Spiritualism Vs Materialism in

SPIRITUALISM VS. MATERIALISM
IN BHABANI BHATTACHARYA’S
“A DREAM IN HAWAII”

            A Dream in Hawaii* (1975), the last novel of Bhattacharya, aims at revision of Western culture and society by eastern philosophy. While Bhattacharya’s earlier novels deal with native issues specially dominated by theme of hunger for food and social upliftment, A Dream in Hawaii deals with hunger for human dignity and self-release. During his stay in America, Bhattacharya was a witness to the sickness of the society neck-deep in immorality, materialism and sensual pleasures. The modern man is struggling to liberate himself from this malady. Indian society is also suffering from the same evils though not as much as the American. Bhattacharya seems to point out that neither strict asceticism nor rank materialism will deliver the goods. Yogananda fails to suppress his physical instincts after years of asceticism and comes to India at the end of the novel with a sense of failure. Whereas Gregson, representing western materialism, too realises the futility of his way of life. Each has to learn from the other. In the article “What is in a dream,” Sarma and Rangan conclude that:

            A Dream in Hawaii is a novel with many facets and layers of meaning. On the surface there is the East-West encounter; at a deeper level it is an analysis of culture. Particularly of America, from a specific Indian point of view; it is also a dissertation on the sickness of modern society, both eastern and western: At the same time it presents man’s search for the self, or alternately, his endeavour to discard the masks. It is possibly much more.¹

Jasbir Jain considers that the theme of the novel is in many ways “a continuation of the theme of Shadow from Ladakh” She says; “On the surface it appears to be a novel about two cultural traditions, but in reality it is about the conflicting needs of man. Neloy Mookerji is unable to submerge his identity completely into that of Swami Yogananda; and just as Satyajit realises he is not a Gandhi, Neeloy too realises that he is not a Swami”². Bhattacharya makes a dig at the hypocritical and fake saints. At the same time he suggests ethical and spiritual means to solve the crisis in the American society, symbol of Westernism, through Eastern spiritual thought and philosophy.

A Dream in Hawaii mainly deals with the quest for fullness of life and human identity. The novel vividly projects the problems of American sick society, greed for power, wealth and obsession with sex. Sexual permissiveness of the West represented by Gregson is juxtaposed by the self-­denial and suppression of sexual instinct by Swami Yogananda. Both, however, fail to achieve human happiness. As Goyal comments “almost half of the chapters are concerned with the depiction of the surfeit of sex as a symptom of the sick society, while the other half explore the true nature of spiritualism and salvation, which, the author believes, are not reached through self-denial but only through self-­fulfillment.”³ Bhattacharya suggests a humanistic approach to these problems. He always asserts life of fullfilment rather than self-denial which in its extreme form tends to be inhuman and anti-life. Bhattacharya is concerned with ethical questions rather than the cosmological as pointed out by Crawford:

In his religio-moral stance he is not so concerned with cosmological questions, what is the world made of? but with ethical questions, What are we to do with our lives in the world?...In addition to social concerns, Bhattacharya thinks that the strong ascetical bias in the Indian religious tradition is anti-life and is the bane of the nation. Sacrifice, self-control, simplicity are all beautiful ideals which have come down from the past and have been sanctioned by great souls such as Gandhi. But there is a certain point at which these virtues become vices. When they rob us and those closest to us (especially wives and daughters) of experiencing life in all its joyous fullness. Such unbalanced values stop short of masochism and escapism. To be sure, the myriad forms of self-abnegation are carried out in the name of moksa, but “deliverance was never the reward of an escapist” ⁴.

Bhattacharya also condemns the strict ascetism of Satyajit in Shadow from Ladakh.

The novel deals with two kinds of people. Neeloy mukherji who turns into Swami Yogananda, and Stella Gregson do not accept sex as part of human life for happiness. They seek fulfilment of life on purely spiritual means and represent Eastern spiritualism. Walt Gregson, Jennifer, Mamoni, Frieda, Sylviakoo and Dr. Vincent Swift seek happiness and satisfaction through sex alone without any inhibitions, going down to the level of sheer animality, and represent western materialism. Both kinds of people fail to achieve meaning in their life by their own philosophies. All the characters in the novel seem to be searching for those “basic human values which could serve as objective correlatives of this human identity”⁵.

