Grass-Eaters Reborn as Grass-Eaters: The Circle of Reincarnation

 

India, in the twentieth century, was a relatively less developed nation. A large number of people lived in the worst conditions. As time went by, some of them might  become rich and lived a better life, but the rest, still lived in extreme misery. (www.freeindia.org)

         

The living conditions of the inferior level of society are never out of the sight of the writers around the world. In the story “The Grass-Eaters”, under the context of a common belief in reincarnation, the author Krishnan Varma depicts the life of Ajit Babu and his wife, which reflects the life of the poorest people in society. Although the couple feed on grass, I wonder if they are the grass-eaters in the title or refer to something else. As I see it, the grass-eaters in the story are not literally grass-eaters but a metaphor and the word “grass-eaters” in the story actually refers to all the people who live the poorest life in society.
      

As part of the context, reincarnation plays an important role in the story. An understanding of the word may contribute to our thorough comprehension of the whole story. In the Hindus culture, it’s a widely accepted fact that when a person dies, he or she is born into a new existence as another form of life. "Exactly what form the new life takes depends on how that person lived his or her previous life. Those who live honest, virtuous lives often return as powerful, well-respected creatures. Those who live lives of hate and sin, however, typically return as lower forms of life.” (www.reincarnationstation.com)
      

In the story, the author relates to us the extreme conditions of the poorest people with a very skillful method—combining the depiction with the context of reincarnation to reflect the misery, thus a feeling of absolute hopelessness is generated.

The author uses the plainest words to picture the life of Ajit Babu, an important part of which is looking for “a stationary home”. There is not a sign of psychological depiction and strong conflicts between the characters. What the characters do, what they look like and what they say are the most basic components of a story. Despite the seemingly not vivid depiction, you can feel a strong sense of sadness cast upon you heart. In here the author addresses a method in which he uses the relatively moderate words to depict things that are truly painful, thus creating an atmosphere which is even more painful than the real one.
      

However, I think what makes the story sad is not the difficult life itself, but the endless circle of life. At the end of the story, Ajit Babu and his wife are satisfied with their “stable” life, “content to look at the passing scene: a tram burning, a man stabbing another man, a woman dropping her baby in a garbage bin”. This is equally evil. They are not willing to make even the slightest difference to their life. What a shame it is that they are so indifferent about others’ misery and pain! Such indifference can only lead to one result: being reincarnated into lower forms of life, just as what they already are. Although there is a chance of being honest and virtuous and live a better next-life, they sadly give it up. Here you can see the circle: they are the poorest people, and they don’t tend to make a difference to their life, so through the reincarnation they are still the poorest people. There is no way out. They are the most inferior people forever and they live the most miserable life forever.
      

Now I understand what the title means—just as grasshoppers, the grass-eaters are such trivial beings that they can hardly make any difference. Their existence in the world has little effect to other people. They are the people who are almost forsaken-- first by themselves, then gradually by the world. This is what the author wants to inform us, to arouse our sympathy and awareness to care about those people, to help awake their self-consciousness and then make a difference for a better life.