by Paulo Coelho
KRISHNA
32 I am all-powerful Time which destroys all things, and I have come here to slay these men. Even if thou dost not fight, all the warriors facing thee shall die.
33 Arise therefore! Win thy glory, conquer thine enemies, and enjoy thy kingdom. Through the fate of their Karma I have doomed them to die: be thou merely the means of my work.
34 Drona, Bhishma, Jayad-ratha and Karna, and other heroic warriors of this great war have already been slain by me: tremble not, fight and slay them. Thou shalt conquer thine enemies in battle.
SANJAYA
35 When Arjuna heard the words of Krishna he folded his hands trembling; and with a faltering voice, and bowing in adoration, he spoke.
ARJUNA
36 It is right, O God, that peoples sing thy praises, and that they are glad and rejoice in thee. All evil spirits fly away in fear; but the hosts of the saints bow down before thee.
37 How could they not bow down in love and adoration, before thee, God of gods, Spirit Supreme? Thou creator of Brahma, the god of creation, thou infinite, eternal, refuge of the world! Thou who art all that is, and all that is not, and all that is Beyond.
38 Thou God from the beginning, God in man since man was. Thou Treasure supreme of this vast universe. Thou the One to be known and the Knower, the final resting place. Thou infinite Presence in whom all things are.
39 God of the winds and the waters, of fire and death! Lord of the solitary moon, the Creator, the Ancestor of all! Adoration unto thee, a thousand adorations; and again and again unto thee adoration.
40 Adoration unto thee who art before me and behind me: adoration unto thee who art on all sides, God of all. All-powerful God of immeasurable might. Thou art the consummation of all: thou art all.
41 If in careless presumption, or even in friendliness, I said ‘Krishna! Son of Yadu! My friend!’, this I did unconscious of thy greatness.
42 And if in irreverence I was disrespectful – when alone or with others – and made a jest of thee at games, or resting, or at a feast, forgive me in thy mercy, O thou Immeasurable!
43 Father of all. Master supreme. Power supreme in all the worlds. Who is like thee? Who is beyond thee?
44 I bow before thee, I prostrate in adoration; and I beg thy grace, O glorious Lord! As a father to his son, as a friend to his friend, as a lover to his beloved, be gracious unto me, O God.
45 In a vision I have seen what no man has seen before: I rejoice in exultation, and yet my heart trembles with fear. Have mercy upon me, Lord of gods, Refuge of the whole universe: show me again thine own human form.
46 I yearn to see thee again with thy crown and sceptre and circle. Show thyself to me again in thine own four-armed form, thou of arms infinite, Infinite Form.
KRISHNA
47 By my grace and my wondrous power I have shown to thee, Arjuna, this form supreme made of light, which is the Infinite, the All: mine own form from the beginning, never seen by man before.
48 Neither Vedas, nor sacrifices, nor studies, nor benefactions, nor rituals, nor fearful austerities can give the vision of my Form Supreme. Thou alone hast seen this Form, thou the greatest of the Kurus.
49 Thou hast seen the tremendous form of my greatness, but fear not, and be not bewildered. Free from fear and with a glad heart see my friendly form again.
SANJAYA
50 Thus spoke Vasudeva to Arjuna, and revealed himself in his human form. The God of all gave peace to his fears and showed himself in his peaceful beauty.
ARJUNA
51 When I see thy gentle human face, Krishna, I return to my own nature, and my heart has peace.
KRISHNA
52 Thou hast seen now face to face my form divine so hard to see: for even the gods in heaven ever long to see what thou hast seen.
53 Not by the Vedas, or an austere life, or gifts to the poor, or ritual offerings can I be seen as thou hast seen me.
54 Only by love can men see me, and know me, and come unto me.
55 He who works for me, who loves me, whose End Supreme I am, free from attachment to all things, and with love for all creation, he in truth comes unto me.
14
KRISHNA
1 I will reveal again a supreme wisdom, of all wisdom the highest: sages who have known it have gone hence to supreme perfection.
2 Taking refuge in this wisdom they have become part of me: they are not reborn at the time of creation, and they are not destroyed at the time of dissolution.
3 In the vastness of my Nature I place the seed of things to come; and from this union comes the birth of all beings.
4 Wherever a being may be born, Arjuna, know that my Nature is his mother and that I am the Father who gave him life.
5 SATTVA, RAJAS, TAMAS – light, fire, and darkness – are the three constituents of nature. They appear to limit in finite bodies the liberty of their infinite Spirit.
6 Of these Sattva because it is pure, and it gives light and is the health of life, binds to earthly happiness and to lower knowledge.
7 Rajas is of the nature of passion, the source of thirst and attachment. It binds the soul of man to action.
8 Tamas, which is born of ignorance, darkens the soul of all men. It binds them to sleepy dullness, and then they do not watch and then they do not work.
9 Sattva binds to happiness; Rajas to action; Tamas, over-clouding wisdom, binds to lack of vigilance.
10 Sometimes Sattva may prevail over Rajas and Tamas, at others Rajas over Tamas and Sattva, and at others Tamas over Sattva and Rajas.
