‘TRIVENI’ HAS SHED LIGHT ON MY PATH.

BLESSED BE HER NAME!

‘THE TRIPLE STREAM’ ^l

By K. RAMAKOTISWARA RAU

Science, the Saviour

It is given only to a few choice spirits in any age to perceive the One Reality behind all appearances. To them, all knowledge is one, and every kind of striving after good leads to but one goal. In our blindness, however, we divide ourselves into hostile camps, and worship at different shrines. And whosoever is not with us is perforce against us. My God is Poetry; yours is Philosophy; and his is Science. To each one his is the one and only true God, and the rest are false and misleading. It is therefore imagined that the business of the faithful is to rescue mankind from thraldom to the false gods and reclaim them to the true faith. This is the beginning of fanaticism, persecution, narrowness. There are ages of Faith, and ages of Reason in human history. And each succeeding age preens itself on its superiority over the last. The present is definitely an age of Reason, and Science is its goddess.

One has only to ask the students seeking admission into colleges about the subjects of their choice, to realise that science and technology are on the upward grade, and literature and philosophy and the rest of what are termed ‘Humanities’ are definitely receding into the background. This was not so three or four decades ago. While the usefulness of science was recognised, the love of the Beautiful as expressed through art and literature, through history and philosophy, was very marked. Raman and Ramanujam were great heroes, but Rabindranath and Radhakrishnan were idolised. The reading of poetry, in English and the Indian languages, was something of a passion. To be able to quote verse freely was a mark of distinction; to write it was the peak of achievement. We hung on the words of the poet and the philosopher, and glimpsed a world of ineffable beauty where everything around us was “rich and strange.”

But in an age which is becoming severely practical and contemptuous of dreams and visions, science is the saviour, and the prophets who work silently and devotedly in their laboratories must lead us to the promised land of plenty and progress. If only we could assure to the citizens of every land the minimum of physical comfort measured in terms of food, clothing, shelter and cleanliness, men everywhere will settle down in peace. And what power except the power of science can overcome the obstacles which Nature places in our way, as if to test our endurance and develop our initiative? The recitation of poetry or the contemplation of beauty cannot add to the production of commodities. In the familiar phrase, they cannot make two blades of grass grow where there was only one. All talk of leisure for the pursuit of culture is vain while millions are without the bare needs of subsistence. The strong must strive endlessly for better living conditions; it is only the weak, the sentimental, the idlers, who seek to escape from the stark realities of life. It is they who speak of the things “that are more excellent” and point to a state of perfection transcending the physical plane. But they have had their day, they did not save the world. Instead, they misled mankind into the mire of religiosity and superstition. They exalted poetry and philosophy, diverting men from pursuits more closely related to human needs.

So, let us plump for science, and tell the poets and the seekers after saintliness to mind, not their business but that of the community. All education must have a scientific bias. Keen observation and skilful execution is the quality to be aimed at. The intellect of man is the highest expression of his being. It is that that makes him akin to God. What is not perceived by the human intellect is of little consequence. It either does not exist, or, if it does, it need have no influence on the thought or actions of man. The world, as we perceive it by our untrained intelligence, is capable of infinite improvement through the study and application of science. Regions below the surface of the earth can be laid bare to our view. So too all that lies in the womb of the ocean, or in the star-spangled heavens. Time and space are annihilated by the marvellous inventions of man, and the methods of warfare transformed beyond anything conceived by ancient and medieval man. Misaplications there have doubtless been, and misdirections of human energy. Science and the scientific method in industry have caused some amount of misery. But that is just a passing phase. Science which has conjured these monsters can also be trusted to allay them. Devotion to science, and the growth of the scientific outlook in every sphere of human activity, is the only antidote to our ills. Yes, more scientific agriculture, better planned industry, better roads and bridges, more efficient hospitals,–all this must mean greater happiness all round.

But even science is not proving a saviour. For over a century the standard of living has been very high in Western Europe and the United States of America,–the regions where science has had its greatest chance. Colonial expansion, the capture of markets for the sale of consumer’s goods at an advantageous price and for the purchase of raw materials from industrially under-developed countries, the rivalry between the Powers for more spheres of influence, the perpetual fear of war and the enormous growth of armaments,–has not science led us inevitably from one disaster to another? The better living conditions for which science takes the credit have not brought in their train either greater contentment or more lasting peace. We are perpetually on the brink of a precipice. The fact is that science, in its pursuit of objective truth, has missed the meaning of life. It has failed to realise that man has needs other than those of the body, that in addition to the nourishment of the body, his spiritual needs must be met.

The ‘Voices’

The tendency to brush aside everything that cannot be perceived or accounted for by the intellect of man is unfortunate. Love and hate, devotion and despair, are not to be measured or resolved through the method of science. And when we seek to pierce the realm of religious experience, the intellect of man comes up against an almost impassable barrier. In the words of the Upanishad, “having failed, it returns.” The mere intellectual, devoid of sentiment or faith, is just an abstraction. All that we mean when we divide the persons of our acquaintance into the intellectual or the emotional types, is to indicate the main tendencies in their outlook or behaviour. There is always an element in their natures which is unpredictable, and on occasions they spring a surprise.

