Antonement

"Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds"
-Verse 32, Chapter 11 Bhagavad Gita

There stood today, a giant ant, in the center of my bedroom. Mandibles swaying gently in the breeze, it fixed upon me a dark and beady stare. It was almost human in its intensity. This made my decision to kill it even more difficult. I stood, resolute, in my decision. Almost weeping from the emotional strain, I knelt in front of it. I quietly ordered it out. It did not move. I did not want to do this, I said. It was mute in its defiance. I explained that I had a deathly fear of ants crawling into my ear as I slept, and that his death would serve as a cautionary tale for the rest of his ilk. He crawled towards me, insolent in the face of his would-be killer.

Slowly I stood, and chanted a prayer for his soul. I felt a murderous Lord Krishna, reciting an unholy Bhagavad Gita, to a poor Antjuna. Fearing to look at my victim, I placed a soft floor mat upon his body. I jumped upon it, and, torn between fear, rage and piety, I jumped repeatedly on the mat. Catching my reflection in the mirror, it looked as though I was doing a pagan dance of death upon the grave of mine enemy. Weeping openly now, I flung the floor mat away to pay my respects to the remnants of his brave body. Alas! What was this?! Before my thunderstruck eyes, the ant was alive, and crawled to safetly before my murderous hands could overcome their paralysis. I shrieked and cried as I praised God and his infinite mercy, for he had saved 2 souls this day!

Such as it is, thoughts and ineffectual actions do have their price. Later that day, I stood in the garden, unbeknownst, next to a red ant nest. As I pirouetted and hopped and danced in the throes of pain (much as I had danced upon the floor mat that very morn), I observed Karma laughing gleefuly at me in the corner.

Sanju