−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti
(Indravajrā)
prāsāda-sopāna-tala-praṇādaiḥ
kāñcī-ravair-nūpura-nisvanaiś-ca |
−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
vitrāsayantyo
gṛha-pakṣi-saṅghān-anyonya-vegāṁś-ca
samākṣipantyaḥ || 3.15
3.15
With the banging of feet on platform
steps,
With jingling of girdles and jangling
of anklets,
They sent congregations of house
sparrows fluttering,
And each derided the others for their
haste.
COMMENT:
If the idealistic thesis is expressed
in 3.10 as “travelling the royal road, quietly and calmly,”
today's verse as I read it contains the cynical anti-thesis, which is
a lot of people engaging unconsciously in the activity which infamous
Alexander dragon Margaret Goldie used to call “barging about.”
“Stop barging about,” Margaret
Goldie used to say. “Come to quiet.”
What does it mean “to come to quiet”?
It is as easy to answer that question
as it is to describe a bit of nothing – which is why in the present
series of verses, Aśvaghoṣa as I read him is describing instead
what it means to barge about.
The tile of this canto is saṁvegotpattiḥ, “the
arising of perturbation,” which EHJ translated as “The Prince's
Perturbation.” But the perturbation which
Aśvaghoṣa is now describing is not perturbation arising in the
prince. It is perturbation arising from the end-gaining minds of
people in a hurry to see the prince. This is precisely the kind of
perturbation that fearsome Alexander teacher Margaret Goldie used to
censure as “barging about.”
Aśvaghoṣa is opposing on one side
the barging about of women and on the other side the calm and quiet
progress of one man along the royal road. Maybe more accurately, he
is contrasting the barging about of women on two sides and the calm
and quiet progress of one man in the middle.
One way of reading these verses is that
Aśvaghoṣa wrote them recognizing something in himself which was
proceeding quietly and calmy along the royal road, and something else in
himself that was hasty, unconscious, and at odds with others, and so
in the spirit of “all things and matters are real form,” he
honestly acknowledged a gap in himself between how he would have liked to be and how he actually was, and thus accepted all sides of himself –
both rugged individual and big girl's blouse.
In such a reading, however, there might be
too much of the big girl's blouse. Such a reading might be the
reading of the insightful pyschologist sitting in his upholstered
armchair, rather than the non-view of a man of action who actually manifests in his actions the virtue of vīrya, direction of energy. Such a reading might be a kind of apology for wimping out. Vīrya, in contrast, is
cognate with virility: it expresses direction of energy as a manly
virtue (not that women cannot manifest it as well).
In rough activities like playing rugby, or training in the martial arts, and equally in challenging activities like Alexander work and regular daily sitting, one is always faced with a choice. If an impulse to wimp out arises, the choice is whether to follow it or to override it. In rugby, for example, a player who is prone to take the former route will tend not to be selected for the team. In Alexander work when the wimpish impulse wins out, the result is what Majory Barlow used to call "backsliding."
Sometimes children with immature
reflexes, especially boys, because they stand out for their lack of
coordination, are the sort of children who are liable to get bullied
in the playground. If their parents bring them to me for help, my job
is simply to get those boys directing their energy better – nothing
too caring, nothing too compassionate, nothing too psychological.
Weak energy attracts bullying. So if we
don't want to be bullied, by human bullies, or by life itself –
whether we are a man or a woman, a boy or a girl – there is nothing
for it but to man up. The virtue of manning up, in Sanskrit, is known
as vīrya, which means manliness, or direction of energy.
In the 1st pāda, as in 3.6,
Aśvaghoṣa is playing with the ambiguity of prāsāda, which
literally means “sitting on a conspicuous seat,” and hence a
platform for spectators, or sitters, to sit on. At the same time
prāsāda means the terrace of a lofty building. And the final
definition of prāsāda given in the MW dictionary is “(with
Buddhists) the monks' hall for assembly and confession” -- in other
words, the hall of a vihāra.
In the 3rd pāda Aśvaghoṣa
uses the word saṁgha to describe a flock of birds. As I have
noted before, Aśvaghoṣa seems to like to use the word saṁgha in this way, as a collective noun, e.g. for mountain men, or for birds. But in the
verses I have translated so far he never once uses the word saṁgha
in the sense in which it is commonly used today, by people who think
of Buddhism as a religion, to mean “a Buddhist congregation.”
The Alexander teacher Margaret Goldie,
enemy of “barging about” that she was, devoted her life to manly
direction of energy. How many hundreds of thousands of times did she
make the decision not to barge about, but rather to give her orders:
“Let the neck and shoulders release, to let the head go forward and up, to let
the back lengthen and widen, while letting the hips be free”?
And yet, in the fearsome censoriousness
of Margaret Goldie, if truth be told (though I never met her in person), some of
the perturbation she was censuring must have been deeply at play.
Thus, according to the mirror principle, it ever was -- as
conspicuously expressed by Aśvaghoṣa in the 4th pāda of today's
verse.
VOCABULARY
prāsāda-sopāna-tala-praṇādaiḥ
(inst. pl.): with the clatters of their feet on steps to their
elevated perches
prāsāda: m. (lit. “sitting forward”
sitting on a seat in a conspicuous place); a lofty seat or platform
for spectators , terrace; the top-story of a lofty building ; (with
Buddhists) the monks' hall for assembly and confession
sopāna: n. stairs , steps , a
staircase , ladder to (gen. or comp.)
tala: m. n. the sole of the foot
praṇāda: m. a loud sound or noise
(esp. expressive of approbation or delight) , shout , cry , roar ,
yell , neigh &c
kāñcī-ravaiḥ (inst. pl.): with
rustling of girdles, with jingling of girdle bells
kāñcī: f. girdle, corset
rava: m. a roar , yell , cry , howl;
song, hum; clamour ; thunder ; any noise or sound (e.g. the whizz of
a bow , the ringing of a bell &c )
nūpura-nisvanaiḥ (inst. pl.): with
tinklings of ankle bracelets
nūpura: mn. an ornament for the toes
or ankles or feet , an anklet
nisvana: m. sound , noise , voice
ca: and
vitrāsayantyaḥ = nom. pl. f. pres.
part. causative vi- √ tras: to cause to tremble
gṛha-pakṣi-saṅghān (acc. pl.
m.): flocks of house-birds; congregations of winged ones inhabiting
houses
gṛha: m. a house, the inhabitants of
a house, family
pakṣin: m. a bird or any winged
animal
saṁ-gha: m. (fr. sam + √ han) "
close contact or combination " , any collection or assemblage,
crowd , host , number ; any number of people living together for a
certain purpose , a society , association , company , community ; a
clerical community , congregation , church
anyonya-vegān (acc. pl. m.): each
other's haste
anyonya: mfn. one another , mutual
vega: m. impetuosity , vehemence ,
haste , speed , rapidity , quickness , velocity
ca: and
samākṣipantyaḥ = nom. pl. f.
pres. part. sam-ā- √ kṣip: to throw together , heap or pile up
; to move violently , toss about (lips , arms &c ) ; to drive
away , expel ; to insult , mock , ridicule
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