Excerpts (translated by me - E&OE) :
What is that literature offers us?
Awakening of the mind. This awakening could evolve as philosophy for one person, and as politics for another . A different social thought for somebody else. An awakening similar to the one we have while going through a real life experience.
Thus, literature is a parallel life experience.
Good literature presents life as a visual experience. I have never seen Russia. But I have walked through the chilling snow of St. Petersburg. I have never seen a war. But I could visualise the way a huge army encounters another- through the stories of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.
Literature induces our imagination and enables our senses to attain the same experience as if in a real life actuality. We enter another existence and commence being there. And that is the first plane of literature.
Secondly, literature travels deeply into the human minds. It carefully evaluates the different dimensions of human emotions and thoughts and records them minutely. A better author is capable of entering the minds of any person. And its simple too. He manifests himself in all the characters. Deep down, all minds are alike. Hence, if he writes about himself, he writes about the whole world.
Finally, the author is the one who documents 'moments of life'. By observing life within his environment and involving himself with an emotional participation, he happens to continuously watch 'human moments'. He recreates them in his works. He refines it. Imagines it anew.
That which forms itself as a similar, parallel life experience and generate thoughts in us is called literature.
(complete text can be viewed in jeyamohan's blog . )
One of those days, the four vedas were weighed against 'bharatham' and it was found to outweigh all the four vedas put together. Hence the name "Maha Bharatham" . ('Maha' roughly translates to Mega)
MahaBharatham was written by Vyasa. Vyasa Maharishi was born to Parasara Maharishi and Sathyavathi (also known as 'Machagandhi' - one who smells of fish).
It was Vyasa who categorized the plethora of documents available at that time into the four vedas- Rig, Yajur, Sama & Adharva.
Even after indexing the vedas, he felt the common people could not access the vedas and understand the implicit meanings. Thus he embarked on writing a simpler version and that is Mahabharatha.
After several years of meditation, he was ready with a mental version of the epic, but could not find out a suitable person to whom he could dictate it for posterity. Lord Brahma was impressed with his efforts and appeared before him. Upon being requested to suggest a suitable person who can write down thousand of slokahs (verses), Lord Brahma suggested the name of Ganapathi.
(....to be continued)
It was Vyasa who categorized the plethora of documents available at that time into the four vedas- Rig, Yajur, Sama & Adharva.
Even after indexing the vedas, he felt the common people could not access the vedas and understand the implicit meanings. Thus he embarked on writing a simpler version and that is Mahabharatha.
After several years of meditation, he was ready with a mental version of the epic, but could not find out a suitable person to whom he could dictate it for posterity. Lord Brahma was impressed with his efforts and appeared before him. Upon being requested to suggest a suitable person who can write down thousand of slokahs (verses), Lord Brahma suggested the name of Ganapathi.
(....to be continued)
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