Gitanjali

The book, Gitanjali opens with the image of a ‘frail vessel’ which suggests the empty and destitute life of a man. The empty vessel of man longs for the rain of love, grace and sympathy of the Omnipotent God so that the empty vessel may overflow with new the fresh life: “This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life.” Through this image the poet means to suggest that life without the grace or rain of God is as worthless as a pitcher without water. Unless God showers love to this empty pitcher, we cannot gain perfectness; we cannot see him face to face. Commenting on this opening image, lyengar observes: “The human body is the temple of the soul, the human soul is the temple of God. The human soul is naught unless it is inhabited or `filled’ by the spirit. Birth and death are but the feeling and the emptying of the soul by the spirit, and the individual-insignificant as he may seem to be-verily partakes of God’s endless life. His immortality.” The music that flows on the lips and breathes through the flute is nothing but God’s grace and love. It is God who provides this perennial source of music to the poor flute: “This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new.” The image of flute reminds us of Lord Sri-Krishna who used to shower the rain of melodies on the bank of the river, Yamuna.

This book shows, apart from many other things a fine use of apt symbolism which is a unique blend of mysticism and music, religion and poetry. Suffused with mystical imagination and aided by the free flowing movement, the book creates a universe of haunting beauty that expresses God’s finite love and humanity’s deep compassion for all things beautiful. Though the poet is amply influenced by the rich symbolism and profound thoughts of the Vedas and the Upanishads, this thought had “its root in the ancient wisdom of his land, but it is as different from the roots as the blossom is from the roots of the tree on which it appears.” K.R.S. lyengar has also rightly observed: “The current coin of India’s devotional poetry is melted and minted anew by Rabindra Nath, but the pure gold shines, as brightly as ever, even though the inscription on the coin is in English. The image of lyre in Gitanjali is so beautifully woven into the fabric of the book that it always comes back and forth like that of Shakespeare.Tagore has used apt images and symbols to convey his thoughts and feelings.  W.B. Yeats observes ‘The work of a supreme culture, they yet appear as much the growth of the common soil as the grass and the rushes. Atradition where poetry and religion are the same thing, has passed through the centuries, gathering from learned and unlearned metaphor and emotion, and carried back again to the multitude the thought of the scholarand of the noble.’

PAULO COELHO

PAULO COELHO is not only one of the most widely read but also most influential writers in the world today.He have been honored with over a dozen international awards over the past several years. Why is it then that some critics opposed his election to the Academy or the selection of his works as some of the best examples of contemporary Brazilian literature? Some critics simply disparage Coelho’s narrative simplicity—a very powerful technique that he has continually mastered over the years. The Alchemist, for example, employs a fablelike language that has won the authorrecognition around the globe. He seldom uses complex alle-gories, metaphors, or idioms. All his work is simple, and, style captures not only the imagination but also the hearts of his readers. His message is also very simple and millennial: happiness lies in finding our-selves. Simply put, Paulo Coelho is an author in search of himself, a trait that epitomizes his literary truth. This Brazilian phenomenon, as he has come to be known,has been very consistent not only in his personal quest but also in becoming one of the most important writers of our time—perhaps to his own mother’s amazement, since she always discouraged him from taking up a profession that often offers very meager financial remuneration in countries like Brazil. It seems the more he writes, the more he earns the acclaim of important critics, like Umberto Eco, and of an ever-increasing number of readers around the world. To date, some 43 million copies of his books have been sold in 150 countries and in 56 languages, according to information found on hisWeb site. That places Coelho as the second most-read contem-porary author, based on a poll taken by the French magazine Lire in 1999. The body of his work consists of thirteen books (nine novels, three short-story collections, and two adapta-tions) Paulo Coelho’s coming of age as a writer is marked by his confirmation as the newest member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, despite all the controversy surrounding his nomina-tion. Glauco Ortolano Nobel Prize winner «e Kenzabur» once said that Paulo Coelho had discovered the secret of literary alche-my. There are younger writers interested in learning about these secrets. Paulo Coelho The average print run for a novel in the United States or France is about three thousand copies—the same as in Brazil. Literary criticism has neither the power to sell nor to impede the sale of books. The reader, on the other hand, observes reali-ty more closely and buys whatever reflects his or her state of mind or the status quo. Consequently, two factions have emerged: those who want to relive the past in the present (many academics are still tied to a series of old traditions) andthose who truly live in the present (the readers).