REVIEWS
The
King and the Corpse, by Heinrich Zimmer, Edited by Joseph
Campbell. (Pantheon Books, Washington. D.C. Price $ 3.75).
A
TALE is told. It either moves a rock of sins in us to plunge into an ocean of
repentance or transforms the diverse egos harassing us to many processes of
disintegration. A tale is repeated through generations. Its author is
forgotten, still the tale travels from land to land inspiring the human
imagination, stripping life nude before the dull vision of man and attempting
to harmonise conflicting emotions. We call such a tale an aspect of life
painted in words. Those words may be the echo of the tides of the stormy seas;
they may glow as a live electric wire; they may be sweeter than honeydew or the
milk of paradise. We are the creators of words and not their eaters. We are
interested not in the words of the tale but in its purpose. If human life is a
little world of purpose, human destiny is a web of purposes to be woven and
disentangled.
A
true and magnificent tale is a castle of words treasuring the secrets of
existence, survival and consummation. The tale may moralise or may not. It
makes dead civilizations appear lively. We are not to question the truth of the
folk-tales; myths are the thoughts of the glorious dead of any country or any
race of people.
We
are born, we live and we die. Why is it that we are born? Why should we live?
Thoughts difficult as these to solve flashed across the master minds of the
world. The little tales of the Upanishads; the birth and growth
of gods and goddesses; the ideal heroes and chaste heroines; the worship of the
Sun; the search for the One in the many–Man looked strange
before his own eternal self. He was a problem unto himself which he could not
solve. He thinks every day that he has found a way out for himself. Really it
is not so. He is enchanted by Maya, impelled by his own Karma. His deliverance
is in that kind of self-absorption where he merges into that Solitary who too
yields for a time to the wishes of the Creator and the Preserver. He yielded
and sacrificed, he sacrificed and renounced to win the lost peace again.
Through
struggle man rediscovers his identity with the Supreme. Any tale mythological
in nature is only a symbol of life, a significance of birth. Death is only
revival, a revival very essential for the trinities to labour in love.
Dr.
Heinrich Zimmer is no more with us but the reader of The King and the Corpse
hears a great metaphysician, a psychologist who studied the hearts of the
personalities found in folk-tales. To Zimmer life took a curious form,
different from its multi-manifestations, and talked of its own joys and
sorrows. The philosopher listened to its strange voice and started interpreting
it, making use of the immortal characters found in the fancy tales of the
incense-breathing Arabia, the modern mechanical West and the superstitions,
spiritual East. To him the East is not East and the West is not West. To him
Man is a universe unto himself and the external world is only a toy of Maya.
In
his intelligent exposition of the character of Abu Kasem, Dr. Zimmer writes:
“Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny. Even the
things that we have failed to will are reckoned among our intentions and
accomplishments, and may develop into events of grave concern. This is the law
of Karma. Each becomes his own executioner, each his own victim, and, precisely
as in the case of Abu Kasem, each his own fool.”
The
King and the Corpse relates to the experiences of the famous
Hindu monarch Vikramaditya. Dr. Zimmer’s interpretation unfolds the philosophy
of intuition. Knowledge is not intuition, and mere magic is not religion.
Salvation is not attained through the submission of elemental forces to the
human will. No ceremonious ritual is essential to obtain the serenity of the
wandering self. Superb beyond criticism the interpretation is done in exquisite
style with no intentions to dissect abstract sciences. “Change yourself (that
is the lesson), and you inhabit a renovated world. Whether stately in the room
of splendor, tortured among the ghosts and corpses of one’s past, or communing
with the supreme powers of existence, one never goes even a step beyond the
pale of one’s own circumference and self. The world and all the worlds up to
the heavens and down to hell are but ourselves: spheres, externalized, of our
own being; productions, outbursts, of the creative, all powerful Maya that
brings about our existence-form and holds us spell-bound within the precincts
of our life.”
Four
Episodes from the Romance of the Goddess, unravel that
Sakti, the Supreme Power which creates, preserves and destroys is the source of
even the trinities of Hindu mythology who are the symbols of birth, life and
death. With the birth of knowledge desire emerged in the human heart to create
passions and emotions. To perpetuate those emotions man grew to death when he
lost his own knowledge of himself.
To
Dr. Zimmer the study of symbols was a passionate delight; his wisdom to
perceive the mysterious link between opposing principles draws our unqualified
admiration.
Buddhi
Yoga of the Gita, by Magdal Rarnachandra. (Gitashram,
Chamarajpet, Bangalore City. Price Rs. 4-8).
