Girisam Looks at Life

[Kalaprapurna T. Raghavachari (popularly know as Bellary Raghavachari) was a leading lawyer of Bellary and was one of the greatest actors of South India. Besides portraying many major roles in Telugu and Kannada plays, he won high encomiums for his talent in acting leading roles in Othello, Hamlet and other English dramas also. He was the first -- and perhaps the last -- Telugu actor who participated in English dramas in England where he was applauded for his extraordinary talent in acting. The following are extracts from a lecture he delivered at the Andhra University in 1934. Girisam is a leading character in Kanya-sulkam.            -Editor]

Resplendent Ratnahara

Oftentimes I have dreamed about Girisam, the adorable offspring of the late Gurajada Appa Rao who, with his Kanyasulkam, has thrown a resplendent Ratnahara over the shoulders of the Andhra dramatic muse. This ornament still shines unmatched. What a darling child is Girisam! To me Girisam is not an ease-loving, cigar-­smoking, muffler-wearing, cane-swinging, curly-headed, gallivanting; crooked-minded adventurer. He represents to me the irresponsible youthful Andhra spirit which dives deep and drags to the surface the grotesque and pathetic-looking crabs and tadpoles of our society and plays with them. His eleven causes of the degeneration of India are no fanciful bluster to me. I really think that Girisam’s eleven causes of the degeneration of India are painfully true. Like the master artist he is, he does not spoil the picture by enumerating them seriatim. He wants us to think about them seriously. Perhaps his own life and exploits disclose to us what the eleven causes are. I have oftentimes wondered about the eleven causes and now I propose to think aloud about them.

Most of you love Girisam–if for nothing else, at least for his fascinating weaknesses. Bear with me for his sake. Girisam says he delivered his lecture in the Poona Deccan College. At once our memory is tingled with the sacred memories of the great Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The eleven causes should be real and telling indeed for he says that all the professors assembled there became speechless. That one and all the professors should have been affected in such a remarkable manner indicates that the eleven causes should have a direct bearing on the ordinary, everyday life of society and the individual as well.

Education for the Good of Society

In the very first scene, Girisam refers to the eleven causes of degeneration in impressing upon his dear Chela Venkatesam, the basic principles of true education, which he so definitely suggests should be based not so much upon books and examinations as upon direct contact and association with the Guru. He cleverly leads us to think over the expression Upadesa which is the keynote of the ancient Aryan system of education. What a vista of beautiful pictures and thoughts is at once opened up before us! Education is sitting near your teacher who, like a loving magnet, will draw out the best in you and make you bigger and comelier and the end of education would be to gain access to the proximity of the greatest teacher of all and become absolutely perfect.

Again Girisam bursts out with righteous indignation at the lopsidedness of our system of education which gives a wicked importance to a pass and fail to reckon the chastening influence of a failure in life. He asks Venkatesam pertinently whether his teacher had the command of the language which the pupil had. In other words, he questions whether the teacher could express himself as well as Venkatesam, the student. Now this takes us to a careful consideration of the art of expression which is a very important factor in the scheme of education. It is the power of expression that denotes the standard of education, learning by itself would not be discharging all its obligations, if it cannot express itself clearly and correctly for the good of society. Correct expression is based upon a good command of the language and a precise use of the words. Education which does not lovingly help the student to think out for himself and bring out the best gift and talent in himself and which does not equip him with the appropriate form of expression to serve the needs of society, could be pardonably called a waste of time.

Eluding Creditors

Again in the same first scene our dear friend Girisam reveals his remarkable talent for making other people pay for his pleasures and expenses. The other day I was reading about the publication of a book which professes to teach the honourable and ever-growing band of impecunious gentlemen in this country, the excellent art of avoiding one’s creditors. He says yetu chuchina andariki bakile. (surrounded by creditors) He reminds us of the canons and the picture is complete. Demands to the right of him, demands to the left of him, demands in front of him and demands behind him. Girisam eludes them all like the mysterious Houdini. In Girisam’s case, an ignorant world could not appreciate his talents, nay his genius, and he was consequently obliged to put other people’s money into his purse and laugh at the Bill Collectors. He could afford to snap his fingers at debts generally; and he dramatically illustrates to us the advantages of a Brahmin debtor who, with the help of his scared-thread, can always exorcise the spirit of a dunning agent. All debtors are not blessed with the resources and nonchalance of a Girisam.

