ELSA MEET
28 April 2019
Goverdhan Hotel, Agra,
India
“Why is there so much disturbance, so much fighting and quarrelling in the name of God? There has been more bloodshed in the name of God than for any other cause, because people never went to the fountain-head; they were content only to give a mental assent to the customs of their forefathers, and wanted others to do the same. What right has a man to say he has a soul if he does not feel it, or that there is a God if he does not see Him? If there is a God we must see Him, if there is a soul we must perceive it; otherwise it is better not to believe. It is better to be an outspoken atheist than a hypocrite.” ― Raja Yoga
Literature and Spirituality
In his opening remarks, Professor
Nibir Ghosh mentioned, to the ovation of participants present, the views on the
topic shared online by distinguished members namely, Tulip Chowdhury from
Amherst, Massachusetts, USA, Dr.
Margarita Merino, Spanish poet based in USA, Dr. Arati Biswal from Bhubaneshwar,
Dr. Manju from Chandigarh, among others.
This was followed by Mr.
Mohit Mahajan who asked some intriguing questions about the literature that can
be considered as Spiritual. He also pondered over whether spirituality can
actually exist outside religious texts like the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Prof Ghosh tried to allay Mr. Mohit’s doubts by quoting the words of Emily
Dickenson: “Prayer is the
little implement through which people reach/ Where Presence—is denied them.”
Mr. Surinder Sabharwal explained that the spirituality’s search of existence is
beyond comprehension. Dr. Anjali Singh carried on the discussion by
highlighting the historical existence of spirituality in literature from the
times when moral plays were enacted in churches. She talked about the
metaphysical poets who had integrated the spiritual discourse in their poems.
Mr. Rajeev Khandelwal explained
how deeply one’s spiritual beliefs influences the writing of any poet. He said
that most of the time, unknowingly or knowingly, a person’s thinking is guided
by his spirituality. Saurabh Agarwal talked about the influence of Bhagwat Gita in the poetry of Walt
Wittman. He also explained how a simple line or a word is enough to provide a
spiritual experience to someone who is adequately touched by
it. Dr. Shipra Kulshreshta cited the poems, “A Psalm of Life”
by H. W. Longfellow and “Second Coming” by W. B. Yeats. She highlighted the
spiritual messages hidden in these poems. Dr Sanjay Mishra emphasised on doing
away with making spirituality a fashion. He tried to distinguish spirituality
from intellectualism. According to him works of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh qualify as
spiritual literature. He also mentioned W.B. Yeats poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree.”
Dr. D. K. Singh talked about Milton’s poem “On His Blindness” and William
Blake’s poem. “The Tiger” by William Blake with regard to elements of
spirituality.
Dr. Ghosh concluded the
meet by referring to three seminal texts, Milton’s Paradise Lost, George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan and
Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha. In the
light of Samuel Huntington’s thesis in The
Clash of Civilizations, Dr. Ghosh underlined the significance of these
texts in showing how a rational approach to religion and scriptures can be a
beacon light in these contemporary times of cultural fundamentalism.
Spirituality and
Literature
Tulip Chowdhury
Literature
and spirituality weave tapestries of human lives. Literature is attached to
life like a spider’s web, spirituality in the middle supports the mysteries of
creation. All living things emerge from the invisible world, unseen until they
manifest into physical beings. And together they are entwined like ivies on a
tree. In the one-way journey from birth to end, they keep us tangled at every
step.
As we
try to make sense of our days, search for the meaning of life, at times we seem
to be like puppets of our spiritual world. The reasons we are sent to the world
and our purpose in living the life that we do. Our materialistic world is like
a distraction that consistently dazzles our senses and leads us on to endless
quests of success, and we seldom are satisfied with our achievements. The
satisfaction of one want calls in for a new one, the social ladders keep going
higher and higher, and within us roams a monstrous hunger to make permanence of
our pre-destined hours on the Earth.
When we
pause on our life-tracks and connect to the source of life, calmness unites us
all. The universe, life, visible and the invisible world become one truth: to
appreciate and love life. And love is never demanding, it is gentle care of
those who are around us. Generosity, stemming from love is about sharing what
we have, it can be a kind word or a glass of water handed to a thirsty being.