We are often told that man is body, mind, and spirit. In the individual, as well as the race, we therefore look for a harmonious development of the corresponding faculties. It is the lack of synthesis that accounts for a lop-sided development. Individual bent and training, there must always be. Else, there is a danger of monotony and dull uniformity. Mechanisation and regimentation are the twin evils of our time. To escape them, we have to concentrate on the means of achieving variety and richness. It needs all sorts to make a world, and over-emphasis on Science or Art or Religion as Saviour of Humanity will promote just the kind of disharmony that leads to strife. The great educationists are those that can discover the special uniqueness of their pupils and bestow on each the particular type of intellectual and emotional training needed to draw out the best in them. But this is an age of speed and hurry, and few are the teachers who can proceed this way.

Turning now to technology, we may concede that the bicycle is superior to the bullock-cart, and that the motor-car and the aeroplane are vastly superior to them both. But it does not follow that the mechanical efficiency thus developed indicates the ethical progress of man. Everyone of these means of locomotion can be used for evil purposes as well as Food. So too, the village scholar who reads the Ramayana from an old palm-leaf manuscript is not less of a scholar than his city-bred brother who reads the same text from a linotype edition. Speed, efficiency, precision are eminently desirable, but they ought not to be our sole objectives.

There is always a limit to the satisfaction of human desires, in the purely physical sphere. To put it slightly differently, there is a point at which physical pleasures begin to pall. If man’s satisfactions can be compared to a beautifu1 building, the satisfactions that are just physical correspond to the foundations which must be well and truly laid, while the intellectual, emotional and spiritual satisfactions are like the superstructure with its artistic refinements. There are vague, imaginings, indefinable longings, spiritual urges, which seek satisfaction through means which are not entirely physical,–which rather are intimations of our Immortality. The leaders of mankind in all ages have sensed this need. The world of wonder and imagination revealed through the great epic of all lands, is the world of ideas of which the common work-a-day world is but a pale reflection. All endeavours to black out that world of ideas in the name of a mistaken realism, can only lead to the impoverishment of human nature. Even the folk-lore of the countryside, conveyed through fable and song, is part of man’s rich heritage. To allow young people to grow in an atmosphere of scepticism, to tell them that arithmetic is real while song and verse are mere vanities, is the height of folly. It is a crime against coming generations. Let us not breed an unreasoning fear of sentiment by equating even the most uplifting of sentiments with weak sentimentality. This danger is as real today as the danger of war. It arises out of a superstitious veneration of science, a veneration equalled only by the veneration of Moloch or Belial.

A reconciliation between Science and Religion is needed before humanity can march forward. That reconciliation can be effected by a recognition, on either side, of the complex nature of man, and of the diversity of means to achieve common ends.

The ‘voices’ that came to the Maid of Orleans in her village home at Domremy as she tended her father’s flocks, and the “voices of the wandering wind” that sang in the palace gardens of Kapilavastu to Prince Siddhartha reminding him of his destiny, are always about us. They “moan for rest, and rest can never find” for they are unceasingly in search of sensitive souls capable of responding to the call of the Spirit. Within the heart of man is a tiny light which, in essence, is the same as the Light of all Lights. And this tiny light must grow and be a beneficent power, spreading peace, joy, and strength. Man’s constant endeavour must be to keep this light aglow, and by its aid achieve health of body, clarity of intellect, purity of emotions, and enrichment of spirit. Science will fail in its mission so long as it ignores this aspect of man’s development. Truth has many facets, and physical science represents just one of them. To mistake the part for the whole is a grievous error.

An Elder Brother

The passing away of Dr. B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya removes from the public life of India an elder statesman and scholar who gave of his best to the cause of Indian progress in many spheres. To Triveni, the loss is specially poignant. He loved the journal and was associated with it right from its birth. ² He contributed several articles on political and cultural topics which brought great distinction to it. And when the Advisory Board was constituted in 1930, he readily accepted a place on the Board along with Dr. Radhakrishnan and the late C. Jinarajadasa.

To me, in particular, he was an elder brother for over half-a-century, watching over me and blessing my endeavours. I first heard him, speak in English at the National theatre, Buttiahpet, Masulipatam. That theatre was an occasional alternative to the open square in Robertsonpet during the hectic days following the anti-partition agitation in Bengal. That was also a period of genuine constructive effort in Masulipatam, culminating in the foundation of the Andhra Jateeya Kalasala. That evening the Doctor’s theme was “The Web of Indian National Life.” As he developed his argument and spread before the mind’s eye the vast panorama of Indian history and culture, I marveled at the beauty of the theme and the vigour and spontaneity of his eloquence. Admiration soon led to personal loyalty–and even affection for one who was nearly fifteen years my senior. I was then studying with avidity the history of Greece in the local Noble College. I used to fancy that the Masulipatam of Dr. Pattabhi the publicist, Krishna Rao the savant, and Venkata Sastri the poet, was very much like the Athens of Periclean times. I was one of a group of students eager to arrange lectures on subjects of academic interest. We approached Dr. Pattabhi. Characteristically, he wanted us to suggest a theme. When I mentioned “India and Federal Union”, he agreed with pleasure. But that lecture never came off, for the Ulsterite-Irish Principal forbade it: he suspected we were fast developing into seditionists! I took this disappointment with a sore heart. But the Doctor and I came closer and he reciprocated my affection. Time has its revenges. The Doctor became a leading light of Free India’s Constituent Assembly which drafted a federal Constitution for India!

