Page:Broken Ties and Other Stories.pdf/114

 ‘He loves form,’ Satish went on, ‘so He is continually descending towards form. We cannot live by form alone, so we must ascend towards His formlessness. He is free, so His play is within bonds. We are bound, so we find our joy in freedom. All our sorrow is because we cannot understand this.’

We kept as silent as the stars.

‘Do you not understand, Damini?’ pursued Satish. ‘He who sings proceeds from his joy to the tune ; he who hears, from the tune to joy. One comes from freedom into bondage, the other goes from bondage into freedom; only thus can they have their communion. He sings and we hear. He ties the bonds as He sings to us, we untie them as we hear Him.’

I cannot say whether Damini understood Satish’s words, but she understood Satish. With her hands folded on her lap she kept quite still.

‘1 was hearing His song through the night,’ Satish went on, ‘till in a flash the whole thing became clear to me. Then I could not keep it to myself, and called out to you. All this time I had been trying to fashion Him to suit myself, and so was deprived.—O Desolator! Breaker of ties! Let me be shattered to pieces within you,