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शरणम्
यह पुस्तक धरम का ग्रंथ नहीं है। ऐसा स्वंय लेखक का कहना है। यह गीता की टीका या भाष्य भी नहीं है। यह एक उपन्यास है,शुद्ध उपन्यास, जो गीता में चर्चित सिद्धांतों को उपन्यास के रूप में पाठक के सामने रखता है। यह उपन्यास लेखक के अन्दर उठने वाले प्रश्नों का नतीजा है। जिसमे सामाजिक मानदंड की एक सीमा तय की गयी है जो पाठक को आकर्षित करने में सक्षम है।
नरेन्द्र कोहली का जन्म 6 जनवरी 1940, सियालकोट ( अब पाकिस्तान ) में हुआ । दिल्ली विश्वविद्यालय से 1963 में एम.ए. और 1970 में पीएच.डी. की उपाधि प्राप्त की । शुरू में पीजीडीएवी कॉलेज में कार्यरत फिर 1965 से मोतीलाल नेहरू कॉलेज में । बचपन से ही लेखन की ओर रुझान और प्रकाशन किंतु नियमित रूप से 1960 से लेखन । 1995 में सेवानिवृत्त होने के बाद पूर्ण कालिक स्वतंत्र लेखन। कहानी¸ उपन्या&
नरेन्द्र कोहली का जन्म 6 जनवरी 1940, सियालकोट ( अब पाकिस्तान ) में हुआ । दिल्ली विश्वविद्यालय से 1963 में एम.ए. और 1970 में पीएच.डी. की उपाधि प्राप्त की । शुरू में पीजीडीएवी कॉलेज में कार्यरत फिर 1965 से मोतीलाल नेहरू कॉलेज में । बचपन से ही लेखन की ओर रुझान और प्रकाशन किंतु नियमित रूप से 1960 से लेखन । 1995 में सेवानिवृत्त होने के बाद पूर्ण कालिक स्वतंत्र लेखन। कहानी¸ उपन्या&
314 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 18, 2017
6 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
नरेंद्र कोहली, Narendra Kohli
115 books105 followersPadmashree Narendra Kohli is one of the most eminent and well-known Hindi writers of our times. His novel based on the Ram-Katha, Abhyuday, shifted the course of Hindi novel-writing. Another of his novels, Mahasamar, based on the Pandava-katha went on to become just as popular. His novel-series, Todo Kara Todo is considered the greatest and foremost novel in any language on the life of Swami Vivekananda. Abhigyan, Vasudev, Sharnam, Aatmaswikriti, Varunaputri, Sagar-Manthan, Ahalya etc. are his other well-known works. Apart from the Padmashree, he has also been awarded the Hindi Akademi award; Delhi Salaka Samman; Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthaan award; Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Samman, Lucknow; K.K. Birla Foundation award; Vyasa Samman, New Delhi; Madhya Pradesh government and Bhopal’s Maithili Sharan Gupt Rashtriya Samman, among numerous other honours.
डॉ॰ नरेन्द्र कोहली (जन्म ६ जनवरी १९४०, निधन १७ अप्रैल २०२१, चैत्र शुक्ल पंचमी, नवरात्रि) प्रसिद्ध हिन्दी साहित्यकार हैं। उन्होंने साहित्य के सभी प्रमुख विधाओं (यथा उपन्यास, व्यंग्य, नाटक, कहानी) एवं गौण विधाओं (यथा संस्मरण, निबंध, पत्र आदि) और आलोचनात्मक साहित्य में अपनी लेखनी चलाई है। उन्होंने शताधिक श्रेष्ठ ग्रंथों का सृजन किया है। हिन्दी साहित्य में 'महाकाव्यात्मक उपन्यास' की विधा को प्रारंभ करने का श्रेय नरेंद्र कोहली को ही जाता है। पौराणिक एवं ऐतिहासिक चरित्रों की गुत्थियों को सुलझाते हुए उनके माध्यम से आधुनिक सामाज की समस्याओं एवं उनके समाधान को समाज के समक्ष प्रस्तुत करना कोहली की अन्यतम विशेषता है। कोहलीजी सांस्कृतिक राष्ट्रवादी साहित्यकार हैं, जिन्होंने अपनी रचनाओं के माध्यम से भारतीय जीवन-शैली एवं दर्शन का सम्यक् परिचय करवाया है। जनवरी, २०१७ में उन्हें पद्मश्री से सम्मानित किया गया।
