A Brief Commentary on Bob Dylan's Mississippi continued 

Verse Two
"Devil's in the alley"

Yes, the devil—could be coooties and doubts and heresy; could be the
devil tempting Jesus with the rulership of the world on a desert
mountaintop or whatever other carrots on stick keep the mules plodding
on course. But regardless...

[this] "mule's in the stall/"

This mule is no longer attracted by carrots. No more running around
led by false and unattainable motivations. For me the carrot was in
the joy of teaching and actually doing something good in people's
lives (yes I'm one of those who benefits from TM and Siddhis, and has
seen it work for others) and hope for the Maharishi Effect—what if
it's true, what if it works, what if they really do have 500 groups of
200, or 200 groups of 500, or several large groups or whatever the
story is this week, in India doing Rudra Vaishek(?) yagyas every day.
It's worth a try isn't it? But there came too many credibility gaps,
more like credibility crevasses, really, for the mule to leave the
stall again. Now it's ... 

"Say anything you want to/I have heard it all"
Heaven on Earth, save the world one more time, duty, shame,
responsibility, 500 pandits, 3000 peace palaces, all the governors
will be paid and be wealthy, free rounding, bliss, you must live in a
vastu home or you can't teach, David Lynch is saving the world, so
many are experiencing unity consciousness.  One day it's "bye bye Kali
Yug, hello Sat Yug", and the next it's "even the Jordan River has
bodies floating" and America is Invincible and so much death and
destruction is a triumph of consciousness somehow. And oh yeah, now
we'll give you a certificate you can pass down as a family heirloom if
do group program for three months in a row. Whatever.

"I was thinking about the things that Rosie said/I was dreaming I was
sleeping in Rosie's bed/"

Indeed, gimme Rosie's sweet whispers, caresses and an orgasm any day.
Please.

"Walking through the leaves falling from the trees/feeling like a
stranger nobody sees/"

Beautiful. When the cosmic egg has cracked and and we start to awaken,
our belief systems and mental constructs have fallen like dead leaves,
and we know beyond uncertainty that we are not our roles, not our
thoughts, not our ideas, not our personality, it can get hard to
relate to those around us. Maybe they seem like they are still in a
dream; maybe we become hyper conscious of the roles we all have to
play; maybe they are looking at us like we are still here, but we're
not. Maybe even our good friends, our lovers, our spouses just don't
really get it. They're still rowing the boat gently down the stream.

"Some people will offer you their hand and some won't"
Enough said.

"Last night I knew you; tonight I don't/"
This can refer to how the world we once knew is gone and has become
unfamiliar to us. But it also refers to how our awakened vision can
fade—yesterday I knew, today I'm myself again; before vision
stabilizes, before we are fully awake.

"I need something strong to distract my mind/I'm gonna look at you
'til my eyes go blind/"
More favorite lines—back to Being; yoga, meditation, dhayana, when the
mind becomes fully absorbed in the object of attention and then,
samadhi, eyes go blind, ears don't hear, no sensory input, just
silence, Being.

"I got here following the Southern star/"
In the northern hemisphere people navigate by the pole star and other
northern constellations. The Southern Star is the unconventional, the
unorthodox, the star of the outlaws and renegades of the land of the
southern cross to where the convicts were banished. Those who end up
thinking for themselves and trusting their own experience and their
own minds become, in this sense, an outlaws, methinks. Or lions, as
Dr. Pete says.

"I crossed that river just to be where you are/"
There was a blonde standing on the far side of the river. I asked her
how to get to the other side. "Silly," she said, "you're ON the other
side." It was Rosie and when we finally got together she had lots more
to say, although most of it wasn't verbal—we never did too much
talking anyway.

"Only one thing I did wrong/Stayed in Mississippi a day too long/"

... cont'd





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