Man and his world

Great sayings of V R Narla
(Narla Venkateswararao emerged as great thinker and writer as he grew in age and mind.He reflected on global aspects and reflected under the title Man and his World.He would have changed the title as humans and world , which includes both men and women)

MAN AND HIS WORLD

THE WORLD
The world is real, very much real, a thousand times more real than the philosophers who call it an illusion, a mirage or a phantom.

MAN THE THINKER
Man is thinking animal, and the more he thinks and thinks objectively and creatively, the lesser will be the animal in him.



ETHICS
If you insist, as Gandhi did, on an absolute truth, asolute celibacy, absolute non-violence, absolute sacrifice, absolute non-possession, and other such absolute ethical values it will result in absolute hypocrisy.
By getting mixed up with religion, ethics loses much of its point, most of its purpose, and almost all of its spontaneity.

GANDHIAN ATHEIST
If anyone claims to be both a Gandhian and an atheist, he must be either a fool or a knave.
RELIGION AND CULTURE
A world religion is an impossibility; a world culture is not. The only hope of One World and One Humanity, therefore, lies in the emergence of a world culture.

THE DEEPEST LOVE
Expresses itself, not though a cataract of words, but by the glow on the face, the sparkle in the eye, he thrill of togetherness.

MAN
As an individual is now by far more humane than in the earlier ages, but man in the mass is infinitely more brutish.

NATURE
Unnatural pleasure will be novel, intense and exotic, but in the end nature will surely have its revenge – total, terrible, terminal.

THINKER
The primary function of a thinker is to recognize in advance the emerging historical forces and to transform them into ideas, concepts, hypotheses or theories.

TO DIE
With a smile on your lips – what a grateful and gracious farewell to life it would be !

CUSTOM AND TRADITION
Custom makes life a routine; tradition makes thinking needless; and together they make man a robot.

CUSTOM AND TRADITION
Entrenched habit is custom; mummified custom is tradition.

CUSTOM AND TRADITION
If custom is really sound, a better name for it will be rational behaviour; and if there is such a thing as a healthy tradition, a more apt name for it will be a living heritage.

ABRACADABRA
If the syllable “OM” opens the gates to heaven, why should the syllable “Blash” be less sacred or magical ?

SYCOPHANT
A Slave can be pitied, for slavery is often imposed by others; a sycophant can only be detested, for sycophancy is self imposed.

SWADESHI
After having campaigned for more than half a century for Swadeshi during the British rule we are now enjoying the privilege of wearing chains bearing the legend “Made in India.”

GANDHI
Who can doubt Madam Gandhi’s hold on the affections of the Indian masses? And yet one cannot help fearing whether that hold is not turning into a stranglehold. (1981).

HYPOCRITE
An outright scoundrel is a saint compared to a downright bypocrite.

FROG, HE SUPER YOGI
A yogi can live in an air-tight chamber for days and weeks. But as a frog can do it for years and years, should it not be deemed a Super Yogi ?

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Have made the world small; it is a boon, an inestimable boon. Science and technology have also made the human being small; it is a curse, a terrible curse.

SCIENCE AND PHYLOSOPHY
Science should explain the world to man; Philosophy should teach man as to how he could make his life in the world joyous as well as meaningful.

OUR LAW MAKERS
Break laws without the least compunction, for they think thar the laws are, after all, of their own making.

THE CLASS IN POWER
No class in power liquidates, itself. It is therefore foolish to think that the Indian bourgeoisie, though it swears by socialism, will ever establish a socialist order of society.

HUMBUG
To take vow of silence and yet to carry on conversation through the medium of writing is sheer humbug.

FORGIVENESS
Personal injuries may be forgiven, but certainly not public injustices.

ASTROLOGICAL SCIENCE
Is a contradiction in terms, like a chaste whore.

MIXED ECONOMY
In the mixed economy of India, all the losing industries are run by the public sector and all the profitable ones by the private sector.

LIGHT AND LIGHTING
When intellectuals meet, there is light; when wits meet, there is lighting.
A CLOSED MIND
Is the worst prison in the world.

A BLESSING
A corrupt bureaucracy is a real blessing under dictatorship for it lacks the character as well as the will to ground down everything like a bulldozer.


DILEMMA
To enter politics is to soil yourself; to shun politics is to allow the country to go to the dogs.

CORRUPT POLITICIANS
Thieves fall out when it comes to sharing their loot, and so do corrupt politicians when it comes to sharing office and power.

SARAT CHATTERJEE
In Saratchandra Chatterjee, the man and the artist were closely inter-related. This is true of all master artists and their art, but in the case of Sarat the identity between the man and his art was complete, total. It may be said the Sarat, the man, emptied himself into Sarat, the artist.

