Pradip Bhattacharya

Indologist, Mahabharata scholar

STORIES, ESSAYS & POSTS

POLICE FIRING AT ISLAMPUR IN MURSHIDABAD DISTRICT

By

During my tenure as District Magistrate of Murshidabad, I had to order the police to fire at a violent mob. The incident was written up as a Case for use in the Administrative Training Institute, West Bengal. Based upon my records, Jitendra Roy, faculty of the ATI, prepared the case-study.

1. Islampur village is situated in Raninagar-I Development Block of Lalbag Subdivision in the district of Murshidabad. While the Muslim population in the Block is high, Islampur is more or less a Hindu dominated village. There is no mosque in this village. However, the surrounding villages like Nashipur, Nashihat, Hadhadia, Natempara are all Muslim dominated and have mosques too. The Muslims of Islampur offer their prayers in the nearby mosques, which are at walking distance from the Islampur bazar.

 2. The Islampur market is an important bi-weekly market of the area. The market or is held every Monday and Thursday. Lots of people visit the ‘hat’ on the ‘hat-bars’ (days on which the market is held) for business. Some Muslims of Islampur and the neighbouring villages were of the opinion that these visitors to the ‘Hat’, as well as the shopkeepers, face a lot of difficulty in offering their five daily prayers. They felt that constructing a mosque somewhere near the ‘Hat’ would make it convenient to offer their prayers. They identified a vacant land behind the Public Works (Roads) Office [PWR] and beside the Katlamari Road for the purpose. This land bearing plot no.1593, khatian no.848, mouza Islampur (J.L.No.56) was vested land (i.e. ceiling surplus Rayati land which had vested to the State under the WBLR Act) measuring 1.01acre and had been transferred to the local Panchayat Samity in March 1979.

3. In November 1982, the Officer-in-charge (OC) of the local Police station (PS) received a letter from the Sabhadhipati (Chairman) of the Zilla Parishad (ZP) that some persons had encroached upon the land intending to construct a mosque on it. The matter was diarised with the police on 20.11.82 and the OC PS enquired into the matter the same day. He found that a group of Muslims under the leadership of one Rezaul Hossain, son of Mokin Mondal of Nashipur village and others had encroached upon the land and started raising a ‘kutcha’ (temporary) structure with bamboo poles and thatched roof for using it as a mosque. The police stopped the construction and posted a picket at the place to ensure that no further construction took place. The situation was tense but under control. There was apprehension of breach of peace. The next day, the OC submitted a prayer to the Sub Divisional Executive Magistrate (SDEM) for promulgating prohibitory orders u/s 144 CrPC. The SDEM, on being satisfied with the report on the ground situation, promulgated an order u/s 144 CrPC prohibiting any further construction on the land.

4. Having failed in their attempt to construct the mosque at the desired place, the organisers were perturbed and decided to approach the ZP on 27.11.82 with a request for donating the land for construction of a mosque. At their instance, a meeting was held by the local Muslims at Islampur on 27.11.82. The local MLA Atahar Rahman of the CPIM party heard the entire deliberations in the meeting where many of the speakers presented their views in favour of constructing a mosque on that land. However, the MLA suggested that such a mosque could be constructed on a better plot instead of the one chosen by them. But the organisers were bent on constructing the mosque at the same place where the kutcha structure stood. As such, it was decided that a deputation would meet the District Magistrate (DM) in order to obtain permission to construct a mosque on the concerned land. The local Opposition party and some constituents of the ruling coalition in the State supported their stand.  

5. On 6th December 1982, information came to the District Intelligence Branch (DIB) of Police that Smt Chhaya Ghosh, an MLA of the Forward Block, part of the ruling left-front coalition, was encouraging the local Muslims to construct the mosque at Islampur on the same plot. The local Hindus, however, kept silent. The situation was kept under close watch by the Police and the District Administration.

6. In October 1983 the Sabhapati of the Panchayat Samity received a complaint from the Branch Manager, UBI Islampur Branch, that fish-mongers had shifted the fish market a few months back and blocked the entrance to the Bank on the PW Road beside plot no.1593 leading to difficulties to commuters and officer-goers besides creating a foul smell. He also approached the district authorities for shifting the fish market from the entrance of the Bank to the encroached plot for convenience of all. The Panchayat Samity planned to start a cooperative market on the plot and shift the fish market there. On 17.12.83, the district authority forwarded the prayer of the Manager to the Executive Engineer, PWD to look into the matter.

7. One year after the attempt to construct a mosque at Islampur hat in Nov. 1982, there was a renewed attempt to construct a mosque on the same plot. The OC PS applied to the SDO through the CI of Police and the SDPO for promulgation of prohibitory orders u/s144 CrPC at the place on 21.11.83. Routed through proper channel, the application took time to reach the SDO and the order was promulgated on 3.12.83. In the meantime, on the night of 30.11.83, the organisers of the proposed mosque and others constructed a kutcha structure on the encroached plot intending to use it as a mosque for the time being. Further construction was stopped on the basis of the prohibitory order. Unhealthy tension was building up in the locality. On 22.11.83 the SDO suggested to the DM that the unauthorised structure should be removed to settle the matter once and for all and that the Panchayat Samity should take the initiative in this matter as the land belonged to them.

8. The DM wrote to the Sabhadhipati, ZP on 26.12.83 requesting him to take steps for removal of the unauthorised construction from Panchayat land. The ZP as well as the Panchayat Samity were controlled by the ruling party. The Sabhadhipati wrote to the Sabhapati of the Panchayat Samity to remove the unauthorised construction in consultation with the Executive Officer (BDO) in order to contain the tension in the locality. The SDO instructed the JLRO (Junior Land Reforms Officer) of the Land Reforms Circle on 31.01.84 to file a case under the West Bengal Public Land (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1962 [Act XIII of 1962] in the court of the SDO in consultation with the BDO of the block, if the Panchayat Samity had not taken any action till then. The Panchayat Samity requested the organisers of the mosque to remove the unauthorised construction, but they took no action. As no further action was taken by the Panchayat Samity to remove the unauthorised construction, on 13.2.84 the JLRO filed a complaint under Act XIII of 1962 to the Collector (i.e. the SDO) under the Act, giving details of the land encroached upon. The area of the plot was 1.01 acre out of which 0.04 acre was encroached upon.

9. The Collector (i.e. the SDO) under Act XIII of 1962 issued show cause notice u/s 3 of the Act on 12.4.84 to one Rahel Seikh, the person leading the organisers, giving him seven days time to file his reply. Seikh kept silent. Seven days after the date fixed, one Abdur Rezzaque appeared on his behalf and filed a written reply which stated that Seikh did not have any interest in that plot. The Collector rejected the reply on 15.5.84 and issued orders u/s 4(1) (a) calling upon the encroachers to vacate the public land in question, to dismantle the temporary structure on it and hand over possession to the JLRO within seven days. Thereupon, they applied to the Sabhapati for issuing a ‘patta’ (title deed) for construction of mosque on that plot. They also collected building materials like bricks, brickbats, stone chips etc. at the spot. The Sabhapati rejected their application on 17.4.84 stating that no patta could be issued under the rules for the stated purpose. The Sabhapati and the OC PS held meetings from 17.5.84 to 20.5.84 with the organisers of the unauthorised construction, requesting them to remove it and to set up the mosque on an alternative plot. They refused and heckled the Sabhapati for not issuing the patta. Some stated, “We will never remove the stumps that we fixed with our own hands and if anybody tries to remove them, we will protect it until the last drop of our blood.” The organisers were being actively supported by at least one opposition party. The deadline fixed by the SDO passed without any action from the encroachers to comply with the court’s orders.

10. As the previous order was not carried out, the Court, i.e. the Collector under Act XIII of 1962, directed the SP to provide necessary police help for enforcing delivery of possession of the encroached public land to the JLRO immediately. The district administration decided to remove the unauthorised construction early at dawn on 1st June 1984. Orders u/s 144 CrPC were promulgated by the SDEM. Two Executive Magistrates proceeded to the spot with a police force commanded by the Additional SP. Trucks and labourers were arranged from the district headquarters as local labour at Islampur would not be available. Removal of the unauthorised construction was completed peacefully without any obstruction before sunrise on the chosen day.

