Faith and Reason - Third in a Series

 Illustrations added to the enjoyment

Mr Okamoto, the insurance investigator, doesn't believe Pi Patel's account of his survival during the seven months since the shipwreck:  "For the purposes of our investigation we would like to know what really happened." Pi responds:

"I know what you want. You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality."

Pi obliges by giving the investigator a typical story of people treating others cruelly, culminating in murder, and mundane efforts that allowed survival. This account was accepted. As to the other account:

"In the experience of this investigator, his story is unparalleled in the history of shipwrecks. Very few castaways can claim to have survived as long at sea as Mr Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger."

That disbelief that the "boy" and the tiger could co-exist was the stumbling block. Mr Okamoto agrees that the story with the animals is the better story, but he cannot take it upon himself to accept it. Pi tells him, with tears:

"And so it is with God".

Postscript: I recommend these two interviews with Yann Martel, one from 2010, and the other from 2013.

Definition of Faith Part 2

Yann Martel has the Narrator of Life of Pi relate how despair was ready to pounce when the terrors of abandonment on the open sea - with the hungry tiger as his only companion - gripped his whole being. Though turning to God gave comfort, the Narrator is forced to recall: "But it was hard, oh, it was hard". Then comes another carefully considered definition of faith:

    "Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love [...]".

But it is often no easy matter committing to any of those elements of faith:

"[B]ut sometimes it was so hard to love. Sometimes my heart was sinking so fast with anger, desolation and weariness, I was afraid it would sink to the very bottom of the Pacific, and I would not be able to lift it back up."

I enjoyed the next passage, which reflects how in valid religions a certain child-like outlook, and the admirable ability to submit to what is a truly higher authority, are essential to step beyond what imposes itself upon us:

At such moments I tried to elevate myself. I would touch the turban I had made with the remnants of my shirt and would say aloud: "THIS IS GOD'S HAT!"
I would pat my pants and say aloud: "THIS IS GOD'S ATTIRE!'
I would point to Richard Parker and say aloud: "THIS IS GOD'S CAT!'
I would point to the lifeboat and say aloud:"THIS IS GOD'S ARK!'
I would spread my hands wide and say aloud:"THESE ARE GOD'S WIDE ACRES!"
I would point to the sky and say aloud: "THIS IS GOD'S EAR!"
And in this way I would remind myself of creation and my place in it.

Martel also has the Narrator delve into the struggle of the person who commits through the deliberate exercise of faith to what is an evolving relationship with God :

"But God's hat was always unravelling. God's pants were falling apart. God's cat was a constant danger. God's ark was a jail. God's wide acres were slowly killing me. God's ear didn't seem to be listening."

Now comes an insightful outcome. For those willing to commit to this relationship with God through a previous choice, there is the possibility of the defeat of "blackness" and "despair" by "light" and "loving":

"Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out. It was a hell beyond expression. I thank God it always passed. A school of fish appeared around the net or a knot cried out to be reknotted. Or I thought of my family, of how they were spared this terrible agony. The blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain, a shining point of light in my heart. I would go on loving."

Life of Pi is a good yarn, but also quality literature in that it reveals the nature of the human heart and, as a bonus, the way what is in our heart shapes our personal decisions, and how these go on to determine our relationships and the boundaries of our spirit.