At the Jaipur Literature Festival, BluOne Ink (Publishers) will have the rare honour of having two of its eminent authors, Drs Pariksith Singh and Makarand R. Paranjape, participate in engaging conversations. Dr Paranjape will be releasing his latest book, Identity’s Last Secret, and will discuss it at length with Dr Singh on the 10th of March. On the 14th of March, Dr Singh will be in conversation with Malashri Lal, discussing his recently released book Sri Aurobindo & the Literary Renaissance of India.
Dr Paranjape, himself an author of books on Sri Aurobindo, has praised Dr Singh’s effort in the past by saying that despite hundreds of books being published on this subject recently, none are this comprehensive. The eight sections in the book cover a vast array of topics and highlight the genius of Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo’s impact goes beyond the realm of philosophy and literature and extends to Indian politics as well. For example, Sri Aurobindo aggressively propagated the Swaraj movement, a turning point in the Indian independence struggle. There he gave a clarion call that fighting for absolute Swaraj was essential and petitioning the British would not bring results.
Interestingly, Sri Aurobindo and the Literary Renaissance of India was written when the pandemic was at its peak. The author, Dr Pariksith, was suffering from the Coronavirus himself, a trying time for his family and him. When we asked him how he accomplished this feat, he said that reading and writing about Sri Aurobindo alleviated the physical and mental pain he was going through.
Dr Pariksith also told us that his book makes Sri Aurobindo accessible to the younger generation. He believes that it is essential to become spiritual beings ourselves to awaken the spirituality and higher consciousness from within. Quoting the Mother, when someone asked her about how one can transform India, Dr Pariksith said her simple reply was by finding one’s own heart and psyche and living through it.
Incidentally, Dr Singh will also be launching his latest poetry book, Swayam Se Parichay, at the festival. His last poetry book, Chutti Ke Din, was released by Rajasthan’s Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot and garnered a lot of praise.