Reviews

ENGLISH

Himalayas Abode of Light: (A Himalayan Diary) By Nicholas Roerich (Nalanda Publication, Bombay, 1947. Pp. 130, 24 illustrations. Price Rs. 15/-)

This book, by the great mystic, painter, and interpreter of the Himalayas, the late Dr. Roerich, is, as the publishers claim, both ‘fascinating’ and ‘unusual’. While the illustrations give us an idea of his intuitive approach to the world of peaks and valleys, there are word-pictures too in plenty, like ‘the cosmic ocean of clouds’, ‘the ramparts of endless rocks’, ‘the deodars discussing matters between themselves’. Dr. Roerich describes also the folklore that the Himalayas have inspired among the simple peoples who dwell under their shadows and the rites and dances, that serve to propitiate the Beings, Spirits and Presence’s who haunt them. He speaks of the legends of the birth-place of the sacred Swastika, the heaven-sent Chalice of the Buddha; of huge spheroid bodies that career across the sky, of endless hidden passages, of extensive underground vaults, poisonous fumes, treacherous perfumes, black flowers that emanate light, mysterious tinkles under the horses, feet and spontaneous fires! The strangeness of this subjective super-sensory world is heightened by glimpses of Lamas, Rishis Messengers and Prophets, and of Ashrams where “Millikan’s cosmic rays and Rhine’s thought-sequence and the reality of psychic energy are studied and affirmed!” In fact, Roerich, in this book, has dwelt so much on esoteric cults and mysteries that all but the elect will find it, merely ‘unusual’. He says, “He who yet knows nothing of Shambhala, has no right to state that he has studied the East and knows contemporary Asia.” And what is Shambhala? “Now let us summarize these scattered indications about Shambhala,” says the author on page 121.

“The teaching of Shambhala is a Teaching of Life….how to use the finest energies, filling the macrocosmos, which energies can as mightily be manifested in our microcosmos. Therefore the Azaras and Khuthumphas are related to Shambhala? Yes. And the Great Mahatmas and Rishis? Yes. And the Warriors of Rigden-Japo? Of course. And the whole cycle of Ghessar-Khan? In certain parts. And Kalachakra? Yes. And Aryavarsha from where the Kalki Avatar is expected? Yes. And the Ming-ste? And the great Yarkhas? And the Great Holders of Mongolia? And the Dwellers of Kalapa? And the Belovodye of Altai? And Shabistan? And the valley of Lao-tsin? And the Black Stone and the Grail–Lapis Exilis? And the Tchud, the subterranean?….And Dedjung? And the book of Utaishan?….And the White Burkhan?….Yes! Yes! Yes!”

For the uninitiated, it is enough to know that the Reign of Shambhala will soon be inaugurated and that “The Lord of Shambhala breathes with Truth and affirms Truth. The Lord of Shambhala is unvanquishable and transforms destruction into constructions.”

N. Kasturi

Toward the Absolute

1.                  God and Divine Incarnations: By Swami Ramakrishnananda. Golden Jubilee Memorial Edition, 1947, (Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Madras. Rs. 2-4-0.)

2.                  The Master and the Disciple: By Principal D. S. Sarma, (Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Madras Rs. 2-0-0).

3                    Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna: Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Madras. Rs. 3-8-0.

Religion is what a man does with his own solitariness. Swami Ramakrishnananda, in his book God and Divine incarnations, takes the soul in its solitariness and gently leads it on to recognise its kinship with its Maker. His book is conceived and expressed in the spirit of the Upanishads. The god-less reality of formal science, and the unreal God of formal theology are alike left behind. Swamiji points out that the world comes not out of nothing, but from God. But if the creator remains apart from His creation, we can never know Him. Hence the need for Divine self-revelation in the form of Avataras and world-teachers.

The second part of the book is a practical exposition of the general conclusions arrived at earlier. Bergson distinguishes in his Two sources of morality and religion between the static and the dynamic. From his point of view all folk-lore may be regarded as the static aspect of religion. Much the same may be said of the various stories given in the Bhagavata, which may be regarded as poetical attempts at reconstruction. We may make them intellectually satisfying by allegorising them, but as all such allegorical interpretations are essentially subjective, there is no finality about them. Swamiji has followed a different method. He has tried to explain them in the light of the cosmic symbolism of the Chandogya Upanishad.

By piercing through the crust of tradition, he has liberated the dynamic spirit of religion, and in the lava flow of the spirit even what is hardened partially melts. The book is conceived and written in the spirit of Brahma Vada with its stress upon earnest action.

Swami Ramakrishnananda says that an incarnation of God is one who lives in limitless consciousness. In Principal D. S. Sarma’s book Master and Disciple we get an intellectual and an emotional approach to the consciousness of the God-intoxicated Sri Ramakrishna and his masterly disciple.

Carlyle considered reverence for the author to be the basis of all sound criticism. It seems to be even more true of biography, Principal Sarma’s book is characterised by a subdued glow of emotion. It leaves the reader with a sense of divine discontent, and a desire to know more of the objects of the biography.

In the main the distinction between the master and the disciple is clearly brought out. The master is a mass of consciousness using bhakti as a screen between himself and the outer world. The disciple is a mass of emotion using the intellect as a screen between himself and the overflowing abundance of his heart. The master’s life is a discovery in the realm of the spirit. It is the stuff out of which religion is made. The disciple’s life is an exploration in the realm of achievement. Between them they break the formal distinction between the spirit within and the world outside, between the Jnana and Karma. They show that the spirit within is also the spirit without. At the present time when freedom has brought with it greater opportunities for service, as also greater opportunities for exploitation, Swami Vivekananda, the bare-footed monk wandering over the length and breadth of India carrying his gospel of melioration should be the ideal of young India.

It has been said that the truly great man is he who knows how to bend. In the Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna we see the master bending to the understanding of children. The Bible says, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of God.” The profound truths of religion, the unapprehended relation of things find expression in homely language, in the day to day incidents of life. They show to us that the truths of religion can be taught mainly through parables, the language of symbols, because all language is symbolic, and man himself is a symbol.

These parables deal with the world, the path, the goal and having attained the goal, how to stay there. They are not mere stories, they are pages torn from the book of life. They come mingled with the joys and sorrows of life, enriched with a kindly humour. But one feels at times that it were well if some of the stories had been left out.