"After which?" he questioned.
"After which you get the beginnings of modern biology."
Will laughed. " 'God said, Let Darwin be,' and there was Nietzsche, Imperialism and Adolf Hitler."
"All that," she agreed. "But also the possibility of a new kind of Wisdom for everybody. Darwin took the old totemism and raised it to the level of biology. The fertility cults reappeared as genetics and Havelock Ellis. And now it's up to us to take another half turn up the spiral. Darwinism was the old neolithic Wisdom turned into scientific concepts. The new conscious Wisdom-the kind of Wisdom that was prophetically glimpsed in Zen and Taoism and Tantra-is biological theory realized in living practice, is Darwinism raised to the level of compassion and spiritual insight. So you see," she concluded, "there isn't any earthly reason-much less any heavenly reason-why the Buddha, or anyone else for that matter, shouldn't contemplate the Clear Light as manifested in a snake."
"Even though the snake might kill him?" "Even though it might kill him."
"And even though it's the oldest and most universal of phallic symbols?"
Shanta laughed. " 'Meditate under the Tree of Muchalinda'- that's the advice we give to every pair of lovers. And in the intervals between those loving meditations remember what you were taught as children; snakes are your brothers; snakes have a right to your compassion and your respect; snakes, in a word, are good, good, good."
"Snakes are also poisonous, poisonous, poisonous." "But if you remember that they're just as good as they're poisonous, and act accordingly, they won't use their poison." "Who says so?"
"It's an observable fact. People who aren't frightened of snakes, people who don't approach them with the fixed belief that the only good snake is a dead snake, hardly ever get bitten. Next week I'm borrowing our neighbor's pet python. For a few days I'll be giving Rama his lunch and dinner in the coils of the Old Serpent."
From outside the house came the sound of high-pitched laughter, then a confusion of children's voices interrupting one another in English and Palanese. A moment later, looking very tall and maternal by comparison with her charges, Mary Sarojini walked into the room flanked by a pair of identical four-year-olds and followed by the sturdy cherub who had been with her when Will first opened his eyes on Pala.
"We picked up Tara and Arjuna at the kindergarten," Mary Sarojini explained as the twins hurled themselves upon their mother.
With the baby in one arm and the other round the two little boys, Shanta smiled her thanks. "That was very kind of you."
It was Tom Krishna who said, "You're welcome." He stepped forward and, after a moment of hesitation, "I was wondering ..." he began, then broke off and looked appealingly at his sister. Mary Sarojini shook her head.
"What were you wondering?" Shanta enquired.
"Well, as a matter of fact, we were both wondering ... I mean, could we come and have dinner with you?"
"Oh, I see." Shanta looked from Tom Krishna's face to Mary Sarojini's and back again. "Well, you'd better go and ask Vijaya if there's enough to eat. He's doing the cooking today."
"Okay," said Tom Krishna without enthusiasm. With slow reluctant steps he crossed the room and went out through the door into the kitchen. Shanta turned to Mary Sarojini. "What happened?"
"Well, Mother's told him at least fifty times that she doesn't like his bringing lizards into the house. But this morning he did it again. So se got very cross with him."
"And you decided you'd better come and have dinner here?"
"If it isn't convenhient, Shanta, we could try the Raos or the Rajajinnadasas."
"I'm quite sure it will be convenient," Shanta assured her. "I only thought it would be good for Tom Krishna to have a little talk with Vijaya."
"You're perfectly right," said Mary Sarojini gravely. Then, very businesslike, "Tara, Arjuna," she called. "Come with me to the bathroom and we'll get washed up. They're pretty grubby," she said to Shanta as she led them away.
Will waited until they were out of earshot, then turned to Shanta. "I take it that I've just been seeing a Mutual Adoption Club in action."
"Fortunately," said Shanta, "in very mild action. Tom Krishna and Mary Sarojini get on remarkably well with their mother. There's no personal problem there-only the problem of destiny, the enormous and terrible problem of Dugald's being dead."
"Will Susila marry again?" he asked.
"I hope so. For everybody's sake. Meanwhile, it's good for the children to spend a certain amount of time with one or other of their deputy fathers. Specially good for Tom Krishna. Tom Krishna's just reaching the age when little boys discover their maleness. He still cries like a baby; but the next moment he's bragging and showing off and bringing lizards into the house- just to prove he's two hundred percent a he-man. That's why I sent him to Vijaya. Vijaya's everything Tom Krishna likes to imagine he is. Three yards high, two yards wide, terrifically strong, immensely competent. When he tells Tom Krishna how he ought to behave, Tom Krishna listens-listens as he would never listen to me or his mother saying the same things. And Vijaya does say the same things as we would say. Because, on top of being two hundred percent male, he's almost fifty percent sensitive-feminine. So, you see, Tom Krishna is really getting the works. And now," she concluded, looking down at the sleeping child in her arms, "I must put this young man to bed and get ready for lunch."
13
Washed and brushed, the twins were already in their high chairs. Mary Sarojini hung over them like a proud but anxious mother. At the stove Vijaya was ladling rice and vegetables out of an earthenware pot. Cautiously and with an expression on his face of focused concentration, Tom Krishna carried each bowl, as it was filled, to the table.
"There!" said Vijaya when the last brimming bowl had been sent on its way. He wiped his hands, walked over to the table and took his seat. "Better tell our guest about grace," he said to Shanta.
Turning to Will, "In Pala," she explained, "we don't say grace before meals. We say it with meals. Or rather we don't say grace; we chew it."
"Chew it?"
"Grace is the first mouthful of each course-chewed and chewed until there's nothing left of it. And all the time you're chewing you pay attention to the flavor of the food, to its consistency and temperature, to the pressures on your teeth and the feel of the muscles in your jaws."
"And meanwhile, I suppose, you give thanks to the Enlightened One, or Shiva, or whoever it may be?"
Shanta shook her head emphatically. "That would distract your attention, and attention is the whole point. Attention to the experience of something given, something you haven't invented, not the memory of a form of words addressed to somebody in your imagination." She looked round the table. "Shall we begin?"
"Hurrah!" the twins shouted in unison, and picked up their spoons.
For a long minute there was a silence, broken only by the twins who had not yet learned to eat without smacking their lips.
"May we swallow now?" asked one of the little boys at last.
Shanta nodded. Everyone swallowed. There was a clinking of spoons and a burst of talk from full mouths.
"Well," Shanta enquired, "what did your grace taste like?"
"It tasted," said Will, "like a long succession of different things. Or rather a succession of variations on the fundamental theme of rice and turmeric and red peppers and zucchini and something leafy that I don't recognize. It's interesting how it doesn't remain the same. I'd never really noticed that before."