T.S. Eliot's: 'The Waste Land'

This blog is in response to the task given by Dilip barad sir https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2014/10/presentations-on-ts-eliots-waste-land.html. In this blog I am going to write about my understanding on the modern epic poem "The Waste Land" by T.S.Eliot.

1)Write about allusions to the Indian thoughts in 'The Waste Land'. (Where, How and Why are the Indian thoughts referred?)

One among the many western scholars, who were influenced by Indian philosophy, T.S. Eliot let his understanding become a key factor in his magnum opus, The Waste Land . The dominant poetic voice of the 1920s, Eliot used an essential, allusive and elliptical technique to put across the view that modern western urban civilization was sterile and unsatisfying. He avoided personal emotion in contrast to the more romantic effusions of the Georgian poets. His distaste for romanticism, a desire to treat the poem in isolation from the poet and the cult of traditional classical values went hand in hand with a dislike of the modern world.

The Waste Land appeared in 1922. The poem, which won Eliot the Nobel Prize in 1948, follows the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King combined with vignettes of contemporary British society. He employs literary and cultural allusions from the western canon, Buddhism and the Hindu Upanishads. The poem shifts between voices of satire and prophecy featuring abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location, time and conjuring a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures.

Five sections:

The Waste Land is divided into five sections. The “Burial of the Dead” introduces the diverse themes of disillusionment and despair. The second is “A Game of Chess” and the third, “The Fire Sermon,” shows the influence of Augustine and Eastern religions. The fourth is “Death by Water” and the fifth and final section is “What the Thunder said,” which features the influence of Indian thought on the Poet Laureate.

Eliot became a prominent poet in the aftermath of the chaos and convulsions of the First World War. Europe was home to existential philosophy owing its origin to Kierkegaard. This was a reaction against German idealism and the complacency of established Christianity. 

Dr. Radhakrishnan records how T.S. Eliot, when asked about the future of our Civilization said, “Internecine fighting, people killing one another in the streets.” Civilization to him appeared a crumbling edifice destined to perish in the flames of war. The tragedy of the human condition imposes an obligation on us to give meaning and significance to life. Eliot’s prescription for a new dawn is given in Part V — “What the Thunder Said.”

“Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves

Waited for rain, while the black clouds

Gathered far distant, over Himavant.

The jungle crouched, humped in silence.

Then spoke the thunder

DA

Datta: what have we given?

My friend, blood shaking my heart

The awful daring of a moment’s surrender

Which an age of prudence can never retract

By this, and this only, we have existed

Which is not to be found in our obituaries

Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider

Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor

In our empty rooms

DA

Dayadhvam: I have heard the key

Turn in the door once and turn once only

We think of the key, each in his prison

Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison

Only at nightfall, aethereal rumors

Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus

DA

Damyata: The boat responded

Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar

The sea was calm, your heart would have responded

Gaily, when invited, beating obedient

To controlling hands

I sat upon the shore

Fishing, with the arid plain behind me

Shall I at least set my lands in order?

London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down

Poi s’ascose nel foco che gli affina

Quando fiam uti chelidon — O swallow swallow

Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la tour abolie

These fragments I have shored against my ruins

Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo’s mad againe.

Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.

Shantih shantih shantih”

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad alludes to Prajapathi, the Creator, talking to his three offspring — Devatas, Demons and Men. In the first Brahmana Chapter V, all the virtues are brought together under the three Da’s which are heard in the voice of the thunder namely Dama or self-restraint for the Devas, Danas or self-sacrifice for the humans and Daya or compassion for the Demons. Eliot was greatly influenced by the Bhagavad Gita. See Chapter XVI, Verse 21.

Part V of The Waste Land indicates a turning point. ‘The Word of the Thunder’ offers a ray of hope penetrating the despair that hangs over the rest of the poem. In a letter to Bertrand Russell, Eliot described it as “not only the best part but the part that justifies the whole.” Eliot uses concepts from Sanskrit texts as a framework to give shape to and support the many ideas that constitute the human psyche on a spiritual journey.

What sparked his interest in Vedic thought is not recorded but it is known that he was occupied with Sanskrit, Pali and the metaphysics of Patanjali. The Waste Land reiterates the three cardinal virtues of Damyatha (Restraint), Datta (Charity) and Dayadhvam (Compassion) and the state of mind that follows obedience to the commands as indicated by the blessing Shanti, Shanti, Shanti — the peace that passes understanding.

T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, an important landmark in the history of English poetry, first appeared in ‘the Dial’ and after winning that Magazine’s Poetry Award, was finally published in book form in 1922. After its publication, it found a resounding and reverberating success in the world literature because of its universal theme and thought content. Eliot’s universalism is the result of his cosmopolitan intellectualism and poetic sensibility which transcends all sorts of barriers ranging from caste, creed, religion and spatial variance. In the Preface to Four Lancelot Andrews (1928), he proclaimed himself to be “‘classist in literature, royalist in politics, and Anglo-Catholic in religion.’” This proclamation is circuitous conscientiously, religiously encompassing the essence of the wisdom of the globe emerging from West and East respectively and making something new out of the alchemical process of poetic creation. Hence, it is plausible to determine abundance of influences on Eliot’s mind and his writings: Indian, Christian, Bradleyean: “‘Eliot presented the credentials of a wide-ranging poetic sensibility by incorporating in his writings not only the ‘best’ of European culture but also of Indian thought’” 

The poet’s mind is a complex mechanism to absorb and to recreate ‘something new and strange.

