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Publishers: Sri Vir Nirvan Granth Prakashan Samiti,
48 Sitalmata Bazar, Indore-2,
(Madhya Pradesh), India
'THE GREATEST WORK OF LITERATURE SINCE
TOLSTOY'S 'WAR AND PEACE' AND THE FIRST
TRUE EPIC IN A MODERN WORLD LANGUAGE."
We are before a master work, a classic, a literary event of thefirst
magnitude. When that happens a new civilising force gropes thehearts of men
and a new testament and reaffirmation of the Will of Man unwittingunder the
travail of pitiless destiny has come to be indicted.
And as a witness to such rare passion play of human hope andfaith, of
human sorrow and redemption, we can render only praise andadoration; we can
only celebrate its being.
A work of art, as Jacob Brownowski had said, is known to benecessary only
when it has been made, because it then becomes the unraveller ofthe mystery
of our humanity and testifies to our capacity for culture. And amaster work
like this one vivifies and expemplifies the yearnings of our soulsand the
possibilities of our attainments. This work does that with ampleand
dazzling splendour. Therefore, I call this work a true epic, as anepic
unfolds the farthest reaches of our vision and mythicise acivilisation;
this work does that. We live by myths.
This work will be a heritage of our times to posterity.
ANUTTAR YOGI is overtly a novelised prose life story of Mahavir.To say
that is saying nothing. It is like saying that 'The Ramayan' isthe
biography of Ram, one of the many gods of the Hindus or that 'LaComedia
Divina' is a Christian story of the Roman Catholic sect. Even acommunist
intellectual would not dismiss them like that. Views ofphilistines in such
matters are irrelevant.
Of the multiple graces - To begin with, let me note a few of the'Anuttar
Yogi's writer's graces of rendition.
Here in his work he has exhibited the visionary intensity of aMelville of
'Moby Dick';
the magniloquence and descriptive grandeur of a Milton of the'Paradise
Lost;
the understanding of the language of a Joyce of 'Ulysses' andthe
'Finnegan's Wake,;
the apt erudition and tonal mastery of a Pound of 'The Cantos'and the
Troubador's songs;
the emotion mirroring and meaning intensifying cadences of anEliot in his
major poems;
the faultless mellifluousness of a Tennyson of 'In Memoriam'; thechiselled
phrasing of a Pope of the 'Rape of the Lock' and the 'Essay onMan';
even the playful suppleness of words and the ease of an Auden inhis better
poems;
the all-inclusive ambience of identity of a Whitman of the 'Songsof Myself'
and of the 'Leaves of Grass';
the unearthly lyricism of a Keats of the "St. Agnes' Eve' if onecan imagine
that to keep on flowing for 500 pages;
And then add to these -
the world ingesting scope and power of a Tolstoy of the 'War andPeace' and
his penetration in 'The Death of Ivan Illyich' and 'Father Joseph'.
I have called it an epic because here is at long last the seeingdone by the
'equal eye" of a Shakespeare.
After such excellence, what criticism!
Mahavir, the Son of Man - And so unsurprisingly Mahavir, thehero, emerges
as the Son of Man, who is One with His Father and who is King ofkings and
all men; therefore, a pathfinder of spirit, the food of legends,the
superhuman node of myths, the reflector of our doubts, theexemplar of our
triumphs, the picture of our sorrows, the arbiter of ourrelationships and
the Hearer of the Word and to us the Sayer of the same, and thenabove all
the Silent Witness radiating inexhaustible compassion.
Virendrakumar's Anuttar Yogi Tirthankar Mahavir is all these andwe are
made to understand how a man becomes God; and how want to worshipthem; and
why Ram and Krishn are our ineradicable and fulgent emblems of ourreal
humanity and which in their is also our divinity.
I have said that Mahavir is all men (women too) because he isthe central
reference of the being of all the characters peopling this books,like Ram
in the Ramayan and Krishn in the Mahabharat.
But you may ask, is this all relevant to you for this today andthe
tomorrow immediately following? I will say yes; much more relevantthan the
morning paper you read for news and information; much morerelevant than the
latest best-seller and egghead-talked-about novel you may bereading; much
more relevant than most of the things you are advised to read tokeep
yourself well-informed and knowledgeable.
This book is relevant to you because it relates you directly tothe better
man that is within you, and without relating to whom you willremain the
zero which you normally are.
