Friday, March 03, 2006

The Hymns of the Rig Veda

The Rig Veda tells an Eastern version of Genesis, Ravi Shankar’s answer to Phil Collins.

The opening two lines are wondrous and instructive. “There was not non-existent nor existent: There was no realm of air no sky beyond it/What covered and where? And what gave shelter? Was Water there, unfathomed depth of water.”

The first six words alone describe what was there before the Big Bang a mere 13 billion years ago. In some sense it is distilled wisdom, passed on as a means of coping with unfathomed depth of problems.

It is comforting to think this is code which is passed on through the generations as a means of dealing with life. This is a primeval response and is none the worse for it. And utterly simple too; we subtract being and nothing and what is left, is left.

Quease
Memories unbend in photos
Slowly the past elopes
Sugar saddened senses
Age and life
Encrypted smiles
Eyes hidden by glass
The lies of the lens leave last

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