On God and Absence - thoughts from E.M.Forster
The following is a passage from Forster's A Passage to India (which we've just been studying in my 20th Century Novel paper and which I highly recommend, having found it extremely interesting in a multitude of ways), followed by some comments on it by critic Gillian Beer. I don't particularly expect comments but thought it interesting :) Hopefully it will make some sense out of context.
Briefly, it's set in India in the 1920s, and discusses various issues concerned with imperialism and cultural/religious differences, and all kinds of interesting things. Professor Godbole is an elderly Hindu. He's just finished singing a song in the company of an Indian Muslim and a few English acquaintances who don't know the language he was singing in.
*
"Thanks so much; what was that?" asked Fielding.
"I will explain in detail. It was a religious song. I placed myself in the position of a milkmaiden. I say to Shri Krishna: "Come! Come to me only." The God refuses to come. I grow humble and say: "Do not come to me only. Multiply yourself into a hundred Krishna, and let one go to each of my hundred companions, but one, O Lord of the Universe, come to me." He refuses to come. This is repeated several times. The song is composed in a raga appropriate to the present hour, which is the evening."
"But He comes in some other song, I hope?" said Mrs Moore gently.
"Oh no, He refuses to come," repeated Godbole, perhaps not understanding her question. "I say to Him, Come, come, come, come, come, come. He neglects to come."
*
Gillian Beer, in the essay 'Negation in A Passage to India:
'Absence is a condition of God as it is of nothingness, but equally, as Godbole explains a hundred pages later, 'Yet absence implies presence, absence is not non-existence'. Absence is pure, complete. Presence is skeined out in time. Rarely, and then only in moments recognised as ravishing, can the totality of a person be present. In absence, the whole may be realised, though realised as gone. For this reason desire and absence are interlocked: absolutes capable of expression only in negative form.'
Note: I am not intending any comment relating to our discussion at cell group last night of whether the gods of other religions are the same as our God.
Briefly, it's set in India in the 1920s, and discusses various issues concerned with imperialism and cultural/religious differences, and all kinds of interesting things. Professor Godbole is an elderly Hindu. He's just finished singing a song in the company of an Indian Muslim and a few English acquaintances who don't know the language he was singing in.
*
"Thanks so much; what was that?" asked Fielding.
"I will explain in detail. It was a religious song. I placed myself in the position of a milkmaiden. I say to Shri Krishna: "Come! Come to me only." The God refuses to come. I grow humble and say: "Do not come to me only. Multiply yourself into a hundred Krishna, and let one go to each of my hundred companions, but one, O Lord of the Universe, come to me." He refuses to come. This is repeated several times. The song is composed in a raga appropriate to the present hour, which is the evening."
"But He comes in some other song, I hope?" said Mrs Moore gently.
"Oh no, He refuses to come," repeated Godbole, perhaps not understanding her question. "I say to Him, Come, come, come, come, come, come. He neglects to come."
*
Gillian Beer, in the essay 'Negation in A Passage to India:
'Absence is a condition of God as it is of nothingness, but equally, as Godbole explains a hundred pages later, 'Yet absence implies presence, absence is not non-existence'. Absence is pure, complete. Presence is skeined out in time. Rarely, and then only in moments recognised as ravishing, can the totality of a person be present. In absence, the whole may be realised, though realised as gone. For this reason desire and absence are interlocked: absolutes capable of expression only in negative form.'
Note: I am not intending any comment relating to our discussion at cell group last night of whether the gods of other religions are the same as our God.
posted by Kat | 4/26/2005 07:25:00 pm
2 Comments:
"...they say absence makes the heart grow fonder..."
Interesting, for whatever reason, I relate it to guy-girl relationships, where I think you find a similar thing, and the basis for playing hard to get, and the whole unrequited love - liking those who don't like you, not liking those who like you.
That said, I'm not sure I really understand it at all :)
Heh, I'm not sure I really understand it either, but that's eastern mysticism for you :) Specially when combined with western analyticity (is that a word?).
And in fact, having discussed it with Mike this afternoon, I was reminded of a very bad logical 'proof' for the existence of God that we looked at in first year, which seems to take a similar line, but is wholly unsatisfactory:
1) God (by the definition we have of such a being and are meaning in this argument) is perfect.
2) Therefore He has all the properties that make a thing perfect.
3) One of the properties of perfect things is 'existence'.
4) Therefore God must have the property of existence.
5) Therefore God, by definition, exists.
Though on the other hand, I'm not sure Godbole was trying to prove the existence of God by saying that absence implies presence - he was simply saying that His absence doesn't worry him.
So, yeah, not sure what the point of this post is exactly. Somewhat interesting nonetheless.
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