Lucknow: If you are aware, then everything is spiritual and if you are not aware, then everything is material. A similar philosophy can be believed of the book lovers coming to the 21st National Book Fair being held here at Balrampur Garden. There are a large number of books on religion and spirituality here, which, according to rough estimates, are ahead of literature in sales and the people coming here seem eager to open the doors of spirituality for themselves through books.
The crowd started gathering from the morning itself in the weekend at the book fair. At the stall of Geeta Press, which has come to the fair for the first time, there are religious texts like Bhagwat Puran, Narad Puran along with a special edition of Manas and also special issues of Kalyan magazine.
Other types of literature are available along with special issues of Rashtradharma magazine at the stall of Rashtradharma Prakashan. Sanskrit literature is also available in abundance at the stall of Uttar Pradesh Sanskrit Sansthan along with ancient Sanskrit texts related to spirituality and philosophy.
Young readers are showing great interest in the books of Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Swami Vivekananda at the stall of Ramakrishna Math. Hundreds of books of Acharya Shriram Sharma giving simple explanation of religion-spirituality and religious texts are available at the stall of Gayatri Gyan Mandir.
Books like Satyarth Prakash are available at the stall of Arya Pratinidhi. Books related to yoga and meditation are available at the stall of Yogda Satsang. Literature related to Islam is available at the stall of Ahmadiya Muslim Community and Bible is also available to the people at the stall of Gideons.
In collaboration with Gautam Book Center and Siddharth Books, the ideological and social books Satya-Asatya and Nyay Path of former District Judge Shyambihari Verma were released this morning at Sahitya Manch. The books were released along with the Kavyagoshthi organized by Akhil Bharatiya Sahitya Parishad. Former minister Arvind Singh Gop expressed his views along with Sarvendra Vikram, Yogesh Mishra, Rajesh Chandra in a discussion on Rajkumar Singh’s recently published second poetry collection Udaasi Koi Bhaav Nahin was conducted by Arun Singh. Rajkumar Singh also recited poetry. In collaboration with Hindi Vangmaya Nidhi, the Hindi translation of Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Abke Bichhude Phir Na Milenge by Ramkishore Bajpai was released.
Former Executive Director of NABARD Amresh Kumar Shailendra Nath Chaturvedi, Kanakrekha Chauhan, Shobha Bajpai, Pragya Bajpai etc. expressed their views in the program conducted under the chairmanship of former Chief Secretary Shambhu Nath and conducted by Premkant Tiwari.
IPS Dr. Arvind Chaturvedi, senior journalist Pradyumna Tiwari, publisher Amit Bhargava were also present in the program. Before this, the release of Nirbhay Narayan Gupta Nirbhay’s song collection Tam Ko To Aakhir Mitna Hai was done by Akhil Bharatiya Sahitya Parishad Mahanagar along with felicitation ceremony and poetry conference.
Chairman Prof. Harishankar Mishra and speaker Dr. Anil Mishra critically analysed the songs by defining the various elements of the song and poetry and song. Om Nirav and Rajendra Shukla Raj did a detailed review of the song collection. In the evening, a programme of Daulatdevi Smriti Sansthan was held.
