The World is Rotten!

                                     POEMS AND POETS

                   26. The World Is A Rotten Place

What do we make of this world?

It depends upon how we ie our minds are made up! If we follow organised religion, we will go by what they teach: the world is the work of God, and we only have to do as they say God has ordained. If we follow science we will say that there was a Big Bang and the world appeared , and everything happened by chance.There are any number of positions in between. The fun is, none of them can give any proof!

There are a special class of people, known as Sages. They have experienced the Truth of the world first hand. They come from all countries, all traditions. They say we cannot know this world objectively.We know it only through our senses, as interpreted by our mind, depending on our level  or state of consciousness. The mind and senses can mislead us, as when we see a mirage, or mistake a rope for a snake in dim light. The question about the truth or nature of the world can be solved by each one of us only when we experience the truth by ourselves. This is done by refining our consciousness. The Sages do not offer elaborate theories, do not run organizations. How can we believe them? By their life .Walk the path and 'know' the truth. They say:

Drishtim Jnanamayim kritva,

Paschyet  Brhmamayam jagat!

If you look with the sight of Wisdom ( pure consciousness), the world will be perceived as the form of the Infinite!

More or less the same words were said by Blake:

"If the doors of perception were cleansed, men would behold everything as it is- Infinite"

(Quoted in Stephen Larsen: The Mythic Imagination, p.107)

The problem in the present day has been compounded by almost anyone writing on religious/spiritual subjects. And we now have access to anything anyone says, anywhere in the world. We get confused.

But through all this confusion, one fact stands out: This Universe is an Organism- that is, it is Alive! It is Intelligence, not just intelligent.That means,it must have a meaning and purpose. We cannot fathom it, yet. The more Science explores, the more it   is confronted by its limitations. No branch of Science has a last word on anything,as yet! All it does is to manipulate certain intermediate processes  for some immediate ends, the long term consequences of which no one knows.

In the meantime, social scientists are dissatisfied with both our natural and social conditions. They attempt to reform things, institutions. But neither pure science, not the social sciences do offer any guidance to people about the conduct of their lives. This is still done by traditional religions. Those who do not follow organised religions, but are nevertheless convinced that the world is not merely mechanical, that there is something here we do not quite know, follow their own eclectic path, calling themselves 'spiritual but not religious'. Their number is growing.

Some of the great poets  do not subscribe to organised theology of any school, but they do believe in the Bible and give their views accordingly. Donne, Blake, Pope, Browning , Tennyson belong to this group. The greatest of them is Milton. The following words of Browning may be taken as typical:

"Life is a probation and the earth  no goal

But starting point of man."

                From: The Ring and the Book,X 1436

This provides a basis for piloting our life here. If we believe the world is the final goal, then death becomes the end; the imperfections of the world strike us- we are struck with the world. But if we believe the world is not the final goal, then we have to make use of the world, such as it is, to seek our true goal. Saiva Siddhanta says that God has created Tanu,Karana, Bhuvana, Bhogam, to enable man to realise God. These are the instruments. As modern saint-scholar-poet Muruganar put it-

Donda nirdondamavai tonre vuyirtokaitam
Banda Muktikkaap padaitton taal potri!

Praise to the holy feet of Him
who since the beginning of time has created
the pairs of opposites and their absence
for the bondage and liberation
of the mass of living beings!

                         ( From: Ramanapuranam,lines189-190.
                          Translation by Robert Butler,                                                             T.V.Venkatasubramanian  and David Godman)

The same Cape of Storms became the Cape of Good Hope! The difference was in the man, not the Cape!

But this involves a deep question: Why should God create both? This is at the very heart of Christianity and the Old Testament story of Genesis, which Milton attempted to tackle in the Paradise Lost.

JOHN MILTON: Paradise Lost

One hesitates to take the name of Milton! He is so great! May be ranked after Shakespeare, but Shakespeare looks easy and approachable, but Milton is formidable. Milton's grand style,wrote Arthur Quiller Couch; but his theme also  is grand- grandest in the entire range of Western Literature: the story of Genesis, no less! This is the grandest epic in the English language.

