Harmony through translations: Amonkar's initiative via Guru Nanak By Dr. Nandakumar Kamat [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=04283 First published in The Navhind Times, Monday, April 28, 2008 ON April 30, the Mapusa based educationist and Konkani scholar Suresh Gundu Amonkar is to release his Konkani translation of Guru Nanak's Jap Ji. The Jap Ji is a compendium of the teachings of Guru Nanak, the master. This Konkani translation is an important event in the history of Konkani language and literature. Jap J is one of the most revered religious works of the Sikhs. The Sikhs are a model, creative, hard working, enterprising and peace-loving community in the world. Such a community had suffered immensely during India's partition, during Operation Blue Star and the shameful and atrocious riots in the capital in the aftermath of the Indira Gandhi's assassination. What has given the Sikhs their resilience, inner peace and strength? What can the Goans learn from them to improve their spiritual and material world? We need to seek answers in Amonkar's translation of Japa Ji. The Sikhs are the great benefactors of Goa. It was the brave Sikh battalion, which played a historic role in liberating Goa. The Sikhs sacrificed their lives in Goa's freedom struggle. The Konkani translation of Jap Ji would help the Goans to understand the rich Sikh spiritual traditions. Goa's bond with the land of the Vedas would be strengthened. Goa is a land of Kirtans, Bhajans, Garhane, Ladainha and devotional music. To the Goans' ears the chants of the Sikh Shabd Kirtan and the Sufi music are as appealing as Tukaram's Abhangs sung in the melodious voice of Lata Mangeshkar. The Jap Ji would make Konkani richer. Guru Nanak included the hymn as a prologue to the Guru Granth Sahib. To the followers of the Advaita philosophy, Jap J would offer a new vision, which hundreds of years ago, Guru Nanak had when he sought one-ness with the Supreme Being. Jap Ji is a compendium of spiritual wisdom -- a meditation attempting to dissolve the followers' ego and making him see the universe bathed in the divine light. The Upanishads proclaimed 'aham brahmasm' or one-ness with the universe. Guru Nanak incorporated India's civilisational wisdom in the 'Jap Ji'. Since it would have been difficult for Suresh Amonkar to translate all 1400 pages of Guru Granth Sahib -- the spiritual treasure of the Sikhs -- he might have chosen the prologue, which is as beautiful as the holy text. All religions seek universal peace. But their followers show ignorance about the religious literature and precipitate social, cultural and political turmoil. A vast majority of Indians do not care to read the holy texts of other religions. But no one can deny the invisible cultural and spiritual thread, which unites all the Indians. At the very last moment, Jawaharlal Nehru must have realised this despite being an atheist because he wanted his ashes to be scattered all over India. Why, he wanted his mortal remains to be one with India's sacred land? We need to understand India's spiritual wisdom to know the answer. Empires have ruled and have bitten the dust of history. Great warriors and leaders have been forgotten. But the wisdom of Gautam Buddha, Mahavir Vardhaman, Adi Shankracharya, Saint Dnyanaeshwara, Eknath, Ramdas, Tukaram, Namdeo, Guru Nanak, Kabir, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Basaveshwara, Narasi Mehata, Tiruvalluvar and a rich galaxy of many such figures are timeless. Unfortunately, most of their works have not been translated in all the major Indian languages. This has created a terrible cultural vacuum across the country, which is the root cause of mutual distrust between different communities. Violence would not enter anyone's mind if all Indians become familiar with the spiritual wisdom of their saints. The Portuguese destroyed the body of Konkani, Marathi, Sanskrit and Kannada literature, which existed in Goa. Modern Konkani had to rewrite its history. Languages blossom by ideological and intellectual interactions. Translating famous books from one foreign language to other may get some people name and fame. But it takes superior efforts to translate without losing the essence, the religious literature from one Indian language to other. Suresh Amonkar has undertaken this as a mission. It is unique in India. Our heads should bow in humility before the works which he has created-these include -- the Konkani translations of the Zen stories, the Jataka tales, the Dhammapada, the Bhagavadgita, Tirukural and the magnum opus, which took five years of unstinted efforts despite his critical heath conditions -- the finest translation of the Marathi Dnyaneshwari in reader friendly, simple Konkani. The Konkani Dnyaneshwari needs to be a prized possession in every Hindu and Christian house in Goa, such is its spiritual and literary beauty. This single work has already immortalised Mr Amonkar's name in the annals of history of Konkani literature. A composite reading of all his translations reveals a beautiful mind -- a mind, which aspires to add beauty to others' lives. As a professional, Suresh Amonkar had already carved a niche in the society. But as a translator he has created his own genre, which would be unparalleled for a long time to come. It is not easy to translate spiritual literature unless one has a mature understanding of the nuances of the expressions, the metaphors, symbolism and the imagery. Our greatest thoughts are often those, which tell us the simplest of the truths. All saintly wisdom is basically a variation of the same truth. When Mr Suresh Amonkar began his mission with his deep knowledge of Buddhist texts, perhaps he was not sure about the directions in which he would be led. But, as he himself feels, a supreme power has guided his hand and has shown him the way to spread the ageless and timeless wisdom of mankind. He knows several languages but he chose Konkani. By doing this, he was paying a tribute to his maternal uncle, the poet laureate of Goa, Bakibab Borkar. In two years, India will celebrate the birth centenary of a great modern poet -- Balkrishna Borkar. With such celebrities in the family, Mr Suresh did not have to look elsewhere for inspiration. With the blessings of Bakibab he completed the historic task of bringing Dnyaneshwari in Konkani. The selection of Jap Ji was appropriate because almost nothing is available in Konkani on Sikh religion and philosophy. Konkani writers and scholars have close friendship with the well-known Punjabi writers and poets. The Konkani translation of Jap J is being released at such a time when a Goan former army chief of staff, the retired Major General, Suneeth Rodrigues is the governor of Punjab and the chief secretary of Goa is a thoroughly secular and progressive member of the Sikh community. Mr Amonkar's attempts to build bridges of harmony across religions need to be universally acclaimed. Jap Ji in Konkani would be revered by the Konkani society for ages to come. ENDS