Jojo
The sands were fine-grained, man-made.
Jojo spoke from her knees with grey floodlamps in her eyes.
“My husband has left my body!”
Behind her, the freeway carried bodies away in opposite directions. The concrete buildings with rooms of brown light had balconies that looked like ribcage. Winds that crossed directions built upon miles of the lake and fell like hatchmarks on the shore. The winds were carrying winter. They swept sand over her kneecaps.
A woman approached.
“What has happened?”
“My soul has left my body!”
In crossing lines the tridents of seagull footprints remained uncovered from the day. The birds had become too cold. The lake continued to boom. She heard a seagull ask her.
“What has happened?”
“My soul has left my body!”
The flower petals were brought in. They were gold and pink and encircled her knees like the sunset. They slowly carried her towards the lake. Her eyes closed before they touched the water.
“Please.
My husband has left my body!”
Song Inspiration: Kaun Thagwa Nagariya by Kabir (1398/1440-1448/1518)
Song description from Minu Pasupathi, M.F.A. Director of University of Chicago South Asian Music Ensemble and founder of Akshaya Music Academy and Maalok from Boloji.com:
Kabir is another favorite saint-composer in South Asia, and his vision of the essential unity of all human beings seems quite aligned with Gandhi’s humanist message. We also choose a Kabir song here because his enigmatic poems are uniquely cherished as Hindu bhajans, Sufi Muslim qawwalis, and also appear in the Sikh devotional scripture.
Who is the “thug” that loots this ‘town’?
A cot made of wood, on it, lies a bride. “Friend, adorn my body, my groom is annoyed,” she says.
But there sits Yama, awaiting her and tears flow down her face. Four men gather, lift her cot smoke, smoke in all directions.
“Listen seekers,” says Kabir, “ties to the world shall drop away.”
The town symbolizes the body. The thug is death itself. It robs the body of its life force.
The symbolism is at two levels. At the physical level, the body and spirit are intertwined like groom and bride. The spirit thinks that the body is its abode and tries its best to “hang on.” It cries at the sight of such a catastrophic loss. But the relentlessness of time (personified as Yamaraj—the Lord of Death) is in no mood to yield. The bride (or spirit) thinks that the groom (or body) is upset and tries her best to attract its mate. It resorts to all kinds of means represented in the song as “bridal makeup”. The impermanence of physical reality is manifested ever so clearly as the body is consumed by the very sensory attributes with which it is identified with (represented as flames).
At the spiritual level, the bride is starting its true journey to reach its permanent abode and therefore the relationship with the world comes to an end. The latter part is inferred, in contrast to the more apparent physical reality. In his typical mystical fashion, Kabir urges the listener (or sadhu—one who is doing sadhana) to come to this understanding on their own. This realization is not ultimately intellectual but experiential.
Recording can be found here.
Image: Yama on Buffalo, Unknown. Gouache on paper, 1820 (circa). The British Museum.