Prahlada

PRAHLADA
(A PLAYLET)

HARINDRANATH CHATTOPADHYAYA

SCENE 1

(In the Palace - Hiranyakashapu, the King, and his Queen, Kayadhu.)

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Now can I bend all things to my desire,
Since with much prayer and penance I have won
Indomitable strength, immortal power.
If I but chose I could put out the fire
Of the dim stars, scoop out the golden sun,
And stamp the moon out like a withered flower.
Nor aught that lives, save in the twilight hour,
Dare break the magic circle of our peace.

KAYADHU

But wherefore, lord! should thy charmed circle cease
To work in that pale hour alone?

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Alas!
I cannot tell. But twilights come and go
Like swiftly-moving shadows in a glass,
Or harmless as the summer-winds that blow
Over the rice-fields, and, unheeded, pass,
I do not fear the twilight which is but
A wandering beggar with his eyelids shut,
Who knocks at every door and passes by.
(enter their son’s Guru with a troubled look in his eyes)

GURU

My King! I fear your son has lost his head,
For he is always dreaming of the sky
And ever talking of a pure white thread
That runs behind the birds and flowers, and runs
Beyond the painted clouds and flaming suns,
Connecting living beauties with the dead!
He says there is one spirit in all things,
In does and men and in the humming wings
Of insects in the forest.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Does he say
One spirit dwells in dogs and men? Alas!
He is gone mad.

GURU

My Lord, and sings all day
of one who will not die though all things pass.

KAYADHU

’Tis passing strange, my lord!

HIRANYAKASHAPU

’Tis passing strange! Where is the boy?

GURU

I’ve brought him.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Bid him come
Into my presence
(enter Prahlada, smiling)

Father! through the dumb.
Blue sky I heard Him sing who knows no change.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Sure, he is mad.

I saw the Changless one
The unborn and eternal Spirit, who slips
From shape to shape, the laughter or whose lips
Paints gold and purple in the selling sun.
Whose silent fingers thrill the blind blue night
With starry vision, and whose quiet face
Is brimming into dawn upon the height
Veiled in the fiery star-enamelled space.

KAYADHU

Sure, there is madness working in his brain.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Who is this wizard being that you sing?

He is the only and immortal King!

HIRANYAKASHAPU

My boy, you dare not shape those words again
Unless they point to me.

No other words
Wake on my lips, my lord! for I have dwelt
Long days and nights dreaming of Him, and felt
One with the great skies and the little birds.

GURU

He is never tired of telling us about
His foolish King that nobody as yet
Has seen.

O Father! do you hear the shout
Of sunshine on the water? I have met
The Maker of the sunshine and the sea.........

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Give over, boy, this show of lunacy,
I shall not brook it longer.

KAYADHU

Gentle son,
You are not well.

See! how His hands have spun
Eternal webs of wonder oe’r the world ........
All heaven like a banner is unfurled
Quiet in triumph through the lonely ages.......
O kneel before the Lord, the Changeless One
The Dream of Saints, the Vision of the Sages!

HIRANYAKASHAPU

What do you call your Lord? Has it a name?

Indeed ’tis written on the world’s broad leaf
Distinct and wonderful in flawless flame......
Lo! He is Hari.

GURU

Some invisible thief
Has robbed him of his senses.

HIRANYAKASHAPU (in anger)

Do you dare
To name Him in my presence?

Lord! I know
None else but Him whose love is everywhere.....

HIRANYAKASHAPU

I hate Him, boy, since He is my great foe,
Yea! and with hate will slay Him in the end......

He lives alike in hearts of foe and friend.

KAYADHU

His mind is in a mist.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Nay! do not drive
My heart into a frenzy with your voice.....

It is through Him all life is still alive;
It is in Him that worlds and men rejoice.

HIRANYAKASHAPU (to his wife)

This boy shall die. Go! fetch the poisoned cup
(she goes in without a word)

So you shall perish in your madness, boy
(she brings the cup and hesitates to give it to Prahlada)

PRAHLADA (taking the cup from her hands)

God floods the poison like a sea of joy.........
And with chaste lips He sucks the poison lip.
(he drinks it)

SCENE 2

(The same Hiranyakashapu, Kayadhu and the Guru. At the door stands a group of attendants awaiting the King’s orders)

HIRANYAKASHAPU

What poison could be worse than Hari’s name?
And he is drunk with it

GURU

A wizard-flame,
Burns in his eyes, my lord.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

It shall be blown
Out like a friendless solitary spark,
And like a star deserting its high throne \
In heaven, drop and die into the dark.

KAYADHU

A feeling tells me that he is possessed.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

There is an evil spirit in his breast
Has set him wandering so.