This is why we read fiction because there the characters live forus as
models who vividly accredit our life's experiences withclarifying
actuality. That is so because fiction is a created object and weas created
beings are always, in some measure, appreciative of the value ofthe
creative process. In fiction we live our lives in greater fullnessand
variousness.
Anuttar Yogi does this spledidly because it is a sublime work offiction -
'sublime' in the sense of Longinus, the ancient Greekaestheticism.
In Anuttar Yogi Mahavir is made 'the Man' for us whom we thenrediscover by
other names and with correlative attributes in other epics.
The magnificent amplitude - The piercing impact of Anuttar Yogi'swahrheit
und dichtung is accomplished by Virendrakumar's esemplasticityof
imagination that can utilise all the literary machinery of theclassical
epics by the ancients (except for versification whose absence inthis work
he make us forget by erasing the normal distinctions between proseand
verse) by developing an utterly and organically coherentwetanschauung that
is not only credible but continually appealing as he is alwaysable to
project on our awareness his characters and their actions,situations,
relationships, descriptions, narrations, dialogues, monologues,asides,
views, opinions, & c., unfailingly at two levels in sentenceafter sentence,
page after page, right through the two volumes.
At one level everything is happening in a setting of time andplace removed
from us by a distance of more than two millennia, but then, (andthat is the
effect of Virendrakumar's literary creative powers) everythingsaid, done,
felt and seen by these characters is also found to be our own feltreality,
and in their dilemmas and resolutions we see a reflection of ourown
predicaments and their likely solutions.
Epics do that age after age. Anuttar Yogi does that now zeitgeistis
mirrored there in Anuttar Yogi in the totality of this confusionbut within
a frame of its own clarification charted in the evolution ofMahavir's
enlightenment and its subsequent activation in the world ofmen.
Mahavir is a Blessed One, and He blesses us after we have knownof him from
Anuttar Yogi.
But what of the amplitude? I will show a glimpse of it now as itis
displayed in Anuttar Yogi by Virendrakumar by merely listing aportion of it
as a catalogue.
Proliferant panoply of a wondrous world - Who people this fictiveworld of
our anterior reality?
Murderers, pimps, whores, soldiers, generals, politicians,businessmen,
traders, cobblers, carpenters, potmakers, farmers, tnners,butches, grocers,
maidervants, valets, charioteers monks, mendicants, revellers,whoremongers;
Kings : witless, restless, demonaic, righteous;
Queens : imperious, devious, lecherous, docile;
Angels, archangels, seraphim, cherubim, gods, goddesses, godletssupergods;
Children : playful; boys : mischievous.
Maidens : languorous, nubile, docile, recumbent, rampant,inviting,
pacifying. elevating;
Men at works, play, labour and in sickness, cripples, idiots andthe
mutilated;
Men : arrogant, mean, lustful, sorrowful, sincere; degenerate,reprobate,
trustful, fearful, superstitious, self-sacrificing, calculating,cunning,
wise, nice, sinful, redeemed, strange;
Poet, artists, chemists, danceuse, quacks, scholars, poseurs,fools,
simpletons, dumb, deaf, deformed, supple; they are all here.
Animals and beasts : fabulous, ferocious, benign, vengeful - fromthis,
nether and other worlds' even worms and reptiles of such worlds;and then
the bird of air;they are all here.
Winds and breezes, storms, maelstroms, hours and airs in desert,seas and
towns; dissolving heavens and crumling cities; temples, palaces,hovels, and
comfortable homes;
Stones : precious, roadside and in mountains and in walls;
Perfumes to elevate, invite, captivate and to copulate;
Touch to thrill, affright, hypnotise and sublimate;
Machines of war, commerce, art, enterainment - terrestrial andcelestial;
Phenomena, epiphenomena of nature, super-nature, nether-nature(Virendra
shows himself as an unequalled master of such descriptions);
Colours of drugged fancy, ecstatic imagination, celestialpanorama and
hells' spite and despite;
Foods to salivate tongues, jaded or abraded;
Evil dressed as chastity; charity guising deceit;
Religious ceremonies, theological disputations, philosophicallucubrations
and dissertations, councils, of war, world-griddling plans forcommerce, and
deep matters of state; these are all here.
Sweet nothings for unlistening ears lost in bodies' commingledundulations;
Advices of father to son, cook to thief, friend to friend, motherto
daughter and to mother-in-law; politician to his henchmen, traderto trader,
woman to her paramour, courtezan to multitude;
And flowers and flowers;
Dresses of gods, men, monks, flagbearers, charioteers, all theseare here.