डॉ॰ नरेन्द्र कोहली (जन्म ६ जनवरी १९४०, निधन १७ अप्रैल २०२१, चैत्र शुक्ल पंचमी, नवरात्रि) प्रसिद्ध हिन्दी साहित्यकार हैं। उन्होंने साहित्य के सभी प्रमुख विधाओं (यथा उपन्यास, व्यंग्य, नाटक, कहानी) एवं गौण विधाओं (यथा संस्मरण, निबंध, पत्र आदि) और आलोचनात्मक साहित्य में अपनी लेखनी चलाई है। उन्होंने शताधिक श्रेष्ठ ग्रंथों का सृजन किया है। हिन्दी साहित्य में 'महाकाव्यात्मक उपन्यास' की विधा को प्रारंभ करने का श्रेय नरेंद्र कोहली को ही जाता है। पौराणिक एवं ऐतिहासिक चरित्रों की गुत्थियों को सुलझाते हुए उनके माध्यम से आधुनिक सामाज की समस्याओं एवं उनके समाधान को समाज के समक्ष प्रस्तुत करना कोहली की अन्यतम विशेषता है। कोहलीजी सांस्कृतिक राष्ट्रवादी साहित्यकार हैं, जिन्होंने अपनी रचनाओं के माध्यम से भारतीय जीवन-शैली एवं दर्शन का सम्यक् परिचय करवाया है। जनवरी, २०१७ में उन्हें पद्मश्री से सम्मानित किया गया।
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 11, 2017
As an overloaded professional after a practice of 14 yrs, thoughts of escapism had been entering my mind. Perhaps the book chose me to choose it, just as Krishna chose Arjuna to choose him.
Geeta is the perfect book to read when in such a mood. The theory of Nishkaam Karma, which I understand as following ethics while staying detatched, to be in the world while maintaining a distance is perfect. And there is no escapism, u have to face it even if u escape and choose a diff path.
This was my 14th book by the author and I believe his "Mahasamara" series was life-changing particularly on morality. The lower rating is bcoz the language is a bit uncultured (surprisingly) and it was repetitive. Hard to recommend unless u r a Narendra Kohli fan. Wonder how many are on goodreads?
Geeta is the perfect book to read when in such a mood. The theory of Nishkaam Karma, which I understand as following ethics while staying detatched, to be in the world while maintaining a distance is perfect. And there is no escapism, u have to face it even if u escape and choose a diff path.
This was my 14th book by the author and I believe his "Mahasamara" series was life-changing particularly on morality. The lower rating is bcoz the language is a bit uncultured (surprisingly) and it was repetitive. Hard to recommend unless u r a Narendra Kohli fan. Wonder how many are on goodreads?
January 22, 2019
'Sharanam' is one of the most unique themed novel I heve ever read. First of all when I came to know about the premise of the novel that it is based on Gita, I wondered how a novel can be built around the deep rich, intense, subtle and multi-dimensional philosophy of Gita? But when I started reading the book all my doubts cleared and and the book turned out to be a great and perfect mixture of elements of an interesting novel and the philosophy of Gita. The book starts when ten days of the war of Kurukshetra has happened and Bheeshm is in the arrowbed. Sanjay with the details of ten days of the war arrives Hastinapur and what takes everyone by shock in Hastinapur is that Arjun has given up his weapons and is on the verge of giving up the war and Krishna is convincing Arjun to fight the war.
The main thing which makes the novel multi-dimensional from the initial chapters, is that on one hand it captures different characters' perspectives on Arjun's actions and on the other hand the flow of Gita's philosophy is consistent and is described in a very accessible, and simplified manner. It would have been a very difficult job to convey the great philosophy of Gita in a very simple manner and also to fit that philosophy in the format of novel. But Mr. Kohli with his master class storytelling skills strung all these things perfectly to make 'Sharanam' a wonderful offering.
