S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 8 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 2 2 1 Gurpyari Bhatnagar its tolerant nature. The novel also highlights the inclusiveness of Tengrism. Here Coelho asserts that in the “vastness and simplicity” of the steppes, “everyone has passed through… Buddhists, Hindus, Catholics, Muslims, different sects with their beliefs and superstitions in order to get relieved of their sense of the past” (Coelho 2005, 181). Belief in the sky worship is also associated with the indigenous “culture of the steppes”; the local tribes have the belief that spiritually one should never be static but in “constant movement,” a strategy which helps one distance oneself from one’s “personal history”. This idea is not new; ancient Indian philosophy holds that one’s karma or “action” leads to moksa or “liberation”. Karma Yoga from the Bhagavad Gītā accords action the most significant place and explains that inaction distances one from spirituality: “Nakarmanamanarabha-nnaiskarmyam purusosnute,” which can be translated as “[n]ot by abstention from work does a man attain freedom from action” (Radhakrishnan 1993, 151). In other words, a man who fails to perform deeds does not attain spiritual wisdom. While discussing the alternative religion of Tengrism in The Zahir, Coelho explores a deep interconnectedness between spirituality and nature in the steppes of Kazakhstan. In other works too, Coelho holds nature and its objects in reverence and sees a very strong connect between nature and spirituality. Nature has inspired the consciousness of most of his characters and motivated them to recognize the pervasiveness of an unknown force in every object of nature. In The Alchemist, the basis of the close proximity of Santiago, the shepherd, with his sheep is a mystical functional understanding: “it was as if some mysterious energy bound his life to that of the sheep” (Coelho 1993, 4). The shepherd boy believes that the girl he loves is not as important as his flock for she does not “depend on him” and therefore, his decision to leave them would lead to their “suffering” (Coelho 1993, 26). He strongly feels that his flock trusts him completely and relies on his instinct for its survival (Coelho 1993, 7). Coelho’s another significant work, Manual of the Warrior of Light (1997), opens with a mysterious woman asking a boy to go to the sea so that he can listen to the bells of the temple that were submerged under the sea years ago. Despite making conscious efforts day after day, he is not able to hear any sound as he is oblivious of the natural world around him. Being close to nature all day long, the fishermen on the other hand could hear the bells of the temple distinctly even though they never made a conscious effort to listen to them. Once he has learned to “contemplate Nature” and appreciate the beauty of the “seagulls’ cries,” the “roar of the sea,” and the “blowing of the wind” in the “palm trees,” the sound of the bells reach him loud and clear (Coelho 1997, x). The indigenous tribes in The Witch of Portobello (2006) also perceive nature as an embodiment of divinity: “My temple is the park, the sky, the water in the lake, and the stream that feeds it. My people are those who share my ideas and not those I’m bound to by bonds of blood. My ritual is being with those people and celebrating everything around me.” (Coelho 2006, 119). The intersection of literature, religion, spirituality, and ecology is a burgeoning area of research within the field of literature. Coelho most skillfully uses this intersection as a literary genre for critical exploration of alternative spirituality. The paper endorses the author’s ecocritical view of spirituality for the reason that this literary genre impacts the reader positively. The engagement with the characters’ experience of the mystical and spiritual stain in nature helps the reader investigate his own experience with the natural world. It offers the reader moments of reflection to consider the role of natural world in forming his own identity. The harmony with nature as a New Age spirituality has gained increasing prominence with scholars not only from the field of literature but from other spheres of life too: philosophers, painters, scientists, and environmentalists have seen this connectedness. For example, Delwin Brown (2005, 171) asserts that one of the most significant impetuses for defending naturalistic religion in recent times is to defend the earth itself. In the same vein, Sergei Tsvetkov, a Soviet geologist, in an interview with Gale Warner, considers ecology a strong basis for visualization of “spiritual integration of the global community,” naming it a spiritual movement (Warner 1988–89, 28).
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