Literature: February 2006 Archives

At the very outset let me state that many theories have been propounded on this earth. Some of them survived for some time and then gradually passed out of existence; others emerged like meteors, exhibiting their dazzling radiance for a very short time, and then vanished into darkness. The mere existence of a theory is not the essential point; what is important is whether the theory promoted the welfare of all, the spiritual well-being of all -- otherwise its advent on this earth was quite useless. Such useless theories are not even worth mentioning.

Any theory will contain the seed of well-being if its firm foundation is sama-sama'ja tattva [principle of social equality]. It may survive for a very long period -- even for eternity - if it cherishes the ideal of forever promoting the welfare of all. This is the essential point.

I have already said several times, and I repeat, that while moving towards the inner world, human beings have to maintain equilibrium and equipoise in the external world. If some declare that "Brahma satyam' jaganmithya'" ["Only Supreme Consciousness is real and the world is false"], they will not be able to do anything in this "false" world. They are simply deceiving themselves - it is a sign of hypocrisy. An honest person should never resort to hypocrisy in any sphere of life; under no circumstances must he or she compromise with any unjust theory. This is the rule; this is correct. Propriety dictates this.

Shrii P. R. Sarkar had a wonderful capacity to understand child's psychology. And that is why he was highly successful in producing juvenile literature: "In the Land of Hattamala", "More Stories of Hattamala", "The Golden Lotus of the Blue Sea" "Under the Fathomomless Depth of the Blue Sea" etc. are the few masterpieces of his wonderful juvenile literature. In taste and beauty in providing pure joy and imparting knowledge to the children the stories are unique and superb. To provide simple and innocent delight to the juvenile mind the author has rightly selected children's favourite subjects, such as the princes and princesses, the ghosts and elves, the giants and demons, cats, dogs, honeybees, chocolates, cake trees, golden lotus and a variety of dainties and delicacies. The acid test of an adroit juvenile litterateur lies in his masterly style of analyzing child psychology against an equally ideal setting. While introducing stories of ghosts, elves and witches, the author has used his pen so adroitly that not even an iota of fear is imprinted on the green leaf of the child's mind. On the contrary, the ghosts and witches are so simple, sincere and humane in behaviour that the little children feel highly inspired to make friends with them. The childhood is the proper time to plant seeds of knowledge of tree in children's minds. And the author is very cautious in this regard.

In this fight for independence, the Indian leaders committed a blunder. they should have engaged themselves in an economic fight instead of starting a political movement. The British took advantage of this blunder of the Indian leaders. They got the opportunity to divide India into two parts. They infused in the Muslims the idea that the Hindus formed the majority, and that therefore if the British quit India the government would naturally go into the hands of the Hindus, and the Muslims of the whole of India would remain as their subjects.

This shrewd policy yielded good results. A Hindu phobia grew among the Muslims. The Muslim leaders began to propagate this Hindu phobia at the top of their voices, and as a result of this anti-Hindu sentiment created out of Hindu phobia, a Muslim nation was again born in India in this twentieth century. Directed by this Hindu phobia, they demanded a separate homeland for the Muslim nation. It was not possible for the Hindus to resist this demand for a separate homeland, because at that time no nation which could be termed a Hindu nation was formed in India.

In attempting to unravel the mysteries of history in imputing order to the seemingly disorderly currents in the human past, in reaching out to the future, Sarkar has joined the august company of Toynbee, Marx, Hegel, Spengler, Wells, among many others; and in erudition and breadth of vision, he is not excelled by any. Quite a few scholars have endeavored to detect in the chaos of history a certain rhythm, and imperceptible harmony that complies with certain natural laws, but their peers, suspicious of anything conferring rigor on past trends, have criticized and scoffed at them. Sarkar's contribution, however, belongs to a different genus. It is immune at least to those strictures to which other theories of historical determinism have been subjected.