etc.).</ref>'' to another till he reaches ''Brahmaloka'', or, on the other, owing to his sins, will be thrown back by the law of retribution. In this case, he will be obliged to return to the former, already once unconsciously passed animal form. Both Darwin and Haeckel lose sight of this, so to speak, ''second volume'' of their incomplete theory, which was witty fulfilled in Manu teaching, but still neither of them advances any argument to prove it false. Is it not so?”

“Why, in this case,” exclaimed he, suddenly changing his colloquial tone for an aggressive one, “why am I, I who have studied the most modern ideas of Western science, I who believe in its representatives, which, in turn, literally confirm with scientific conclusions at least the ''first half ''(the evolution of the physical world) of the teachings of Manu. – why am I suspected, pray, by Miss X*** of belonging to the tribe of the ignorant and superstitious Hindus? Why does she think that our ''fulfilled'' scientific theories are ‘superstitions’, and we ourselves are the sons of a ‘fallen inferior race’?..”

“The old woman has gone demented!..” he screamed over the yard, “she keeps on cursing us and says that the murder of this vampire is only the forerunner of a whole series of misfortunes brought on her house by her son – you, Sham Rao,” said he, hastily addressing the bewildered follower of Haackel. “She says you have polluted your Brahminical holiness by inviting us, ''bellati'', to share supper with you and to spend a night in your house... Colonel, you had better send for the elephants, or we shall be expelled.”

“For goodness' sake!” exclaimed poor Sham Rao, “have some consideration for my feelings. She is an old woman, she might has some superstitions, but she is my mother... You are educated people, learned people. Advise me, show me a way out of all these difficulties. What should you do in my place?”

Finally, he explained to us the following trick invented by him, which gives us a clear idea of the Brahmin holiness. He knew that all the ''metempsychoses'' depend on the imagination of the family “gurus,” who receive for their kind offices from 100 to 150 rupees a year. Such Brahmins are at the same time astrologers and managers of all established religious ceremonies in the family. Every rite is accompanied by a more or less considerable addition to the purse of the insatiable family Brahmin, but the happy events pay better than the sad ones. Knowing all this, the Babu asked the Brahmin point-blank to perform a false ''samadhi'', that is to say, to feign an inspiration and to announce to the sorrowing mother that her late son's will had acted consciously in all the circumstances; that he brought about his end in the body of the bat, that he was tired of that grade of transmigration, that he longed for death in order to attain a ''higher'' position, that he is happy, and that he is deeply indebted to the “sahib” who broke his neck and so freed him from his abject embodiment. Besides, the observant eye of our all-knowing Babu had not failed to remark that a she-buffalo of the Brahmin was expecting a calf, and that the Brahmin was yearning to sell it to Sham Rao, but he denied to purchase. What is to be better? Let the Reverend Guru announce (under the influence of the same ''samadhi'') that the freed spirit intends to inhabit the body of the future baby-buffalo and the old lady will force Sham Rao to buy the new incarnation of her eldest son. This announcement will be followed by rejoicings and by new rites and the noble Brahmin will benefit the whole bunch of ropees on the case.