_Voice_
Tell me, at least, whether you like me.
_Nandini_
Yes, I like you.
_Voice_
The same as Rañjan?
_Nandini_
Again the same question! I tell you, you don’t understand these
things.
_Voice_
I _do_ understand, a little. I know what the difference is between
Rañjan and me. In me there is only strength, in Rañjan there is magic.
_Nandini_
What d’you mean by magic?
_Voice_
Shall I explain? Underground there are blocks of stone, iron,
gold,--there you have the image of strength. On the surface grows the
grass, the flower blossoms,--there you have the play of magic. I can
extract gold from the fearsome depths of secrecy, but to wrest that
magic from the near at hand I fail.
_Nandini_
You have no end of things, yet why always covet?
_Voice_
All I possess is so much dead weight. No increase of gold can create
a particle of a touchstone, no increase of power can ever come up to
youth. I can only guard by force. If I had Rañjan’s youth I could
leave you free and yet hold you fast. My time is spent in knotting
the binding rope, but, alas, everything else can be kept tied, except
joy.
_Nandini_
It is you who entangle yourself in your own net, then why keep on
fretting?
_Voice_
You will never understand. I, who am a desert, stretch out my hand to
you, a tiny blade of grass, and cry: I am parched, I am bare, I am
weary. The flaming thirst of this desert licks up one fertile field
after another, only to enlarge itself,--it can never annex the life
of the frailest of grasses.
_Nandini_
One would never think you were so tired.
_Voice_
One day, Nandini, in a far off land, I saw a mountain as weary as
myself. I could not guess that all its stones were aching inwardly.
One night I heard a noise, as if some giant’s evil dream had moaned
and moaned and suddenly snapped asunder. Next morning I found the
mountain had disappeared in the chasm of a yawning earthquake. That
made me understand how overgrown power crushes itself inwardly by its
own weight. I see in you something quite opposite.
_Nandini_
What is it you see in me?
_Voice_
The dance rhythm of the All.
_Nandini_