RESEARCH PAPER

Literature

Quest For Truth in Anita Desais Journey to Ithaca

iDuest

Vedantic knowledge, Indian Philosophy, Cross, Cultural complexity

confrontation
_______

Wisdom, Truth, the East-

APARIMITA MISHRA
IABSTRACTJ This paper attempts to explore and examine the Quest theme in Anita Desais Journey to Ithaca; Matt
eo Sophie, the major protagonist search for enlightenment arid awakening. The central issue is not the
search for identity of existence, but search for Truth, Ultimate reality, beauty, joy ecstasy or whatever form twth has.
Desal gives an poetic expression to Indian Philosophy. The Vedas which constitute the essential foundation of the
entire spiritual tradition of India. It attempts to highlight through the study of the novel, the journey motif and the crosscultural complexities and confrontations that such journey envisages.

I NTRODUCTION:
Anita Desai shines as one of the most important Indian writers of today. She occupies a distinct and distinctive place
in the realm of contemporary Indian English fict ion. Each novel in its own way adds a new dimension to Indian
English Literature. She mainly illustrates the int egral drama of human life and concentrates on its basic facts
exploring the deeper psychic and mental status of the protagonist. This paper focuses on the theme of spiri tual Quest
in Anita Desais Journey to Ithaca. Journey to Ithaca marks a departure from the Desai Cannon. It introd uces a
different style and a different subject than what has kept the author preoccupied so far. What keeps her pre-occupied
is the idea of a persistent journey something like the concept of ananta yatra which is embedded in the Indian
Philosophy in life, Ananta Yatra, a well known upanishadic term charaybeti means go ahead dont stop. As K.R.
Srinivasa Iyengar puts it The intolerable grapple with thoughts, feelings and emotions (464).
In most of her novels from Cry the Peacock to Fasting, Feasting she makes known to us the unconscious motifs of
psyche, the problem of human relationship the protagon ists quest for identity, but in Journey to Ithaca she makes the
departure from the vision of a different kind of reality that can sustain our spiritual struggle. Thus she makes some
defining and deciding movements in her structural and visionary perspectives. The seeds for higher human values
was sown in clear light of the Day and Baum- gartners Bombay but they sprout to fullness in Journey to Ithaca.
The central issue is not the search for identity of existence, but a Search for truth, ultimate reality, beauty, joy, ecstasy
or whatever form truth has.
The novel dramatizes the timeless theme of spiritual quest. Through the journey Desai wants to explore the long fasc
ination of the west with Indian spirituality, The two cont rasting views of spiritual pursuits believing and questioni ng.
Indian Philosophy is steeped in religious and spiritual ideals and culture is the underlying foundation of tradit ion and
beliefs that helps a person relate to the world around and all other things that people learn that make up the way of
life of any society. It is passed on from one generation to the next through the process of sociali zation. Religion forms

the very core of Indianness and it means oneness the realization of ones own self. The journey motif is undertaken
by three different characters
on different planes of existence with an intention in search of the root of spirituality which is highly symbolic. Matteo is
depicted by Desai as an intellectual pilgrim in the quest for reality, the quest for Truth. As the novel enfolds Matt eo the
only child exhibits signs of worldly failure from the beginning. He fails to conform to the domestic or social norms of
the world. Reticent and withdrawn Mattec found the villa with its velvet hangings and tapestries stifling. He wants to be
alienated, his entire presence seemed to be made up of silence. The life in the school disturbed him. His parents work
hard to bring him to practical work and business but all efforts were in vain. His behaviour at school and home
symbolically exhibits that the seeds for higher values of life had already been there (i.e. In his mind) in their essence
even before they were materially rea lized and named, The transformation comes to Matteo when his tutor Fabian
presents him a book The Journey to the East by Herman Hesse. By reading the book Matt eos soul begin to stir and
as Vivekananda writes Each soul is potentially divine. He is restless, he wants to wn away to escape from the
worldly pleasure. He moulds his mind towards the philosophy of Vedanta and Indian Phil osophy and he embarks with
Sophie his wife on a spiritual adventure to India to find India, to understand India and the mystery that is in the heart
of India (57).
India has enchanted the west ever since its fame reached their shores, especially after colonisation not only for its all
uring skills, muslins gems and spices but also for its arsha sanskara. The post-war unrest in the west has directed
many a disturbed soul in the magic of India.
Matteo. search for India proved to be difficult because of lack of knowledge about India and the absence of a proper
Guru. Guru has a special connotation in the Indian context, the Guru is not just a teacher or expert but ones spiritual
leader who guides the disciple towards truth and God. The Gurus are the representative of the Lord, who are the
helms man to carry one safely and easily beyond the worldly ocean. Wonderful is the power of the touch of the Gurus
hand. The real Guru is one who fixes us in our nature and carries us beyond the ocean of worldly existe nce (Sai
Sacharita) (59 60).
The subtle body consisting of thoughts and desire which cannot be burnt by the gross fire is destroyed by the mere
touch of the Gurus hand. Matteo learns Sanskrit and read
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RESEARCH PAPER
Katha Upanishad, Vedas. For Matteo India was an entity.
Moving from one ashram to another ashram, distracted and deceived by series of fake yogis (65). He steps on the first step of the
ladder leading to spirituality in an ashram in the Himalayan Peak where a woman is the head of the ashram. His disturbed soul finds
solace in the lap of the mother. He seems to reach his goal under the blessings of the mother, the supreme power women,
assuming different forms and shapes, the three aspects of feminine personality One who gives birth, one who rears and the one
who destroys. The concept of Shakti power is the central to the universe, Kali the divine and destructive, Parv ati, sweetness, Durga,
the eternal Mother. Like the Indian Trinity, Brahma (the Generator), Vishnu (the Operator), and Mahesh the (Destroyer). Matteo ends
his journey with the total surrender to the mother. Sophie, on the other hand a German, is a confident journalist, worldly, practical,
bel ieves in logical explanation of things though not intereste d in spiritual ways but proceeds to India with Matteo like any other
western adventurers to explore the mountains and to enjoy the exotic East.
She too visited many an ashram, first out of curiosity and later on out of compulsion. Sophie does not appreciate the process of

