SACRIFICE, THE GUIDE

“In ‘The Guide’ the present and the past are cunningly jumbled to produce an impression of suspense and anticipation.”

Introduction:

‘The Guide’ is the ‘bildungstoman’ of a particular person ‘Raju’. The narration of events in two streams, one by Raju and the other by the author makes for the sharpening of the lines in the character sketches. Human character is complex and to have a true assessment of a man’s true nature, we must know what the world sees in him and also what he sees of himself in retrospect. Narayan’s technique provides for both these modes of evaluation and hence makes for a truer estimate of the character of Raju.

The alteration between the past and present, the swinging backward and forward even as Rosie does when she dances, emphasizes how Raju’s present is inexorably rooted in the past. The blend of the omniscient and autobiographical methods of narration endows the story with a double perspective and a binocular effect which produces a three dimensional impression.

The novel opens with Raju in the ruined village temple about to be accepted reverentially as a Sadhu. It also ends in the same locality with sadhu hood crowned with martyrdom. The role thus gets a perfectly rounded circular structure.

Segments:

The plot of  ‘The Guide’ also ‘swings forwards and backwards’ but inspite of this, it has very well demarcated segments – the Railway Raju phase in the beginning of the plot, the Rosie phase is in the middle and the fake swami phase in the end. Thus the apparently episodic plot derives its unity from the figure of Raju – not just from his physical presence in every situation in the novel, but from the fact that certain personality traits recur again and again in very different circumstances and become the cause of his tribulations.

The Two Narratives – outer and inner:

There are two narratives nestled one inside the other. The outer narrative which is situated mainly in the present tells the story from the point where Raju, a vagrant newly released from jail meets Velan on the river bank: it then follows Raju’s story from his assumed ‘sainthood’ right through to his ritual fast and presumed death. The inner narrative, which takes place in the past, follows Raju from his early childhood, through his adventures with Rosie, right up to his release from prison. The link between these two halves of Raju’s life is the device of his confession – through the association of ideas; Raju goes back to those points in his past which he thinks will explain his present predicament to Velan. Hence the past does not always unfold in strict chronological order, but follows the vagaries of memory and the immediate need to illuminate some point that Raju is making to Velan.

The Complicated interweaving of Past and Present:

The complicated interweaving of past and present through the inner and outer stories is conveyed in terms of a two-fold plot or double narrative.

Raju himself recounts the sections relating to his past in the first-person autobiographical mode. The sections relating to the present, which basically deal with Raju’s assumption of the role of the swami and its consequences, are delineated by the omniscient third person narrator or authorial voice. The two narratives weave in and out of each other in a braided structure that metaphorically represents the way in which a person’s past impinges on his present life and in this case entraps him.

Raju is able to tell the story of his own past because being removed from it in time, he can see his mistakes objectively and assess his actions with detachment. For example, reflecting back on his petulant behaviour with Rosie when he is out on bail, Raju is now able to see how unjust he was to Rosie – “I knew my mind was not working either normally or fairly. I knew I was growing jealous of her self-reliance. But I forgot for the moment that she was doing it all for my sake.” However, Raju cannot be the best narrator for the incidents of the present – that is, from his taking refuge in the abandoned temple near Mangal right up to his ritual fast – because he is too closely involved in the bewildering or self-serving or terrifying emotions generated by these experiences. Therefore Narayan’s strategy is to use the omniscient narrator to portray these portions of the story.

This double or dual narrative told from two points of view – the subjective (Raju’s) and Objective (the omniscient narrator’s) – performs several dramatic functions in the text. Raju’s narrative which takes us inside his mind and shows us how a basically good man slides into unforgivable actions because of fairly innocuous defects in his character, helps the reader to be involved in Raju’s fate and to sympathize with him. For example, Raju’s musings on his growing affection for Rosie, and his complicated feelings about her relationship with Marco, help us to understand both his yearning and his insecurity.

The authorial narration however distances Raju through its ironic tone, unmasks his compromises and hypocrisies and locates him within a social and moral context on the basis of which we can judge him. Here, for example in his progress towards ‘sainthood’, we can see how cynically Raju exploits the gullibility of the villagers by consciously embracing the popular image of an Indian holy man – he commercializes and markets spirituality and it is only fitting that this same sham spirituality should entrap him at the end.

Purpose of the Dual Narration:

The double narrative is also furthered by Narayan’s style of narration. The fact that despite everything that he does the reader is not able to dismiss Raju as an evil man, is due to Narayan’s dexterous handling of the third person narrative. It contains so much dialogue between Raju and the others and so much of free indirect discourse representing Raju’s thoughts that even the omniscient strand of the narrative is never sufficiently detached from Raju as to allow the reader to censure him uncompromisingly.

The greater part of the novel comprises Raju’s first-person narrative about his past (Chapters 2,3,5,7,8,9,10). Only five of the eleven chapters focus the third-person authorial account of his hypocritical present as a fake sadhu, and even these five are interspersed with short sections of first-person reminiscence. The cumulative effect is to give more prominence to the evolution of Raju’s motives and decisions, than to evaluating them from the point of view of conventional morality. It is a strategy aimed to keep the reader sympathetic towards Raju. Raju’s first-person narrative represents the voice of the modern individual with his desire for self-assertion, while the third-person authorial voice represents the community and its demand for civic responsibility. The frequent intersection of the two voices ensures that the reader’s simultaneous involvement with, and condemnation of Raju – that is, the opposing forces of the reader’s sympathy and judgment are held in a delicate balance. For the complex moral vision of this book to work, for us to realize the worth of tradition and spirituality while appreciating the human difficulties of implementing traditional values in a modern materialistic environment, we must neither totally reject Raju nor totally exonerate him. We must keep our moral bearings and recognize Raju’s duplicity, while at the same time we must applaud his final heroic decision to sacrifice his life for his followers. It is the dual plot or double narrative that enables Narayan to achieve this complex effect.

“There was a lot of suspense and anxiety at the back of mind. I was nervous about what he would say to Rosie and really anxious that he should not hurt her. Also, at the same time, a fear that if he became too nice to her, she might not care for me. I wanted him to be good to her, listen to her proposals, and yet leave her to my care! What an impossible, fantastic combination of circumstances to expect!”

“The essence of sainthood seemed to lie in one’s ability to utter mystifying statements… Raju soon realized that his spiritual status would be enhanced if he grew a beard and long hair to fall on his nape. A clean shaven and close-haired saint was an anomaly… By the time he arrived at the stage of stroking his beard thoughtfully, his prestige had grown beyond his wildest dreams.”

Title:  ‘The Guide’ is a very appropriate title for R.K. Narayan’s story about Railway Raju. The protagonist of the story plays three different roles in his career and in all of them he functions as an interesting guide. Raju goes from being a tourist guide, to Rosie’s mentor or guide, to the spiritual guide of the villagers of Mangal.

He is a born leader and people seek him out:

“It is written on the brow of some that they shall not be left alone. I am one such I think. Although I never looked for acquaintances, they somehow come looking for me”. Indeed he has “a kind of water-diviner’s instinct” for sensing what people need or want to hear. “It was his nature to get involved in other people’s interests and activities.”

There are multiple puns on the word ‘guide’, in Hindu mythology guide means guru, who takes his disciples to the right path. Raju himself says “I’m but an instrument accepting guidance myself”. The title is very ironic as for instead of the Guru Raju guiding the career of his disciple Velan, it is Velan who through his dogged devotion imposes his will on Raju’s career and forces him to become some kind of yogi.

In the final analysis, the title takes us beyond the specific destiny of Raju the individual and gently ridicules the uncritical application of tradition to modernity without rejecting tradition as seen in giving and receiving spiritual guidance in the modern world. If Raju is at fault for exploiting the hold over people, the villagers are in a sense equally at fault for their gullibility. Raju works as a tourist’s guide for money; he functions as an art guide for love; he finally makes the supreme sacrifice as a Spiritual Guide for no motive whatever. It is a pure act of unselfish benignity. It is guiding at its best.

Themes:  ‘The Guide’ is a good illustration of the contrast Narayan has drawn between typical western themes and Indian themes. The theme of ‘The Guide’ appears to be but not a simple linear illustration of the four asramas or even specifically the making of a Hindu ascetic, but the growth of spiritual maturity. Raju’s quest and the theme of the novel is the universal human quest for spiritual fulfillment, through freedom from the vexations of the spirit. As a Hindu, Raju ultimately finds this fulfillment and his self-hood not in terms of western individualism, but in terms of sacrificing the self for the potential good of the community which is a hindu value.

The theme of spiritual maturity and self-fulfillment also encompasses the other major character in the book. Rosie finds release from the vexations of the spirit through dance, not in the secular sense of becoming a successful performer, but through her Hindu devotional perception of dance as a form of worship of Nataraja, the Cosmic Dancer.

The plot of the novel is seen as falling into four distinct stages marked by the four asramas of Hindu philosophy – student life(brahmacharya), the life of the householder (garhasthya), the gradual withdrawal from life (Vanaprastha) and the final ascetic surrender of the self (sannyasa). In Raju’s career these four stages correspond to his early life upto the meeting with Rosie, then the life with Rosie, followed by the withdrawal from life during his term in prison and finally his days as a Sadhu.

“Theme of Enforced Sainthood conditioned by others and not by his free will. He is controlled by the ordinary man Velan” – Liaison. “My novel The Guide was not about the saints or the pseudo-saints of India but about a particular person”.

‘The Guide’ within the teachings of Bhagavad Gita which values moral action according to one’s dharma even above learning and acts of piety. Though at the end of the novel Raju is neither a mystic nor a sage, he attains moksha in his good action of self-reunciation and achieves the balance between dharma and karma, moha, lobha. The rain as to come as said by his mother than good deeds and good people begets rain.

Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Sacrifice’

Introduction: Different Kinds of Sacrifice:

The title ‘Sacrifice’ has its own significance. The writer signifies different kinds of sacrifice. The king has to sacrifice his relationship with his wife for what matters to him is his idea and his communication with God. Aparna the poor beggar girl has to sacrifice her little goat for the sake of her Queen. Gunavathi and Nakshatra decides to sacrifice Druva’s blood for the sake of their own betterment. Raghupati is in a way responsible for the self-sacrifice of Jaising. People sacrifice their religious ignorance at the end. The title is very symbolic and the entire play revolves around this theme of sacrifice.

Conflicting Perceptions and Personalities:

The play is the dramatic conflict between King Govinda and Raghupati. In the play, character and action are subordinated to the ideas which constitute the dramatic theme.

The king forbids the sacrifice of animals ‘from today and forever’. It is opposed as an outrage on religion. However there is a significant difference in the attitudes of the various opponents to the king’s ban on sacrifice. Raghupati stands for the rights of the Brahminpriest and the holiness of the deity that is above all man made laws. The Minister and the General emphaise the inviolability of tradition, and the latter also raises the question of the King’s authority. Empty-headed Nakshatra mostly echoes the words of others and in his ignorance thinks that the only difference between Hindus and Buddhists is that the latter regard animal life as sacred and that the most heinous thing for a Hindu would be to have anything in common with Buddhists.

Jaising naively believes in the power of the temple and is elated at the prospect of worshipping the mother in the traditional manner. Both Raghupati and Jaising are anxious to preserve the traditional form of worship, but there is a difference in attitude. For Jaising what is good should be good essentially and totally and there is no distinction between means and ends. In Raghupati’s view the end justifies the means.

On the otherside is King Govinda, Aparna and Jaising who believes that mother is thirst for love and not blood and that creature’s blood is not for offering and further that the temple cannot be polluted by blood of these poor beasts. If at all she wants blood let her be offered a bunch of red hibiscus.

‘Mother herself has taken it’.  The different senses in which the word ‘mother’ is used by Jaising and Aparna strikes the keynote of the play. There is a sharp contrast between the mother that loves her children and the mother that is supposed to accept the offering of blood. In what sense is the latter different from a demon.

The king answers to his queen that he has used kingly power, but he has opposed the priest as man and not as king. Further he says, everyman, king or peasant has the right to oppose cruelty and stand up for truth. The king feels that the mother feels pain and turns back her face when blood is shed.

Raghupati – the embodiment of evil:

Raghupati, the priest represents Brahmins and Brahminism. Tagore a very sharp social critic criticizes the social hierarchy and brahminism to represent God. Here Raghupati does all sins in the name of God to sustain his selfish interests. To him what matters is power which he loses at the end as his evil of priesthood is brought to light.

Confident in his superiority as Brahmin and as Priest he is out to punish the ‘insolent’ king by killing him and offering his blood in the place of blood of animals usually sacrificed. Holy sacrificial fire is a necessary part of Hindu worship and fire is also a well-known symbol of anger. Mixing all these ideas, Raghupati says that the anger of Brahmins and God will be satisfied is he succeeds in getting the king killed. Raghupati first trusts to the recalcitrant General to lead a rebellion, but in vain and then incites Nakshatra, the king’s brother to kill the king. Failing here too, he conspires with the queen and Nakshjtra to worship the Goddess with the blood of the king’s foster son Druva. Raghupati is banished for eight years and he pleads and gets a day’s time in the course of which he is to carry out his mission of revenge and urges his disciple and foster son Jaising to kill the king.

Jaising’s decision:

Jaising is now obsessed with the idea of sacrifice. Aparna, who has stirred his soul deeply by her vehement protests against slaughter of animal appears to him as a true symbol of sacrifice. It is a sacrifice based on love, and that should be the true concept of religion. ‘God must be all sacrifice, pouring out his life in all his creation.’ So Jaising decides to sacrifice himself for the deity he has served and for King Govinda whom he wants to save.