11 When the light of wisdom shines from the portals of the body’s dwelling, then we know that Sattva is in power.
12 Greed, busy activity, many undertakings, unrest, the lust of desire – these arise when Rajas increases.
13 Darkness, inertia, negligence, delusion – these appear when Tamas prevails.
14 If the soul meets death when Sattva prevails, then it goes to the pure regions of those who are seeking Truth.
15 If a man meets death in a state of Rajas, he is reborn amongst those who are bound by their restless activity; and if he dies in Tamas he is reborn in the wombs of the irrational.
16 Any work when it is well done bears the pure harmony of Sattva; but when done in Rajas it brings pain, and when done in Tamas it brings ignorance.
17 From Sattva arises wisdom, from Rajas greed, from Tamas negligence, delusion and ignorance.
18 Those who are in Sattva climb the path that leads on high, those who are in Rajas follow the level path, those who are in Tamas sink downwards on the lower path.
19 When the man of vision sees that the powers of nature are the only actors of this vast drama, and he beholds THAT which is beyond the powers of nature then he comes into my Being.
20 And when he goes beyond the three conditions of nature which constitute his mortal body then, free from birth, old age, and death, and sorrow, he enters into Immortality.
ARJUNA
21 How is the man known who has gone beyond the three powers of nature? What is his path; and how does he transcend the three?
KRISHNA
22 He who hates not light, nor busy activity, nor even darkness, when they are near, neither longs for them when they are far;
23 Who unperturbed by changing conditions sits apart and watches and says ‘the powers of nature go round’, and remains firm and shakes not;
24 Who dwells in his inner self, and is the same in pleasure and pain; to whom gold or stones or earth are one, and what is pleasing or displeasing leave him in peace; who is beyond both praise and blame, and whose mind is steady and quiet;
25 Who is the same in honour or disgrace, and has the same love for enemies or friends, who surrenders all selfish undertakings – this man has gone beyond the three.
26 And he who with never-failing love adores me and works for me, he passes beyond the three powers and can be one with Brahman, the ONE.
27 For I am the abode of Brahman, the never-failing fountain of everlasting life.
The law of righteousness is my law; and my joy is infinite joy.
From the Dead Sea Scrolls
4Q434, fr. 1
Bless, my soul, the Lord
for all His marvels for ever,
and may His name be blessed.
For He has delivered the soul of the poor,
and has not despised the humble,
and has not forgotten the misery of the deprived.
He has opened His eyes towards the distressed,
and has heard the cry of the fatherless,
and has turned His ears towards their crying.
He has been gracious to the humble by His great kindness,
and has opened their eyes to see His ways,
and [thei]r e[ar]s to hear His teaching.
He has circumcised the foreskin of their heart,
and has delivered them because of His kindness,
and has directed their feet towards the way.
He has not forsaken them amid the multitude of their misery,
neither has He handed them over to the violent,
nor has He judged them together with the wicked.
[He has] not [directed] His anger against them,
neither did he annihilate them in His wrath.
While all His furious wrath was not growing weary,
He has not judged them in the fire of His ardour,
but He has judged them in the greatness of His mercy.
The judgements of His eyes were to try them,
and He has brought His many mercies among the nations,
[and from the hand of ] men He has delivered them.
He has not judged them (amid) the mass of nations,
and in the midst of peoples He has not judged [them].
But He hid them in [His]…
He has turned darkness into light before them,
and crooked places into level ground,
He has revealed to them abundance of peace and truth.
He has made their spirit by measure,
and has established their words by weight,
and has caused them to sing(?) like flutes.
He has given them a [perfect] heart,
and they have walked in the w[ay of His heart],
He has also caused them to draw near to the w[ay of his heart].
For they have pledged their spirit.
He sent and covered them and commanded that no plague [should affect them].
His angel fixed his camp around them;
He guarded them lest [the enemy?] destroy them.
LEOPOLD SACHER-MASOCH
from Venus in Furs
I had a charming guest.
Opposite me, by the massive Renaissance fireplace, sat Venus: not, mind you, some demimondaine who, like Mademoiselle Cleopatra, had taken the pseudonym of Venus in her war against the enemy sex. No: my visitor was the Goddess of Love – in the flesh.
She sat in an easy chair after fanning up a crackling fire, and the reflections of red flames licked her pale face with its white eyes and, from time to time, her feet when she tried to warm them.
Her head was wonderful despite the dead stone eyes, but that was all I saw of her. The sublime being had wrapped her marble body in a huge fur and, shivering, had curled up like a cat.
‘I don’t understand, dear Madam,’ I cried. ‘It’s really not cold any more; for the past two weeks we’ve had the most glorious spring weather. You’re obviously high-strung.’
‘Thank you for your spring, but no thanks,’ she said in a deep stone voice and instantly sneezed two divine sneezes in quick succession. ‘I truly can’t stand it and I’m beginning to grasp—’
‘Grasp what, dear Madam?’
‘I’m beginning to believe the unbelievable and comprehend the incomprehensible. I suddenly understand Germanic female virtue and German philosophy, and I’m no longer amazed that you northerners are unable to love – indeed, haven’t got the foggiest notion of what love is.’
