"THE TEMPLE OF MEN"

~ NOVEL PARTS ~
«......He lived from his enchanted fantasies, he, Bye, had this single opportunity of an unembarrassed path,
because he had had a righteous upbringing and an admirable master.
Felt like a receptacle of music repeating melodious notes, the sounds of life that dazzled him.
There were no unexpected events in his life, just like a trip with no new discoveries,
a route that suddenly would open without horizons, to an endless track without destination.
A state of high energy dominating the moment; he was passing unscathed through the ring of social paradigms that affected his parents,
ignored in his live and creative adolescent mind.
He lived as snowflakes that reach the soil and melt down in water in a fraction of uncountable time...»

«Bye - How come? Does the ego make people ugly?

Babu - My boy, beauty is a futile shell, the real beauty is within us, that’s what really make people beautiful or ugly.
It’s like a very beautiful man or woman, but with no qualities whatsoever,
their apparent beauty is shadowed by their empty and futile character,
because they think they are beautiful and live their entire life on their external appearance, never looking into themselves.
Their own beauty blinds them and they can’t see their essence.
They are blind and confident of their exterior aspect, taking for granted the fundamental aspects of life.

Bye - It gets more and more difficult, Sadhu. You tell me difficult things.

Babu - No, my boy, it’s not that difficult. If you look at this beautiful coconut,
can you tell if its water is fresh and sweet before opening it?..

Bye - No, sometimes, coconuts deceive us!

Babu - (Laughing at Bye's innocence) - Yes, coconuts and people!

Bye - So, are you saying coconuts are like people, Sadhu?

Babu - They are different, but they are both children of Mother Nature, only they are different.
Coconuts are vegetables and people are animals.

Bye - So, coconuts also have ego, Sadhu? »

Miguel Martins de Menezes

(In "The Temple of Men)
Translation by Maud V. Rugeroni