Suffering as God's Grace

It is a basic tenet of Christianity that Christ suffered to save Christians. Even in modern times, when their tribulations were medically witnessed, St. Bernadette & St. Faustina underwent untold suffering, the former from a tubercular ulcer & the latter from consumption, ending in early deaths.

In Hindu religion also, suffering was the portion of Lord Rama. On the eve of his Coronation, he was banished. Later also after the war to reclaim his wife, he was subjected to calumny & had to banish her. So either he had his wife or his kingdom, but not both at the same time.

Lord Krishna, right from birth, had to battle against great odds. He was also vilified as a philanderer & unscrupulous manipulator, before dying a lonely death by a stray arrow of a hunter.

Later reformist Saints, Sri Ramakrishna & Bhagawan Ramana suffered & died from painful cancers. Even most of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, starting from Swami Vivekananda, died early deaths, causing great grief to Sri Ramakrishna's consort Sri Sarada Devi, who herself had to take opium to manage the pain of her arthritis.

It may also be mentioned that close devotees of Bhagawan Satya Sai Baba, like N. Kasturi & John Hislop had more than the average share of their problems.

Probably because of this, the religion of Jainism has (to use an outrageous mixed metaphor), taken the bull by the horns & grasped the nettles to make mortification a central part of their creed & made "Sallekhana", fasting unto death, a fitting end to life.

To end this gloomy essay on a lighter note, some Semitic religions appear to imply that the suffering of the Good is compensated in the afterlife. Emerson, in his essay "Compensation", quotes a preacher quoting this doctrine. Emerson pertinently points out "Why not have a good time now instead of waiting for a hypothetical afterlife?"

There is also an apocryphal story of some Muslims visiting France for the first time. They were wonderstruck to see bubbling brooks & other heavenly delights there. They thought "If the promised delights of paradise after death to good Muslims by Allah are present here & now, the God of the Christians is preferable" & promptly converted!

The Pleasures of the Imagination as conceived by Joseph Addison (1672 - 1819)

"Gratian (1601 - 1658, Spanish critic & moralist) very often recommends 'fine taste', as the utmost perfection of an accomplished man." 

Thus Addison begins his series of celebrated essays entitled "The Pleasures of the Imagination" in his journal, "The Spectator". Since now many may not have  heard of Addison, let alone read him, it is proposed to give a gist of these essays, which nowadays may be discussed under "Aesthetics."

He divides these pleasures under the following headings:

Primary Pleasures, i.e., sensory pleasures, mainly sight. He correctly surmises that once these sights are observed, the faculty of  imagination may provide even a man in prison to entertain himself with scenes & landscapes more beautiful than found in Nature. He also eulogises architecture of noble buildings like the Pyramids & The Great Wall of China as providing awe.

Secondary Pleasures of the imagination are provided by Literature, Sculpture, Painting & Music. Homer, Virgil, Ovid & Milton among the Poets provide pleasures greater than words wider than those joined to sight. Fantasy, created entirely by the writer is another genre. Imagination contrasted with Understanding is cultivated by the study of History & Science.

To conclude, The Pleasures of the Imagination are not so gross as those of the senses, nor so refined as those of the Understanding. A man of Imagination is let into a great many pleasures that the common people are not capable of receiving.

Welcome to abridged books

Many may consider it a sacrilege to abridge  books, implying an irreverent attitude towards the authors of the works. But the other side of the coin is that these books mostly written at an earlier, more leisurely time, were meant to be read when there were not many other diversions. Also more importantly they dealt with issues relevant to their times & which appear dated now. Two examples being the extensive analysis of military strategy in Tolstoy's "War & Peace" & the endless philosophical discussions in Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain." Also the non-musical content of Romain Rolland's multi-volume "John Christopher."

When one reads the uncut "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame, one instantly notices the extraneousness of the chapters "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" & "Wayfarers All." Thankfully these are excised in Inga Moore's impressionistically illustrated edition.

This becomes even more necessary in non-fiction books which are part of the literary canon like Darwin's "On the Origins of Species" & Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations." Though they were written for the non-specialist reader, they are forbidding enough to the modern reader. So the illustrated Young Reader's edition of Darwin & the Capstone edition of Adam Smith will attract readers, who might not have touched the originals at all. This, to quote from Shakespeare's "Hamlet", "Is a consummation devoutly to be wished."

Is Kannada "The Ugliest Language"?

Regarding the recent controversy, it may be a subjective & prejudiced opinion. But it can be proved that Kannada can express more shades of meaning & clear family relationships than even the universal language, English.

For example for the single English word "came", there are at least three Kannada words with different shades of meaning, "banda", "bandu bitta" & "bande bitta." For the second & third words, there are no suitable English words.