EINSTEIN
Unlike Gandhi, Lenin and Mao who aspired to be great, Einstein was unconsciously great.

GREATNESS
Thrust upon people will lose it glitter in a generation or two.

FAME
Is often a poor index of greatness.

LIE
To lie with a straight face is in art; to remain unblushing when caught in the process of lying is super-art.

THE BIGGEST LIAR
is he who tells you that never in his life was he guilty of even a white lie.

HALF - TRUTH
is a bastard, being the offspring of illicit union between truth and falsehood.

MAN
should aim at being a total man and not a superman.

LITTLE MEN
When great principles end, little men come to the top.

ATHEISM
The day atheism produces a scripture is will be dead; to be ever living and ever growing it should be ever questioning.

POWER
If being too long in power corrupts, being too long in opposition, with little or no prospect of ever attaining power, corrupts much more.

MEN
We need neither supermen nor under-men, only rational men, and the larger their number the saner will be the world.

THE TEST OF A GREAT MAN
Lies in the number of followers whom he inspires to rise to greater heights than himself.

IMMORTALITY
Works for a great idea, or better still, for a great ideal, for that idea or ideal may acquire a life of its own, a life that knows no death.

TO HATE
An evil man is moral; to be nice to him is amoral, if not immoral.

CASTES AND CLASSES
There are thousands of castes in India, but only two classes – those who eat those who are eaten.

CROOK
To think that a crook would not cheat you because of his affection or regard for you is to fool yourself that a tiger can, on occasion, be a vegetarian.

ADVAITA
is unending prattle on what is said to be the unsociable, the unmeasurable, the unnamable, the unknowable, etc., etc., etc.

PHILOSOPHY
A Philosophy that is unrelated to contemporary life is no philosophy. It can only help idle men to while away their idle time.
A philosophy that is obtuse is no philosophy. It can only help one to indulge in intellectual gymnastics.
A philosophy that goes against the proven facts of science is no philosophy. It makes a people highly superstitious if not positively idiotic.

PHILOSOPHER
The wisest of all philosophers is the laughing philosopher, and he laughs mostly at himself.

A MORALIST
need not be a bore provided he knows how to laugh at himself.

LEADERS
are not made; most often, they are self-made.

LEADERS
When your gods are of low morals, you cannot have leaders of high morals.

LEADERS
Who can hyptonize themselves will their lies can finally hyptonize, as Hitler and Mussolini did, their followers, too, with the same lies.

GOD AND MAN
Where God is enthroned, man is enslaved.


IN OLD AGE
Your physical pleasures get less keen and your physical pains more acute.

WHAT IS YOUR AGE ?
It can be much more than the total of your years or much less.

A POLITICIAN
makes headlines; a statesman makes history.

Thoughts of Narla V.R.

GODS, GOBLINS AND MEN
THOUGHTS OF NARLA V.R.
(Narla Venkateswara rao expressed his thoughts on various subjects. Some of them are aphoristic and powerful. Here are some such ideas)

POWER OF THOUGHT

The thought of man is all-powerful and all-pervasive. How else could it have conceived an all-powerful and all-pervasive God?

WHAT IS MYSTERIOUS
Is what is yet to be probed by the human mind.

BHAKTI

The best of bhaktas are child-like. An adult and mature mind can find neither peace nor fulfillment in bhakti.

OLD GODS AS PRESENT SERVANTS

Wind and fire and water were once man’s gods; now they are his servants. As man learns to control more and more the elements of nature, the world of gods will thin out further.

IDOL AND IDEAL
Failure to live up to an ideal makes man to cling to an idol.



EVERY NEW-BORN BABY
Is a triumph of life in its race with death.

HUMANISM’S ULTIMATE VALUE
Like the world religions of today humanism too should have an ultimate value. But it should be of this world and not of any other, and it should find fulfillment in individual as well as corporate life.

GANDHIAN THOUGHT
Has ceased to influence contemporary Indian Society. To those who deny this, it should be pointed out that Gandhi himself felt in the last years of his life that he was cruelly betrayed by his countrymen. Indeed, on one occasion he said : “It may be thought the Negroes that the unadulterated message of non-violence will be delivered to the world. “How true these words have proved to be by the martyrdom of that great Negro – Martin Luther King!