11. At about 5AM, when a portion of the police force led by the CI (Circle Inspector) of Police was on its way back, it was surrounded and attacked by a violent mob armed with deadly weapons including pipe guns, bombs, lathis, spears etc. coming from Islampur and the adjoining villages. The CI’s right arm was fractured, three constables were injured and four police vehicles were heavily damaged. Subsequently, the truck of the PWD carrying the contractor and labourers was also heavily damaged and some of the workers injured too. The 2nd Officer of the PS and the OC of another PS who was present with his force for the operation had to retreat in the face of severe attacks as there was possibility of their being overpowered. The whereabouts of the Additional SP were not known.

12. On receiving this information, the DM and the SP immediately contacted the nearby Commandant of the BSF battalion requesting for a show of strength and a flag march by them. The Commandant pleaded his inability to move without orders from the headquarters. So they got in touch with the IG, BSF over telephone. He refused to render any help at that moment without clearance from Delhi. The DM then rang the Chief Secretary (S.V.Krishnan IAS) who told him to manage with whatever police force was available. The DM decided to rush to the spot without further delay. Before leaving, he rang the Home (R.N.Sengupta IAS, 1955), told him about the problem, that he and the SP were leaving with whatever few policemen they could round up and that he and the SP may not return safely. Rushing to the police lines, the DM and the SP roused the few policemen there (about 22) from sleep and left for the spot with arms and tear-gas equipment.

13. On their way to Islampur they had to clear many road blockades. Crowds armed with lathis, spears, bows and arrows and brick-bats were seen rushing towards Islampur. At one place, the DM asked the people where they were going. They replied that they were going to offer ‘namaz’. The DM asked them then why they were carrying lathis but got no reply.

14. Ultimately, they reached the place at about 7.45 AM and faced heavy, continuous brick-batting and bombing. About 5000 people armed with weapons had already gathered around the market place. Violent sentiments were whipped up by the agitators over loudspeakers. The crowd, which had degenerated into a mob, attacked the DM, the SP and the small police force. Attempts to draw them into discussion by announcements over microphone failed. The brick-batting steadily built up. Seeing that the situation was going out of control, the crowd was repeatedly warned by DM and the SP to disperse as it was an unlawful assembly in violation of the orders promulgated u/s 144 CrPC. The crowd renewed the attack and started breaking the roadside shops. One Head Constable and four constables were injured by brick-bats in the attack. The mob was then warned that if they did not disperse immediately force would be used to disperse them. They did not comply and continued their attack. The situation became extremely grave.

15. As it was pointless to use lathis in view of the crowd showering brick-bats from a distance and from behind huts, tear-gas shells were fired. Only two shells burst out of the ten fired. This emboldened the crowd further to renew the attack with greater violence, including firing from improvised fire-arms and throwing bombs at the police force.

16. In view of the grave risk to their lives and property—both private and public—the DM decided to use fire-arms as a last resort to disperse the unlawful assembly. The mob was warned that if they did not disperse they would be fired upon. The mob continued the attack unabated. The DM ordered firing and found the first shot whizzing past his ear from behind. In shock, he turned round and found an embarrassed constable explaining that since on principle they had boycotted firing practice, he had no idea of the prescribed drill. (The non-gazetted police association did not perform the prescribed practice drills and had heckled the earlier SP over disciplinary matters so badly that he had to leave the district. The previous DM had also been badly heckled and made to walk a distance in public with hands folded begging apology.)

[PB1] 17. The DM then made five constables kneel down in front of him facing the crowd and ordered firing of one round each by them from service rifles at the violent mob, aiming below the waist. No one was hit as the hands of the policemen were trembling and they failed to take proper aim. Emboldened, the crowd continued the attack. The DM found some people about to throw brick-bats at him and took a rifle from one of the constables to fire in self-defence when a young DySP came to his rescue and shot at the assailants from his service revolver. The DM then ordered the constables to take careful aim and fire another round and then yet another. The mob retreated and dispersed. The DM then ordered firing to cease. Nine persons injured by the firing were immediately sent to the Islampur hospital. One of the persons was declared brought dead by the MO, Islampur Hospital. Another injured person died in the District Hospital, where he had been referred.  

19. Soon after this, the BSF rolled up in trucks and was advised by the DM to go round the area as a show of force to ensure that peace was maintained. Later, the DM found out that the Home Secretary had intervened, leading to the arrival of the BSF. Subsequently, the Special IG of Police (Dr. A.P. Mukherjee IPS, later Director CBI) arrived to take stock of the situation and asked the DM to persuade the shopkeepers to reopen their shops and start normal business. This was done.

20. The DM asked the SDO to lodge an FIR regarding the incident, but he pleaded that if he did so, his service career would be doomed and requested the DM to relieve him of that responsibility. So the DM himself lodged the FIR with the local Police Station. A case was started u/s 147/148/149/427/341/342/353/325/307/333 IPC, Section 9B of the Indian Explosives Act and Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act. Thirty persons were arrested in the police raids on the spot including the Muslim League Secretary and his workers with pamphlets and some deadly weapons.

21. The DM sent a detailed report regarding the incident to the Home Secretary with copies to the Divisional Commissioner and the SP. The SP also sent a detailed report to the DIG of Police with copies to the Special IG of Police and the DM.

22. Raids by the police continued for some days. On 3rd June the 2 Executive Magistrates on duty reported that six truck-loads of bricks and other articles of the demolished structure were removed in their presence from the spot and sent to the Zilla Parishad compound for storing.

23. Local newspapers as well as all the major dailies like Ananda Bazar Patrika, The Statesman, Jugantar etc. reported the incident on the following day in different ways stating the incident of an armed clash between a mob and the police at Islampur leading to the death of one person and injury to 8 or 9 others. All the reports indicated that the incident followed the illegal act of some people to construct forcibly a mosque on Government land.

24. Subsequently, the Opposition party approached the parents of the deceased in the firing asking them to lodge cases u/s 302 IPC (murder) against the DM and the SP. The parents refused, saying that their sons had committed serious wrongs and the DM and the SP had no alternative but to open fire.

25. Tension continued in the locality for quite some time. A deputation from the West Bengal State Muslim League Committee met the ADM(G) at the district headquarter on 5.6.1984 and demanded compensation for the firing victims as applicable in the case of air-crash victims. They mentioned that 11 (eleven) copies of Koran had been damaged and in all 18 (eighteen) persons were killed and buried secretly. They demanded a judicial enquiry and compensation to the owners of the shops allegedly looted by the police. They stated that they wanted to ask a few questions of the DM and, if not satisfied with the answers, threatened to launch a big agitation. The ADM (G) tried to dispel their misgivings and requested them to exercise complete calm and restraint particularly in the context of the holy month of Ramzan. The DM asked the SP to enquire into the allegations. The SP reported that the allegations were baseless and there was no corroboration from any other source. Leaflets containing distorted versions of the happenings and tending to vitiate the communal atmosphere of the district were circulated by the District Muslim League particularly among the Muslims.

26. The District Magistrate got news that some persons were spreading extremely dangerous rumours regarding communal tension and this was demoralising the local people as well as government staff. He instructed the SDO to camp at Islampur with adequate security and undertake extensive tours into the interior areas as the best corrective step in case there was any such tension in the locality. On the DM’s suggestions, the SP also directed the SDPO to take similar action.

27. The DM instructed the Executive Engineer, Highway Division-I, PWD, to enclose the plot with a boundary wall and also to take steps to get this plot transferred to PWD so as to overcome the space constraint in their office. This had the approval of the Minister of State for Primary Education who happened to be a Muslim and the Minister-in-charge of the District. To discourage attempts at rebuilding on the plot, the DM had all the bricks lying there transported and unloaded in the compound of the office of the Zilla Parishad to serve as a constant reminder to the Sabhadhipati and members of what had happened.

28. The SDO requested the DM to consider constructing a rest-shed for the community on some other plot near the ‘Hat’. He also stated that the MLA and the Sabhapati wanted that the plot should be enclosed by a boundary wall immediately as some persons were trying to incite communal feelings in connection with removal of the unauthorised structure.

