Act III

The second act, still an establishing act. Almost a mirror of Act II with animals in the place of Devas. Kapalika is now a son and Kali his mother.

Act III

 

(The same scene as before with subtle changes. The background screen is now upright " trees down, clouds up and the moon also up. Kali and Kapalika are at the corner of the stage. Kapalika is sitting on Kali’s lap now. In the center, four actors [could be played by the same four as above. But Saraswati must play a man]. Three of them apparently asleep sitting. One asleep prostrate.

 

None of the actors have the animal accessories on their body.  Instead they all have glorious golden crowns. Indra [henceforth the Elephant] has a crooked stick by which he supports his hands while asleep. Soma [henceforth the Rabbit] and Surya [henceforth the Horse] are as they were before. Saraswati [henceforth the Swan] is asleep on a long log of wood. The Swan is a male character.)

 

Kali: And then, there were the beasts. Five of them.

 

Kapalika: Five? But I see only four?

 

Kali (chiding him like he is a curious child): Now, you must learn to be patient. Questions only slow down the story. So, if you keep asking them, you’ll fall asleep before the story ends!

 

Kapalika: No, I won’t! I can stay up all night!

 

Kali: Oh yes you will. As if I will allow that!

 

Kapalika: Oh please please…just tonight!

 

Kali: Hush now! If you keep distracting me like this, how will I tell the story? Shall I stop it?

 

Kapalika: No no! See! (puts finger on his lips and sits quiet)

 

Kali (happy at his obedience): So, there were five beasts. And they could speak and act just like us!

 

Kapalika: Ha! Animals talk and act like us in all stories! As if that’s new! (Kali glares at him. He quickly resumes his pose. She stares for some more time before pointing the index finger at him motioning him to stay so and continues…)

 

Kali: Five beasts, talking, walking and acting just like us…

 

(Kali and Kapalika freeze. Now we see the beasts are not actually sleeping. The Elephant is actually in a penance, still like a rock. The Swan is clinging to the log of wood while gingerly pulling her leg away anytime anything seems to come close to touching her.  The Hare is lying supine, but keeps shaking his legs and tapping his fingers on his chest. The Horse is generally looking away with a sneer in his face. Then he suddenly laughs.)

 

Swan: What’s so funny?

 

Horse: Oh, I was just thinking of how funny it is to think your lives are actually governed by the stars there! Only a soul with a dead mind can think that!

 

Hare: Hey, you can stop poking fun at me, okay!

 

Elephant (disturbed and very angry): Can’t any of you see I am trying to meditate here? It took me five hundred years to still my body…and with you people around I don’t think even in five thousand years I can still my mind! (Shuts his eyes gruffly and tries very hard to focus)

 

Swan (makes a dismissive gesture at the elephant): But, what do you mean? What is the hare doing now?

 

Hare: Heed, O Swan. You know the sun is a mildly malefic planet and the moon is his friend. Now they are both in the 10^th house in the declining phase. So it is actually a life threatening situation for my star. So I decided to spend this month as a corpse to avoid the threat.

 

(Swan looks bewildered.)

 

Horse: What he means is he wants to spend a month idle!

 

Swan: Neither of you have any sense. (points at the hare) You are always struck with your head in the stars, the moon, the sun…) and you (points at the horse), always critical of what others do. Why only last week you said the Elephant was a fool to sit and try to quiet himself.

 

Elephant (waking from his focus): Oh did he? How dare you, when I alone of all of you know the true secrets of penance!

 

Horse: Oh shut up elephant! And you, Swan, you are superior to all of us I suppose!

 

Swan: Of course (hugs her log tighter) I am above all this. I have given up everything. I feel nothing, I am beyond desire! (brief pause) Where is that Butterfly? I asked her for jasmine nectar today. I hope she hasn’t forgotten it!

 

Horse: Of course. No desires indeed. 

(laughs loud. We hear the jingle of anklets…and following that enters…)

 

Butterfly: I have come…I have brought all that you asked for! 

(Elephant almost rises from his seat before seating himself firmly with eyes shut. Swan almost lets go of her log before clutching it again. Hare raises his head before putting it down again. Horse turns his face to look at the Butterfly, before turning away with the old sneer.)

