An Exhortation to the Writers

DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN’S
EXHORTATION TO THE WRITERS

            (This is the inaugural speech of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the then Vice President of India at the First All India Telugu Writers’ Conference held in May 1960 at Hyderabad, conducted by the Navya Sahiti Samiti. We are thankful to the Samiti for permission to reproduce it. –Editor)

I am very happy to be here this evening to inaugurate the First All India Telugu Writers Conference and release the publication of Telugu Anthology.

            ‘vidvaaneva jaanaati vidwajjana parisramah’

Only a scholar knows what the difficulties of other scholars are.

You have here met together to discuss the conditions, the difficulties, the obstacles and the opportunities which are facing the literary artistes of this country and in this Telugu land. Literature is that which redeems the barrenness of life. It contributes to the world in which we happen to live. It invents the Gods, the rights and the wrongs, the ethical and aesthetic standards which have become the accepted fabulum of humanity. Great literature stretches our mind, and warms our heart and strengthens our faith in the goodness of humanity. Whatever may be the troubles which we face, literature is a great consolation. It contributes to the health, happiness and enrichment and enjoyment of people.

I see that one of the subjects you discuss is

            ‘Samskruta vijnananiki Andhrula seva’

I take it that you are not concerned about the contribution which the Andhra writers have made to the Sanksrit literature, to the Sanskrit poetics, Logic etc., Great names like Annambhatta, Vallabha, Nimbarka reach your eyes. You want to say Andhrula seva Service, which the Andhras have rendered to the Sanskrit literature. That is what you are interested in.

Not merely in Andhra, but in all parts of the country, Sanskrit literature has been the basic ground from which all other things have come. Our translations of Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagawata are all there. But they are not servile imitations. They are not vulgar popularisations. The translations are literary creations. The writers who translated them put their hearts and souls into their works and raised these huge kavyas, which are an ornament not merely to the Telugu literature, but to the whole of Indian literature. And, they were also people who were struck by the exhilaration of change and wanted to adjust their ways to the challenges impinged on them by the then times. When there were quarrels between the Saivas and Vaishnavas, Tikkana Somayaji dedicated his work to Hariharanatha, making out that the Supreme is one by whatever name you call. The Sanskrit verse is

“Saivavayam na khalu tatra vicha raneeyam
Panchakshari japa para nitaram, tadhapi,
Cheto madiya matasi kusumavabhasam
Smeraananam smarati Gopa vadhu kisoram”

We are Saivas. We practice Siva Mantra - Namassivaya - still,

            “cheto madiya matasi kusumavbhasam
            smeraananam smarati Gopa vadhu kisoram”

My heart runs after that Supreme Darling of the Gopis-Sri Krishna.

The answer is given in the next verse-

            “Maheswaroua, Janardananova
            na vastu bedha pratipatirasti”

Whether you call the Supreme Janardhana or Maheswara, it does not make any difference. Reality is one. As my friend Krishna Kripalani ¹ drew your attention, that was the first message given in the Rigveda, “ekam sat vipra bahudha, vadanti”

In that way we admit the reality of the Supreme and we are tolerant of every way in which the Supreme is called or approached. Again when you take Potana’s Bhagauata, you see how his creation is something which is original and unique. The Maha Bhagavata says,

            “Katyayani mahadevi, maha yoginyadhiswaree,
            Nanda gopa sutam Devi, patimme kuru, te namah”

That is the Sanskrit verse. Potana,

“... mugurammala mulaputamma, meti peddamma,
            dayamburasivi gadamma, Harim pati seyu mamma,
            ninu namminavari kennadunu naasamu ledu gadamma, Eswaree”

You find there the intensity of emotion, the whole of the devotee’s heart pouring itself out. In those days writers did not measure profundity with obscurity. They felt that the greatest truth could be expressed in the simplest language. You will find

            “Eminonu phalamo, inta proddoka vaarta vintimamma abalalaara
            Mana Yasoda chinni magavani ganenata, choochi vattamamma sudatulara”

Not a hard word! Nothing there which you will find difficult of grasping. It is not merely Bammera Potana in his Bhagauata. You find in Vipranaryana Charitra­– 

“Mrokkina nevvaremanadu, Momatu bettuka jakka voye, nee dikkuku choodadaye, oka deevana maatayu naadadaye, vee dekkadi Vaishnavundu.....mana           metiki mokkitimama niddurovoyinavani kaallakun.

I am merely giving you how simple in texture and diction that such profound thoughts could be expressed. Nowadays we, indulge in all sorts of permutations and combinations of words and wish to express our great wisdom in profundity of expression, which is mistaken for obscurity, so to say.

Anyway my request to all our writers is - Take note of the changes of our times. Take note of the things that are happening. And just as the great writers of the past gave us a response, a standard of values, a way in which we can respond to the great expressions that come to us even when our country is passing through a great deal of confusion of thought, when we are trying to redo a New India, this Navya Sahiti Samiti, which calls itself Navya - New, means that you are discarding whatever is valueless in the old and adapting whatever is valuable there and adjusting yourselves to the demands which are made by the new world.

It is necessary that if there is any one Supreme, a true exponent of the reality by which we are faced, he must experience these realities and the intensity of those experiences overflows so to say in words of song, music etc., The one thing necessary is absolute toleration. The other thing necessary is we have been democratically minded. From the beginning we have observed that each one is an incarnation of the Supreme.

            “Indugaladandu ledani
            sandehamu valadu, Chakri sarvopagathundu
            Endendu vedaki joochina
            andande galadu Daanavagrani, vinte!”

You find here that there is not an element in this earth which is not lit up with the Spirit of the Divine. And, if the Spirit of the Divine is there, we owe it to ourselves not to treat other people, a whole section of humanity, as something unworthy of recognition. Dignity and something of the human soul had been the fundamental concepts on which we have stood. We have also stood on the idea of progressive changes in our world. This world is Samsara- It is something which is perpetually flowing. Not even the greatest doctrines or dogmas stand permanent. They have to be adjusted. They have to be reoriented. They have to be recast to suit the conditions of our modern times. That is what is necessary. Toleration of other ways of experience is the fundamental of the Supreme.

The Upanishad says

            “Yatovato nivartante, aprapya manasaa tatah”

Buddha says

            “anaksharasya Dharmasya, suchikka desanatakka” and you find any number of sayings like that. If so, we must establish a social, equitable and egalitarian society in this country, if we are to be faithful to the great principles which we have inherited. My friend Kripalani told us that Indian culture is one. We find many scripts. But, the sub-content, the spiritual content, and the visionary insight-these are to be found in common in all these different ­languages.

Good, if we can develop a common script, whatever that script may be, which will promote intellectual solidarity of this great Nation. It is something which you writers have to discuss. Let us not merely cling to something simply because it has come down to us from a very long time. But let us adopt ourselves to the new conditions here.

In this Kavaya mala²which I am asked to release for publication, you begin with Nannayya’s translation of Mahabhart – ­a few verses. You end up with Devulapalli Krishna Sastry’s verses.

It shows the continuity, the tradition, of the progress which you have in this country. Preserve that, Cling to what is good in the Old. Discard whatever is irrelevant and repugnant to your conscience. Admit this country moves along the lines of progress so that we may compete with other nations in the World.

Thank you.

¹ Mr. Krishna Kripalani, Secretary of the Central Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.
² TELUGU KAVYA MALA – an anthology of Telugu poetry, published by the central Sahitya Akademi and released on that occasion by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.