A Suitable Boy(390)

‘– at the hands of my guru –’

‘But are you my guru?’ asked Dipankar, suddenly sceptical.

Sanaki Baba laughed. ‘At the hands of Sanaki Baba, then,’ he said.

‘– at the hands of Sanaki Baba –’

‘– I take this, the symbol of all your names –’

‘– I take this, the symbol of all your names –’

‘– by which may all my sorrows be removed.’

‘– by which may all my sorrows be removed.’

‘Om Krishna, Om Krishna, Om Krishna.’ Sanaki Baba began to cough. ‘It’s the incense,’ he said. ‘Let’s go outside.’

‘Now, Divyakar,’ said Sanaki Baba, ‘I am going to explain how to use this. Om is the seed, the sound. It is shapeless and without form. But if you want a tree, you must have a sprout, and that is why people choose Krishna or Rama. Now you hold the rosary thus –’ and he gave one to Dipankar, who imitated his gestures. ‘Don’t use the second and fifth fingers. Hold it between your thumb and ring finger, and move it bead by bead with your middle finger while you say “Om Krishna”. Yes, that’s the way. There are 108 beads. When you get to the knot, don’t cross it, return and circle the other way. Like waves in the ocean, forwards and backwards.

‘Say “Om Krishna” on waking, on putting on your clothes, whenever you think of it… Now I have a question for you.’

‘Babaji, I have one for you as well,’ said Dipankar, blinking a little.

‘My question, however is a shallow one, and yours a deep one,’ said the guru. ‘So I will ask mine first. Why did you choose Krishna?’

‘I chose him because I admire Rama but I find –’

‘Yes, he was after worldly glory too much,’ said Sanaki Baba, completing his thought.

‘And his treatment of Sita –’

‘She was crushed,’ said Sanaki Baba. ‘He had to choose kingship or Sita and he chose kingship. He had a sad life.’

‘Also, his life was one from beginning to end – at least in his character,’ said Dipankar. ‘But Krishna had so many different stages. And at the end, defeated, when he was in Dwaraka –’

Sanaki Baba was still coughing from the incense.

‘Everyone has tragedy,’ he said. ‘But Krishna had joy. The secret of life is to accept. Accept happiness, accept sorrow; accept success, accept failure; accept fame, accept disgrace; accept doubt, even accept the impression of certainty. Now, when are you leaving?’

‘Today.’

‘And what was your question?’ Sanaki Baba said with gentle seriousness.

‘Baba, how do you explain all this?’ Dipankar pointed to the distant smoke from a huge funeral pyre, where hundreds of unidentified bodies were being burned. ‘Is it all the lila of the universe, the play of God? Are they fortunate because they died on this auspicious spot at this auspicious festival?’

‘Mr Maitra is coming tomorrow, isn’t he?’

‘I think so.’

‘When he asked me to give him peace, I told him to return at a later date.’

‘I see.’ Dipankar could not disguise the disappointment in his voice.

Once again he thought of the old man, crushed to death, who had talked of ice and salt, of completing his journey back to the source of the Ganga the following year. Where would he himself be next year, he wondered. Where would anyone be?

‘I did not, however, refuse him an answer,’ said Sanaki Baba.

‘No, you did not,’ sighed Dipankar.

‘But do you want an interim answer?’

‘Yes,’ said Dipankar.

‘I think there was a flaw in the administrative arrangements,’ replied the guru blandly.





11.27


THE newspapers, which had been consistently lauding the ‘commendably high standard of the administrative arrangements’ came down heavily on both the administration and the police. There were a great many explanations of what had happened. One theory was that a car which supported a float in the procession had overheated and stalled, and that this had started a chain reaction.

Another was that this car belonged not to a procession but to a VIP, and should never have been allowed on the Pul Mela sands in the first place, certainly not on the day of Jeth Purnima. The police, it was alleged, had no interest in pilgrims, only in high dignitaries. And high dignitaries had no interest in the people, only in the appurtenances of office. The Chief Minister had, it was true, made a moving statement to the press in response to the tragedy; but a banquet due to be held that same evening in Government House had not been cancelled. The Governor should at least have made up in discretion what he lacked in compassion.