Book Reviews

ENGLISH

IN DAYS OF GREAT PEACE by Mouni Sadhu, V.S. Ramanan; President Board of Trustees, Sri Ramanashramam, Tirunnamalai – 606603; by arrangement with Wilshire Book Company – North Hollywood – U.S.A.

The book has forewords by Anthur Osborne and M. Hafiz Syed.

The book “In Days of Great Peace” by Mouni Sadhu is a treat for a spiritual seeker but more so for the disciples of the great sage, Sri Ramana Maharshi. The book carries the reader into the very presence of the Maharshi – so vivid and beautiful are the descriptions of the presence and aura of the Sage, the Ashram and the silent daily assemblage of people before the Master.

The author’s search for a true master before meeting Sri Ramana Maharshi leads him to various spiritual organizations.  He studied Theosophy, Hermeticism, Tarot Cards and then Dr. Brandler Prcht, a German occultist.  In Paris was the “Association of Spiritual Friendships” founded by Paul Sedir who had written about his ‘Master  of Masters’ in his most  mysterious book – “The Initiations”.  The members of this group remain unknown to all except their true disciples.  Then the author recounts his meeting with a Bishop whose blessings, the author believes led him to the feet of his Guru.  In 1945 an elderly lady gave him Paul Brunton’s “ A Search in Secret India”. The book brought him to the feet of his destined Guru, Sri Ramana Maharshi.

On pg.48 is a reverential reference to Sri Sri Paramahamsa Yogananda’s words from his “Autobiography of a Yogi”.

The author’s visit to the Aurobindo Ashram makes a very interesting reading.  The author describes the scene where ‘darshan’ is arranged for the public.   Sri Aurobindo and Mother were seated in the wide doorway.  In the words of the author, “At last I saw the strange couple. The queue moved slowly, so I could observe them at my leisure.  They sat in deep concentration without any movement ——— I had an overwhelming impression of powerful mental forces vibrating round the couple”.  The author realizes “But each type of man needs his own Master and this one was not mine”.  His mind was far away, with his Guru, the sage of Arunachala.

The author talks beautifully about the hill Arunachala.  He believes that the very sight of the hill, nay, the very thought of it has power to still the mind.

The author dwells at length on the Maharshi’s method of Inquiry — Vichara- ‘Who am I?”

The book makes the reader fully comprehend “What the presence of a great sage means and what its influence is. “That’s the essence and beauty of this book.

To quote a few passages from the book: “Just as a leaf torn from a tree can never return to it, so our transitory form will never be able to express our real self”.  But, “In meditation one can perceive instances of God’s intervention even in our daily lives,….. Then we are nearing that state which Maharshi spoke of as:” a daily communion with God.  This is the goal and the summit”.

Again, “I fully realize that the saint whom I am facing dwells uninterruptedly in the orb of light.  This light is utterly different from any physical one we know, it is pouring even through closed eyelids”. ……...there is the joyous and certain hope of resurrection.  I hear, as from a great distance, the Ashram gong”.

Most rewarding are the pages which explain what happens in the presence of a Master who is pure spirit.  The whole book is a most beautiful narration of the glory and aura of spiritual accomplishment.  It is an unforgettable inspiration.
A. Satyavathi

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THE HOLY KORAN, THE ONE AND ONLY GUIDE; Dr. P. P. Kunhanabdullah: Khuran Surnath Society. (Regd.) Cherukod. Chathagotpuram Post, Wandoor, Mallapuram Dt. - 679326.   pp.vii+90; Price. Rs. 60/- ; US $ 3.

The little book under review is a polemic book.  It is meant to propagate the revolutionary ideas of Maulvai Chekannur of Kerala who is not so well-known outside Kerala but was unpopular enough to be done to death by extremists.  Dressed in modern pants and a slack and clean-shaven without sporting even a little beard, few could take Chekannur for a Maulavi.  His aim was to purify Islam according to his best lights and understanding of the Koran which alone, according to him, was the true guide of every Muslim. Were he in power, he would have been a mini-Kemal Pasha Ataturk who modernised Turkey and made it a strong Nation in spite of his friends who advised him not to use modern weapons of war because the Prophet and his companions used only swords and spears. Chekannur believed that many of the conventions, beliefs and ideas are not based on the Koran but on the so-called Hadeeth composed and/or compiled / three hundred years after the passing of the prophet. Moulavi Chekannur was a great writer.  He wrote more than fifteen books on various topics. President Ayyub Khan of Pakistan was influenced by his risal in Al Arab and repealed an age-old shariath that prevented orphans from getting the share of property due to them.