Orgies - sacred and profane;
Tours of multiple hells and polyvalent heavens;
Tours of the minds of harlots, gods, men in ecstasy and indefeat, woman in
child-birth and in her lover's embrace.
Textures - of curling leaf in dry wind, crumbling walls offorlorn temples,
of a tumbling infant, of a woman inrut, of a man in bliss. All arehere.
And terrors and horrors - of men under torture, of a man frontinga
fearsome beast, of a man in wilderness, of a man lonely - aloneand in a
crowd, of a man dying, of a man in the fear of the unknown, of aman
besieged of multitudinous devils, of a mother about to lose a son,of a
father betrayed by a son, of a iover deceived, of rotting flesh,of unknown
disease.
And the ecstasy of a man receiving enlightenment, of a manbecoming the god
of gods, of kings making conquests, of an artist rendering hisvision
entire, of a woman subduing her chosen man, of a womansurrendering herself
as a mother, of a woman making her man, of lust satisfied, ofmerit
rewarded, of worth appreciated of profits doubled, of lossavoided, of
knowing what others could not know. All are here.
Real and actual - They are all here, more actual than the nailyou have
just pared and are about to throw away; more actual than theembrace of the
slut for which you paid with your picked pocket; more real thanthe smiles
of your first baby; more real than the first cusswords you learnt;more real
than the first borrowed song you crooned to your sweetheart; moreactual
than the first rears that scalded your first sorrow and hurt; morereal than
the solace of your dreams for a better word; more real than yourboss's
meanness; and as a real as the certainly of your death and theinjustice of
it to you.
I am talking like this because it is not merely reading a bookbut a
piercing experience and the descent of a refulgent vision thatlightens the
dark of human destiny, and the mystery which any two persons areto each
other. These are less of dark and less of mystery; and you canwith
pardonable complacence pretend that you too can know what Manis.
But withal this I have still left out the thing which makesfiction a human
necessity, that is Eroticism (or 'Kam') - Eros is our life'sfruit-bearing
tree. Every world epic and every enduring human myth of creationshows its
field of action originating from the molestation of the heroinewho is the
beloved or the spouse of the hero and the rest of the epic is thenthe
narration of the consequences of that act and setting right theinjustice
implied in that act. This basic mystic communally is also alliedto our
identification of women with Nature and our knowledge that wecannot go
against nature's laws without inviting reprisals. Therefore,violation of
woman is taken as violation of Nature which is bound to result indrastic
and injurious consequences to their instigator. At the same time,the union
of male and female in due course, is perceived to be a necessityand
requirement of Nature, but to be performed only in a lawfulmanner. Going
along with nature is joy; against her, of course, is theconcrete
objkectification of this joyis preservation and its manifoldramifications
in their characters' personal lives. In such characterisations themyths are
always true to the perception presented to the deepest recesses ofour
consciousness. Therefore, they endure.
But it is these same epic characterisations which are also inconflict at
many points with the rationale of scriptural injunctions of theirown
religion. Which to choose or our guidance?
This brings us to the kill - joyful puritanism on the one sideand
hypocritical prudery on the other. Both are philistine attitudesignorant of
the seminal urges of the creative process; and are primarilyconcerned with
conservation and stability, therefore, conservative. While thecreator, in
contrast, due to the compulsions of creativity is enaoured ofthe
transformations of Nature and the dynamism of the process of theindividual
and collective human growth; and therefore, he is basically aradical and a
revolutionary.
The world literature of the previous century and this mirrorsthis
dichotomy with forceful, and some may say, with chaoticvividness,
particularly in the treatment and the depiction of the eroticsituation. The
western writer faced with the problem of the objective creativerendition of
the erotic situation in his works either throws away the entireChristian
religious and mystic conduct framework to depend on his directobservations
as moulded by his individual sensibility, or seeks inspiration inpre-or
trans-Christian mythos, particularly Greek and Nordic. In caseswhen he
limits himself to assimilating those Christian myths which hethinks
suitable for his purpose he finds his reditions devoid ofexperiential
immediacy and contemporary relevance. This is noticable in T. S.Eliot's
Ariel Poem' and 'Four Quartets' - and in 'Murder in the Cathedral'he avoids
these situations altogether thus reducing their dramaticforce.
The writer under the wrench of having to deny his own culturebecause its
rationale goes against the truth of this own valid creation isforced to
exhibit his range and indignation while trying to free himself ofsuch
bondage to a sterile, and to him a valueless tradition. VictorHugo, Balzac,
Stendahl, Goethe, Maypassant, Zola, Fielding, Dickens, Thackerey,Blake,
Shelly, Keats, Browining, even Tennyson, Gogol, Pushkin, Turgenev,Chekhov,
Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy too, Poe, Whitman, Hawthorne, Melville andmany
other European masters in the last century show this rage at thedifficulty
of this assimilation, and most of them became Athenians, Ioniansand
Spartans in mind.
In the twentieth century the rage has turned into full negation.The writer
now can trust only his two bare eyes and what they see before themand what
his over-exposed nerves can feel from his mid-body. And what hesees is two
bodies wresting against a backdrop of choas and absurdityproducing nothing;
and what he feels is tiredness, disgust and despair. Everythingis
frightful, terrible and pointless. Henry Miller and Samuel Beckettare the
two visible ends of this spectrum. The first photographing himselfin
everything, the second drawing an ever-expanding zero which,however, has to
be drawn. Vladimir Nobokov in the middle turned his scintillantlights on
shattered mirrors to reflect distortions and fragments. Lawrence(D.H.)
tried to exercise the ghost by surface explicitness only toobfuscate the
vision. Rilke made himself a member of an unearthly society whereOrpheus
sang tunefully of sweetest sorrows. Nikos Kazantzakis wanted toknow Christ
and got a human Christ, fulblooded and passionate, but not the onewho said,
"I am the Resurrection and Life". Sartre probed the dirt, found itabsurd
but undeniably existent. Camus felt the burning heat estrangingand
pointless, and himself, there was himself, outside and futile.Kafka,
Ionescu, Gunter Grass tried permutations and combinations ofthings and
creatures changing into each other. Joyce wen farthest and wrechedthe
language itself in "Finnegan's Wake' to see whether Chaos' designscould be
found from incoherence. Ungaretti, Rene Char, etc., invitedhermetic
word-games so that lexical meaning and implied feeling could bedetached
from each other to keep only the latter, but all that turned intoa black
hole of anti-sense. Concrete poetry with no cementing concreteemerged but
the makers made nothing themselves ad only rearranged what wasreadymade and
ended up by boring themselves as well. A Kurt Vonnegut takes hiswriter to
live in the far future in which technology has made sexunnecessary and men
are made men or women by machines. A few have even ordered theirimagination
to see whether tables, chair and inkpots can be made intospeaking
characters. And those who like later Maulraux and Solokhov imposedorder and
optimism from outside by the power of their craft and skill andfound their
work losing clarification relevance. Even a Yeats had to rage andwander in
exotic locales. An Alexander Solzhenytsin limns circling hellswhich are now
for him the Earth's irremovable mantle.
Some like Hemingway, Zweig, Toller, Mishima, Kawabata went madand killed
themselves.
All those whose name have been here named, and many others hereunnamed,
followed with unbending integrity the truth of their vision towhere it led
them to confirm that myths are truer embodiment of Man's Estatethan any
philosophically constructed model of human conduct.
Against this plangent display of vitality of the literature ofthe West
(the two Japanese names are representative to us of westernsensibility) our
modern and contemporary literature appears either as a pallid anddim
imitative superstructure or an intellectually built-up screeplay -though in
some cases done with exquisite skill - fabricated by unconfidentvision
which does not touch the roots of our existence and sources of ourculture
and, therefore, remains radically irrelevant. An unconfidentvision can
never face and render the erotic situation truthfully andhonestly, i.e.,
creatively. We have plenty of pornographic mishmash littering ourstreets,
but hardly a novel that tells us truly with integral explicitnesswhat a man
and a woman do to each other in their nakedness and what theymeans and are
to each other then.
A writer who evades this situation is a traitor to hiscreativity. This is
baffling and strange when considered in relation to our culturalmythos
which alone in human civilisation has given visionary archetypalexpression
to all the conceivable erotic human relationships against abackground of
various cosmological possibilities.
Here I will only say that there must be some central flaw in ourcountry's
contemporary culture to have so enfeebled the creative artist'svision at
its source. Sex is not only the power of procreation but ofcreation too.