The story of the novel runs like this: Professor Neeloy Mukherji teaches Indian philosophy at Varanasi University. He is a specialist in “projecting the ancient Vedanta into our modern experience” (82) With spiritual zeal, he turns into Swami Yogananda, and becomes popular in India. An American lady Stella Gregson becomes his disciple and takes him to Hawaii to help the sick American society through him. There Yogananda confronts Walt Gregson steeped in western materialistic philosophy. Yogananda helps the people of America to overcome their sexual obsession through the spiritual philosophy. But his own failure to get rid of sexual feelings brings remorse to Yogananda, and he returns to India. Through the story Bhattacharya suggests a life of fulfilment which responds to the human needs - both physical and spiritual.

Dr. Neloy Mukherji is influenced by Swamy Vivekananda. He knows that Swami Vivekananda’s mission is to build human understanding rather than disseminating knowledge. He used to invite monks from nearest Vivekananda’s ashram to impart extra knowledge to his students. Once a Yogi points out that “There is a Yogi deep within Neeloy” (84) But Mukherjee, is sceptical about it. He still looks at his student Devjani with lust. She notices it.

Devjani, however, does not respond to his attentions. She wants to escape from the reality of sex and fill the void with spiritual life. She becomes a student of Dr. Neeloy Mukherjee. After hearing lectures on Swami Vivekananda she comes to know that there is a deep longing in her for spiritual life.

The colleagues and students of Neeloy Mukherjee hail him for his fund of knowledge and see him as Philosophy incarnate. Some of his students seek guidance and direction from him for their lives. They see a guru in him and compel him to renounce the world and become a Yogi, saying that “A star cannot be a firefly!” (89). Although Mukherjee knows that he is only a firefly and cannot become a star, he feels compelled to be a guru. He admits, “Students as well as colleagues have laid down my future course of life. I have no choice left” (89).

Thus Neeloy Mukherjee turns into Swami Yogananda to serve mankind, he goes to the Himalayas, and leads ashram life at Rishikesh. He starts new activities for Sadhana - humanitarian work which is a part of ashram life. He shows more interest in serving mankind than going abroad like other gurus.

Swami Yogananda becomes popular in India.

The meeting between Stella Gregson, an American lady, and Swamy Yogananda marks a turning point in their lives. Sick of sexual permissiveness of American society, Stella deserts her husband and visits Rishikesh to become a disciple of Swamy Yogananda. She represents suppressed morality and dignity of mankind in American society.

Her meeting with Yogananda changes her life and attitude. She sees in Yogananda a saviour “who will lead today’s Americans from darkness into light” (15). So she takes him to the East-West cultural centre at Hawaii to utilise his services for the distracted American youth.
Ironically enough, Yogananda is still torn in conflict. When Devjani comes from Harvard to receive dikhsa from him, he suppresses his feeling for her with great difficulty. He is aware of his limitations to be a perfect Yogi.

Yet Yogananda’s mission at Kennedy theatre goes successfully. He is able to offer peace and consolation to Jennifer, a friend of Stella, who was sick of her disolute past.

Yogananda understands that Americans believe in free love, and chastity has no meaning as far as physical life is concerned in the West. Henry and Frieda, a couple from Los Angeles, come on vacation to Hawaii and meet Yogananda. Frieda tells Yogananda about American society.

“The death of worn-out sanctities. Marriage reduced to a convenient contract. For the young and unmarried, dating….”

Frieda had a sexual experience with a guru at Los Angeles. On the advice of her husband, Frieda tries to tempt Swami Yogananda too in his room. But Yogananda does not yeild to her.

Dr. Vincent Swift, President of Hawaii Academy patronises Yogananda’s mission with a view to exploiting it for his selfish interests. He is materialistic and feels that he is next to Swami Yogananda in status. He wants to shape the Yogananda Mission into ‘World Centre for Yogic Disciplines”.

In addition to Yoga he wants to open new branches of Astrology, Exorcism and Religion at the centre. His main concern is to make a big business out of World Centre of Yogic Discipline like other spiritual institutions. He says, “I don’t have to tell you, Jen, that Big Business with its profit orientation can be honest; decent, serving vital human needs”. (112).

Dr. Swift’s idea in making three-fourths of World Centre for Yogic disciplines into commerce has become a reality. The institute soon grows popular because of Swami Yogananda’s philosophy of ‘self-denial’. Lot of gifts pour in from the young. “The young donors did not make their gifts out of abundance. Their gesture meant self-­denial. It meant an urge to see the World Centre founded”(182). However Yogananda does not approve of Dr. Swift’s scheme of ambitious expansion. He decides to quit the centre leaving a note behind.

Swami Yogananda wants to heal the sick American society and restore human dignity through spiritual means with rational attitude. He firmly decides to liberate the Americans from Walt’s philosophy of liberated woman which lowered the human values in society. Yogananda feels, he has to face Frieda and Walt who built a challenge for him to face; they were the confrontation for which the World Centre was truly needed” (117). The liberated woman has opted for a new tyranny to replace the old and discarded.

Students of Walt are attracted  by Yogananda’s messages. The American youth turn to Vedantic philosophy of Yogananda.

Walt criticises that Yogananda’s mission has one purpose, that is: To put the clock of social advance here in America. To delete the revolutionary content in youth’s attitude in the most vital area of behaviour.

The crisis, according to Walt is beyond the ‘limited range of experience’ of an Eastern saint. But the American youth on the other hand realise that “We have been rotten with what’s called permissive. It has the same meaning as primitive. to the stone age” (125). They find their purpose, belief and hope in the message of Yogananda. Walt’s philosophy of permissiveness has been shattered. He decides to take revenge on Swami Yogananda by exposing him as a fake saint as he suspects that Yogananda is attracted to Devjani. He sends Sylvia Koo, in the sari of Devjani to Yogananda’s room to awaken in him the suppressed feelings for Devjani. Waking up from his dream, Yogananda is shocked to find Sylivia Koo in his bed room trying to tempt him. He immediately escapes from her. The incident, however, exposes Yogananda’s secret longing for Devjani. Later he confesses his dormant love to Devjani, for Yogananda feels that he has failed as a yogi. With regrets, he books a ticket by JAL flight to Calcutta.

Walt Gregson, however, does not gloat over the incident. A sudden feeling of remorse overtakes him.

There is change in the whole attitude of Walt. He has lost his desire for sex. Walt is awakened to a new facet of truth from Yogananda.

Walt admits that the American society including himself needs Yogananda’s mission rather than his. He is sorry that Yogananda is leaving for India. He rushes to the airport only to find that Yogananda has already left.

A Dream in Hawaii thus suggests that the Eastern philosophy modified by humanism can serve as a panacea to the evils of Western materialism. The Eastern philosophy, however, should make allowance for the natural human impulses without insisting on an ascetic self-denial.

* Bhabani Bhattacharya, A Dream in Hawaii (Delhi: Orient Papers, A division of Vision Books Pvt. Ltd., 1983). All subsequent references with page numbers in parentheses are to this edition.
NOTES

¹ S. Krishna Sarma & V. Rangam “What is in a Dream”, The Literary Endeavour 1.3 (1979­80) 85-96.
² Jasbir Jain “The human Dimensions of Statis and Growth”, in Perspectives on Bhabani Bhattacharya ed. by Ramesh K. Srivastava (Ghaziabad, Vimal Prakashan,       1982) 63-64.
³ Bhagwat S. Goyal, “The. Senses and the Sublime; Bhabani Bhattacharya’s A Dream in Hawaii,” in Perspectives on Bhabani Bhattacharya 182.
⁴ Cromwell Crawford, ‘Bhabani Bhattacharya: A Mediating man”, in Perspectives on Bhabani Bhattacharya 13.
⁵ Goyal 183.
⁶ Dorothy Blair Shimer, “Gandhian influences on the writings of Bhabani Bhattacharya, in Perspectives on Bhabani Bhattacharya 25.