REVIEWS
Bhagavad-Gita (The Song of God): Translated into English by Swami Prabhavananda and
Christopher Isherwood. With an Introduction by Aldous Huxley. (Pp. 194. Sri
Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Madras, 1945. Rs. 2–4–0).
Just the kind of collaboration that one would look
for in a translation produced for the international world has given us this
version in English of India’s famous philosophical poem, -Swami Prabhavananda
presumably seeing to it that the thought essence of the original is brought out
without inaccuracy and Mr. Christopher Isherwood helping to replace the
artificiality of literalness by the authentic idiom of the English tongue. For
a specimen, the reviewer looked up the equivalent of Verse 26, Ch. III (page 60) which the Rt. Hon. V. S. S. Sastri
recently interpreted in insightful and luminous phrases. The rendering of it
now before us is:
Let the wise beware
Lest they bewilder
The minds of the ignorant
Hungry for action:
Let them show by example
How work is holy
When the heart of the worker
Is fixed on the Highest.
This, as the translators claim is “interpretation”
and neither a word-for-word rendering for a paraphrase. Here is a kindred
thought from Matthew Arnold: -
Some secrets may the poet tell,
For the world loves new ways;
To tell too deep ones is not well–
It knows not what he says.
The avoidance of technical terminology, the easing
off of abstruse or cryptic argument by the use of concretizing phrase, and the
interspersion of prose with verse make this version acceptable to the ordinary
lay reader. Aldous Huxley’s introduction is truly helpful, furnishing a welcome
clue to the novice. With rare insight he has summarized the teaching of the
Vedanta (p. 7-8) and has met the challenge of the phenomena list for proofs of
the existence of an All-Pervasive and All-sustaining One:
“Virtue is not the end, but the indispensable means
to the knowledge of Reality… Right action is the way to knowledge; for it
purifies the mind and it is only to a mind purified from egotism that the intuition
of the Divine Ground can come.”
The Vedanta philosophy is not, as mathematics is, a
matter of intellectual acumen and logical acrobatics. If you would sense the
Truth of Truths, it says, clear your soul’s eye first of the dross of the
bodily senses. Through the discipline or the self will emerge a new faculty
that can transcend all phenomena.
Chapter and Verse numbers given at the top on each
page will make reference to the Sanskrit text easy.
– D. V. G.
Among the Great: by Dilip Kumar Roy: Introduction by Sir S. Radhakrishnan. Published by
Vora & Co., Bombay. Price Rs. 10.
Prapya varan nibodhata–(Approach ye the great ones and be instructed) is
an ancient Vedic injunction. Mr. Dilip Kumar Roy of Sri Aurobindo Ashrama hat
followed it and brings together in this volume his conversations with Romain
Rolland, Mahatma Gandhi, Bertrand Russell, Rabindranath Tagore and Sri
Aurobindo, accompanied by illuminating letters written by these great men,
containing further expositions of their ideas and message. All these
conversations are authorized versions having been revised by the persons
concerned, and cover a wide range of thought–art, literature, science and the
deep truths of life and existence. They are as far removed, as any two things
can be, from the casual interviews of newspapermen eager for ‘copy’. The author
has thus managed to present to readers of the book some of the noblest thoughts
which these “choice and master spirits of the age” have to convey to the world,
and, incidentally, gives us very artistically drawn character-sketches of the
great men. Romain Rolland’s strong forte was musical
criticism–particularly that of Europe–but his interests were wide and varied,
literature, pacifism, internationalism and Eastern culture and thought. That
Mr. Dilip Kumar Roy, an accomplished exponent of Indian music with equally wide
and varied cultural interests, struck a deep attachment with the great French
savant was only to be expected. How quickly and how truly Romain Rolland summed
up the character of Indian music, for instance, can be seen in his remark: “You
improvise continually, which means that your executant creates at every step
while in our music, he is but an interpreter”. The conversations reported in
the book traverse the regions of music, literature and other subjects and while
the ideas emerging out of the questions and answers may appear rambling and
inconsequential, they reveal in illuminating flashes profound vistas of
thought, This is true not only of the conversations with Romain Rolland but of
those with the other personages dealt with in this book. The talks with
Gandhiji also turned mostly an art–a subject on which the Mahatmas opinions
have not been often elicited; and they show, what Sri Nandalal Bose has so well
made out on another occasion, that Mahatmaji is not a joyless ascetic, as is
sometimes supposed, but that his ‘asceticism’ is the ‘loftiest manifestation’
of simple beauty in daily life shorn of artificialities and make-believes (to
quote Gandhiji’s words) The conversations that the author had with Bertrand
Russell in his Cornwall home are mostly on science, particularly eugenics
religion, industrialism and show the reactions of a keen intellectual to modern
problems–of a critical rather than a creative mind. Readers will be thankful,
however, for the intimate sketch of Bertrand Russell, the man, in domestic and
natural surroundings. Rabindranath’s views on women, love and other subjects
reveal his great insight, his profound intuitions of life, and his inimitable charm
of expression. The poet was drawn out to narrate some of the experiences of his
days of young adolescence and his being made love to by a young girl friend–a
delectable episode of confession, the poet, in a playful mood turns a mild
laugh on himself!
