The Mahabharata retold as “Sons of Gods”

Continued from December 16

(An extract from an interview  with Sharon Maas, who talked about her most recent novel “Sons of Gods”, on November 2012 in Georgetown, Guyana. Her other novels include “Of Marriageable Age”, set in India and Guyana, “Peacocks Dancing” set in Guyana and India, and “The Speech of Angels” set in India and Europe/ Germany.)

By Petamber Persaud

Author Sharan Maas

PP ….Let’s see how that novel [Sons of Gods] goes, from beginning to end.
SM    Well, its beginning is unusual because no other version of the Mahabharata starts with the birth of Karna.
Karna is born by way of a young princess who is given a boon so that to whomever she says this mantra, [they] will come to her. She didn’t or couldn’t understand what this means. So one day she sees the sun rises, and she was filled with euphoria, causing her to repeat the mantra, and the Sun god comes to her.  And he told her that the actual meaning of the mantra was for him to give her a child.
Of course, she is shocked; she is just a girl about 14/15, and a princess. So she is shocked. But he tells her not to worry, how it will happen, how they have their way of doing certain things, how she will have the child and still remain a virgin. The only hitch was that she would not be able to own the child and look after him as her son because he, the sun god will care for the child all his life. And that’s the birth of Karna.
PP    An intricate and perplexing situation. What happens next?
SM    Well, the god gives Karna a present so that the mother would recognise him when she sees him again, but she wouldn’t ever have him as her son. She will have other sons but she would never have Karna.
PP    We hear of the study of comparative religion; you have just mentioned a virgin birth and there’s mention of a virgin birth in the Bible – what other similarities are there among other scriptures/holy books?
SM I find that all religions have the same core value that we should surrender ourselves to a higher authority. Sometimes this gets lost because we see the outer forms of the religion. Islam, Hinduism and Christianity are very different on the outside but for me they all have the same values – that selfishness, greed and egotism bring us down, and giving ourselves to others; realising who we really are; find joy in serving God… those are the main purposes of religion. Hinduism is more than just God in the ‘sky’; Hinduism is God in everyone, look for God in yourself.
PP    What really attracted you to Hinduism?
SM    I was primarily raised as an atheist because my parents were atheists, which was very unusual in those days…
PP Yes, Guyana is still regarded as a religious state.
SM    …as a child I was following what my parents said, especially my father. But that left me empty. So I began searching and searching; I must add that I had a fairly Christian upbringing in school
PP    Catholic School?
SM    No, Church of England, and I actually liked it. I enjoyed the services and the church gave me a lot. But it was too simple for me – be good and you go to heaven and if you are bad, you go to hell…So I was always searching for something more to give me more of a guidance in my personal life.
I found something in yoga. I started to do yoga since I was a young girl – fifteen years of age – that helped me: gave me a structure for my life. As a teenager I was a bit on the adventurous side. So yoga gave me this new direction, and through physical yoga, I came to meditation with a leaning towards Hinduism; looking inwards, concentrating your thoughts inwardly in order to find myself. And it worked.
PP    I know you are adventurous…your South American adventures etc. Now how did you get to India?
M    Actually, it all began here in the Public Library…
PP    Here, the Public Library in Georgetown, Guyana?
SM    Yes, I was searching desperately for some kind of truth; some answers to my questions. First I found a book about Ramana Maharshi, which no one seems to have read because there was no lending history stamped on it. And the moment I read this book, I knew where I had to go. I couldn’t go at once because I didn’t have any money. I began writing for the Chronicle, articles of my travels in South America, the overland trek I’ve done the year before. After saving some money, my mother helped me, and about six months later I was off to India. Frist I went to Switzerland, and worked there for a while in a hotel; then with friends I went overland to India.
India was amazing, it changed my life completely. I was very fortunate to come to a place which is now booming but at that time it was a very quiet place in South India.
PP    Are you keeping it a secret?
SM Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu; it was the Ashram of Ramana Maharshi who passed away before I was born. It was a quiet place and he was a very quiet guru, not the dramatic-miracle-healing type that you hear about so often today. I stayed there for a long time, and it was there where I first read the Mahabharata.
I return to that place often, recharging my battery, it is that sort of place; there is that sort of atmosphere giving me the essence I need, that I was looking for all the years.
PP    Before you started on “Sons of Gods” – the retelling of the Mahabharata, you published a few novels, did that process or processes help?
SM    Of course; there a certain skill to writing a novel, you can’t just sit down and write a novel and hope for the best. There is need to get certain basics in place – getting the narrative right, getting the high points right, pacing, dialogue, mood, all of which need practice…
PP Final question, for now: are you satisfied with this product?
SM    I don’t think a writer is ever satisfied with his or her work. In a few years’ time, I’m sure I’d look back and see things I could have done better to make it a better read.  One can always improve as a writer. If you are growing as a human being, you are also growing as a writer because you are gaining insights, newer insights…

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com

What’s Happening:
• ‘From Historical Paths to the Cultural Processes between Brazil and Guyana’ was recently launched on the University of Guyana Campus. This book is the first major literary collaborative effort between the two countries.