The cover of the
book is a collage of various ideas and experiences related to the topic. The
pictures below reflect the “guru shishya parampara” (गुरु शिष्य परम्परा) in our culture. All knowledge is said to be learnt
by the shishya or student from a guru or teacher, which has then to be absorbed
by deep meditation and thought. The word Upanishad too means to be seated at
the feet of a guru to receive teaching. Our ancient texts are generally in the
form of dialogues / explanations between a guru and
a shishya, or sometimes as a discourse between two rishis one of whom is the
giver and the other a recipient of knowledge.
Thus the Bhagwad
Gita is Krishna’s teachings to Arjun, narrated by the charioteer Sanjay to King
Dhritrashtra. The Upanishads have a similar approach - the Kath Upanishad is
Yam’s teachings to Nachiketa, the Prashna Upanishad is rishi Pippalad
explaining to six disciples etc. The Mundak Upanishad has the conversation
between the Angiras and Shaunak (representing the householder or the
student-rishi).Then the Yog Vashisht is the teachings of rishi Vashisht to Sri
Ram when the latter was young, but presented in the form of narrations and
conversations between other guru/shishyas.
Amongst
the later Smriti texts, the author is telling us (the reader) but again through
narrations - usually several of the commentaries running parallel.
The
Ramcharitmanas has three discussions interspersed – Shiv to Parvati,
Yagyavalkya to Bharadwaj and Kakbhushandi (a sage in the form of a crow) to
Garud (an eagle and Vishnu’s vehicle). The Mahabharat is narrated by
Ugrashravas (उग्रश्रवस) to Shaunak (शौनक) in Naimisharanya
(नैमिषारण्य), a forest well-known in our culture as being the
venue for several discourses. Within this, is the narration of the Bharat kings
by the rishi Vaishampayan to the Kaurav King Janamejaya, as also the narration
of the Bhagwad Gita. In the Bhagwat Puran too, several discourses run
simultaneously : Sut ji to Shaunakadi (Shaunak etc. as disciples) again in
Naimisharanya, then by Sanakadi (Sanak etc. - Brahma’s sons) to Narad, Maitreya
to Vidur and Shukhdev (the son of Ved Vyas) to Parikshit, the grandson of
Arjun.
This
peculiarity of our ancient texts is thus depicted by these images in the book
cover.