There is no need to wait for wealth or power to be good, the present moment and
trying for each part to make it the best is what matters. Spirituality is like
the roots of living, it brings freedom to our inner being.
“Mirrors” to Reflect Upon for the
Community of the Humanities:
Recalling the "Golden Century" of Spain and World
Literature
Margarita
Merino de Lindsay
As a model and a mirror, I think often of that period of
the Seventeenth Century in which Spanish society was in economic recession and
decline, overwhelmed with conflicts, poverty, wars and pestilence. It redeemed itself for posterity through the
genius of its artists and writers.
Painters and writers from the Golden Century lit the flame of their
passion, lighting still our days with their talents and trades. They created masterpieces, works able to penetrate the
complexity of their whole epoch. Its contradictions and confrontations, its
vivid use of imagination, its philosophies and fears, its horrors and wonders,
its powerful dynamics whose tensions were giving birth to a complex, poignant
art, which profoundly captured the chiaroscuro of its soul that was
never demonstrated in any other place on earth as it
was in Spain. The Spaniards express themselves more freely
in the Baroque. In the forceful manner
of presenting their subjects, those artists bring to us the spirit of their
country that goes deep to austere severity. They were the pride of their
patrons, the kings of Spain. The idea of
Felipe II for the Escorial project was "Nobility without arrogance, majesty
without ostentation." The Spanish artists showed an almost physical
encounter with supernatural love in their intimate perspective on their God --
who was also the God of every tiny creature, because all things in the Baroque
got a space and a soul.
The Golden Century (which does not fit within the XVI
or XVII centuries but overlaps both) goes from
the new sentimentality of Garcilaso de la Vega and his renaissance connections
with the Latin classical tradition, to the passionate temblor of San
Juan de la Cruz and his genuine mysticism which expresses the psychology of an
individual modern feeling which remains so contemporary; from the intellectual
wish of perfection and rise, the pain of the alienated from Fray Luis de León;
the cool temper and freedom of Teresa de Ávila, an imaginative, brave, hard
worker and smart woman who was able to manage well her talents of foundation;
the great lyrical theater of Lope de Vega where every member of the audience
felt involved because the vibrant humanity and spontaneity that made it so
popular; from Góngora's superb culteranismo
plenty of erudition and technical skill in its shape, to the intellectual conceptismo of Francisco de Quevedo and
his variations of themes, obsessions and approaches, from the sometimes
burlesque, sardonic and iconoclastic to the obscene or eschatological, but
deeply serious and moralistic too in his intense melancholy of love and exploration
of death, decay and fugacity in his disillusionment
hold in stoicism where always passion persists.
The finest painters such as El Greco, Ribera,
Velázquez, Zurbarán, Murillo or Valdés Leal, define the variety of approaches
from the Baroque. The last two represent the extreme contrasts between colorful
sweetness and the emotional pathos and dramatic effect that best define the
late baroque artist. But although these
masterpieces are Baroque, not all of them are immersed in the spirit of
Counter-Reformation, which spiritually wanted to shake the entire society
moving the spectators of such marvelous art to awaken their consciences. The
allegory of human fragility trespassed upon profound ethics or deep religious
beliefs and the feeling of general discouragement in the badly managed country
under the minor Austrias.
As Valdés Leal, Francisco de Quevedo o Mateo Alemán
did reflecting about vanitas, with compelling emotion too, the
corruption of the human body and the corruption of society can be used to
purify and obtain a better condition. The disturbing message of Valdés Leal in
his famous "Hieroglyphs of our last days" (composed by the two
pictures called "In ictu oculi" and "Finis gloria mundi")
also known as "The triumph of death" was one of repentance for
salvation, understanding it with the obvious differences and logical
connotations we must attach to put them in our context. But in comparison and
contrast with the Spanish late Baroque this society in which we live, mostly
controlled under the power of conservative thought, the attitude is much more
conformist because it does not look for any aesthetics of extreme beauty or
moving perfection to urge its members to have an epiphany. It seems the empire of goods is enough for
too many citizens who belong to the abundance of society and who forget about
sacrifice, compassion and life changing events in the perspective of fugacity
when at the end we will be forced to abandon every possession. … Again the
convulsive Spanish society where the Baroque Art was happening is in my opinion
a mirror for reflecting. A great part of
it expressed the Roman Catholic thought of the moment, and that art was
following the directions of the Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent
(1545-1563), whose goals were to improve the religious consciousness. The ideal was to use the principles of Truth,
Goodness, Beauty, and to accomplish the acts of mercy (las obras de misericordia) to obtain salvation--inspiring all
educated members of society who could afford to be involved in charity and
compassion as a way to elevate the whole of society in a spirituality that was
able to bring consolation as well. This
is very clear in Sevilla, Andalucía, in the times of Miguel de Mañara and the
church of La Hermandad de la Caridad, an excellent example to learn the spirit
of those old times where the epidemics of bubonic pestilences spread a horribly
high mortality.
My exploration of the Golden Century of Spain confirms
that its message of endurance still is so valid
even in this, the twenty-first century.
It is of no matter if it comes from reminiscences of Medieval,
Renaissance or Baroque, it is alive in pictures and pages more educational than
our contemporary artifacts and remakes. If I am bringing today the remembrance
of past ideals, as this one that put together las armas y las letras
(weapons and letters), it is because it is needed now more than ever. Symbolic weapons such as those of untiring
logic, vigorous erudition, applied talent, convincing intelligence and
knowledge thoroughly prepared, are asking all of us who share the passion to
believe that education is the most accurate and powerful tool to transform
society, if we are brave enough to move it higher by fighting against the army
of confusion, materialism and mediocrity, lack of understanding or
respect.
Nature
and Spirituality in Thoreau's Walden
Arati Biswal
Henry
David Thoreau, 19th Century New England thinker, writer, poet, naturalist and
American transcendentalist, retreated from society to live in nature. From
1845-47 Thoreau lived in a small cabin he built himself on the shore of Walden
Pond, a mile and a half south of Concord in Massachusetts. This account of his
experiment of twenty-six months of a life of simplicity in the midst of nature
is put forth in his book Walden.
Walden
Pond, at the edge of which he lived, symbolizes the spiritual significance of
nature. The book celebrates the unity of nature, humanity and divinity, a
central idea of transcendentalism. According to Thoreau's transcendentalist
philosophy, nature, man and God are unified. Thoreau's life at Walden Pond is
represented as ideal for enjoying that unity. He termed his praxis as self-
culture or cultivation of the soul, an aspiration to live a philosophical or
spiritual life. This spiritual exercise as put forth in Walden included
contemplation, solitude, walks in nature, reading, journal writing,
conversation and above all, simple living.
In
Chapter 2 of Walden, "Where I
Lived, and What I Lived for," Thoreau says that he went to the woods "to
front only the essential facts of life" and that he "did not wish to
live what was not life, living is so dear." He wanted to experience life
to its fullest and live "Spartan-like" to discover the sublimity of
life. He believed that "our life is frittered away by detail" and
exhorts, "Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity!" Like ants, man keeps
himself busy all the time. This concentrated effort at improving material
wealth however does not lead to wellbeing or happiness.
Thoreau's
sentiments in Walden are both a
recommendation for living life as well as reflecting on life's true meaning. By
this, both people and nation would turn to an elevated purpose and men would
not fail to live life worthily. Thoreau underlines the negative impact of the
railroad, "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us." The
same holds true of modern technology that has hijacked our lives. By turning to
nature and observing it, human beings can experience their own unity with God.
He goes to the woods to live "deliberately." He reveled in
"innocence with Nature herself." Thoreau expresses his faith in
simplicity as the path to spiritual wakefulness. By emulating nature and being
in harmony with it, man can awaken to profound possibilities of everyday life.
Speaking of his morning experience he remarks, "Then there is least
somnolence in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakens which
slumbers all the rest of the day and night...we are...awakened by our
Genius." This is an echo of the idea of "Brahma Muhurta,"
central to Indian spiritual thought, an ideal time for meditation, spiritual
practices and for attaining supreme knowledge. In Walden, there are other overt references to the Bhagvad-Gita and other sacred Indian
texts.
Thoreau's
spirituality consisted in cultivating awareness, transcending the ego,
identifying with nature and reanimating the conscience. This would bring
personal and social transformation. He vied for a life that shunned
superficiality. He was influenced by the teachings of the Bhagvad Gita that instruct to meditate on the soul
"atman." Thus, according to
Thoreau, life is exploration of personal and spiritual growth for which a
simple life in Nature is essential.
