ISSN 0970-1443 Registration No. 29063/76 Volume LXXXVI (No. 3 & 4) July-Sep./Oct.-Dec. 2012 The Vedic Path Quarterly Journal of Vedic, Indological & Scientific Research Peer-reviewed Research Journal ISSN 0970-1443 Registration no. 29063/76 indexed at www.worldcat.org Guide to Indian Periodical Literature Originally published as The Vedic Magazine form 1906 to 1935 and thereafter as The Vedic Path Editor: Prof. Shrawan K Sharma www.thevedicpath.in [email protected] +91-9412074666 Quarterly Journal of Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India 2 The Vedic Path The Vedic Path 3 Contents The Vedic Path. Vol. LXXXVI (No 3 & 4) Jun.-Aug./Sep.-Dec. 2012 The Female Face of God in the Shubha Tiwari 3 Novels of Paulo Coelho The Voyeur: A Study of Time in Narrative Ajai Sharma 10 Endangered Indigenous Languages and S.K. Agarwal 26 Traditional Ecological Knowledge Indian English Fiction Today Sanjiv Kumar 36 Shubha Tiwari Re-reading Othello and Other Characters: Pratyush Vatsala 48 A Response in Emotions Tracing History : The Partition Saga in Sunita Jakhar 61 The Female Face of God in the Novels of Paulo Coelho The Ice Candy Man and Train to Pakistan Attitudinal Shift in Woman : Manjusha Kaushik 69 A Study of Rita Garg's An Abbreviated Child Sri Aurobindo’s Nationalism: Polemical and Vinod Kumar 75 Ideological Dimensions in The Renaissance Paulo Coelho tries to invoke the female face of God, in India and Other Essays on Indian Culture especially in his novel, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. Scarred and Silenced Subjectivities: Mahesh Alpna Saini 85 This powerful idea has been a constant factor in the works of Coelho. Dattani’sThirty Days in September All energy is basically feminine and yet it has to fight for recognition in Milan Kundera: The Sign of the Anuradha 97 the realms of formal religions, and social and cultural set-up. This has European Divide Bhattacharyya been one of the greatest ironies of human civilization. Coelho has his Animal Sensibilities Amidst Human Insensibilities:Rooble Verma 109 own way of presenting things. By the River… is not a very long novel. A Study of Chekov’s “Misery” and Premchand’s Manoj Verma & “A Pair of Two Oxen” Vibha Shrivastava It is very artistically created. The atmosphere, the symbols and the thrust areas have been carefully chosen. ‘River’ and ‘Weeping’ – both Issues and Conflicts in Jayant Mahapatra’s Poetry Jimmy Sharma 123 these words refer to water. Water is a feminine symbol; it refers to Acquiscence Disability : A Study of R Indumathi 131 creation and regeneration. Both the symbols do not possess any definite Imaiyam’s Beasts of Burden shape. Both ‘river’ and ‘weeping’ acquire shape and color as per the Discourse of Discontent: Reading Rashmi Attri 140 Jayant Parmar’s Select Poems circumstances; they can be widely and differently interpreted. The word ’I’ in the title brings sensitivity. ‘I’ makes the title genuine and A Stylistic Study of Ruskin Bond Bandana Bal 151 Chandnani sincere. The biblical reference is obvious. If we look at the title, we Literature in Society : Some Observations Pramthesh 167 will find it to be strange. At the same time, it is loaded with meaning. Bhattacharya By the biblical reference, religion comes into picture. The sentence The Impact of Translations of the Bhagawad Gita Shaista Irshad & 176 sends strong religious as well as feminine signals. This is how I will Shrikrishan Rai interpret the novel. Religious and feminine sprits have been combined. Book Review Here is an acceptable alternative to the present understanding of Susheel Kumar Sharma, The Door is Half Open. Rashmi Jain 187 religion. The masculine tone of formal religions all over the world is New Delhi: Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors. 2012. 4 The Vedic Path The FemaleVedic Path Face of God in the Novels of Paulo Coelho 5 intimidating, monopolistic and quite unfair. is the highest incarnation of purity. To live with one man compromising The figure of Eve dominates Western literature. Eve is the one’s own dignity is no purity. There is no nobility in forced suffering. looming Western archetype for women in general; so much so that the Suffering without a purpose is weakness. Therefore we have a word ‘Eve’ stands for all girls and women. We can quote thousands prostitute touching saintly heights in Eleven Minutes. Maria’s of literary and ordinary expressions to prove the point. Now going profession does not prevent her from experiencing true love. Similarly further, we can see that Eve is a weak symbol for whole womanhood. in The Witch of Portobello, Athena is declared a witch but actually Jung said long back that Eve represents the natal stage of female who throw her away are satanic. The following lines that I quote mark consciousness. Eve stands for instant gratification. She cannot think. the hypocrisy and devilishness of the institution of formal religion. These She cannot wait. She does not know the meaning of higher ideals like words are also important because they mark the strength of a woman sacrifice and purity. She is shown to be born out of Adam’s ribs. The who can raise her voice. vicious male conspiracy could not have gone further in showing the ‘A curse on this place!’ said the voice. ‘A curse on all those earthly creator (woman) being born of a man’s ribs. Eve is of course who never listened to the words of Christ and who have the cause of everyone’s fall. This is one thing common among all formal transformed his message into a stone building. For Christ said: religions. Hindu scriptures also hold the woman to be the tempter. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will The archetype shows the man as an ascetic absorbed in meditation. A give you rest.’ Well, I ‘m heavy laden, and they won’t let me woman (an Urbashi or a Rambha) appears, dances, and seduces him come to Him. Today I’ve learnt that the Church has changed to carnal pleasures. This is very cruel of formal religions. those words read: ‘Come unto me all ye who follow rules, Coelho presents an alternative in the form of Mother Mary. A and let the heavy laden go hang!’ … ‘I swear that I will never pure woman holding her child by the side of a fountain or river is the set foot in a church ever again. Once more, I’ve been dominating picture of this novel. We get a refreshing alternative female abandoned by a family and this time it has nothing to do with image. ‘How much time must pass before we accept a Holy Trinity financial difficulties or with the immaturity of those who marry that includes a woman? The Trinity of the Holy Spirit, the Mother and too young. A curse upon all those who slam the door in the the Son?’ (148) face of a mother and her child! You’re just like those people who refused to take in the Holy Family, like those who denied The concept of ‘purity’ becomes very typical when one speaks Christ when he most needed a friend!’ (55-56) of women. Purity, chastity, virginity – traditional religions all over the world have burdened the female folk with these heavy ideas. Guilt Religions across the globe have become institutions without seems to be a female forte. How often our mindset has been corrupted spirit. They follow the rules but do not follow the intention behind by pictures of a girl confessing and a man listening to her confessions. those words. That is why women are generally at the receiving end of Coelho does not shy away from treading into forbidden territories of all religions. That is why a new faith, a new order, a new beginning is female purity. He is talking about religion. He is talking about an required that recognizes the female face of God, does not shun women alternative spirituality. He cannot ignore the all important issue of a in the name of purity, and does not exploit them physically or woman’s purity. Coelho’s idea takes a great burden off the shoulders emotionally. of women. No one is marginalized. Purity is in the mind. Self respect Coelho’s writing directly connotes to spirituality, mysticism, 6 The Vedic Path The FemaleVedic Path Face of God in the Novels of Paulo Coelho 7 Sufism, and alternative ways to pray God. In By the River… , he is reason, masculinity, physical power, cruelty, competitiveness and a bold to suggest that God should be prayed in the female face and new world order will be created. That is why there is this deliberate female ways. His method of conveying this message is unique. There effort to shun away reason. Coelho’s world is incomplete without is mist in the atmosphere. There is rain. There are men and women miracles, prophesies, trances, voices, phantoms and so on. silently weeping, mediating, and moving in trance in far away dream- Marginalization as a concept has been under severe intellectual like locations. The method is beautiful. scrutiny in the recent past. It all depends on the frame of mind with The Witch of Portobello by Paolo Coelho is another example which we view a scenario. West-centric, male-centric, reason-centric, where he sets out to resurrect ‘fallen women’, women who have been money-centric world-view marginalizes a number of significant cast away from society. He is interested in very fundamental questions segments of world. Following Paolo Coelho’s blog also helped me in like ‘what is purity’, ‘what is justice’, ‘who can actually deliver justice’ understanding things from his perspective.