Now you may ask me: Genesis is the Biblical account of the story of Creation. What has a Hindu got to do with it?
While I do not believe that it is the story of the origin of mankind, I concede it could be the story of a tribe of Jews! This is how it is taken by many authorities, including Spinoza. Every tribe in the world has got its own genesis story! Secondly, the fall of man has a deeper-symbolic-meaning for me, than a mere fall from heaven. It is a fall from our original consciousness of Unity! It is our forgetfulness of our divine nature! It is the Ignorance, for which Jnana is the cure! It is this memory which Arjuna recovers when he says " smritir labda"! The idea strikes me, may be not the form it got in the Bible!

Milton began with the avowed aim:

"I may assert  Eternal Providence
And justify the ways of God to men."

 He chose to relate the story-

"Of Man's first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all our woe
With loss of Eden..."

The subject is the most serious on earth-death and woe in the world, caused by man's own disobedience.
But we face three crucial issues from the beginning:

• choice and freewill
• relationship between man and woman 
• good and evil

The poem does not answer any of these decisively, but that whatever is, is how God intended! This is rather disconcerting.

The poem opens with Satan and his band finding themselves in hell, having already fallen. Does it mean that hell was already there to receive them, even before the fall? Does it mean the fall was fore-ordained? Hell was:

"Such place Eternal Justice HAD prepared

for those rebellious" (1.70-71)

Does it mean that God created the world with rebellion in mind? Was the world built for rebellion?

Then again, God finds that Satan is on his way to tempt man and says:

" ...................And shall pervert,

For Man will hearken to his glozing lies 

And easily transgress the sole command

Sole pledge of his obedience.So WILL fall

He and his faithless progeny . Whose fault?

Whose but his own? Ingrate! He had of Me

All he could have. I made him just and right,

Sufficient to have stood though free to fall."

                                                    (3.92-99)

If these are the words of God, they make disturbing reading.

God made man free to fall! Man will allow himself to be perverted by Satan and "will fall". So, man's free will in the end really means the freedom to fall! Will even a human parent allow his children to run and fall into a pit, saying they are 'free'? So, what kind of parent is God? Does this not suggest a sadistic streak in the merciful God?

For me, there is an even more disturbing question. This is man, God's fresh creation. How  could he even get the idea of disobedience and transgression so soon, while he is still in God's pristine condition?

The relationship between Eve and Adam too creates problems from the first. Eve says she just ran away from Adam on first seeing him, because:

 

"  ................methought less fair,

Less winning soft,less amiably mild

Than that smooth wat'ry image: back I turned."

                                                  (4.478- 480)

So, Eve finds Adam not so agreeable, after all! She runs away, Adam pursues and seizes her by the hand, and she yields! After debating whether they should work together, Eve goes off to work alone, is tempted by the serpent, eats the apple, gives it to Adam, making him her partner in the venture and together they go to Eden. 

We thus see that from the beginning, the story creates more problems that our theology and philosophy have been able to solve all these centuries. It gives enough valid grounds for our psychologists and feminists to argue on many vital issues. So, how does Milton hope to justify the ways of God?

In fact some have even suggested that Milton might be admiring Satan, the rebel, for he was himself one! And it is strange to think that Eve could think she had freedom only when she disobeyed God! Does it mean women could not achieve liberation, except with disobedience?

The only happy outcome of this epic is that in the end Adam and Eve decide to live together! What a conclusion from Milton who advocated divorce for women, before it was made law! Whether the poem succeeds in justifying God's ways, it at least conveys that man has to reconcile to them!

Whatever the philosophical import, Paradise Lost is a grand poem, a mighty epic conceived and executed in grand manner. It abounds in passages of superlative beauty. It is simply overwhelming.  English language might or might not have remained unadorned and plain without it, but we can  never call ourselves literate until we can read it!

Life is a greater mystery than all our philosophies can tackle!

No epic can divine its origins. Let us simply bow! Here is a nice lesson from Arthur Osborne:

Arthur Osborne: The Wind

I am a pipe the wind blows through,

Be still, it is the wind that sings.

The course of my life and the things that I do

And the seeming false and the seeming true

Are the tune of the wind that neither knows

Good and ill,nor joys and woes.

But the ultimate awe is deeper yet

Than song or pipe or storm;

For pipe and tune are the formless wind

That seemed for a while to take form.

And words are good to escape from words

And strife to escape from strife,

But silence drinks in all the waves

Of song and death and life.

                                        From: Be Still,It Is The Wind That Sings.

                            Ramanasramam Publication, 2000.

                    

  

The Wrong Bitch!

