"Shantih" in The Waste Land Author(s): K. Narayana Chandran Source: American Literature, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Dec.

, 1989), pp. 681-683 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2927003 . Accessed: 25/11/2013 10:35
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in The WasteLand "Shantih"

K. NARAYANA CHANDRAN

University ofHyderabad

of Land has the singulardistinction last line of The Waste on the poem. On the the best commentators havingbaffled resultsin absolute incomprehension one hand, theirbafflement as in George Williamson'sequation of "shantih" with the mad or in such suspicionas A. D. Moody's ravingof Hieronymo,1 "that the Sanskritis meant not to be readilyunderstood"2by like David Westernreaders.On the otherhand, a commentator Ward wonderswhy a poem "so littlelike the Upanishads in its ends withthe "blessingor greeting universe" moral and spiritual of peace."3 allusionsin The WasteLand, like the othercryptic Evidently, "shantih" makes us feel the inadequacy of annotations; we true of Cleo M. "know and do not know." This is particularly to read the last line of the poem Kearns's more recentattempt and the modernist in the twin contextsof the Hindu tradition for recognizing poem. Much as I value Kearns's interpretation of the word but its kinshipwith not only the mantriccharacter Om, I cannot accept her conclusionthatthe poet quibbles with "shantih" which at once becomes "immediateexperience and I shall advertto meditatedknowledge."4In thisnote therefore, the Santih mantrain order of chanting the Upanishadic tradition to comprehend "shantih" in the larger contextof the Hindu contextof its use in The WasteLand. traditionand the specific a reader I shall further argue that, given this understanding, ironicin the whole poem mightfindnothingmoredevastatingly than its last line. THE
Hudson,I955), p- I542
3

(London: Thames and 1A Reader's Guide to T S. Eliot: A Poem-by-Poem Analysis

ThomasStearns Eliot: Poet (Cambridge:CambridgeUniv. Press, I979), p. io6. and Plays(London: A Readingof T S. Eliot'sPoetry T. S. Eliot: BetweenTwo Worlds: Routledge& Kegan Paul, I973), p. I4I. 4 T. S. Eliot and Indic Traditions: and Belief(Cambridge:Cambridge A Studyin Poetry Univ. Press, I987), p. 229. Volume 6i, Number 4, December I989. CopyrightC) I989 by the Literature, American Press. CCC 0002-983I/89/$I.50. Duke University

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682

AmericanLiterature

Amongthe Hindus it is well knownthats'antihis chanted Vedicrecitations and to others. to oneself in solemnbenediction whichis a verse end withthechant oftheSantihmantra, strictly theblessings ofgodsand sagesin one'spurseeking invocation ends witha three-fold, wisdom.The mantra suit of spiritual preceded by themysofs'antih, intonation solemnly punctuated onlywhen a benediction becomes Om. Santihin fact ticsyllable forthe Upanishads sa-ntih santih, Om precedes it, as Om sa-ntih of Brahman, indeedof the Om as thesupreme symbol describe ofOm in Vedic to thesignificance (We shallreturn wholeworld. cosmology presently.) a morethanordinary understanding That Eliot commanded is evidenced byhisnote.While,as a matter oftheSantihmantra in end withs'antih do formally of fact, not all the Upanishads thatthey onlytheconvention Eliot'snoterecognizes their texts,5 withthisshrewd recognition, end so. Inconsistent must, ideally, of Om in avoidance intentional however, is thepoet'sseemingly Land. As a poetwhoseearwas everso thelastlineof The Waste of theWord, Eliotcouldhardly to theresonances finely attuned oftheHindu Word.Furthernuances havemissedthemystical whichprovides thepoem's Upanishad more,theBrihadaranyaka commences withOm,a detailwhichEliotis "message" ultimate thesignifiWe shallnowconsider to haveoverlooked. notlikely itspreeminence as theHindu canceof Om in Vediccosmology, logos. L.I, opens witha detailedaccountof Chandogya-Upanishad, the loud chant)and its mystical Om (also knownas udg7ta, Om as the symbol of the import.The Upanishadintroduces the and exhorts and the onlymeansof meditation, Supreme, and withabsolute to intonethe syllable reverentially devotees goes on to of soul. The secondverseof the Upanishad purity the living of all be the Om must deemed detailhow life-giver ofthese "The essence world: ofthis beings and sentient creatures is is water. The essence ofwater theessence ofearth is theearth; The is a person. essence ofa person ofplants theessence plants; The essence of speechis theRk(hymn). is speech.The essence
5 Of the eighteen"PrincipalUpanishads"S. Radhakrishnan has translated and edited, the Santih mantraat the beginning. Upanishadincorporates only the text of Taittiriya Vedic of the mantrais a convention That all the Upanishads mustend withthe recitation whetherthe mantraformspart of the Upanishadic textor scholarsobserve universally, not.

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Notes

683

of the Rk is sdman(chant).The essenceof thesdman(chant) is theudgLta[Om]. 6 Striking, is the wholeness of this indeed, universe and itsmutual relatedness. The earth and water, person and speech,the chantand the syllable inherehomogeneously within a worldmade entirely of the WordOm. More striking, is the contrast thispassagesuggests however, while set beside The Waste Land withitsanarchic muddle ofpersons and voices, Om from and places.Eliot'spropriety in severing objects "shantih"rests on thefact thatin a poemthatoffers little morethan non-essences in "broken images," Om,thequintessential source of all orderand harmony in lifeaccording to the Upanishads, does not and cannotfinda place.Distraught and divided, the in The Waste Land can neither personages meditate on Om nor it.' utter Reft from so resolutely, as it were, Om,whatthendoes "shantih" suggestin the poem's valediction? It culminates, to my a medley a variety ofhalf-heard echoesfrom ofliteratures mind, The poet's "a formal to an Upanishad."8 by mimicking ending irony in matching "shantih" withthe mindshoring fragments and the tongueraving imprecations is hardto miss: "shantih" here is not so much wishedas wishedfor.Eliot's translation of "shantih" he calls "feeble"in his note (which,incidentally, to thefirst of the poem)9as "peacewhichpasseth edition [all] withthatofthewisemenofJudah words, compares whomthe Lord rebukes forhaving "healedthehurt ofthedaughter ofmy when there is no I0 Peace, peopleslightly, saying, peace; peace.
understanding" therefore assumesan ominously literalmeaning. The vanityof uttering "shantih"in The WasteLand, in other

What, indeed, breakspast the disciplineof ironyis the poem itselfwhose fragmentation is literally carriedto its verylast line and made to servean ironicend.

6 The PrincipalUpanishads, trans.and ed. S. Radhakrishnan London: George (I953; Allen & Unwin, 1974), pp. 337-38. 7 Kearns seems to implythis when she remarks thatthe deletionof On "represents, among otherthings, the moderndilemmaof the logos." 8 T. S. Eliot, "Notes on the Waste Land" in The Waste Land and OtherPoems (New York: Harcourt,Brace & World, 1930), p. 54. 9 "Notes" to the Text of the FirstEdition of The Waste in The Waste Land, reprinted Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts.. ., ed. Valerie Eliot (New York: Harcourt, 1971), p. I49. 10Jeremiah 8: i i.

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