A River Sutra Essay

Michelle Vernon The Creative Process Ms. Vance September 16, 2013 A River Sutra In what ways is our narrator’s life and experiment now the Creative Process? The narrator exemplifies the creative process in many ways throughout the book, including his management of the Narmada guesthouse. In his venture out of the urbanized life of a bureaucrat to a vanaprasthi manager a rest house near the Narmada River, our narrator encounters people that deepen his understanding of the world around him (p. 1).

My definition of the creative process is the enhancement f knowledge in a way that makes you more than you were before and how you deal with the hardships that are thrown before you. In listening to the natives tell their stories our narrator was able to absorb the experiences of the teller’s as well as the significances of their stories, and in effect his mind was enhanced with their wisdom allowing him to live the creative process. Our narrator was “[destined to be] brought [to the] banks of the Narmada to understand the world” (p. 68), instead of flee from it like he had expected to do when he left the city. He was enriched with a knowledge that can’t be duplicated in books but only in the verbal representation of the stories. Who or what situations in A River Sutra are the most interesting or complex examples to me of loss? While taking in the vast beauty of the Narmada River our narrator encounters a Jain Monk named Ashok. The story that the monk tells our narrator involves a man who was so sickened by his lifestyle that he renounced the world to be made anew so that he could truly live.

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The monk tells our narrator “to prevent uffering a man must be capable of suffering, that a man who cannot suffer is not alive”(p. 35). Ashok gave up money and a wife to be a monk, because to be a monk is to be “free from doubt”, “free from delusion”, and “free from extremes” (p. 41). This decision captivates me because Ashok made a selfish decision to leave his friends, family, and lifestyle so that he could remake himself into an altruistic human being. He made a selfish decision to be selfless. This is an example of loss that cannot be matched because to give up everything you have in life is like dying and being reborn n a new world.

Who or what situations in A River Sutra are the most interesting or complex examples of love? There are many examples of love but the one that stands out the most to me is that of the courtesan, which tells the story of a woman who refuses to accept her captors affection and “[refuses] to believe that [she] would be forced to [live in the Jungle forever with him]” (p. 181). Yet this feeling of denial soon fades as cupid’s arrow pierces her heart and she falls in love with the very man whose mere name “turned her limbs to stone” (p. 79).

Their love blossomed to such extremes that all else seemed irrelevant and as long as they were together everything was as it should be. The sheer thought of being apart was too much to bear for the courtesan and she “wanted to be stung by [the immortal honeybee like Rahul Singh] so [that they] could be together forever” (p. 185). The reason that this is sucn an Interestlng example 0T love In A Rlver sutra Is Oue to tne Tact tnat tne courtesan learned to overlook the treachery that was attached to his name and love Rahul Singh for his kindness, generosity, and compassion even though he had kidnapped her.

Where do I find the best examples of resourcefulness in A River Sutra, given so many stories about coping with hardships and surprises? In the Minstrel’s story the Naga Baba is able to “center his mind on his meditations [so that] no matter how severe his physical discomfort, [he could endure it]” (p. 238). The Naga Baba’s mind is a very powerful resource that he needs to stay alive. The ability to overcome such deprivations Just by meditation is simply remarkable. Although he an overcome many obstacles with his mind the world around him is still useful.

In an act to protect his physical body further, “he took handfuls of the charred wood [and rubbed the ash over his hair and body] in the ascetics bath” (p. 240). Finally he sustains himself off of the generosity of those around him, trusting that someone will feed and water him. The Naga Baba truly uses everything that is at his disposal to stay alive, whether it is his mind, the environment, or other human beings. Apart from resourcefulness, what other quality do I find in Mehta’s characters (besides the ain narrator), which I think, qualify them as creative – as practitioners of the Creative Process?

There are many characters in the book that are practitioners of the creative process but the quality that stands out to me is the ability to overcome shallow perceptions and see what lies beneath a person’s skin. In the book the narrator is told a story from a woman whose outward appearance did not mirror her inner beauty. The story includes a male stranger who agreed to marry the hideous daughter but only in return for lessons from the musically genius father. After onths of playing in harmony suddenly she was able to express to the stranger her “pain at [her] own ugliness” (p. 21) through the notes. She began to “seduce [him] with [her] weakness and he grew heroic in his music to defend [her] from [her] father’s contempt” (p. 221). Their attraction was born from the harmonies floating through the air between them as they played for each other and with each other. When it came time for their marriage the father released him from his contract allowing the stranger to decide for himself if he wanted to marry the daughter, and e agreed because he saw what was beneath her appearance and fell in love with her inner beauty.

That is a characteristic of the Creative Process. To be able to overlook what is right in front of you is a very complex matter. You have to train your brain to look beneath the surface to find beauty. “Only genius can see beauty in what appears ugly’ (p. 196). It was the genius of the stranger that allowed him to love such an ugly human being. Did some part of A River Sutra remind me of how the Creative process is working in my own life or in someone I know? To this question, I say that ife has countless unanticipated turns that take you on paths that you never even knew existed.

At first glance my life seems extremely ordinary but when you gaze into the depth of my heart you see something quite different. Growing up I faced a great amount of mental abuse/ My father always told me that I was not good enough, that I wasn’t doing anything right and eighteen years of this type of abuse takes a toll on a person’s psyche that can’t be undone. The reason that this is an example of the creative process in my life is because of my endurance to keep going, like Master Mohan in relation to his wife’s abhorrence (Although I hope my story does not end in tne same manner).

I wltnstooa tne narsn comments 0T my Tatner ana Kept going on even when I was told that this was not my path. My creativity was sparked by this abuse because Art was a way to release myself from the cruelty that I was to endure each day. My creativity allowed me to express my emotions on paper in a passive aggressive manner. I was able to convey my story in a unique way that only I could truly understand. That is my creative process and it was unleashed because of what I went through.

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