Three-fold Path to Fulfillment
A Note on Raja Rao’s Fiction
Mrs. M. PARVATI DEVI
Due to the impact of the British on
Of the “Remarkable Triad,” Raja Rao is the
most difficult but perhaps the most spiritually satisfying and enlightening
novelist, for he makes generous use of religious and philosophical symbolism. A
student of philosophy and religion, Raja Rao hails from
Raja Rao’s
collection of short-stories, The Cow of the Barricades, comprises all
his themes and techniques in embryonic forms. He has developed for himself a
charming poetic-prose style which is replete with his Indian upbringing and
sensibility quite suitable to expound his difficult themes. “Javni”, “Narasiga”, “The Little
Grain Shop” and “Akkayya” form a group which is full
of sentiment. “Javni” and “Akkayya”
deal with two typical South - Indian widows – belonging to the lower and
upper rungs respectively of the middle-class, who signify
selfless action. They are domestic Karmayogins,
working for the happiness of others without looking for the fruits of action.
This principle of Dharma or Nishkamakarma
becomes the main theme of Raja Rao’s Gandhian
novel Kanthapura. “ Nimka” is the story of a Russian girl, and it
reveals the knowledge of a gifted writer who, as an initiated insider of
Kanthapura is a miniature epic and, as Mulk Raj Anand puts it, it is presented in
the technique of “bardic recital” or “the old wives’ tale, ...couched as a recital”.1 It is akin to
the Purana and the story is narrated by
an old woman Achakka to a younger stranger. Raja Rao,
well-versed as he is in Indian tradition, strikes the right chord in making an
old woman narrate the story representing all grandmothers and mothers of,
We shall establish a parallel government and
it is this government that will rule and not that, and the first act of government is to appoint Range Gowda Patel again .. For the Congress is the people and Patel is the people’s man and Range Gowda is
our man and if the new patel comes and says, “Give me
the revenue dues”, you will say, “I do not know you... you are not our man and
we will offer you neither seat nor water, but never be harsh to them nor
wicked, and above all”. he said, ...
“remember each one of you is
responsible for the harm done by the ether, and the first time violence is done
against the police or those that are not with us, we shall stop the movement
and wait for six months and more in penance and in prayer that our sins may be
purified. Brothers and sisters, remember we are not out to fight against the
demoniac corruption that has entered their hearts, and purer we are, the
greater will be our victory, for the victory we seek is the victory of the
heart. Send out love where there is hatred and a smile against brute force like
unto the waters of Himavathy that spread outer
boulders and sand and crematorium earth...Obey your chief and love your enemy, that
is all I ask of you. 2
Herein lies the rare
vision of an ideal young man renouncing everything in life. In
discharging his Dharma to the society as a true Karmayogin.
When Moorthy is arrested for promoting the zeal
and patriotic fervour of the people of Kanthapura to become the followers of the Mahatma in his Swaraj movement, as a true Satyagrahi he vehemently refuses any advocate
to be engaged to argue his case. He firmly believes:
“If truth is one, all men are one before it”.3 It is no wonder if Sankar, a lawyer of Karwar and another devout follower of Gandhi, is so much
moved by the ardent faith of Moorthy that he
whole-heartedly tells Rangamma “I love him like a
brother and I have found no better Gandhist”.4 A teeming and prosperous village at the beginning of the novel, Kanthapura presents a deserted look at the end, almost all
the inhabitants settling in the nearby village Kashipura
as a result of their participation in the Gandhian movement. But the narrator’s
conclusion leaves no doubt about the fact that all of them have had great
satisfaction of having added their mite to the task of liberating Bharata Mata from the foreign yoke. Thus, Moorthy, apart from being a Karmayogin
himself, has converted Kanthapura itself into a
place of Karmayogins.
The Serpent and the
Rope is Raja Rao’s Jnanayoga based
on Karmayoga. If Kanthapura
is a Purana, The
Serpent and the Rope as an Itihasa. The
hero Rama (Ramaswamy), who hails from a village Harishapura
in
“That is why the Hindus are right, no man can love a woman for her personal self.”
“Then, how does one love?”
“For the self within her, as Yajnavalkya said to Maitreyi, and
I continued,” All women are perfect women for they have the feminine principle
in them, in the Prakriti...?”
“And all men...?”
“...are perfect when they turn inward and
know that the ultimate is man’s destiny. No man is bad that knows, ‘Lord, we be not of this Kingdom.’ 5”
The hero endowed with subtle intellect and
vast knowledge discusses and analyses and moralises
on various topics (Politics, History, Science, Literature, Religion,
Philosophy, etc.) and confirms himself in conviction
by experience. He has become a Guru to others, and shows the way to five women
for their salvation – Madeleine, Savitri, Catherine,
Little Mother and Saroja. He thus fulfils himself in Karmayoga basically. But
how about his own salvation? Incidentally in his Jnanayoga
or Jnanasadhana, awareness flashes
within that he has to go in search of a Guru to dispel the illusion of the
Serpent and show it as the Rope, the Reality. Rama comes to grips with the
Absolute through his Guru, Atmananda, at Travancore
and thus becomes a true Jnana-yogin. Hence
his long discussions on Religion and Phi1osophy and Metaphysics along with his
internal spiritual drama leading to his ultimate tryst with Reality are aptly
rendered in the first personal narration.