moving and thinks it is useless and meani ngless. She feels like a beast in a cage (79) very unhappy, she married Matteo to remain
together to lead a happy married normal life but for Matteo it was different, who was looking for a meaningful life from his childhood
days. Sophie does not want to travel all over India seeking enl ightment and in context to see the world as it is. When their son is
born she wants to move back and tried to conv ince Matteo. She is disgruntled with the dirt, the disease and the poverty of India.
These emotions contrasting and clashing are brought out beautifully by Desai. Sophie susp ects the spiritual authority of the Mother
and thus she enq uires all about the past of the Mother, while the Mother was the Guru for Matteo, to Sophie she was a magician.
Her queries why can we be not together again at home with the children?. Her queries about the Mother disturbs Matteo but the
widening gulf between them aggravates her questing spirit. She wants to go behind that and to find out who the mother really is, how
she came here and why (153). She wants to dig out the past of the Mother. She learns the spiritual Gurus past as Laila a girls long
tenuous, impassioned and painful journey. She was in search for some vision of Supreme Joy. Her life is a saga of a yearning soul.
Her childhood days is symbolically rel ated to Matteos childhood. As Matteo fails to live up the standards and ideals of his Italian
parents Laila too fails the
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expectation of her parents. She answers to her parents I go down the street, I turn a corner, I dont know where I am
Do?. I do nothing. I walk, I play, I look. But I do nothing (18). She rebels against the traditional code and leaves her
home in search for spiritual experience. She feels like a prisoner in her own house. She always took her life as a
journey to the Abode of Bliss. She had set one goal and that was to experience the presence of God. She was a
dancer. Dance for Laila was not only stamping, jumping and swirling in motions but it was something else. She
wanted to express through her dance. Whatever it is the music express and that is sometimes joy, sometimes grief,
sometimes despair. (23).
She came across Madame Lucan book shop. There were different books, Rig Veda, Samhita , Bhagawad Gita. The
sacred book of the East. She took Out Attreya Brabmanan of the Rig Veda from the shelf and started to read the book
There is no happiness Therefore wonder
By reading books she equipped herself with the knowle dge of the Eastern Gods and Goddesses. She went on
dancing and visited America, Italy .... She became famous but her heart desired something deeper and higher values.
She danced with ecstasy, the ecstasy knowing that time had come A coolness touched her heart. From Laila she
becomes Lila the manifestation of God. The truth was inside her. As the essence of Vedas which contains the
universal truths discovered by enlightened people. The master and the devotee became one and she became the
supreme of the ashram.
From time immemorial man is in search of infinite knowle dge, infinite bliss infinite peace and eternal life. Though
these things are present within himself all the time. Ved anta declares that what we are searching for is within us. The
nature of the soul is Sachhidananda existence

knowledge bliss absolute. Her life becomes a mission. She becomes Guru for Matteo. She becomes the Mother.

There ends the turbulent phase of her quest providing her bliss, wisdom, enlightment and her transformation from
Laila to the Mother.
Thus the novel seems to suggest that it is not the end or the fruit, that determines the success of the quest, but the
journey itself which provides one with great illumination.

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& Distributors 2004. 6. Kundu Rama Journey to the East Once

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Religion and Culture Hird Pocket Books (P) Ltd. 1968. 8. Rani Usha Crossing the Border: A study of Baumgartners Bombay (1988) and Journey to Ithaca (1995) in
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& Distributor {P) Ltd. 2013. 9. Srikaritanarida Swami Youth! Arise, Awake and Know

Your Strength Swami Paramarthanarida Ram Krishna Math. Hyderabad.-2005

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