The World is Rotten!

                                     POEMS AND POETS

                   26. The World Is A Rotten Place

What do we make of this world?

It depends upon how we ie our minds are made up! If we follow organised religion, we will go by what they teach: the world is the work of God, and we only have to do as they say God has ordained. If we follow science we will say that there was a Big Bang and the world appeared , and everything happened by chance.There are any number of positions in between. The fun is, none of them can give any proof!

There are a special class of people, known as Sages. They have experienced the Truth of the world first hand. They come from all countries, all traditions. They say we cannot know this world objectively.We know it only through our senses, as interpreted by our mind, depending on our level  or state of consciousness. The mind and senses can mislead us, as when we see a mirage, or mistake a rope for a snake in dim light. The question about the truth or nature of the world can be solved by each one of us only when we experience the truth by ourselves. This is done by refining our consciousness. The Sages do not offer elaborate theories, do not run organizations. How can we believe them? By their life .Walk the path and 'know' the truth. They say:

Drishtim Jnanamayim kritva,

Paschyet  Brhmamayam jagat!

If you look with the sight of Wisdom ( pure consciousness), the world will be perceived as the form of the Infinite!

More or less the same words were said by Blake:

"If the doors of perception were cleansed, men would behold everything as it is- Infinite"

(Quoted in Stephen Larsen: The Mythic Imagination, p.107)

The problem in the present day has been compounded by almost anyone writing on religious/spiritual subjects. And we now have access to anything anyone says, anywhere in the world. We get confused.

But through all this confusion, one fact stands out: This Universe is an Organism- that is, it is Alive! It is Intelligence, not just intelligent.That means,it must have a meaning and purpose. We cannot fathom it, yet. The more Science explores, the more it   is confronted by its limitations. No branch of Science has a last word on anything,as yet! All it does is to manipulate certain intermediate processes  for some immediate ends, the long term consequences of which no one knows.

In the meantime, social scientists are dissatisfied with both our natural and social conditions. They attempt to reform things, institutions. But neither pure science, not the social sciences do offer any guidance to people about the conduct of their lives. This is still done by traditional religions. Those who do not follow organised religions, but are nevertheless convinced that the world is not merely mechanical, that there is something here we do not quite know, follow their own eclectic path, calling themselves 'spiritual but not religious'. Their number is growing.

Some of the great poets  do not subscribe to organised theology of any school, but they do believe in the Bible and give their views accordingly. Donne, Blake, Pope, Browning , Tennyson belong to this group. The greatest of them is Milton. The following words of Browning may be taken as typical:

"Life is a probation and the earth  no goal

But starting point of man."

                From: The Ring and the Book,X 1436

This provides a basis for piloting our life here. If we believe the world is the final goal, then death becomes the end; the imperfections of the world strike us- we are struck with the world. But if we believe the world is not the final goal, then we have to make use of the world, such as it is, to seek our true goal. Saiva Siddhanta says that God has created Tanu,Karana, Bhuvana, Bhogam, to enable man to realise God. These are the instruments. As modern saint-scholar-poet Muruganar put it-

Donda nirdondamavai tonre vuyirtokaitam
Banda Muktikkaap padaitton taal potri!

Praise to the holy feet of Him
who since the beginning of time has created
the pairs of opposites and their absence
for the bondage and liberation
of the mass of living beings!

                         ( From: Ramanapuranam,lines189-190.
                          Translation by Robert Butler,                                                             T.V.Venkatasubramanian  and David Godman)

The same Cape of Storms became the Cape of Good Hope! The difference was in the man, not the Cape!

But this involves a deep question: Why should God create both? This is at the very heart of Christianity and the Old Testament story of Genesis, which Milton attempted to tackle in the Paradise Lost.

JOHN MILTON: Paradise Lost

One hesitates to take the name of Milton! He is so great! May be ranked after Shakespeare, but Shakespeare looks easy and approachable, but Milton is formidable. Milton's grand style,wrote Arthur Quiller Couch; but his theme also  is grand- grandest in the entire range of Western Literature: the story of Genesis, no less! This is the grandest epic in the English language.

Now you may ask me: Genesis is the Biblical account of the story of Creation. What has a Hindu got to do with it?
While I do not believe that it is the story of the origin of mankind, I concede it could be the story of a tribe of Jews! This is how it is taken by many authorities, including Spinoza. Every tribe in the world has got its own genesis story! Secondly, the fall of man has a deeper-symbolic-meaning for me, than a mere fall from heaven. It is a fall from our original consciousness of Unity! It is our forgetfulness of our divine nature! It is the Ignorance, for which Jnana is the cure! It is this memory which Arjuna recovers when he says " smritir labda"! The idea strikes me, may be not the form it got in the Bible!

Milton began with the avowed aim:

"I may assert  Eternal Providence
And justify the ways of God to men."

 He chose to relate the story-

"Of Man's first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all our woe
With loss of Eden..."

The subject is the most serious on earth-death and woe in the world, caused by man's own disobedience.
But we face three crucial issues from the beginning:

• choice and freewill
• relationship between man and woman 
• good and evil

The poem does not answer any of these decisively, but that whatever is, is how God intended! This is rather disconcerting.

