Inner World Outer World

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Human existence comprises two facets, a life in the outer world and a peep into the inner world. This book makes an attempt to throw some light on both these facets. It is an analysis, an appraisal and an appreciation of these two worlds, which are so divergent yet so inter- related. The author seeks to share his views, experiences and observations of both the worlds with his readers in the hope that they will be equally fascinated by these accounts. The book has been divided into three sections and different chapters narrate the Truth from different angles and describe various ways and means of knowing the Truth. There are chapters in the nature of loud thinking and others based on personal experiences. Although the works of the foreign writers and thinkers have also been used and quoted in writings on different topics, the author has drawn heavily on the Indian thought and philosophy, notably the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. The undercurrent of this volume is the relationship between the Creator and the creation and it touches upon the methods of self-realisation and attaining the supreme bliss, which is the dream of every seeker.

T.N. DHAR (b. 1934) is a well-known poet and writer who writes under the pen name 'Kundan'. Born and brought up in Kashmir, he is an Honours graduate and a rank holder in Sanskrit and Hindi from Kashmir University and an ICWA from London. Extensively travelled that he is, he has made a place in the literary circles by his writings in Kashmiri, Hindi, Urdu and English. He has authored more than a dozen books on a variety of subjects including Education, Philosophy. Religion and Literature. He was the editor of a prestigious trilingual monthly journal of more than fifty years' standing for about six years. His articles appear in various journals regularly and his poems have been included in the anthologies published by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi and the Academy of Art, Culture and Languages of Jammu and Kashmir. He represented Kashmiri language on the National hook-up of the All India Radio in 1967 He is the recipient of Pandit Prem Nath Bhatt memorial Amateur Journalists award for the year 2000. Presently he is the consulting editor of a prominent journal published from Bangalore.

I do not exactly remember when but it was very early in life that I came to realize that we humans live in two worlds, the inner and the outer. This realization came to me earlier than usual perhaps because I was introduced to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita by my father when I was still very young. I observed that Arjuna put his hands up and refused to fight his own kith and kin, elders and teachers. Instead of reasoning out with him why it was necessary for him to fight and how this war was thrust upon him by his cousin, Shri Krishna straightaway touched upon the topic of the immortality of soul. He distinguished between the perishable and the imperishable, the body and the indweller of the body, the transient and the eternal. He explained to him the reality of the killer, the killing and the slain and that which can be killed and that which cannot be killed. This divine discourse gave me an idea that by the very nature of things a person has to live in two worlds, one internal and the other external. It also gave me the initial insight into the fact that man is not the body alone. Beyond the body, which lives and acts in a visible world, there is the world of mind, intellect and the soul, which may not be visible yet is very much real.

Ever since this awareness came to me, I have from time to time engaged in exploring both the worlds. This exploration has been in the form of study of scriptures and books on Philosophy, interaction with scholars, thinkers and some seers, listening to the discourses of knowledgeable orators and personal experience gained by observation and thinking. I have tried to be worldly wise in dealing with my fellow beings, friends, relations, colleagues and co-workers as also strangers in whose contact I came occasionally. I have tried to observe how and why people act and react in the manner they do. I have tried to rationalize the activities of the people I had to deal with. Yet at times I have failed to find justification or rationality for the deeds and actions of many. The most offending thing that I have found with different people is their lying for nothing, as an inborn nature or habit. Not that I have myself not lied.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages