Page 23 - GALIET THE KING AND THE CORPSE: The Four Cardinal Corners and the Quest of the Blue Cloak, the Mask and the Sword IV GALIET THE KING AND THE CORPSE: The Four Cardinal Corners and the Quest of the Blue Cloak, The Mask and the Sword

to abandon the ashes of his beloved, King Trivikramasena refuses to abandon Vetala’s corpse once it disappears. King Trivikramasena is as true a King as the 1st Brahmin is as true a Husband. Moreover, King Trivikramasena’s devotion and selflessness is shared by Madanasundari of the Transposed Heads who receives a boon for her equal devotion to husband and brother. Both, King Trivikramasena and Madanasundari are given boons, she by the White Goddess (resurrection of beloved ones), he by the Vetala (the promulgation of the stories) and the Great Lord (invincible sword) for their selfless devotion.
It is this devotion towards the ideals of leading a life of goodness, wisdom, virtue and justice, of trusting one’s spirit and mind over one’s appetites, that Somadeva highlights in these didactic stories that are garlands to one’s soul. King Trivikramasena and Vetala, immortal that they are, will never cease to sing to that which is dearest and deepest in our souls, those yearnings of dawns and crepuscules, of time beyond time, of song beyond song, of poem beyond poem, of life beyond life. Life that is ours to ponder and to dwell, to encounter the Warrior King and Vetala in us, even if momentarily, even if for an infinitesimal second, and solve the riddles of our own existence and become a torch unto darkness. These values shall be our kit to find the eluding golden chord that will release us
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