The author, a devoted disciple of the Maulavi,  points out how many of the attacks  against Islam like The Satanic Verses are directed NOT against the principles of Koran but the beliefs taught by the Hadeeth.

The author presents the Maulavi’s ideas in great detail in forceful English. What a Hindu can learn from the book is that in every religion there could be customs and practices which are not based on the Scriptures but on other sources and one should think for oneself whether the custom or practice helps one in one’s inner progress before he follows it.

The little book deserves to be read even by those who need not necessarily agree with the view expressed in it.

Prof. K. B. Sitaramayya

(The reviewer passed away recently. ‘Triveni’ has lost a Scholar, Contributor and reviewer. May his soul rest in peace                 -Editor)

“KALI DANCES. SO DO I”; poem by Usha Akella, Writers India Ltd., Hyderabad No.2, pp.56, Price Rs.75/-

Henry James once spoke derisively of women. Nathaniel Hawthorne was much more vehement when he referred to a ‘damned mob of scribbling women’. Male writers generally believed that women could produce babies but seriously doubted if they could produce poetry. But right from Sapho, women have been turning out a substantial and significant body of literature and poetry in particular. To the sensitive, agonised soul of women, poetry has been of therapeutic value and an emotional ballast.

To the compulsive tradition of women poets belongs the sensitive Indian poet in English, Usha Akella, who has collected some of her poems published in American magazines under the title, ‘Kali Dances – So do I’. The predominant motif in the collection is dance – the dance of Kali in variegated manifestations – the most benign and the most punishing – which emblemetise the quintessential woman. Kali thus isn’t time space specific but is spaceless and timeless.

The poems in the collection encapsule both anguish and ecstacy of growing up from childhood to womanhood, with the gnawing sense of insecurity of being the female of the species predominating.  As a child, the girl ‘the centre handicraft on display’ and as she approaches adulthood-‘not even woman, not even child’, she would be ‘Ariel’ and ‘looked uncomfortable on earth’.  To her tatagaru (grandpa), she is a quaint exhibit, but when she comes of age and submitted to the clinical inspection of would-be-mother-in-law, she is agonised by being an Indian brahmin woman, ‘reprimanded by her body’. But at the obligatory matrimonial inter-‘view’, she asserts herself by saying ‘No!’ The girl in ‘Jeans and white top’ has atleast done it.

Moving effortlessly from the personal to the universal, Usha evokes the pervasive dance of Shiva and Vishnu, the mighty preserver in the scenario of the parading of flesh by Playboy’, vicariously simulating the body’s natural desires in strings and garter.  The lanes and bylanes of Hyderabad come alive in her memories re-enacted on her mind-screen and evoked effectively in ‘Rite of Passage’ and other poems.  The willful and yet hesitant attempt of the poet to get home recalls the similar predicament of Parthasarathi after his ‘whoring after western gods’.  But there is a warmer touch of reality and ‘felt’ experience. Secunderabad station, the BHEL vegetable market – all have a sense of palpable reality not lost in diasporic amorphousness.

The feminine sensibility of the poet comes out gently without the raucousness of some of the ‘feminist’ and politically-committed activists.  Like Sylvia Plath, Usha wants to declare: ‘ I am I’ After presenting the vacuous lives of archetypal women in ‘The We’ where she evokes ‘ a mother’s body sculpted out of a girl’s dream’, a mother-in-law’ who perfected her life as a shadow’ she offers herself as the I ’still learning to be a woman’.  ‘Being woman’ really involves ‘a tortise movement into oneself’ and refusing to ‘measure my essence by a man’s gaze’.  Usha recalls occasionally MD who presented women not as object, but a quintessential woman subject’.  To poets of such persuasion, poetry becomes, in the words of Louis Bogan, ‘a powerful alternate self’.

The poetic offerings of Usha are indeed an articulation of the ‘alternate self’ and substantially to the expression of agonised feminine sensibility which is at once gender specific and universal in its human exploration.

Prof. S. S. Prabhakar Rao

A TREASURY OF LITERARY TERMS: Maheshwar Panda; Prakash Book Depot, Bara Bazar, Bareilly (.P) 243003. Rs.60/- No. of Pages: 158

Maheswar Panda’s book ‘A Treasury of Literary Terms’ is a real treasure to be preserved by all the students of English literature.  The author presented the literary terms in an alphabetical order and it is a compendium of brief essays highlighting the nature and course of English literature besides something of literary criticism.

The book is a complete guide to a student of literature which aids him at all stages of his learning.  The language used is very simple.  Examples and illustrations are provided.  This book is useful to research scholars also.

An up-to-date bibliography is given in the end. The essay form chosen by the author enhances readability.  Though there are many books on this theme, this compact and concise volume claims a place of its own among them.  This well-got-up book can be added to the existing collection of books on English literature.