29. On 22.6.84 the Imam of Sarulia Mosque, at the time of Namaz, asked the Muslims to perform Namaz to Allah so that the Hindus including the DM, who had dishonoured the holy Koran and demolished the mosque, may be punished by Allah. The DM sent a proposal to the Home Secretary for setting up a TOP (Thana Outpost) at Islampur as soon as possible for maintenance of law and order and prevention of crime.

30. The DM became the Commissioner of the Presidency Division in 2000. He found that no Executive enquiry into the incident of police firing had been conducted as yet as required under the Police Regulations of Bengal.

-:Teaching Note:-

  1. Act XIII of 1962 is a very effective instrument for removing encroachments from government land.
  2. Parameters for use of force against a mob:
    1. Use of firearms should be adopted as the last means of enforcing law and order.
    2. The Magistrate of the highest rank present at the spot should pass a clear order for the use of fire-arms when the situation so demands, stating the number of rounds to be fired (usually, 1 round per constable; therefore the number of constables chosen determines the number of rounds fired) and specifying that the aim must be below the waist.
    3. There should be minimum use of firing. Firing must be a controlled one and not a fussilade
    4. ‘Blank firing’ in the air is not permitted under the PRB as if no injury results from firing, it only increases the mob’s confidence and encourages them to be more violent..
    5. Firing must stop as soon as its purpose is achieved, viz. dispersal of the mob.
    6. The place should be searched for any injured immediately after the crowd has dispersed and necessary arrangement made for their medical treatment.
    7. Dead bodies must be collected, sent for post-mortem.
    8. FIR must be drafted carefully recording the sequence of events, the action taken, the injuries suffered and caused, deaths if any.
  3. The place should also be searched for any miscreants loitering around to apprehend them.
  4. The Magistrate who has ordered the firing and the police officer of the highest rank present at the spot must send detailed reports about the incident to their higher authorities at the earliest possible occasion. The DM should send a report to the Divisional Commissioner.
  5. A potential law and order situation should not be allowed to linger. It should be dealt with firmly at the very beginning.
  6. The purpose of promulgation of 144 CrPC gets frustrated if it is not done in time. Here the orders did not reach concerned officials quickly. So all those involved in the issue like the Police, JLRO and SDEM should be particular in not wasting any time.
  7. The flag march by BSF helped in subduing the tension that was brewing after the firing. If the BSF had been more responsive, there might have been a chance of averting the police firing.
  8. Compromising discipline in a uniformed force leads to disastrous results.
  9. Para 20 explains the extent of publicity the incident had got. It was so important that it got place in all the major dailies of the State. The interesting part was that most of the reports corroborated the actual cause of the firing and also its results. Unlike in the present day there is no mention of reckless firing or police excesses. This implies that a completely lawful procedure had been followed.
  10. After any major administrative intervention in an incident involving a large mass of people, a change of approach is essential starting with shifting the injured to hospital, collecting the dead bodies for post-mortem and disposal, interacting with the people for reassuring them so that normal life is resumed. Its after-effects continue for quite sometime. The administration should keep its eyes and ears open and take prompt action to prevent the after effects from developing into another law and order incident.
  11. The Administration should undertake all necessary preventive measures to curb tension in the locality after a major law & order incident.
  12. Whenever an incident of police firing takes place, it must be followed by an Executive Enquiry by the appropriate authority under the PRB.
  13. Political parties play major roles both in fomenting trouble and curbing them.
  14. Civil Servants should be fully conversant of the chain of actions to be taken in law & order problems. 

Mulk Raj Anand in Malda

By

On the evening of 14 April 1972 I met the renowned novelist Dr. Mulk Raj Anand in the bungalow of the District Magistrate, Malda, Mr. S.P. De IAS (1959 batch). I was then Assistant Magistrate and Assistant Collector on training. Anand was accompanied by Miss Dolly Sahiyar, photographer of MARG magazine and Sri Ajit Neogi, President Bangla Academy of Rajshahi. MARG was publishing a feature on Muslim architecture of Bangladesh. I was asked to guide them around the historical monuments.

On 15th April from 630 AM I took them around Gour and Pandua for 6 hours. Dr. Anand was in shorts and a brick-red top; very fair, a prominent acquiline nose; white hair streaked with dyed brown. At Adina Masjid the fusion of Hindu and Musim art had created a new Bengali art joining swastika and Muslim petal work. Sudhir Babu pointed out that Muslim petals curved backwards while the Hindu curved inwards. No masjid sports such a vast open-air compound lined with cells typical of a Buddhist monastery. The doorway decorations have Hindu carved panels with faces of deities smashed. Every panel in Adina in the courtyard has a different design.

Then I took Dr. Anand to the Malda Museum which was in poor shape. Entering the museum he shouted aloud, “Arrey! This is a godown of images. Why haven’t you arranged the statues properly according to the timeline? Is there possibility to have another floor in the hall or more? Do you have space all around to expand?” With his 70 year old Jat physique he ran about finding out how much expansion was possible.

When he came to stand in front of a 14th century statue of four-handed Sarasvati, I asked him, “Dr. Anand, at the feet of the idol one can see a ram. How do you explain that (since her vehicle is a swan)?” He replied, “Hindu mythology has neither head nor tail. People have let their imagination run wild and conceptualised as they wished.” I said, “According to the Curator, to take humanity from animal level to the human is the sadhana of knowledge and from there to a super-being. So at the feet of the idol the ram symbolises animality. What do you think?” He promptly exclaimed, “Puranic stories are all hotch-potch. They make no sense at all.”

Then he changed track: “Under the Museums head of account the central govt. has 22 lakh rupees lying. Come to Delhi. I will get out at least a lakh and a half for this museum of yours. If you can’t manage the wherewithal for the Delhi trip I will give you that too.” Suddenly he said, “You have many statues of the same type. What is the need of keeping the same type of image of the same century? Exchange them for cash. You will get lakhs of rupees and with that make this museum attractive.” The museum had several images of barefooted Surya which was a rarity since post-Kushan times Surya is always booted.

He was going on talking non-stop. “Instead of that as your town is filthy so is its peculiar godown-like museum. Can’t you make a garden in the open area of the compound? Fixing firm netting along the boundary wall it can be turned into an enchanting garden. That will prevent Naxal attacks and stealing of flowers.”

At the dining table in the circuit house five of us were seated: Dr. Anand, Miss Sahiyar, Ajit Neogi, Sudhir Chakraborty and myself. Dr. Anand was bare-bodied now, talking incessantly. Some words were unintelligible because of his peculiar accent. Discussing politics he said in a grave voice, “Look, Mrs. Gandhi is very honest and sincere. I have taught her in our socialistic school. But she hasn’t learnt even the A,B,C of socialism. She will be ruined by that Y.B.Chavan (Finance Minister) and teams of innumerable corrupt followers. She has only 5 or 6 sincere and honest followers. They are lying hidden. And that Dange, chairman of the CPI! Is he a communist at all? He is worse than a bourgeois. But he understands politics and knows the tricks. I have respect for Prof. Hiren Mukherjee, a true gentleman, honest, noble communist. However, whatever you might say, CPI is practising “tail-ism” (tail behind the most progressive elements of the working-class movement, by reflecting in their politics only the most reactionary views of the masses). CPI(M) had also tried to do that but they don’t get any gate. None of them are communists. For them communism is a step to climb to power. The true communists are the Naxals, but adventurist ideas have spoilt them. If I were younger, I would have been their leader. And Chyavan? The other day he made away with about a crore of rupees. Look, Mrs. Indira will not be able to establish fascism in India. Democratic socialism is a nonsense. Disguised as democracy, dictatorship will prevail whose central point is Indira. But the form of that dictatorship will be Indian. Europeans like to finish-off the opposition but the nature of Indians is much softer. Indira has that nature. But whatever you might say, Indra is playing marvellously. She is batting with a firm hand. Morarji, Sanjeev Reddy, your Atulya Ghosh are overturned. They will not be able to rise up again. Bureaucracy will be ended. Only the central point of power will remain: Indira.”

Emergency had not yet been declared.