The conversations and the letters exchanged with
Sri Aurobindo Ghose form a considerable portion of the book under review, and
are almost autobiographical in character. Sri Aurobindo’s letters are answers
to the numerous personal problems and inquiries addressed by an earnest and
devout disciple: and throw a revealing light on the purpose and method of the
Sadhana propounded by the great yogi. Interspersed with these are the letters
of Krishnaprem (Mr. Ronald Dixon, another kindred spirit, the young English
Professor who has become a staunch devotee of Sri Krishna and lives in Almora).
Incidentally, Mr. Dilip Kumar Roy has elicited high-class literary criticism
like that on Bernard Shaw and other Western writers from his master.
This book of interviews is anything but matter for
light reading. The manner is apparently informal and narrational–but at every
turn the reader plunges into regions of deep philosophic thought or the subtle
expositions of problems, be they of art, literature, sociology or science. Here
is a rich harvest of wisdom garnered by a well-equipped and ardent inquirer and
an authentic record of permanent value.
My Student Days in America: by Bharatan Kumarappa. Padma Publications, Bombay
–Price Rs. 3.
Though the volume contains a detailed and lively
account of American college life at first hand, one would think that the
greater importance of the book lies in the description of American Industrial
civilization and the author’s estimate of its repercussions on the social life
of the citizens of the States. The author points out in no uncertain terms that
human happiness does not reach its optimum level simply because a country had
made great progress along lines of large scale production in industries. The
hopelessly unequal distribution of wealth, the mad rush to secure markets at
all costs, the colour problem, which appears to be the mental reservation of an
otherwise democratic people, and the eugenic and social difficulties of so rich
and prosperous a country in which fifty per cent of the people cannot afford to
marry, are problems traceable to, if not solved by, raising the so called
standards of living. The author is widely travelled, and at present is the
editor of “Grama Udyoga Patrika”, the official organ of the All India Village
Industries Association. If the consequences of large scale industrialisation–a
term synonymous with the multiplication of wants–and the maldistribution of
wealth in the U. S. A. are borne in mind, then those who are eager for the
rapid industrialisation of India as a solution for her problem of poverty and
unemployment will have to ponder seriously over the evil effects such a step
will usher in its wake in this country also. The conclusion is, as it were,
forced on us that so far as India is concerned, where the village is the unit
and agriculture is the main occupation of the vast majority of its population,
other methods suitable to local conditions will have to be evolved not only for
the production of wealth but also for its distribution primarily for the
benefit of the worker therein. The book contains interesting accounts of other
aspects of American life, and makes stimulating reading.
C. R. S.
I Cannot Die by Krishan Chandar–Translated from Urdu by Kwaja Ahmed Abbas–Published
by Kutub Indo-foreign Publishers, Bombay, Price RS 2–4–0.
Krishan Chandar has produced one, of the most
moving accounts of the Bengal Tragedy. The aristocratic aloofness of the idle
rich, the vacant misery of the destitutes, and the willful ignorance of
foreigner have all been brought out in their stark nakedness. At times the
authour is cruel even to the point of brutality as when he shows the attitude
of Snehalata to her own kith and kin.
The book should prove very popular but for its
slightly high price.
G.V.R.
