Volltext - ub-dok: der Dokumentenserver der UB Trier - Universität ...

8.4. Billy Kwan, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Fractured Soul
The key to understanding The Year of Living Dangerously lies, to paraphrase Billy, in
understanding the Bhagavad Gita. The key to the Bhagavad Gita is the Supreme Utterance of
Krishna made to Arjuna before the epic battle between the Pandavas and the Kuravas. Arjuna,
as leader of the Pandavas who aim to win back the land taken unjustly from them by the
Kuravas, rides before his army as it forms up before the battle. There Arjuna sees his brothers,
uncles, cousins, nephews, teachers and friends lined up on both sides, poised to slaughter each
other. He is taken by deep regret, and doubts whether he should give the order for the battle to
begin. His charioteer, friend and advisor, Krishna, reveals himself as the Incarnation of the
Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer of the world, and delivers the Supreme Utterance, telling
Arjuna, and the world,
Time am I, the Destroyer great and mighty, appearing here to sweep all men
away. Even without thee [and thine act of leadership] none of these warriors
here, in their ranks arrayed, shall remain alive. Therefore, do thou arise, win
glory, smite the foe, enjoy in prosperity thy lordship. By Me, and Me alone,
have they long since been routed. BE THOU NOUGHT BUT MY TOOL
(BG, 11.32-33; as translated in Zimmer, 1969, 384).
This concept of time as ‘great and mighty destroyer’, which is inextricably, and somewhat
contradictorily, bound with the workings of the free will of men to effect the regeneration of
creation and the cosmic order, is one of the pivot points in the Asian novels of C. J. Koch.
It is tempting (or rather just habit) for a Westerner to feel frustration in this cosmic
doubleness where free will must exist alongside predestined fate, as Cowie does in his analysis
of The Year of Living Dangerously, where
man is reduced to nothing much more than the status of a pawn, interesting
perhaps but still a pawn, pushed about the cosmic gaming board or plucked
from its ambivalent chequered surface at the caprice of two contrasting
destinies, one apparently playing for the good of his immortal soul—but which
one, however?—and the other, with spite and malice, plotting out the nearest
moves towards his eternal ruin. (Cowie, 96)
This again is putting Koch and his novels into a modernist Western tradition where he does not
belong. Billy Kwan is not a pawn in an absurd world ruled by mean predestination, but is
following Arjuna’s example in heeding Krishna’s words and taking the critical step beyond his
- 169 -