Love vs Renunciation: The debate at the heart of Pavan K Varma’s new book

The teachings of Vedanta, as contained in the Upanishads, are presented by Brihaspati. He also quotes later texts regarding how those taking the spiritual path should completely reject all worldly pleasures, particularly any contact with women. The fact that Kevala actually carries an unknown girl across the river was reported to the guru as being a grave infringement of a student’s discipline, important though it may have been in helping the girl who was eager to get to the other bank. The whole dialogue revolves around the clash of this rigid tradition. As the novel develops, the girl turns up again and ultimately, it is she who convinces Kevala to cross the river, as it were, and renounce his vows as a monk. She brings out the sovereign power of love that overcomes all lesser emotions and finally triumphs.

Refuting Brihaspati’s contention that the sanyasi’s life necessarily involves a complete recusal of sexual life, Kevala quotes the famous passage from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: “Just as a man, closely embraced by his loving wife, knows nothing without, nothing within, so does this person, closely embraced by the self that consists of wisdom, knows nothing without, nothing within”. He also asked whether there is nothing physical in the desire between Shiva and Parvati or Lakshmi and Vishnu or Krishna and Radha. To this, Brihaspati responds rather weakly, claiming that such depictions are allegories in mythology. To illustrate the larger truth of the ‘interfaith’ between the Atman and Brahman, Kevala responds very sharply, “And, if we admit of desire, would that nullify that metaphysical truth? Why does it always have to be one or the other, as if the acceptance of the validity of desire is antithetical to spiritual liberation? Krishna could be performing the raas with the gopis with desire at one level, and be transcendent of it at another.”

A Pahari painting depicting Krishna performing raas with gopis, as Radha sulks in the corner (Wikimedia commons)

When Brihaspati tells Kevala to distinguish between momentary joy and eternal bliss, Kevala responds, “True, master. But cannot momentary joy be a window to eternal bliss? It may be passing, fleeting but for the duration it lasts, does it not provide a glimpse, a peek into the plenitude of that eternal ecstasy ? After all, joy is a seamless whole. The difference between the momentary and the eternal does not diminish what is common to both.” Surprisingly, although Kevala is just a novice and Brihaspati, one of the great masters of his time, it is Kevala who seems to emerge on top during this fascinating dialogue.

Varma is well known as a serious commentator on culture, history and has also authored an important book on India’s greatest philosopher, Adi Shankaracharya. This little novel presents the basic teachings of Hinduism in a most attractive manner without in any way rejecting worldly life. He deserves compliments for this new book, which is a short but enlightening read.

The conflict between the inner and the outer life, as portrayed between the sanyasi and the grahasthi is a common one. To my mind, the solution is not an either/or one, rather it highlights the importance of maintaining a powerful spiritual life along with outer activities. In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna does not advise Arjuna to become a sanyasi but rather to fulfill his duties as a dedication to the divinity that pervades the universe. This little novel represents both arguments effectively and will be welcomed not only for the story but for the teachings that we can absorb while reading it.

The writer is a former Union minister