He holds him with his glittering eye

By

RETURN OF THE RHAPSODE

Pradip Bhattacharya*

3rd November 2010 was a sad day for Mahabharata aficionados. That night saw the passing of Padma Shri Professor Purushottam Lal, 81, poet, publisher, teacher and transcreator of Vyasa’s greatest creation. Just a fortnight later his brother-in-law and classmate, Professor N. Viswanathan—thespian (stage and film), teacher, debater par excellance—also passed away. Both spent a lifetime teaching English in St.Xavier’s College, Calcutta. Those interested in the different facets of P. Lal’s personality will find much in the 70th birthday festschrift volume, Be vocal in times of beauty (Writers Workshop). Here let us share his contribution to Vyasa.

The attempts at translating in full the longest epic in the world began with H. Fauche’s French translation in 1863. He died in 1870 after finishing the 10th book (Karna Parva). L. Ballin took this forward till Book 12, when he too died. A new French translation by Guy Vincent and Gilles Schaufelbergerhas seen so far four volumes arranged thematically, not chronologically. The Russian translation started in 1941 by V. Kalyanov has completed 12 of the 18 books. In the USA, J.A.B. van Buitenen of Chicago University based his translation on the critical edition and died after finishing the first five books. A team of seven scholars is tackling the remaining parvas. The other American project of the Clay Sanskrit Library to translate the vulgate with Neelakantha’s commentary in diglot format has run out of sponsors after publishing eight parvas and parts of the rest in 15 volumes.

We have to revert to the 19th century for an almost complete English translation by Kisari Mohan Ganguli published by P.C. Roy (1883-1896). Another effort was undertaken a decade later by the Rector of Serampore College, M.N. Dutt (1895-1905). Both either omit or Latinise passages “for obvious reasons” in the Victorian ambience. In 1968 Professor P. Lal took up the first verse-by-verse transcreation of Vyasa’s monumental composition, revising it comprehensively in 2005. He had planned to finish it in 20 years, but 16 of the 18 books and half of the Shanti Parva have been published, leaving the Mokshadharma and Anushasana Parvas to be completed. In addition a Mahabharata-Katha series was published with introductions bringing out the significance of key episodes (eight have come out so far). Ganguli had P.C. Ray to sponsor him. Lal transcreated and published single-handed—a unique achivement. His is the only English version of Vyasa that shifts sensitively from verse to prose and vice-versa, following the complete vulgate text shloka-by-shloka.

No one, however, dreamt of recreating the epic as an oral-aural experience. Yet, that is what the Mahabharata is. The itinerant rhapsode Ugrashrava Sauti, son of the suta Lomaharshana (whose recitation horripilated the audience with a hair-raising experience), recites it to the hermits participating in sage Shaunaka’s great sacrificial ritual in the forest of Naimisha. Sauti reproduces what he had heard Vaishampayana recite to King Janamejaya in the presence of the composer during the intervals of the Naga-holocaust. It was in October 1999, near the turn of the millennium, that Padma Shri Prof. P.Lal, D.Litt., Jawaharlal Nehru Fellow, began to read his transcreation to a live audience. A twenty-first century Sauti had arrived in the Sanskriti Sagar library. Dictated to Ganesha, taught to Vaishampayana who recited it to King Janamejaya, that oral and aural experience was sought to be conveyed to an English-knowing audience, keeping the Indian flavour intact. Ratikanta Basu, CEO of TARA TV, realizing the signal contribution this was making in turning the world’s largest epic into a live experience, began to telecast the reading in segments. On the Writers Workshop completing fifty years of publication, the Governor of West Bengal, Shri Gopal Krishna Gandhi, released in early 2009 the first instalment of ten DVDs of the telecasts with the text in a companion volume in a gorgeously produced presentation box. Aficionados of Vyasa will be grateful to Tara TV.

Those who have read the professor’s earlier editions (beginning with monthly fascicules in 1968), or his riveting valedictory address to the Sahitya Akademi’s national seminar on the epic in 1987, will be mistaken if they give this recording a miss. The introductory talk is a completely new and brilliant overview of the key issues in the Mahabharata, unique as much for its insights as for its style. The Professor is, after all, at his best delivering a lecture. It is spiced with inimitable touches of punning sarcasm (“This is the mother of all epics; in fact, the grandmother of all epics”; “The battle of Kurukshetra—call it genocide, parricide, gurucide, suicide—whatever; such brotherly butchery!” Or, “The fathering of Yudhishthira by Vidura is one of the best kept open secrets”).

Prof. Lal begins with a question: “When, how why did a mini-Bharata, a katha of 20,000 shlokas (sic.  the figure is 24000) become a Mahabharata a kavya of more than one lakh shlokas?” Sauti tells us that it took three years for Vyasa, composing daily, to complete his kavya (1.62.55, 66). Perhaps the most famous shloka of the epic, the most quoted, says Prof. Lal, is the one that says, “What is in this epic on Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha may be elsewhere. What is not in this epic is nowhere else” (1.62.67). Is Vyasa, then, suggesting that the kavya has an answer to every problem in life, provide a cure-all for ills of world, a universal panacea? Strangely enough, that is what he is claiming. All scriptures and shastras were weighed against it and the Mahabharata tipped the scale, “heavier than all those other respected heavies. And as it was heavier, had more “bhaara” it was known as Bhaarata. The perfect panacea.” But there is another meaning of the word that Prof. Lal overlooks: “war” (cf. Bhasa’s Karnabhaara). Emperor Akbar knew this. That is why, when he commissioned the Persian adaptation in 1582, he named it Razm Nama, the Book of War.

“What, in medical jargon, is the Rx?” queries the Professor. This is what worries Arjuna on Kurukshetra, having the deepest conscientious objection to war. Krishna gives him options: various yogas, the bloody end of the Dvapara Yuga, the extinction of the Kshatriyas. Krishna will not fight for him—that is his business. “You decide what is right for you. You are free to choose—yatha icchasi tatha kuru”, he says. Arjuna responds, “You are confusing me with bewildering choices—this isn’t fair. Tell me that one truth by which I may know you.” The point, Prof. Lal asks, is there a one truth, a single magic formula, presented by Vyasa in this epic tale?

Perhaps because of the multiple layers of meaning Vyasa insisted that his stenographer, lekhaka, Ganesha understand each word before taking it down. “For what is the point of listening without understanding and assimilating? The language enshrines ideas and values; the style is only the tool. What matters is the meaning.” Take the four purusharthas, for instance, the fourfold goal of human life. What is Vyasa recommending: should we chase after money or the meaning of money (Artha); lust or love (Kama) and at the root of both is sex and you cannot do without sex; ritual or spirituality (Dharma); run away from life or transcend it (Moksha)? For Prof. Lal, Vyasa’s one message is: transform yourself— do not deny, do not denounce, do not blame. Transform money into the meaning of money; lust into love; ritual into spiritual; escape into liberation. But, as Krishna-Narayana (divinity in humanity), tells Arjuna-Nara (humanity in divinity), “You are free to choose.” Our problem is: why does pacifist Arjuna turn militarist? Why does Yudhishthira not refuse to lie? Why does Bhima hit below the belt? Why does Arjuna kill Bhishma and Karna unfairly? Why does Nara take the ignoble way to victory, which, each time, is suggested by Narayana? Questions that tease us out of thought into eternity.

So many characters; such a bewildering Cecil B. DeMilleian cast! Who is the hero to focus our attention upon? The benediction gives some hints— though not very satisfactory.

narayanam namaskritya, naramchaiva narottamam /

devim sarasvatim chaiva tato jaya udirayet //

“We namaskara Narayana, Nara and Narottama

We namaskara goddess Sarasvati and utter “jaya”, “victory”.

Prof. Lal chooses a different version occurring in the Bhagavata Purana where “Sarasvatim chaiva” is replaced by “Sarasvatim Vyasam”, a modification added by the Suta reciting the received epic, praising the composer who, by then, is seen as a part-avatara of Vishnu. Jaimini, one of the disciples to whom Vyasa taught the epic, also uses this benediction in his version of the Ashvamedha Parva, understandably paying tribute to his guru.

The clue, Prof. Lal says, lies right before us, as in the best detective stories, and we fail to see it. He points to the first word in the opening invocation, “Narayana”, who is Krishna, the crux of the Mahabharata, without whom it is Shakespeare’s Hamlet without the prince of Denmark. It is all about “wonder-working war” in which Krishna, the omniscient hero, is present but will not fight. Nara will get no direct physical help. Narayana knows the best route to travel, but will not take us until we, Nara, tell him where we want him to take us.

