‘Spirituality not related to religion, god or meditation’

Nagpur: A guest lecture on the topic 'Spirituality and poetry' was jointly organized by Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Adhyasan and the Department of English, Nagpur University (NU) where eminent linguist, critic and activist Ganesh Devy delivered a lecture on Friday.

The programme, which was held at the university campus, began with the welcome address by Pramod Munghate, officiating head, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Chair. "The Adhyasan was installed chiefly to understand and add up to Tukadoji Maharaj's literary knowledge. With the same objective, we conduct such events so as to provide a much-needed insight to the students and faculty," Munghate said.

Devy, beginning with his speech and justifying his presence at NU said, "Our nation has passed surplus amount of time thinking about itself and trying to form an identity in which Tukadoji played a significant role. My sole purpose of delivering the lecture is to pay tribute to Tukadoji."

Beginning with the topic, he said, "In English literature, sometime during 70th century, spirituality started fading. Romantics, however, did try to revive the definition of spirituality." He spoke at length about the different perceptions held by many noted poets regarding spirituality and poetry.

"When I talk about spirituality, I do not talk about God. Spirituality has nothing to do either with gods or religion and meditation. I think it is an entirely different phenomenon," Devy added.

Devy also elaborated on memory, imagination and intuition, which he rightly branded as the pillars of spirituality. "Spirituality is just a positive signal in every human's life. It is what allows us to transcend everything and go beyond human capability, to think of the impossible," he said.

"In the future, our capability to write poetry is going to help us stay closer to spirituality, " he said while concluding his lecture.

The programme ended with a short presiding speech by SV Kane, vice-chancellor of NU.