                                      POEMS AND POETS

                    24. The Wrong Bitch!

Many years ago, in 1961 or 62, I read a joke printed as a page-filler in that lovely monthy, The Reader's Digest. An American tourist was  in  London. He got into a city bus,  but found no seat. He noticed a fat lady occupying a seat, with her dog next to her. He looked at her for some time, then bent forward, gathered the dog in his arms, and threw it out of the window. An occupant of a near-by seat remarked: " You Americans always do the wrong thing. You eat with the wrong hand, drive on the wrong side of the road, and now have thrown the wrong bitch out of the window!"

Come to think of it , we are all Americans now!   Dealing with the wrong bitch all the time!

Look at our economics. The more we talk about growth, development,wealth, the more poverty grows, and  so does the gap between the rich and the poor. In politics, the more they talk of empowerment, the more people are getting marginalised. New groups of deprived , or new forms of deprivation,emerge. Look at health-care. The more we talk about it, the more we turn it into sick-care, building more and more hospitals; health-insurance is the label for payment system for sickness attention. If you don't have insurance, you can't buy health, by definition! But which company will sell you a policy to cover real health care- buy good walking or jogging shoes, a tennis racquet, a bicycle, use a jogging track,etc? Just last week, we read how the American medical system is swindling the public, and  how the Judiciary is dealing with it.

This economic preoccupation with wealth seems meaningless, considering how counter-productive it has become. In Sanskrit, the word 'artha' is used for wealth. But artha also means 'meaning' ! So what does wealth really mean?  What is real wealth? Philosopher Sankara said: " artham anartham"., which means wealth causes harm, or  untruth depending  on how the word 'anartham' is spelt . Stunningly, in Tamil too there is just one word: 'Porul' which means both wealth and meaning!

What about our philosophy and organised religions? The one has become incomprehensible to uninitiated minds like us, and the other has become irrelevant to our times and needs. So, both have ceased to be guides to life. Many people have indeed thrown both out of their lives, which is our biggest window on the Universe! This is a pity.

Structured, systematised philosophy is not sure what it has to deal with , or how to go about it. Books are written only for the peers, and perhaps understood only by them. Religion is not sure of what it has to concern with- Life or Death, Man or God. Actually, there is no choice here. One means and involves the other.

It is said that once Tennyson was seriously ill, and was slowly being nursed back to  health. But he was grumbling. The nurse asked him why he could not write some poetry,  in gratitude for his recovery, instead of grumbling. So, he composed a poem and read it out to her. She heard it and silently ran from the room. This is the poem.

Tennyson : "Crossing the Bar"

Sunset and evening star,
   And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
   When I put out to sea.

But such a tide as moving  seems asleep,
   Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
   Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
   And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
   When I embark.

For tho' from out our bourne
   The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
   When I have crost the Bar.

Tennyson said the poem "came in a moment." When questioned about the presence of the Pilot, and why the speaker sees him only when the vessel reaches the open sea, Tennyson clarified:

"The Pilot has been on board all the while, but in the dark I have not seen him".

 He further said:

He is " that Divine and Unseen Who is always guiding us."

                                                                 (  From Tennyson's Memoir.
                                                                    See: Tennyson's Poetry -
                                                                     Norton Critical Editions.)

Is this sad? Morbid?  To me, it does not seem so. Can it be sad, when we get to meet the Pilot? In fact, this conveys to me the whole failure of religion: the Pilot has been with us all along, but we are taught to look for him elsewhere! It is only a genuine poet who can remind us.

Tennyson believed in personal immortality, and its mysteries. " burned for ever and for ever! I can't believe that", he said.  He also said:

" I can't call myself orthodox. Two things however I have always been convinced of-God,- and that death will not end my existence."

Here is an ancient Tamil poet singing on this theme:

Tirumular

Is the sweetness of honey black or red?
You fools, who search for God in the high heavens,
Just as sweetness pervades honey
God pervades as our Self,  this very fleshy body.

The Pilot is with us all the time, but we do not get  or try to know!

Here is John Donne confronting the subject more directly, defiantly.

John Donne:  DEATH BE NOT PROUD

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,
For those whom thou think'st,thou dost overthrow,
Die not,poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me;
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure,then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones,and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.

Donne is almost mocking death. From where does he get the courage ? Death is like a longer sleep and rest. If we find pleasure from rest and sleep, which is usually short, how much more should we get from a longer sleep  and rest! And then, death only catches our body, but can it touch our spirit? It becomes free!- rest of the bones, but soul's delivery!

