लुक्रीशसची .स्वच्छ, जळजळीत दृष्टी...Lucretius' Importance and G A Kulkarni

 

जी ए कुलकर्णी,  लुक्रीशस च्या 'ऑन दी नेचर ऑफ थिंग्ज' ह्या  पुस्तका बद्दल म्हणतात:

 "...स्वच्छ, जळजळीत दृष्टीने Lucretius ने केलेला देव, देवता, भाबड्या कल्पना यांचा विध्वंस मला आवडला होता...". 

(पृष्ठ २४८, 'जी. एं.ची निवडक पत्रे', खंड २, १९८८)  

ही पोस्ट वाचण्यापूर्वी ह्याच ब्लॉग वरची मार्च २६ २०१८ तारखेची पोस्ट वाचा. 

लुक्रीशस बद्दल मराठीत चर्चा मी तरी पहिली नाही. विंदा करंदीकर त्यांच्या 'अष्टदर्शने', २००३ मध्ये त्याचा उल्लेख करत नाहीत. 

पण तो किती महत्वाचा आहे हे मला हा पॉडकास्ट  (conversation between John N. Gray and Richard Holloway in November 2020) ऐकून पुन्हा एकदा समजले. 

लुक्रीशस  (१५ ऑक्टोबर इ. स पू ९९- इ. स पू ५५) च्या  'ऑन दी नेचर ऑफ थिंग्ज' चा अनुवाद जी. एं.ना करायचा होता. 

लुक्रीशसच्या 'ऑन दी नेचर ऑफ थिंग्ज' पुस्तकामुळे जग आधुनिक झाले असा दावा करणारे आणि पुलित्झर (२०१२) आणि अमेरिकेचा नॅशनल बुक अवॉर्ड (२०११) मिळवणारे पुस्तक पाहून जीएंना अत्यानंद झाला असता. 

Stephen Greenblatt, 'The Swerve: How The World Became Modern", 2011:

"...The stuff of the universe, Lucretius proposed, is an infinite number of atoms moving randomly through space, like dust motes in a sunbeam, colliding, hooking together, forming complex structures, breaking apart again, in a ceaseless process of creation and destruction. There is no escape from this process. When you look up at the night sky and, feeling unaccountably moved, marvel at the numberless stars, you are not seeing the handiwork of the gods or a crystalline sphere detached from our transient world. You are seeing the same material world of which you are a part and from whose elements you are made. There is no master plan, no divine architect, no intelligent design. All things, including the species to which you belong, have evolved over vast stretches of time. The evolution is random, though in the case of living organisms it involves a principle of natural selection. That is, species that are suited to survive and to reproduce successfully endure, at least for a time; those that are not so well suited die off quickly. But nothing—from our own species to the planet on which we live to the sun that lights our days—lasts forever. Only the atoms are immortal.

In a universe so constituted, Lucretius argued, there is no reason to think that the earth or its inhabitants occupy a central place, no reason to set humans apart from all other animals, no hope of bribing or appeasing the gods, no place for religious fanaticism, no call for ascetic self-denial, no justification for dreams of limitless power or perfect security, no rationale for wars of conquest or self-aggrandizement, no possibility of triumphing over nature, no escape from the constant making and unmaking and remaking of forms. On the other side of anger at those who either peddled false visions of security or incited irrational fears of death, Lucretius offered a feeling of liberation and the power to stare down what had once seemed so menacing. What human beings can and should do, he wrote, is to conquer their fears, accept the fact that they themselves and all the things they encounter are transitory, and embrace the beauty and the pleasure of the world.

I marveled—I continue to marvel—that these perceptions were fully articulated in a work written more than two thousand years ago. The line between this work and modernity is not direct: nothing is ever so simple. There were innumerable forgettings, disappearances, recoveries, dismissals, distortions, challenges, transformations, and renewed forgettings. And yet the vital connection is there. Hidden behind the worldview I recognize as my own is an ancient poem, a poem once lost, apparently irrevocably, and then found..."