shanti in the wl

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"Shantih" in The Waste LandAuthor(s): K. Narayana ChandranSource: American Literature, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Dec., 1989), pp. 681-683Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2927003.

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ShantihnThe WasteLandK. NARAYANA CHANDRANUniversityfHyderabadTHE lastline ofThe Waste and has thesingular istinction fhavingbaffled he bestcommentatorsn the poem. On theone hand, theirbafflementesults n absolute ncomprehensionas in George Williamson's equationof shantih with themadravingof Hieronymo,1 r in such suspicionas A. D. Moody'sthat the Sanskrit s meantnot to be readilyunderstood 2byWesternreaders.On the otherhand,a commentatorikeDavidWard wonders whya poem so little ike theUpanishadsin itsmoraland spiritual niverse nds withthe blessing rgreetingofpeace. 3Evidently,ike the othercryptic llusions n The Waste and,shantih makes us feel the inadequacy of annotations;weknow and do not know. This is particularlyrue of Cleo M.Kearns'smore recent ttempt o read the last line of the poemin the twin contexts f theHindu tradition nd themodernistpoem. Much as I value Kearns's nterpretationorrecognizingnotonlythe mantric haracter fthe wordbut itskinshipwithOm, I cannotacceptherconclusion hatthe poet quibbleswithshantih which at once becomes immediateexperienceandmeditatedknowledge. 4 n this notetherefore, shall adverttotheUpanishadictradition f chanting heSantihmantran orderto comprehend shantih n the largercontextof the Hindutradition nd the specific ontext f its use in The WasteLand.I shall further rgue that,given this understanding, readermightfindnothingmore devastatinglyronic nthewholepoemthan itslast line.

1A Reader's Guide to T S. Eliot: A Poem-by-Poem nalysisLondon: Thames andHudson, 955), p- 54-2 Thomas tearns liot: Poet (Cambridge:CambridgeUniv.Press, 979), p. io6.3 T. S. Eliot: BetweenTwo Worlds: Reading fT S. Eliot'sPoetryndPlays London:Routledge& Kegan Paul, I973), p. I4I.4 T. S. Eliot and Indic Traditions: StudynPoetryndBelief Cambridge:CambridgeUniv. Press, 987), p. 229.

American iterature, olume6i, Number4, December I989. CopyrightC) I989 by theDuke Universityress.CCC 0002-983I/89/$I.50.

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682 American iteratureAmong the Hindusit is well known hat 'antih s chantedin solemn enedictiono oneselfnd to others. edicrecitationsstrictlyndwith he hant fthe antihmantra, hichs a verseinvocationeeking heblessingsf gods andsages n one's pur-suit of spiritualwisdom.The mantra ndswitha three-fold,solemnly unctuatedntonationf 'antih, receded ythemys-tic syllable m.Santih nfact ecomes benedictionnlywhenOmprecedest, as Omsa-ntiha-ntihantih, or he Upanishadsdescribe m as thesupreme ymbolfBrahman,ndeed f thewholeworld. We shallreturno the ignificancefOm n Vediccosmology resently.)That Eliot commanded more han rdinary nderstandingof theSantihmantras evidenced yhisnote.While, s a matterof fact, ot all theUpanishads o formallynd with 'antihntheir exts,5liot'snoterecognizesnly he onventionhat heymust, deally,ndso. Inconsistentith his hrewd ecognition,however,s thepoet's eeminglyntentionalvoidancef Om inthe ast ineofThe Waste and.Asa poetwhose arwasever ofinelyttunedo theresonancesf theWord, liotcouldhardlyhavemissed hemysticaluances ftheHindu Word.Further-more, heBrihadaranyakapanishad hichprovideshepoem'sultimatemessage ommences ithOm, detailwhich liot snot ikely ohave verlooked.We shallnowconsider he ignifi-canceofOminVediccosmology,tspreeminences theHindulogos.Chandogya-Upanishad,.I,openswith detailed ccount fOm (also knownas udg7ta,he loud chant) nd itsmysticalimport.The Upanishad ntroducesm as thesymbol f theSupreme, nd theonlymeansofmeditation,nd exhortshedevotees o intone hesyllable everentiallynd withabsolutepurityf soul.The secondverse f theUpanishad oeson todetailhowOm mustbe deemed he ife-giverf all the ivingand sentientreaturesfthisworld: The essence fthese eingsis the arth; he ssence fearths water. he essence fwater splants; he ssence fplantss a person. he essence fa personis speech.The essence fspeech s theRk hymn). he essence

5Of the eighteen PrincipalUpanishads S. Radhakrishnan as translated nd edited,only the text of Taittiriya panishad ncorporateshe Santihmantra t the beginning.That all theUpanishadsmust nd withtherecitationf the mantra s a convention edicscholarsobserve universally, hether he mantraforms artof theUpanishadictextornot.



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Notes 683of theRk is sdmanchant).The essence f the sdmanchant)is theudgLtaOm]. 6 Striking,ndeed,s the wholeness f thisuniversend tsmutual elatedness.he earth nd water, ersonand speech, hechant nd thesyllablenherehomogeneouslywithin worldmade entirelyf theWordOm. More striking,however,s the contrast hispassage uggests hile set besideThe Waste and with ts narchicmuddle f persons ndvoices,objects ndplaces.Eliot'sproprietynseveringmfrom shan-tih rests n the fact hat na poemthat ffersittlemore hannon-essencesn brokenmages, m, hequintessentialourceof all order nd harmonyn life ccordingo theUpanishads,does not and cannot ind place.Distraughtnd divided, hepersonagesnTheWaste and canneithermeditate n Om noruttert.'Reft oresolutely,s itwere, rom m,what hen oes shan-tih suggest n the poem's valediction?t culminates,o mymind, medley fhalf-heardchoes rom varietyf iteraturesbymimickinga formalnding o an Upanishad. 8he poet'sirony n matching shantih with he mind horing ragmentsand thetongue aving mprecationss hard tomiss: shantihhere s notso much wished s wishedfor.Eliot's translationof shantih which, ncidentally,e calls feeble n his noteto thefirstdition fthe poem)9 s peace whichpassethall]understanding hereforessumesan ominously iteralmeaning.The vanityof uttering shantih n The WasteLand, in otherwords, ompareswith hat f thewisemenof Judahwhom heLord rebukes orhavinghealed hehurt fthedaughter f mypeopleslightly,aying,eace,peace;when heres no peace.0What, indeed, breaks past thediscipline f irony s thepoemitselfwhose fragmentations literallyarried o itsvery astlineand made to servean ironic nd.

6 The PrincipalUpanishads,rans. nd ed. S. RadhakrishnanI953; London: GeorgeAllen & Unwin, 1974), pp. 337-38.7 Kearnsseems to imply hiswhen she remarks hat he deletionofOn represents,amongotherthings, he moderndilemmaof the ogos.

8 T. S. Eliot, Notes on theWasteLand in The Waste and and Other oems NewYork: Harcourt,Brace& World,1930), p. 54.9 Notes to theText oftheFirstEditionof The Waste and, reprintedn The WasteLand: A Facsimile nd TranscriptftheOriginal rafts. ., ed. Valerie Eliot (New York:Harcourt,1971), p. I49.10Jeremiah : i .


shanti in the wl

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