Ardhhnarishwar - The Half
Woman: Re-Reading of Gender Roles in
Mahesh Dattani’s Dance Like a Man
Manju
Religion and literature have always been inseparable components
of each other specially in India where literature revolves around religion and
religion expands through literature. Hinduism is the oldest Indian religion.
This term doesn't refer to any God; rather it first refers to a place and then
to people. S. Radhakrishnan has addressed religion as "museum of beliefs."
Literature derives its life from society which gets inspiration from the
mythical figures discussed in religious literature. A flawless man is often
identified with Purushottam Rama and a flawless woman is also identified either
with Annapurna, Laxmi or Sita. There are certain mythological figures which are
identified with the third gender which is mocked at in the same society. India
is often considered a conservative country regarding gender roles. Social
behavior is fixed on the basis of sex and gender. A man behaving like a woman
and a woman behaving like a man is unacceptable in the society. Either they are
rejected or they are humiliated and this makes their lives pathetic as it
happens in the play Dance Like a Man by
Mahesh Dattani. Jairaj, who is interested in making his career in dance, is
rejected by his own father as dance is considered a woman's territory. Although
dancing image of Natraj is adorned with reverence while dancing men like Jairaj
are humiliated. Ardhhnarishwar is admired but ironically third genders are
abominated. True religion gives freedom to the people to behave the way they
want and this may be the reason why Lord Shiva who is known for his manhood as
the phallus of the deity is worshipped, is known for his half-woman form.
According to Shivpurana, a religious
book, the deity comes on the earth in the feminine form multiple times like
once he comes as a midwife to help one of his devotees and as a gopi to enjoy
Krishna's raasleela where no other man than Krishna was allowed. These are the
instances which prove that there was space for all the genders in ancient
Hinduism and it needs contemplation.
Spirituality
and Literature
Sanjay
Mishra
The
fact of the matter is this that whatever is being said here on this subject
amounts to academic and intellectual exercise whereas, in my view which may be
erroneous, spirituality is not an academic or intellectual thing; it is a
matter of experience.
It is
also important to separate spirituality and faith or religion. As it happens,
the discussion on spirituality is inextricably tied to religion and most of the
interventions on spirituality tend to get mired in the maze of religious
conundrums. To my mind, the world of spiritual experience and understanding is
over and above the sublunary separations and categorizations of mankind. In the spiritual universe, all humanity is
one: there are no divisions and no borders between people all across the globe.
As a
student of literature one comes across terms and concepts like spirituality and
mysticism when one deals with the writings of Wordsworth, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman,
Yeats and the like. But frankly speaking, the talk of spirituality, mysticism,
etc. is not convincing. It goes over and above one’s head. For the sake of
intellectual discussion, one tends to explain the meanings and interpretations
which exist in books and academic discourses about the spiritual connotations
in writings of such writers; but it all does not make much sense to a person
with a rational bent of mind. These things touch and exist in the realm of
experience, soul, spirit and enlightenment.
Nonetheless,
I have marveled at ideas and expressions such as “undisturbed delight”
(Wordsworth’s The Prelude), “To me the meanest flower that blows can
give/Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears” (‘Immortality Ode’), “Teach
me half the gladness/That thy brain must know,/Such harmonious madness/From my
lips would flow/The world should listen then, as I am listening now” (Shelley’s
‘To a Skylark’) and spiritual dimensions of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.
Reading all such ethereal and esoteric stuff makes one feel like saying along
with the Bard of Avon: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, /than
are dreamt of in your philosophy” (Shakespeare’s Hamlet).
I am
very passionate about D.H. Lawrence and his writings and the philosophy of the
religion of blood as revealed in his novels. Lawrence disliked didactic
morality in art and literature and his works led to extremely heated debates
and battles, both intellectual and legal. It is really fascinating to see Lawrence
as the most spiritually awakened fiction writer, as has been suggested by many,
because his kind of philosophy of human relations and experience is possible
only when one has spiritual insights.
Here in
India, one finds the personality and creativity of Sri Aurobindo to be
exhibiting in the highest degree and synchronicity the merger of spirituality
and literature. He was a poet and a seer non-pareil. His poetry, critical
commentaries on English poetry and later his journey to spirituality via
politics and setting up of the ashram in Pondicherry are extraordinary and
visionary.