Donne is not called a metaphysical poet for nothing!

But our dear Shakespeare is not so sure! Let us see what he says.

Shakespeare: Hamlet. 3.1.

  "...............the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than  fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action."

We do not know what happens after death and so fear it. This fear   ( 'Conscience' here ) makes us cowards. distorts our thinking and results in our messing up with our action. But there is a rub. Earlier, when we read Tennyson and Donne, we knew the poets were speaking to us. But here? It is Hamlet- and this occurs in that most famous passage beginning " To be, or not to be?". So, we are not sure it is Shakespeare speaking  out his thoughts here.

How do we resolve this? It is where true philosophy and religion will have to teach us. The only true question in philosophy is whether life/existence/world  has any meaning or purpose. If everything ends with death, life on earth has no meaning. That is, if death has no meaning, life will have none either! What is the point in having a little fun on the ship, when we know it is going to sink? It is the idea that there is a Pilot who is guiding it safely that gives us comfort.

It is this sense of certainty or certitude- and not this or that doctrine- that is what we mean by philosophy. It is an attitude, rather than a formula.  What we make of this world immediately raises the question how we relate to it.It provides us with a view of life, and also a way to live it! It leads to uncomplicated thinking, and uncluttered living. Great poets give that. Both by their words, and their lives. William Blake is one of the greatest in this respect. 

William Blake

Throughout his life he was guided by visions. He produced his songs and illustrations by a process which came to him in a vision, when his deceased brother appeared to him and explained the process. But he had the larger vision too- he " kept the Divine Vision in time of trouble". He firmly believed in the spiritual reality of the universe. He wrote:

 " Now I a fourfold vision see
And a fourfold vision is given to me;
Tis fourfold in my supreme delight
And threefold in soft Beulah's night
And twofold Always. May God us keep
From Single vision & Newton's  Sleep."

Blake had said to a friend earlier:

" I cannot consider death as any thing but a removing from one room to another."

Blake died a glorified death.

" Just before he died, His Countenance became fair-His eyes brighten'd and He burst out in Singing of the things he Saw in Heaven.....He Died like a Saint."

iIt is such poets who provide us a true,simple approach to life.

'Newton's Sleep' here refers to Newton's laws which make of this world a mechanical device, denying the spiritual reality. Ironically, science itself has travelled far from Newton's days and views, and the present view of science is that the universe is more like an organism, rather than a mechanism, which is but a tool of the former. Jacob Needleman,philosopher,explains:

"Every day, in almost all its branches, the revelations of modern science offer evidence that the universe,reality itself, is alive- alive beyond all imagining. All those who love science must know this truth in their bones, whatever may be the view officially sanctioned in the corridors of our universities and institutions of research. In any case, this is and always has been the view offered by the great spiritual traditions of the world, East and West, in all cultures and  at all times previous to our own."

"The very word "cosmos" signifies that the universe itself is a living organism.....Mechanism is the instrument of organism."

                                                 From the Preface to the 2003 Monkfish edition
                                  of 'A Sense Of The Cosmos'  .

Where a poet conveys such a spiritual view, he is restoring our real sight!  But poetry is also now taught in the very same universities  which  may not allow the poets to speak of their vision  or faith. Browning's religious convictions may not be discussed  in academic books, just as the dream experiences of Srinivasa Ramanujan, from where he got his theorems, do not find mention!

                                                 

Words, Words!

                                     POEMS AND POETS

                          16. Words,Words!

While in College, I heard these lines:

Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them;

but they are the money of fools!

This was said by Thomas Hobbes. It points to an inherent difficulty in determining the precise sense of words. Words acquire meaning according to the wisdom of the learner. Children study Blake's 'Tyger' in school. But a philosopher would see no physical tiger at all!  Words are for the wise like the finger pointing at the moon; the finger is not the moon.

With the explosion of information, and spread of literacy, huge books are routinely written. One wonders if the same things could not be said in fewer words. I wonder if the profusion of words does not hide poverty of thought,or clarity. Brevity is the essence of mastery of a subject, not just the soul of wit. This is also the real beauty of poetry, compared to prose! 

