Dangerous Books
Bhaktivinoda Thakura in his lecture on the Bhagavata comments that the true critic does not destroy, he harmonizes: The true critic, will never advise us to go back to the point whence we started, as he fully knows that in that case there will be a fruitless loss of our valuable time and labor. He will direct the adjustment of the angle of the race at the point where we are. This is also the characteristic of the useful student. He will read an old author and will find out his exact position in the progress of thought. He will never propose to burn the book on the grounds that it contains thoughts which are useless.
I confess that I have probably fallen into the vice of reading, a vice which led Don Quixote to madness. We have been admonished not to read too many books. And yet as a consequence of my service as an editor I fell into this vice and soon grew addicted to reading. I cannot recommend this vice, as it soon leads to thinking, the most dangerous of all vices.
And yet Bhaktivinoda in his generosity finds that every wave is favourable "No thought is useless," he says.
Thoughts are means by which we attain out objects. The reader who denounces a bad thought does not know that a bad road is even capable of improvement and conversion into a good one. One thought is a road leading to another. Thus the reader will find that one thought which is the object to-day will be the means of a further object to-morrow. Thoughts will necessarily continue to be an endless series of means and objects in the progresses of humanity. The great reformers will always assert that they have come out not to destroy the old law, but to fulfill it. Valmîki, Vyāsa, Plato, Jesus, Mohammed, Confucius and Caitanya Mahāprabhu assert the fact either expressly or by their conduct.
Bhaktivinoda Thakura expresses his faith that a real search for truth will become a journey to surrender. Sincere truth-seeking will lead to sincere truth-finding in the form of devotion, surrender and dedication.
Bhaktivinoda felt no need to censor or burn books. He saw that those who appreciate true quality will be attracted to the real thing, leaving aside imitations. Truth prevails not by the suppression of alternate views, but by contrast to them, just as sunlight attracts by its very illumination. There is no need to curse the darkness when we can light a candle. At the same time, who will buy candles when there is ample sunlight?
And yet there are those who would burn books and suppress truth. As someone who spent years distributing books, I have first-hand experience of the difficulties associated with freedom of speech. It is said that "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only if you own a printing press." But even owning a printing press is insufficient against censorship. Only recently were young people able to read our books in Russia, in Ukraine and in other parts of the ex-Soviet Union. 20 years after our printing press closed in the United States, while our publications were gathering cobwebs in libraries, they were reprinted and eagerly read in foreign countries and in translations after restrictions were lifted. Those who would burn books lose in the end, because you cannot burn ideas.
As a young man, as part of my reading vice, I grew attached to a science fiction author, Ray Bradbury. He wrote a book that has been banned as often as it has been burned: Fahrenheit 451.
It's an interesting conceit: In the future, fireman don't put fires out, they start them. The firemen of the future hunt down libraries and burn them. Books are dangerous.
Bradbury was writing after the Second World War. Hitler had seen the danger of books and had ordered massive quantities of books burned. Bradbury's characters said, "“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door…Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?”
Book burning in Chile, during Pinochet
Thoughts are dangerous. Books are dangerous. Oddly, Bradbury's book about dangerous books is considered dangerous and is often on the list of banned books. http://study.com/academy/lesson/why-is-fahrenheit-451-banned.html
FAHRENHEIT
451: The temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns.
This
book is often banned, simply because it asks people to think:
“If
you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to
a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let
him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is
inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that
people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they
win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of
state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full
of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they
feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then
they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a senseof
motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that
sort don't change.”
― Ray
Bradbury, Fahrenheit
451
Thinking
is a dangerous and subversive activity: for this reason, Bradbury's
book is often banned in schools and libraries around the United
States as well as in many other countries where thinking is
prohibited.
Bhaktivinoda
Thakura wasn't afraid of people thinking. He believed that if
people took a good look at the Bhagavata they would embrace it's
teachings and philosophy for the Bhagavata is sublime literature.
Where ordinary minds are busy with romance novels or action stories, the Bhagavata is transcendental medicine for the soul.
२.१
धर्मः प्रोज्झित-कैतवो ऽत्र परमो निर्मत्सराणां सतां
वेद्यं वास्तवम् अत्र वस्तु-शिवदं ताप- त्रयोन्मूलनम्
श्रीमद्-भागवते महा-मुनि-कृते किं वा परैर् ईश्वरः
सद्यो हृद्य् अवरुध्यते ऽत्र कृतिभिः शुश्रूषुभिस् तत्-क्षणात्
2.1
dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ
vedyaṁ vāstavam atra vastu-śivadaṁ tāpa- trayonmūlanam
śrīmad-bhāgavate mahā-muni-kṛte kiṁ vā parair īśvaraḥ
sadyo hṛdy avarudhyate 'tra kṛtibhiḥ śuśrūṣubhis tat-kṣaṇāt
Completely rejecting mundane "dharma" materialistic "religion" the Bhāgavata gives the highest truth. Pure-hearted, truth-seeking devotees will understand this book which expounds the highest truth for the welfare of all. Knowing this all misery is vanquished. This book, called the Bhagavata was made by the great sage Vyāsa in the maturity of his spiritual realisation and is sufficient in itself for God-realization. What is the need for any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhāgavatam, by this culture of knowledge, the Supreme Lord is established within his heart. (Bhāg. 1.1.2)
Bhaktivinoda was convinced that there was no need for censorship, since anyone who read the Bhagavata would become enchanted by its sublime nature.
Oddly, in Bradbury's book the fireman in charge of book-burning becomes enchanted in the end by reading. He discovers a secret society of human books. Since books have become illegal, book-lovers have formed a society of friends. Each friend embodies a particular book, by memorising its text, imbibing its meaning, and finally "becoming" the book itself.
When I first read this it seemed like silly conceit: why go to the trouble of memorising a text when there are so many other ways of preserving it? Now we have the digital age and all kinds of electronic media. On a tiny chip I can preserve thousands of books. Why bother to "embody" a book?
In Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, different people in the secret society "embody" different books; this one is "Hamlet," and that one is "Don Quixote." One person is introduced as "Anna Karenina," while another is "The Bible." At the time the book was written, Bradbury was concerned that television would do away with libraries. But there is another interesting point I would like to make here about "embodying" a work.
When I was younger I would often hear about the "book bhagavata" and the person bhagavata. I found this confusing: How can a person be the same as a book. Taking a page from Bradbury's book, I think I understand the idea. The person bhagavata embodies the book bhagavata. Not that he necessarily has memorised every word of the book bhagavata; but that he has imbibed its spirit. The person bhagavata understands the book bhagavata deeply; he knows its message, and dives and surfaces in the waves of its transcendental meaning.
The person bhagavata has the power to share the sublime meaning of the bhagavata to others through his own deep communion with its spirit.
To try to better understand the nature of the two bhagavatas, I was reading Gaudiya Kantahara yesterday and found this:
Two Kinds of Bhāgavata: the Book and the Person
Dangerous Books
Bhaktivinoda Thakura in his lecture on the Bhagavata comments that the true critic does not destroy, he harmonizes: The true critic, will never advise us to go back to the point whence we started, as he fully knows that in that case there will be a fruitless loss of our valuable time and labor. He will direct the adjustment of the angle of the race at the point where we are. This is also the characteristic of the useful student. He will read an old author and will find out his exact position in the progress of thought. He will never propose to burn the book on the grounds that it contains thoughts which are useless.
I confess that I have probably fallen into the vice of reading, a vice which led Don Quixote to madness. We have been admonished not to read too many books. And yet as a consequence of my service as an editor I fell into this vice and soon grew addicted to reading. I cannot recommend this vice, as it soon leads to thinking, the most dangerous of all vices.
And yet Bhaktivinoda in his generosity finds that every wave is favourable "No thought is useless," he says.
Thoughts are means by which we attain out objects. The reader who denounces a bad thought does not know that a bad road is even capable of improvement and conversion into a good one. One thought is a road leading to another. Thus the reader will find that one thought which is the object to-day will be the means of a further object to-morrow. Thoughts will necessarily continue to be an endless series of means and objects in the progresses of humanity. The great reformers will always assert that they have come out not to destroy the old law, but to fulfill it. Valmîki, Vyāsa, Plato, Jesus, Mohammed, Confucius and Caitanya Mahāprabhu assert the fact either expressly or by their conduct.
Bhaktivinoda Thakura expresses his faith that a real search for truth will become a journey to surrender. Sincere truth-seeking will lead to sincere truth-finding in the form of devotion, surrender and dedication.
Bhaktivinoda felt no need to censor or burn books. He saw that those who appreciate true quality will be attracted to the real thing, leaving aside imitations. Truth prevails not by the suppression of alternate views, but by contrast to them, just as sunlight attracts by its very illumination. There is no need to curse the darkness when we can light a candle. At the same time, who will buy candles when there is ample sunlight?
And yet there are those who would burn books and suppress truth. As someone who spent years distributing books, I have first-hand experience of the difficulties associated with freedom of speech. It is said that "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only if you own a printing press." But even owning a printing press is insufficient against censorship. Only recently were young people able to read our books in Russia, in Ukraine and in other parts of the ex-Soviet Union. 20 years after our printing press closed in the United States, while our publications were gathering cobwebs in libraries, they were reprinted and eagerly read in foreign countries and in translations after restrictions were lifted. Those who would burn books lose in the end, because you cannot burn ideas.
It's an interesting conceit: In the future, fireman don't put fires out, they start them. The firemen of the future hunt down libraries and burn them. Books are dangerous.
 |
| Book burning in Chile, during Pinochet |
Thoughts are dangerous. Books are dangerous. Oddly, Bradbury's book about dangerous books is considered dangerous and is often on the list of banned books. http://study.com/academy/lesson/why-is-fahrenheit-451-banned.html
FAHRENHEIT
451: The temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns.
This
book is often banned, simply because it asks people to think:
“If
you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to
a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let
him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is
inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that
people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they
win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of
state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full
of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they
feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then
they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a senseof
motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that
sort don't change.”
― Ray
Bradbury, Fahrenheit
451
Thinking
is a dangerous and subversive activity: for this reason, Bradbury's
book is often banned in schools and libraries around the United
States as well as in many other countries where thinking is
prohibited.
Bhaktivinoda
Thakura wasn't afraid of people thinking. He believed that if
people took a good look at the Bhagavata they would embrace it's
teachings and philosophy for the Bhagavata is sublime literature.
Where ordinary minds are busy with romance novels or action stories, the Bhagavata is transcendental medicine for the soul.
२.१
धर्मः प्रोज्झित-कैतवो ऽत्र परमो निर्मत्सराणां सतां
वेद्यं वास्तवम् अत्र वस्तु-शिवदं ताप- त्रयोन्मूलनम्
श्रीमद्-भागवते महा-मुनि-कृते किं वा परैर् ईश्वरः
सद्यो हृद्य् अवरुध्यते ऽत्र कृतिभिः शुश्रूषुभिस् तत्-क्षणात्
2.1
dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ
vedyaṁ vāstavam atra vastu-śivadaṁ tāpa- trayonmūlanam
śrīmad-bhāgavate mahā-muni-kṛte kiṁ vā parair īśvaraḥ
sadyo hṛdy avarudhyate 'tra kṛtibhiḥ śuśrūṣubhis tat-kṣaṇāt
Completely rejecting mundane "dharma" materialistic "religion" the Bhāgavata gives the highest truth. Pure-hearted, truth-seeking devotees will understand this book which expounds the highest truth for the welfare of all. Knowing this all misery is vanquished. This book, called the Bhagavata was made by the great sage Vyāsa in the maturity of his spiritual realisation and is sufficient in itself for God-realization. What is the need for any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhāgavatam, by this culture of knowledge, the Supreme Lord is established within his heart. (Bhāg. 1.1.2)
Bhaktivinoda was convinced that there was no need for censorship, since anyone who read the Bhagavata would become enchanted by its sublime nature.
When I first read this it seemed like silly conceit: why go to the trouble of memorising a text when there are so many other ways of preserving it? Now we have the digital age and all kinds of electronic media. On a tiny chip I can preserve thousands of books. Why bother to "embody" a book?
In Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, different people in the secret society "embody" different books; this one is "Hamlet," and that one is "Don Quixote." One person is introduced as "Anna Karenina," while another is "The Bible." At the time the book was written, Bradbury was concerned that television would do away with libraries. But there is another interesting point I would like to make here about "embodying" a work.
When I was younger I would often hear about the "book bhagavata" and the person bhagavata. I found this confusing: How can a person be the same as a book. Taking a page from Bradbury's book, I think I understand the idea. The person bhagavata embodies the book bhagavata. Not that he necessarily has memorised every word of the book bhagavata; but that he has imbibed its spirit. The person bhagavata understands the book bhagavata deeply; he knows its message, and dives and surfaces in the waves of its transcendental meaning.
The person bhagavata has the power to share the sublime meaning of the bhagavata to others through his own deep communion with its spirit.
To try to better understand the nature of the two bhagavatas, I was reading Gaudiya Kantahara yesterday and found this:
Two Kinds of Bhāgavata: the Book and the Person
২.২১
দুই স্থানে ভাগৱত নাম শুনি মাত্র গ্রন্থ-ভাগৱত, আর কৃষ্ণ-কৃপা-পাত্র
2.21
dui sthāne bhāgavata nāma śuni mātra grantha-bhāgavata, āra kṛṣṇa-kṛpā-pātra
The name bhāgavata applies to two things: the book Bhāgavata, and the agent of Kṛṣṇa's mercy, the devotee bhāgavata. (Cb. Antya 3.532)
২.২২
এক ভাগৱত বড ভাগৱত-শাস্ত্র আর ভাগৱত ভক্ত ভক্তি-রস-পাত্র
2.22
eka bhāgavata baḍa bhāgavata-śāstra āra bhāgavata bhakta bhakti-rasa-pātra
One of the bhāgavatas is the great scripture, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The other is the pure devotee bhāgavata, who is absorbed in bhakti-rasa. (Cc. Ādi 1.99)
২.২৩
দুই ভাগৱত দ্ৱারা দিযা ভক্তি-রস তাঙ্হার হৃদযে তাঙ্রে প্রেমে হয ৱশ
2.23
dui bhāgavata dvārā diyā bhakti-rasa tāṅhāra hṛdaye tāṅre preme haya vaśa
Through the actions of these two bhāgavatas the
Lord instills the mellows of bhakti-rasa into the heart of a living being and thus the Lord, in the heart of His devotee, comes under the control of His devotee's love. (Cc. Ādi 1.100)
According to my reading, either by taking shelter of the person bhagavata or the book bhagavata, the effect is the same, entrance into the transcendental world of Krishna-bhakti.
Very interesting reflection professor.
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