As regards T.S. Eliot, he was an avid believer in constant study throughout his life, hence the range and variety of his interest was quite amazing. The exploration of different sources and influences on the works of Eliot because of their multifarious layers of suggestions and implications has emerged as a well established and settled routine because his works are thereplica of his ardent and erudite scholarship. The Waste Land, the most influential and deemed over poem of Eliot is not an exception rather bears the impressions of his scholarship. This poem within the space of its four hundred and thirty three lines has quotations, imitations and allusions derived from more than thirty writers ranging from Vigil, Ovid, Dante to Shakespeare, Milton and Spenser etc. Moreover, this is organized round the mythical material drawn from Jessie Weston’s and James Frazer’s books of anthropology: “Not only the title, but the plan and a good deal of the incidental symbolism of the poem were suggested by Miss Jessie L. Weston’s book on the Grail legend: From Ritual to Romance . . To another work of anthropology I am indebted . .  I mean The Golden Bough ”  

Apart from these books, the Indian thoughts especially Hinduism and Buddhism exercised a conspicuous and impressionable influence on Eliot’s mind when he was working upon The Waste Land cannot be overlooked. The ancient wisdom of India had attracted attention of many intellectuals of western countries. In the mid-nineteenth century Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman were greatly influenced by Indian scriptures and they were composing poetry tinted with Indian aura. Hence “[t]here was a deep desire to have first hand acquaintance with Indian thoughts”. In 1884 Lanman was the first to bring forth his Sanskrit Reader and thus he initiated Harward Oriental Series. Thus, he scattered the seeds of Indian thoughts in the soil of Europe: Already enough pioneering work in this direction had been done by European scholars; and then enlightened students of Culture did not close their minds to the winds blowing from India. This was the currents of ideas in which at the turn of the century many Americans found themselves. Possibly the activities of Swami Vivekananda too had a powerful influence in molding this atmosphere.

It is part of both ritual as well as religious activity in Vedic way of living. The words are not automatic, but Eliot wants the universe to be at peace, including peace for the waste landers, those who live in acute atmosphere of awe, fear, doubts and frustration”. To conclude, The Waste Land bears the mark of Indian wisdom to a considerable extent. However, to confine it to sheer Indianness will not be a true justification to this poem which bears universal outlook and Hindu, Vedic and Buddhist religious undertones constitute a part of the poet’s universal attitude.

2) What are your views on the following image after reading 'The Waste Land'? Do you think that Eliot is regressive as compared to Nietzsche's views? or Has Eliot achieved universality of thought by recalling mytho-historical answer to the contemporary malaise?

-T.S.Eliot and Friedrich Nietzsche are quite different in their thinking Nietzsche had proclaimed “God is Dead”; he doesn’t believe in any power like God. He believed in “Superhuman”, who believes in his own self and has great will power; While T.S.Eliot believes in spirituality and religion. In compared to Nietzsche's thought, yes Eliot is regressive but it doesn't mean that he only rises question on his contemporary society, he also tries to give way of solution rather than the answers.

Cycle of time always moving and when History start repeating one must have to look back and try to learn that what are mistakes our ancestor did and now when time comes to us how we will deal with it? It is certain and right that new question's answer we couldn't find in Upanishad, Buddhism and Christianity but the way of living, understanding towards any situation one can develop. So we can conclude that it is also right that problems of contemporary crisis' solution is in faith and self but, the level of faith and understanding of self must be necessary. It comes from reading of mytho-historical and religious thought. Eliot achieved that universality of thought.

3) Prior to the speech, Gustaf Hellström of the Swedish Academy made these remarks:

What are your views regarding these comments? Is it true that giving free vent to the repressed 'primitive instinct' lead us to happy and satisfied life? or do you agree with Eliot's view that 'salvation of man lies in the preservation of the cultural tradition'?

I am disagree with Eliot. By suppressing the desires or by controlling it the desire get more strong and it also affect at psychological level. It is better to give free vent to primitive instincts as Freud suggest to do. Here I want to give example of movie “Murder 2” in which the villain of movie Dheeraj, have sex addiction and he is also straight man but to control his sex addiction he castrated him self and become eunuch. As now he cant satisfy his hunger he started killing girls and become serial killer. So we can see how suppression leads to the harsh endings. Though Dheeraj has inappropriate addiction which suppose to be controlled but he himself willingly and with understanding should do the needful but he is doing it with the wrong ideas in brain it turns out rude. So the desires which all normal human beings naturally have should not be suppressed. It is better to give free vent to the desires which leads to the happy and satisfactory life. There are other movies based on this kind of concept of desire.

Thank You so much for reading this blog.

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