When we take up scriptures, we find a few words to be of exceptional importance. Ramana Maharshi used to point out that in the whole of the Bible, only the words I AM THAT I AM was printed in capital letters! Lot of confusion is caused by translating words from one language to another. Bible, the largest selling book in the world, came from  Hebrew (Aramaic) to Greek to Latin to King James to Modern English and meaning of words has changed. Msgr.R.A .Knox who like Chesterton ( and later Bede Griffiths) embraced Roman Catholicism translated the Bible from the Latin, closely comparing it to the Greek and Hebrew versions, and is reported to have pointed out the differences in meanings of many words. Even so, Knox was a theologian and scholar, not a spiritually realised person whose take might be different.

I find that in regard to ancient Hindu scriptures, scholars and academics who have no practical touch with  a living tradition go off on their own on a fanciful journey putting their own interpretation on important words. There is always substantial difference between what they write and what is understood by the traditional followers and expounders. But since the latter do not write elegantly, and do not find international publishers, their work is neglected.

These foreign scholars do not understand some simple things, apart from lacking genuine sympathy for the subject. They almost always have a hidden agenda in attempting to translate Hindu works. If they observe the practical habits of orthodox Hindus, they will find that Hindus use certain things only for certain purposes or on specific occasions. The mug they use in the bathroom, they will not use in the kitchen. They will not draw water from the bathroom    for use in the kitchen, though in the modern residential complexes, they have a common source in the same overhead tank. The utensils they use for the Sraddha ceremony will not be handled daily. It is the same with regard to words in the scriptures. 

Sanskrit has not escaped the fate ancient languages  have suffered in translation at alien hands.. Fundamental words like "Arya","Varna",  are given fanciful interpretations. Arya means 'one of noble conduct'. Is there a one word English equivalent? Would 'gentleman' do? No. The Sanskrit original indicates a state of high self-culture, result of consciously chosen, self-imposed discipline, involving  instinctive application of the highest standards of unimpeachable conduct. In the Ramayana, Sita calls Rama "Arya putra". In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna opens his dialogue, chiding Arjuna for his  " anarya jushtam"  ie non-Aryan like conduct. 2.2 It does not indicate social status at all. But the English word indicates a person of certain social status. So we have the verse:

"When Adam delved and Eve span,

Who was then the gentleman?" 

Westerners have made 'Aryan' stand for race! 

"Varna" means colour. But what colour? How come four colours? Why only four? It is clear that colour here has a  psychological or symbolic significance. But the Portuguese rendered it as 'caste' and so it has stayed.

Our own scholars are not free from this influence. They habitually defer to the views of Western scholars. Marco Pallis once said that even Vivekananda was not  entirely free from this.

I want to consider a few important words in the Gita which are interpreted rather superficially : Sreya:, Kripana; and Smritir labda. Of these, Shreya has been covered in an earlier post.(No.3, On Duty)

The whole Gita discourse is triggered by the following words of Arjuna:
"Karpanya doshopa hataswabhava prucchami tvam dharma 
              sammudha cheta:
Yat shreya: syan nischitam bruhi tanme
             sishyasteham sadi mam tvam prapannam" (2.7)

Meaning: With my nature overpowered by weak commiseration, with my mind confused about duty, I supplicate You.Say decidedly what is good for me.I am Your disciple. I have taken refuge in You. Please instruct me.
Karpanya dosha is rendered here as 'weak commiseration'.

Later Arjuna also mentions his intense agony:"ucchoshanam indriyanam shokham"= intense sorrow blasting my senses.

I recall the words of Master Shakespeare:

'Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?                              (Macbeth)

Kripana is the word we take up here. It is rendered as "mindless commiseration" 
This word is also used in one other place in the Gita:2.49. Here, Krishna tells Arjuna: "kripana: phalahetava:". This is rendered as 'wretched or pitiable are those who work  ( exclusively) desiring fruits'.At one level, this is apt: commiseration is the feeling of sympathy for someone when something unpleasant happens to them. But this does not exhaust all possibilities. Like in the case of Shreyas, we have to appeal to a higher authority- the Upanishad.

 In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad occurs a passage, where Yajnavalkya, the doyen of Teachers, instructs Gargi:

" Yo va etad aksharam gargi aviditvasmallokat priiti sa krupana:
meaning : O Gargi, he who departs from this world without knowing  ( ie realising) this Immutable, he is kripana.
Krupana is rendered here as miserable.
This too is apt; but if we reflect, we may find it inadequate to describe all that is meant.

The highest one may achieve in life is to know God, the Immutable. If after taking this human birth, one does not achieve this- he is not just miserable, but misses the whole purpose of life. It is a fall.

