![](http://static.cambridge.org/content/id/urn:cambridge.org:id:book:9780857289537/resource/name/9780857289537i.jpg)
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part I About Theories and Philosophies
- Part II About Self
- Part III About Memory
- Part IV About Interpretation
- Part V About Self, Memory and Interpretation
- Chapter 9 Tales in Lives and Lives in Tales
- Chapter 10 Reflections on Real Time in Great Time
- Appendix I Tables
- Appendix II Interview Documents
- References
Chapter 10 - Reflections on Real Time in Great Time
from Part V - About Self, Memory and Interpretation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part I About Theories and Philosophies
- Part II About Self
- Part III About Memory
- Part IV About Interpretation
- Part V About Self, Memory and Interpretation
- Chapter 9 Tales in Lives and Lives in Tales
- Chapter 10 Reflections on Real Time in Great Time
- Appendix I Tables
- Appendix II Interview Documents
- References
Summary
That moves and That moves not,
That is far and the same is near.
That is within all this,
And That also is outside all this.
Isa Upanishad, Stanza 5This verse taken from Isa Upanishad discusses the paradoxical nature of reality: it is transcendent and immanent; it has both the centrifugal and centripetal forces that determine the underlying unity and diversity of the world. The motion of the world works over the firm grip of perpetual stability. Unity of elements is the eternal truth of things, and diversity is its colorful play. The play is neither light nor trivial, but it becomes light and trivial when divorced from its fundamental unity. This stanza “speaks” much about the Mahabharata (the known) and the Self (the knower) and the essential unity between them and the necessity of diverse play in their partnership. The Mahabharata is so far – it is the timeless past, the ancient past – and yet it is so near, and like a mirror, reflects everything that is immediate and close. It is the “grand story of India” (Maha means great and Bharata is the Sanskrit name for India), and yet can talk to various tales from different lands – those faraway tales and the current emerging ones. It is about a set of cousins feuding over a piece of land, and often likened to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Dialogics of Self, the Mahabharata, and CultureThe History of Understanding and Understanding of History, pp. 251 - 264Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2010