‘Permit me, Madam,’ I replied, flaring up. ‘I have truly given you no occasion.’
‘Well, you—’ The divine being sneezed a third time and shrugged with inimitable grace. ‘That’s why I’ve always been lenient with you and even visit you every so often although I promptly catch cold each time despite my many furs. Do you recall our first meeting?’
‘How could I forget it?’ I said. ‘You had rich, brown curls and brown eyes and red lips, but I immediately recognized you by the contours of your face and by that marble pallor – you always wore a violet velvet jacket lined with vair.’
‘Yes, you were quite enamoured of that attire, and what a good pupil you were.’
‘You taught me what love is. Your cheerful divine service made me forget two thousand years.’
‘And how incomparably faithful I was to you!’
‘Well, as for being faithful—’
‘Ungrateful wretch!’
‘I won’t reproach you. You may be a godly woman, but you’re a woman all the same, and when it comes to love you are as cruel as any woman.’
‘What you call “cruel”,’ the Goddess of Love vividly retorted, ‘is precisely the element of sensuality and cheerful love – which is a woman’s nature. She must give herself to whatever or whomever she loves and must love anything that pleases her.’
‘Is there any greater cruelty for the lover than the beloved woman’s infidelity?’
‘Ah,’ she countered, ‘we are faithful as long as we love, but you men demand that women be faithful without love and give ourselves without joy. Who is the cruel one here? The woman or the man? On the whole, you northerners take love too earnestly, too seriously. You talk about duties, when all that should count is pleasure.’
‘Yes, Madam, but then we have very respectable and virtuous emotions and lasting relationships.’
‘And yet,’ Madam broke in, ‘that eternally restless, eternally unquenched desire for naked paganism, that love that is the supreme joy, that is divine serenity itself – those things are useless for you moderns, you children of reflection. That sort of love wreaks havoc on you. As soon as you wish to be natural you become common. To you Nature seems hostile, you have turned us laughing Greek deities into demons and me into a devil. All you can do is exorcize me and curse me or else sacrifice yourselves, slaughter yourselves in bacchanalian madness at my altar. And if any of you ever has the courage to kiss my red lips, he then goes on a pilgrimage to Rome, barefoot and in a penitent’s shirt, and expects flowers to blossom from his withered staff, while roses, violets and myrtles sprout constantly under my feet – but their fragrance doesn’t agree with you. So just stay in your northern fog and Christian incense. Let us pagans rest under the rubble, under the lava. Do not dig us up. Pompeii, our villas, our baths, our temples were not built for you people! You need no gods! We freeze in your world!’ The beautiful marble lady coughed and drew the dark sable pelts more snugly around her shoulders.
‘Thank you for the lesson in classical civilization,’ I replied. ‘But you cannot deny that in your serene and sunny world man and woman are natural-born enemies as much as in our foggy world. You cannot deny that love lasts for only a brief moment, uniting two beings as a single being that is capable of only one thought, one sensation, one will – only to drive these two persons even further apart. And then – you know this better than I – the person who doesn’t know how to subjugate will all too quickly feel the other’s foot on the nape of his neck—’
‘And as a rule it is the man who feels the woman’s foot,’ cried Madam Venus with exuberant scorn, ‘which you, in turn, know better than I.’
‘Of course, and that is precisely why I have no illusions.’
‘You mean you are now my slave without illusions, so that I can trample you ruthlessly!’
‘Madam!’
‘Don’t you know me by now? Yes, I am cruel – since you take so much pleasure in that word – and am I not entitled to be cruel? Man desires, woman is desired. That is woman’s
entire but decisive advantage. Nature has put man at woman’s mercy through his passion, and woman is misguided if she fails to make him her subject, her slave, no, her toy and ultimately fails to laugh and betray him.’
‘Your principles, dear Madam—’ I indignantly broke in.
‘ – Are based on thousands of years of experience,’ she sarcastically retorted, her white fingers playing in the dark fur. ‘The more devoted the woman is, the more quickly the man sobers up and becomes domineering. But the crueller and more faithless she is, the more she mistreats him, indeed the more wantonly she plays with him, the less pity she shows him, the more she arouses the man’s lascivious yearning to be loved and worshipped by the woman. It’s always been like that in all times, from Helen and Delilah to Catherine the Great and Lola Montez.’
‘I cannot deny,’ I said, ‘that nothing excites a man more than the sight of a beautiful, voluptuous, and cruel female despot who capriciously changes her favourites, reckless and rollicking—’
‘And wears a fur to boot!’ cried the Goddess.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’m familiar with your predilection.’
‘But you know,’ I broke in, ‘you’ve grown very coquettish since last we met.’
‘How so, if I may ask?’
‘In that nothing brings out your white body more splendidly that those dark furs, and you—’
The Goddess laughed.
‘You’re dreaming,’ she exclaimed, ‘wake up!’ And her marble hand grabbed my arm. ‘Wake up!’ her voice rang firmly.
I laboriously opened my eyes.
I saw the hand that was shaking me, but this hand was suddenly as brown as bronze, and the voice was the heavy whiskey voice of my Cossack, who was standing before me at his full height of almost six feet.
