Dear Editors of eemaata:

An eon ago I said I would write on Mallarme’ Ka. But I got diverted and was not doing well health wise. So, I reneged. But when I was checking into my notes, I found this little jewel I saved. I wanted to share with your readers for eliciting some fruitful discussion.

I marked this up to check with the references. And I did. That was years ago. Here it is for your perusal.

From Literature and Gods (Roberto Calasso, 2001) – An abandoned room (page 108):

Mallarme in a letter writes:

“I had just drawn up the plan of my entire life’s work, having found the key to myself – the keystone, or center of myself, where I dwell like a sacred spider, on the principal threads already spun from my mind, and with the help of which I will weave, at the crossing points, some marvelous laces, which I can foresee and which already exist in the bosom of Beauty.”

Roberto Calasso adds:

“In referring to himself as a ‘sacred spider’ Mallarme was doing no more, no less than performing his function as a poet, which is first of all that of being precise. What he could not know was that he wasn’t speaking of himself, but of the Self, the aatman.

Let us open the Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad — “As a spider sends forth its thread, as small sparks rise from the fire, so all senses, all worlds, all gods, all beings, spring from the Self.” (Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad: 2,1,20; Similarly Svetsaavataara Upanishad 6.10; Mundaka 1.1.7.)

యస్తూర్ణ నాభ ఇవ తంతుభిః
ప్రధాన జైః స్వభావతః

దేవ ఏకః స్వమావృణోతి స
నో దధాతు బ్రహ్మాప్యయమ్‌

సాలెపురుగు తాను తననుండి తీసుకున్న దారాలతోనే తనను తానే (స్వాభావికముగా) కప్పుకొన్నట్లుగా (ఆవరించుకున్నట్లుగా) అద్వితీయుడైన ఆ పరమాత్మ ప్రకృతి జన్యాలైన కార్యాల ద్వారా స్వాభావికంగా తన్ను తానే ఆచ్ఛాదించుకుంటాడు.

Best wishes and happy New Year to eemaata.

Sincerely,
Venkateswara Rao Veluri