Oh, you won’t even come and get it! 

(pouts with mock anger before smiling at them kindly) 

You don’t have to come… I’ll come to you myself.

 

(She goes and mimes placing food in front of them.)

 

Swan: What took you so long Butterfly? Was the jasmine nectar difficult to find?

 

Butterfly (obviously glad at being spoken to): Oh no, not at all. I found it first thing after I crossed the stream. I was just sitting a while by the river bank.

 

Hare: Sitting…and doing what?

 

Butterfly (surprised): Nothing! Just sitting!

 

Swan: But how can you do nothing?

 

Horse: Ask the Hare. He is doing it wonderfully! 

(Hare looks very angry and is about to remark when…)

 

Elephant: Hmph! If anybody has to speak about doing nothing, it must be me!

 

Horse: Oh, you suppose you know better about meditation than me, you false ascetic? Have you read the ancient scrolls of the sages? Do you know how many postures are described in them and what each posture does?

 

Elephant: I know all of it horse. In fact, I have personally meditated in the Horse posture to the Rain God for fifty years!

 

Horse: A child can do that! Why I know to meditate to the Sun God in the complicated Elephant posture!

 

Hare: And yet, neither of you are happy. If only you had given Saturn his compensation!

 

Swan: Oh how can you go on like this? 

(mimes gulping down her nectar) 

Let go of your desires, of your beliefs…of it all 

(says the last words holding her fist clenching her vessel of nectar tight)

Attachment is like a log that helps you cross the ocean of birth. You must let go of it in the land of enlightenment! 

(clutches her log again)

 

Butterfly: You speak of such great things! You must be so wise…! 

(looks at all of them with admiration and they all look equally smug)

But…but…I feel there is joy in the simplest of things. Like when I was sitting by the river bank today…

 

Horse: You mean you have a new theory? Explain it! Let’s see if it can stand my argument!

 

Butterfly: Oh, I never could argue brother Horse. But I can sing! 

(rises up suddenly and sings)

 

Don’t you see, don’t you see my companion!

We all sit by this river bank

Drinking the golden sunset

And life runs swift!

You wet your feet

He bathes in her coolness

I drown in her joy

And yet…

We all sit by this river bank

Drinking the golden sunset

And life runs swift!

 

(She stays in a trance like state while the others argue)

 

Horse: Hmm… not a bad composition! But it doesn’t correspond to any rhyme or meter system that I know of. Perhaps it is of the non-rhyme system?

 

Elephant: Oh forget the systems, I say. How can anybody write poetry about a river which is always running? Poetry must only be written about stillness!

 

Horse: Which is why you write a lot of it, eh?

 

Swan: I personally think it’s not a good idea to bathe in the river. The water gets attached to your body…and you get attached to bonds. It is better not to revel in beauty of these things…not to feel them.

 

Hare: Well, the poem was written when the Rain God collided with the Moon in his 9^th house. Obviously not an auspicious time to write poems or engage in any creative activity.

 

Horse: I guess no time is auspicious to engage in any activity in your charts Hare!

 

(Butterfly suddenly wakes from her trance and looks about searchingly.)

 

Butterfly: Do you hear it?

 

Elephant (irritated): Hear what?

 

Butterfly: That song…that call…

 

Horse: Well, I have read of methods by which one can even hear a fly sneeze and even I do not hear anything.

 

Butterfly (as if answering someone): Yes it is me! It is me!

 

Swan: Oh she has gone mad! Her bonds have deranged her mind!

 

Hare: No, no! It is the full moon. She shouldn’t have spent time beneath the jasmine creeper today. Highly dangerous when the moon is full and Mars is in the 8^th house.

 

Butterfly: He is calling me! 

(looks around at her friends) 

He is calling me! The same voice that I heard in the river’s silence! 

(rises)

He calls…and I have to go! 

(walks off stage gracefully, like a Barathanatyam dancer. The beasts look surprised.)

 

Kali: And thus it was that she went forth… she who moves when all is still. She who sees when all is blind. She who hears when all is deaf. She who feels when all is dead.