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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
“A lifelong shadow lifted from my heart;
the vague search, hither and yon, was over.
I had found eternal shelter in a true guru.”
(Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi: 103)“I was wavering. I had many questions to ask. I met
my Guru. The Guru answered my questions.”
(Shiva Niranjan, ‘An Interview with Raja Rao’: 21)Following Kakar's psycho-analytic view of reality, the Hindu world (in its yogic representation) appears to be a romantic world—contrary to the western ironic acceptance of life and its painfulness, it substitutes the romantic idea of quest. In Raja Rao's novels, the recurring reference to and practice of sadhana (Skt. ‘means to salvation’) appear to connect his characters with the quest tradition of ancient Hindu scriptures like the Upanishads. In The Inner World, Kakar suggests a comparison between a yogic vision of life and a western psychoanalytic approach by distinguishing between an ironic acceptance of psychoanalysis and a romantic quest, which characterises the sadhaka:
Man is still buffeted by fate's vagaries and tragedy is still the warp and woof of life. But instead of ironic acceptance, the yogic vision offers a romantic quest. The new journey is a search and the seeker (sadhaka), if he withstands all the perils on the road, will be rewarded by exaltation beyond normal human experience. The heroes of this vision are not the Oedipuses and the Hamlets but the Nachiketas and the Meeras.
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