Echoes of Indian Philosophy in Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan

Transcription

1 Echoes of Indian Philosophy in Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan Vishesh Kumar Pandey M.A. (English, Political Science, Philosophy), B.Ed.,UGC NET English Research Scholar,M.J.P.R.Uni.Bareilly Abstract Toru Dutt ( ) is a household word for the readers of Anglo-Indian literature. In spite of her brief and pathetic life and small body of poetry, she has carved her name in immortality. Various aspects of our myths, life, scenes and landscape are well explained to the west from an Indian outlook in her poetry. She has expressed her deep meditations on the sober aspects of life. Philosophy has always been a perennial river of thoughts in her poetry. Ancients Ballads and Legends of Hindustan was published posthumously in 1882 with an introduction by Sir Edmund Gosse and has nine ballads and seven miscellaneous poems. The work is rich in Indian aspects of beauty, idealism and philosophy. Different ballads are expressed in philosophical garb to interpret the soul of India. This work of Indian values is soothing breeze to the neglected Indian sentiments against the western storm of suppression. Keywords- Vedanta, Illusion, Karma Yoga, Re-birth, Importance of Guru, Study of Death. Introduction - Poetry and philosophy are the genres of same zodiac sign and the great artist of literature has always applied them with equal mastery. It has been a tradition to present the harsh realities of life in the garb of poetry to pacify their effects. In relation of poetry to philosophy, Dr. Archana Bhattacharjee aptly comments: Poetry is the language of sprit and the soul, not of the discursive mind. It compresses the lived truth of the poets experiences of the beautiful and wisdom that can slip under the skin of the reader and enter their blood stream. (p.16) Toru Dutt is not an exception to it. Her poetry does not treat life, death and its mystery in the manner of her later generation of poets. The sober shadows of her meditations come in her works as the expressions of her characters as if they have written the philosophical truths on the pages of their lives. The eternal values of meaningful and purposeful life and man s rising high on the scale of spirituality, the continuous and determined outlook of man over the negative side of destiny comprise her poetry which are indeed the echoes of our Vedas and spiritual works. Ancients Ballads and Legends of Hindustan is one of the most favorite works of the readers of preindependence poetry. The ballads are Indian in genre and outlook and reveal the soul of India. Though she was a Christian, her ideas are closely attached to the ethics and morality of the original tales of glorious India. Vedanta concepts- Indian philosophy starts to peep into the Savitri with the reference of the Kathopnishad in describing that the individual soul i.e. Jivatma is as a mere thumb, lodged in the heart of man. 6

2 Angushtha matr purishonaratma sada jananam hridi sannivishti (The Kathopnishad ) It is the most favour of Satyavan that Lord Yama himself has come to take his soul with him and introduces himself as Death to Savitri. After consoling Savitri, he comes in his natural appearance with a rope to tie the Jivatma of Satyavan. The tied soul of Satyavan is compared to the size of human thumb as And then the inner man was tied/the soul no bigger than the thumb (69-70) Indian philosophy reaches to its climax in the Vedanta and notwithstanding, many schools of Vedanta, it does not avoid the concept of Maya or illusion. A Vedantic thinks that the world is the creation of Maya. Maya is such a unique power which divides Brahma and Jagat. It is thought to be unconditioned and undivided; it is above true and false aspects of life. The cause of the world s creation and destruction is in it. It is the cover to hide the reality for, once the cover falls, Maya is destroyed and its destruction is itself a Maya. Swami Vivekananda says- What you call matter as spirit or mind or anything else you may like to call them, the fact remains the same. We cannot say that they are one; we cannot say that they are not and we cannot say that they are many. The eternal play of light and darknessindiscriminately, indistinguishable, inseparable-is always there. A fact, yet at the same time not a fact, awake at the same time asleep-thus is the statement of fact, and this is called Maya. (112) Really, it is difficult to bind Maya in definition, not difficult but rather impossible; it is an attempt to prove darkness by the blazing light. In the Savitri, Savitri pleads Lord Yama to let her follow her spouse as the world which looks very dreamy, peaceful, charming and colourful, has no base or reality. Everything is illusionary and unreal. The outward manifestation of life and its beauty is deceptive, the beauty of the world comes to us for little time, and it allures us and soon hides itself in the veil of Maya, never to come back to us. She says that it is not her aim to be lost in this huge mesh of Maya where everything seems of us but even our body is not of us. Nothing is permanent and so she does not want to leave her husband- I know that in this transient world All is delusion,-nothing true; I know its shadows are mists unfurled To please and vanish.to renew Its bubble joys, be magic bound, In Maya s network frail and fair, It not my aim!...( ) Karma yoga- The karmayog of the Gita echoes in the Savitri. In the mesh of Maya, everything is bound to Karma or action and no one can deny it. The Gita says- Na he kascit ksanam api jatu testhaty akarma-krt Karyate hy avasah karma savah prakriti jair gunain.(3.5) (Everyone is forced to act helplessly according to the qualities, he has acquired from the modes of material nature, so no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment.) The Anushashan parv of the Mahabharat gives an example of the action and its fruit with simile of cow and her calf. The Mahabharat reads that as a calf reaches to its cow-mother among thousands of 7