“He is the conscience that clarifies the confusion. If we still remain confused that is our problem, our karma, our tragedy, our hell. You can’t blame Krishna. It is Gandiva wielding Arjuna’s decision to fight even after he is convinced that killing gurus, relatives, friends is a heinous crime.”

The startling fact is that he is given a vishvarupa darshana of Krishna’s divinity on the battlefield, yet not one of the 18 akshauhinis of soldiers sees or hears a word of the dialogue. Only Arjuna sees and hears. “It is a private struggle between his good and anti-good gunas, an inspiring conflict of conscience.” Why does he decide to fight and choose war despite Krishna’s warning that it will lead to their clans’ extinction? Krishna is the omniscient hero who advises Yudhishthira how to get Drona to lay down arms. Yudhishthira could have refused to tell the half lie. Why did he not? Bhima cannot defeat Duryodhana in fair fight unless he follows Krishna’s hint to hit below the belt. Why does he take that hint? Unarmed Karna and Bhishma are slain by Arjuna also on his advice. Why does Nara take the expedient, selfish way and reject the noble?

Yet, we find that the first Arabic summary of the epic by Abu-Saleh in 1026 AD is astonishingly innocent of this overwhelming presence. Is Krishna’s role in the war a later interpolation?

After the war Vidura, having tried to console Dhritarashtra with the story of the man in the well (that travelled to Europe to become the biblical “Barlaam and Josaphat”), teaches Yudhishthira a lesson when he wishes to commit suicide after the war finding a devastated kingdom, all kith and kin dead, by suggesting that he first find out what is common to river, tree, earth and woman. Yudhishthira turns back from suicide because he finds this out: slice a river and it flows on, fertilising the land; cut a branch and new shoots sprout; pollute the land and it produces food; exploit a woman and she gives progeny and ensures the continuity of civilization—all without casting blame or taking revenge. Physical suffering is transformed into fruitful creativity. Yudhishthira will blame no one, neither himself nor Krishna, but rule nobly, creatively.

 “Learn! Vyasa urges. Learn from my life how to live as human beings should. For if you don’t, calamity awaits you and all around you. Utthishtha, stand up, wake up, learn and… charaiveti, keep moving. No regrets, no blame, no accusation; only transformation of pain and suffering into creativity and progress. That is the lesson of the Mahabharata.”

Yet, at the very end, in verses renowned as the “Bharata Savitri” why does Vyasa exclaim

urdhvabahur viraumyeṣa naca kashchich chhriṇoti me /

dharmad arthash ca kamash ca sa kimarthaṁ na sevyate //

“I raise my arms and I shout

but no one listens!

From Dharma come wealth and pleasure—

why is Dharma not practised?”

Prof. Lal provides a brief background before beginning the recitation. He gives the time of the war roughly at 3000 BC, the exact year being a matter of dispute. It is a pyrrhic victory. The kingdom is handed over to Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna, but entrusted to Yuyutsu, Dhritarashtra’s youngest son by a Vaisya woman, to supervise. Indraprastha with its wondrous hall of illusions is left to the Yadava Vajra, Krishna’s great grandson. So who finally was the victor in this fratricidal holocaust? Duryodhana or Yudhishthira? In heaven Yudhishthira is shocked to find Duryodhana and his brothers ensconced on golden thrones, with no sign of his brothers and Draupadi! “This is not svarga!” he exclaims.

Parikshit rules for 60 yrs. His son Janamejaya organises a massive snake sacrifice to annihilate all snakes because one—Takshaka, a terrorist who plays a very important role in the entire Mahabharata—fatally bit his father. By this time a century has passed since the war ended. Janamejaya is very curious to know exactly what happened. He has heard conflicting reports about his ancestors; varying and worrying accounts about how, why and when the gruesome carnage began that ended the Dvapara Yuga, wiping out both armies.

“The entire epic is a flashback a century since the war. Janamejaya wants to know about his family tree, its roots, shoots and fruits—mula, sthula,and phula—whether sweet or bitter… The starting point of the greatest epic in the world is all about family roots, which one human being wants to know. For, how else can he know himself—for isn’t he the latest leaf on that tree?”

And so the narration by Vyasa’s disciple Vaishampayana during the intervals of the sacrificial ritual of “this story, which is also a history, an itihasa, (so it is, so it happened), the autobiography of one man (Vyasa himself), a record of one family (the Kaurava-Pandava cousins), a chronicle of one country Bharata that is India, and a symbolic universal drama of mankind slowly evolving through dissension and war to self-knowledge and peace— hopefully. It is fundamentally an aural epic spoken by Vyasa to his stenographer Ganesha who is pledged to understand every word before he takes it down.

Prof. Lal’s is the only English translation that sensitively shifts from verse to prose and vice-versa as the original demands, following the complete vulgate version shloka-by-shloka. As he does not leave out passages as the critical edition does, it is possibly the most complete edition of Vyasa’s composition that is available. However, it does not have many passages occurring in the southern and eastern recensions (such as Arjuna’s wooing of Subhadra disguised as a hermit, Draupadi’s previous births as Nalayani, Mudgalani, Vedavati, Abhimanyu’s marriage to Balarama’s daughter Surekha etc.). The discs cover the introduction (memorable for Dhritarashtra’s plangent lament tada nashamse vijayeya Sanjaya, “Then I no longer hoped for victory, Sanjaya”), the list of contents, the chapters on Paushya, Puloma, Astika (including the archetypal churning of the ocean, the wondrous story of Garuda and the snake sacrifice), the partial incarnations (including Vyasa’s birth and the war summarised), cutting off abruptly at verse 21 of section 66 of the Sambhava sub-parva recounting the descendants of Brahma’s sons.

The reading is uniformly mellifluous in Professor Lal’s impeccable Indo-Oxonian accent, interspersed with his recitation of significant Sanskrit shlokas from the original. The accompanying background music of temple bells and blowing of conches is delicately muted so that nothing interferes with the camera’s concentration on the rhapsode. One might feel that the unaltered sameness of the studio palls, but that is the price we pay in modern times for having replaced seating under verdant shadows of swaying branches with the unchanging décor of airconditioned recording studios. 

Do not look, however, for colophons, chapter headings, annotations, glossaries, list of contents—the rhapsode does not need them!

Let us thrill to the evocative verses describing Creation transcreated with biblical resonance:

“At first, there was no light,

no radiance, only darkness;

then was born the egg of Brahma,

exhaustless and mighty seed of life…

from which flow being and non-being.”

Savour the riveting descrip­tion of Meru, evoking profound archetypal memories:

“There is a mountain called Meru,

a flaming heap

of splendour.

Sunlight falls on it

and scatters

at the summit.

It is golden: it glitters:

It cannot be measured:…

Mind cannot

conceive of it.”

Delight in the lovely description of what happens when Garuda lets fall the massive bough on a mountain:

            They fell on the ground,

                        these gold-bright trees,

            They were coloured with the gold

                        of mountain minerals,

            They looked like the long rays

                        of the flaming sun.

*****

* International HRD Fellow (Manchester), Ph.D. on the Mahabharata; IIM Calcutta Governing Board member; editorial board member of Journal of Human Values (IIMC) and MANUSHI. Retired as Additional Chief Secretary, Chairman State Planning Board, Chairman Uttaranchal Unnayan Parshat, Govt. of West Bengal.

The Modern Sauti

By

P. Lal: The Mahabharata of Vyasa, Adi Parva-1, transcreated from Sanskrit, Tara TV, 10 DVDs + printed volume.

The 50th anniversary of Writers Workshop was celebrated in Kolkata in early 2009 with the Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi releasing the first instalment of Tara TV’s production of Padma Sri and Nehru Fellow Professor P. Lal’s recitation of his Mahabharata transcreation. These ten DVDs are unique. There are no other recordings of Vyasa’s monumental work in English, verse-by-verse. The packaging in a red box with the title embossed in gold in P. Lal’s signature calligraphy is a connoisseur’s delight. The discs carry an excellent photograph of the transcreator and are complemented by the printed text in a hardbound, gold-embossed edition.

