“The Play’s the Thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.” William Shakespeare – Hamlet Act 2 Scene 2
A play adapted by Visvakarma dasa from the the writings of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in the Srimad Bhagawatam.
List of Characters 10
Adam – Dying Father, Head of the Family 88
His Prostitute Wife – 48 Blonde
Krishna – Youngest Son 13
Joseph – Agent of Enlightenment 25
Robert – Agent of Enlightenment 25
Daniel – Agent of Enlightenment 25
Peter – Agent of Death 50
Jack – Agent of Death 50
Colin – Agent of Death 50
Maid – 22
Introduction
Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail. — Bhagavad-gita as it is Chapter 8 Verse 6- A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
In the Srimad Bhagwatam we learn of the servants of Lord Krishna, who appear at the time of death to accompany the pious soul on it’s way to the spiritual world.
The Bhagawatam also tells of the fearsome agents of the lord of death, who forcefully arrest the soul of a sinful man and prepare it for its next incarnation in the prison of a material body.
In this play, the agents of enlightenment and the agents of death debate the fate of the soul of Adam now laying on his deathbed, on whether he should be liberated or reincarnated with the agents of enlightenment.
The discourse between the agents of both camps, reveal the destiny of each individual soul at their time of death and why?
Death is for certain for all current living beings, so the knowledge contained in this drama is relevant and valuable to all people regardless of race, color or creed.
Setting the Scene…..
Adam as a young man was very pious, but fell from the path of spiritual life and lost all of his good qualities when he found material love with a prostitute.
Throughout most of his teenage and adult life he acted more like a dog in heat rather than an elevated human being. Giving up his spiritual focus he passed his life in complete illusion focusing mostly on pleasing his genitals. He fathered ten sons. The youngest by destiny’s child he named Krishna — one of the potent names of the Supreme Lord Krishna.
The name of God is invested with transcendental potency depending on the name spoken. Adam was very attached to his youngest son and derived great pleasure watching the child’s early attempts to walk and talk. That attachment for his son would lead to his salvation in the end despite his degraded life. Thus, the stage is set for the Salvation of Adam!
Act 1
One day in his 88th year, without warning, the time of death arrived for the foolish star of the play Adam. Terrified, the old man saw before him three very serious agents from the Court of Death known as Peter, Jack and Colin. The three men had come to forcibly escort the soul of Adam to the court of the lord of death now that he was about to leave his body. Adam seeing his imminent demise went into shock and began to cry loudly for his youngest son to come and help him!
Adam: “Krishna! Krishna! Krishna!!”
With tears in his eyes, weeping for his young son, the great sinner Adam had unconsciously chanted a holy name of God at this most critical moment.
Adam’s call for help alerted the agents of enlightenment and they immediately arrived at the front door of his house. The maid quickly escorts them into the room of death to confront the agents of death who had arrived before them, The agents of Enlightenment are Joseph, Robert and Daniel. Their handsome bodies were dressed with the finest clothes.
The agents of enlightenment saw the agents of death Peter, Jack and Colin ready to snatch Adam’s soul from the core of his heart, and with a resounding voice Robert yelled……,
Robert: Stop!
Peter, Jack and Colin had never before encountered any opposition in their work and this was certainly an exception. They immediately stopped.
Peter: Who are you gentleman? Why are you trying to stop us? We are just here to do our job.
Jack: We are the agents of the Lord of death and we have the power to take Adam’s soul and that’s what we are here to do.
Colin: We have read Adam’s life file before coming here, all of his good and bad works. As ye sow so shall ye reap. We are here to take him to the court of death to be sentenced to a lower species of life because of his sinful ways. Believe it.
Peter: Nothing can save him now. It has already been decided.
Lights Dim end of Act 1…..
Act 2
Lights come back on in the room of death. The agents of enlightenment smile and speak in voices as deep as the rumbling of rain clouds:
Robert: Peter If you are truly an agent of death, please explain to us the meaning of the cycle of birth and death? Tell us who must enter this cycle, and who must not?
