Parikshit Singh, who is a physician in New York and the author of ‘Sri Aurobindo and the Literary Renaissance of India’ is speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival.
Singh who is also a poet, writer, entrepreneur and healer, spoke exclusively to IANS on the sidelines of the festival and shared how the world has started recognising Indian traditions, rituals and studies, post the pandemic.
At a time when there is a big debate going on in the US with people divided between vaccinated and unvaccinated people, communities can be seen practising Yoga and following Ayurveda. Among small segments, the approach is to heal holistically.
“My own wife, who is a doctor, is doing yoga, using holistic practices and Ayurveda. In India too, people, during the pandemic, became creative. The period was seen as a platform which turned us more creative where we saw glimmers of light within ourselves,” he said.
Talking about why he wrote the book, he said: “After recovering from Covid, I wanted to contribute to society by bringing forward thoughts and philosophies of Sri Aurobindo and hence I wrote this book.”
“When Covid struck me, my oxygen level had touched 84 and I was pretty unwell, but I continued with my yoga practice, refused Oxygen intake and continued working on myself via breathing exercise and soon I recovered practising a holistic approach. Then it was an instantaneous push that helped me complete this book in 15 days although it was years of study behind it.
“I didn’t want to make this book mystical but wanted it to look organic, which should make people aware of Sri Aurobindo’s deep knowledge of Vedas.
“Then, I delved deep into the works of Sri Aurobindo to present a compelling and fascinating collage of his multifaceted and multidimensional genius and was able to portray him as seer and mystic, as visionary and poet, as a writer, translator, linguist and critic, and as India’s first spiritual nationalist.”
Talking about Sri Aurobindo being a colossal literary figure, Singh said that he was a true fountainhead of India’s literary renaissance, who needed to be discovered and better appreciated not just in India but globally, as he was the one who took the nationalist spirit-forward; in fact, he brought the Swaraj term for the first time in 1905, which was more like giving a message of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” by introducing this term.
“Today, when I met the audience, they said that they were unaware that Sri Aurobindo did all this, he translated Vedas and Upanishads, wrote stories and aphorisms by translating ancient Indian literature in new ways. That makes me feel that I have attained my goal of bringing in an organic form of literature.”