Ratikanta Basu, P. Lal, Gopal Krishna Gandhi

The epic journey of the Lal transcreation began towards the end of 1968 taking the form of monthly fascicules. From 2005 he published extensively revised editions, each parva in a single volume. Now 16 ½ of the 18 parvas are in print, except for the Mokshadharma part of the Shanti and the Anushasana—the only modern English version to have gone that far.[i] Only K.M. Ganguli and M.N Dutt had complete prose translations in the late 1890s, but both omitted portions of the text. This is the only transcreation that incorporates what the Bhandarkar Critical Edition has omitted, and is also the only one to follow faithfully the original’s verse and prose formats (all others are only in prose). That is where Prof. Lal’s poetic genius lends a unique flavour to this version. Those who have read his monthly fascicules will be mistaken if they give this recording a miss. The spoken introduction is a new and brilliant overview of the key issues in the Mahabharata, unique as much for its insights as its style. The Professor is, after all, at his best delivering a lecture. It is spiced with inimitable touches of punning sarcasm (“The battle of Kurukshetra— call it genocide, parricide, gurucide, suicide— whatever; such brotherly butchery!” Or, “The fathering of Yudhishthira by Vidura is one of the best kept open secrets”). One turns to the accompanying volume to savour the rich feast of insights, only to find it missing.

Vyasa begins, Prof. Lal points out, with an amazingly pompous claim to have all the answers: “What is here may be elsewhere; what is not here is nowhere else.” All scriptures and shastras were weighed against it and Mahabharata tipped the scale, “heavier than all the respected heavies. As it had more “bhaara” it was known as Bhaarata.” But another meaning of the word the prince of transcreators overlooks is “war” (cf. Bhasa’s Karnabhara). Akbar knew this. When he commissioned the Persian adaptation in 1582, he named it Razm Nama, the Book of War.

Perhaps because of such multiple layers of meaning Vyasa insisted that Ganesha understand each word before writing it down. “For what is the point of listening without understanding and assimilating? The language enshrines ideas and values; the style is only the tool. What matters is the meaning.” Should we chase money or the meaning of money (artha); lust or love (kama); ritual or spirituality (dharma); escape from life or transcend it (moksha)? For Prof. Lal, Vyasa’s one message is: transform yourself—transform money into the meaning of money; lust into love; ritual into spiritual; escape into transcendence. But, as Krishna-Narayana (divinity in humanity), tells Arjuna-Nara (humanity in divinity), “You are free to choose.” Why does pacifist Arjuna turn militarist? Why does Yudhishthira not refuse to lie? Why does Bhima hit below the belt? Why does Arjuna kill Bhishma and Karna unfairly? Why does Nara take the ignoble way to victory?

The clue lies right in front, as in the best detective stories, and we fail to see it. Prof. Lal points to the first word in the opening invocation: “Narayana” who is Krishna, the crux of the Mahabharata, without whom it is Shakespeare’s Hamlet without the prince of Denmark. It is all about “wonder-working war” in which Krishna, the omniscient hero, is present but will not fight. Narayana knows the best route to travel, but will not drive until we, Nara, tell him where to take us. Yet, the first Arabic summary of the epic by Abu-Saleh in 1026 AD is astonishingly innocent of this presence. Is Krishna’s role in the war a later interpolation?

After the war Vidura, having tried to console Dhritarashtra with the story of the man in the well (that became the biblical “Barlaam and Josaphat”) teaches Yudhishthira a lesson when he wishes to commit suicide by suggesting that he first find out what is common to river, tree, earth and woman. Slice a river and it flows on, fertilising the land; cut a branch and new shoots sprout; plough the land and it produces food; exploit a woman and she gives progeny and ensures the continuity of civilization—all without blame or revenge. Physical suffering is transformed into fruitful creativity. “Learn! Vyasa urges. Learn from my life how to live as a human being should, otherwise calamity awaits you and all around you. Utthishtha, stand up, wake up, learn and charaiveti, keep moving. No regret, no blame, only transformation of pain and suffering into creativity and progress.” Yet, at the end why does Vyasa shout with arms uplifted, “From dharma come wealth and pleasure. Why, is dharma not practised?” Hastinapura is entrusted to Yuyutsu, begotten by Dhritarashtra on a maid, as the regent; Indraprastha is left to the Yadava Vajra, Krishna’s great grandson.

The entire epic is a flashback a century since the war. Janamejaya wants to know about his family tree, its roots, shoots and fruits, whether sweet or bitter. How else can he know himself—for he is the latest leaf on that tree. And so his ancestor Vyasa narrates his story which is also the history, itihasa, of a country, the chronicle of one family, a symbolic universal drama of mankind slowly evolving through dissension and war to self-knowledge and peace— hopefully.

Dictated to Ganesha and recited to Janamejaya, that oral and aural experience is sought to be conveyed to an English-knowing audience, keeping the Indian flavour intact. Aficionados of Vyasa will be grateful to Tara TV for this signal contribution. The advantage is that the ear catches what the eye has missed in print. In section 63, verse 102 the translation erroneously has Kunti emerging from a yajna-fire having misread” jajne” (“beget”; Surya and Kunti beget Karna) for “yajne” (“from yajna”). Prof. Lal’s is the only English version that sensitively shifts from verse to prose and vice-versa, following the complete “vulgate” shloka-by-shloka. The disks cover the introduction (memorable for Dhritarashtra’s plangent lament), the list of contents, the chapters on Paushya, Puloma, Astika (including the archetypal churning of the ocean, the wondrous story of Garuda and the snake sacrifice), the partial incarnations (including Vyasa’s birth and the war summarised). It cuts off abruptly at verse 21 of section 66 of the Sambhava parva. A bookmark would have been helpful to mark the page where a disk ends instead of having to hunt through the 264 pages every time. Do not look for colophons, chapter headings, annotations, glossaries, list of contents. The rhapsode does not need them.

We thrill to the evocative verses describing Creation transcreated with biblical resonance:

“At first, there was no light,

no radiance, only darkness;

then was born the egg of Brahma,

exhaustless and mighty seed of life…

from which flow being and non-being.”

Or savour the lovely descrip­tion of Meru, evoking profound archetypal memories within us:

“There is a mountain called Meru,

a flaming heap

of splendour.

Sunlight falls on it

and scatters

at the summit.

It is golden: it glitters:

It cannot be measured:…

Mind cannot

conceive of it.”

Pradip Bhattacharya, International HRD Fellow (Manchester), retired as Additional Chief Secretary, West Bengal. His PhD is on the Mahabharata.

[i] My translations of the Mokshadharma part of the Shanti Parva and the complete Anushasana Parva have been published by Writers Workshop.

FOUR PARABLES

By

The parable of the Kalpataru, the wish-fulfilling tree, narrated by Sri Ramakrishna.[1]

আয়ে মন বেড়াতে যাবি

কালী কল্পতরুতলে গিয়া

চারি ফল কুড়ায়ে খাবি—রামপ্রসাদ সেন

“Come my mind to go a-roaming.

Going to Kālī the Wish-Fulfilling-Tree

Pick up and eat four fruits.”—Ramaprasad Sen (mid-18th century, West Bengal)

The Spiritual Meaning of the Upside Down Tree

Into a room full of children at play walks the proverbial uncle, back from the city, who, of course, knows better. Laughing at their preoccupation with make-believe games, he asks them to lift up their eyes and go out to the massive banyan tree, which will grant them whatever they wish—the real stuff! The children do not believe him and remain busy with their toys. The uncle shrugs and leaves. And then they rush out, stand under the branches of this huge tree that cover the sky and ask for what all children crave: toys and sweets. In a flash they get what they want, but along with an unexpected bonus: the built-in opposite of what they wished for. With toys they get boredom; with sweets tummy-ache. Sure that something has gone wrong with their wishing, the children ask for bigger toys and sweeter sweets. The tree grants them their wishes and along with them bigger boredom and bigger tummy-ache. Time passes. They are now young men and women and their wishes change, for they know more. They ask for wealth, power, fame, sexual pleasure—and they get these, but also cupidity, insomnia, anxiety, and frustration/disease. Time passes. The wishers are now old and gather in three groups under the all-encompassing branches. The first group exclaims, “All this is an illusion!” Fools, they have learnt nothing. The second group says, “We are wiser and will wish better next time.” Greater fools, they have learnt less than nothing. The third group, disgusted with everything, decides to cop out and asks for death. They are the most foolish of all. The tree grants them their desire and, with it, its opposite: rebirth, under the same tree. For, where can one be born, or reborn, but within this cosmos!

