Scene 1
(King Kuru and his minister.)KURU: Minister, come with me. Follow me. (Minister follows him for a good distance.) This is a vast plot of land. I want this land to be cultivated, and I want a bumper crop from this land very soon.
MINISTER: That is a wonderful idea, your Majesty. I shall appoint some farmers to cultivate this land.
(Enter Indra.)
INDRA: O King, on this land hundreds of sages have meditated and prayed. Here they have performed sacrifices. Here they have performed their rituals; they have meditated on God. This is soil of sacrifice, soil of aspiration and realisation. O King, don’t destroy this hallowed land.
KURU: I don’t believe in all that spirituality — meditation and sacrifice and all that. I need this land. I don’t want it to remain uncultivated. I am a man of principle, a man of wisdom. Don’t fool with me. This is my kingdom. This is my land.
(Indra disappears, then enters in the form of a Brahmin.)
INDRA: Your Majesty, this is your kingdom, this is your property. I have no right to advise you, but I wish to say that the gods will be happy in Heaven if you leave it as it is.
KURU: Then pray to God. I will allow this land to remain uncultivated provided you pray to God that whoever dies in this place will go to God immediately. It is said that whoever dies in Kashi (Benares) goes to Heaven. I want this place also to be as sacred as Benares. No matter who he is, if he is a thief, a murderer, a man of the worst possible principles, whoever dies here must go to Heaven immediately. If this desire of mine can be fulfilled, then I shall leave this place uncultivated.
(The Brahmin immediately changes back to Indra.)
INDRA: I fulfil your desire. This will be one of the most sacred places in India. Just because the sages prayed and meditated here, just because of my presence, just because of your surrender to my will, everybody who dies here — even if he is the worst possible man — will go to Heaven. And I wish to say that here also the battle of life will take place. The Divine and the undivine will fight. The Divine will eventually conquer the undivine and manifest and fulfil God on earth. On the physical plane, the undivine will be swallowed up by the one Divine Compassion-Light. But on the inner plane, on the spiritual plane, the undivine will enter into the Divine and be transformed, perfected and fulfilled. Once conquered by the Divine, once surrendered to the Will of the Divine, the undivine will become part and parcel of the Divine and will be utilised for the Divine. It will feel boundless joy and delight. It will see the difference between pleasure, which it once had, and joy, which it now has. The undivine will be lost in the Divine and will become Divine itself, and here it will find its real fulfilment.