Peter: The sun, fire, sky, air, demigods, moon, evening, day, night, the directions, water, land, and the Super soul, or the Lord within the heart, all witness the activities of everyone.
Jack: The candidates for punishment in the cycle of birth and death are those who are confirmed by these witnesses to have deviated from the spiritual path. Much of it is common sense.
Peter: In proportion to the extent of one’s good or bad actions in this life, one must enjoy or suffer the corresponding reactions of their karma in their next birth.
Colin: Let me give you some background into the origins of life. Originally the living beings existed in the spiritual world as eternal servants of God. When they gave up the service of the Lord, they had to enter the material universe, comprised of the three modes of nature — goodness, passion, and ignorance.
Peter: Those people who desire to enjoy this material world come under the control of these modes and, according to their specific relationship with these modes, acquire suitable material bodies.
Jack: A being in the mode of goodness obtains the body of a demigod, one in the mode of passion takes birth as a human, and one in the mode of ignorance enters the lower species. All of these bodies are like the bodies we experience in dreams. When a man goes to sleep, he forgets his real identity and may dream that he has become a king. He cannot remember what he was doing before he went to sleep, nor can he imagine what he will do upon waking. In the same way, when a soul identifies with a temporary, material body, he forgets his real, spiritual identity, as well as any previous lives in the material world, although most souls in a human body have already transmigrated through all 8,400,000 species of life.
Colin: The living entity thus transmigrates from one material body to another in human life, animal life, and life as a demigod,” When the living entity gets the body of a demigod, he is very happy. When he gets a human body, he is sometimes happy and sometimes sad.
Robert: And when he gets the body of an animal, he is always fearful. In all conditions, does he suffer terribly, experiencing birth, death, disease, and old age? This miserable condition is called samsara, or transmigration of the soul through different species of material life isn’t it?
Jack: Yes, the foolish individual unable to control his senses or his mind is forced to act according to the influence of the modes of material nature, even against his own desires. He is like a silkworm that uses its own saliva to create a cocoon and then becomes trapped in it.
Peter: The living entity traps himself in a network of his own fruitive activities and then can find no way to free himself. Thus he is always bewildered and repeatedly dies and is reborn and this is all because of his intense material desires. A living entity takes birth in a particular family and receives a body like that of either the mother or the father. That body is an indication of his past and future bodies, just as one springtime is an indication of past and future springtime’s. The human form of life is especially valuable, because only a human can understand the transcendental knowledge that can free him from the cycle of birth and death.
Colin: According to our information on his life history it appears he had wasted his human life in the pursuit of wine and woman. He was only interested in making and then spending money uselessly in these mundane gross pursuits. As ye sow so shall ye reap.
Peter: Look in the beginning Adam had studied all the scriptures. He was a reservoir of good character and conduct. He was very mild and gentle, and he kept his mind and senses under control. He was always truthful. He knew how to chant the Vedic mantras, and was very pure. Adam had always shown proper respect to his spiritual master, guests, and the elderly members of his household — indeed, he was free from false prestige. He was benevolent to all living beings and never envied anyone.
Colin: But once Adam following the order of his father, went to the forest to collect fruits and flowers on the way home, he came upon a very lusty, low-class man shamelessly embracing and kissing a prostitute. The man was smiling, singing, and enjoying himself as if this were proper behavior. Both the man and the prostitute were drunk. The prostitute’s eyes were rolling in intoxication, and her dress had become loose, partially exposing her body.
Jack: When Adam saw this prostitute, the dormant lusty desires in his heart awakened, and in illusion, he fell under her control. He tried to remember the instructions of the scriptures, and with the help of his knowledge and intellect he tried to control his lust but because of the force of Cupid within his heart, he was unable to control his mind.
Colin: After that, he always thought of the prostitute, and within a short time he took her in as a servant in his house. Adam then gave up all of his spiritual practices. He spent the money he had inherited from his father for presents for her and even rejected his beautiful young wife, who came from a respectable family.
Peter: We know Adam got money any way he could, legally or illegally, and used it to maintain his sons and daughters he had with his prostitute wife.