Sex is not only posture ending in copulation. One sometimes feelsthat the
guardians of our culture (including some writers too) think thatand
otherwise all-wise God made a terrible blunder in providing manwith a penis
and woman with a vagina and impelling them to mate to perpetuatethe
species. So our literature suffers and is sick. When literature issick, the
nation becomes diseased. Prudery and hypocrisy are interchangeableand for
both of these power is pleasure, which is, of course, a thoroughperversion
of man's humanity. The sad result of this perversion in ournational life is
there in plain sight for anyone with eyes to see.
The marvel of Anuttar Yogi - This detour was made to bring up tothe marvel
that is Anuttar Yogi. Eros is here; more intimate than everpossible to a
slavering pornographer, but never, even for a moment, lascivious.An Eros in
which consciousness is alert all over and aware everywhere. A factof life
giving life. Mahavir is Eros that is Logos and Logos that isEros.
Therefore, he is a man who is divine and the divinity that isMan.
All the faces of Eros are delineated by Virendra with such suredelicacy
and firmness that the reader is translated to a state of
preter-consciousness - I mean, the reader who knows how toread.
Nowhere is the 'equal eye' of Virendra more in evidence than whenhe
engaged himself in depicting the states of consciousness revealedby the
Eros' workings. All the major characters of Anuttar Yogi, Mahaviranot
excluded, have to contend with and confront Eros either to subdueand
transcend him or to be subdued and be obliterated by him. And withwhat apt
skill - only possible to one with the 'equal eye' - all of it hasbeen done,
with never a discord, with never a superfluity.
Erect penis in a temple - This skill reaches to supreme heightswhere the
transmutes an incident of the Jain Puranic lore into an episode inwhich a
self - attached disciple (Makkhali Goshalak) of Mahavir, whenwatching make
and female devotees dancing a midnight dance of devotion in andaround a
temple, strays into the inner sanctum where he lets his thoughtsdwell on
the regardless languor of a few winsome entranced female devotees.He cannot
contain and restrain himself. His sign of maleness exhibits itselfin rigid
protrusion. Then as a final blasphemy he makes it rest on thegranite
representation of the deity. And then... (read the book.)
Tell me, which writer, modern or unmodern could have thought ofsuch
incident, even if available to him, in the first place as aconstituent of
artistic reification. And if having thought of it so, would hehave dared to
use it! And if had he dared to use it, would he have had the powerof
rendition to turn it into an episode of exquisite beauty without atrace of
lechery and a thing of great spiritual significance; and all thatby a power
(I don't know how the hell Virendra is capable of such miracles)of
magically accurate and exact description without any extraneouscommentary.
Virendra is right on target like this all the time throughoutAnuttar Yogi.
While reading these volumes this kind of skill looked to me somemanner of
unnatural sleight-of-hand or some sort of devilish black magic.But before
long, I could know what was it. And I said to myself, "Ha ! It isthe equal
eye' of Shakespeare again. It had been long in coming. Blessed beme! I
lived to see it working."
After such miraculous display of literary art of dazzlingexactitude, and
which is beyond the dreams of ambition of anyone now living andwriting, he
compels us to place him alongside the supreme masters - amongthe
occidentals Dante and Shakespeare. After Shakespeare neitherGoethe nor
Tolstoy is his equal in lighting up the polyfoliate features ofEros that is
Logos with such pellucid accuracy. I won't go to legendsanctifiedHomer - he
is different.
Among the orientals, I know only of the Indian masters. Thelatest one that
can reach is the sparkling wizard Jayadev of 'Geet Govind', andbefore him
the magnificent, Bhas, Banabhatt and Kalidas.
Am I saying too much? Am I going gaga and bananas? Read AnuttarYogi and
wonder... I dare you to disagree with me and enter intodisputation!
And from where Virendra gets this 'equal eye'? By some GreatGod's alchemy
he has the truth of his vision firmly and infrangible centred andanchored
into that source of his creativity where a man's should is thesilent,
detached and ever-delighted witness of Nature's ever changes,which it sees
as being enacted for its own delight. - And then there is a Manand a Woman
fated to come together and join; Why? In Anuttar Yogi this Why isless of a
Why.
Without such centering and anchoring of his vision it would neverhave been
possible for him to enter into the mind of a fully enlightened manlike
Mahavir and bare for us his mental processes leading toenlightenment. Only
such centering makes such metempsychosis possible for the creativevision.
