Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

CHAPTER 35
A Change in the Appointed Course of the Falling of the Transspace Ship Karnak

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At this point of Beelzebub’s conversation with his kinsmen, he was told that the captain of the ship sought permission to speak with him personally.

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Soon after Beelzebub had given his consent, the captain entered and with a respectful salute addressed Beelzebub and said:

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“Your Reverence, at the beginning of our journey you condescended to let fall a word which hinted that on the return journey you would perhaps decide to stop on the way at the holy planet Purgatory to see the family of your son Tooilan. If this is indeed your intention, then it will be better if you give me the order to do so now, because we shall soon be passing through the solar system Khalmian, and if having passed this system we do not direct the falling of our ship immediately more to the left, we shall greatly lengthen the path of its falling.”

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“Yes, please, my dear Captain,” Beelzebub replied. “There is nothing against stopping on the way at this holy planet. No one knows whether there will be another such happy occasion for me to go there and visit the family of my dear son Tooilan.”

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When the captain saluted and was on the point of going out, Beelzebub suddenly, as if remembering, stopped him and addressed him in the following words:

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“Wait, my dear Captain, I want to ask you to accede to yet another of my requests.” And when the captain, drawing nearer, had sat down in his appointed place, Beelzebub continued thus:

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“My request to you is that you consent after the visit to the holy planet Purgatory, to give our ship Karnak such a course of falling that on the way we may reach the surface of the planet Deskaldino.

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“The point is that, in the present period of the flow of time on that planet, the Great Saroonoorishan, my first educator, so to say the fundamental cause of all the spiritualized parts of my genuine common presence, has the place of his permanent existence.

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“I should like, as at that first time, before going to the sphere on which I arose, to profit by this occasion and fall once more at the feet of the prime creator of my genuine being, the more so, since just now, returning from my perhaps last conference, the entire satisfactoriness of the present functioning of all the separate spiritualized parts of my common presence was revealed not only to me myself, but also to most of the individuals I met, and in consequence, the being-impulse of gratitude towards that Great Saroonoorishan arose in me and is still inextinguishably maintained.

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“I very well know, my dear Captain, that I am giving you no easy task, because I have already been a witness of the difficulties in carrying out this same request of mine, when, returning for the first time after my gracious pardon to the place of my arising on the planet Karatas, I desired before descending onto it, to visit the surface of the planet Deskaldino. On that occasion, when the captain of the intersystem ship Omnipresent had agreed to this and directed the falling of the Omnipresent in the direction of the atmosphere of that planet and was indeed able to carry out my request, I was able, before my return to my native land, to reach the surface of the planet Deskaldino and I had the happiness of greeting the Great Saroonoorishan, the creator of my genuine being-existence, and to receive from him his ‘creator-benediction,’ most dear and most precious to me.”

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To this request of Beelzebub’s, the captain of the ship Karnak answered:

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“Very good, your Reverence, I will think out how it may be possible to carry out your desire. I do not know just what obstacles there were then for the captain of the ship Omnipresent, but in the present case, on the direct route between the holy planet Purgatory and the planet Deskaldino, there lies the solar system called Salzmanino, in which there are many of those cosmic concentrations which, for purposes of the general cosmic Trogoautoegocratic process, are predetermined for the transformation and radiation of the substances Zilnotrago; and therefore the direct falling of our ship Karnak, unhindered, through this system, will scarcely be possible. In any case, I will try in one way or another to satisfy the desire expressed by your Reverence.”

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Having said this the captain rose and, respectfully saluting Beelzebub, went out.

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When the captain of the ship had left the place where Beelzebub was sitting with his kinsmen, Hassein ran to his grandfather and again sitting down as usual at his feet, coaxingly asked Beelzebub to continue to relate what had happened to him after his departure from the capital of that large community of the beings of the planet Earth which was called St. Petersburg.