Literature is distilled life. While the general business of life goes on ‘unhindered’, there rises on the other side a small group of very discerning individuals who take up the task of interpreting that very business. They are people of a subtle sensibility and an accommodating consciousness. For unless the analysis is done with a pure heart and an unsullied mind the purpose of guiding society through the realities of day-to-day existence will be defeated.
Common man concerns himself with bread and butter issues and the intellectual deals with the subject of defining the path to be taken up by the hoi polloi. His participation in life is felt to be very limited as he remains closeted, surrounded by books only to find answers to many questions that crop up in our daily existence. It is a misnomer that he is cut off from life or that he lives in a strange world all of his own. The primary condition for understanding life in its various shades is its keen observance. It is, as we all know, physically impossible to be a good judge of something of which you are a part. A little distancing from the activity is a must to ensure that it is observed accurately and in an unbiased manner. Similar is the case of an observer of life. He can do justice to his observation only if he is removed from the scene. Thus, detachment is a quality most desirable in a person who undertakes the interpretation of life.
It will be well to consider here the question, “What is life?” We’ve had innumerable definitions on this subject and none so complete as to satisfy us. Life if understood to be ‘maya’, or illusion, is just the means to test our will against all the possible temptations and enticements. Man is bait at all times and when he succumbs to it, life scores a point over him. However, humans are blessed at the same time with the ability to be re-born, to rise from the ashes, from the rubble of our own creation. So life is a constant and never ending war between the material needs and extra-material aspirations of man.
With this we now come to a very important and eponymous relationship, that of literature and life. I feel sad when people say that literature is imaginative trash. Of all the allegations made none I think is more serious than this one. It reduces something very noble to very inane or mundane. It is indeed not very simple to first know what life is, to re-observe it, to define it by stringing words together, which often play truant and do not oblige the writer easily. Take for instance a short and lovely poem by Wordsworth, ‘Daffodils’. How many of us would stop to admire flowers and pen verses that capture our imagination?
I feel the inclusion of language in the curriculum is meant to act as a reliever. I’m sure this will provoke some criticism. Is literature merely a stress reliever or something more than that? To deal with this aspect let me introduce you to another very important advantage. It is a guide to life. Literature takes care of all the aspects of life. To name just a few, it addresses life and the myriad emotions experienced through it and helps to alleviate the doubts we have.
Man’s journey in this world is not merely a sum of his material needs. He has a soul, a conscience and a mind that always asks for and is in need of upward movement. He yearns for fulfillment, he longs for love, he wishes to conquer, he craves to become immortal, he desires admiration and he needs emotional succor in times of distress and failure. He also needs refinement in living. Such non material aspirations are taken care of by literature. All of us in our journey through life do come across pain, love, pleasure, agony, misunderstandings, failures and questions. When we are too enmeshed in material pursuits we tend to become mechanical and starve our souls, the latter gradually wasting away.
Let the senselessness of a life sans literature dawn on anyone who is yet to taste its sumptuous fruits and be its slave forever.
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Shalini writes for Chillibreeze.
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