I. Satya Sree

A handbook of Communica-tion skills and functional English; B.K. Das; No. of pages: 112; Rs. 45/-; Prakash Book Depot, Bara Bazar, Bareilly-243 003.

Communication is the new buzz word.  Good communication is the key to success in any modern behaviour – oriented situations. After completing the +2 stage, a student opts for either a vocational or a professional course or the 3 year degree course.  According to psychologists, the most receptive age of a person is between fourteen and twenty, where mental alertness is to the maximum.  The ability to grasp any amount of information and the retention capacity are more in pupils of this particular age group.  This is the stage where they should be equipped with the most important language skills like reading, writing and oral communication. All these three productive skills are largely neglected in the class room.  This becomes a handicap for the students in general and for those who studied through regional medium in particular.

Here comes a good and useful book written by B. K. Das, as an aid to learning and improving communication skills.  This book is designed to fill the gap in the present English syllabus at the +2 stage and the 3 year degree level of different Universities in India.  Mr. Das, with his experience in teaching as a Reader in English at Ravenshaw College, Cuttack (Orissa), has carefully selected and discussed twenty relevant topics in quite an interesting manner.

As English is extremely useful as a library language, some spoken skills with focus on relevant writing like Reporting, Letter-writing, Paragraph writing, Precis writing and Essay writing are discussed giving illustrations and specimens wherever necessary.  Reading as a skill is totally neglected these days.  Moreover the large classes do not permit the teachers to pay individual attention and use the other teaching techniques like Seminars, Conferences, Group discussions, Debates, Negotiations effectively.  All these topics and some useful hints on ‘Reading with a purpose’ are presented in a lucid style by the author.  This slim handbook will be of immense help to all those who want to learn effective communication.  I hope this book will find its place on all the book shelves of home and college libraries.

I. Satya Sree

SELF–AN ANTHOLOGY OF POEMS; R. M. Prabhulinga Shastry; Rs. 50/-, pp: 54, Prakash Book Depot, Bara Bazar, Bareilly – 243 003.

The present anthology of poems is not meant to be read for mere delight.  The title ‘Self’ itself is thought-provoking and reveals the poet’s deep-rooted belief in Advaita Philosophy.  The verses in this anthology are to be read with concentration of mind because the subjects have a spiritual ground.

The first poem, also the title of the book, starts thus

‘I love you when you follow your own
I hate you When you follow some other’s
– and ends with an expression that sets
us rethinking. The poem  “Age is
Nothing” is strikingly relevant.  Look at
the following lines –

‘Life span of it, in which at present I am,
is very much little. How much long it
could be, Also cannot be told. At any
moment,I would leave it.”-

The poem “Seeker of Nothing” expresses the poet’s mental detachment to things around him. The lines –

‘ I don’t desire anything
Because the ultimate desire is only ‘I’
I don’t wish anybody;
Because ‘I’ am ever wished
I don’t require anything
Because ‘I ‘ am ever attracted – show
an effort towards detachment.

These short verses are simple yet elegant.  They have a peculiar charm which makes them readable.  The poet, being a strong believer in Advaita philosophy, doesn’t wish to write poetry on the themes other than spirituality.  He seems to be confident in finding a solution to all the problems through Indian thought and way of living.  Though there are some dry expressions and verbal knots which leave the reader a little confused, the book deserves to be read by all lovers of poetry.  The cover is designed in pleasant colours and the wrapper matches the content very well.
I. Satya Sree

TELUGU

SEEMA KAVITHA: Compilation of verses, Mitra Jyoti Sahiti Samskritika Samstha, 6/24, Gandhi Road, Proddatur 516360; 100 pp; Rs. 25/-
Rayalaseema has a distinct place in the literary and social life of the Andhras.  This is a compilation of Telugu verses by more than 49 writers of this region, bringing out in poetic form the lives and struggles of the people of that arid region.

A similar compilation of Short stories had earlier appeared aimed at projecting the troubles and turmoils of the common folk of the Rayalaseema to the outside world. This book belongs to this genre and includes poetical pieces of such veterans as Vidwan Viswam, Hanumantha Reddy,  Rachapalem as well as the more recent writers.

These pieces are naturally in the regional dialect and use profusely the local idiom, and proverbs in their effort ot make the reader empathise with the contemporary problems faced by the people, including mainly, the lack of timely rains and the frequent famine conditions, lack of adequate drinking water, and of course, the faction-ridden political life and the axe-culture where human life is lost without batting an eye lid.

A book to read and empathise with the unfortunate brothern.

Dr. Managalgiri Pramila Devi