All this while one child has been unable to move out of the room. Being lame, he was pushed down in the scramble and when he dragged himself to the window, he was transfixed watching his friends make their wishes, get them with their built-in opposites and suffer, yet compulsively continue to make more wishes. Riveted by this utterly engrossing lila of desire and its fruits, a profound swell of compassion welled up in the heart of this lame child, reaching out to his companions. In that process, he forgot to wish for anything for himself. In that moment of spontaneous compassion for others, he sliced through the roots of the cosmic tree with the sword of non-attachment, of nishkama karma. He is the liberated one, the mukta purusha.

In Anti-Memoirs Andre Malraux writes that in Varanasi an Indian suddenly came up to him and said, “Mr. Malraux Sahib, would you like to listen to a story?” Taken aback, Malraux muttered that he was going to an official meeting. “But this is a very good story,” was the insistent reply. Malraux, perforce, agreed and here is the story he heard:

Narada, the itinerant divine sage roaming the three worlds, sowing seeds of discord and inveterate experimenter, goes up to Vishnu and demands that Maya be explained to him. Vishnu is silent. Narada is not one to be denied. He insists so persistently that the god has to answer him. “Maya cannot be explained, it has to be experienced,” he says. “If you can’t explain what you create, then I won’t believe in you,” retorts the never-say-die sage. Quickly deserting his serpent couch—for the fate of gods in whom humans do not believe is shrouded in uncertainty–Vishnu beckons him to follow. Walking together, they reach a desert where Vishnu sits down under a tree and exclaims, “I am so tired, Narada! Take this lota and get me some water from that oasis. When you return I will explain Maya to you.” Eager to plumb the mystery, Narada speeds off to the oasis and finds a well there beside a hut. He calls out, and a lovely girl opens the door. Looking into her eyes, Narada is reminded of the compelling eyes of Vishnu. She invites him in and disappears indoors. Her parents come out and greet the guest, requesting him to rest and eat after his journey through the burning sands before he returns with the lota of water. Thinking of the lovely girl, Narada agrees. Night falls, and they urge him to leave in the cool morning. Awakening in the morning, Narada looks out and sees the girl bathing beside the well. He forgets about the lota of water. He stays on. The parents offer him their daughter’s hand in marriage. Narada accepts, and settles down here. Children arrive; the parents-in-law die; Narada inherits the property. 12 years go by. Suddenly the floods arrive–floods in the desert! —His house is washed away. His wife is swept away. Reaching out to clutch her, he loses hold of his children who disappear in the waters. Narada is submerged in the floods and loses consciousness. Narada awakens, his head pillowed in someone’s lap. Opening his eyes he gazes into the eyes of Vishnu, seated at the desert’s edge under that same tree, those eyes that remind him of his wife’s. “Narada,” asks Vishnu, “where is the lota of water?” Narada asked, “You mean, all that happened to me did not happen to me?” Vishnu smiled his enigmatic smile. [2]

The Drop of Honey

After the Kurukshetra holocaust, when the blind Dhritarashtra bewails the unjustified misery thrust upon him and turns to Vidura for consolation, this son of Vyasa and a maidservant narrates a gripping parable that provides yet another clue to understanding our existential situation[3]:

Take a certain Brahmin who loses himself in a dense jungle filled with wild beasts. Lions and tigers, elephants and bears…Yelling and trumpeting and roaring…a dismal scene to frighten even the god of death, Yama. The Brahmin is terror-stricken. He horripilates. His mind is a bundle of fears. He begins to run, helter-skelter; he looks right and left, hoping to find someone who will save him. But the fierce beasts—they are everywhere—the jungle echoes with their weird roaring—wherever he goes, they are there, ahead of him.

Suddenly he notices that the fearful forest is swathed in a massive net. In front of him, with open arms, is a horrendous-looking female. Also, five-headed snakes hiss at him—tall snakes, their hill-huge bodies slithering up to the sky.

In the middle of the forest is a well covered with grass and intertwining creepers. He falls in that well and dangles there, clutched by a creeper, like a jackfruit ripe for plucking. He hangs there, feet up, head down.

Horror upon horror! In the bottom of the well he sees a monstrous snake. On the edge of the well is a huge black elephant with six heads and twelve feet hovering at the well’s mouth. And, buzzing in and out of the clutch of creepers, are giant, repulsive bees surrounding a honeycomb. They are trying to sip the deliciously sweet honey, the honey all creatures love, the honey whose real taste only children know.

The honey drips out of the comb, and the honey drops fall on the hanging Brahmin’s tongue. Helpless he dangles, relishing the honey drops. The more the drops fall, the greater his pleasure. But his thirst is not quenched. More! Still more! ‘I am alive!’ he says, ‘I am enjoying life!’

Even as he says this, black and white rats are gnawing the roots of the creeper. Fears encircle him. Fear of the carnivores, fear of the fierce female, fear of the monstrous snake, fear of the giant elephant, fear of the rat-devoured creeper about to snap, fear of the large buzzing bees…In that flux and flow of fear he dangles, hanging on to hope, craving the honey, surviving in the jungle of samsara.

The jungle is the universe; the dark area around the well is an individual life span. The wild beasts are diseases. The fierce female is decay. The well is the material world. The huge snake at the bottom of the well is Kala, all-consuming time, the ultimate and unquestioned annihilator. The clutch of the creeper from which the man dangles is the self-preserving life-instinct found in all creatures. The six-headed elephant trampling the tree at the well’s mouth is the Year—six faces, six seasons; twelve feet, twelve months. The rats nibbling at the creeper are day and night gnawing at the life span of all creatures. The bees are desires. The drops of honey are pleasures that come from desires indulged. They are the rasa of Kama, the juice of the senses in which all men drown.

This is the way the wise interpret the wheel of life; this is way they escape the chakra of life.

Dhritarashtra, of course, misses the point Vidura is making: man, literally hanging on to life by a thread and enveloped in multitudinous fears, is yet engrossed in the drops of honey, exclaiming, “More! Still more! I am alive! I am enjoying life!” And, like the blind king, we tend to miss the point too. Ignoring the law of karma, taking that other road, we fall into the pit and rale; but inveterately, compulsively, perversely, strain every sinew to lick the honey.

The Buddha figured it forth in a characteristically pungent image:

Craving is like a creeper,

it strangles the fool.

He bounds like a monkey, from one birth to another,

looking for fruit.[4]

If heeded, the doctrine of karma becomes a powerful instrument for building character, maintaining integrity and establishing a society that functions not on matsya nyaya [the big devouring the small] that celebrates individualism, but on dharma that upholds society and the world itself.

Determination & Free will

The whole point of comprehending this doctrine lies in perceiving that the much-vexed controversy over determination and free will is resolved if seen in perspective. Let us, once again, take recourse to a story to understand this complicated issue.[5]

Two friends, Shyam and Yadu, lived in a village. Shyam was an ambitious go-getter, and Yadu a happy-go-lucky, ne’er do well. Keen to know the future, they approached a hermit who lived apart in the forest. After much persuasion, he agreed to look into the future and tell them their fates. After a year, he said, Shyam would become a king, while Yadu would die. Returning to the village, the shocked Yadu turned to prayer and began leading an exemplary life. Shyam, immediately on reaching the village, started throwing his weight about, grabbing whatever he fancied from others, threatening anyone who dared to protest, vociferously announcing that soon he would be their king.

A year passed by. Shyam sought out his friend and asked him to help pick the site for his palace. As they walked along the river bank, Shyam stumbled over something and fell. Picking himself up, he found the mouth of a jar protruding from the sand. Digging it up, he found it full of golden coins. Hearing his shouts of celebration at finding such treasure, a robber ran up and tried to snatch the jar. Yadu rushed to Shyam’s help and clutched on desperately to the robber’s leg. Unable to tackle the joint resistance of both friends, the infuriated robber stabbed Yadu on his arm and ran off.