The poem opens with Satan and his band finding themselves in hell, having already fallen. Does it mean that hell was already there to receive them, even before the fall? Does it mean the fall was fore-ordained? Hell was:

"Such place Eternal Justice HAD prepared

for those rebellious" (1.70-71)

Does it mean that God created the world with rebellion in mind? Was the world built for rebellion?

Then again, God finds that Satan is on his way to tempt man and says:

" ...................And shall pervert,

For Man will hearken to his glozing lies 

And easily transgress the sole command

Sole pledge of his obedience.So WILL fall

He and his faithless progeny . Whose fault?

Whose but his own? Ingrate! He had of Me

All he could have. I made him just and right,

Sufficient to have stood though free to fall."

                                                    (3.92-99)

If these are the words of God, they make disturbing reading.

God made man free to fall! Man will allow himself to be perverted by Satan and "will fall". So, man's free will in the end really means the freedom to fall! Will even a human parent allow his children to run and fall into a pit, saying they are 'free'? So, what kind of parent is God? Does this not suggest a sadistic streak in the merciful God?

For me, there is an even more disturbing question. This is man, God's fresh creation. How  could he even get the idea of disobedience and transgression so soon, while he is still in God's pristine condition?

The relationship between Eve and Adam too creates problems from the first. Eve says she just ran away from Adam on first seeing him, because:

 

"  ................methought less fair,

Less winning soft,less amiably mild

Than that smooth wat'ry image: back I turned."

                                                  (4.478- 480)

So, Eve finds Adam not so agreeable, after all! She runs away, Adam pursues and seizes her by the hand, and she yields! After debating whether they should work together, Eve goes off to work alone, is tempted by the serpent, eats the apple, gives it to Adam, making him her partner in the venture and together they go to Eden. 

We thus see that from the beginning, the story creates more problems that our theology and philosophy have been able to solve all these centuries. It gives enough valid grounds for our psychologists and feminists to argue on many vital issues. So, how does Milton hope to justify the ways of God?

In fact some have even suggested that Milton might be admiring Satan, the rebel, for he was himself one! And it is strange to think that Eve could think she had freedom only when she disobeyed God! Does it mean women could not achieve liberation, except with disobedience?

The only happy outcome of this epic is that in the end Adam and Eve decide to live together! What a conclusion from Milton who advocated divorce for women, before it was made law! Whether the poem succeeds in justifying God's ways, it at least conveys that man has to reconcile to them!

Whatever the philosophical import, Paradise Lost is a grand poem, a mighty epic conceived and executed in grand manner. It abounds in passages of superlative beauty. It is simply overwhelming.  English language might or might not have remained unadorned and plain without it, but we can  never call ourselves literate until we can read it!

Life is a greater mystery than all our philosophies can tackle!

No epic can divine its origins. Let us simply bow! Here is a nice lesson from Arthur Osborne:

Arthur Osborne: The Wind

I am a pipe the wind blows through,

Be still, it is the wind that sings.

The course of my life and the things that I do

And the seeming false and the seeming true

Are the tune of the wind that neither knows

Good and ill,nor joys and woes.

But the ultimate awe is deeper yet

Than song or pipe or storm;

For pipe and tune are the formless wind

That seemed for a while to take form.

And words are good to escape from words

And strife to escape from strife,

But silence drinks in all the waves

Of song and death and life.

                                        From: Be Still,It Is The Wind That Sings.

                            Ramanasramam Publication, 2000.

                    

  

Golden Age

                                               POEMS AND POETS

                        25. A GOLDEN AGE?

Societies with a long,continuous tradition generally look up to some past age as being the ideal, in any case better  than the current one. Of course. different people have their own criteria. But the idea of a golden past is common.

This  happens in almost all  fields. Sometimes, we speak of the 'Golden Fifties' in some connection. But in the 50s, my grandfather used to talk of the pre-War (I) as the golden years.. In India, a full silver rupee circulated, and gold was cheap. Movie buffs certainly consider the Hindi movie music of the 50s as golden.

But the trend in the literary field is more firm and gets set in time. This becomes the standard 'canon'  which becomes compulsory reading for subsequent generations. But with the explosion in the publications and literary activity, and the publicity business, this is losing all meaning in our time. The best seller cult is difficult to judge. 

Only a few books stand out at any time, stand in time. 'Gone with the Wind' became celebrated, its author becoming world famous with just a single book. But its appeal is only to a limited audience. Personally, I like to think of 'To Kill A Mocking Bird' ( Harper Lee) and 'To Sir With Love' ( Braithwaite) as the outstanding stories of our time. Fortunately, both were made into good movies, which is rather rare. The message was simple, and its effect was humanising-we all wanted to become better people. I liked the sober quality of Nevil Shute's novels. I like him immensely. I liked A.J.Cronin, but somehow his 'The Judas Tree' deeply disturbed me. I gave up reading novels thereafter. There were a few stray ones- like Fate is the Hunter by Ernest K.Gann, A Ram in the Thicket by Frank G.Robertson,etc which I enjoyed. I liked Ralph Moody too, whatever people may say about the 'crude language'. His 'Man  of the Family' affected me deeply. It is such books that influence us in the long run. I confess I am also a fan of Louis L'Amour. Not for the action, but for the way he depicts an age and its mores. His descriptions of the landscape are the best I like after Thomas Hardy. I  found many sentences worthy of being underlined. But I get only hardbound editions- the mass market paperbacks are worse than saw dust.

