17

A Sadhu mounts the steps hangs his cloth to dry washes the front of his shelter. light from the temple door floods the declivities in ever lesser intensity the noise from inside reverberates drums, a small thudding sound split by a bell lit well white walls the floors washed by muddy footprints the air charged with sound. costumes, a tile doorway frames an ante-room then the inner temple priests perform rites with fire and water. one looks bored, the other astecit like a caricature the bored one fat the other thin. movement from idol to idol at one point the door of the inner temple are closed only for an instant but in that instant - the unseen moment -the magic occurs, the mystery the spirit the unseen, the unknowable dominates - life is not all reality the spirit exists, is present, the illusion is cleared the proof is made. the prayers have prayed have bowed have given homage - god is secure the humans withdraw

"Three things are needed for beauty wholeness, harmony and radiance." Aquinas

quiet detachment - deflation of sentiment

classicist

18

a detachment as indifferent as nature itself

aesthetic emotion is static

the reduction of memory to one

March 6. 70

Bicycle through the night streets, the little boy is on the back, the father sits on the cross bar, I pedal high? slightly high - could not refuse, bhang - Shivaratri - bhang at every temple, all over the city - greenish milk saw them grinding it with mortar boards at a small temple - supposed to stay up all night. fact - into dark large temple complex Shiva lingam covered with offerings turned to mud, fact, flowers in thick piles of refuse. - through dark halls stumble into sanctuaries the ever present lingam and yoni - ghanesh - yes. come on down [ILLEGIBLE] to Vishanath, park bike and son at a small wood carpenter shop. Barefoot through the galleries - first time barefoot in Benares feels good the touch of stone. the coolness of contact past he mosque and wall in is he really going to take me in doesn't he know non-Hindus are not allowed the crowd shoving pushing through the side