Life of Pi

Life of Pi is a Man Booker prize winning novel written by Yann Martel. Martel visited India to write a novel which happens in another country. But when he heard a true story of a sixteen year old boy from a person he met during his stay in India, his whole plan changed.

                I came to know of this novel when the Tamil writer S.Ramakrishnan recommended this in his website. I happened to see this novel in a sale in our school conducted for fund raising. The book was written in 2002 I think, but by the appearance it looked as if it was printed seventy five years ago. Nearly a hundred pages had come off the binding, and the remaining pages were also on the verge separating themselves from their parent if we made an attempt to read. But the thing that caught my attention was its price, five ruffia, fifteen rupees in Indian currency. So I bought it after making sure all the pages are present inside the book and started reading it immediately.

                The hero of the novel is a sixteen year old boy named Piscine Patel, the son of a Zoo director in Pondicherry, India. Since the students of his school made a mockery of his name, calling him ‘pissing Patel’ he decided to change his name. When he visits a new school he introduced himself as Pi. The name was catchy and was quickly popularized. Pi was interested in all three major religions in India, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam and tries to follow all the religions simultaneously. Representatives of three religions meet the boy’s father in the hope of trying to attract Pi towards their religion. But Pi liked all the religions and wants to worship Rama, Jesus and Allah equally.

                Being the son of a Zoo director gives him the opportunity of living with the animals. He knows in and out about the behaviour of wild animals. In fact, his involvement in the religious activities and his wide knowledge of the wild animals led him to choose to study theology and Zoology at his graduation level.

                The story happens in 1970s I suppose. It was the time when Mrs Indira Gandhi, the prime minister of India, enforced emergency throughout the country. Pi’s father foresees the danger of running a zoo business and decided to migrate to Canada. He sells the Zoo but not the animals. Since it is a good bargain to sell the animals in America, Pi’s family, along with the animals travel in a cargo ship to Canada.

                On its course the ship meets with an accident and sinks. The boy was thrown on to a lifeboat and onto the sea. He survived the accident along with a zebra with a broken leg, an orangutan, a hyena and 450 pound royal Bengal tiger.

                Though it was almost certain that all the creatures on the lifeboat would die killing each other or try to save them from being killed by one another or of natural causes, the novel describes the miraculous escape of the boy from the dangerous animals and also from the cruelties of the sea.

                The continuing pages tell us the compelling incidences that involve the boy attempting to survive through the ordeals. He tries everything that is possible to prolong his life until a savior of some sort sights him. He utilizes all the materials that were available in the lifeboat and the persisting situations around him to his benefit and cheats death.

                It is hard to believe that for the major part of the novel, Pi was the only human character and yet the pace and interest of the novel did not go down; in fact they go up once Pi ends up on a life boat. Yann Martel’s style of writing is simple, lucid and humorous even in the most catastrophic situations.

                The story of Pi is a prime example of why we should believe in God. It proves even when you are thrust into a calamity; miracles are bound to happen if you have faith in God and life. Life presents itself with simple solutions for major adversities when you have willingness to survive. Life of Pi is not only a story, but a lesson to all of us who lose hope and interest in life even when we live comfortably.

To be continued.

Splashes of ignorance

I have been listening to swami Guruparananda's Vivekachudamani audio classes while reading Swami Dayananda Saraswathy's Vivekacudamani, talks on 108 selected verses. Jayachandran strongly recommended to me to read the book. He even explained to me how the book helped him realize his true nature. He said the book transformed him entirely. I have read the book once. It did not initally have any great impact on me. I listened to the audio classes also once.But the effort did not seem to have an effect on me, or I did not think that way. 

Vedanta tradition always talks about the necessary qualification one must possess in order study the shastra and understand the vision of it. But then you come to know of the qualifications only when you start studying Vedanta. Hence it is told that for the one who does not have the qualifications, listening to the classes will enable him to acquire them. For a person who has the required qualifications, listening any of the maha vakhya is sufficient enough to understand his true nature and attain liberation.

What I have been writing here is not going to be coherent since I am neither a qualified teacher nor a spirited sadhaka. That is precisely why I have named these series of passages “out of dust bin” I just trash the garbage into this blog from my primary dust bin, my mind. What I have decided is to write only the things that will help me grow and which may not harm others’ feelings.  Horrible things are surely playing hide and seek in mind, which is of no use to share them with anyone, let alone harmful. I can only pray the almighty to help me overcome my weakness and focus on my sadhana. Hence I will be writing about anything, about spirituality, about the things that have inspired me. I will be happy if these passages are of any help to you. Kindly do not hesitate to help me with your wise words. 

Before we go on to see what actually are the necessary qualifications for a spiritual aspirant, let us analyse the exact reasons why we seek liberation and from what. When young, we all strive for happy life and make efforts to attain that happy life. We learn hard, write entrance exams, we graduate, post graduate, write competitive examinations, look for lucrative jobs, marry and reproduce. At certain point of time somewhere in between all these activities the futility of all these efforts stands up right in front of our face. However hard we try to fulfill the requirements of our mind, there seems always a void bigger than the already filled up area. Death appears on our front door and remains a larger reality than the life itself. We feel very limited and insignificant. Yet we want be to be happy all the time. We never want to be sad and uncomfortable. But the life always plays hide and seek games with us. We seem to be happy sometimes, and we are sad sometimes, in fact, to admit openly, most of the times.