3 cows without any difficulty, the fruit of an action reaches to the doer, piercing the network of birth, death and re-birth. Yada dhenu sahasresu vatso vindati matram Eva purvak ta karmakartaram anugacchati. (13.7) Everyone gets his due according to her own work, but it does not mean that she should leave Satyavan in lurch as she says that: He for his deed shall get his due/as I for mine. ( ) We are totally helpless in this world and only action is in our hands without our control on its fruit, why should the duties be done then? Vices have covered our life, they have made senses their slave, the undesired actions should be done to make them free from the slavery of lust and wickedness as the higher is the goal of our life. If we wish to live a virtuous life, we must perform all our duties with more enthusiasm and attention. Only then we may reach the goal of noble life. Virtue should be the aim and end Of every life, all else in vain, Duty should be its dear friend If higher life it would attain. ( ) Our philosophy says that it is our body that perish, not the soul and the result of our action is determined, not in favour of body but soul. If we are not able to enjoy the fruits of our actions in this birth, we have to re-birth to get reward of our past actions. The Gita explains three types of actions a- Sanchit karma- The results of our action of past birth which shower on us in this birth. b- Praravdha karma- The accumulated results of our birth which were cherished but remained unenjoyed. c- Aagami karma- This is the remaining of the experience, to be enjoyed in the next birth as this birth is not sufficient. When Sindhu is shot dead by king Dashrath, he does not blame him of his murder but narrates the fatal cause of his death in the curse of the female bird whose male partner was killed by him in a bashful game. After her partner s death, she also dies with a reproachful look at Sindhu and saying- A widowed life I cannot brook The forfeit that must pay What was my darling s crime, that thou Him wan only should kill ( ) The Place of Guru- In India, a guru is not a merely teacher to teach but he, besides imparting us knowledge, makes our path easy for perfections and salvation. The Guru is God himself, manifesting in a personal form to guide the aspirants. Grace of God takes the form of Guru. To see the Guru is to see God as he is united with Him. Even a single thought against Guru is blasphemy. When Bhutto is not favoured in the lessons of archery by Guru Drona, he is neither dejected nor a least malice to him. He goes to forest and carves a statue of his guru and starts self-practicing at the feet of his guru. A seeker of knowledge is not bound to any figure, all the aspects of Nature are ready to teach him and he learns from them. Toru Dutt points out the defects of our old education system which was only for the bluebloods. When the curious boy Bhutto- is not allowed to drink the nectar of knowledge with the princes, he finds Nature, a source of wisdom; he is ready to learn Nature as- All creatures and inanimate things 8

4 Shall be my tutors: I shall learn From beast, and fish, and birds with wings And rocks, and stream, and trees and fern ( ) Thus, with his own efforts, he becomes a greater archer than Arjun. In favour of Arjun, Guru Drona asks for his thumb. Now Bhutto was bereaved of his future glory but Toru s belief in the dignity of Guru does not move here and she makes Guru Drona bless Bhutto- For this-said Dronacharya- Fame Shall sound thy praise from sea to sea And men shall ever link thy name With self-help, truth and modesty ( ) Belief in God- Indian genii, though diverse on surface, believe in the omnipotence and omnipresence of the divinity without considering the form or formlessness of this power. Toru Dutt treats this thought in Prahlad. Prahalad is reluctant in following his father s dicta of not worshipping God because he knows that virtue, peace and mercy are the qualities of God and only a man of virtues can attain Him.He rejects the divine theory of his father and frankly says- There is one God-one only-mark! To him all our service due Hath He a shape or hath He none? I know not this, nor care to know. ( ) In Prahalad s ballad, Toru Dutt refers the Mundakopnishad in making a difference between the mundane knowledge and the spiritual knowledge. The worldly knowledge is Apara with the subjects of the Vedas, the Kalpa, the Jyotish and prosody. These subjects help the aspirant to gain sensual pleasures. Twe vidhe viditwa eti he sma yadbrahmavido vadanti para chavapara cha(the Mundakopnishad 1.4) The worldly gains are not the target of life, the higher knowledge is Para and it helps to reach to the imperishability. Prahalad, the devotee, knows it very well and so he is not interested in studying science, astrology, geography, logic, politics or war as they are on the foundation of falsehood; his heart longs for, Those inner voices that reveal/long vistas in another sphere. ( ) Study of Death- Indian scholars and seers have never been afraid of death as they know that behind the shroud of death, there is the possibility of rebirth. Death does not destroy anyone.when Prahalad is threatened to put to death by his father, he promptly asks, Is death annihilation? Even the Gita says that the soul changes its body as we change our clothes. Every attempt was made to divert Prahalad from the path of God but he is found safe because of his belief that God is everywhere. Prahalad knows that only his body can be harmed, not his soul.knowing this truth, he follows true and right way. Conclusion- Thus it can be easily said that the Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan does not present Toru s originality in the presentation of mystical truths, she has only narrated what already has been spoken.it is also true that there is no depth in her philosophical treatment like Tagore, Sarojini Naidu and other Indo-Anglian poets. This drawback of the philosophical treatment of her poetry is due to her immature death, otherwise such matter is enough to count her among the genii of our poetry. 9

5 Undoubtedly, she was the pioneer in peeping into the enigma of perpetual human values which was elaborated later. Work Cited- 1- Dutt, Toru. Ancient Ballad and Legends of Hindustan. Bareilly: PBD, Vivekananda, Swami. Complete works of Swami Vivekananda, vol.ii. Amroha: Birth Centary Edition, Prabhupada, Swami. Bhagwat Gita: As It Is. California: International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Sharvananda, Swami. Mundak & Mandukya Upnishad. Madras: Shri Ram Krishna Math, Bhattacharjee, Archana. Mysticism in Tagore s Selected Poem: And Analyses. Contemporary Spiritual Poetry in English: Critical explorations. Ed. Vijay Kumar Roy. New Delhi: Alfa Publication,