Reviews for The Indian Imagination

The average rating for The Indian Imagination based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-10-23 00:00:00 Jack Yallop DANCE, my heart! dance to-day with joy. The strains of love fill the days and the nights with music, and the world is listening to its melodies: Mad with joy, life and death dance to the rhythm of this music. The hills and the sea and the earth dance. The world of man dances in laughter and tears. Why put on the robe of the monk, and live aloof from the world in lonely pride? Behold! my heart dances in the delight of a hundred arts; and the Creator is well pleased. 'The Songs of Kabir', translated by Rabindranath Tagore in 1915, introduces a fine selection of poems from Kabir - one of the greatest names in the history of Indian mysticism. Believed to be born in or near Benares, of Mohammedan parents, probably around the year 1440, Kabir became a disciple of the Hindu ascetic Ramananda, who initiated a religious revival in Northern India against the influence of formalism of the orthodox cult and for expressing the "demands of heart" or personal aspects of the divine nature as part of religious culture. Ramananda found the deep philosophy in the poems of great Persian mystic poets like Attar, Saadi Shirazi, Jalalu'ddin Rumi, and Hafiz a perfect medium for integrating with the traditional Hindu spirituality to make it more personal for the followers of religious culture. Kabir continued with the teachings of Ramananda, and in a genius manner infused the intense and personal Mohammedan mysticism with the traditional theology of Brahmanism in his poems, which portray a wide range of mystical emotions through homely similes. Kabir was a skilled musician too and his artistic expression of adoration through music and poems soon made such an impact with the supporters of both religions which led to the creation of a sect - Kabir panth or Path of Kabir - which is still survived by a healthy number of followers. Kabir never adopted the life of the professional ascetic but expressed his views in the Hindu and Sufi philosophy while leading a sane and conscientious life of a weaver, who earned his living at the loom and raising a family. This made his songs and poems with allegories drawn from daily life acquire a form that connected well with the followers of common life. He wrote his poems in vernacular Hindi and addressed common people rather than the religious class and his songs discussed various aspects of common life. In the selection of poems presented in this anthology we can detect examples for almost all the aspects of Kabir's opinions and emotions - eager self-devotion, the ecstasy, and his visions of the universe, endless love - all finely translated by Rabindranath Tagore with great understanding towards the true thought and visions carried by them. Kabir tells us how a true seeker of the divine finds him through a union with the divine: O SERVANT, where dost thou seek Me? Lo! I am beside thee. I am neither in temple nor in mosque: I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash: Neither am I in rites and ceremonies, nor in Yoga and renunciation. If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see Me: thou shalt meet Me in a moment of time. Kabir says, "O Sadhu! God is the breath of all breath." He tells us how the divine can be found in the here-and-now: in the normal human existence. THE moon shines in my body, but my blind eyes cannot see it: The moon is within me, and so is the sun. The unstruck drum of Eternity is sounded within me; but my deaf ears cannot hear it. ... The musk is in the deer, but it seeks it not within itself: it wanders in quest of grass. The same concept of seeking for truth with in the bodily material existence is visible in another poem: I LAUGH when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty: You do not see that the Real is in your home, and you wander from forest to forest listlessly! Here is the truth! Go where you will, to Benares or to Mathura; if you do not find your soul, the world is unreal to you. Kabir sings about how the soul makes a union with the divine through love and not through ceremonial observances: SUBTLE is the path of love! Therein there is no asking and no not-asking, There one loses one's self at His feet, There one is immersed in the joy of the seeking: plunged in the deeps of love as the fish in the water. The lover is never slow in offering his head for his Lord's service. Kabir declares the secret of this love. For Kabir the path to real worship and spiritual union is through truth, kindness, compassion, righteousness and love towards everything and not through complex religious practices. He is pretty candid when he denounces ceremonial observations and other orthodox observations. I do not ring the temple bell: I do not set the idol on its throne: I do not worship the image with flowers. It is not the austerities that mortify the flesh which are pleasing to the Lord, When you leave off your clothes and kill your senses, you do not please the Lord: The man who is kind and who practices righteousness, who remains passive amidst the affairs of the world, who considers all creatures on earth as his own self, He attains the Immortal Being, the true God is ever with him. Kabir says: "He attains the true Name whose words are pure, and who is free from pride and conceit." These songs or poems, which fuses together the philosophies of Sufism and Hinduism raises some questions at the traditional ways of both these religions while bringing the importance of gaining true happiness by leading a life that is based on righteousness, consideration for all other living beings and by passively detaching one from the affairs of the world. These concepts, when they came out during the 1400s where pretty revolutionary and it is no surprise that Kabir was actively persecuted by the establishments of both religions during his time.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-03-01 00:00:00 Anthony Gould One of the purest distillations of divinity I have ever read - inspired me.