Even a Tulsidas and a Surdas could only look at their Ram andKrishn from
outside in adoration and wonderment. Sri Aurobindo also could notachieve
this internality in his 'Savitri'. And without such visionaryingestion,
Mahavir would not live in Anuttar Yogi for as one of us and us,and as God
too.
If this is not sublime then where was anything sublime in anyliterature
anywhere at any time?
Rhetoric of such sublimity true rhetoric is always an inseparabletorch
bearing herald. Man's situation in Nature is perpetual rhetoric.He has
always to ask, "Why be?" and he says in defiance, "I am...." (thedots are
our poetry, literature region, science and mathematics).therefore, I
endure".
Obviously in those situations where this central question has tobe
addressed to, employment of full eloquence is a necessity. AnuttarYogi
continually addresses itself to this question and Virendra'scharacters are
always suitably eloguent. All of Mahavir's perorations arematchless in this
respect, equalled in English only by Shakespeare in his greattragedies. We
hear them directly addressed to us rousing the fervour of ouremotions.
And when Virendra's Mahavir speaks to us thus, A Hindu will belistening to
Krishna in Mahabharata, a Christian to Christ in the Sermon on theMount, a
Moslem to Mohamed in A1 Quran speaking to his legion in Medina,and a Sikh
will see Guru Gobind Singh turning his Panj Piaras into embodimentof the
Sacrificial Spirit.
I could personally understand a little of how RamakrishnParamahans
inbreathed into Vivekanand the cosmos-trifling valour of the soul,and how
Gandhi became a man of utter fearlessness and a knower of theright action
through his mantra of Ahinsa.
And so Mahavir in Anuttar Yogi is seen and shown to be what he is- one of
the few shapers in our civilisation's annals of Man's immortalbliss -
beholding and bliss-seeking Spirit.
And when face to face with such ampleur shall I now become aniggling
pedant and talk of technique and structure, tenor and texture,semiotics,
deictics, craft and vehicle, tone and metaphor, balance and style,weight
and pacing, phrasing and casing, plots and unities, singularitiesand
diction, of existential imperatives, of iterative gestalts, of
psycho-coherent contouring, of phonemic simulacrums, ofobjective
correlative, of phanodesic reification, of no need to express butan
obligation to express, and on and on? I won't do that. Enough ofthat is
done by us as academics!
I should also refer here to the appendices that Virendra hasadded to each
volume of Anuttar Yogi expositing some of the questions andcasting in
passing some incisive asides and obiter dicta with his usual highcapacity
for emotive argumentation. They will be an academician's delight,but for
the reader of Anuttar Yogi and impediment to the absorption of thebook by
him. Anuttar Yogi an impediment to the absorption of the book byhim.
Anuttar Yogi does not need these appendices; neither does Virendraafter
Anuttar Yogi. They should be removed from subsequent editions. Acreated
object needs no justications. It is your ill-luck or foolishnessif you pass
a lying diamond by.
One may also ask why no thought has been given to AnuttarYogi's
translation into other Indian and major world languages. Somelarge -
hearted philanthropists should associate themselves with suchprojects to
give wide dissemination to this great literary heritage.
At the end, let me again say that in Anuttar Yogi Virendra hasgiven
Mahavir back to us as the Knower of Right and as the Light on thePath of
Righteousness. It is for us to profit by His example because Hespeaks to us
as a friend who has shared our intimate secrets. I am a Hindu, anda proud
Hindu, but the Mahavir given to us by Virendra in Anuttar Yogi hasexacted
my lasting adoration.
And what to say of Virendra, the witness, the maker! AfterAnuttar Yogi he
is beyond the crutch of praise. He lives now in the Vedicutterance (Ekoham
bahusyam- One I am, let Me be many). He has become an 'artificershaping
wordless time.' It is not given to an artist (and to anyone else)to be more
than that. He just is. He is now his own laws, his own joy.Adieu.
by C. S.Vishwanathan
9th February, 1981
11/288, 'Prabhat',
Sion Road. East,
Mumbai - 400 022.
1915 : October 17, born at Mandasaur (M.P.)
1996 : December 17, died in Mumbai
1937 : Graduated (B.A.) with English Literature, Philosophy, andHindi
Literature from Holkar College, Indore.
1941 : Did post-graduation (M.A.) studies with Hindi Literaturefrom Nagpur
University.
