Sarasvati Scapes,
Reviewed by Katerina Fretwell for Prairie Fire

C. G. Jung, in his book Memories, Dreams, Reflections, page 275, expressed the paradox experienced by pilgrims to foreign lands: "India affected me like a dream, for I was and remained in search of myself, of the truth peculiar to myself." Penn Kemp and Angela Hryniuk, sister pilgrims twice to India and co-authors of Sarasvati Scapes, echo and expand Jung's observation quoted above, in the preface to their book: "This collaboration, Sarasvati Scapes, arises from a larger work in process in which we are re-creating an experience of pilgrimage ... We explore the role of the traveller as metaphor for a consciousness that is always changing. ... We're part of the great western need to define the mystery, the unknown, the India to each of us." (Page 5). Later, they reiterate Jung's realization: "We face ourselves one way or another." (December 1, journal entry, page 14).

Through narrative, journal entries, and poetry - some of Penn's translated
into Punjabi by Ajmer Rode, they find the means of expressing their
spiritual practice into word. Vivid, visceral, memorable, their words
vivify India's vastness, paradoxical timelines, and earthy otherworldly
spirituality. Open to the energy of Sarasvati, the goddess of song, poetry,
and story, they reintegrate poetry - through their ritualistic journey -
into their daily lives. Authorship of each piece is not specified either,
thus presenting their collaboration as one voice with a glossary of
unfamiliar terms and practices. In these dark times they offer their words
to those people who are unable to make such a pilgrimage. Not interested in
religion per se, they connect with a higher source, the Divine, through Tibetan Buddhist rituals in following Buddha's milestones under the tutelage of Zasep Tulku Rinpoche. In the dichotomous sensory deprivation (fatigue, thirst) and overload
(alien sights, customs), the pilgrims "feel the immensity and disparity of
the human condition." (Page 7). Their koan-like poems and robustly honest
travelogues draw the reader into the unfamiliar experience: "I am a tall,
blonde Amazon who towers over the Indian men, so have no fear for my
physical safety.... beggars don't harass me. Wearing sunglasses help. Don't
look into their eyes... It feels like the mind stretches and stretches and
then seeing a dog eat someone's vomit or shit, it stretches again."
(December 11 journal entry, page 57).

Plunked into the strange, we take nothing for granted and live in a kind of high alert. The hyperstimulation of all that is different, Other, affords far deeper and lasting illuminations and epiphanies. One such synesthetic eureka-moment occurred on Vulture's Peak up Rajgir Mountain where "A wind through the consciousness blows away all sense of self. ... :"

If we don't listen to the silence
close our eyes to see
life will only be event after event
not experience turned into wisdom.
Take time to watch the wind
listen to the stars (page 58)

Exhausted, giddy, exhilarated, - and transformed, Kemp and Hryniuk have
reached self-transcendence and have travelled farther, in my opinion, than
Jung in his pioneering perambulations. For example: "even this "thing" called love/ is but perception/ creation of mind" ("We need this boat, page 65) and "Mind -
just another sensory/ organ" ("The space around", page 67). Kemp and
Hryniuk sit walk stand recline - the four lifelong postures - into the
answer to their query: "The question arises again why do we travel? To be
in the moment of the moment. Opening up to whatever is, is. Totally wide
open. To the being of who "I" is. The Being. Yes. The Being." (December 25
journal entry, page 68).

These two internationally renowned poet/seekers have placed the self in a
context wide enough to bridge the Oriental Occidental fault line. Even more
outstandingly, they have discovered a Voice in which to express the
numinous, the ineffable. I feel like I've joined them in India. My own
pilgrimage is that much closer, that much more articulated.

Review
Outlook India, Delhi, India, August 13, 2001
By Sabita Majid

The Write India

Canadian writers milk their experiences to churn out books on the country

For far too long, India has been the land of mysticism where the dispirited, alienated Canadian came calling for the life-altering experience. What seems to have changed now is that among these nirvana-seekers are a clutch of writers who are turning their lurid purple passage experiences into books on their return.

Most of these books are benign, non-fiction works focusing on the spiritual quest of their authors. Yet, of late, some of them have begun to incorporate their travel experiences and the sounds and sights of India into a range that varies from the sublime to the ridiculous. Unlike earlier books on India, those written today are mostly penned by established writers and poets – and are not mere spiritual guides for the religiously-inclined.

Much hype already surrounds the collaboration between two leading poets, Penn Kemp and Angela Hryniuk, in writing Sarasvati Scapes, due for release early next year. With 20 book behind her and considered among Canada’s most active `sound’ poets, Kemp is well versed with India, having been a writer-in-residence at Mumbai’s SNDT University in 1995 and then returning in 2000 to perform at 15 colleges and universities in Mumbai, Jaipur and in Gujarat. “I’m part of the great western need to define India, the mystery, the unknown… but in the end, India is so vast that there is little commonality among these tales,” says Kemp. The change in the imaging of India can also be ascribed to the shift in literary politics of Canada since the early Nineties. Then, Indo-Canadians had joined the ranks of disenchanted writers who felt their White counterparts were appropriating territory not their own. Following some extremely tense meetings and allegations of counter-racism, the 1,400-strong Writer’s Union became less of a White preserve - it includes about 25 Indo-Canadians today as against five or six a decade ago-and simultaneously, assured writers freedom to write on all subjects without being irresponsible.

No wonder books of non-Indian writers today are less exotic than before, and although an experienced eye can still discern anomalies, contemporary writing concentrates on delivering succinct descriptions of sights and smells that are real rather than mysterious. And most of them are less judgemental and more open-minded than their predecessors.

Says poet-writer Angela Hryniuk, “You smell Delhi before you see it… it’s the pungent thick potpourri of burning coal, diesel and incense that greets you off the plane”. She writes without holding back on the high levels of physical discomfort she experiences in India, starkly contrasting these with the sublime spirituality she encounters in the Buddhist precincts of Dharamsala and Bodhgaya.

Post-trip, it takes her three to four months to recover during which time she wants to never go again. But then, as Hryniuk says, “The divine is always found in that tension between darkness and light where non-duality gets blown apart.” In Sarasvati Scapes she writes, “If you think you have an open mind when you arrive in India, you find out how much more that open mind can become. It feels like the mind stretches and stretches and then seeing a dog eat someone’s vomit or shit, it stretches yet again”

… Adds poet-playwright Ajmer Rode, who has written several books in English and Punjabi, “Books getting written about India is certainly good since it helps to project the country internationally. But this is good only as long as Indian writers do not get crowded out.” For the moment, though, writers seem to have helped expand the mental horizon of Canadians.