He was among the earliest in India to sponsor the movement for Linguistic Provinces. He was mainly responsible for winning acceptance for that principle by the Home Rule League and the National Congress. By his powerful advocacy he raised the movement to an all-India level, and at the Nagpur session of the Congress (1920) he sat on a sub-committee and carved out ‘Congress Provinces’ everywhere. The other members of the committee were Gandhiji and the late A. Rangaswami Iyengar.

As with Linguistic Provinces, so with the Gandhian movement. The Doctor’s speeches and his writings in his brilliant English weekly, Janmabhumi, made converts of the intelligentsia of Andhra to the cult of Non-co-operation. Young lawyers like me who came into the struggle were influenced by the personal example of Sri Prakasam in Madras and of Sri G. Sitarama Sastri ³ in Guntur; but the implications of Gandhian ideology, and its potency as a weapon of peaceful revolution, were brought home to us by the Doctor in Andhra and by ‘C. R.’ in Tamilnad.

As Secretary of the Andhra Jateeya Kalasala, the Doctor became my chief. I had known the Kalasala since its inception in 1910; its cultural atmosphere and its wide lawns carpeted emerald green always held me in thrall. It was, however, the desire to associate with the Doctor and to get trained by him in unselfish public work that drew me to the institution in 1923–after the demise of Kopalle Hanumantha Rao, the Founder–while yet I was serving in Sri Prakasam’s Swarajya along with Sardar K. M. Panikkar, Khasa Subba Rau and G. V. Krupanidhi. For four years crowded with study and teaching, and enlivened by the companionship of the poets and artist of Andhra, I led a happy, sheltered life. But as the Non-co-operation movement waned, and funds ceased to flow in, a proposal was mooted that the Kalasala might apply to the Provincial Government for a grant-in-aid. I made no distinction between service in an ‘aided’ institution and practice in a British-controlled court of law. The Doctor and his friends withdrew from the management, and, with a heavy heart, I left the Kalasala. That was the moment when, if I chose, I could have gone back to the paternal home and the paternal profession of law. But some power beyond me impelled me to launch the Triveni and to keep her afloat through frequent storms and a few brief bursts of sunshine. Like a wise and tender-hearted elder, the Doctor sought continually to make life a little easier for me.

Between him and me, there were marked differences of taste and temperament. He was keen on banking and insurance; I swore by art and literature. His emphasis was on the useful in life, mine on the beautiful. I liked quiet and leisure; he was far too busy and often in a hurry. He was punctilious about all accounts; to me any accounting, except of public funds, was an insufferable nuisance. We were like two brothers in a family who went their different ways, but have any brothers loved each other more intensely than we have?

My good fortune brought me other ‘elder brothers–Jinarajadasa, Rajaji and K. Balasubrahmania Aiyar in Madras, and Navaratna Rama Rao, D. V. Gundappa and Masti Venkatesa Iyengar in Bangalore. But Dr. Pattabhi, was the earliest and in some ways, the dearest.

The New ‘Triveni’

With this belated number Triveni completes twenty-nine volumes. Hereafter the journal will be printed and published, not from Masulipatam but from Hyderabad, for the greater convenience of Sri Burra V. Subrahmanyam. Fourteen volumes of Triveni were published from Madras, seven from Bangalore, and the rest from Masulipatam. Triveni will now have a new beginning in the capital of Andhra Pradesh. That city is the meeting-place of North and South, and the home of scholars and writers in half-a-dozen languages.

This number marks the dividing line between the old Triveni and the new. I am, therefore, reproducing M. Chalapathi Rau’s tribute of affection to the old Triveni and the Founder-Editor. Of the young writers of the thirties mentioned by him, K. Chandrasekharan is a savant and an author of distinction in English and Tamil; K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar is Head of the English Department of the Andhra University, Waltair; V.K. Gokak is Director of the Institute of English Teaching, Hyderabad; Manjeri S. Isvaran is Secretary of the National Book Trust, New Delhi. I am immensely proud of them all, and I expect that they, and others like them, will extend their fraternal co-operation to Sri Subrahmanyam, on whom now devolves the main responsibility for the conduct of the journal.

This dream child and foster-daughter of mine has always shed Light on my Path. She has been to me the Voice of the Silence. She has taught me to kill out ambition, but to work like those that are ambitious. Blessed be Her Name!

^l February 27, 1960

² In Madras, on the 25th of December 1927.

³ Now Swami Sitaram.

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