As far as family relationships are concerned, (as these are stronger in India than western countries), the profusion is glaring. In blood relations, Kannada has "Anna" & "Thamma" for the single English "Brother." Similarly "Akka" & "Thangi" for the single "Sister." For the single English "Uncle", there are "Doddappa", "Chikkappa" & "Sodaramava." Similarly for "Aunt", "Doddamma", Chikkamma", & "Sodaratthe."

As far as relationships by marriage are concerned, English, pitifully takes recourse to "law", by adding "in-law" to existing words.

Whereas in Kannada, for "brother-in-law", four words are present, "Bhava", "Myduna", "Bhava-myduna" & "Shadduka." Similarly for "sister-in-law", there are "Aththige", "Nadini" & "Oragiththi." For "Father-in-law" & "Mother-in-law", the reference to law is omitted by using "Mava" & "Aththe."

Having such linguistic riches at our disposal, it is pathetic to see the younger generation use the cramped English words rather than the semantically correct words in their resplendent mother-tongue.

Value Erosion & Social Policing

Master Hirannaiah, the popular Kannada actor, stated in his reminiscences, that one of the important changes that has occurred in society is the absence of "social policing." Earlier, if some child had committed a misdemeanour, & its parents were informed, they would be more concerned than the complainant & would ask him to deal out exemplary punishment himself (social policing). Nowadays, the parents do not even apologise to the aggrieved nor reprimand the child, but instead pick up the cudgels on behalf of their recalcitrant child.

This social policing was also earlier prevalent in western society as evinced in the story of Agatha Christie's celebrated detective Poirot's only recorded failure "The Chocolate Box." A mother, convinced of the incorrigible homicidal nature of her son, kills him herself.

We can contrast this noble behaviour with the recent instance of the mother of a man, accused of the most heinous crime, begging for his life, before his execution. There have been instances earlier, where in similar cases, mothers have begged for the privilege of killing their sons themselves (as in the Poirot story) & later killing themselves for the mistake of bringing such sons into the world. Here, rubbing salt into the wound, a female lawyer shockingly advised the mother of the ravished & murdered girl to forgive the accused! No wonder values have eroded all over the world.

Of course, even earlier, in Mahabharata, King Dhritarashtra supported his evil sons, but it was a rare exception to the general rule.

This erosion may be partly due to the rise of two professions (considered amoral by the layman) of law & politics, where taking a one sided stance of sanctifying one side & demonising the other, is the sine qua non of these professions. It is not rational to believe that the good Lord bestowed us & the people we like with all desirable qualities & completely denied the same to people whom we do not like.

Importance of Semantics in everyday life

Semantics means study of meaning (of a word). This can be subdivided into

1. Logical Semantics dealing with sense & reference.
2. Linguistic Semantics dealing with exact meaning of words.

Though disregard of this may cause immense harm, it is almost universal in its misuse even amongst people who are supposed to know better.

To take a common example, when we cause or narrowly avoid an accident on the road, the first word likely to be used is "idiot." Actually both may even be above average in IQ, & the (utmost) correct word to be used is "careless." Because this is not kept in mind or forgotten in the first fit of anger, the incorrect first word may be used leading to a crescendo of further insults.

Similarly while reprimanding a junior in a perceived lack of application, instead of pointing out the shortcoming, it is quite common to hurl personal insults at the unfortunate person. So usage of language without respect to semantics may lead to quite avoidable friction in the workplace. To put it simply, one should know how to disagree without being disagreeable. This is only done when we take care to choose the semantically correct word for the occasion.

Another aspect of this is the fact that no elderly person likes to be reminded of his (or her) age. Especially in our country, it has become popularly accepted to refer to any person somewhat older in the (local language) equivalent of grandpa or grandma. Any dictionary says that only the parents of one's parent are defined as grandparents, but even so called highly educated people, who are supposed to know how to use a dictionary, go on merrily referring to even unrelated people, who they think are old, as grandpa & grandma. This is extremely bad etiquette as well as semantically wrong.

Probably this is the necessary consequence when people get educated, not to get knowledge or culture, but only to get money & position.

From the Utopia of "Charlotte's Web" to the Dystopia of "The Peppermint Pig"

"Charlotte's Web" (1952) is a classic children's book by E.B.White. In it, Wilbur, the runt in a litter of pigs is about to be killed, when the daughter of the house Fern, impassionately pleads for his life & succeeds. She looks after him & later after he is sold to Fern's uncle, also regularly visits him. But he is to be ultimately converted to pork, which he doesn't want. Charlotte, a spider in Wllbur's new home, hits upon an ingenious plan to save his life. She is so successful that Wilbur is assured a natural end.

"The Peppermint Pig" (1975) by Nina Bawden, also begins with a runt of a litter of pigs, Johnnie, bought by a woman. Her children love him & he becomes the center of the family. He grows big & fat (& here comes the crunch), & heartlessly sold to the butcher. The children are told it is the fate of all pigs. Shockingly, this book has also been given a children's book award. But many reviewers are enraged with the dystopian ending of a so-called children's book.