Arjuna has this kind of inner feeling or fear. He knows he is facing something momentous, extraordinary. Almost all the kings of India are ranged in battle array- on either side. Even the Tamil kings were there. It had not happened before. Arjuna is the hope of the Pandavas. He has to deliver. At such a time, he is overcome by some weakness. He is not new to war or violence- he is a Kshatriya by birth, temperament and training. So, he is expressing the inner apprehension that he is facing an event of mighty import, for whch all his life has been but a preparation, but he is about to miss that . In short, all that he stood and lived for is turning futile. His life is rendered meaningless. He has lived in vain.
All his conventional learning and training are of no avail. He wants fresh light and insight. So he  turns to Krishna.
But this is extraordinary: Krishna has so far been a sakha- dear friend, comrade, a close relative. What makes him look up to him as his Teacher? What prompts him to seek refuge with Him? 
 It is both Arjuna's ripeness and Krishna's proximity- both together! It is this which makes him feel a kripana-someone about to miss a mighty fortune!
Such is the significance I read in the word Kripana- not just commiseration, wretchedness or pity.

We now come to the other word: Smriti. It occurs in verse 18.73, at the end. (It occurs in two more places: 10.34, and 15.15, but there the context is plain, as also the meaning). Here, after listening to all that Krishna said, Arjuna exclaims:
" nashto moha: smritir labda tvat prasadat" meaning: By Your Grace, my delusion is destroyed, I have regained my memory. 
Memory of what?

Krishna began his instruction by reminding Arjuna of the immortal nature of the Atman- how it is not destroyed when the body is. The body has to go through its motions, but the Enlightened is not to confuse his Self with the body or the ego.. This kind of knowledge alone will provide a sure foundation for correct action in the world.The body takes many births; the Atman is never born,never dies. These are the first direct instructions of Krishna-from 2.11 to 2.25. There is a change of track from 2.26. Krishna leaves the lofty heights and comes down to Arjuna's level, probably prompted by some facial expression of Arjuna which indicates his inability to comprehend these highest thoughts, expounding the unmanifested, unthinkable, and unchangeable. (avyaktam, achintyam, avikaryam, 2.25)  Krishna tells Arjuna at 4.5: 'Many are the births that you and I have passed through. I know them all; you do not'.
So at the end, when Arjuna exclaims, " I have regained my memory", it can only mean the memory of his own immortal nature, about which Krishna spoke first at the beginning. True spirituality is based on the immortality of the soul. Everything  else is  dogma and theology. It is also to be noted that in the Gita, the very first word used by Arjuna to address Krishna is "Achyuta"- one who does not change or resile from his real nature! (1.21)

It is indeed the function of any great teacher: he reminds us of our own innate greatness. Spiritual Realisation is not the attainment of anything new- it is recollection of the awareness of our eternal nature! This is the memory that Arjuna has regained!

We thus see how careful we have to be in dealing with the words in the scriptures. They have deep meaning and cannot be caught in a hurry. I suppose this applies to all scriptures. 

All this seems to be religious stuff. Where does poetry come in?
Take this memory. If you observe an infant in the cradle, you will find  frequent changes in  its facial expressions , and it laughs on its own. Or suddenly cries aloud. What causes these? And why do children invariably cry at birth- a  cry which for once makes every one else happy? The popular belief among Hindus is that the child remembers its past and sees sights too, which make it laugh or cry. And the crying at birth is due to its unwillingness to be pushed into this world-once again! But as it grows, the world catches up with it and the child forgets the past.
 Memory and forgetting!
Let Wordsworth tell us about it.

William Wordsworth
From: Intimations of Immortality.

The earth, and every common sight, 
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,.......
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hast past away a glory from the earth.
.......
Whither is  fled the visionary gleam?
Where is it now, the glory and the dream?

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness
And not in utter nakedness
But trailing clouds of glory do we come,
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

Shades of the prison house begin to close
Upon the growing boy.
But He
Beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy......
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of the common day.

Thou little Child, yet glorious in the might
Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height,
Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke
The years to bring the inevitable yoke
Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?
.......
Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither,
Can in a moment travel thither..

Wordsworth has seen something, known something. But is it everything?
Child's happy state of innocence- is it a state of Knowledge or mere memory? Immortality embraces life in the whole of universe; our earthly existence is just one part of it. Once here,  nature fills us with her pleasures and we forget our origin. We don many roles and our life becomes a vocation of endless imitation. 

