TWO RECENT PUBLICATIONS RELATING TO INDIA
Prof. D. K. Chakravorty
Every year quite a sizeable number of books
relating to India written by writers belonging to several foreign countries are
published regularly. Some of those acquire immense popularity. Again with the
passage of time some books are consigned to the oblivion. However some of those
books endure and continue giving pleasure and profit to the readers. In this
article I intend to write about two such books. These two books are different
from each other. Yet both of them are quite impressive and thought provoking.
In the foreword of his book named “Great
Swami: Meetings with Ramkrishna”; Lex Hickson writes that it is not a
traditional biography, it is a workbook. The drama of Shri Ramkrishna’s wonderful
life is revealed before our mind’s eye. It seems as if we can see him preaching
us, giving us enlightenment, elevating us to a position where we can get
spiritual pleasure. There is also a cinematic quality in the book which never
fails to draw our attention.
A large number of books have been written on
the life and teaching of Shri Ramkrishna. Several writers of Europe and America
have written about him. Among them four names stand out in bold prominence.
From the chronological point of view, they are Max Mueller, a German by birth
but a naturalised citizen of England, Romain Rolland, the celebrated French
author, Christopher Isherwood, the well-known English author and critic and
finally Lex Hickson, an American author. Before we come to Lex Hickson’s book,
it would perhaps be advisable to refer briefly to the works of the three
authors named above relating to the life and teachings of Shri Ramkrishna.
We know that before Max Mueller wrote his
book, writers and transcendentalist thinkers like Emerson and Thoraeu
gratefully acknowledged the inspiration that they received from the Vedanta
Philosophy. At the same time however several dissenting voices were also heard.
In his book “Three Essays on Religion”. John Stuart Mill wrote: “God cannot be
all - powerful and all - merciful at the same time”. After the destructive
earth quake at Lisbon. Voltaire had expressed his doubts and misgivings about
the existence of God. Komte suggested that the Christian religion should be
replaced by the religion of man. Spencer said that the ways of God were
inscrutable. During the same time however Max Mueller was patiently translating
the Rigveda and was analysing the subtle points of Vedanta. During the last
decade of the last century Max Mueller decided to write about the great seer
and saint. In the year 1898, he published, his famous book, “Ramkrishna and his
Disciples”. The book gives the reader an understanding of the philosophy of the
great seer and ultimately we wholeheartedly agree with the view of the author:
“He (Shri Ramakrishna); was a poet, an enthusiast or if you like a dreamer of
dreams”.
Romain Rolland’s “The Life of Ramkrishna” was
published in the year 1928. Several years before writing this biography, he had
been awarded the Nobel prize for his novel ‘Jean Christopher’. He realised that
the life of Ramkrishna was ‘cantique des cantiques’ meaning great music in the
shape of man. In the foreword of his book he wrote: “Ramkrishna more fully than
any other man not only conceived, but realised in himself, the total unity of
this river of God, open to all rivers and all streams; that I have given him my
love”. To him “the only God is He who is a perpetual birth. The creation takes
places anew every instant. Religion is ceaseless action and will to strive – the
outpouring of a spring, never a stagnant pool”‘. He acknowledged that he got
this concept of God from the life and teachings of Shri Ramkrishna who had
realised that “unity, living and not abstract, is the essence of it all”.
Romain Rolland wrote: “To Ramkrishna Maya itself was God. It was one face of
Brahman”.
Christopher Isherwood’s “Ramkrishna and his
Disciples” was published in the year 1964. Before this book came out Isherwood
had established himself as a famous poet, novelist and political thinker. As it
happened in the case of Aldous Huxley earlier, there was a sudden and
inexplicable change in the life of Isherwood. He joined the centre for Vedanta
studies in California and became an ardent disciple of Swami Prabhavananda.
Rolland’s book is like a deep sea, where as
Isherwood’s work may be likened to a flowing river. Throughout the book,
Isherwood’s scientific thinking is always at work. He is not prepared to accept
anything without properly weighing the pros and cons of it. Yet he begins the book
with the classic statement: “This is the story of a phenomenon”. To him Sri
Ramkrishna is not only a great man or a great saint or a great mystic, he is a
phenomenon and while reading about him we must always remind ourselves “this
too is humanly possible”
Lex Hickson believes that the life and
teachings of Shri Ramkrishna may be compared with a great classic work of
literature and ...” each generation will produce its own version of the root
text”. Hickson rightly says that the scientists may wait with bated breath for
the day when Haking and Penrose and others would find out the unified field
consisting of an amalgamation of gravity, atomic reaction and electromagnetism.
If they succeed in finding out the unified field, they would present us a bunch
of complicated equations. Would that be of any help to men pestered by old age,
suffering, disease and terror of death? According to Lex Hickson, herein lies
precisely the relevance of this work.
Gunther Grass’s latest novel named “The Call
of the Toads” is a notable work of fiction. It is different from his earlier
works primarily because this novel has a message that never fails to captivate
the mind of the initiated readers.
In the background of Dunzing, a city in Poland, we meet the protagonists of the novel. They are Alexander Reshke, a German professor and Alexandra Piatayroska, a Polish artist. They become intimate with each other as they realise that their aims and objectives in life are similar. They want to teach the younger generation to try to make this world free from all types of pollution, to imbibe the spirit of brotherhood and to banish warfare. Germany and Poland have a long history of hostility and dissensions. They want to unite them by a novel method and they choose: Dunzing as their field of activity. They want to construct burial grounds where dead Germans and Polish people will lie in close proximity. They know that a large number of people of both countries died in the battle fields. “No one knows where their bodies are. Buried by the road side. Individual graves and mass graves. Sometimes only ashes. Death factories. Geqocide, the still unfathomable crime”. They want to give them a new and decent, funeral. They believe that this proximity of the dead would also bring living people close to each other. So, with great zeal and enthusiasm, they start work, but, soon they become frustrated. Shrewd business people with great commercial wisdom and acumen enter the fray and the very purpose of the enterprise is foiled. The couple find out to their utter dismay: “What was lost in the war is being re-taken by economic power. No tank, no dive bomber. No dictator rules, but, only the free market. Money rules. We resign”.
At this juncture the couple come in
contact with an Indian, Subhas Chandra Chatterjee. Mr. Chatterji is an ordinary
man. He is neither a patriot nor an
artist. He came to England for higher education. Then he travelled to various
places in search of livelihood and finally younger reached Dunzing and started
production of cycle rickshaws and soon his business thrived. Chatterjee, the
imaginary character created by Grass became popular in all the capital cities
of Europe. Grass writes: “Rome has no fumes, no constant honking, only the
melodious sound of three note bells. Friend Chatterjee has won and we with
him”.
In this novel, the
cycle-rickshaw becomes a symbol. The author visualises the triumph of the
simple life style of India over the materialistic civilisation of Europe.
Slowly but surely, Mother Kali, the goddess ardently worshipped by the
Bengalees also influences the people of Poland. In the words of the author: “It
announces the predestined Asian future of Europe, free from nationalistic
narrowness, no longer hemmed in by language boundaries, polyphonically
religious, super rich in gods and above all blessedly slowed down, softened by
the new warm climate.”
This immensely readable novel is particularly interesting to Indian readers for here an Indian character finds such a significant role. In no other contemporary European fiction, such paramountcy has been granted to any other Indian character. Apart from this, Indian point of view, both philosophical and political view-points find a prominent place in this novel.