The Moving Finger: (Anthology of essays on Literary and Aesthetic
Criticism by Indian writers). Edited by V. N. Bhushan, Padma Publications:
Bombay. Rs. 8/-
In this sumptuous volume are brought together
literary essays in English prose by 17 modern Indian writers–collected, in many
cases, from magazines. Quite a number of them are Professorial productions–a
sort of extra-class room lectures–on English poets or their works like
“Ecclecticism in Spenser” by M. M. Bhattacharji, “A Possible Poetic Retort” by the
Editor, where the theory is ingeniously worked out that Browning’s ‘Rabbi Ben
Ezra’ is a kind of retort to the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, “Opium and
Coleridge” by Sukumar Dutt, “Kipling as a Poet” by Amarnath Jha, “Macbeth: A
character study” by U. C. Nag, “Natural imagery in Rosetti” by Satyendranath
Ray, and “John Donne” by I. H. Zubeir. It is to be doubted if the Dons at
Oxford and Cambridge–not to speak of the professional compilers of and writers
on English Literary Criticism who provide the mental pabulum on which depend
undergraduates studying English Literature all over the world–will ever take
serious notice of these learned articles in this volume. The articles by Sri
Aurobindo Ghose on “Poets of the Dawn” Rabindranath Tagore on “The Religion of
an Artist “, B. S. Mardhekar on “Poetry and Aesthetic Theory” and Humayun
Kabir’s “Poetry, Katharsis and Creativity” are of a different order, and are a
contribution to contemporary critical thought by original Indian thinkers who
are equipped with a knowledge of Indian literary tradition. That the spread of
English learning in India has succeeded in producing a rich crop of literary
criticism in fair quantity in English seems to be the main justification of the
book. This is indeed to be expected when the study English. Language and
Literature occupies a prominent place in all the Universities. One would like
to see, however, that the motive inspiring such a collection should be less in
the nature of a “guru-dakshina” to English Gurus–out of what has been assimilated
from them more or less successfully–and more in the nature of original
contribution by those who have imbibed
the Indian literary tradition and have also assimilated the thought of Greek
rhetoricians and their modern descendants–an essentially Indian literary and
aesthetic contribution, in fact. Judged by this standard, there is enough of
material in the volume before us to render an apologetic tone altogether
unnecessary. Indo-Anglian literature of this variety needs no special pleading.
Each of the extracts is prefaced by a biographical
and appreciative note of the author–somewhat over-done, as when, for instance,
the Editor himself (Mr. V. N. Bhushan) is spoken of as bringing “to bear upon
his work such essential qualities of a good critic as sympathy, learning,
disinterestedness, seriousness and sincerity and vitality and vision.” A rather
modest list–that!
There is a valuable bibliography appended to the
book. The title of the book is rather grim and menacing for such an innocent
production!
K. S. G.
The Scarlet Muse–Anthology of Polish Poems–Edited by Uma Devi (Wanda Dynowska) and
Harischandra B. Bhatta. Nalanda Publications–N. M. Tripathi Ltd., Princess St.,
Bombay.–Price Rs. 3-4-0.
This Anthology is made up of extracts from over 35
poets from the 16th century to modern times–including examples of “Underground
poetry” written during the recent war. Poland and her unmerited and horrible
crucifixion in recent years have moved the hearts of people all the world over.
The poets of this brave, sensitive and unfortunate Slav people have given
expression, through the ages, to the undying spirit of the race. “To dream
through action”, as Uma Devi says in her informative introduction, became the
great endeavour of the Polish people struggling to secure their integral
nationhood and independence during the last 120 years. The grueling and often
hopeless struggle which the Poles had to put up has naturally engendered
considerable bitterness and revenge.
All this, however, has failed to kill the idealism,
sensitiveness to beauty, and the large hearted love of Humanity of the Poles to
which numerous Polish poets have given expression.
An unknown girl poet writes, for instance,
Now smiles at me the boundless plain,
Draped white in snowy net,
As pain and tears depart to let
White ecstacy remain. (P.120)
Miekieeniez (an early 19th century poet and
considered to be the greatest poet of Poland) writes:
I have grown up in suffering and love
And though of my own happiness dispossessed,
I beat my hands upon my bleeding breast
But never raised them against Heaven above. (p 51)
The Credo with which the collection appropriately
ends
“I believe in Beauty supreme
In Justice universal
In the communion of nations
In mutual forgiveness of sins
In the resurrection of spirit
And in ever-lasting Peace–Amen.
seems to express the longing of an unjustly
harassed people, at its noblest.
The Publishers deserve praise for enabling
Indian readers, to whom Central. European poetry is mostly a closed book, to a
better appreciation of the spirit of the Polish people through this Anthology
of poems.
K. S. G.