Sadhana
R.Parthasarathy’s tribute to Raja Rao.“I was born in a dharmasala, room number one, in (the town) Beautiful, Hassana… ”
THE words caught my eye as I unwrapped the typescript of The Policeman and the Rose, Raja Rao’s first collection of short stories since The Cow of the Barricades (1947). It was also the first of Raja’s books that I had edited. “One of the disciplines that has interested me in Indian literature,” Raja told me one pleasant February morning in 1976 at Vasanta Vihar, one of those sprawling houses on the north bank of the Adyar River in Chennai that is the home of the Krishnamurti Foundation, “is its sense of sadhana — a form of spiritual growth.”
“To have been born in India and not have written in Sanskrit……, an acute humiliation.”
i don’t think you’d like to know what i think about that idea, uma. in deference to the great man, i think i’d rather not speak about it..and i feel he shouldn’t have either.
Comment by kuffir — July 31, 2006 @ 7:20 pm
I was certainly imressed by his ‘Serpent and the rope’. He had deep understanding of Indian Philosophy, particularly the Upanishads, to understand which, he learnt Sanskirit a bit.
Comment by Mahadevan — December 29, 2006 @ 10:28 am