Five years after the publication of The
Serpent and the Rope appeared his third novel The Cat and Shakespeare. Though
compact, it is a longer Upanishad. It is Raja Rao’s
bold venture to suggest a link
between the East and the West. The Cat is a symbol of the Universal Mother,
adopted from the Marjala Kishora-Nyaya. The lives of the two principal
characters Ramakrishna Pai and Govindan
Nair express the simplicity of joy and the sublime universality of Shakespeare.
Raja Rao declares that the little novel is a book of prayer 6 or Bhaktiyoga-total
surrender of the self to the Self to attain Moksha
or Salvation. Ramakrishna Pai is the true
disciple of Govindan Nair who is a staunch believer
In the Cat-kitten principle. Govindan Nair thus tells
Ramakrishna Pai:
“Ah, the kitten when its neck is held
by its mother, does it know anything
else but the joy of being held by its mother? You see the elongated thin hairy
thing dangling, and you think poor kid, it must suffer to be so held. But I say
the kitten is the safest thing in the world, the kitten held in the mouth of
the mother cat. Could one have been born without a mother? Modern inventions do
not so much need a father. But a mother-I tell you, without mother the world is
not. So allow her to fondle you and hold you. I often think how noble it is to
see the world, the legs dangling straight, the eyes steady and the mouth of the
mother at the neck. Beautiful”.7
Pai lives in
Shanta is always mysterious, just as Saroja was always clear. Shanta always says two things at
the same time. No wonder she and Govindan Nair like
each other so much. She says: “How can anything mean one and one thing only?
Look at the bilva tree ... So when you say
it’s a bilva tree, that means there is the tree and the
light that makes it the tree.” If I touch you, Shanta, there is no light in
that. She said: “I can see you have never been across the wall. For there you
could touch me and see yourself touch me.” “What, what’s special about that?”
“The specialness is that it is not special. You think
because I bear a child I am special. Very, very special, my
lord.” “Yes, you are.” “But you know, as I teach in my school, all that
is born had a mother. The father is not always so clear. Look at the bees and
the flowers.” “So the mother is necessary for all children. Thus motherhood has
nothing special. And what about fatherhood...?” She said: “There
is proof.” ... “I am your proof. You are only seen by
me. Who could know you as I know you? So the proof of my lord is me. The proof
became concrete and became the child, I must know I am”. 8 (Aham Brahmasmi)
Shanta’s pregnancy and the anticipated birth of a son
symbolise the beginning of Pai’s
fulfilment. He fulfils his duty towards his son by
purchasing a house to which he adds second storey, and the third storey is yet
to be laid. In Hindu philosophy, human body is likened to a house, The three storeys stand for the
three-fold path-Karmayoga, Jnanayoga and Bhaktiyoga.
Pai gets the basic Jnana
from Govindan Nair (who symbolizes Govinda or Krishna), and under his
able guidance Pai fulfils himself in Karma (duty)
through Shanta who is the means or Sadhana, Govindan
Nair, the personification of Karmayoga and
Jnanayoga and Bhaktiyoga,
is the perfect Guru to Pai. Govindan Nair redeeming the hotel prostitute (a victim of
circumstances or Karma), and discoursing on subtle and wise and intricate
philosophical topics (living them and exemplifying them to others – Jnana), and ably guiding Pai
(for his salvation or Nirvana), shows himself to be the able Guru; and
he is also instrumental to the eradication of Evil, the corrupt boss Bhootalinga Iyer; and thus his
action is reminiscent of the Bhagavadgita ideal:
Paritraanaaya saadhuunaam vinaasaayaca dishkritaam
Dharma samsthaapanaardhaaya sambhavaami yuge yuge. 9
(“For the protection of the virtuous, for the
destruction of evildoers, and for establishing Dharma (righteousness)
on a firm footing, I am born from age to age”). His knowledge of everything and his faith in the Absolute and his selfless action make him enunciate
clearly the path of Jnaanayoga to Pai through various parables and myths, and above all by
his own exemplary life. His perfect devotion and faith in God, symbolised by the Cat-kitten relationship, are revealed at
every stage, thus rendering him a perfect Bhaktiyogin
who fulfils himself in salvation by His grace. Pai
too finally attains the fulfilment following the
Mother Cat, and crossing the wall, gets the Beatific Vision. Thus the Cat,
symbol of Divinity, leads him to his ultimate goal of Moksha.
So he emerges as a Bhaktiyogin by practising the Cat-kitten principle of Govindan
Nair in the third and final stage of the journey of life to the Ultimate: the
third storey of the House of Salvation is complete.
1 Mulk Raj Anand:
“Old Myth and New Myth: Recital versus Novel,” The Banasthali
Patrika (Ed. by Rameshwar
Gupta, Banasthali Vidya
Pith, Year 5, No. 13, 1969), pp. 35 and 36.
2 Kanthapura
(Champak Library, 1947;
First published by George Allen and Unwin, London.
1938), pp. 173-174.
3 Ibid., p. 119.
4 Ibid., p. 129.
5 The Serpent
and the Rope (Orient
Paperbacks, Hind Pocket Books, Delhi. 1968), pp. 310-311.
6 Cf. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar, Indian Writing in English, (
7 The Cat and
Shakespeare (Orient
Paperbacks, Hind Pocket Books, Delhi. 1971), pp. 11 and 12.
8 Ibid., pp. 93-94.
9 Bhagavadgita,
IV, 8.