Ashoka the Great

by Keuning, Wytze

  ‘Do not risk your life again for one of my animals, my Piyadasi!’

  ‘I did not take the risk for the sake of the animals but for the sake of a life that was entrusted to us by you, holy Sayana.’ Sayana was touched but remained silent.

  Revata informed Ashoka that Prince Sumana had paid a visit to the camp of the soldiers several times and that he, at the urging of his mother Gopali, had treated the soldiers to liquor and cakes. He offered expensive prizes for games and gambling with dice.

  ‘Let him,’ said Ashoka.

  ‘Sela fears that there could be a change in the mood of the army because of this.’

  Sayana listened intently.

  ‘Let the tipplers and the gamblers stay by his side and later go along with him to Taxila. Then only my friends will remain in Pataliputra. I prefer that. What do you think, honourable Sayana?’

  ‘You are right. Let the legends that have been woven around you keep on working. By his very actions, Prince Sumana prevents the people from seeing in him more than a squandering son of a king.’

  ‘Sire, I met up with Shakuni when I was wandering around Pataliputra, disguised as a yogi. He is still with Devaka and every now and then goes on errands to the Brahmin-court. Richika, Tristus and Sunasepha are staying together in the same hermitage. Shakuni’s route was not far from this hermitage.’

  ‘Can you not go to Devaka as well?’

  ‘Sire, I deserted Devaka in Kashmir and testified against him in Pataliputra, two mistakes for a good informant.’

  ‘A man without faults is a god, Revata. Disguise yourself. It is of great importance for me to know what the Brahmin-court is up to.’

  ‘Sire, I shall do as you desire. I brought you my mongoose, the monsoon often drives the dangerous snakes to higher places, perhaps also to this hermitage. I locked him in your room.’

  Despite the rains, Revata left for the mountains.

  ‘Who is this Revata?’ asked Sayana.

  ‘He protected me from a fatal fall and is my best informant; he has an infallible memory, can disguise his voice as he wants, camouflage himself so that he is unrecognisable and is one of the best healers I know.’

  ‘So, a Shudra.’

  ‘Yes. While in Taxila, where he performed many invaluable services for me as an informer, he studied with great devotion the healing arts.’

  ‘The other day you said: selfishness leads to destruction, self-sacrifice and love to harmony, and so to divine unity. Is your own desire not self-serving, lacking sacrifice and love for Sumana?’

  ‘My desire for sacrifice and love are not directed to one sole individual and especially not Sumana! Only for my father the Maharajah, and his peoples! Father is the supreme power, the supreme will. After he is gone, justice must still prevail and then, perhaps, self-sacrifice and love to achieve divine unity and harmony, which today is as far from Magadha and Madhyadesa as is the throne of Brahma.’

  ‘You are supportive of teachings that proclaim that nothing ever happens in this world that is not due to cause and effect and yet you worship gods who are said to influence this law in all sorts of ways …

  You state that it is better to lead people to peace and kindness through justice and tolerance and love but you are prepared to wage a hard battle, a merciless one if necessary, with weapons in hand, when the Maharajah dies …

  You have learned that selfishness and deceit lead to destruction, self-sacrifice and love to truth and harmony, to divine unity. But are you yourself free of self-interest and lies? Are you not sending Revata to your enemies with a lie?’

  Ashoka looked for a long time at the Guru.

  ‘All that you have learned, my Piyadasi, is beautiful but what is a beautiful flower which does not bear seed, a tall tree that gives no shade; what is a mountain from which no water flows, a sacred law which is not obeyed; what is a beautiful doctrine which is only debated but not served from the heart!’

  ‘Yes, yes, my wise Sayana!’

  ‘What is the point of killing a tiger with a fire, to save the lives of animals and people, if that fire spreads through the jungle and destroys more animals and people? What purpose is served by pouring the waters of the oceans over a desert, if that water does not have power to give life and provides no relief from thirst? One who accepts the doctrine, fears no tiger, no hunger, because the doctrine itself surpasses life and death.’

  ‘Yes, yes, my Sayana.’

