Question- What is the significance of Da', 'Da, Da' in the last section of "The Waste Land' entitled 'What The Thunder Said'.

Or
What does the poet mean by "Datta Dayadhvam Damyata" in the fifth section of The Waste Land?

Answer -

In the Brihadaranyaka Upnishad, a pupil puts a question to his teacher, 'what constitutes the essence of a good life? There is in the sky a thunder clap 'Da, Da, Da', Then smiling at his pupils the teacher asks them whether they have heard the answer from the sky or not. He then adds that the three Da's make the essence of good. They stand respectively for 'Datta', 'Dayadhram' and 'Damyata'. 'Datta' means Be charitable, 'Dayadharam' means Be compassionate and 'Damyata' means control your Indriyas and your tendencies. Thus, the three Da's, stand for 'Dana' (charity) 'Daya' (compassion) and 'Dama' (self-control).

Important Explanations

1.

April is the cruelest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain

- (Lines 1 to 4) (The Burial of the Dead)

Reference: These lines occur in T. S. Eliot's long poem entitled "The Waste Land'. These lines form the part of the interior monologue spoken to himself by Tiresias.

Context: The opening lines are the meditations of Tiresias, the representative of humanity. He thinks that modern materialistic life is a Waste Land for the human soul, since there grows in it nothing that can nourish the spirit. Tiresias is the spokesman of Eliot.

Explanation: Tiresias says that the spring season with its April rain stirs the dull roots of lilac and other trees in the Waste Land. It also turns them green and covers them with blossoms and flowers soon. The spring also excites in men and women sexual desire which arouses their spirits from the slumber of materialism. Their souls, woken up to their existence, look into the present, the future, and the past. The memory of what had been and the desire for spiritual life, get mixed up and make them much too uneasy. Tiresias therefore concludes that the spring, or rather, April, is the most painful period of time for the people of the Waste Land. As they are torn by an inner conflict between a strong desire for spiritual life and dry thoughts of sensual pleasures.

2.

Reference- These lines have been selected from the famous long poem "The Waste Land' composed by T.S Eliot. It is widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry.

Context- These lines from the part of the interior monologue spoken is himself by. Tiresias. It has come from the section named The Burial of the dead'. Here the poet tells about Landon City and its condition through these lines.

Explanation- According to Eliot, London had become so unreal in the sense that the dwellers of the city have last touch with basic reality of olden pulse of germ and birth. As the brown fog comes in winter season and seems dark. London bridge has also come in the same condition. He says that many people are passing away through London bridge. It means they lived in London. Eliot is surprised to think about death. He wants to talk about the circles of hell in Dante's Infemo. He is comparing modern life to living in hell. The people in this scene are sighing staring at the ground front of their feet.

Comments-

1. Use of Symbols and imagery
2. The concluding part of the passage presents a masaic of quotations and allusions.
3. 'Unreal city' in the waste Land links up London with Paris, the City
of Baudelaire.

3.

Reference: As above..

Context: As above.

Explanation: Here, the poet says that by addressing to the river Thames that it runs softly and rhythmically till the end of his song and when it runs rhythmically he will speak not loud or long. But at back of his body he hears the rattle of the bones, and chuckle spreads from ear to ear.

4.

Reference: These lines occur in T. S. Eliot's long poem entitled "The Waste Land'. These lines form the part of the interior mondogue spoken to himself by Tiresias.

Context: Tiresias says that self control means the soul's perfect control of over its gross body, its mind and its senses. Only the perfect 'yogi' possesses such control. An ordinary man is a slave to his mind, 'Indriyas', and gross body.

Explanation Tiresias says that he has heard that the boat of the body mind combination sailed gaily according to the dictates of the 'yogi' sailor who had perfect control over his mind senses and body. Yogi' sailor who had perfect control over his mind, senses and body, Tiresias addresses the materialist in his imagination. He tells him if ever he had ever attempted to make self-realisation through the 'Samadhi', his self would have responded guilty and his heart would have responded to his invitation if and when he had invited it to appear in the 'Samadhi' beating obediently to the controlling hands of 'yoga'.

5.

Reference - These lines occur in T. S. Eliot's poem intitled The Waste Land'. The theme of the poem is the spiritual and emotional sterility of the modern world.

Context - These lines form an extract from 'What the Thunder said'. The title is based on dialogue in The Brihaderanyaka upnished.

Explanation - After the group of the human soldiers and the Jews had watched the anxious faces of Christ's disciples in the red light of their burning torches, and had identified Christ, the soldiers arrested him one night. After they had taken him away to prison, silence ruled over the gardens and nature covered them with frost. Christ suffered great mental and physical pain in the stony prison cells. The Jews shouted when they heard that the Roman Governor intended to release him from prison. There was a lot of crying from his followers when they heard that Christ would be crucified soon. Their cries of grief shook the prison and also the Governor's palace. When He was crucified, There was an echo of thunder of his resurrection over distant mountains. He who was alive in the form of christianity is now dead as a religious force. The Christian who were formerly spiritually alive in the light of christianity, are now dying.

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