Voice of Senses

The book under review titled, ‘Voice of senses’ is edited by Baidyanath Saraswati.

The entire book is devoted to a thorough understanding of the concept of senses. There are twenty articles in total in two parts.

The first part deals with philosophy and religion while the second part deals with Science and Society.

Eminent authors from various fields have written the articles and hence it is quite interesting to read and understand hitherto unknown facts.

The Five Elements or Five Processes is basic to Chinese tradition. Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water are the five elements.

Sitansu Ray has beautifully written about Tagore’s Congregational addresses on Seeing and Hearing

Seeing and hearing are consecutive themes of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore who delivered the congregational addressed on two consecutive days in Santiniketan. Vision leads us to realization. The silent music of celestial world is to be studied and our life music is to be synchronized with the magnanimous music of the ever-evolving universe.

Function of the Sense – Organs in the Snake – catching Technology is explained by Sanghamitra Pal.

In West Bengal, Saure Mal is one of the sub-castes of the caste Mal. The Sapure classify the snakes as poisonous and non-poisonous. They believe that most of the snakes are harmless. They learn the art of snake-catching since childhood. It is very interesting to read about their knowledge and skill of snake-catching and charming.

Somushish Ghosh Dastidar and Manojit Denath analyse Plant Response to External Stimuli. A single stimulus such as hot needle can cause leaves to respond. It is possible for a plant to respond to the vibrations accompanying sounds. The plant ‘Mimosa Pudica’ also known as the ‘sensitive plant’ responds to the sound-induced vibration. In one archid plantation area every morning and evening the sound installed there plays devotional songs, ghazals, religious chants and instrumental music. The vibration in it helps in the growth of buds.

K.N. Sahay explains Human Senses and their purpose citing quotes from many Sanskrit works. One has to use these senses to ‘go upward’. The excellent path of true welfare is to be chosen and adopted by intelligent people.

These articles are of benefit to those who interested in learing about the different aspects of Indian religious and philosophical perceptions.

The Scientific back ground gives us more authentic information about the voice of senses.

Sense of touch, sense of taste, sense of smell, sense of sight, sense of hearing – all these five senses along with mind helps us to achieve empirical knowledge. One who uses these in the right way as stipulated by scriptures attains Shreya.

Mr Badiyanath Saraswati, an eminent anthropologist has spent about forty years in unraveling the relationship between traditional thought and modern science.

He is no more with us. But his collection of articles will definitely help the readers to know all about senses.

The Voice of senses is very sweet and I strongly recommend this book to all book lovers of Indology.

The book is neatly printed and published by D.K.Printword (P) ltd., New Delhi.