Commentaries On Living Series 3
COMMENTARIES ON LIVING SERIES III CHAPTER
CHAPTER 1
2 ’SELF-KNOWLEDGE OR SELF-HYPNOSIS?’
IT HAD RAINED all night and most of the morning, and now the sun was going down behind dark,
heavy clouds. There was no colour in the sky, but the perfume of the rain-soaked earth filled the air.
The frogs had croaked all night long with persistency and rhythm, but with the dawn they became
silent. The tree trunks were dark with the long rain, and the leaves washed clean of the summer’s
dust, would be rich and green again in a few more days. The lawns too would be greener, the
bushes would soon be flowering, and there would be rejoicing. How welcome was the rain after the
hot, dusty days! The mountains beyond the hills seemed not too far away and the breeze blowing
from them was cool and pure. There would be more work, more food, and starvation would be a
thing of the past.
One of those large brown eagles was making wide circles in the sky, floating on the breeze without
a beat of its wings. Hundreds of people on bicycles were going home after a long day in the office.
A few talked as they rode, but most of them were silent and evidently tired out. A large group
had stopped, with their bicycles resting against their bodies, and were animatedly discussing some
issue, while nearby a policeman wearily watched them, On the corner a big new building was going
up. The road was full of brown puddles, and the passing cars splashed one with dirty water which
left dark marks on one’s clothing. A cyclist stopped, bought from a vendor one cigarette, and was
on his way again.
A boy came along carrying on his head an old kerosene tin, half-filled with some liquid. He must
have been working around that new building which was under construction. He had bright eyes and
an extraordinarily cheerful face; he was thin but strongly built, and his skin was very dark, burnt
by the sun. He wore a shirt and a loincloth, both the colour of the earth brown with long usage.
His head was well-shaped, and there was a certain