I feel a book must make us better in some way. There is no point in reading a book to merely 'spend time' as if time is standing still and will accumulate  without our spending it. It seems so absurd to me. It has become so difficult to get a simple magazine with simple, nice stories and poems. 

Or, even books. I have been buying books for over 50 years. Good books are costly. The so called paperbacks  are outrageously badly printed and bound. It is a blot on our civilization. The classics in the paperback editions-by any international publisher- are just horribly printed and bound.  Even standard reputed publishers seem to  have forgotten  or given up the art of making a durable book, with sewn binding at affordable prices..But the more durable editions will not only put a hole in your pocket, they will set your house on fire. Try getting a good edition of Palgrave's Golden Treasury now! The fall in the standards of book manufacture seems to match the fall in the quality of current writing. Anything can be written, and anything  will sell.

This trend was identified by Wordsworth 200 years ago! He wrote in 1802: 

"a multitude of causes, unknown to former times, are now acting with a combined force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and unfitting it for all voluntary exertion to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor. The most effective of these causes are the great national events which are daily taking place, and the increasing accumulation of men in cities, where the uniformity of their occupations produces a craving for extraordinary incident, which the rapid communication of intelligence hourly gratifies. To this tendency of life and manners the literature and the theatrical exhibitions of the country have conformed themselves."

How stunningly prescient these words are, written two hundred years ago! This is the poets' sensibility we have been talking about! These words constitute poetry in prose!  The glorification of trivia in the national press, all the focus and attention on the seamy side of human affairs, all the meaningless entertainment beamed non-stop  by the TV channels have all  been foreseen here! What is the responsibility of a writer then? Wordsworth's words again:

" the human mind is capable of being excited without the application of  gross and violent stimulants; and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity who does not know this, and who does not further know, that one being is elevated above another, in proportion as he possesses this capability......to endeavour to produce or enlarge this capability is one of the best services in which, at any period, a Writer can be engaged; but this service, excellent at all times,is especially so at the present day."

Alas! These have become  a cry in the wilderness. "The degrading thirst after outrageous stimulation" has become the mark of  the literary work of our day, and dominates our visual media. And everyone says this is what people want, or "goes". But we go down with them!

It is little wonder then that Wordsworth looked up to a past age with nostalgia, and upon past greats with  undisguised admiration.

Wordsworth
'Great Men have been among us'

Great  Men have been among us; hands that penned
And Tongues that uttered wisdom, better none:
The later Sydney,Marvel,Harrington,
Young Vane, and others who called Milton Friend.
These Moralists could act and comprehend:
They knew how genuine glory was put on;
Taught us how rightfully a nation shone
In splendour: what strength was, that would not bend
But in magnanimous meekness.

'Not to bend our knees before insolent might', wrote Tagore.
What happens when a country lacks them?

France,'tis strange,
Hath brought forth no such souls as we had then,
Perpetual emptiness! unceasing change!
No single Volume paramount, no code,
No master spirit, no determined road;
But equally a want of Books and Men!

We have to let these words sink in us,touch our consciousness. Great men live us in their books after them. But in the absence of both  great books and great men, we have nothing more than a glamorous emptiness and unceasing change! Let us recall how one great man like Bankim Chandra or Rabindranath Tagore raised our awareness and electrified the nation! They symbolised the whole nation and the human spirit. Let us ask ourselves whether any thing or any one moves us so, now?

Wordsworth can be even more specific.

London ( 1802)

Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar,sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue,freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea;
Pure as the naked heavens,majestic,free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In chearful godliness, and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on itself did lay.

It is great men who, by their life and works provide us the ideals by which to live. Which nation can aspire to greatness, and its people to happiness if it lacks the example of such great lives before them?

The importance of the presence of wise people in a society is brought to us from an obscure corner of the ancient Tamil land. Grey hair is usually taken as the sign of advancing age, and /or undue worry. But in a village, an old man is found without grey hair! People are surprised, and they ask him. This is what he tells them.

Pisiraandaiyaar

If you ask me  how come that my hair
Has not turned grey, though my age is advanced far,
Now, listen:
My virtuous wife is ever supportive;
My children are full in learning and virtue;
My servants complete tasks, knowing my mind:
The king- he refrains from unbecoming acts, and
                                   protects the righteous way.
But above all this:
In the place where I live-
There live many virtuous elders, who
Having overcome the temptations of the flesh,
Inquired into Truth and settled in that Peace
That has become their forte.


How can an age which sets store by material standards ever understand such things? After all, they do not figure in the GDP!