The Forest: Thoughtful exploration and mental expansion are synergistic forces.

by Shahree Vyaas

Since the story-line of this book is grafted upon the structure of the Mahabharata, it seemed appropriate to stick to the title of the corresponding section in the original tale; The Forest. In the Mahabharata, the forest was a place for those exiled or expelled of society. The Maharajagar is not highbrow literature, and the series reads as if it is a set of ideas with the convention of a novel foisted onto it. The grand theme - an emerging humanity-wide consciousness - required a fictional narrative to make it really come alive, in this case a historical fantasy which carries the reader back into the historical setting of the beginning of the 20th century. The reader who boards the third book of the Maharajagar without reading its prequels can retrieve the substance of what preceded through the short prologue following upon the foreword. It’s however not recommended to skip the first two parts of this series, since it impoverishes the reading experience. The first book is the only one that can be read as a standalone and laid down the groundwork for the epic; the backgrounds of the protagonists and antagonists, their power struggles and claims. One could have closed the first book and never have expected a sequel to it. The second book of the series is the pivotal one of the five books of the Maharajagar, where the delicate balance reached at the end of the first book gets disturbed and reignites the struggles between the actors of this tale that will dominate the consecutive parts of the series.The third book of the Maharajagar describes the twelve years in exile of the protagonists and the focus lies upon the character building that the main personages experience during this period.This novel expresses in a popular way what is latent in contemporary culture by weaving three metatheses through its narrative. The idea of synchronicity, first postulated by Carl Jung, is no longer new, but this series wants to revive interest in it by stating that coincidences are happening more often, to a greater number of people, and that they are somehow linked to our evolution as a species. The ’longer now', describes an enlargement of the circle of our thinking beyond our life, our job, our country, to appreciate humanity across the ages. We see the evolution of humankind almost as the story of a single person. The book exposes how in the last thousand years we have moved from a world centered on religion to one based on our own achievements and discoveries. The philosophical security we felt in the Middle Ages was replaced by a drive for secular material security, but now this is being questioned. The attachment to 'scarcity consciousness' is being eclipsed by the realization that we must now pursue that which has most meaning for us. The past few hundred years have set the stage for a new era of 'mystery appreciation' - whatever we find amazing, and nothing less, will determine how we spend our time.The third metathesis states ‘The All is a projection of informational modulated energy waves by a cosmically horizon on the time-space continuum.’ These themes relate directly to the concerns of our time: the preoccupation with relationships and their fragile balance; environmental awareness; and, as we have left the 20th century and all that history behind, grows the desire to see the human experiment in its entirety. In this respect, The Maharajagar is compelling the reader to reflect upon its broader theme: the further evolution of the human species.

413 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 29, 2020