What is the anguish the gods carry?

Re: 01: Savitri Awakes among the Human Tribes
by RY Deshpande on Sun 07 Jan 2007 04:03 PM PST Profile Permanent Link

From the Savitri-passage given above, let us see the line In her there was the anguish of the gods. What is the anguish the gods carry?

Neil Gaiman’s American Gods has a few interesting as well as motivating anxieties. In the novel he depicts his great Shadow meeting a Modern God named "Media" (implying that we now worship The Media instead of Old Gods). That reminds him of "The Fat Kid" who represents Technology (who turns out to be cold-hearted and ruthless but insecure and neurotic). The Gods live in a town where isn't a single bookstore. And the dreamy scifi-sts speak of a book titled Gravity's Rainbow. That does give scare to the very Ancient Gods as much as to the New Gods, a la mode Gods. And quite understandably so.

But gods, ancient or modern, come in various denominations and one has to be wary of the nether Lords. Gaiman’s older gods award a dark feel and the new ones have no light with them. If the gods of infra-rationality are blood-thirsty, the modern are stiff-necked and arrogantly obstinate with their dubious convictions, proud noses. Very often we persuade ourselves of being right and there needs come no intruder in our affairs, that we are the hewers of our path of progress and prosperity, the forerunners and winners of human race.

We have the Gods of Science and Industry and Commerce and they don’t care about Ecology and the destruction of the Planet; we have a God presiding over the Flat World and Tom Friedman of NYT is his priest; we have the Techno-Capitalists charting out the way of the future for us; we have the Gods of Fundamentalists of various hues and shapes, religious, scientific, rationalistic, political, demagogic, and who and what not. We must therefore hunt out imaginary weapons of mass destruction and destroy them. And who cares for life?

The story of concentration camps and gas chimneys during the Second World War is a gruesome story, putting the clock of civilisation back by several centuries. “Mankind, jewel of God’s creation, succeeded in building an inverted Tower of Babel, reaching not toward heaven but toward an anti-heaven, there to create a parallel society, a new ‘creation’ with its own princes and gods, laws and principles, jailers and prisoners.” The child in hiding with his mother asks softly, very softly: "Can I cry now?" It seemed as impossible to conceive of Auschwitz with God as to conceive of Auschwitz without God, says a commentator. Was the frightening Auschwitz a consequence or an aberration of "civilisation"? Scientific abstraction, social and economic contention, nationalism, xenophobia, religious fanaticism, racism, mass hysteria—all found their ultimate expression in it. And then, says Elie Wiesel: “War leaves no victors, only victims.” About his experience in the concentration camp he writes:

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky. Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams into ashes. Never shall I forget those things even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.

Auschwitz in Elie Wiesel’s Night is horrifying. “Not far from us,” says he, “flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies, Yes. I did see this, with my own eyes… children thrown into the flames.” Where is then the anguish of the gods? or are they asleep? deeply asleep, eternally asleep? Or the anguish is deeper yet, concerned with the powers of darkness, ignorance, falsehood, evil, suffering, error, death? Is the supposition that, if the cause of this deeper anguish is removed the others will disappear by themselves? If human reason can be charitable, it might give the benefit of the doubt to Savitri and hope for the best. Indeed,

…terrible agencies the Spirit allows And there are subtle and enormous Powers That shield themselves with the covering Ignorance. Offspring of the gulfs, agents of the shadowy Force, Haters of light, intolerant of peace, Aping to the thought the shining Friend and Guide, Opposing in the heart the eternal Will, They veil the occult uplifting Harmonist. His wisdom's oracles are made our bonds; The doors of God they have locked with keys of creed And shut out by the Law his tireless Grace. (Savitri, p. 225)

This must cause concern to the best of the gods, the bright ones, the Helpers on the Way of the Future, the Shapers to a great extent of the Human Destinies. But Savitri’s concern is at the foundational level itself. RYD