There is also the case of some non-Brahmins, who do not possess the advantage of a scared-thread. There are some Brahmins as well who have discarded the sacred-thread as a mark of their liberty, independence and high culture. It looks therefore that all things considered, debts are to be avoided by the average man. A debt might be the result of either an absence of income or the waste of income. I think that Girisam was thinking of the latter cause; for to him, earning of income could not have presented many difficulties. So waste of money as a potent cause of indebtedness should have been prominent in Girisam’s thoughts. We see thus two of the eleven causes of the degeneration of India according to Girisam indicated in the very opening scene of the play. Is he right? That is the question. Waste of time and waste of money.

Wasting our money, wasting our time, dissipating our bodily energy by wasting our powers of intellection and observation–can it be said that we are really enjoying life?

Poking Noses

When he says “think annadaya inglishwadu,” I think Girisam is right. We are not encouraged to think from the beginning. As children our instincts of curiosity are severely snubbed and as students our opportunities for observation are severely cut. Our spiritual preceptors are deadly against our liberty of thought. The result is apparent. Our brain power is wasted. Conclusions are arrived at hastily and opinions are expressed without any ascertainment of facts. I should like to think of two dire evils which arise from this waste of our thinking faculties and the consequent anemia of brain-power it brings on. One makes us uncharitable and the other makes us unmanly. Let me try to explain myself.

There is a tendency in the uneducated man to find a peculiar occupation for his nose -to poke into other people’s affairs and to imagine odours at the faintest atmosphere. It is regrettable but it is a fact that the uneducated mind jumps to pick holes in others and strain its ears believe ill of others. A little thought, a little reckoning, a little consideration of the pros and cons, a little judicious feeling, would certainly clean the atmosphere of a society from the petrifying influences of scandal. Gossiping, which unfortunately is seeking to enter the portals of schools and colleges and tends to ruin the young mind, is unsportsmanly and uncharitable. I need not waste your time, by elaborating over the far-reaching evil consequences (to the society as well as to me individuals) which result from a habit of indulging in thoughtless talk and careless opinions.

Self is dead - Long Live the Self

The next kind of waste that Girisam must have thought about is of wasting of talents.

There is one talent, faculty or gift that is common to all human beings; and that is the greatest talent which is implanted in us by supreme force, out of its infinite mercy. It is the latent talent of self-­forgetfulness or self-effacement. The greatest triumph of all knowledge is self-discovery or self-realization. I think self-effacement and self-­realization are so closely connected together that one leads to the other. This latent talent should be grown and developed to its fullest extent. That is the key-note of our ancient Aryan culture. That is the key-note of our Sanatana Dharma. I mean the real stuff – not the camouflage which recently failed to get an entry into the Legislative Assembly at Delhi.

Charles Landford in his book “India: The Land of Regrets” refers to Mahatma Gandhi as follows: “He is so difficult to deal with because he is so deeply, so sincerely self-effacing. He seeks nothing for himself. He really does live his enemies. He is so ready to die for his faith and his people.” This talent of self-effacement helps us to cry out hastily, “The self is dead. Long live the self.” The lower and touch-me-not self is deald; and long lives the higher and all-embracing self. Real life shines only after the lower and touch-me-not self is burnt up. The spark which kindles the fire to burn up the doer is also within us.

Art Beautifies Creation

Side by side with the histrionic instinct, there is the instinct of song, the faculty of music, implanted in us. We should develop this faculty and not waste it. The most powerful engine which enables the soul to reach the highest altitude is music. The most effective soothing drought to quieten the horrowing restlessness of one’s mind is music. The most eloquent poet who can describe beauty is music. The Kohinoor on the diadem of love is music. The philosophic stone which can transmute any hard egoism into flexible gold of self-effacement is music. The lure which can draw the individual soul into the infinite is music. This instinct of music should be found and encouraged.

Girisam should have deplored the Indian’s indifference to the development of his artistic sense and artistic temperament. The dreadful waste of such faculties should have shocked him. It is art that beautifies and strengthens creation. It is art that discovers in nature the wonderful mother who blesses all. It is art that destroys the artificial barriers between man and man. It is art that leads self-expression into self-­expansion and finally into self-effacement. It is art that trains our ears to catch the strains of Krishna’s Murali. Art is the stroke of chisel that knocks off the excrescence in our composition and makes us perfect to deserve the love of Krishna. It is art which helps us to cast off our load of garments and appendages and blitholes to fall in step with the mighty Sankara in his glorious dance of death–full of life.

What a calamity, Girisam should have thought, that one should neglect the development of fine arts (which reveal to us the glory and strength of life) and waste the faculty of fine arts implanted in us. Can we consciously say that our centres of education, whether it be our houses, schools or colleges, afford us the necessary opportunities to foster and develop the latent faculties for arts in our young men. There is marked inclination on the other hand, to discountenance such instincts and waste the talents. This kind of waste is one of the potent causes of the degeneration of India and her culture.

Along with the waste of our thinking or reasoning faculties, Girisam must have thought of the habit of one’s waste of emotion as a probable fifth cause of the degeneration of our society. The Andhras are said to be very emotional. As a matter of fact, I am afraid, all Indians are emotional; also commotional and unnecessarily so. To be emotional without any real progressive motion or moment is not a great virtue. I am reminded of Mr. S. V. Ramamurti’s presidential speech on the occasion of the fourth Andhra Nataka Kala Parishat held in Madras during last December. He said that Andhras were very enthusiastic in starting works; but it was the Tamil genius that kept up the works going. This is a matter for consideration. Mr. Ramamurti’s observation upsets a text which was often quoted by my father “arambhasuraha khalu dakshinatyaha.” However Mr. Ramamurti’s opinion cannot but be a carefully considered one. If he is true, (I am inclined to agree with him) our emotions which effervesce without any practical results are sheer waste. Girisam must have noticed this habit of waste with great regret.

Do Nothing and Multiply

Take the case of the joint family system. There was need for the system in the olden days. It is a matter for careful consideration whether the system is necessary in the present days. Is the system adding to our man-power or detracting from it? Is it not a common sight that one man is obliged to earn and feed a number of drones who do nothing but marry and multiply? Is it not a fact that in a joint family the moment the earning member passes away his widow is thrown entirely on the tender mercies of ill-educated, uncultured, pleasure-seeking and selfish junior members who live mostly by the law of survivorship? Is it not a fact that most of us are suffering under this system, swayed by false feelings of sympathy and charity? Our feelings of sympathy and charity, unless they can be turned into good account for the good of society, are sheer waste of our emotional springs and tend certainly to degenerate our strength.

I was reading the other day about fine places during the winter cold in the Punjab. They have chimneys and the way they are constructed allows the heat to escape through the chimney. Instead of distributing heat to the needy people around, the construction takes most of the heat away to the skies through the chimney. Are our ideas of charity, fellow-feeling and sympathy, similarly found? Is it a waste? Girisam perhaps thought it was. Next I am led to think of Girisam’s views on man’s emotions, his feelings of charity, self -sacrifice, self-respect and so forth. They were very sound indeed. Girisam never wasted his emotions. He had no sickly sentiment about such feelings. When Venkamma accidentally fell into a well, he was there to risk his life and rescue her; but he never cared for Venkamma’s feelings, when he proposed to elope to Gretna Green with the beautiful Butchamma; for the elopement had a double object in it, the object of re-stringing the lyre of Butchamma’s life and that of averting the danger of disastrous marriage to Subbamma.

I think of Girisam’s relations, first with Putakullamma, second with Madhuravani and the third with Butchamma. All three were good­looking. I think the way Putakullamma is personated on the stage is not to my liking. All were attractive and beautiful. Girisam however knew how to control emotions and use them to the best advantage of society. Putakullamma’s profession was to give food for money. Girisam got food without money. There it ended. Madhuravani’s incident is apparent enough. Now consider his emotions as regards Butchamma. They wee used to understand a fellow-being and to advance the cause of social reform. Emotions which effervesce without any practical results are sheer waste of human energy.

More Voice than Necessary

Certainly Girisam should have waxed eloquent over the waste of youth, waste of flesh and blood, waste of breath and the non-development and (consequently) waste of will power as some of the other causes of the degeneration of India. We have no well-known institution or organisation for the education of our voices. Even our music schools as well as our education classes do not appear to attach sufficient importance to voice training. The ancient Aryan culture paid particular attention to the art of regulating one’s breath. The chanting of Vedic hymns, I consider, as a wonderful lesson in the art of voice education. I think of the present day South Indian stage and the huge waste of breath on it. It is only very few actors that can control their breath, avoid waste and use it to the best advantage. Anger, grief and love are all pitched in the same key. All sentiments are more or less shouted out. I am alive to the handicaps in the ways of the actors. I am alive to the unscientific construction of our theatres. I am alive to the counter-noises caused in the auditorium by soda-openers and picini-makers. Nevertheless I am inclined to think that more voice than necessary is spent on the stage. This waste is more apparent in court-halls. If shouting is considered to be an important factor in the histrionic art it is (by many) considered to be an all important factor in the demonstration of one’s forensic capability. This art of shouting appears to be infecting the bench as well. If I think of our meetings (especially of the Kala Parishat) and the way we shout at one another, the way we shout all together, at the Chairman and the way the Chairman, the proposer, the seconder and the rest–all join in shouting at the press-reporters present. There is tremendous waste of voice. The art of modulating one’s voice and regulating one’s breath, adds to the cultural strength of a human being and the waste thereof is decidedly a sign of degeneration.