 Mankind as a whole has forgotten its origins. Man has forgotten his  true identity. Our souls have come from God, our home. That we have to find our way there, is our work here. That we can- is our hope. Does it happen only at death?
No. Life after death is not going to be different from life before it- in the level of enlightenment. Our leaving the body does not make us more enlightened, if we are not enlightened already> One has to strive for it, consciously. The effort has to be made now, here while we are alive: ihaiva.

 Utthishtatha: Jagrata; prapyavaran nibodhata; calls the  Upanishad.   Get up,Wake up,  approach the teacher who Knows and get enlightened. Death is not the end of existence, but it  is also not the automatic entrance to the state of Knowing. 

Psychologists like Jung have written that humanity as a whole has collective memories, submerged deep in their psyche. But modern man has forgotten his soul and is in search of it.Writes Jung:

"Among all my patients in the second half of life-that is say over 35 years-there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one  of them fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age had given to their followers, and none of them had been really healed who did not regain his religious outlook."

( Quoted in : "Repacking Your Bags, p.128 )

Religious outlook does not of course mean joining a formal religion.

Poetry can lead us there no less than philosophy or theology!
 In Hindu religious teaching, the highest level of teacher is one who can teach without words! We have conception of such a form of God in Dakshinamurti - usually rendered as the South-facing One.
  (It has deeper connotations) He sits under the banyan tree. He is a youth, but the disciples are old! His explanation is by Silence and the disciples have all their doubts dispelled! Acharya Sankara sings :

Oh, what a strange sight, yonder under that banyan!
The disciples are old, the guru is youthful;
The language of the guru's explanation is silence!
And the disciples have  no doubt at all!

 The great Tamil mystic teachers  like Tayumanavar. Arunagirinatha, etc also longed for, attained and praised such a state, recorded in immortal poetry.

Just as the best teacher communicates in silence, the best student is supposed to catch the hint from the teachers eye! This is celebrated in a brilliant song by Saint Tyagaraja, the poet-composer, illustrating an incident from the life of Rama. Rama the prince is led by his teacher Vishvamitra to the assembly of King Janaka. Janaka had announced that he would offer his daughter Sita in marriage to the prince who would lift the mighty bow of Shiva he had. Many had tried, and failed. Vishvamitra asks Rama to 'have a look' at the bow. Rama approaches it and looks at it. What next? He looks at his Guru and knows what he has to do! He just lifts it, and in the attempt to tie the string, the mighty bow is broken! He got his orders from the Guru's very look!

Another celebrated situation where words are unnecessary for communication is when old lovers meet! The mighty Tamil poet Kamban sings of this , again from the life of Rama! Rama and Sita are old lovers- the universal parents, who lived on the milky ocean. They came to the world and got separated. But when they looked at each other now, it was love at first sight! So Kamban exclaims: When old lovers reunite, do they need speech? Our modern celluloid poets are more down to earth. "Let us just keep looking at each other; make no sound", sings Rajinder Krishan. "Dekh hamen aawaz na dena". Who can say how right the poet is, unless one experiences it? 

Another situation of wordless instruction was once recounted by a brilliant Hindustani classical musician. She was recalling her days with her Guru in his establishment, along with other students. It was monsoon time, moon-lit night. The teacher was expounding a Raga, our musical scale. Suddenly he said " let us go to the terrace" and thither they repaired. There they saw the moon; there were clouds about, moving over the moon. He pointed to it and said "Look". They had to understand! The clouds were moving- not stationery! So the note they were being taught should not be 'caught and held' but just 'touched  and allowed to float or roll away'! Can words explain this beauty? Only those who have actually  observed moon on  such a night can really understand this!

A classic illustration comes from our Upanishads. There the gods, demons and men - all children of one God- approach their father and seek instruction. He points to the thundering cloud and says "Listen". "DA, DA, DA" sound the rolling  clouds. The father says that is the instruction! The Devas (gods) who are always given to enjoyment, interpret DA as meaning "damyata"- moderation ; the demons who are by nature prone to cruelty , take it to mean "daya" or compassion; men, who are ever tight-fisted, think it means "dana"- charity! So be it , says the father-teacher!
Where exactly do we moderns figure in this?

Who can assert that words are indispensable for communication?
Mountains speak-we do not understand: did not someone say that?
There is another story of one who had 24 teachers- not one of them human! May be, another time!