V.R.Narla as Parliament member( Rajya Sabha)

Role of V. R. NARLA in RAJYA SABHA

Shri Narla was the Member of the Rajya Sabha for two terms from 1958 to 1970. Shri Narla used to travel to Delhi and back after his election as Member of Rajya Sabha. He participated in the discussions on subjects of interest. They are limited. Some of them may be cited as examples.
On 16th December 1960, he spoke on the proposal for appointment of experts for making translations into Hindi and Indian Languages. He said that translation does not mean as work which should be done mechanically and the original should be well understood and re-created again. According to him translation is not a mechanical process; He suggested that translation work should be entrusted to creative writers. India also has to adapt the technical words on the lines of international usages as they are, so that India may develop as Japan.
He remained that the word ‘Sputnik’ is adopted practically by every community. He said that Egypt also is following internationally adopted words along with Arabic languages. The people on some occasions create words as per need. In this context he said that the workers in Visakhapatnam Harbour are using the word ‘thravvoda’ for the crane. They made it understandable to all. He gave exhaustive details about borrowing 90% revenue words from Urdu language into Telugu.
When the subject of transferring Berubari union area to Pakistan come for discussion on 23 December, participating in the discussion Shri Narla vociferously condemned the communists and Jyothi Basu. When communist made as attack on Nehru, he retaliated strongly and disclosed the greatness of Nehru. He also said that there was danger from China to India in the Northern Borders. Shri Narla said that the communists are putting the people in hysteria. The version that ‘one party one leader’ is not democratic and at the same time they should remember the role of a leader like Nehru.
Speaking on Salar Jung Museum(At Hyderabad) on 15 December 1960, he compared 50 to 60% of the objects in it to junk. He said so after visiting hundred Museums in India and abroad and examining their contents thoroughly. The image of the Museum will be high if they are removed. ‘Because of this junk the remaining thing lost their value’, he said. (He lamented that he had not come across even a single sculpture to proclaim the glory of our Kakatiya Empire. He further said that he had not found a single object of art to represent the greatness of our Satavahana empire.)
Shri Narla supported the idea of keeping the Budhistic pieces of art on the Nagarjunakonda. He opposed the suggestion of shifting them to Sala Jung Museum. He said that some of the objects in the Hyderabad State Museum will gain in value and that he will not hesitate to pay tributes to Salar Jung. He was unhappy for its being in then state.
Shri Narla spoke on the history of freedom movement in the Rajya Sabha on 15th May 1961. Saying that there would be a cycle of high tide and low ebb in the history of almost every nation in the world he expressed that the 18th Century reached one of its low ebbs. He said that a few merchants could win the whole of the sub continent without even military training. Such details were touched in this history and therefore should not fall a prey to criticism. Though there are some deficiencies here and there, the book written by Dr.Tarachand deserves appreciation. He mentioned that the introduction in Kosambi’s Indian History also is dispassionate. He emphasized that truth should be known and future should be taken into the view. He also criticized in the introduction written for Prof. Humayun Kabir’s book. He expressed the view that Government did not take up responsibility for what was written by Tarachand. He justified Tarachand in applying the Marxist view to examine history. He said that Herald J Laski followed that method.
Shri Narla spoke on the issue of working Journalists on 11th December 1962 in the Rajya Sabha. He asserted that papers should not be nationalized and it will not suit democracy. Speaking on the monopoly in the newspaper field, he stated that there will be protection for the working journalists, if an attempt is made to increase the opportunities of employment. Though strike is oganized in big papers, journalists are not able to continue the strike for long an the reason for it is the non-availability of ways and means. He made suggestions to provide protection to small news papers and with regard to fixing advertisement tariff. He appealed to Government that rotary machines should be supplied on installment basis. On 6th December 1962 Shri Narla made a lengthy speech on Defense Bill When it came for discussion. Shri Narla condemned China for violation of Panchasheela Principle, harping on non-alingnment policy. He said that there were 47 Communist parties, and 13 Communist Governments in the world. According to him China resorted to aggression againt India; though none of them have committed aggression. He reminded that when Sun-yat-sen and Chang Kai-Shaik were the rulers also, they asserted that there were China’s boundaries in South-Asia. India is disclosing many defence secrets in haste and should be cautions. China is indulging in espionage activities through agents. We are revealing information which we should not do. He expressed that the Government should exercise its powers with care and caution.
Shri Narla spoke about Dakshina Bharatha Hindi Prachara Sabha on 29th August 1963 in the Rjya Sabha, stating that Ganghiji sent his son Devada as Hindi Praharak to Madras in South India. By making Hindi compulsory as part of curriculam; the Hindi Prachara Sabha will lose its importance and its financial resources will be lessened. Opposing the idea of making Osmania University as South Indian Hindi University, Shri Narla said that the Hindi Prachara Sabha may take up this programme. He stated that co-operation may be taken from South India for development of Hindi. In order to avoid from South India for development of Hindi. In order to avoid psychological disinclination among the non-Hindi speaking people, the word Barathi may be used for Hindi. Shri Narla reminded that the protagonists of Hindi opposed the suggestion of Gandhiji to use Hindustani instead of Hindi.
Shri Narla made an elaborate speech on the official language issue on 21 December 1967. He said that English language inculcated the spirit of freedom in us and those who oppose English should peruse the history of Indian renaissance. A few among the Hindi speaking people who are intolerant and orthodox and being hated.
It is that English is a foreign language. It should not be forgotten that Hindi also is a foreign language to people belonging to South-India. Nevertheless, they are ready to learn Hindi, but some time should be given. Difficulty arises if they are asked to learn Hindi urgently. Hindi among Indian languages is like a small aged girl who has not attained maturity. Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam are ancient languages when compared to Hind.
Hindi in its form is hundred years age only. Vraja language, Bundali, Marwadi, Maywadi, Jaipuri, Malvi, Avadhi, Bhageli, Chathisgarhi, Mythili, Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Khadiboli, etc., are regional languages in Hindi region. Among these languages Khadiboli has earned prominence since 100 years. Hence it has to be very much developed. Shri Narla said that initiative has to be taken to international level. Shri Narla condemned the view of the orthodox Hindi people that learning Hindi is partrotism and nationalism. He said that it is not antinational if one does not learn Hindi. Though Rajaji and Anndorai opposed Hindi, it cannot be said that there should be time and opportunity to learn Hind. Though Rajaji and Annadorai opposed Hindi, it cannot be said that they are not patriots and nationalists. He said that there should be time and opportunity to learn Hindi. People from South India should be given a chance in developing Hindi. English is absorbing many Hindi words into it but the orthodox Hindi people are in the attitude that no English words should be taken into Hindi.
Freedom of the Press