Colin: Before his death today he has not undergone any atonement process. Therefore, because of his sinful life, we must take him to the court of death. There, according to the extent of his sinful acts, he will be punished and then returned to the material world in a suitable body.
Lights dim end of Act 2……
Act 3 —
The agents of enlightenment speak out….
After hearing the statements of Colin, Peter and Jack, Robert, Joseph and Daniel the agents of enlightenment who are always expert in logic and argument, replied,
Robert: How painful it is to see that those in charge of upholding religious principles are needlessly punishing an innocent person like Adam. Adam has already atoned for all of his sins. Indeed, he has atoned not only for sins performed in this life, but for those performed in millions of previous lives as well, because he chanted the holy name of Krishna in a helpless state of mind at the time of death. Therefore, he is now pure and eligible for liberation from the cycle of reincarnation.
Daniel: The chanting of the holy name of God is the best process of atonement for a thief or a drunkard, for one who betrays a friend or relative, for one who kills a priest, or for one who indulges in illicit sex with the many prostitutes. It is also the best method of atonement for one who murders another person, the king, or his father, for one who slaughters innocent animals to satisfy the lust of the tongue.
Joseph: Simply by chanting the holy name of God sinful persons may attract the attention of the Supreme Lord, who therefore considers, ‘Because this man has chanted My holy name, it is My duty to give him protection.’ “
Daniel: In this present age of quarrel and hypocrisy, one who wants liberation from reincarnation should chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, the great mantra of deliverance, because it completely cleanses the heart of all material desires that keep one trapped in the cycle of birth and death.
Robert: One who chants the holy name of the Lord is immediately freed from the reactions of unlimited sins, even if he chants jokingly or for musical entertainment. This is accepted in the scriptures and by all learned scholars.
Joseph: If one chants the holy name of Lord Krishna and then dies in an accident or is killed by a deadly animal, from disease, or by a weapon, one is immediately freed from having to take birth again.
Daniel: As a fire burns dry grass to ashes, the holy name of Krishna burns to ashes all of one’s karmic reactions.
Joseph: If a person unaware of the potency of a medicine takes that medicine or is forced to take it, it will act even without his knowledge. Even if one does not know the value of chanting the holy name of the Lord, the chanting will still be effective in liberating one from reincarnation.
Robert: At the time of death Adam helplessly and very loudly chanted the holy name of the Lord, Krishna. That chanting alone has already freed him from having to take birth again for his sinful life. Therefore, do not try to take him to your master for punishment by another term of imprisonment in a material body.
The agents of death immediately turn and leave the room.
Adam comes to his senses and, free from fear, pays his heartfelt respects to Robert, Joseph and Daniel by bowing his head at their feet.
When the agents of enlightenment saw that Adam was trying to say something to them, they also immediately left the room and house.
Adam begins to speak……
Adam: Was this a dream I just saw and experienced or was it reality? I did see the agents of death with ropes in their hands coming to drag my soul from this sick and decayed body. Where have they gone? And where are those 3 agents of enlightenment who saved me?”
Adam then began to reflect on his life out loud to his wife and son who remain in the room of death with him.
Adam: Throughout my life I acted as an animal trying to satisfy my uncontrolled senses especially my mouth and my genitals. I fell down from my position as a very good person and begot children in the womb of my wife who was my prostitute, before I ran away and got married to her for a second time. Indeed I was totally bewildered by lust.
I gave up my chaste and beautiful young wife for the illusion of sexual happiness with someone else. What’s more when I really think about this, my father and mother were old and had no other friend or son to look after them except me. Because I did not take care of them, they lived with great pain and difficulty. It is now clear that a sinful person like myself should have been forced in his next life to suffer hellishly. I am such an unfortunate person but now that I have another chance through a true stroke of good luck and the mercy of God. I will now prepare to become free from the vicious cycle of birth and death by fixing my mind and intelligence in perfect meditation on the form of the Lord in his Holy Names as I give up this temporary material body and return Back home Back to godhead with Lord Krishna in Krishnaloka.
Adam leaves his body surrounded by friends and family chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. It is a glorious departure for the soul of our star Adam.
Lights go dark
THE END
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