An embroided towel

Dreamscape

Chapter 13 An embroided towel

Peter returned to New Delhi at the end of the week.

Their plan was a simple one. Get Neela back to Nanda Puram for a visit and record the perceptions of his experience. Similarly, get Chandra out of the sanctuary of the ashram, away from the daily ritualization of worship, and record his perceptions.

Peter arranged for the swamy to stay at the University of New Delhi for two weeks, for a series of four events, including a lecture and panel discussion.

In the Ukraine, Susan had suggested studying the lyrics to popular songs as a way of narrowing down the interests of the innamorata. In addition, she had proposed that they identify a writer of children's stories and engage the individual as a case study, to record her perceptions of the mahimorata generated.

Charles had organized all the information they had and put it up on a soft board to view its overall relation. It puzzled him that the Ukraine continued to be center of the consciousness of the world. As the beginning experience, the Ukraine should in natural order grow into a tech based center, where an individual's responses to the world are primarily on auto-pilot, regulated by an active combination of mahi-innamorata.

The distinction for being the balance between the passions and the reason should be a matter of achievement by man, in the way that, that comes to be reflected in the society and the values of the people. It should reflect itself in the knowledge of the individual. That ought to be another location, he figured.

In the 10th. Century, there was a split between the Roman church and the Eastern orthodox church. 500 years later, in the reign of Elizabeth I, England broke away from Rome. In the years following the breakaway, the English civil war distinguished two classes of Protestants. It introduced to the world, the character of the Puritans, who in beheading King Charles I, made the clear comment that a man's faith and knowledge is the product of free will alone and is not influenced by any other.

These are the Puritans who landed at Plymouth rock and met with the Algonquin, and continue to this day, to represent themselves as the leaders of the free world. No doubt the Americans have taken upon themselves to represent to the world the knowledge of who we are, both as individuals and as the world.

His secretary brought in a fax message. It was from Susan in Kiev.

Susan had met with one Nina Sukova, a writer of children's tales. Nina had brought to her attention a song, by the singer Vasily Gerello. His song was entitled, 'Ridna Maty Moya ' and it contained the lyrics,

“Dearest Mother of Mine, you had many sleepless nights
You led me to the fields next to the village
And on my long journey, you saw me off at dawn
And gave me an embroidered towel for luck

I'll take this towel, and unfold it as if destiny
In the quiet, rustling meadows, and chirping oak-woods
And on this little towel, will live the familiar pain
My childhood, separation, and unconditional love”

Nina had also brought to Susan's attention, the tale of ' The Dead Princess and the seven knights,' from the Russian folk tales, which shared its honors  in the Grimm Brothers' tale of ' Snow white and the seven dwarfs.'

In the Ukrainian, the evil archetype was the Tsaritsa, who spoke to her looking glass the words,

“Tell me, pretty looking-glass,
Nothing but the truth, I ask:
Who in all the world is fairest
And has beauty of the rarest?”
And the looking-glass replied:
“You, it cannot be denied.
You in all the world are fairest
And your beauty is the rarest.”

Susan wanted him to confirm if that's the kind of stuff they were looking for. He replied in the affirmative, advising her to follow the trail indicated by the qualities of the Tsaritsa. Look for the ' Snow Queen,' he had advised.

Charles sat down on the sofa in his room. He lit up a cigarette. It was all there, right before his eyes.

His Tamil father had struggled with the idolatry of his female half and eventually came to marry an Irish girl, who reproduced the experience of the idolatry in the form of a positive, beautiful woman, with whom he shared his life. He was the product of that union.

He had come to understand his nature.

He had originally experienced it as a dream vision in his youth, the way that his attention was constantly drawn to the world and the way, a sense of his identity, floated in it. His awareness was the product of his learning, the way that he combined the knowledge of science with traditional folk understanding.

His thoughts went to his wife and the devotion that he continued to feel for her. After meeting Sunder in college, he had in some way gravitated to Asian girls. When he met his wife, she was an undergraduate. Her parents had migrated to the US from Sri Lanka. He was doing his post graduate studies.

The first years of the marriage was fine. They both pursued their careers and got along great. When the daughter arrived, she quit work to take care of the baby. It was supposed to have been for two years. But she never went back to work again.

The years of being at home changed her.

She had come to expect a greater devotion to the truth about herself. Such a truth, he had found was not mollified with flowers or chocolates or the occasional holiday they spent together. It needed more.

 

It was as if she played an integral part in the life of the world and she needed to know that. Charles's American attitude of being pragmatic, wasn't enough. They had split up when the daughter was eighteen years of age.

Charles recalled an early Indian legend when Siva's consort, Sakthi, had engaged in a quarrel with her father, the innamorata based progenitor of the human race. Thereafter father and daughter had split up.

 

She in turn split from Siva and moved into the snowy pastures of the north, where she wiled her hours alone in her thoughts.

We would have to look at the legends of the snow queen again, Charles told himself.