IN
his elaborate Introduction occupying nearly sixty-two pages of his work, the
author acquaints us with his point of view. According to him the dominant trend
of the Gita teaching is Buddhi Yoga. He evinces an eagerness similar to that of
Lokamanya Tilak to show that it is Buddhi Yoga that is the golden thread that
fastens together the several chapters of the Gita. The commentators have always
shown a tendency to stress one or the other element in the Gita philosophy of
life. The modern tendencies, however, seem to be in the direction of a
synthesis of Jnana, Bhakti and Karma, corresponding respectively to the
cognitive, affective, and conative aspects of the religious consciousness. Both
in the West and in the East, theories of religion have been put forward which
are known as intellectualist, ‘Romantic’ and moralist. The element of belief,
the element of feeling, or the element of ritualism has been held up in turn as
constituting the essence of religion. The contemplative life has frequently
been held up as superior to the active life and the active life to the
contemplative life. The spirit of Mary and the spirit of Martha have often been
mutually opposed. It is being increasingly recognized in modern thought that a
balanced religious life necessitates a harmony between the different elements
that go to the making of human personality. In terms of Indian thought, Jnana
without Bhakti may lead to an arid intellectualism. Similarly Bhakti without
Jnana may lead to an unbalanced emotionalism, which may assume protean
pathological forms. It may lead to what William James calls ‘sickmindness’ in
religion. Without the element of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti may come to be
deprived of a healthy objectivity which is very necessary for religious life.
Karma again without Jnana and Bhakti may deteriorate to a soulless ritualism.
It is only when Jnana ripens
into Bhakti or love,
and this issues out in an active life of service to God and man, that we may be
said to have reached the acme of religious endeavour.
By
emphasizing ‘Buddhi’ is the author treading the familiar road of working out
the ramifications of a fixed idea? Is the teaching of the Gita the attaining
the Absolute by way of thought? These are the questions that arise in the mind
of the reader at the outset. The author takes Buddhi to mean the ‘process of
intellectual reasoning’ and avers at the same time that Buddhi is not
self-sufficient as the source of knowledge of ultimate Reality. Buddhi, he
says, must be supported by Shraddha, for “the intellect unsupported by Shraddha
(faith) can never comprehend Adhyatmic knowledge” (p. 26). He also translates Shraddha
as intuition. He says that “the Gita appeals to Shraddha as well as Buddhi” (p.
25) meaning thereby that it appeals to intuition as well as logic. This raises
rather difficult issues for the Philosophy of Religion to solve. Is intuition
the same as faith? When intuition gives us the truth, what is the function of
Logic in relation to it? Shall we say with Bradley that Metaphysics is the
finding of bad reasons for what we believe on instinct? The discussion of these
questions may perhaps take us away from the purview of the book which is an
exposition of the Gita philosophy of life. But these questions have to be faced
in the formulation of a consistent philosophy of life based on the Gita.
The
author is of the view that “the Gita is not a mere exposition of philosophic
ideas” and that “it is a unique and perfect system of spiritual science
specifically named Buddhi Yoga by Lord Krishna.” It is evident from this that
the author does not mean by ‘Buddhi Yoga’ an exclusively intellectual method of
attaining truth. “The process of intellectual reasoning, according to the Gita,
is complete only when aided by intuition...If, however, we eschew intuition
altogether and merely rely on Logic, the riddle of creation will remain
unsolved for ever” (p. 25). ‘Intellectual Intuition’ will perhaps satisfy the
author’s requirements in interpreting Buddhi Yoga. His whole thesis, that the Gita
teaches this Buddhi Yoga, hinges on three texts, II-49, X-10, XVIII-57:
(1) O
Dhananjaya, action is far inferior to Buddhi Yoga.
(2) I
bestow that Buddhi Yoga by which they come to me.
(3) Taking
to Buddhi Yoga, do you fix your Buddhi constantly, on me.
The
author clinches the whole matter in his comment on the last of the above texts.
To him attunement of Buddhi to the overlord, the Purushottama is the
goal of all human endeavour. He says, “The Buddhi must withdraw its attachment
to outward impulses. But unless its natural love for the Overlord is given full
scope to assert itself, it can never become unattached or one-pointed. When
devotion to the Over-lord becomes implanted in the Buddhi, its one-pointedness
is called chetas. When the Buddhi becomes thus one-pointed, the man is
in tune with the Overlord even in his minutest doings. This is Buddhi Yoga.”
Such
is the practical philosophy of the Gita impressed by the author. This is
perhaps the same conclusion that is drawn for practical life by all the
different commentators, whether they stress Jnana, Bhakti or Karma. What is in
a name? The rose smells as sweet by any other
name.
