PANEL DISCUSSION: LITERATURE AND
SPIRITUALITY
Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi this
evening held a panel discussion on “Literature and Spirituality” at the UT
Guest House. There were three speakers, all of them eminent scholars: Anirudh
Joshi, CL Dhamija and Mathura Das Pandey, academicians who have devoted their
lives to the pursuit of knowledge. Interacting with the audience they spoke
with confidence and passion of on the subject.
Today’s discussion began with the
idea that spirituality is different from religion although the two are often
erroneously confused. Spirituality is that which unites people whereas religion
is divisive, splitting mankind into small camps pitted against each other.
Beginning the discussion, CL
Dhamija, who is familiar with the greatest of world thinkers, quoted writers
like Arnold Toynbee, Vivekananda and others.
He quoted Vivekananda and suggested that religion per se is not that which fragments the world into broken bits; the
way religion is interpreted and practiced makes it divisive. Dhamija focused on
the contribution of Indian thought to philosophy. Is man a soul or a body? Does
the soul change its abode? How does medical science deal with the idea of the
soul? The speaker referred to his extensive reading, illustrating with examples
ranging from Brian Weiss to Guru Nanak and others.
Mathura Das Pandey, the second
speaker, has spent more than half a century reading up on the subject of
spirituality. He admitted that the subject is so vast and he has gone into such
depths that it would be difficult for him to present a concise presentation of
his views on the subject. However, once Pandey began speaking, his ideas flowed
easily and he probed the various complexities of the relationship between
literature and spirituality, in particular the three aspects related to truth
and beauty: satyam, shivam, sundaram.
The role of the imagination in all three aspects remains crucial. The speaker
made several references to the Puaranas, the Vedas and the Upanishads,
interspersing his views with anecdotes from routine life.
Anirudh Joshi, a scholar of
Sanskrit, was the final speaker of the day. Forcefully and with conviction he
summed up the ideas being discussed and further extended the debate. He began
with a basic question: why should we seek spirituality in literature? Beginning
with the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, Joshi demonstrated how
spirituality enters literature willy-nilly. What is the purpose of literature?
Literature is closely linked with dharma,
kama and artha. The author is not simply telling a story: there is a world
view and a philosophy that is conveyed through literature. A literary text
carries a message that uplifts and elevates.
This evening’s discussion was an
attempt to demystify spirituality and understand how it enters a literary text.
The views put forward by the speakers
were marked by a spirit of objective inquiry and the analysis; they combined knowledge
with intuition, popular belief with elitist scholarship. The audience was very
appreciative and discussion continued for a while before the evening came to a
close.
The next event of the CSA will be
on 10th January. Information
will be posted on the CSA blog and Facebook page. Photographs of today’s event
are at https://www.facebook.com/chandigarhsahitya.akademi/media_set?set=a.1012436385440102.1073741847.100000212495273&type=1&pnref=story
Manju Jaidka
Chairperson, CSA
