Act V

The climax. Kali and Kapalika disappear initially (or rather merge with Agni and the Butterfly). They reappear again, when the entire cycle comes to an end.

Act V

 

(The stage is now without backdrop. There are two moons " one caught high in the absent trees and another floating down amidst the empty clouds. At the center of the stage, there is a tree. A strange tree, that has branches bare of leaves, stretching far and low such that they seem like roots sprung out from the trunk. And at its base, there is foliage, running broad and free, looking more like a clump of bushes covering the roots. A cunningly crafted tree.

 

In front of the tree is a stump. And on the stump, in the perfect lotus pose is seated the butterfly. Her bosom is still and spine erect. Kali and Kapalika are nowhere to be seen. When the act begins and the voice is heard, Butterfly mouths the lines, but it’s Kali’s voice. This stays so till the exposition is over.)

 

Butterfly: The die was cast and the game begun. It was not coincidence that in this forest, glory and happiness grew in the same parts… by the river. For where there is river, there is movement. And where there is movement, there is life. And from life comes glory and from glory joy. And yes…where there is a river, there is also unrest, there is also the inexplicable tree of desire. And where there is desire and unrest…there arises lust, monsoon, nectar and fire.

 

(Agni walks in. He walks about, suddenly kneeling to the ground and sniffing…inhaling…drinking deep as if his nose were a tongue and he were drinking the very essence of the air. He then suddenly comes upon the Butterfly. He inhales the scent of her face deep, his face almost touching hers. Butterfly wakes from her reverie, feeling his warmth.)

 

Butterfly (startled): Who are you stranger? And what do you mean invading my person like this?

 

Agni (surprised): Oh, apologies fair lady. I…I thought you were a lotus.

 

Butterfly: Me, a lotus! A funny lotus I would be, if I were to bloom in the night!

 

Agni (affected by her beauty): A most lovely lotus…one with so light that it needs no sun to bloom.

 

Butterfly (blushing): Oh you do the lotus a gross injustice. Anyways, who are you charming stranger?

 

Agni: I am Agni, provider of the Gods…and now the Beasts.

 

Butterfly:  How strange. I was myself the provider of Beasts…and am now the provider of Gods.

 

Agni: And your name O radiant one?

 

Butterfly: I am the Butterfly. 

(gazes into his eyes as she too is now drawn to him) 

I believe your duty is done and the Beasts fed as you seem to be loitering about.

 

Agni: Oh, far from that. I was just gathering food when I mistook you for the lotus.

 

Butterfly (surprised): What! Gathering food and yet you are not sitting still?

 

Agni (surprised in turn): But how can one collect food sitting still? The fragrance of the flowers, the breeze…these have to be inhaled and the life essence distilled in movement isn’t it?

Butterfly: Oh…the Beasts don’t feed on fragrance and life’s breath. They need raw honey, collected from the flowers by speaking with them in silence and gathered in the stillness of the mind.

 

Agni: Oh! I would have never thought that! You have evolved far.

 

Butterfly: I have only heard ancient tales of beings living on fragrance collected physically. How wonderful!

 

Agni: And yet we both gather…and we both provide…

 

Butterfly: True. And our flowers are same.

 

Agni (aside): How did none of the beasts mention that there lived amongst them such a beauty? I hope her heart is free...for it is not glory, not immortality, not truth that will appease my seeking now…but her heart.

 

Butterfly (aside): He shines forth like a sun amongst the Gods. His very gaze burns the still pool of my new found contentment dry. Oh, if he were not to burn my body and soul, they were better as ash. 

(Speaking casually, hiding her feelings)

I think we better go and gather then.

(smiles to make sure he doesn’t take it as a slight)

 

Agni (confused): Oh yes. We can’t let them starve.

 

(Butterfly goes back to her trance. Agni goes back to sniffing. But it is clear they are both lost. Butterfly wakes often and looks longingly at Agni. Agni sniffs the empty air and fills it with sighs.)

 

Butterfly: Agni…Agni… what fire burns in your name. For now my mind is a smoking cauldron of thoughts. And I can still it no longer to gather my nectar. It runs to the rose when I speak to the lotus. And it runs to the moon when I speak to the rose. If only I had the courage to speak my heart. But my tongue is scalded and my throat parched. And how hot the thought of you burns. My mind is no longer the moon, but instead burns like the sun. How can I think of words, when your thought burns me so. Oh, if only I can place your fiery thought somewhere. But no flower would take it, for they would all wilt. Ah, but here is the sara grass. The sparse grass, the lone ascetic of the plants. He is like a brother to me, for his too is penance and his too is the job of providing. He would bear the glow, the heat. 

(bends from her position without rising and mimes picking up a blade of grass. She holds it close to her lips and sings.)

 

Heed me o blade of grass

In sun and rain thou standeth

Erect and still in thy penance

An undisturbed pool

A cloud not yet rained

Glorious is thy stillness

Glorious the boon of thy dew

 

Heed me now o fellow ascetic

In sun and rain I sat

Erect and still in my penance

An undisturbed pool,

A cloud not yet rained.

But now he has cast his glance

And my heart is pierced.

But tell me just this

If his was the arrow that roused my sleep

Then why do I burn in this curse?

 

(She drops the blade suddenly as if it is too hot)

 

Oh, even you could not hold it my brother. 

(She closes her eyes despondently. Agni in the meanwhile has been gathering distractedly.)