Paucity of Maidens

Next Girisam goes into raptures over the beauties of country life, dwells lovingly over the luxuries of best tobacco, best curd and best ghee. At the same time he regrets that our country does not possess “maidens” which according to him is a colossal Kalankam. The paucity of maidens in India strikes him as a real defect and perhaps as a potent cause for the degeneration of our society. When I read it, I pondered over the question and it struck me that there was something peculiar about the several stages of life amongst Indians. Are there many real youths in India?

Dictionaries describe youth as the period between childhood and manhood. I believe, in practical life, we can easily conceive what manhood is. I would like to think of youth as that period, when a human being is afforded opportunities to imbibe all that is best for his further progress and evolution, without a care or thought. It is a period when a human being is supposed to enjoy the best of hearth, the best of spirits, without any worry, without any encumbrances or drags, no sense of fatigue and looks upon the world as a huge big play-house. That is the time to develop a sense of robust optimism. That is the time when sickly germs which breed the superiority complex, isolation and exlcusiveness and misappropriation can be more or less successfully knocked out of the system. The period of youth is necessary-absolutely necessary – for the growth of the individual himself and also for the benefit of society. The period of youth acts as a blessing to the individual by leading him into these rare and useful experiences and society gets its best entertainment from its youth.

Often speakers and orators from the stage and platform proclaim that the youth form the very bone of our society; the youth of today becomes the leader of tomorrow and the destinies of poor Mother India are in the hands of the youth. It is all well and good and the said speakers and orators get thunderous claps for expressing such glorious views. The question however is, are there any youths in Hindu society? Does our system of marriage and our conception of married life recognize any such period of youthful existence in our youngmen?

Life with us is divided into four stages--Balya, Youvana, Koumara and Vardhakya. Youvana, I think, corresponds more or less to the period of youth. Koumara, I am told, is connected with Kumaras and Kumaris i.e., children. Kumaradasa starts therefore with children. Now comes the difficulty. The average Indian is married between 14 and 16, begets children at 18 and becomes a grandfather between 32 and 34. His Koumaradasa therefore starts at 18 or say 20. I hope I shall not be very wrong if I consider that Balyadasa will be finished by 14. According to the Madras Children Act of 1920, a child means a person under the age of 14 years. Thus, we have a period of nearly four years or at the most five years to youth or Youvanaavastha. Giving a grace of four years more, this period is only for a term of ten years, seven of which will have to be deducted for sleep, food and other calls. That leaves us a glorious period of three years to gain all the wonderful experiences of youth. Is not Girisam justified in deploring the absence of maidens in our country? His omission to refer to the male denomination, specially, may have been due to his anxiety not to offend the feelings of boys.

No Wall between this World and the Other

I believe Girisam has illustrated to us several kinds of waste which may have been reckoned by him in his famous lecture: (1) waste of money (2) waste of time (3) waste of artistic talents (4) waste of powers of intellection (5) waste of emotions (6) waste of charity (7) waste of youthful existence (8) waste of breath and (9) waste of physical energies in general.

I have no doubt whatever that Girisam believed firmly that the prime cause for all this huge waste lay in an unnatural and impracticable conception of life.

I am not at all inclined to perceive any blasphemy in his statement that pleasures in heaven are assured if you have already enjoyed them in this world. It is true to me. I cannot conceive of any Chinese wall dividing this world from the other worlds, including heaven. No truer statement was ever made than the one that the mind is its own place. It makes a heaven of hell and hell of heaven. Turn the kaleidoscope; earth is seen. Turn it again, heaven is visible. No change of places at all. The turning is in our power. I am afraid that as long as one concentrates on a heaven which is far away somewhere, one can never be satisfied with this world, which would be an insult to the impartiality of the maker of these globes.

Happiness or joy may be considered as an easementary right. Long open continuous and uninterrupted enjoyment as right establishes a right of way. Happiness must be openly and continuously enjoyed as of right and in an uninterrupted manner in this world, so that we acquire inviolable rights to enjoy Ananda, after we have shuffled off this mortal coil. The key to the definition of such happiness lies in the two words; uninterrupted and as of right. Interruption comes in only when there is a break or cessation. In Ananda this cessation is ordinarily the outcome of fatigue or, may be, regret. Uninterrupted enjoyment of Ananda may therefore refer to such Ananda as containing no elements of reaction or regret in it.

