A Peaceful Journey; A Dark Underbelly

A Literary Journey

The Hindu Trinity - Brahma, Vishnu, and Lakshmi

There are many journeys that man can take. He can find himself. He can find Love. He can find a reason to live. Some say he can find God. I have been traveling now for nearly 4 months – adjusting and re-adjusting to new people, new places, and new lifestyles. In Bangladesh I found the serenity that comes only when surrounded by the love and acceptance of the urban poor. Home for a month I could not help but examine the complex systems that so well contrast the freedom in poverty that is found in much of South Asia. Now, in India – a guest of Taj and and acting as a curriculum consultant – I live far away from the slums; a place hard to find that personal growth that everyone exclaims comes with a journey to India; or so I thought. Sometimes, personal growth comes at the most unexpected times and through little known people rather than the big philosophers. Today, I’ll show you how India – thus, far – has impacted my life through the writings and realizations of fictional Brahmin and an inarguably real Australian ex-con.

The River of Life? No, just the journey to Elephanta Island

I started this trip reading Siddhartha, the journey and self-realization story of a wandering Brahmin who meets the meandering Buddha. He is a man, throughout the journey, alone and yet one with his path. His personal story, one that mirrors the ancient Hindu stories of holy men, comes to focus on one very real, and ultimately satisfying notion: that no man can explain the truth, the oneness of god, and the meaning of reality; a person must discover that truth for himself. While many men, including Siddhartha’s own best friend, choose to follow the holiest of men; Siddhartha realizes that his journey through the river of life must not be of following, but of being taken. He must surrender himself unto God before he can come to that ultimate realization. While this literary piece was informative, and quite stimulating, another book really has captured my mind and guided my place in India. This is the story of Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.

Act 1: The Lost and Peaceful Mind

Shantaram follows the true story, written three times from the cells of prisons, of Gregory David Roberts – an escaped convict from Australia’s dirtiest and most corrupted prison. His escape drives him to India, fleeing the Western world and finding a home in the darkness and mystery that pervades the day and night of Bombay. He is not taken in so much as he survives on the streets of India following one guiding principle:That in India it is far better to be led by the heart than the mind.

The street where I work. Also where Leopold's is, and the sight of frequent black market dealings (not at my work).

The writing is superb, but the heart that is found in this epic journey is what makes the adventure incredible. The love and growth in the underbelly of the darkest city can’t help but fascinate the reader; it has greatly affected me in many ways.

The reason I write this blog – focusing on the literary journey – is because I want someone else to read it. It would be selfish of me not to try and pass on this book too as many people as I can. If I ever become a philosophy professor, able to design my own curriculum, this will be required reading. The following are a few of my favorite quotations. I hope they entice you to read, and to grow, as much as I have from this man’s journey – a journey that starts in Australia, drives into the slums of Bombay, wanders to the Afghani battle grounds with the, and is captured once more in the mafia of Mumbai.

Act 2: Reckoning

“The only force more ruthless and cynical than the business of big politics is the politics of big business.”

“Well, “ he puffed, “a man has to draw the line somewhere. Civilization, after all, is defined by what we forbid, more than what we permit.”

“…I couldn’t respond. My culture has taught me all the wrong things well. So I lay completely still, and gave no reaction at all. But the soul has no culture. The soul has no nations. The soul has no colour or accent or way of life. The soul is forever. The soul is one. And when the heart has its moment of truth and sorrow, the soul can’t be stilled.”

“Dider once told me, in a rambling, midnight dissertation, that a dream is the place where a wish and a fear meet. When the wish and the fear are exactly the same, he said, we call the dream a nightmare.”

“In this way is justice done… because justice is a judgment that is both fair and forgiving. Justice is not done until everyone is satisfied, even those who offend us and must be punished by us. You can see, by what we have done with these two boys, that justice is not only the way we punish those who do wrong. It is also the way we try to save them.”

“It’s such a huge arrogance, to love someone, and there’s too much of it around. There’s too much love in the world. Sometimes I think that’s what heaven is – a place where everybody is happy because nobody loves anybody else, ever.”

Act 3: The Climax

Mumbai Never Looked so Calm - Returning from Elephants Island

“All the loneliness and all the love I knew collected and combined in me, until my heart was as swollen with love for her as the clouds above were swollen with their mass of rain…”

“Prisons are the temples where devils learn to prey. Every time we turn the key we twist the knife of fate, because every time we cage a man we close him in with hate.”

“Anarchists… No political philosophy I ever heard of loves the human race much as anarchism. Every other way of looking at the world says that people have to be controlled, and ordered around, and governed. Only the anarchists trust human beings enough to let them work it out for themselves. And I used to be that optimistic once…”

Prologue

So far I am on page 509 of 900 and something. The journey is not nearly over. I hope at least one person reads this blog and picks up this novel.

Leopold's - Just missed the picture of Roberts.

Before I leave you, I want to tell you that only yesterday the author pulled up to Leopold’s – the café frequented often in this novel, and the first site of the Mumbai November attacks of 2008. He rode up on his Harley, got off, and went to the many Colaba Causeway gift sellers found lining the streets; he is one of them, he greets them not as a foreigner but as a friend – just as he does in the book. This is the tale of a man lost to the world; finding himself in the slums and darkness of humanity’s most loving city.

Lastly, Here is a LINK to the Amazon.com for sale page for those convinced to enjoy this journey on your own.

Until next time,

Thanks for reading.