Tennyson’s “Ulysses”

TENNYSON’S “ULYSSES”
An Interpretation
in the light of the “Trigunas”

K. DWARAKANATH
Silver Jubilee Government College, Kurnool

A close reading of Tennyson’s exquisite poem “Ulysses” with reference to the “Gunatraya Vibhaaga Yoga” of the Bhagavadgita(Chapter XIV) shows that it lends itself to an interpretation in the light of the “Trigunas”, the three strands supposed to give rise to and constitute creation and determine the nature of human beings. Gunas are so called because their emergence is totally dependent on the Purusha of Kapila’s Saamkhya system of philosophy or the Kshetrajna of the Gita. Being the primary constituents of nature, they are the bases of all substances. For this reason, they cannot be identified as qualities inheriting these substances. They are the three tendencies of Prakriti or–­to make it more simple and concrete – the three strands that make up the twisted rope of nature. Of these three modes, “sattva” reflects the light of consciousness and illuminated by it. Hence it has the quality of radiance (prakaasa). “Rajas” has an outward movement (pravritti) and “Tamas” is characterised by inertia (apravritti) and negligent indifference. It is difficult tofind exact English equivalents for these three words. “Sattva” connotes perfect purity and radiance, while “rajas” is impurity which impels one to activity on the lower plane of existence, and “tamas” is darkness, ignorance and inertia. From the ethical standpoint of their application in the Gita, we may interpret “sattva”, “rajas” and “tamas” as goodness, passion and dullness respectively. These three modes are present in all human beings. But the predominance of one or the other determines the tempera­ment of the person. Men are classified as “saattvika”. “raajasa” or “taamasa” according to the mode that prevails. This some­what looks akin to the theory of “humours” of the West which divides men into the sanguine, the bilious, the lymphatic and the nervous according to the predominance of one or the other of the four humours. But the Western concept of “humours” is physiological, whereas the Hindu classification takes into account psychic features. When the soul identifies itself with the Gunas, as it always does, it forgets its own imperishable nature and employs mind, life and body for egoistic satisfaction. To wriggle out of this bondage, one should transcend the modes of nature, become “trigunaatita.” Then one imbibes the free and pure nature of spirit. “Sattva” gets sublimated into the light of consciousness, “jyoti”, “rajas” into austerity, “tapas”, and “tamas” into tranquillity, “saanti.”

Viewed in this light, the entire poem, “Ulysses”, from beginning to end, strikes us as a systematic and steady movement from the “taamasic” to the “saattvic” and beyond with the three protagonists standing out prominent as the representatives of the three modes. The very ground against which the poem is set smacks of the “taamasic.” Ulysses ‘native land Ithaca with its “barren crags”, its “rugged people”–“a  savage race, that hoard, and sleep, and feed and know not me”, the port where “gloom the dark broad seas” and moan “round with many voices”, the waning long day, the falling dusk, the slow-climbing moon, the faint lights beginning to twinkle from the rocks–­all this and expressions like “idle king”, “still hearth”, “an aged wife”, “to rust unburnish’d”, “not to shine in use!” suggest the “taamasic” substratum of the general scheme of the poem.

The faint outline of Penelope referring to whom Ulysses regretfully says, “matched with an aged wife” – an insinuation of her unworthiness in view of her disqualifications of inactivity and inertia–melts into the–Taamasic drop, grows indistinct and imperceptible to be heard no more. With the commonality of Ithaca she partakes of the Taamasic mode of life and stands on the lowest plane of existence, little better than the creatures of the animal kingdom. Tennyson has deliberately drawn her figure hazily to make her a foil to the other two.

Totally different from his mother, on a higher plane, stands Telemachus. Ulysses proudly speaks of him–

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle.

With his matchless dynamism and penchant for activities that are out and out this-worldly, Telemachus is essentially Raajasic by make up and temperament. That he is a man of this world with a thirst for applause and an eye to material prosperity is evident from what Ulysses says:

Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro’ soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone.

All his activities spring from craving for and attachment to action. His Raajasic nature makes him restless, full of desire for things outward. He does not feel inclined to cast his looks beyond the world of his activity. Oblivious of the within and ever mind­ful of the without, his faculties actively operate in the restricted sphere of this mundane existence. Even in the matter of worship, he pays meet adoration only to his household gods, which shows his confinement to the domestic sphere. He and his father have two different paths to pursue at two different levels of existence. Ulysses’ statement, “He works his work, I mine” is a pointer to this.

Ulysses, the main figure and speaker of the poem, belongs to a still higher plane of existence, Sattva being the predominant mode of his being. Sattva does not bale one out of ego-sense. Like Rajas, Sattva too causes desire, though for noble objects. It binds us to lower intellectual knowledge and happiness. Always roaming with a hungry heart, Ulysses has acquired immense intellectual knowledge through varied experience and extensive travel, seeing and knowing

…………….cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments

Yet he is not content with it, because it is of a lower type, something acquired through senses and relates to Buddhi (intellect). What he aspires to is the supersensuous knowledge, pure con­sciousness which is the essence of Aatman, the “Nirupaadhika”, the “avaangmaanasagochara” which can be only realised intuitively, not experienced as an object, or explained. He is a Saadhaka, an aspirant, on the path of spiritual progress directing all his efforts towards the achievement of the highest goal of human existence, the state of perfection which beggars all description – identity with the Supreme Self. His intellectual awareness of the under­lying unity of creation which he owes to his Saattvic mode is brought out by his statement

I am part of all that I have met; (Line 18)

Here more is meant than meets the eye. It is not a mere matter-of-fact statement which Ulysses makes, but an intuitive revelation of an eternal truth which he is on the way to realise.

All his mundane experience, though unique and rich in itself, is only

an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravdl’d world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.

His purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
………………………….
…………..touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles.

For him ‘Happy Isles’ and ‘Achilles’ are symbols of the Absolute, of the state of oneness where all duality ceases. He yearns to attain to that state – a state that transcends the Trigunas – and become a “trigunaatita “ when he is not assailed or ruffled by the pairs of opposites like pleasure and pain, honour and dishonour, blame and praise, friends and foes, but possesses perfect equanimity and pure illumination.

Ulysses looks upon life as a heaven-sent moment which will soon be closed by death. Hence he wants to avail himself of the opportunity, to do “Some work of noble note”, “something ere the end” which is nothing but the highest ideal of human life. His mariners too

Souls that have toil’d and wrought, and thought with me,
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads–

are of Saattvic temperament and, though not to the same degree, are seekers of Truth.

The poem is a magnificent commentary on the evolution of soul. Penelope, Telemachus and Ulysses symbolise the three stages through which the soul evolves. It rises from dull inertia and indifference, through the struggle for material success and enjoy­ment to the pursuit of knowledge and happiness. The poem brings home the eternal truth that so long as we are attached, however noble may be the objects we are attached to, we are limited and pegged down and there is always a sense of insecurity as Rajas and Tamas may overcome the Sattva in us. Man’s highest ideal is to transcend the ethical level and rise to the spiritual. The “saattvika” (good man) should become a “trigunaatita” (saint). Until one reaches this stage, one is only in the making. The evolution is incomplete. Ulysses is in the making and his evolution is yet to be consummated· Hence his indefatigable efforts

To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

In much the same way as a true seeker of the Absolute, he questions the validity of uneventful life “As tho’ to breathe were life” and feels restless and disgusted with his dull existence, troubled by a sense of bewilderment which is the prerequisite of a seeker of Truth, and affirms his will to reach the goal of human life. He is a symbol of the human soul that ever strives to be freed from the trammels of birth, life and death and attain “nirvaana.”