Awards and Honours Received
1. 1990 - Priyadarshini Academy's Literary Award for literaryexcellence.
2. 1990 - Maharashtra State Hindi Sahitya Akademi's ChhatrapatiShivaji
Rashtriya Ekta Puraskar for literary excellence.
3. 1986 - Madhya Pradesh Government's Department of Culture'sShikhar Samman
and citation (For the year 1985 - 86) For - SignificantContribution to
Hindi literature.
4. 1986 - Bharatiya Gyanpith's Moortidevi Literary Award, citationand a
replica of Vagdevi (For the year 1984) - For Muktidoot.
5. 1985 - Janadharma - Hindi weekly of Bhopal's JanadharmaSaraswat Samman
and shield - For : Overall Contribution to Hindi litarature.
6. 1981 - Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad, Calcutta's award and shield -For
Anuttar Yogi
7. 1976 - Madhya Pradesh Rajya Samman and shield - For OverallContribution
to Hindi literature.
8. 1975 - Madhya Pradesh Sahitya Parishad, Bhopal's All IndiaTulsi Puraskar
For : Shunya Purush Aur Vastuen.
9. 1974 - Uttar Pradesh Government's Hindi Academy's award For :Ek Aur
Nilanjana.
10. 1971 - Vishva Dharma Parishad, Kota's award For :Muktidoot
Important Phases of his career
1. Worked with Madam Sophia Wadia. For one year, namely, 1948,translated
form English into Hindi, Several philosophical and spiritualarticles of
great world-known thinkers.
2. Was Assistant Editor of "Dharmayug", the illustrated HindiWeekly, for
the decade of 1950 - 1960.
3. Was Chief Editor of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Hindi monthlymagazine
"Bharati" for five years - 1961 to 1965. Then he was very close tothe great
personality K.M. Munshi. Shri Munshi loved and admired him duringthis
association of theirs.
4. As a lecturer taught Hindi at Mithibai College, Mumbai for thewhole
decade of 1966-1976.
5. Became Chief Editor of "Navaneet (Hindi Digest)", a magazine ofall India
repute, in 1980; and edited it till June 1985.
Retired from active Employment on June 30, 1985.
For resume of Significant Experiences of Life refer to thefollowing sheet...
Significant Experiences of Life (Written by the author)
1. Worked, sometimes, at the risk of life, as an undergroundleaflet-writer
during the Quit India Movement of 1942.
2. Passed through infernal soul agonies of death - fixation andother
existential enigmas and metaphysical questions, sometimes foryears, almost
verging on death. In this quest-journey of soul I probed into theworks of
great world philosophers including Karl Marx, the existentialists,and, on
the other hand, I went through the important scriptures of all thereligions
and theologies of the world; and sought answer to my existentialquestions
in the life and works of Ramkrishna Paramhansa, Shri Aurobindo,Vivekanand,
Gandhi, Raman Maharshi, J. Kirshna Murti, Emanuel Swedenborg,Jacob Bohen,
Paracelsue etc. I went through the teachings of Buddha, Mahavir,Krishna,
Christ, Shankar; the Vedic and Upanishadic lore; the classic epicsof the
world, like, Mahabharat, Gita, as well as the works of the Westernmasters
like Dante, Milton, Goethe and the Sufis.
But, none of these great master - thinkers and spiritual apostlescould
finally satisfy me, nor could they answer my poignant questionsand
inquisitions about the Ultimate Reality. At long last, aftermortal
suffering and struggle in this journey of soul I could discover myown
independent spiritual path and a unique metaphysics.
This discovery of mine is reflected in all of my creativeworks,
particularly and distinctly in my epic novel 'Anuttar Yogi', inwhich my
Mahavir answers burning questions of all times, right upto our owntimes,
here and now, in a multi dimensional, dynamic language of his own- a
gospelic combination of Eros and Ethos is achieved in thisdiscovery, which
can satisfy the modern man and the new man in the offing - the NewBeing.
All this exploration of the inner space and the outer space, ismade
possible by my acute passion and lust for life, at the point of myintense
creative force, process and work.
On the economic front, I have lived and struggled all through mydays; due
to my hypersensitive, romantic, poetic nature, and an all -absorbing
spiritual quest, I couldn't concentrate on the economic aspect ofmy life.
As a result of it, at this end of my life, I am facing an awefulfinancial
void - with no secure support in sight.
To order books, write to manish.modi@bol.net.in
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