Ivan Yefremov - Thais of Athens

“The first drops of rain do not saturate the earth but they are first signs of a plentiful rain,” the second dark-skinned priest said. “You too are drops. Let us retire for conversation to a place of inviolate seclusion.”

The round hall was lit by strange torches which shed neither smoke nor soot, set on the ledges around square half-columns. Large cushions of soft, thin leather were scattered over the rugs. The room was furnished with two octagonal tables and hard stools of dark wood, which the two priests occupied. Heavy fragrant smoke from two bronze incense burners settled around the hall like blue fog.

Thais noticed colorful images of animals between the columns: tigers, rhinoceri, wild bulls. Images of elephants were most ubiquitous. The giant animals were known in Mesopotamia and sometimes brought to Babylon, but were never portrayed in the local temples, palaces or on the gates, akin the Gates of Ishtar.

“What would you like to choose as the subject of our conversation?” the dark-skinned priest asked.

“During the many years of our friendship, my pupil has asked me questions I could not answer. Perhaps you, who possess thousands of years of wisdom, would be so kind as to enlighten us both,” the great artist said modestly.

“Knowledge, akin to good,” the elder priest replied, “must not be scattered about haphazardly. Akin to wealth or military power, knowledge in the wrong hands serves to elevate one people and humiliate others. In addition, and this is very important, great discoveries — like the fact that the Sun is a sphere circled by planets, and the Earth is also a sphere that hangs in space — these can destroy faith in those gods that are only created by human imagination. A wise man’s knowledge will not destroy his faith in the grandeur of the world or the coherence of its laws, sensed so well by poets and artists. A fool, on the other hand, would lose any faith whatsoever and fall into a black pit of senseless animal existence. Fortunately, an ignorant man’s stupidity saves the careless truth seekers. They are simply not believed or they are laughed at, as happened with your philosopher Anaxagoras. He was the first Helenian to teach that the Sun was a fiery globe. Because of this ‘amusing misdirection’, even his great notion of nus, the universal intelligence, which overlaps with our philosophy, had no noticeable influence upon Helenians. Even earlier than that, you had another giant of thought, Anaximander. He taught that man is a result of a long line of transformations of animals, starting with a primordial fishlike creature. He also realized the vastness of space and inhabited worlds. There was Alcmeon, the physician and student of Pythagoras, who discovered two centuries ago that the brain was the organ of intelligence and the receptor of the senses. He also discovered that planets followed circular orbits. He also was ridiculed. But the Orphic teaching, Indian in spirit, was either taken from us Indians or from our common ancestors, which is why you are free in your possession of wisdom without the foolish conceit.”

“You mentioned ridicule,” Thais said indecisively. “We have a god named Mom, a creature of Night and the abyss of Tartar, who denies everything and laughs at everything, violating even the calm of the Olympian gods. I have seen people here for whom ridicule and destruction of all things ancient, great, and beautiful constitute the meaning of life. They also ridicule Eros, inventing base pantomimes and reducing the divine passion to the level of beastly lust. In their eyes I am simply a whore who ought to be stoned.”

“I agree with you regarding the harm brought on by ignorant ridicule,” the tall Indian replied. “But we think that the reason for it is not the existence of some specific god. Small people dwelling between the mighty states of Egypt and Mesopotamia have always lived in degradation. People who have no power compensate for the humiliation by ridiculing those who subdued them. Among the minor people, life is uncertain and swift. There is nothing permanent and there is no time to establish faith and philosophy.”

“I would add to this the similarity to monkeys,” the elder priest said. “There are many of them in our country, and some are considered sacred. However, monkeys are the idlest of all animals. Living in safety among the trees, in groves with plenty of fruit, monkeys do not need to spend time or effort in feeding themselves as do other animals, like a tiger who persistently hunts his prey, an elephant or bull forced to eat lots of grass to sustain their enormous bodies. Other animals value time and do not waste it on trifles. But the lazy monkeys quickly satisfy their appetite and seek entertainment in foolish tricks. They toss nuts to hit a tiger in the eye, defecate on an elephant’s head, then make fun of them as they giggle from a safe height, They sense their own insignificance and uselessness and take it out on other worthy animals.”

Helenians started to laugh, but the Indian was serious. Lysippus and Thais grew silent.

It was long since evening, but the conversation continued until well after midnight. Thais realized she had a need to spend several days here. She didn’t think she would ever get another opportunity to discover the wisdom of the ancient country.

Eris sat in her usual pose, her legs curled up as she waited for Thais. The Athenian collapsed onto the cushions in exhaustion and fell into a sleep filled with fantastic images of unknown gods.

Over the next few days Thais found out about the twelve Nidanas or “Reasons for Being”. Each of them was considered a consequence of a previous one, and the cause of the following one. The Great Nature or the life-giving power, Shakhty, was not all that different from the Great Mother of pre-Hellenic beliefs, having a dominant female deity. The sixth sign of the zodiac was Kagna, or the Virgin. She represented Shakhty, the Power of Nature, or Mahamaia, the Great Illusion and indicated that the primal forces must correspond to the number six and stand in the following sequence:

1. Parashakhty: the highest power of warmth and light that gives life to all things on Earth.

2. Djnanishakhty: the power of the mind and wise knowledge. It is two sided. The first is Smiriti, or memory. This is a huge power capable of bringing ancient notions and future expectations to life. The other side is foresight, the ability to see through the curtain of Maia into Time, which is one in all three of its aspects: past, present and future, and is much more complex than the time passed with the beating of one’s heart.

3. Ichchashakhty: the willpower, the currents flowing through the body and concentrated on the fulfillment of desires.

4. Kriashakhty, or the power of thought: which is material, and can have physical impact with its energy.

5. Kundalinishakhty: the life principle of all of Nature. This power undulates like a snake and combines two great contradictions of attraction and repulsion, which is why it is also called a serpent. Kundalini balances out the inner and outer aspects of life. Its forward movement inside a person gives him the power of Kama-Eros and leads to transformation.

6. Matrikashakhty: the power of speech, music, signs and letters.

Of this entire list of primal forces, the Helenians liked Kundalinishakhty the best. It was a notion close to them both, as they were spiritual artists and poets, able to relate to the dialectic teachings of Heraclitus of Ethes, Anaxagoras and Antiphontus.

Lysippus noted that the philosophers of Hebrew people considered the snake a power of evil that destroyed the happiness of the first people.

Both Indians smiled, and the elder priest said, “Our sacred book Aitarea calls your Gaea-Earth Sarporajini, or the queen of serpents, the mother of all moving things, for a serpent is a symbol of movement in the struggle between opposing forces. According to our myths, there used to be a race of snakelike people, or Nags, who numbered no more than a thousand. The people who inhabit the Earth now are the fifth race, created under the symbols of Bull and Cow. The bull is sacred in your land in the west, and the cow is sacred in ours. From the Nags my people have inherited the ability to rule over the poisonous snakes of India. Here, at our temple, there is a priestess of Nag who performs the ritual kiss of the sacred serpent. No mortal, not even one of the highest caste, can perform this ritual and remain alive.”