When I read the book I found that the philosophy of Gita can be understood when one reads it, different aspects of Gita may have different impacts on different readers. That's why in this review I am not going to talk about the philosophy but I am going to talk about the unique character building of the novel. In broader perspective there are three major characters - Krishna, Arjun and Dhritrashtra. These three characters are represents three different stages of human conscience Dhritrashtra here represents the state of conscience when the human is completely engulfed by the darkness and each and every word of wisdom is barred to enter his by that darkness. The second character Arjun represents the ultimate dilemma of the conscience about right and wrong but "the Arjun stage" is better than "the Dhritrashtra stage" because in that stage at least Arjun is trying to get the answers somewhere in the innermost reassess Arjun is yearing to rise to his higher self he is allowing the light of wisdom to inter his conscience and eventually he will rise to his higher self. And third the most important character of the book- Krishna, the apex of what a human can be. I think here he is not a God, but he is that highest self of a human which one can only get when he lets the light of wisdom inside him. Dhritrashtra, Arjun and Krishna are inside of a human being and it is on that human being to get himself to "the Krishna stage" or to remain at the "Dhritrashtra stage". The two other characters I would like to mention, who I think got Krishna even before Arjun, are Sanjay and Vidur. Sanjay is the one who narrates the events and conversations took place in the Kurkshetra to Dhritrashtra and even after all the inappropriate behavior of Dhritrashtra, Sanjay keeps his calm and and tries his level best to make Dhritrashtra understand and realise his mistakes. The other character is Vidur, who is used to explain the anecdotal stories of the Gita and their philosophical importence. It was like Krishna had three forms in the novel.
When one writes on the subtle subject of Gita, I don't think one can keep subtality and Gita apart no matter in which form he is writing. The same is applied on this book. Towards the end the emphasis of the book is on the Varna System. The system what it originally was and what it is now. How the current system is "polluting" (yes he used exact this word) the society, and at one point he through Krishna states that people use this deteriorated system for fulfilling their own asparations and accuse him (Krishna/God) for this system. Here Mr. Kohli very subtly but impactfully criticises the current scenario of the Varna System.
5 Stars.
The main thing which makes the novel multi-dimensional from the initial chapters, is that on one hand it captures different characters' perspectives on Arjun's actions and on the other hand the flow of Gita's philosophy is consistent and is described in a very accessible, and simplified manner. It would have been a very difficult job to convey the great philosophy of Gita in a very simple manner and also to fit that philosophy in the format of novel. But Mr. Kohli with his master class storytelling skills strung all these things perfectly to make 'Sharanam' a wonderful offering.
When I read the book I found that the philosophy of Gita can be understood when one reads it, different aspects of Gita may have different impacts on different readers. That's why in this review I am not going to talk about the philosophy but I am going to talk about the unique character building of the novel. In broader perspective there are three major characters - Krishna, Arjun and Dhritrashtra. These three characters are represents three different stages of human conscience Dhritrashtra here represents the state of conscience when the human is completely engulfed by the darkness and each and every word of wisdom is barred to enter his by that darkness. The second character Arjun represents the ultimate dilemma of the conscience about right and wrong but "the Arjun stage" is better than "the Dhritrashtra stage" because in that stage at least Arjun is trying to get the answers somewhere in the innermost reassess Arjun is yearing to rise to his higher self he is allowing the light of wisdom to inter his conscience and eventually he will rise to his higher self. And third the most important character of the book- Krishna, the apex of what a human can be. I think here he is not a God, but he is that highest self of a human which one can only get when he lets the light of wisdom inside him. Dhritrashtra, Arjun and Krishna are inside of a human being and it is on that human being to get himself to "the Krishna stage" or to remain at the "Dhritrashtra stage". The two other characters I would like to mention, who I think got Krishna even before Arjun, are Sanjay and Vidur. Sanjay is the one who narrates the events and conversations took place in the Kurkshetra to Dhritrashtra and even after all the inappropriate behavior of Dhritrashtra, Sanjay keeps his calm and and tries his level best to make Dhritrashtra understand and realise his mistakes. The other character is Vidur, who is used to explain the anecdotal stories of the Gita and their philosophical importence. It was like Krishna had three forms in the novel.
When one writes on the subtle subject of Gita, I don't think one can keep subtality and Gita apart no matter in which form he is writing. The same is applied on this book. Towards the end the emphasis of the book is on the Varna System. The system what it originally was and what it is now. How the current system is "polluting" (yes he used exact this word) the society, and at one point he through Krishna states that people use this deteriorated system for fulfilling their own asparations and accuse him (Krishna/God) for this system. Here Mr. Kohli very subtly but impactfully criticises the current scenario of the Varna System.
5 Stars.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews