Karma and rebirth portrayed in
English Novels
by D. Amarasiri Weeraratne
In
this article I wish to survey the idea of rebirth as a theme in English prose
literature. Let me therefore discuss briefly some of the English novels in modern
times in which the idea of rebirth has found a prominent place.
A novel entitled
"The Nazarene"! was published by Scholemasch in 1939. It was a widely
read story which became popular. This is a serious lengthy and scholarly narrative
woven round the life and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The first paragraph of the
book touches on the subject of rebirth and memories of previous lives. Let me
quote it.
"Not the power to remember but its very opposite, the power
to forget is a necessary condition of our existence. If therefore the transmigration
of the soul is a true one, then those between their exchange of bodies must pass
through a sea of forgetfulness. According to Jewish view we make the transition
under the overlordship of the angel of forgetfulness. But it sometimes happens
that the- angel of forgetfulness sometimes forgets to remove from our memories
the records of the former world; and then our senses are haunted by fragmentary
recollections of another life.)'
The Jewish view that Asch refers to is not
that of orthodox Judaism but the secret teaching of the Kabalists a splinter group
of Jewish mystics.
Pan Viadomsky an old Polish scholar accepts a young Jew
as his assistant in the translation of an ancient Hebrew document which he has
discovered. The old man confides to his assistant one of the intimate secrets
of his life - he remembers his previous life in Jerusalem as a Roman official.
As a result he is tormented by the role he played in the crucifixion of Jesus
Christ. While listening to this story the young man feels his own memories being
revived for he too had lived in the-same period and environment. He too begins
to write down the recollections of his former life that come flooding into his
mind. He also helps Viadomsky to translate the document which turns out to be
the Gospel written by Judas Iscariot.
"The Razor's Edge" was published
by Somerset Maugham in 1943. It had a great influence on the English reading public.
It reached a wider audience than "The Nazarene", because it was screened
as a film in the cinemas. The crux of the story hinges on the fact that young
Larry Darell, its hero found the answer to the quest of his life in the Vedanta
philosophy of India, a fundamental tenet of which is Karma and Rebirth. At the
end of the story he is asked the question "Do you believe in reincarnation?)'
Larry
replies, "That is a very difficult question to answer. I don't think it possible
for us accidentals to believe in it as implicitly as the orientals do. It is in
their brood and bone. With us it is only an opinion. I neither believe in it nor
disbelieve it." But he confesses to having a strange experience one night
while meditating on the flame of a candle. He had seen the vision of human figures
one behind the other each of whom he had felt was his own self in a previous life.
Somerset
Maugham in a work of nonfiction entitled "The Summing Up" admits his
interest in the problem of suffering and says, "I think that the only explanation
of evil that could make the many tragedies of life bearable is Reincarnation and
Karma".
The Theosophical Society published its books "Isis Unveiled"
and ".The Secret Doctrine" in 1875 and 1877. They were the first books
in English propounding the doctrines of Karma and Rebirth. The Irish literary
revival with its harking back to the mythology and folk-lore of Ireland was a
result of Theosophical influence. George Russell and William Butler Yeats were
the leaders af that revival and were also members of the Theosophical Society;
Dublin. Theosophical ideas have influenced contemporary literature to a large
extent.
Max Muller published his translations from "The Sacred Books of
the East" between 1881 and 1910. There have been a few dramas which spotlight
the reincarnation theme. "The Retum of Peter Grimm" by David Belso and
published in 1911 is a noteworthy work. "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud"
was a film shown in the Sri Lanka cinemas for nearly a month some years ago. It
depicted the story given in a novel by that name. The entire picture depicted
- the reincarnation theme and its verification by means of painstaking research.
The idea of portraying a series of lives of an individual has been used by
several novelists e.g. A. E. D. Mason who in his "The Three Gentlemen"
depicted three successive lives of a person. In a novel by Warwick Deeping entitled
"I Live Again" he depicted a series of four lives of a person. In a
novel by Jack London entitled "The Star Rover" we get the portrayal
of a person who remembers three or four previous lives.
Rider Haggard in a
novel entitled "She" writes of a woman who gained memories of her previous
life after bathing periodically in a supernatural flame of life deep in an underground
African cave.
"Flight from Youth" by Wilson E. Barret is a romance
connected with a previous life. In this charming story a young man who has never
studied flying feels a strange urge to walk into an aerodrome, enter a plane and
fly it. He knows instinctively what to do in the air. Suddenly in this setting
he gets recollections of his previous life where he was an airman flying over
France during the course-of which his aeroplane was shot down..
J. D. Salinger
published a story in 1948 called "Teddy". Teddy is a ten year old American
boy who spends part of his time daily in meditation. He has some unusual E. S.
P. Powers, and clearly remembers his past life as a Hindu yogi. This portrayal
is not a strange thing in view of the fact that Salinger was known to be a student
of Yoga and Zen Buddhism.
Talbot Mundy was a writer who was firmly committed
to the belief in Karma and Rebirth. "A Journey from this World to the Next"
was written by Henry Fielding (1907-54). It narrates the story of one- who has
just died and is on his way to heaven. He meets numerous souls returning to earth
life. In 1874 Mortirner Collier published his three volume novel "Transmigration.
"
Allusions to rebirth are found in passages of many more authors. Joan
Grant's novels have caused considerable comment and wonder. Her novel "Winged
Pharoah" was written without scholarly studies. Therein she disclosed an
unusually accurate knowledge of life in Egypt during the Pharoahs. In a prefatory
note to her autobiography "Far Memory" she said that the details are
based on memories of her former life in Egypt during the times concerned.
Allusions
to memories of previous lives can be seen in the works of the following authors:
Sir
Walter Scott "Guy Mannering", Charles Dickens "David Copperfield",
George Elliot "The Spanish Gypsy", G. B. Shaw "Back to Methuselah",
H. G. Wells "The Dream", Walter de La Mare "The Return", Hugh
Walpole "The Adventures of the Imaginative Child",J. B. Priestly', "I
have Been Here Before."
For further details on Western thinkers on reinicarnation
I would like to refer readers to "Reincarnation - An East West. Anthology"
compiled and edited by Joseph Head and S. L. Granston. (Theosophical Publishing
House London 1962). This is an encyclopaedic compilation of quotations from eminent
philosophers, theologians, poets, scientists and other thinkers of every period
of Western culture.