The Ant's A Centaur...

 "The ant’s a centaur in his dragon world.

Pull down thy vanity, it is not man
Made courage, or made order, or made grace,
Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down.
Learn of the green world what can be thy place
In scaled invention or true artistry,
Pull down thy vanity,"

                                                 Ezra Pound 


With such impunity I crush the little ant rushing across the page of the book, as though it were but a couple of grains of rye. I, who pride myself in my non-violent, vegetarian, conscientious living, have no qualms whatsoever in squashing this teenie meeni formic creature scurrying across the page exultant in its existence. Mumsy says, no problem darling, may be you were just instrumental in helping it reach its next stage of evolution...may be it would be now reborn as a Brahmin ant. Her words sound like ambrosia to my guilt-ridden conscience. Hmm...frowns the Propounder of the Geeta. According to him my Karma is going to haunt me and I would be born as an ant in my next life... Beware, he adds, lest thy anti-ant propensities metamorphose thee into Auntie Ant. True, I have killed thousands of ants, without remorse. A confession is made and registered. Even I don't understand my nonchalant proclivity to cruelty towards this wee critter.

The Silly One wants to share the same old joke. "Once two ant-friends were sitting on a tree by a river. An elephant was bathing right below the branch they sat on. A sudden gust of wind pushed one of the ants off its perch and it fell right on the pachyderm. The ant still clinging to the tree got all euphoric and screamed excitedly: "Crush the elephant, crush him". The Silly One doubles up laughing at his own joke. 

Thankfully ants have no ears to pay heed to such nonsense. Moreover, they have too many chores lined up for the day: aphids to milk, slaves to train, food to horde, carcasses to attack, sugar to dessert on and humans to bite into! Is it a coincidence that they have two stomachs? 

                          *******

The Jain monks sweep the ground as they walk to ensure that they do not harm the tiniest of creatures inadvertently, even an ant. And here I am, several echelons below the monk in my evolutionary human consciousness. A wayward stone may be. 


FYI: The next International Ant Meeting is gonna be on Nov 05, 2023 in Manaus, Brazil. May be I'll see you there...either as an ant or a myrmecologist. Who knows?

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