Low Buffoonery and Mocking Laughs

Bhagavan Das · Constitution of Man Series · 20 pages

The fullest of the Bhagavan Das extracts in this section, and the companion to Laughter, Smiles, Tears in Confusing Words. Laughter is again defined as the physical manifestation of a sudden and excessive recognition of one's own superiority, but here it is paired with its opposite: what the orgasm of laughter is to pleasure, the orgasm of sobs is to pain, and as laughter is the abrupt expansion of body and mind, so sobbing is their sudden spasmodic contraction. The ego-feeling takes shape as self-complacence in the one and self-pity in the other. Laughter, he grants, is always egoistic — though the young have a right and almost a duty to be egoistic, since otherwise they would not grow, and growing is always at the expense of someone else.

The second half turns from analysis to counsel and is where the section's own concerns show. There are more grounds for sorrow than for laughter in the present world; the great teachers laugh seldom but smile often, in tenderness and sadness — sad to see another's pain, tender to relieve it. The distinction drawn is between the violent physical laugh, which expresses the coarse sense of moreness of the egocentric man, and the quiet tender smile, which expresses the subtle sense of moreness of the unselfish one. Mockery is called the fume of little hearts against noble manners as the blossoms of the noble heart, and golden silence is offered as the only antidote to self-assertion.

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