Let me consider the other expression “as of right”. The Sukha or Ananda should be enjoyed “as of right”. That is possible only for one to catch the strains of Krishna’s Murali. Art is the stroke of chisel that knocks off the excrescences in our composition and makes us perfect to deserve the love of Krishna. It is art which helps us to cast off our load of garments and appendages and blitholes to fall in step with the mighty Sankara in his glorious dance; of death–full of life.

What a calamity, Girisam should have thought, that one should neglect the development of fine arts (which reveal to us the glory and strength of life) and waste the faculty of fine arts implanted in us. Can we consciously say that our centres of education, whether it be our houses, schools or colleges, afford us the necessary opportunities to foster and develop the latent faculties for arts in our young men. There is marked inclination on the other hand, to discountenance such instincts and waste the talents. This kind of waste is one of the potent causes of the degeneration of India and her culture.

Along with the waste of our thinking or reasoning faculties, Girisam must have thought of the habit of one’s waste of emotion as a probable fifth cause of the degeneration of our society. The Andhras are said to be very emotional. As a matter of fact, I am afraid, all Indians are emotional; also commotional and unnecessarily so. To be emotional without any real progressive motion or moment is not a great virtue. I am reminded of Mr. S. V. Ramamurti’s presidential speech on the occasion of the fourth Andhra Nataka Kala Parishat held in Madras during last December. He said that Andhras were very enthusiastic in starting works; but it was the Tamil genius that kept up the works going. This is a matter for consideration. Mr. Ramamurti’s observation upsets a text which was often quoted by my father “arambhasuraha khalu dakshinatyaha.” However Mr. Ramamurti’s opinion cannot but be a carefully considered one. If he is true, (I am inclined to agree with him) our emotions which effervesce without any practical results are sheer waste. Girisam must have noticed this habit of waste with great regret.

Do Nothing and Multiply

Take the case of the joint family system. There was need for the system in the olden days. It is a matter for careful consideration whether the system is necessary in the present days. Is the system adding to our man-power or detracting from it? Is it not a common sight that one man is obliged to earn and feed a number of drones who do nothing but marry and multiply? Is it not a fact that in a joint family the moment the earning member passes away his widow is thrown entirely on the tender mercies of ill-educated, uncultured, pleasure-seeking and selfish junior members who live mostly by the law of survivorship? Is it not a fact that most of us are suffering under this system, swayed by false feelings of sympathy and charity? Our feelings of sympathy and charity, unless they can be turned into good account for the good of society, are sheer waste of our emotional springs and tend certainly to who considers Ananda as his birth-right–as his nature. In other words one would feel happy always, unconsciously radiate happiness all round just as a rose which would always smell sweet and distribute its sweet, smell all round. According to Girisam therefore this world is meant to give such pleasures and a person who can find and enjoy such pleasures does establish a right of easement for happiness in the other worlds. This outlook of life in this world welcomes Samsara and does not condemn it. It is a strong man’s outlook. Fear and weakness dare not approach it. It certainly discourages beggary. Begging for admissions, begging for appointments, begging for engagements and begging even to remain yours truly. Conception of such a life and the determination to live up to it require the development of one’s will power.

Girisam’s series of exploits indicate that he was a man of great will power and he ever kept the power in perfect trim. The final scene proves his wonderful self-possession. To me Girisam was not defeated. In the last scene, at considerable self-sacrifice, he let us into the secret of the great Saujanya Rao Pantulu’s weakness. That paragon of virtues, love of truth, upholder of justice and friend of the oppressed cannot after all get over certain sentimental prejudices. The Pantulu deems as a contamination the very touch and the very atmosphere of a streetwalker. With great reluctance he unbends to bestow a kiss upon that noble woman who was pure and good at heart. Between the Pantulu and Madhuravani I take my hat off to Madhuravani. I thank Girisam for bringing about this denouement, for I believe Girisam deliberately continued to get this effect. If he was sensuous and selfish, he need not have reappeared after he eloped with Butchamma. He would have married her and stayed where he was.

Some evil-minded persons may say that Girisam took the best and coveted the adoption. I do not believe it. He knew enough law to file a suit for the Stridhanam properties of Butchamma. I am sure Girisam did not want to marry Butchamma. In his heart of hearts, he knew that marriage would come in the way of his service. He carried her away to expose certain dangers which lurk in our society. And he came to mock at society by showing up that even its great Saujanya Rao Pantulu was full of prejudices which breed divisions and stand against the principles of equality and freedom in society.

Now, gentlemen, I have tried my best and I have been able to imagine 10 causes of waste (including the waste of will power which I have indicated last) which very probably formed the subject-matter of Girisam’s lecture. You know Girisam better than I. Consequently you will be in a position to teach me something more about him. I am ready to learn.

It is true I could not think of the eleventh cause; but I have a suspicion what it is.