Silent Soil

Author(s): Vidyasagar Acharya
Publisher: Bhagwan Rishabhdev Granthmala

Page 16

PRASTAVANA (EULOGY)
The creation of Silent Soil epic is an achievement worth mentioning. The first thing is to imagine making the poor, downtrodden and insignificant a thing like soil, the subject matter of the epic is queer. The second thing is seeing peak grandness in the insignificance of soil to put its stages of purification allegorically in the form of the auspicious journey of salvation is to take the poetry to inseparability with spiritualism. Therefore, the work 'Silent-soil' of Acharyashri Vidhya Sagar is not merely a poet's work, it is a song of the soul of a philosopher-saint who is a living model of Sadhana, the Sadhana which upholds Loka mangala (universal good) putting steps carefully on the stages of selfpurification. This saint wants to resound in everyone's heart the earned life-philosophy from penance having absorbed in experience. The union of clear voice and meaningful transmission which erupts in his sermons, mixing in that the flow of free verse and internal rhythm of poetical experience, Acharyashri has given it the form of poetry.
It will not be irrelevant to raise the question that the 'Silent-soil' should be taken as an epic or a long episodic poem or a poem only. It is not possible to set it in the frame of the traditional definition of epic; but, if we ponder over the 500 pages it contains
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