ANTWOORDEN OP VRAGEN
GESTELD IN DE 'MAHABHARATA'
De hierna volgende passage is ontleend aan de filmversie uit 1989 van het hindoe-epos Mahabharata in de regie van Peter Brook (1925-2022). Brooks originele toneelstuk uit 1985 duurde negen uur en ging vier jaar lang wereldwijd op tournee. In 1989 werd een ingekorte bewerking van iets minder dan zes uur gemaakt als een miniserie voor televisie. Deze werd vervolgens bewerkt tot een bijna drie uur durende versie voor de bioscoop. Het scenario was het resultaat van acht jaar werk van Brook, Jean-Claude Carrière en Marie-Hélène Estienne. Brook is ook de regisseur van de film Meetings with remarkable men (1979), gebaseerd op het gelijknamige boek over de Kaukasische mysticus George Gurdjieff.
De volledige tekst van de Mahabharata is acht keer zo lang als de Ilias en de Odyssee samen. Het epos is een belangrijke bron van informatie over de ontwikkeling van het hindoeïsme tussen 400 v.C. en 200 n.C. en wordt door hindoes beschouwd als zowel een tekst over de dharma als een geschiedenis: dit is wat er is gebeurd. De Mahabharata is bovenal een uiteenzetting van gedragscodes, van juist handelen volgens universele wetten - de dharma - het juiste gedrag van een koning, van een krijger, van een persoon die leeft in tijden van rampspoed en van een persoon die moksha (vrijheid van samsara, of wedergeboorte) wil bereiken. Het epos laat herhaaldelijk zien dat de tegenstrijdige codes van dharma zo ‘subtiel’ zijn dat de held in sommige situaties niet anders kan dan ze op een of andere manier schenden, welke keuze hij ook maakt.
What is quicker than the wind?
- Thought
- Thought
What can cover the earth?
- Darkness
- Darkness
Who are more numerous: The living or the dead?
- The living, because the dead are no longer
- The living, because the dead are no longer
Give me an example of space
- My two hands as one
- My two hands as one
An example of grief
- Ignorance
- Ignorance
Of poison
- Desire
- Desire
An example of defeat
- Victory
- Victory
Which came first: day or night?
- Day, but it was only a day ahead
- Day, but it was only a day ahead
What is the cause of the world?
- Love
- Love
What is your opposite?
- Myself
- Myself
What is madness?
- A forgotten way
- A forgotten way
And revolt. Why do men revolt?
- To find beauty. Either in life or in death
- To find beauty. Either in life or in death
And what for each of us is inevitable?
- Happiness
- Happiness
And what is the greatest wonder?
- Each day death strikes and we live as though we were immortal. This is the greatest wonder
- Each day death strikes and we live as though we were immortal. This is the greatest wonder
Het zesde deel van de Mahabharata wordt genoemd Bhagavad Gita en bevat de beroemde dialoog tussen Krishna, een manifestatie van de hindoegod Vishnu, en de krijger prins Arjuna. Het gesprek vindt plaats op het slagveld van Kurukshetra, vlak voordat een grote oorlog begint. Arjuna twijfelt of hij moet vechten, omdat hij tegenover zijn eigen familie en vrienden staat.
What is Krishna doing?
- He is speaking to Arjuna
What is he saying?
- He is telling Arjuna that victory and defeat are the same. He is urging him to act, but nog to reflect on the fruit of the act. He says to him: Seek detachment, but without desire. Forget desire, seek detachment.
- He is speaking to Arjuna
What is he saying?
- He is telling Arjuna that victory and defeat are the same. He is urging him to act, but nog to reflect on the fruit of the act. He says to him: Seek detachment, but without desire. Forget desire, seek detachment.
Arjuna: It is you, you urge me to battle, to massacre.
- Krishna tells him: don’t withdraw into solitude. Renunciation is not enough. You must act, but action must not dominate you. In the heart of action, you must remain free from all attachment.
How can I put into practice what you are demanding of me? The mind is capricious, unstable, it is feverish, turbulent, tenacious, harder to subdue than taming the wind.
- You must learn to see with the same eye a mount of earth, a heap of gold, a cow and a sage, a dog and a man who eats the dog. There is another intelligence beyond the mind.
Passion drags us away, darkness dulls all senses, how can I find this intelligence. With what will?
* To reply to this question, Krishna led Arjuna through the ‘angled’ forest of illusion. He begain to teach him the ancient yoga of wisdom and the mysterious path of action. He spoke for a long time, a very long time, between the two armies, preparing to destroy themselves.
All men are born into illusion. How can one reach the truth if one is born in illusion?
* Slowly Krishna led Arjuna through all the fibres of his spirit. He showed him the deepest movements of his being and his true battlefield where you need neither warriors nor arrows, but where each man must fight alone. It is the most secret knowledge. He showed him the whole of truth. He told him how the world unfolds.
My illusions vanish one by one. Now I’m capable of contemplating it. Show me your universal form. I see you… An entire world, all the worlds are vanishing into your mouth, you grind them between your teeth; they wish to be destroyed and you destroy them. Through your body I see the stars. I see life and death. I see silence. Tell me who you are. I am shaken to the depths. I am afraid.
- I am all that you think. All that you say. Everything hangs on me, like pearls on a thread. I am the earth’s scent and the fire’s heat. I am appearance and disappearance.
I am the radiance of all that shines, I am time grown old, all beings fall into the night, and all beings are brought back to daylight.
I have already defeated all these warriors. He who thinks he can kill and he who thinks he can be killed, both are mistaken.
No weapon can pierce the life that informs you, no fire can burn it, no water can drenche you, no wind can make it dry.
Have no fear and rise up! Because I love you.
Now you can dominate your mysterious and incomprehensible spirit. You can see its otherside.
I am the radiance of all that shines, I am time grown old, all beings fall into the night, and all beings are brought back to daylight.
I have already defeated all these warriors. He who thinks he can kill and he who thinks he can be killed, both are mistaken.
No weapon can pierce the life that informs you, no fire can burn it, no water can drenche you, no wind can make it dry.
Have no fear and rise up! Because I love you.
Now you can dominate your mysterious and incomprehensible spirit. You can see its otherside.
Act as you must act.
I myself am never without action. Rise up.
My illusion has dissolved.
My error destroyed.
By your Grace now I am firm. My doubts are dispersed.
I will act according to your word.
My error destroyed.
By your Grace now I am firm. My doubts are dispersed.
I will act according to your word.