Literature & Spirituality
Rajiv
Khandelwal
It would be difficult to
speak on the topic “Literature & Spirituality” without a look to understand
what is meant by Spirituality. Cambridge dictionary defines Spirituality as the quality that involves
deep feelings and beliefs of a religious nature, rather than the physical parts
of life. Some define Spirituality as the quality of being concerned with the
human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. Spirituality is
an internal sanctuary, free of the rules and expectations of the physical world.
Some say that spirituality exists within a unique, unbreakable relationship
between the heart and the mind. It is an internal harmony that allows one to
endure the most harrowing of circumstances and yet enables its host to continue
to offer compassion to others.
Spirituality recognizes
that our role in life has a greater value than what we do every day. It can
relieve us from dependence on material things and helps us to understand our
life’s greater purpose. Spirituality can also be used as a way of coping with
change or uncertainty. I, personally, prefer a definition Oprah floated that
Spirituality is the measure of how willing we are to allow some power greater
than ourselves—to enter our lives and guide us along our way.
And I interpret this as an
event that can connect with the deep inside of one’s sel. Now this state will
differ from one person to another. The plot, scene, a sentence, metaphor, image
or symbol, from drama, poetry or novel – Fictional or factual – may move one’s
heart, but it may not effect another person in the same way. For example, let
us look at a selection from Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha
- The Ferryman (Part 4):
And once again, when the
river had just increased its flow in the rainy season and made a powerful
noise, then said Siddhartha: "Isn't it so, oh friend, the river has many
voices, very many voices? Hasn't it the voice of a king, and of a warrior, and
of a bull, and of a bird of the night, and of a woman giving birth, and of a
sighing man, and a thousand other voices more?"
"So it is,"
Vasudeva nodded, "all voices of the creatures are in its voice."
"And do you
know," Siddhartha continued, "what word it speaks, when you succeed
in hearing all of its ten thousand voices at once?"
Happily, Vasudeva's face
was smiling, he bent over to Siddhartha and spoke the holy Om into his ear. And
this had been the very thing which Siddhartha had also been hearing.
This scene with its imagery
and symbol can affect the spirit or soul of the reader through relatedness
/connectedness, beliefs/belief systems and if it does, at that particular
moment, I would be led to believe that he has been touched by spirituality.
Thus literature, as Prof.
Wickman says, is a vehicle of spirituality.
“Better
to Reign in Hell than Serve in Heaven”:
A
Study of Spiritual Defiance and Indomitable Will in Paradise Lost
Rajan Lal
A spirit may be defined
as an animating or vitalizing essence or force that motivates or energises
someone or something or a supernatural being without body. They may be
identified as good and bad ones. Paradise
Lost abounds in both types of spirits—God and His legions and Satan/Lucifer
and his legions representing good and bad respectively. The maxim “Better to
reign in Hell than serve in Heaven” comes from a monologue delivered by Satan
in Book I of the epical poem the Paradise
Lost composed by the belated Elizabethan-cum-Puritan English
poet John Milton (1608-1674). When the epic begins, Satan with his legions of
fallen angels have already been defeated by God and His legions and they have
been cast into the depths of Tartarus, which is described as horrible, dark,
fiery place full of pain and suffering. It is not the sort of place anyone in
their right mind would want to rule.
The problem is,
though, that these fallen angels were so deluded and full up on their own hubris that they honestly thought that
they would win the war against God. Now, here, they are defeated and literally
condemned to eternal damnation in hell. There is no escape that they know of.
They are at their lowest point. Again, though they have already lost, Satan knows
that he needs to keep these fallen angels on his side. When he speaks these
famed-cum-fiery and immortal words, he is talking to his fallen angel
Beelzebub. Throughout the poem, Satan’s talent is his rhetoric, exhibiting his
spiritual revolt against God and his indomitable will, though pseudonymously;
he can twist the truth to make even the brightest of people believe the most
inane things. Thus, he knows that he needs to say something that will make
Beelzebub and his associate cohorts think that this is some kind of their
victory and not their defeat.