The
verses of the Gita are all translated into clear English with the author’s own
commentary. A glossary and an index complete the volume. Coming from the pen of
an aspirant, eager and intelligent, and full of faith and devotion, the book is
undoubtedly a valuable study of the spirit of the Gita.
Acharya
J. B. Kripalani: A Symposium, Edited by P. D. Tandon.
(Hind Kitabs Ltd., Bombay, Price Rs. 2-8).
To
speak of one, of whom no less a person than Mahatma Gandhi had said: “There is
something in Acharya Kripalani’s way of thinking and writing which
distinguishes him from others,” certainly it requires much closer association
with his life and keener observation of his work than normally would be
considered enough. But the fact that not a dozen but more individuals have come
forward to review the life and activities of one who has risen to the highest
position among Congress workers reveals the immense goodwill he has received
from his own kind. There are here estimates from co-workers, appreciations of
veteran leaders, tributes from former disciples, accounts of classmates and
anecdotes from Ashramites of this best interpreter of Gandhi and the Gandhian
way. Even penmen of the distinction of the Editor of the National Herald have
been included in this collection in order to give us an exact measure of the
Acharya’s title to conspicuousness in the Indian Political Scene of today.
There
is a good lot of repetition of details in some of the contributions which
.evidently became unavoidable owing to the restricted scope for editing in the
already commendably brief sketches. One or two writers cannot escape special
notice for their effective portraiture of the man. For instance,
G. Ramachandran’s penpicture of the abundant good sense and humour in the erstwhile
Congress President only whets our appetite for more, such fare. Again the
insight and sympathy which Krishna Kripalani brings to bear upon her account of
him, show how much real humility and sense of proportion have gone into the
making of a tried Congressman, who though to the outer world was a Rashtrapati,
was none-the-less so devoted like a Rashtrapatni to her own real Rashtrapati of
a Gandhiji.
K. C.
Introducing
Our Flag, by G. P. Rajaratnam. (Hind Kitabs Ltd., Bombay.
Price As. 12).
THE
national Flag of India must necessarily assume importance with our emergence
into a Republican State within the Commonwealth. Its tricolour pattern with the
Asoka Wheel of Dharma symbolizes a great deal which our boys and girls need to
understand in order to evince the right way of honouring it. The three colours
of green, white and saffron representing Production, Conservation and
Utilization respectively–processes implicit in the true progress of a
nation–and the Wheel denoting by its shape, colour and number of spokes, the
growth, dimension and passage of Time needed to make for a nation’s prosperity
and vitality of an enduring kind, are dealt with here succinctly and
analytically. The National Songs and their import form also a useful addition
to the pamphlet of such topical value.
K. C.
Swaraj
for the Masses, by J. C. Kumarappa. (Hind Kitabs Ltd.,
Bombay. Price Re. 1-4as.).
NOTHING
is needed more today to famished India than a clear solution for bridging over
the economic crisis overtaking us. Without confusing issues with too many
statistical data or technical expressions un-understandable to the ordinary
man, these articles collected from journals like Harijan and Gram
Udyog Patrika provide us in a nutshell some of the evils to be eradicated
at once with popular ministries in power. Much plain-speaking and
clear-thinking the author has shown in his writings. Though in practicality the
best solution may sometimes prove of slow results, still there is everything to
be said in favour of a highly qualified man, like Kumarappa, having tackled the
imminent problems awaiting immediate answers. His suggestion of an economic
planning strikes us very unostentatious. Some of his recommendations regarding
Balanced Cultivation, Marketing and Grading and Industries, and his attempts to
place the primary requirements to make our country first and foremost a
self-sufficient and economically independent unit appear convincing enough.
Some of his ideas are pregnant with touches of accurate study and the right
method of approach. It is, no doubt, for the governments of the Provinces of
this vast agricultural country to give deep consideration to Kumarappa’s timely
warning of any post-ponement-policy landing the country in greater financial
deficits and greater countrywide famines.
The
Poet as a ‘Stitha Pragna,’ by K. Chandrasekharan, M.A., B.L. (S.
Viswanathan, Central Art Press, Madras. Price Re. 1).
IT
is wonder which creates delight in the mind. How to define wonder when you have
not learnt to wonder at yourself? Great poets wondered at themselves, that
means they abandoned themselves, they surrendered themselves to the Spirit of
Delight in them. Delight is not attained or achieved by anyone, one becomes
conscious of it the moment one becomes a Sthitha Pragna. It is an integrated
consciousness that is a loss to itself; but the self-absorbed poet communes
with his characters and passively watches their lives without
projecting his personality. He is a glorious spectator who does not interpret
life but shows through rhythmic, balanced words that the course
of human life is an incurable defect ever necessary for the moral and spiritual
evolution of man.