On 22 August 1968 Shri V R Narla moved a resolution in the Rajya Sabha when the Andhra Pradesh Government brought the Bill to curb freedom of the press. The then Chief Minister was Shri Kasu Brahmananda Reddy. Shri Narla Said that the State Government brought this Bill to put a check on the press freedom. He vehemently said that the regulations on papers during the British Rule and during the Nizam days cannot vie with the Bill brought forward by the Andhra Pradesh Government. He read out the comment of ‘The Hindu’ paper in respect of this Bill intended to
uproot the press freedom. When once the constraints on papers are imposed, it is not known where they will end. ‘Examining of news to be published, is really censoring beforehand’ he said.
Dr. N Innaiah

Who wrote what on V.R.Narla

Works on
V.R. Narla in Telugu language

1. Gorrepati Venkata Subbaiah : Nava Medhavi Narla (Modern Intellectual) 1975.
2. G. Mutyala Rao : Narla Sahityam (Writings of Narla – one observation) 1993.
3. M. Venugopal : Narla Sahityam : Samagra Pariseelana (Thorough Study of Narla’s Works) 1994
4. N. Ramanamma : Narla Vyaktitvam : Patrika Rachana (Personality of Narla – Writings in Media) 1987
5. M. Venugopal : Jabali – one study (Thesis on the play Jabali) 1988.
6. P. Krishna Murthy : Kottagadda (Thesis on Kottagadda – plays) 1982.
7. C. Vijaya Lakshmi : Editorials of Narla – 1987.
8. N. Anjam Raju : Editorials of Narla – Thesis - 1990.
9. Jasti Venkata Nasaiah : Narla Venkateswara Rao – 1963.
10 . Nagasuri Venugopal – Narla Vaari Bata (The Path of Narla) 2000.
11. Kolla Srikrishna Rao : Narla Samskruti (Culture of Narla) 1988.
12. Bondalapati Sivaramakrishna : Edited: Hamsa,monthly Special Issue – 1964.
13. N. Innaiah : Life and Experiences of V. R. Narla – Potti Sriramulu Telugu University Publication – 1987.
14. Nagasuri Venugopal – Navataraniki Narla (Narla for New Generation – earlier works (2007).

Works on
V.R. Narla in English

1. Blessings, Banquets : Messages Record on the occasion of the Fifty first Birthday celebrations of Sri V. R. Narla, 1958.
2. Excerpts from Reviews of his books : Madras : Narlavaru
3. Half-way : The Golden Book presented to Sri V. R. Narla on his fifty first birthday. Vijayawada : The Narla Golden Jubilee Celebrations Committee, 1958. 168 p.
4. Narla – Biographical Sketch. C N Sastry (1968)
5. Narla – Diamond Jubilee New Delhi : Narla Shashtyabdapurti Celebration Committee, 1968.
6. Seventy First Birthday Celebrations of Sri V R Narla. Special Souvenir. Hyderabad : Vamsee Granthalayam, 1978.
7. Studies in the History of Telugu Journalism : Papers presented on the occasion of Narla Shastyabdapurti. Ed : K. R. Seshagiri Rao, New Delhi : Narla Shashtyabdapurti Celebration Committee, 1968.