Thursday 23 August 2012

Bohemian habits


It is mentioned in Mahagranth that Mrs. Chaudhri would be greatly concerned about the bohemian habits of Shri Nathji. Since it is a little unconventional usage of English for most readers, we would like to expound upon the meaning as to, what is a Bohemian?
The literal definition and original meaning of the term "Bohemian," is a native or inhabitant of the region or former province of what is now western Czechoslovakia. However, the term as it applies to the arts is a timeless concept that knows no geographic boundaries. In this context, Bohemia is not a place on a map but any community of people whose paramount interest is literary or artistic in nature. Consequently, due to this interest, the lifestyle of the Bohemian tends to differ dramatically from what might be considered to be established norms. The following question has been asked to determine whether one is a Bohemian: "You have enough money to buy either art supplies or a meal, but not enough money to buy both. Which would you buy?" If you chose art supplies, you qualify as a Bohemian. Bohemianism is understood to mean a gay disorderliness of life, cheerful bad manners, and no fixed hours. Bohemians have maintained the right of the poet and the man of letters to escape the social system, to follow a personal moral code, to create his own environment, and develop his originality. They have asserted the right of man to live as he chose. 
This word has its origins in the first University of the world which was founded in 1346 in Paris. A Bohemian King who played an important part at the Court of Paris at that time also played an important role is establishing the university. This University in Paris was everything but an educational institution of the conception of our own days. Troubadours, scientists, "wayfaring students," as they were called, had found here a thriving abode, where royal grants for them provided generously for their daily needs and an assembly of fellow-seekers after the Truth and the ideal permitted them an exchange of ideas and of values which was universal. The part of the city which they chose for their students habitation was soon called by the other population of Paris, the Latin Quarters. The great amount of Bohemians which the Bohemian Prince through his generosity invited to make pilgrimage to this new Dorado of everybody "learned," had settled again as a little community inside of the Latin Quartiers. They all were men of the world. They all had traveled from the farthest South to the extremist North of Europe. Their habits of living were marked by their Slavonic temperament, their hot blood and their melancholy and sentimentality, which did not permit an early parting whenever they had gathered for learned discussions . . . and they were not believers of temperance restrictions of any kind. To lead "the bohemian life in the Latin Quartiers" soon became an expression all over Europe. Thus the word Bohemian Habits came into existence.
So the word Bohemian habits amply to the unscheduled and untimely routine of Shri Nathji and his disinterest towards care of proper food and rest for His body due to His preoccupation in writing Gazals and meeting people at all times as His part of His pastimes as the Avatar.

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