Triveni Journal

1927 | 11,233,916 words

Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....

‘The Guide’: A Glimpse of Narayan’s Attitude and Achievement

S. Subba Rao

‘THE GUIDE’: A GLIMPSE OF NARAYAN’S
ATTITUDE AND ACHIEVEMENT

S. SUBBA RAO
W. G. B. College, Bhimavaram

R. K. Narayan’s forte is genial ironic comedy. But in The Guide he seems to have transcended its frontiers as his ironic vision grew into sympathetic affirmation. The motif is recognizably autochthonous. It is a question of Indian culture, and Hindu religious tradition. In it he explodes the myth of the popular sadhu and castigates Hindu superstition in his own inimitable way. But towards the end of the book he evinces a peculiar serious concern in Raju’s transformation which is, however, not easily comprehensible or convincing. In the later sections of the book Raju becomes sincere and the author serious. From this we may infer that Narayan had more in mind than mere amusement when he was writing the book.

With this interpretation in our view we may trace Narayan’s mental maturation as a novelist. In “Mr. Sampath” he sees the world as being controlled by blind and unpredictable forces, a stage where forces and tragi-comedies are eternally played, He says that, if one gets a comprehensive view of the good and the evil, it will be better than presumptuous condemnation of whatever one thinks evil. In The Guide he seems to have got a comprehensive view of human activities, the comic and the tragic, the silly and the serious, the ridiculous and the sublime. Fromdetatched ironic observation of the absurdities in certain human activities, he has grown to see with tolerance and sympathy that even the absurdities of certain things in life have in them some germs of beauty. It is an exhilarating vision of human activity to see that even a wretched stupid, because he is human, is yet capable of sublime instincts and gestures of self-sacrifice at certain critical moments.

It is a probing into the psychology of the bogus sadhu. Kamala Markandaya’s He who Rides on a Tiger also deals with the bogus sadhu theme. But as Prof. Iyengar points out, in Kamala Markandaya’s He who Rides on a Tiger we have only a scamp in the end but in The Guide we have a ‘saint’. Now the crucial question is “Is Raju’s transformation real and convincing?” One may argue in the following way. Raju is a stupid and a coward too. The huge absurdity has become his life. The circumstances have become tremendous and threatening. So he could not but accept his role. It is the story of a reluctant saint. As for the logic it is perfect. But perfect logic is cruel when it denies the human considerations of the situation. At any rate we cannot deny Raju’s individuality as a human being as long as he is not mentally imbecile. He can think still. And he begins to think of himself. And that is the first step, of course, to think dharma in his private and public life, to redeem himself. The external circumstances helped to awaken his soul to the sincerity of his deeds. So now he can at least identify himself with the public cause.

The whole thing is, of course, an ocean of colossal absurdity, stupidity, and superstition. But something significant has been churned up. There has been developing in the ground the supreme idea of non-egoism and self-sacrifice. The actual facts in the story are cunningly left to the magic wind. But one fact is real, the idea of the change wrought in the hero, the realization of his hypocrisy and consequently, in the last moment, giving himself up sincerely, whatever may happen. It is a kind of sublimity in such a person–naive, simple, and unsophisticated. The worldly facts are not so much important because even if a miracle happens it will be an accident. But the fact of the man changed, remains the significant miracle to us. It almost shows that ‘the ridiculous’ has also ‘the sublime’ in it as long as it is human.

Of course, the co-existence of the ridiculous and the sublime in thought and action verges on incongruity unless one should maintain a keen and delicate balance. And it is the delicate balance between ridicule and reformation, satire and ascertainment, facile optimism and “destructive cynicism,” that is the supreme achievement of Narayan in The Guide. We can clearly see the two existing side by side, especially, in the later part of the book. The tempo is tremendously worked up. On one side there is the ridiculous overdoing, the crowning absurdity of the bogus sadhu, the busy newspapers, the functions, visiting fuss, gamblings, teashops; on the other side the conflict-bound life of a realising man caught in the pangs of conscience.

The last scene is the most important one. Raju is sincere and the author serious, both for the first time perhaps. Raju thinks: “If by avoiding food, I should help the trees bloom, and the grass grow, why not do it thoroughly?” The author comments: ‘For the first time in his life he was making an earnest effort, for the first time he was learning the thrill of full application, outside money and love; for the first time he was doing a thing in which he was not personally interested.” In the act of sacrifice Raju sags down. The author seems to imply that he has become spiritually also a guide.

Oneshould admit that this phase is not so adequately artistically realised in the book. But undoubtedly it hints at the vital idea. It is not impossible. It provokes our imagination and, as with all works of art, suggests endlessly and leaves it off...

Thus we can see that beneath an apparent nonchalance towards the deep, great things of life there is a lofty equanimity in Narayan that is always true to Indian culture and never sceptical of the great truths of life. In fact “The Guide” can be studied as an affirmation of the invincible optimism and sublimity of the Indian religion that recognizes the humanity of the most wretched person and promises redemption if he thinks of dharma even for once and shows a gesture of sacrifice at any time. Many stories from the Indian mythology and traditional heritage testify to this truth.

But, however, above all other interests, the perennial appeal of R. K. Narayan as a novelist is due to his genius for humour, his inimitable gift, the reconciling, unifying, balancing element. The sympathetic humour and broad humanity of R. K. Narayan have no parallel in Indo-Anglian fiction. Mulk Raj Anand has power and amplitude but Narayan has the gift of healthy, refreshing, Invigorating humour; compassionate, sympathetic, even profound. It ranges from annihilating sceptical satire and devastating irony to the most blissful revelations of the sparks of sublimity hidden in every simple human being.

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