Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Last Labyrinth is the fourth novel by Arun Joshi which was published in 1981. Arun Joshi got the Sahitya Academy Award for the same book in 1983.
It is an existentialist novel about a hugely successful businessman detached from his cultural and spiritual roots. The protagonist, Som Bhaskar, not yet forty, is the millionaire and should have a lot to be contented about. He is married to an intelligent girl, has two children, and is the master of a flourishing business. Yet, he continues to suffer a sense of insufficiency, an obsessive desire to want something that he doesn’t know. He tries to satiate his unknown hunger through materialistic means. He gets completely immersed in earning wealth and overtaking any company that may offer competition. Despite having a beautiful and devoted wife, he begins having affairs with other women. Yet, all these perversions fail to satisfy his hunger. Ultimately, he faces the struggle within himself and realizes that his hunger is not sensual but spiritual. Arun Joshi used symbolism throughout the nove. Labyrinth is a symbol that signifies an individual’s quest to find the purpose of his life. Life is a labyrinth, and so is death. The protagonist struggles with his identity and the labyrinth of societal expectations, love, and loss, and then he realizes that what he seeks is Nirvana or freedom from the labyrinth of life.
Characters of The Last Labyrinth:
Som Bhaskar is the main character of the novel. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and got the best education and facilities throughout his life. He appears to be a confident businessman who never faced a defeat, However, within himself, he suffers a hollowness, confusion, and a sudden urge to acquire more, and more without realizing what he actually wants. He is in his forties. Geeta is his beautiful and intelligent wife with whom he has two children. He is aware of the fact that he cannot imagine his life without his wife Geeta in spite of that he develops sexual relationships with different women in order to judge the relationship between contraries of his own life. He develops a relationship with Leela Sabnis, a professor of philosophy. However, Leela’s intellectual world fails to satiate Bhaskar who finds her phoney. Aftab Rai is another businessman from Benaras. Som-Bhaskar finds him strange, and obsolete. He wonders how Aftab could remain so calm and composed. Anuradha is Aftab Rai’s wife. Bhaskar gets infatuated with her and begins pursuing her. His infatuation soon turns into obsession and he begins trying everything possible to attain Anuradha. Like, her husband, Anuradha too is a calm and composed woman. Bhaskar feels mysteriously attracted to her. When she meets Bhaskar, she gets interested in his puzzled yet energetic approach. She develops an affair with him but when she realizes that he is getting obsessed and has made an aim to acquire the money and wife of Aftab Rai, she rejects him. Thapar is a sincere assistant and business manager of Bhaskar who tries to warn him against the ill-perceived decisions that continue to harm Bhaskar’s business and family. Gargi is a highly spiritual and intellectual woman who often remains silent. She manages to help Bhaskar.
Summary of The Last Labyrinth:
Som Bhaskar is leading a successful life as a businessman. He got married to the girl he loved at the age of 25 and now he has two children with her. He successfully runs an industrial empire and has millions in the bank. Despite having all conceivable luxury, Bhaskar continues to feel a certain unfulfillment, a hunger that he fails to ascertain. He remains confused about his wants and tries to rationalize his insatiable hunger by indulging in voracious materialism. He is a thwarted soul who is engrossed neck-deep in attaining materialistic wealth. His residence is also named Maya, echoing the web of wealth. Som is completely immersed in earning wealth and overtaking other companies and businesses. While doing so, he becomes distant from his family, his wife, and two children. He married Geeta whom he loved and he knows that he cannot imagine a life without her, yet he begins an extramarital affair with Leela Sabnis, a professor of philosophy. Som Bhaskar is an Indian man highly influenced by Western materialistic ideas. However, his own ideas fail to satiate his inner self. Leela understands that despite his materialistic success, Som Bhaskar is troubled because he has been uprooted from his spiritual and cultural berths. She tries to help him but Bhaskar feels she is a phoney and parts his ways with her.
