Raja Rao's introductions to his books are as fascinating as books themselves.
From Raja Rao's introduction to The meaning of India:
... I AM NO SCHOLAR. I am a "creative" writer. I love to play with ideas. It is like a chessgame with horses, elephants, chamberlains, and the Kings which might fight with one another. The game is not winning. It is for rasa - delight...
... I enjoy the juxtapostion of ideas. I play. The end, I have been taught, is not a question of success or defeat, but the abolition of contradiction, of duality - and of the peace it should bring to one. I play the game knowing I am the game. That, is the meaning of India...
...When this battle is over, you go, step by step, up the Himalayas, to Manasarovar. You are alone there. The sun shines on the high snows. The waters sizzle, but you can see and hear silence. The wonder is there is no listener. No. None...
...These essays were written for different occasions mostly from the last thirty years. I must be forgiven for repetitions, sometimes, especially of the Purusha Suktha, and sometimes, even of my personal interpretations (in foolishness or ignorance) of texts. In one case, of Nala and Damayanti, there is such a mixup of myths, I must be forgiven for this misdemeanour...
...It is just the game. Come, let us play, you and I...
From Raja Rao's introduction to The meaning of India:
... I AM NO SCHOLAR. I am a "creative" writer. I love to play with ideas. It is like a chessgame with horses, elephants, chamberlains, and the Kings which might fight with one another. The game is not winning. It is for rasa - delight...
... I enjoy the juxtapostion of ideas. I play. The end, I have been taught, is not a question of success or defeat, but the abolition of contradiction, of duality - and of the peace it should bring to one. I play the game knowing I am the game. That, is the meaning of India...
...When this battle is over, you go, step by step, up the Himalayas, to Manasarovar. You are alone there. The sun shines on the high snows. The waters sizzle, but you can see and hear silence. The wonder is there is no listener. No. None...
...These essays were written for different occasions mostly from the last thirty years. I must be forgiven for repetitions, sometimes, especially of the Purusha Suktha, and sometimes, even of my personal interpretations (in foolishness or ignorance) of texts. In one case, of Nala and Damayanti, there is such a mixup of myths, I must be forgiven for this misdemeanour...
...It is just the game. Come, let us play, you and I...
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