Assignment 1 - Paradise Lost & Human Karma

Hello Readers!

This assignment is a part of internal evaluation of student's academic activity in the Department of English, MK Bhavnagar University. Here is my assignment.

Name: Rohit Vyas

Class: Semester 1

Roll No: 29

PG Enrolment Number: 2069108420200041

E-mail: rohitvyas277@gmail.com

Course: M.A. English, at Department of English, M.K. Bhavnagar University

Paper 1 - Renaissance Literature, Unit 3

Submitted to: Dr. Dilip Barad

Paradise Lost & Human Karma

Human Karma

Starting from verb forms like, eating, drinking, sleeping, walking, to thinking, envying, gossiping, butter polishing, and back biting all comes under the roof of Human Karma. What we do becomes out Karma. From the very beginning of Human Life, Karma was started. According to The Book of Genesis, God created Adam and the place was called paradise.  From this very beginning, we know how humans have revolutionized themselves and made the world livable at their ease. Nowadays we see Man is not working or earning for his livelihood but he is making money just to become wealthy. The object of working and earning money has changed so has human karma. From the theory of imperialism and colonialism this thing will be clear more.

Karmic Knowledge and Colonialism

In the meantime, people were doing many activities like plough the farm and growing eatable vegetations. Hunger was satisfied and more activities came into being such as singing, painting, crafting something to which we call nowadays, ‘from waste to best’. More land and water was required to do these extra activities; other than making food for self. Money was not at all in anyone’s concept or in minds. Barter system was the initial thing for the birth of a term – ‘Money’. As per the strength man had, he used all his power and mind to build borders for land, whoever tried to intrude into it, was being perished. Man was unable to stay alone so that he built a colony around it; of course, with the people of the same temperament, which we now call ‘neighbors’. Thus, colonialism had started and human karma was directly related to it, because envy and jealousy was the driving force to occupy land; such as someone has more money, or more land, the others will get jealous to him and will work harder to make more wealth than him. The one, who is powerful by means of money and strength, gets much respect and honor.

Karma as person’s identity

Any author is much identified by his/her karma; the literature he/she has produced, not by his/her birthplace or any other details. If we speak of John Milton, we will remember his work Paradise Lost at first place. When we remember Shakespeare, what sparks our eyes? We will definitely remember his drama ‘Romeo and Juliet’. At least for a student of English literature, works are more important rather than the author. In all other respects humans should always be seen by their karma, not by their caste, religion or any other things. For example, we may speak of Mahatma Gandhi. He was much respected by his karma and his devotion towards people’s welfare. The very attribution of ‘Mahatma’ was given because of his great deeds. He quit his clothes after watching a woman wearing torn clothes bearing a naked child. With full of sympathy at heart, he removed his shawl and covered the woman and child. What a person thinks, matters. What a man does matters. If we take inspiration from such great figures around us, we can also shape our personality by doing great deeds. Now let’s understand how karma is directly related with the literary work, Paradise Lost Book IX.

The First Disobedience

We can compare this karmic philosophy to Milton’s Paradise Lost Book IX. The time which is shown in the book is of when, nobody existed on earth. We can say that the first karma was done by the maker God. He created Adam and sent him to the Earth, for his company God created Eve. Both were roaming on the Earth, while as evil spirit, Satan is in the disguise of serpent. When Adam is not around, the Serpent or Satan approaches Eve and tempts her to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. At first, Eve denies eat the fruit but later on she agrees. After eating the fruit she becomes conscious about her body and gets her body part covered. Eve tells Adam about the forbidden tree and acknowledges him that she has eaten the fruit of knowledge. Adam willingly eats the fruit because of his love for Eve. This was the first disobedience of human being, that Adam and Eve ate the fruit of knowledge from the forbidden tree. But doesn’t it seem that God has done the first disobedience by telling creating the forbidden tree or the tree of knowledge?

Krishna’s Explanation

This argument can be judged by the justification of Krishna. He explains to Arjuna the importance of Karma that, one shouldn’t think of the outcomes of any deed but only should focus on what an individual is doing. What we are thinking or implying by speaking also builds our karma. Krishna further tells that he who remains neutral without reflecting or reacting anything is called balance minded (Sthitpragna).

Here in Paradise Lost book IX, Adam gets to know that Eve has eaten the fruit of knowledge, and reacts out of emotions and love. He thinks that I won’t be able to get another Eve twice. After thinking so he also acts in the same manner as of Eve and eats the fruit. Now we can see that Adam did his karma by taking emotional decision, if he would be balance minded, he wouldn’t take such decision. If he had not eaten the fruit, perhaps he would might saved from the curse and wrath of god.

Milton mocks the more tedious parts of the classical epics and the knightly romances of the middle ages. For him, the ultimate hero is not measured in physical strength but in moral power. Milton has already described the extravagant war in Heaven, but in the end it was more about obedience and revolt than feats of martial prowess. God again allows Satan to enter Eden undeterred.

Adam reminds Eve of her secondary place in the proper order of nature, and again Milton reiterates the supreme freedom of Adam and Eve’s will even as the Fall approaches. Adam’s mistake is giving in to his weakness regarding Eve’s physical beauty, and allowing her to sway him against his better nature.

Eve is also taken with the fact that the serpent talks. Further, the snake is not in the angelic form of the tempter in Eve's dream, so she is not put on guard by the creature. (Milton has made it clear earlier that Adam and Eve were never threatened by any animal in Eden.) Satan first flatters Eve. He licks the ground. He says he worships her beauty. The reader recalls that Eve narcissistically became enamored of her own image in the water at her creation. She is vain, but she is also secondary to Adam. Here a talking snake praises her beauty and says he worships her. She is interested though not enraptured.

But when the serpent takes Eve to the Tree of Knowledge, his arguments come so fast and so deviously that she cannot follow them. At first, she does what she should. She tells the serpent that she cannot eat from the tree. He argues that he has eaten and did not die. Then he adds that God wants her to eat of the tree and, contradictorily, that he envies what the humans might learn if they did eat. The arguments come so fast that Eve cannot answer, let alone think through them. Her innocence in comparison with Satan's cunning overcomes her reason. She is no match for Satan, and so his sophistic arguments seem reason to her. Unlike Adam, Eve buys into the arguments without grasping what is really happening. Eve eats the fruit, and eats, for the first time, gluttonously, letting her appetite take control of her reason.

After she eats, Eve at first feels elated. She thinks that she has reached a higher level but shows this ironically by starting to worship the tree. Her thoughts turn to Adam. Initially, she thinks she might keep this new power for herself and perhaps become his equal. At this point, Eve is conniving; already the fruit has changed her innocence. Even her reason for telling Adam shows this fact. If the fruit indeed leads to death, she does not want to die and leave Adam to another woman. She selfishly wants him to be in the same condition she is.

Adam's temptation and fall is much less complicated than Eve's. When Adam drops the flowery chaplet that he has been making for Eve, he symbolically drops all that he has in Eden. He immediately realizes what Eve has done. Adam makes a conscious decision to eat the fruit because he cannot give up Eve. He allows his physical passion for her to outweigh his reason, and so he eats. Adam's decision is willful, unlike Eve's, which was based on fraudulent argument and weak reason.

Conclusion

We have seen that how human karma can aptly be connected with this renaissance piece of literature. According to Karmic philosophy, one has a load of much karma in life and in accordance of one’s thinking and decision, one gets its fruits.