Spirituality and Literature: Some Reflections
Saurabh Agarwal
Spirituality and Literature
are two threads of different colours that form the integral part of the fabric
of humanity. Separating them and yet visualising a complete pattern will be
difficult. But when one talks of spirituality the word religion appears as a
conjoined twin with it. So, is the spirituality inconceivable without religion? What constitutes spirituality in
literature and what texts can be classified as spiritual literature? HarperCollins
(San Francisco) has compiled a list of 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Century (20th).
The list shows books like The Trial by Kafka, Chronicles
of Narnia by C.S Lewis, The Plague by
Camus, Wise Blood by Flannery O’Conner, The
Power and Glory by Graham Greene, Gandhi’s The Story of My Experiments with Truth, The Gosepl
of Ramakrishna Paramahansa, An Autobiography of Yogi by Paramahansa
Yoganada and Teachings of Ramana Maharshi. In the same list works of Tagore,
Yeats and T.S. Eliot also appear. Some of the names do not bear direct relation
to any religion per se or religious philosophy. So, what makes a text
spiritual? Also, we have seen how scriptures of one section of
society is considered blasphemous by another.
A text seemingly secular
may have revelatory potential enough to send a person into a trance
and transcends you to a higher plane. As Leonard Cohen, the
famous song writer, said, “There is a blaze of light in every word/ It
doesn’t matter which you heard /Holy or the broken Hallelujah.” M.K. Gandhi
said, “When doubts haunt me, when disappointment stares me in the face, and I
see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagwat Gita and find a verse to comfort me.” For Wordsworth
flowers “flash upon that inward eye” which is “the bliss of solitude.” But,
according to me, the pinnacle of spirituality is as mentioned by Ramakrishna
Paramahansa as “When, hearing
the name of Hari or Rama once, you shed tears and your hair stands on end, then
you may know for certain that you do not have to perform such devotions as the
sandhya any more. Then only will you have a right to renounce rituals; or
rather, rituals will drop away by themselves. Then it will be enough it you
repeat only the name of Rama or Hari, or even simply Om." Continuing, he
said, "The sandhya merges in the Gayatri, and the Gayatri merges in
Om."
Spirituality and Literature
Shipra Kulsrestha
The
term spirituality has expanded over time. It can be understood as relating to
or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical
things. There are different connotations for the word ‘spirituality’. The
poets, writers and playwrights have used it vividly in their work. “The Psalm
of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is the finest example of it. In this
poem a young man is talking to the psalmist as the subtitle of this poem suggests:
‘What the heart of the young man said to the psalmist’. The young man says to
the psalmist not to tell in the mournful way:
Life is but an empty dream,
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
The
young man does not agree with the psalmist when he says there is nothing in
this life and life is only an empty dream. The psalmist says that soul is dead and
things are not as they appear. The
young man replies to the psalmist:
Life is real, life is earnest,
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust
thou art, to dust returnest
Was
not spoken of the soul.
That
man says to the psalmist you can not say
that there is nothing in this life and
one day you have to die. He repudiates hedonic approach to life. He says life
is full of meaning. And there is a lot
to do in this life. It depends upon us.
We should not think that one day we have to die, so there is no use of working.
We should live a life full of achievements.
It
is the body which perishes, not the soul. Soul is immortal. Only body is
destroyed. The soul is always there which changes the body as we change the
clothes. So we should not think that life is only to enjoy or to cry. There are
many things more than it. We should work hard always. So that we can find
ourselves farther than today. This is the difference between us and the beasts.
The purpose of life should be to make a kind of progress that can be interpreted
as spiritual improvement rather than as any kind of worldly success. Our attitude towards life should be of Carpe
diem.
This
life is like a temporary tent as knights use for battlefield for a short time
because the soul enters in this body for one birth and after this birth goes to
take another birth. So, it is a cycle which continues. This is a stage or field
for us where we are to play our acts. As the
actors change their dress, we should change this body. So, we should
make full and most use of it. Our life should not be ‘like dumb driven cattle’
rather ‘Be a hero in the strife’. Our life should be full of action and
optimism. Whatever the fate may be, we should be active, and try to pursue and achieve our goal. We should work hard and
wait as was said in the Gita also. Longfellow
declines hedonic way of life and suggests to be active and hard working. This
poem truly illustrates spiritual meaning of our life and shows us the right
path to move ahead.
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