Shiva Prasad Satyal 'Peeth' (CP) Garima

Poet Gopal Parajuli is one of those Nepali poets, who are in pursuit of happiness, peace and comfort for six billion people of the world, with the conviction that 'in writing, we need to portray the present'. We have just moved into a new millennium. Inequality is on the rise in the world. In one hand, there are conspiracies aimed at diving two people in the same family. On the other, the slogans of global village and globalization, directed at bringing both extremes together, are trying to dismantle the limits of our lifestyle. The entry of such social characteristics in literature is making absurdities and anomalies insignificant. Appearing at such a troublesome hour, Gopal Parajuli has made the declaration of a new god.

Critics have commended him as a poet engaged in communicative, epic-oriented and experimental expansion of poetic talents. Composed of about one thousand triplets organized in a free way, the book Declaration of a New God aims at dismantling the crisis and fear besetting the world by establishing comfort. If we don’t make the judgment that the book is, in a way, a post-modern Nepali epic that silently rebels against the traditional establishment and consciousness, all studies and comments on the book are likely to be tasteless.

Nietzsche, who declared the death of God, is a well-recognized philosopher. So is Charbark, the agnostic sage. Resisting the truth and opinion established by a philosopher is comparatively easier than reproducing power bearing the same characteristic and regime. That is fairer, and does better justice to the principle of empathy. That must be why poet Parajuli makes the declaration of a new god, and says, God is not dead and the same God can still function. The poet's conviction is clear that there is no room for justice in a world devoid of God, and in the absence of justice, we cannot imagine fearlessness and security in the world. Without fearlessness and security, we cannot think of happiness, peace and comfort. Happiness, peace and comfort are among the dearest expectations of human life. The poet feels the need for God for the fulfillment of these dearest expectations at a time when he was left with no option. Maintaining his respect for the claim about the death of God, he declares the emergence of a new god in order to make the world free of terror and bring about happiness, peace and comfort in through the enforcement of justice.

God, since the beginning of time, has been formless and immaterial or say, amorphous and impartial. For that reason, poet Parajuli makes use of original substantiality and architecture in his poetry. At least in the limited range of Nepali poetry, his style, presentation and structure are new, or rather incomprehensible. When a poet makes use of his power of intellect, some new flickers necessarily emanate. The same happened in the case of poet Parajuli. Of the few poetic works launched in the firmament of Nepali literature at the dawn of the current millennium, Declaration of a New God is canonical, but this reader is convinced in the claim that the work has clear influences of established culture and tradition at least in the choice of titles.

Shiva Prasad Satyal 'Peeth' (CP), Critic

Garima, March-April 2006