No Reason No Rhyme

“Nothing heroic ever happens at all!
No peacock with sapphire fire upon’t ever dances,
As one danced once, with the rose of daybreak around, about, upon and on all sides of it
(as a sapphire set against a glowing sphere)
And the marble (upon which the peacock alighted for a dance) was splendored too by the winter sun
And the glittering river flowed past (coursing towards the sea)
And I had in my palm then the romance of all of Hindustan, in the span of an instant!”

One cannot read, for instance, James Joyce’s Ulysses without coming away with the impression that he knew everything about everything. Literally. The student of G.V. Desani will have a likewise impression. Desani’s knowledge and understanding of the world in which he lived is universal. He was without a doubt, as far as literature is concerned, the James Joyce of his time. There won’t be another like him for generations, I imagine. He was a Jagatguru. I would, without hesitation, go so far as to say he was in a constant state of Hypostasis.

Professor Desani kept copies of everything he published. This included articles on news print and various periodicals. These he would copy again and give them to his close associates, friends, devotees. I recall visiting a local company, Ginny’s copying service, on 19th Street in Austin, making hundreds of copies on their “xerox” machines, collating, and stapling these articles with him. Todd Katz was one of those with whom he shared these. Todd was diligent enough to maintain these records. In today’s mail I received some of these now very old and faded documents. They are copies of work originally published in the 1960s in The Illustrated Weekly of India under the heading of “No Rhyme No Reason”. Now the paper is wrinkled, the staples rusted and the type obscured.

Todd has laboriously transcribed these pieces along with their margin notes and you will find links to them in .pdf format at Desani.org. All of the documents there have gone through this process. He types them up and I proof read them. It is worth noting that of all the people attracted to Professor during his years in the U.S. Mr. Katz is the only one who has worked diligently to bring these now obscure efforts of Professor Desani to light. Aside from the youtube interview(s) – posted anonymously – no one has done more in this regard. I’d also note that Desani had, and instilled in us, an abiding intention to publish his remaining works. Its why we were attracted to him in large part. We wanted to be involved in bringing his writing to as large an audience as possible. Professor never asked directly for help – not in so many words. He repeatedly shared his dream with those close to him and we merely picked it up via osmosis. Its only natural that those seeds he planted would take root in some of us and eventually come to some limited fruition, at least. We wanted to be a part of something larger than ourselves, frankly. Todd is to be commended for nurturing Desani’s dream and somewhat making it his life mission.

There was to have been the Rissala, which exists somewhere in manuscript form. Todd typed it up himself. But there was also to be a book based on Desani’s diaries which would contain – of particular interest to this writer – voluminous information about his experiences with Nadi texts directed to him personally. The Nadi texts he bequeathed to Boston University, I am given to understand. The diaries are at the University of Texas along with the remainder of Desani’s papers.

The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center, has communicated to me that they do not have the Rissala manuscript. You will find a link to the the Ezra Pound piece here.