S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 8 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 2 1 9 Gurpyari Bhatnagar 3 Alternative Spiritualities in Coelho’s Select Novels Many studies have associated personal quest with spirituality, where the individual no longer wishes to seek truth that is absolute but the truth through which one can find true meaning in one’s life. The quest dimension is expected to be more prominent among the spiritual type of personality than among the religious or spiritual-religious type (Schnell 2012, 41). However, it would be incorrect to claim that quest is not a dimension of religion at all. In fact, Charles Daniel Batson and Patricia A. Schoenrade (1991, 431) have evaluated the concept in relation to a religion’s orientation for an “open-ended responsive dialogue with existential questions raised by the contradictions”. Unfortunately, most of the mainstream established religions, being authoritarian, do not let Batson and Schoenrade’s proposition of “religion as quest” work [4]. Thus, the individual attempts to seek truth outside religious institutions, as in the case of Coelho and most of his characters. Coelho’s The Zahir (2005) is a novel where the narratives clearly signify the pattern of spirituality, which are individualistic or inward, the basis of which is personal belief in a supernatural force without any commitment to an established institutional belief system. The following statements from the novel are indicative of, to use Schnell’s phrase, “spirituality without religiosity” (Schnell 2012, 43): We need to find a way of channeling all this, of allowing the energy of this pure, absolute love to flow through our bodies and spread around us. – Coelho (2005, 60) ‘I believe in signs,’ I said. ‘I believe in fate. I believe that every single day people are offered the chance to make the best possible decision about everything they do.’ – Coelho (2005, 37) The Zahir also examines the reasons for change in the religious or spiritual identity of the major characters. Esther, the narrator’s wife in the novel and a war correspondent, is disillusioned with the conditions that have failed to evoke spiritual sensibilities. Therefore, she leaves her home and family in pursuit of an alternative to purely religious Meaning and Truth. Michael and Dos are the other characters here who have been trying to discover their own ideology of hope outside religion. Born in a war-torn country, Kazakhstan, Michael’s view of religion emerges from the conflict between his impressions of the appalling post-war condition of his father and his romantic ideals from conditioning at school. War hero of a two-hundred-day-long battle, his father is a nervous, restless, and unemployed insomniac. In the appalling conditions of war, he is forced to eat the flesh of his own “dead frozen companions.” His post-war condition is as dismal, wherein the communist group labels him a traitor and his family has to live in poverty. Michael’s perspectives are conditioned further by the headmaster of his school, who views religion as a thing of superstition and community worship as a practice for the old and the idle. Michael believes to have seen visions and heard voices and is expelled from school on the grounds of spreading superstition and encouraging pseudoscience. He grows up into a muddled youth who believes visions to be his guiding force but cannot disclose them to anyone for fear of a negative reaction. It is only when he meets Esther at his garage that he believes the “mission” “entrusted” to him can be fulfilled. On his way to Kazakhstan as her interpreter, he informs Esther of his connection with the “invisible” force, and she guides him to run a little group therapy in France. On his return, he starts holding meetings with people who are “afraid of ending up” like those who have given in to “reality,” also integrating the culture of “storytelling” and “dancing” with alcohol and drugs (Coelho 2005, 276). As seen from the above narratives and situations, Coelho’s view of spirituality stresses on the subjective understanding of the absolute. The reader can very clearly perceive that this personalized perception of God is attributed to Coelho’s own shift in the spiritual realization. The paper appreciates his view of the direct experiential realization of the Absolute, and his characters expressing their desire to sense the energy in its pure(st) form. The paper also acknowledges that the practices that are hollow in nature have no power to enable the proximity to the Transcendent. But at the same time, the paper contends that religion cannot be conceived only in terms of place and practice of worship. Only when understood broadly as an institutionalized belief system, it can be positively associated with spirituality. The right approach to define the term religion, therefore, becomes extremely significant in scholarship. Loose and fuzzy definitions do not take us far; these rather confuse and dissolve the very purpose of scholarship on religion and spirituality. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s take on this issue is very helpful. He asserts the scholar to adopt the right approach in exploring
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzgxMzI=