Roy, Vijay Kumar. Realm of Beauty and Truth: A Collection of Poems. New Delhi: Authorspress, 2016. Print. ISBN: 978-93-5207-250-7. Price: Rs. 250 & $12. PB.
“Sa vidya ya vimuktaye”:
A Study in Vijay Kumar Roy’s Realm of Beauty and Truth: A Collection of Poems
Review by Dr. Santosh Kumar Padhy
Assistant Professor of English
Science College, Kankorada, Ganjam, Odisha – 761144
Email: santoshpadhy123@rediffmail.com
Vijay Kumar Roy’s newly published collection of poems, Realm of Beauty and Truth (2016) consists of fifty one poems that leave messages to my mind firstly of “vidya dadati vinayam” and finally of “sa vidya ya vimuktaye”. If we analyze these two Sanskrit versions of the ancient past, literally the first one sanctions the meaning that learning provides humbleness to an individual entity and the second one grants the high ambition of higher education in India, which means learning that gives us liberation. Therefore what remains in the middle part between the beginnings of education in our pious land, India and its latter highest component and position of life is nothing else but the mature life and growing years when and where an individual wishes to contribute specific experience and experiment in practical time frame of life’s living days with others. With the dynamism of his arrangement of poems in between the ‘Prologue’ and ‘Epilogue’, Roy’s Keatsian outlook of choosing the title of the volume considers moral decision and judgement signifying the ramification and ratification of social order and turmoil in our contemporary moment in time and extemporaneity. Here confirms the Wordsworthian demeanor, Arnoldian consolation, Eliotian heart, Frostian choice (of less-travelled road), Tagorean benevolence, Aurovindo’s patriotism and spiritualism in this collection.
Poetry to Roy is the heart’s song that churns feelings, emotions and expressions of one’s realms of “deep rootedness”. He learns poetry in the lap of his mother and is “captured by Her beatific smiles”. The meaning of mother is expanded here from personal mother to national and global mother what Lord Rama in the Ramayan while paying regard to mother sings of “Janani Janmabhumischa swargadapi gariyasi’, which is worth meaningful to understand that mother and motherland both are greater than the heaven. Since “the Crown and glory of Creation”, mother is such a benevolent figure that always retains her value and stance as she is the very epitome of bearing, rearing, caring and above all sacrificing for her children. Roy’s expert hand leads this collection to the zenith of success when he harps on the bliss of eternity and the glory of the creation. Poetry accumulates all hues and pleasant odours not only of natural bounty but also of blood, bone and soul. It is the innovative spirit of the poet to digest the great epics and classics of the world when he delves himself deep into the realm of delight and experiences his own meditation through the ancient Indian ascetics in this collection.
Yet the poet while pursuing “the mysteries of nature and divine knowledge” lets the self surrender as if he has liberated the self from all bondages and dispersed all binaries that usually obstruct both individual and national growth. “Nurtured by nature and engrossed by truth”, the poet learns how to cross all the barriers and boundaries because the human kind he constructs in his poetry beholds own culture, civilization, myth and mythology to redeem the cost of life and sublimity of social values. Roy’s search for real goal of life also looks at others and continues to study their psychology for which the poet often mourns the diverse intention of others who have neglected to understand the value and reality of life that causes severity and long suffering at one hand and on the other hand their dogmatic and conservative belief never lead them to keep faith on home as a temple. Here temple is a metaphor that enshrines and enlightens the meaning in its interiority.
Neither does modern education nor does present trend of living sanction peace to the much agonized heart and therefore the poet, while trying to open the eyes of the mass people, writes: “let our conscience liberate” where lies the glory of triumph and the victory of the purposeful life. In the name of science and under the garb of scientific progress what the mass people procure is the vastness of machine and machinery, factory and industry, however, sophisticated in their size, shape, safety and security that not only have increased dirt, smoke, ugliness and pollution but also added pain, grief, agony, hatred, jealousy, malice, greed, sorrow and suffering to the moment’s living. In order to curb all these cupidity, avarice and malevolence, Roy’s truth of poetic intensity reveals love for the mortal beings and therefore the theory of love for humanity seems to be endless and immortal.
Roy gets arrested to entitle this collection by Keatsian quest for beauty and truth in which appears the very essence of life and quintessence of existence. Beauty, “the greatest jewel” beyond its shyness bewitches all kinds of countenance and then the wings of fancy open to touch the limitless sky in “the holiness of heart’s affection”, which is mystical but perennial that fills all the void and transition of ethereal bondage. To sustain these all, the poet’s ecocritical vision very often relies on flora and fauna of own natural landscape and then his heart gets the ecstatic joy, however, the very moment reminds him of the countless death caused by the atrocious and hazardous nature. Here comes a plain question to our mind: “Who is responsible?” Nobody else, only we are responsible for that that have deliberately forgot the Vedic culture to love and keep nature under control by performing yagna. It is our greed, mercilessness and exploitation that have not only destroyed nature but also shortened its life span where it is found.
As a poet of contemporary scenario, Roy spares none around him. His poems sound sweeter when he orchestrates his parents, family members, teachers and other inclinations of blood relationship. Richest are the Indian culture and tradition, myth and mythology, sages and seers, legend and heritage, clans and tribes, vales and hills, rivers and mountains – all more significantly portrayed in this collection. Here stone gets life and worshipped. The people of this revered land worship both human and non-human many times a year that solemnizes human attitude not only to be kind enough but also to serve all. By celebrating such theme in the core, our ancestors of the past and great men of the following era have left foot prints that can never be neglected. In exploring human life and values, this latest publication authenticates Roy’s both oral and aural oeuvre more philosophical than literal, more practical than mythological, and more real than spiritual. He has an apt attempt to prove that even God has chosen this sacred and profound land to take birth each time in each incarnation. This blessed and sanctified land has made her children feel proud all the time because what the globe thinks of now a days, that has already been practised and preached since ages past- “Vasudhaiva kutumbakam”, which means the whole world is a family. Similar aspects of high ethical values and morality have made our births meaningful and purposeful for which we are very much proud of our education, “sa vidya ya vimuktaye”.
Work Cited Roy, Vijay Kumar. Realm of Beauty and Truth: A Collection of Poems. New Delhi: Authorspress, 2016, Print.
About the Author Dr. Santosh K. Padhy (b. 1967) completed his PhD in 2005 and a Minor Research Project Sanctioned by UGC, Kolkata in 2007. He has authored Home as Metaphor, The Home-Bound Vision and Ecofeminism as a Global Commitment. He has also successfully completed a Major Research Project on ecofeminism and submitted to UGC, New Delhi in May 2015. He has translated an Odia story collection, Arrogant IAS and Other Stories. Dr. Padhy writes articles and poems both in English and Oriya.
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