Great
scholars can interpret the verses of the Ramayana in a thousand and odd ways to
reveal the contents of Valmiki’s heart. There they find the definition of
wonder and the fulfillment of delight. Are we to appreciate the valour of
Ravana or Vali, are we to shed tears with Sita separated from Rama, are we to
show our sympathy for Rama who takes the brother onto his lap in the field of
battle thinking him dead, are we to worship Hanuman, the saviour of saviours,
the prince of yogis? Wonder defines itself for us and where are we?
It
is because the poet has known That which should be known he has known
everything, and everything known by him is given in shapes which create wonder
and fear. So in accordance with the approach the individual makes towards the
poet, the poet responds to that individual.
As
a rasika Mr. Chandrasekharan is able to show us Valmiki as a Sthitha
Pragna. His method is clear and analytical though not exhaustive, and it is
good he has not played the part of a critic. He writes a prose that is truly
soaked in fervour and he attracts one with his unerring taste. Poetry is not
for critics but for minds capable of expanding to God-relationship.
Raggs
and Raginis, by O. C. Gangoly. (Nalanda Publications. Post
Box No. 1353. Bombay 1).
O.
C. GANGOLY needs no introduction, especially to the readers of the Triveni; one
of the few leading art-authorities of the country, he has made valuable
contribution to the study and understanding of Indian art; his articles and
books on Indian Painting, Iconography and Sculpture have been numerous and
noteworthy alike for scholarship and aesthetic perception. Through his Rupam,
he has rendered distinguished service to Indian culture.
Few
students of Indian art could afford to neglect the field of Indian music.
Besides, a branch of Indian Painting, in the Rajput School, is closely related
to music: in a series of pictures referred to as Ragamalas, painters had
tried to portray melody-types of Indian music in the form of certain visual
images; naturally a study of this branch led our author into an examination of
its musical bases and the result is, we have here this attractive volume Ragas
and Raginis from his pen.
Standing
between the ancient Raga-Bhasha-Vibhasha-Antarabhasha classification and
the South Indian Mela-Janya scheme, is the classification
of Ragas on the analogy of a family into male Ragas, their brides,
Raginis, their issues and so on, which is current only in North India.
The evidence of the texts on music clearly shows that this Raga-Ragini classification
was a product of the Muhammedan-Rajput age. Even the Sangita Makaranda in
the Gaekwad series which mentions male and female Ragas is really a later text,
as the author himself suspects on p. 179, though elsewhere he follows the
general wrong impression about its antiquity. Similarly, the conception of each
melody-type having its divine prototype in the form of a beautiful goddess in
heaven is also a product of the same age, though the divine conception and
origin of Nada and Svara are themselves ancient. To the same age
belongs also the detailed description in Rupa (Dhyana) Slokas of the
form of each Raga and Ragini on the basis of which painters began
drawing their portraits of these melody-types. Thus in the best-known Todi
Ragini picture, the melody-type is portrayed as a damsel playing her lyre and
attracting around her deer eagerly lifting their heads up to drink the strains
of her melody.
Raga
by its very name has an emotional significance but how far the detailed
picturisation of particular Ragas in the above manner is valid is a question
requiring experimentation with scientific apparatus. Some Ragas like Hindol
associated with ‘Swing’ and Vasanta, with ‘Spring’ can however be easily
picturised with appropriate images. A detailed study of the Raga-mala naturally
leads one to a detailed study of the vast and complex mass of Raga-material. The
author has therefore devoted the preliminary portion of his book to a survey of
the history and evolution of Raga from the earliest times. Some attention is
paid also to a consideration of the related issues like the Time-theory of
Ragas, which again pertains more to Hindusthani music. In all these sections
the author has covered wide ground, not only using the work of many authors who
have worked on music works in print and manuscripts, but himself analysing for
the first time some manuscript material available in Calcutta libraries. He has
also appended many fables of Ragas as given in classified schemes in the
various leading texts. There are also plates of some Raga-mala paintings like
Desa Varati, Kakubha, Sarangi, Todi and Malavagaudi.
The
present publication is a re-issue of the first deluxe edition of a
limited number of 36 copies brought out by the author in 1935, the high price
of which prevented even well-to-do music academies from purchasing it at that
time. The author’s preface emphasises that this is only a reprint and not a
second edition, except for some supplementary additions in the Bibliography
given in the end. This draws our attention to the absence of revision and
addition which should have been made; there are numerous slips and wrong references
in the citation of author and work-names, but it is not necessary to refer to
them in detail. Modern Indian musicology is yet in its infancy and works like
the present one, written with a wide intellectual background and systematic
research work, are to be warmly welcomed.