  ‘The Yogi, who recognises that to attain nirvana he must subjugate every desire in his body, his own ‘I’, thus all maya, curbs those desires with the five holy fires, blinds himself with the overpowering light of Surya’s eye, stretches his arms to the heavens so far that they become stiff and never bend down towards the earth. He shies away from nothing, to serve his doctrine, my Piyadasi. The Jain eats no meat, kills no animals, even when they bait and threaten him, he runs water through a sieve so he may not destroy any life, sweeps the road before him meticulously with a palm branch, as he walks, out of fear of trampling upon life. His life is one of painstaking care to serve the doctrine of ahimsa.’

  ‘Yes, yes!’

  ‘Prince Vessantara practised benevolence. A cruel Brahmin demanded his property, later his children, his wife, everything. He served the doctrine of benevolence to the very core till he was left with nothing.’

  ‘Yes, yes, my wise Sayana.’ Ashoka then sat silent and pondering with his old friend for a long time.

  ‘If it is alright with you, I will go now and rest, great Sayana.’

  Sayana gestured benignly, looked on after Ashoka, until he disappeared into the hermitage. He understood he had stuck a knife into living flesh.

  Sayana rarely saw Piyadasi in the ensuing few days. The Prince spoke hardly a word, did not answer when he was asked something, stared for hours on end at the rain pouring down on Magadha. One brahmacharin thought Piyadasi was homesick; he had not even helped light fires for a few mornings; another thought Piyadasi was proud and looked down on his fellow-pupils, not joining them when they went to the woods to gather roots and fruit; a third, Matali, thought that perhaps Piyadasi might become mad and ought to be feared. Sayana smiled.

  ‘Piyadasi is very dear to me, so serve him as you would serve me, my good brahmacharins.’

  Finally, one evening, Ashoka walked up to Sayana, greeted him respectfully and sat down next to him. Instantly, the Brahmin laid aside his sacred scriptures because he knew that Piyadasi had attained clarity by himself.

  The young Prince had been so deeply absorbed in his thoughts that he immediately resumed their unfinished conversation from a few days earlier:

  ‘A doctrine, my noble Sayana, one embraces for the wisdom it contains, for the great happiness it gives its servant, for the divine unity that it unveils from maya, for the desire for the good that it ignites in the searching soul… for all these treasures one serves it …

  But he who serves the doctrine for the sake of the doctrine, kills the tiger for the sake of killing; kills desires just to kill; stretches his arms or blinds his eyes, for that sake alone; or spares lives, merely for the sake of ahimsa …

  Who, my wise Sayana, can be captivated by a flower whose colours and beauty lie obscured in the depth of a jungle night, which promises honey but has none, which promises its fruits to the sannyasin but decays fruitless? A flower is not enchanting for its own sake but because of its beauty and the precious treasures it offers to those who can see it and love it. Who can be touched by a sacrifice which merely provides the priests with riches, soma and meat? A sacrifice consoles not because of the offering, holy Sayana, but because of the unshakeable faith in the divinity of the one great, eternal God.

  Who can be entranced by the sun whose rays scorch the deserts of Rajasthan2? The sun does not entrance because it is the sun but because of its light, its nourishing power over nature.

  Who is charmed by the gemstones which lie hidden in the dark caverns of treasuries? Gemstones are not beguiling for their own sake but for the beauty that g
lows from them, caressing the eyes with their silky softness …

  The doctrine has to be the good friend, honourable Sayana, which supports, holds out a helping hand, and is not angered when one offends it. It cannot be a tyrant who demands foolish and thoughtless ceremonies and offering fires, nor can it be the fires which consume the fine treasures it hides within.

  One who serves the doctrine for the sake of the doctrine, dies before his death.’

  Sayana sought for nothing more and blessed his young friend.

  Sayana was surprised at how, on his own, the young Prince searched for truth; how he was ready to accept all the consequences. The wise Brahmin had known for a long time why this young person, hungry for truth and harmony, had sounded out the scholars of Taxila about the many schools and social systems which stirred the minds of India. He spoke at length with Sayana, too, about the religions that divided his father’s empire, about the two great opposites: ‘He, who wants the truth, seeks the truth and finds many truths’ … Buddhism, and ‘the only truth is the revealed truth of the Vedas’ … Brahmanism. He himself had tried to guide the spiritual growth of this strong son of the Mauryas. But he soon realised that Ashoka explored the truth by himself, because of his unquenchable desire for the truth, and that because of this the relationship between him and the priests grew more tense, and that his criticism did not spare the mighty priesthood.