Days passed. Yadu did not die; Shyam found himself still no king. So, they went off to the forest and hunted out the hermit. Confronting him, they demanded an explanation for the failure of his prophecy. The hermit went into meditation and then explained: the conduct of each of them had altered what was fated. Yadu’s austerity and prayers had reduced the mortal blow into a stab injury. Shyam’s tyrannical conduct had reduced the king’s crown to a jar of gold coins.

Fate, therefore, is altered by the individual’s choice of the path. Those that have eyes can see; those that have ears can hear. To develop this intuitive sense one has to dive deep, beyond the superficial sensory perception to the manas and cultivate living in that peace within, that pearl beyond price.

[1] Pradip Bhattacharya: “Desire under the Kalpataru,” Jl. of South Asian Literature, XXVIII, 1 & 2, 1993, pp.315-35 & cf. P. Lal’s Introduction to Barbara Harrison’s Learning About India (1977).

[2] P.Lal: Valedictory Address in Mahabharata Revisited (Sahitya Akademi, 1990, p.291-302–papers presented at the international seminar on the Mahabharata organized by the Sahitya Akademi in New Delhi in February 1987).

[3] P. Lal: The Mahabharata (condensed & transcreated, Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1980, p. 286-7)

[4] P. Lal: The Dhammapada, op.cit. p.157.

[5] Related by Prof. Manoj Das in an address at Sri Aurobindo Bhavan, Calcutta, in 2000

SRI AUROBINDO’S FIVE DREAMS—SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER

By

15th August 2022 is the 150th birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo. On 15 August 1947 Sri Aurobindo had declared in a message to All India Radio, Thiruchirapalli, that he had five dreams in which free India would play a significant role. What can we make out regarding its status seventy-five years down the line?

  1. A revolutionary movement which would create a free and united India.

            As he had forecast, the communal divide that created the partition has now hardened further, raising walls within the country, and civil strife provoked by linguistic, caste and regional parochialism mar the fair face of Mother India. The language problem has been exacerbated by politicians into a formidable barrier. So much so that Indians from one region face increasing difficulties, as the years pass, to communicate with fellow-countrymen in other parts of India. The principle “for the children of the soil only” adopted by various states effectively ensures the growth of insularity and prevents the growth of familiarity with other cultures that makes for national unity. The north-east refuses to be integrated into a polity that it finds nothing in common with and a system of governance that has failed to carry it along on the path of development. Bihar, the centre of India’s greatest empires, has degenerated into a state notorious for mis-governance, leading the group of BIMARUH states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana)—an acronym coined by economist Ashis Bose) that drag the country back from progress. Bengal, once capital of India and torchbearer of the Indian renascence and the freedom movement, has declined steadily and steeply into intellectual mediocrity and moral decadence, quite decisively abandoning the spiritual. Perhaps its roots lie in the ancient myth of the hubris of Paundraka who proclaimed himself as the true Vasudeva and challenged Shri Krishna, only to be destroyed.

Sri Aurobindo had stated that the problem of the depressed classes would be solved “without schism or fissure”. Unfortunately, unscrupulous politicians with only short-term personal gains in view keep inflicting fresh wounds in the body politic, stoking the flames of linguistic and inter-caste animosity till the cauldron boils over. Moreover, as the N.N. Vohra Committee report submitted to Parliament on the Golden Jubilee of Independence stated bluntly, the perverse nexus among the politician, the criminal, the police, the executive and even the judiciary has imperilled the Indian polity, and corruption—intellectual and otherwise—has eaten into its very vitals. The highest court of the land once demanded an action-taken report on what the government had done about the recommendations made by Vohra, but strangely enough did not pursue the matter. Are the reasons self-evident? Resorting to shameless sophistry, governments unhesitatingly invest criminals with the formal authority of ministerial posts while renowned institutes of learning invite them to address their students. No statesmen remind leaders of Sri Aurobindo’s warning that the persistence of civil strife makes “even a new invasion and foreign conquest” possible. In the midst of the ever-darkening gloom, faith offers the only light. Fervently we pin all our hopes on Sri Aurobindo’s trenchant assertion, “the division must go; unity must and will be achieved…”

2.The resurgence and liberation of the peoples of Asia.

In the new millennium, it is a reality. The Far Eastern countries have overtaken the West in the twin fields of knowledge-engineering and money-making. The overwhelming success of tiny Japan’s business systems, now overtaken by China, has compelled the management savants of the West to study and teach the Zen and Confucian way to worldly success—in motorcycle maintenance, war or otherwise! Business concerns have compelled the USA to accord “most favoured nation” status to their sometime favourite whipping boy, the inscrutable mandarin. China itself has given a new content and form to Communism after the collapse of the Soviet block, while maintaining its totalitarianism and the unenviable world record for the largest number of executions of corrupt officials. At home, Capitalism is being vigorously pursued by both Union and State Governments.

3. A world union…multilateral citizenship, willed interchange or voluntary fusion of cultures.

After the United Nations, the European Union has shown the way and gone a step farther by introducing a common currency. Business concerns have led to the forging of regional country-blocs that will usher in a common citizenship and currency. Food, mankind’s first production of culture, is integrating widely disparate cultures through the phenomenon of fusion which is also reflected in humanity’s most sublime art-form: music. The Millennium Development Goals subscribed to by most member countries of the United Nations aim precisely at the “fairer, brighter and nobler life for all mankind” that Sri Aurobindo spoke of in his message. The problem is the absence of “that larger statesmanship which is not limited by the present facts and immediate possibilities but looks into the future and brings it nearer (which) may make all the difference between a slow and timid and a bold and swift development.” As a matter of fact, the word “statesman” itself appears to be as much a misnomer in India today as in most of the other countries. Otherwise we would not have to witness pogroms and the most horrific civil wars going on for years in the Middle-East, Africa, Myanmar and now in Ukraine with the powerful nations either looking the other way or doing nothing significant to put a stop to the supply of illegal arms to the combatants.

“And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.” –Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach”.

Indeed, T.S. Eliot seems to have been so very right in wondering,

“Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”—T. S. Eliot, “The Rock”

As Sri Aurobindo put it so pithily, “only human imbecility and stupid selfishness can prevent it (the unification of nations).” Both, unfortunately, are in evidence in abundant measure. Quite uncannily, Vyasa’s description of Kali Yuga in the Harivamsha (chapter 116) fits the twenty-first century to a “T”: climate change, ponds ploughed over, drought, infertile soil, misrule, beggars proliferating, sexual depravity and education being sold.. The saving grace lies in Sri Aurobindo’s assurance, “but these cannot stand for ever against the necessity of Nature and the Divine Will.” Only, the ordinary human being, thrashing about frenziedly as he is sucked remorselessly into the depths of these Serbonian bogs, sobs aloud, “How long, O Lord, how long!”

4. The spiritual gift of India to the world.

The evidence of this is far too well known to need spelling out. The UN declaring 21st June as the International Day of Yoga is the most recent evidence. Even within the country the powerful resurgence of popular interest in the mantras of the Vedas and Upanishads and in the epics and puranas pervading the entire gamut of media and the sudden proliferation of yajnas holds forth hope that it will foster a deeper search for the spiritual truths lying behind the glitzy packaging and the fascination with ritual. There is, however, a new phenomenon that has emerged threatening to overshadow the pristine truth of India’s spirituality by a cloud of fundamentalist confusion, “red in tooth and claw”, hiding behind the transparent excuse of battling communalism. While in artha and kama, profit and pleasure, India appears to be soaring higher and higher in the spiralling gyre of development, it seems, indeed, to have lost touch with its spiritual roots. The falcon can no longer hear the falconer. In terms of dharma, things seem to be falling apart, the centre does not hold. When we look around for comfort in the fellowship of good men, what we experience instead is:

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.” —W. B. Yeats, “The Second Coming”.

5. A step in evolution which would raise man to a higher and larger consciousness.

Indirect evidence of the advancement in evolution is scattered around the globe in the astonishing advancements in technology in all fields, shrinking the globe to a situation where one can indeed say “the earth is flat”, in a world-wide reaching out from the heart to succour the distressed, and in the remarkable intelligence right from infancy displayed by the children of the new millennium.