LITERATURE- LIGHT AND DELIGHT
97. ACTIVITY AND CONTEMPLATION
Human nature expresses itself mainly in three modes: indolence, activity and contemplation. Hindu psychology will classify it as three gunas: Tamas, Rajas and Satwa. Every society is a mixture of the three to varying degrees; and the three facets are also present in each individual. But each society shows the predominance of one or the other at different times.
Historically, all societies have valued contemplation above activity. When the ancient Greeks said that the unexamined life was not worth living, it was at contemplation that they were hinting. All activity ceases some time; all earthly glory departs as poets such as Thomas Gray and James Shirley graphically described. Andrew Marvell, the seventeenth century poet sang in his celebrated poem The Garden:
The Garden
How vainly men themselves amaze
To win the palm, the oak, or bays
And their uncessant labours see
Crowned from some single herb or tree,
Whose short and narrow verged shade
Does prudently their toils upbraid;
While all flowers and all trees do close
To weave the gardens of repose.
Fair Quiet, have I found thee here,
And Innocence, thy sister dear!
Mistaken long, I sought you then
In busy companies of men.
Your sacred plants, if here below,
Only among the plants will grow.
Society is all but rude
To this delicious solitude.
This poem has been understood and interpreted at many levels, as all great poems are. Simply stated, it means that men value and strain to pursue an active life or career in the army (palm) or political (oak) or poetical endeavour ( bays). But the rewards they get are limited- for the wreaths made of the flowers and leaves of the plants mentioned are just cuttings or trimmings from them, while the whole plants flourish in the garden, which we can share only when we are in and with the garden! These activities must one day cease, and we must get the Quiet and Innocence only in solitude, as ceaseless activity in society is not conducive to such a state. Dame Quiet and Innocence, her sister, are not to be had in the busy companies of men! So we must retire into solitude and enjoy quiet contemplation!
An engraving.
Andrew Marvell
By Ruralhistorian (Own Work)
[CC BY-SA 3.0 Creative Commons
Yet the history of Europe since the Renaissance (15th and 16th centuries) is a direct repudiation of such an attitude! Colonial expansion and imperialism, capitalism born of and fed by the Protestant ethic,expanding and intensive industrialisation, and Marxism have discounted the life of contemplation in their own disparate and syncretic ways, and spread the attitude the world over. It is only in the mid-20th century that the serious ills of the society, especially in the form of depression and mental illness made psychologists pause and think and come up with solutions like TM, Relaxation Response, etc. The therapist became the new priest, and the tribe has grown since the days of Freud in unexpected ways. But psychology has not yet become a true science, nor has it taken the place of religion!
Religion, till the rise of Scientism as a cult, gave society some fixed rules and ideas regarding the three fundamentals of existence: Man, Nature and God. Nature and God were fixed, and Man could only adjust his reaction and plan his conduct accordingly. Religion induced a sense or duty of contemplation at least on a Sunday! Science questioned every belief, every practice without providing a substitute! Science has no clear idea on any of the three fundamentals, yet people believe in 'Science'!
Literature has followed the same trend. Our poets and novelists, from being men of vision and guides of humanity, have now become one of us, just like us! Like the modern scientists and philosophers, they too do not know the final truth of anything , but can only advance theories! When Enlightenment and Science questioned religion (Christianity) and God, the German and British Romantic philosophers and poets could take refuge in Nature. It was still fulfilling, even without any supernatural connotations. But Science has removed all the mystique from nature itself! A flower is no more an object of beauty, subject of contemplation, but an item to be observed under the microscope, and dissected! There is no more beauty in Nature but only utility for the economist and information for the scientist!
" I always seek in what I see the likeness of something beyond the present and tangible object", said Shelley. But this is exactly what science has done away with!
Percy Bysshe Shelley
By Alfred Clint.
But the romatic poets were not simply 'nature' poets.For them nature was a symbol of something greater. In The Prelude, Wordsworth said:
Our destiny, our being's heart and home
Is with infinitude and only there....
something evermore about to be.
William Blake said:
Less than everything cannot satisfy man.
(Incidentally, this recalls to mind the Upanishadic dictum:Yo vai bhuma tat sukham. = There is happiness only in the Infinite.)
Our problem today is that man has lost faith in God and religion. So, contemplation has lost its traditional significance. Activity only leads to endless cycles of restlessness, laying waste our powers, as Wordsworth said. Here , science ends in agnosticism and uncertainty about everything. Our modern literature also reflects the same trend. Our only recourse seems to be to turn to the old Classics, if at all we want any consolation or guidance from literature.
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