  One evening, Ashoka sat alone on the verandah with his old friend. The rain had stopped and the waning moon cast its dim light on the woods and the grounds. A kokila, the Indian nightingale, poured out its clear songs into the peaceful evening. Ashoka listened.

  ‘Wonderful, that carefree, sparkling happiness! Why must people go through life in fear, envy, and cheerlessness? Brahmanism is conducting the peoples of Aryavarta to their downfall, my Sayana.’

  ‘Who guided you along your path of thinking, my Piyadasi?’

  ‘Kullika … Vimalamitra, Vasudeva … Sayana …’

  ‘All of them are faithful Brahmins.’

  ‘You are right, Brahmanism has two faces: the one of my highly revered friends who are purified and ennobled by it, and the other, the one that weighs on the souls of the Aryans like a nightmare.’

  ‘Is it wrong that a young Aryan, a brahmacharin, learns the Vedas to the letter and when he grows older, as a grihastha, head of a household, applies it to his life? If he increases his power of mind, he can interpret them spiritually as a vanaprastha, a hermit, and then, finally, as a sannyasin, end free of thought. The empire benefits from this and falls by this. They are the four phases for each who is twice born.3’

  ‘But, honourable Sayana, the system is being undermined by the representatives themselves, like the glacier dam by Devaka. By far a majority of people are Shudras and peoples from the accursed West, Mlecchas: are they not also the revelation of the Atman, just like you or me?’

  ‘Coarseness and false religious principles of the primitive peoples must be kept out of our social structure! They can still retain their traditions.’

  ‘And the Shakyamuni, a Kshatriya, a Raja, Buddha!’

  ‘What he preached … so does Brahmanism. His religion groups things differently, he teaches us a few new things for practical use. But what is threatening is that he is shaking the foundations of Aryavarta!’

  ‘Then make these foundations more solid, truer, more humane!’

  ‘That possibility cannot be relied upon.’

  ‘Knowledge, truth, insight?.’

  ‘Knowledge is merely for the gifted few. And truth … he who seeks truth, finds many truths. Look around you, how the small sect of Buddhism is now breaking up more and more into even smaller sects, all of whom claim to have found the truth.’

  ‘But should not there be one essential truth, to be known, to be established?’

  ‘We have that one truth in our four stages of life. What does the form matter! When you say: ‘sacrifices please the gods’, a brahmacharin will think of the offering fire, a simple Vaishya of the material offering; the vanaprashta will think of the spiritual offering, the symbol, the recognition of the embodiment of ‘good’ in the godhead; and for the sannyasin it will be his freedom from thoughts. But all four express one and the same truth in the offering: the intrinsic connection to the loftiness of the Atman. How would you keep your one essential and established truth, meant for all, free from rituals involving snakes, or fetish worshipping, tree adoration and the more loathsome idolatries of the Mlecchas?’

  ‘Gautama Buddha had more faith in the human being, in the non-Aryan. Every human being can walk the sacred eightfold path if he treads the sacred path in faith and if he is touched in his soul by the right way of life that opens the gates to the path! To lead a whole people to faith and the right way of life, the sila …’

  ‘Everything will crash, my young thinker, against the high rocks of Brahmanism. The greedy priest cannot be banished because man himself is greedy. Buddhism has no revealed Vedas. That is why it will be divided, again and again.’

  ‘But now the sacrificial priest symbolises the pinnacle of greed. That is why he ruins the empire and its subjects. Moreover, Brahmanism has its divisions, too.’

  ‘In the schools, the hermitages, yes! But there it is not divisive, as it is cloistered, and it is there that rejuvenation must take place, when needed … the Upanishads. But who should bring the blessings of the Buddha to the many and diverse peoples of the Maharajah?’

  ‘The Maharajah!’

  Sayana saw how this pure young man struggled with his inner quest for truth and justice. His striving for the ivory throne was not motivated by a thirst for power but from a clear insight that had sprung within him about the relationships within the great empire, which drove and urged him, relentlessly, towards power. Would this power in his hands bloom like the luxuriant growth in Vasantha … or would it scorch the lands like the summer sun in Jyeshtha? What could serve as his fertile soil? Was he the one to show him the way? Sayana felt himself a Brahmin … Buddhism? Scoffed at, cursed within his varna; at the very least, a menace in the wrong hands! And yet, did not the flooding by the rivers make fertile fields of the desert? Was not a burnt jungle a valuable pasture for the most beautiful livestock? Brahmin with Chandala! In Aryavarta … India … Tat Tvam Asi.

  ‘Gautama Shakyamuni’s influence would then be far reaching, Piyadasi! Too far for a small, decaying Brahmin sect that even in its early youth did not develop fresh spirit and unity.’

  ‘Every great banyan tree was once an insignificant seed, a timid little plant, that later in its deep shadow would smother every other plant spread under its vast expanse. Give it air, rain sun, my Sayana.’

  ‘Does my young friend feel himself being drawn to the Buddha?’

  ‘I seek … for my people for a religion that will not call my faithful Revata ‘an animal in human form’, or label one part of Aryavarta as blessed and the other as accursed or divide humanity into blessed and accursed souls … Knowing myself, I could never tolerate that. It is all a lie! What will bring an end to that, my wise Sayana? What? What?’

  Sayana nodded. No more guiding now!

  ‘What would you wish, my Piyadasi?’

  ‘Wish? Wish! I? … Shiva! But Shiva in the hands of the sacrificial priests becomes the god of death and terror!’

  Sayana was reminded of what Kullika had told him about Ashoka on the ‘Barren Mountain’ … Embodiment of Shiva? He would find his own path without Sayana!4 …

  21

  THE GODS REQUIRE A SACRIFICE

  isguised as a vanaprasthi, Revata came to Richika’s hermitage, seeking shelter. Devaka, who was now staying with the three exiled priests, failed to recognise him, but distrusted him nonetheless. Though they appeared to take Revata into their confidence they never spoke about the capital or of its inhabitants in his presence. Shakuni had heard in Pataliputra that Prince Ashoka had left the city, had looked for and secretly followed him. He found out that the Prince was staying with Sayana. Sayana’s b
rahmacharins were not completely free of jealousy of Piyadasi and so it was not difficult for Shakuni to find out what he wanted to know. The sacrificial priests deliberated at length on how they would take revenge on the one who was responsible for their calamitous situation. They would do nothing themselves! Look for a fanatic, capable enough, to carry out their plans. They deflected Revata’s inquisitiveness with their life of strict penance, to cleanse themselves—so they said—of past sins, by constant prayers, baths, practising breathing exercises, drinking of hot water and hot milk and smearing their bodies with cow-dung1. The Brahmins were since long regarded as holy in their neighbourhood and thus feared.

  In the meantime, Devaka chanced upon a Vaishya, Hasta, who had unintentionally killed a cow. As penance he was instructed by a priest to live literally the life of a cow, wrapping himself in the skin of the cow. He had to live on the ‘murdered’ cow’s last grazing field for three months; he was not allowed to shelter himself against the weather, had to protect the other livestock from predators and thieves, and welcome the cows everyday, treating them respectfully, all the while strictly observing a fast. Thus had it been decreed by Manu. Devaka found him sitting shrivelled in the dirty hide, inconsolable, exhausted, wasting away. The canny priest, after having patiently listened to Hasta’s story, kept returning to the poor Vaishya and spoke to him … This sinner was just the man!

  ‘You can be absolved of your sins and take care of your well-being in another way.’

  ‘How, Lord?’

  ‘Well, by saving the life of a Brahmin. Then you will be reborn as a Brahmin. If you save many Brahmins, then your welfare will be multiplied.’

  ‘Lord, this is foolishness. I do not know of any Brahmins being in danger! How then can I save them?’

  ‘Come to our hermitage tomorrow.’

  ‘I am not permitted to leave the pastures, Lord.’

  ‘Four Brahmins are expecting you.’

  After careful planning, Hasta was told, when he came to the hermitage on the following day, that in Sayana’s hermitage which was not far from the Ganga, was staying a brahmacharin. It had been predicted by a yogi that this brahmacharin could become a great danger to the holy Brahmins, could even be the cause of death for these holy men, and destroy Madhyadesa. He who could prevent these disasters would live happily in this life and be reborn as a Brahmin in the next. It was also forecast that a Vaishya, wrapped in the skin of a cow, doing penance for killing a cow, was chosen by the gods to carry out this pious deed. Devaka had seen unmistakable signs which pointed towards the Vaishya, Hasta.