One day, he visits Delhi to attend a meeting of the Plastic Manufacturers Association where he meets
a mysteriously impressive businessman from Benaras named Aftab Rai. Unlike other modern businessmen and technocrats, Bhaskar finds Aftab a bit obsolete and out of fashion. In the same meeting, he sees a woman named Anuradha. She too appeared as if she is from a different age. She did not look modern and clever She wore costumes of twenty years ago-brocade sari, large gold borders, sleeves up to the elbow, and antique jewelry. When he enquires about her, he comes to know that she is accompanied by Aftab Rai. He recognizes the similarity between the two and assumes that Anuradha is Aftab’s wife.
He begins feeling attracted towards Anuradha as if she can offer him all that he has been wanting throughout his life. He tries to come near to Anuradha and begins making business trips to Benaras. He visits Aftab and Anuradha at their home Lal Haveli in Benaras. Like the couple, their Haveli too appears mysteriously grand, yet obsolete. Aftab says that the Lal Haveli is a labyrinth of rooms and corridors, and he can easily get lost in the labyrinth thus he should remain cautious.
Bhaskar comes to know that Anuradha is not Aftab’s legal wife and he makes it a goal to acquire Anuradha for himself. When he observes the couple, he feels that she is an embodiment of selfless love in a world of selfish people. She represents true independence of body and of mind. Bhaskar believes that Anuradha can help him search his self because there is something in Anuradha that gives him comfort and he tries to find out the reason behind it. Anuradha realizes that Bhaskar is infatuated by her and curiously, she develops a physical relationship with him. When Anuradha realizes that Bhaskar wishes to win her heart too and not merely possess her body she simply disappears from his life. However, Bhaskar develops an obsession for her and in order to win her, he decides to take over the businesses and companies of Aftab Rai. He vehemently begins harming Aftab’s business interests. But while doing so, he begins harming his own business, family, and health. Anuradha’s conduct is beyond Bhaskar`s comprehension. She accepts, rejects, or flees from him without warning, and he even suspects that she has some agreement with Geeta. His trusty associate convinces him to return to Bombay.
Bhaskar returns to Bombay but suffers a massive heart attack which nearly kills him. As soon as he recovers he tries to contact Anuradha who refuses to meet him. Bhaskar starts feeling more isolated and lonely and a sense of inadequacy, restlessness, and aimlessness develops in him. Consumed by revenge, Bhaskar starts to buy up all shares of Aftab's company to the agony of Thapar, his assistant. But one block of shares is tied up in a temple far away in the mountains.
A frustrated Bhaskar determines to have both Anuradha and the shares and sets out on a pilgrimage. They travel the long and winding road to a small town nestling in the hills, run the gauntlet of a string of lepers, and finally get to the temple to which the shares of Aftab’s company were assigned. He meets Gargi there who appears to be a mystique and saintly. Gargi realizes that Bhaskar is spiritually troubled. He learns that Gagri is the daughter of a Sufi saint and she speaks very less. He feels that Gargi could help him. Gargi listens to him and agrees to offer him all the shares for free. Bhaskar couldn’t realize that he could attain those shares so easily. He begins a conversation with Gargi. Gargi says, "We are all children trying to reach up to a crack in the door to peep into a room."
Bhaskar says that he is an atheist who doesn’t believe in God. Gargi tells him that “there is no harm in believing that God exists”. The urge to find solutions to all his problems makes Som believe in the existence of a supreme power, a prime mover of the entire universe. Gargi has comprehended him with the existence of God. It was the eve of Janmashtami and people began celebrating the occasion. Bhaskar remembers that his mother was a deep follower of Krishna. She was suffering from cancer and still believed that Krishna would give her the power to fight the disease. He remembers that Anuradha too is a staunch devotee of Krishna. He begins feeling spiritually enlightened. He feels that to be free, he needed to sacrifice and the eternal he felt for Anuradha was what he had to sacrifice. He begins feeling satiated and devotes himself to Lord Krishna.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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