GURU

He never tires
or chasing shadows. There he comes, my King.
(enter Prahlada, singing)

The Summer and the Autumn and the Spring
Are of one Fire the separate-colourcd fires.

GURU

The same old song again, the same dull tune......

KAYADHU

My lord! he walks as in a quiet trance.

He made the yellow sun, the mellow moon,
And taught the infant-stars to dream and dance!

GURU

The same old sorrowful hunger in his eyes!

KAYADHU

There’s still the same old madness in his speech.

Each clod of earth has wings that it may reach
In final night Lord Hari’s flowering skies.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

That name again! I swear it shall be hushed
Forever on his lips. This evil fruit
My Queen, that you have borne me, shall be crushed
Under a wild impetuous elephant foot,
Until his blood, like juices, stain the earth.

GURU

Prahlada! are you not afraid of death?

My Hari dwells in death and dwells in birth;
And fills the whole world with immortal breath.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Die like a feeble blossom in the power
Of the dark monster, boy!

Naught ever dies......
Eternally my Hari waits and cries
In the great monster and the feeble flower.
(the attendants drag him out of the hall)

HIRANYAKASHAPU

When I am in a rage, like dolls of clay,
The little gods of men fall down and pray
For mercy at my feet. A trembling cloud
Wraps up the heaven like a dead man’s shroud,
And the sun’s glory hides behind the veil
Of a dim shadow, and the world grows pale.

GURU

Sage Narada, O King! deserves the blame
For the boy’s madness. It is said that he
It was who taught the boy, Lord Hari’s name
While yet within the womb.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

That cannot be......
It is an earth-born madness which the mind
Contracts in empty search after a blind
And unsubstantial god. By Heaven! I rule
The three wide worlds of mist and wave and fire ...
The seven oceans and their kingdoms cool
Of pearl and rainbow built. No God is greater
Than I am, since I bend to my desire
The vast creation and their proud Creator!

(Enter attendants in great haste and excitement)

1ST ATTENDANT

My lord! the dreadful monster will not tread
Upon the prince’s body.

2ND ATTENDANT

Hari’s name
Has killed the brute in him and made him tame.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

What! is the boy alive?

1ST ATTENDANT

He is not dead.

2ND ATTENDANT

He sings as merry as a child in Spring
While with enraptured trunk that giant thing
Like a young human mother, strokes his head.

KAYADHU

Sure, this is wizard’s work.

GURU

’Tis like a story
Heard in the depths of sleep.

(Enter Prahlada, smiling)

My lord! of that divine tremendous creature
Is dancing Hari’s glad immortal glory!

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Silence! your words but fan the hungry flame
Of my heart’s anger.

Cool it in the fountain,
In the eternal fountain of His name.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Go! take this boy and hurl him down the mountain!
By heaven, he shall not live another hour.

Why are you angry, Father, with your son?
Is it because I sing the Changeless One
The endless source of Beauty and Power,
The mute Infinity in man and flower,
The Fountainhead of knowledge, and the sea
Without a shore.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Wild words! Away with him.....
(The attendants take him away)

PRAHLADA (while going out)

Lord Hari’s hands are beckoning from a far
Standing alone upon the mountain rim

(Exit Prahlada)

KAYADHU

Alas! he is mad.

GURU

My lord! his visions are
So like a drunken thing’s; dishevelled streams
Of broken images and formless dreams
Run restless through his mind.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

He has no mind.
He lost it long ago, among a blind
Grey heap of shattered godhead. He will die
Poor raving fool! crushed to a little pulp.....
Nor will the gods in heaven heed his cry
When death, dissolves his body at a gulp.

(An attendant comes rushing in)

ATTENDANT

My lord! three men have slipped and fallen together
Over the mountain-steeps; a peal of laughter
Broke somewhere to behold them rolling after
The Prince into the valley.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Are they dead?

ATTENDANT

Only the Prince is saved. Light as a feather
Descending slow upon a blossomed bed,
His body dropped through air. My lord! its poise
Was like to a great bird’s that one beholds
But in the depths of dreaming.

KAYADHU

In this boy’s
Young heart a demon dwells.

GURU

A spirit folds
His body like a serpent
(Enter Prahlada, smiling)

Father! I
Have brought a message to you from the King
Whose swift and painted flight is in the sky
And of whose night all life is but a wing.

(The King is raging with anger, The Queen and
the Guru look on silent and wondering)

SCENE 3

(The same. Hiranyakashapu, Guru and the Queen.
The attendants await the King’s next order.)

HIRANYAKASHAPU

And when they hear your helpless drowning cries
Nine lakhs of ocean-creatures stark and dim
Will crowd and tear your body limb by limb,
Staining their mouths with your heart’s dropping blood,
Fishes in greed will feast upon your eyes.
The giant crocodiles beneath the flood
Will dance with joy enchanted by the flesh
White crackle of your bones, and serpents swim
Swifter than lightning-fire, to bite your flesh.

