Literature and Religion - Sunday Reading

Hello Readers!

Literature gives liberal values and ideas. It sharpens our minds and enables us, to think rationally, to look at things with multidimensional ways. Whereas religion tries to bind the horizons of thinking. Mostly religions are rich with myths and narratives. They seem very near to truth but if looked at length, they are just stories. Experiences and incidents make stories and narratives. The cause and effect are bound in such a way that narrative looks like a true event.

In literature, poetry is considered as criticism of life. Thus a creative writer is a critic at first place. He observes life and various experiences and puts his views into words. By producing literature, he takes a neutral standpoint and throws light on what people are unable to see. In this era of post-truth, speaking of religion at length, it conditions human minds in such a way that things which are unacceptable scientifically, are being believed blindly. This blindfolded walk of religion leaves people speechless, thoughtless and incompatible for questioning.

On the other hand, fields like science, information technology, business and commerce are continuously growing in their researches and giving their best to the world. Such as businesses are now shifted to digital platforms and sciences are expanding their horizons towards galaxies and universes. Here we scarcely find the little connection of religion. Scientist always problematize the problem and question almost everything. Reasonably, they break the arguments and make new theories from one to another. Is seems that only a little part of the population is awaken and the latter major part is still sleeping and waiting for some miraculous being to do something for them. Perhaps they might be thinking that religion will do something worthy. Thought the characters and caricatures we have read in various religions seem very true and real, but they are not. It is us who will have to wake up and thing rationally, cultivate habits for questioning. Here is am image of write up from a Gujarati writer and Columnist Jay Vasavada.

Clicked on 29/12/2016 from the previous day's magazine, Shatdal (શતદલ)

With his striking words towards our incapability to question, Jay Vasavada satires our stereotype habits. The words from image say : "We don't have the habit to question. Because the present 'gurus' - whether they are of religion or education, teach us that, "Don't ask questions, do what we ask you to do." Questions asked in the right direction set us to go deeper to find the answers, to quest and to explore the answers. Thus the horizons of knowledge expand. Rather than licking the forwarded philosophies from WhatsApp, positive change comes only if something is self learned, self understood." - Jay Vasavada writes in Shatdal dated 28/12/2016.

* India was a land of dharma but Europeans reduced it to Hinduism, Islam. And we accepted it.

"The term Dharma does not mean religion. It simply means duty."

Due to the lack of historical sense, we mistook various terms and interpreted them on our own, and created narratives around them. Not all of the ancient text talk about Hinduism, but there are many texts which have given philosophical views even without talking about god. It has spirituality and philosophical Matas (मत) and Mimansas (मीमांसा), to which we call views, theories and hypotheses. Talking about religious texts, one article on Bhagvad Gita. Click the tile below to read.

* Bhagvad Gita wasn't always India's defining book. Another text was far more popular globally.

In his essay on Archetypes of Literature, Northrop Frye gives a hypotheses that:

"God for the critic, whether he finds him in Paradise Lost or the Bible, is a character in a human story; and for the critic all epiphanies are explained, not in terms of the riddle of a possessing god or devil, but as mental phenomena closely associated in their origin with dreams."

"Religion is nothing but a narrative and God is just a character in that narrative."

Myth, as the basic archetype in all the literature, carries forward the narrative. In religion we find numerous myths and they all have stories. E.g. from the epic Ramayana, we find various narratives like Ram and Ravana fight, Kidnapping of Sita, Shabari's prolonged wait for Ram, massacre of Jatayu and many more. Similarly form the epic Mahabharata, we find myths like Krishna's birth and his adventures, myth of Parshuram's meeting with Karna, etc. If one looks at those myths though the lenses of criticism and archetypes, one will find that all the events are highly loaded with archetypes and events. Events carry the environment and inside it, we find plot, characters, and the chain of cause and effect. Thus they create a narrative and obviously they would have tragic and comic end also. 

Here is a worth reading Wikipedia page to read about Relationship between religion and science.

Critic's job is to justify the work of art without having any prejudicial notions and thoughts. World view of literature is possible because of criticism. Literature without criticism is like a vehicle without headlights. During the day time literature may enjoy the momentary space but when the darkness occurs, (time passes) it won't be able to survive without the headlights of criticism. Northrop Frye, through his essay, has given sharp and appropriate views on archetypes and world literature. Articles and images mentioned above have helped students to understand more about religion and literature.

Thank You!

References:

* Banerjee, Prathama. “India Was a Land of Dharma but Europeans Reduced It to Hinduism, Islam. And We Accepted It.” ThePrint, The Print, 28 Dec. 2019, https://theprint.in/opinion/india-was-a-land-of-dharma-but-europeans-reduced-it-to-hinduism-islam-and-we-accepted-it/341923/.

* Banerjee, Prathama. “Bhagavad Gita Wasn't Always India's Defining Book. Another Text Was Far More Popular Globally.” ThePrint, 15 Dec. 2019, https://theprint.in/opinion/bhagavad-gita-not-indias-defining-book-another-text-was-more-popular/334904/.

* “Relationship between Religion and Science.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Jan. 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relationship_between_religion_and_science.