Pi And Brahman Nirguna In Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

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The normal texts are told in Pi’s point of view, but the italicized texts are told in the author’s point of view. Piscine Molitor Patel, the narrator, was named after a swimming pool. Francis Adirubasamy, known to Pi as Mamaji, was a swimmer and taught Pi how to swim. The Piscine Molitor was Mamaji’s favorite swimming pool in the world, and that was how Pi got his name. The Piscine Molitor had an indoor pool and an outdoor pool, “both as big as small oceans.” This symbolic name foreshadows Pi’s journey of survival at sea. This is Pi’s belief of an animal’s life in terms of freedom in the wild compared to that in a zoo. Animals in the wild have to fight for survival, which means competing for territory, resources, shelter, food, etc. Pi explains …show more content…

In Hinduism, Brahman is “the world soul,” or some kind of spiritual power. Brahman nirguna is one of these spiritual powers that helps Pi understand the universe. Whereas Brahman saguna is a concept that humans can grasp and describe, Brahman nirguna is beyond human understanding. Pi relates the tale of Krishna and the milkmaids to God and various religions; nobody should become too possessive or jealous of God because they may lose Him, just like how the milkmaids lost Krishna. Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam are all connected, but if one gets too possessive of God, then their foundation of love may turn into hatred. Pi likes how Christianity is all about love, contrary to his previous assumption that Christians were judgemental and violent. However, the stories about the gods in the religions of Christianity and Hinduism differ greatly. In Christianity, God came down to earth as a human (Jesus) and was crucified, suffering greatly, but in Hinduism, the gods would never allow for themselves to