 

Agni: Like the western wind I ran free. From the rose to the lotus, from the lotus to the lilies, from the lilies to laburnums. Flying, flitting…and now… my mind stays rooted to one thought. Her face. Her glow. I drag it unwillingly to the jasmine and it runs away ere I inhale to the dark of her eyes. How can I bare my heart to her? How can I, when my mind has gone silent, still delighting in the sheer joy of her thought. How can words come when she shines blinding all language! The flowers can give me no inspiration, no life. They all pale in her glow. Perhaps…perhaps… 

(picks up the blade of grass cast aside by Butterfly)

what draws me to this blade of grass. Oh it whispers. 

(He holds it to his lips) 

It whispers, it sings under my tongue in the voice of the rain crying… It’s fragrance! It’s the fragrance of the drifting mind, of the lost roots. It swells…

(pauses as if listening intently. Ad libs lines like ‘It can’t be’, ‘Oh…I can scarcely believe’, ‘Fortune is mine’, etc) 

Life is mine! Glory is mine! 

(jumps in front of Butterfly with joy in his face)

 

Butterfly (a bit taken aback, but glad to see his face again): Really, sir! This is the second time you have startled me!

 

Agni: And a thousandth time you have conquered me with your smile, o blood of my life.

 

Butterfly (blushing): Oh, what do you speak of? I do not understand!

 

Agni: No more pretences Butterfly. Beauty such as yours is only seen in the Goddess of fortune. And I have just heard from this blade of grass that fortune smiles on me.

 

Butterfly (turning crimson): Ah…shame! Shame! The treachery of it…to be betrayed by your own brother! (closes her face with her palms)

 

Agni (gently parting her face): It is not betrayal to help one lose in the battlefield of love. 

(sets the blade of grass down) 

Let him rest here, amidst the serpents, this brother of yours…for he has done his duty and now we have much to talk.

 

(Butterfly looks on with her lips parted. Agni gently lifts her seats her on his lap as they embrace with Agni facing the audience and Butterfly facing away. Kali and Kapalika enter now and sit besides the tree trunk, facing opposite directions. Kali has one palm raised as if blessing someone. Kapalika has his mouth shut by his right hand and his right elbow resting on the left palm.)

 

Kali: Then began the churning. The churning of the great ocean which was laden with scents and nectar and riches. Then the lotus bloomed and from it emerged he who saw all the four directions. And from his mind arose a thousand waves, a thousand thoughts. Reflections of one thought in the thousand mirrors of one mind. And then came the three boons! Nectar! Truth!

 

Kapalika (in hushed, anticipatory, reverent terms): Glory to thee teacher! For I now see the light!

 

(Lights go out. Total darkness for a few seconds. Then the lights come on. The scene remains same. But the actors have changed positions. Agni and Butterfly are sitting in the place of the Kapalika and Kali respectively. Their faces are forlorn. In front of each of them, there is an earthen pot. The Kapalika lies supine upon the tree trunk, his tongue sticks out and he is obviously dead. Kali sits on his chest, her eyes burning and her right hand clutching his staff menacingly.)

 

Kali (in an ominous tone): And then came death! For it all ended. Lust burnt the coal of life. Desire went up in smoke till only ashes remained. The hearts that once sang, now sat in mute melancholy. But all was not lost. For with the cremating fire of death, came the shadow of life. There was nectar, there was truth. There were hungry mouths and food for those mouths.

 

(The Gods/Beasts enter. If they are played by two different same of actors, they all enter from the same side and stand in front of Agni. If they are played by two different set of actors, then the Beasts enter from Agni’s side and stand in front of him. The Gods enter from Butterfly’s side and stand in front of her. None of them have any insignia on them. They all look eagerly at their respective providers.)

 

Agni (standing): You are hungry. And I have nectar for you. (Puts his hand in the pot and takes out golden crowns, one by one and gives them to each God in accordance with Kali’s lines.)

 

Kali: Crowns of glory! Halos of immortality! The radiance of nectar! The Gods got them all. Indra, the ever aroused…became Indra the virile. Surya, the all prying became Surya, the all seeing. Saraswati, the reservoir of gossip became Saraswati, the river of knowledge (At this point, Saraswati loosens the folds of her tucked in sari, letting them flow). And Soma, the eternally drunk became Soma, inspiration of seers. Their crows made them light and they all rose to the clouds.

 

(The Gods leave, if they are played by a different set of actors. If it is the same set of actors, they leave along with Agni and come back again without their crows to Butterfly’s side.)

 

The stillness of silence! The burden of truth! The sorrow of knowledge! The beasts got them. 

(Butterfly picks out the appropriate animal insignia from the pot and hands them to the beasts.)

And they lost more than they received. For they lost their voices, they lost their names. They lost their characteristics. And yet, they received more than they lost…for they lost their identities and merged in the ocean.

 

(The beasts leave. Lights dim briefly.)

 

Kali: But the third boon remained! Death…the evening of the universe. The horizon of life. Death, where chaos meets order, where stillness meets movement, where silence meets the voice. Death, where things merge and unite and form a confused amalgam, that is neither here, nor there. Death which does not know whether to die or to live. Death which gave birth to... 

(She abruptly gets off her corpse seat and walks offstage. The Kapalika awakens after a few seconds. He crawls first, then crouches and then rises to full height. He looks about here and there as if looking for something. He then suddenly comes across the audiences. A look of intense disgust comes to his face.)

 

Kapalika: Mortals! 

(spits at the audience. Then sees the direction in which Kali left. His face lightens up and he walks away.)