Can you not see the glimmer of His smile
Upon the ocean-flood and in the hearts
Of ocean-creatures sailing through its gloom?
The Lord is seated in the crocodile.
And in each little fish that dives and darts,
And in each snake born in the ocean’s womb.

GURU

Alas! poor boy!

KAYADHU

He raves and raves and raves
Like a black tempest-cloud upon the sea.....

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Go! fling his body to the wandering waves!

The holy Boatman’s voice is calling me.
(They drag him away).

(The stage is darkened for a few moments and through the darkness floats the sound of the ocean and the voice of Prahlada singing the praises of Hari, his Lord.)

HIRANYAKASHAPU

(when the stage grows bright again)
(laughing almost hysterically)

Sing on, poor fool! before the waves devour
Your hollow hymns of praise to Him I hate.

KAYADHU

I bore him in an unauspicious hour.

GURU

The hunger of the sea was in his fate!
(Enter attendants in great haste)

1ST ATTENDANT

Lord! we have never known such things before.
There’s witchcraft round the body of the boy.

2ND ATTENDANT

My King! the waters clapped their hands for joy
To hear the young Prince singing his wild song.

3RD ATTENDANT

Each time we hurled him into the mad sea
Some kind hand bore him gently to the shore!
Lord! we have never seen such sights before!

1ST ATTENDANT

The world seems wrong because there’s something wrong.
With the young Prince.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

The devils mock at me
Now that the twilight-hour draws near. But come!
We shall yet strike the bitter music dumb
Upon his lips.

KAYADHU

My Lord! I read a sorrow
In your dark eyes.

GURU

A mournful tinge of gold
Is in the air.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

He shall not see the morrow!
To-night the fire shall be his winding-sheet.

PRAHLADA
(Coming with a smile)
Lord Hari hums His melody of old
Upon the waters. Lo! the Lord is coming!
All Life, like a great thirsty bee, is humming
Around the flowering echo of His feel.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

I’ll break Him like a branch across my knee
When your Lord comes!

KAYADHU

What! will he never tire
of talking so?

GURU

My Lord! how mournfully The twilight comes.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Go! fling him into fire.

(The attendants take him away rudely)

KAYADHU

Whose voice is that, my lord?

GURU

The night will soon
Be here.

KAYADHU

My lord! who plays upon the flute
In this dim twilight?

GURU

’Tis mournful tune

KAYADHU

The night will soon descend and fold it up.

GURU

At night the sky looks like a poisoned cup.

KAYADHU

Or like a giant monster’s shadowy foot.

GURU

Or like a deep dark mountain void of motion.

KAYADHU

Or like a black illimitable ocean.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

My Queen! the twilight-hour will soon expire
And we shall rest and last from Hari’s name.

(The attendants rush in as-before)

1ST ATTENDANT

My lord! his body has burned up the fire!

2ND ATTENDANT

The Prince’s song has eaten up the flame.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

You speak like madmen!

GURU

It is very strange!

KAYADHU

His body is immune to everything
Being possessed,
(The prince enters the hall with a smile of love and kindness)

The glory of the King
Continues changeless in a world of change.
I feel Him shining on the golden height,
I feel Him breathing in the twilight grey,
The silence of whose voice is in the night,
The splendour of whose face is in the day.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Come hither, boy! and let me see your face.....

KAYADHU

The twilight’s glow is on his eyes and hair.

GURU

How pale the sky’s mouth glimmers.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Where is he,
This idiot-god you dream of night and day?
Come! tell me whither stands his dwelling-place?

The laughter of His lips glows everywhere,
His beauty bums alike in fire and clay.

HIRANYAKASHAPU (mockingly)

And in the pillar too?

What place is there
Where He is not?

HIRANYAKASHAPU (wielding his sword)

You lie!

Yon column rings
With the white music of the King of Kings.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

You lie!

I hear His voice.

HIRANYAKASHAPU

Then strike, my sword!
And spill a wizard’s blood.

(The column cracks in two, and the Image of Narasimha appears)

Behold! the Lord!

(The Queen, the attendants and the Guru fall down struck dumb with fear. Narasimha springs out from the column, lifts the King up, places him across his knees and with his mighty hands rips his bowels up and starts busily examining his entrails, as though looking for something precious.)

NARASIMHA
(Seating the boy Prahlada on his lap)

Lo! I have come at last, my little Lover!
To crown with silence doubt’s impetuous storm.

What are you seeking in my father’s form?

NARASIMHA

My holy son! I’m trying to discover
Within its gloom another little Lover!

[Reproduced from SHAMA’A, July 1923.]