In the novel “The Blind Musician” the Ukrainian Musician Vladimir Korolenko shows that a person can always find fulfilment in life if he does not remain fixated on himself and his grief, but recognises the spiritual meaning of his existence.
Throughout human history we find many different writings in different cultural contexts, which testify of a deep spiritual connection to a power which is common to all creatures. One of these sources, with which many people are familiar, is the Bible. For the founders of the Golden Rosycross, Jan van Rijckenborgh and Catharose de Petri, this is very fundamental. They mention:
In the Bible we do not see a historical account, but a contemporary signature of the human being who walks the aspiring path […]. The Christian initiation mystery is a strange and peculiar event. [1]
It is not easy to understand the Bible as being a guide to one’s life. To this day, its symbolic language has given rise to many conflicting interpretations, which can explain the numerous Christian movements that have emerged as a consequence, and especially in our modern times, where we often find a complete rejection of the Bible. There are many intelligent people who speak multiple languages, who have studied different cultures, and who can orientate themselves accordingly, yet are unable to recognize the veiled mysteries or symbolic meanings peculiar to the Bible, from this intellectual base. So, it is not surprising that the arguments over its interpretation continue to grow, even though this scripture brought a message of compassion and unity.
In his etude called ‘The Blind Musician’, Vladimir Korolenko (1853-1922) describes a fascinating example of understanding the New Testament as an aid to one’s own development. Korolenko (2) takes the reader by the hand and leads him through his life, as it were, showing how his blindness can turn into vision, and his ignorance into insight. He worked on this study for over 30 years, changing, adding and hoping to be able to provide his reader with an ever-clearer statement of his concerns. Korolenko invites us to take part in a marvellous experiment. Neither the Tsar nor Lenin’s dictatorship, neither a four-year exile to Siberia, including a year in the eternal ice, nor wars could dampen the radiant attitude to life he had acquired. On the contrary, he later described his most difficult years, as the best and most cheerful of his life.
In The Blind Musician, he describes the radiant Christ in one’s own self, as follows:
A blind son, Peter Popelsky, is born into a wealthy landowner’s family. He is surrounded by a loving mother, a caring father, a sensitive playmate, and an understanding servant. The child’s every wish is fulfilled, except for one: to be able to see. Playing, riding, excursions, nothing can completely comfort him. On his piano he plays increasingly sad tunes. Overwhelmed by his own self-absorption, the young blind man realizes the hopelessness of his situation. His uncle Maxim, a war-torn veteran, takes him to see the blind beggars that frequent the dusty country roads. Peter decides to join these beggars. After a long time he returns, changed – cheerful, boundlessly grateful. A new life has begun. He marries his playmate. Their son can SEE.
As a gifted pianist, he now enchants his appreciative and adoring audience.
Why was the writer Vladimir Korolenko so popular in his day, and why is he still relevant today? Primarily because his heroes are actively searching; their thoughts and souls are in constant motion. Korolenko’s heroes do not stand still in their development but continue to strive despite difficulties and trials in their lives. This unstoppable quest is essential for each of us. His favourite characters allow us to recognize the inner overcoming of difficult circumstances and enable us to discover something high and true within ourselves: the deep meaning of our existence.
The Blind Musician is infused with a tense search for the Spirit. In the foreword to the sixth edition, the author wrote:
The fundamental psychological motif of the etude is the instinctive, organic inclination towards light. This is the source of my hero’s mental crisis and its solution. [2]
‘Light’ is the key concept in this work. Korolenko uses it not only in the sense of a blind boy, and later a young man’s striving for natural light, but also the search for an understanding of the spiritual light, the spiritual world.
Korolenko slips into the role of a scientist, a researcher, as it were. That is why he called his work an etude (from the French: “study”, “research”), as an analogy to the etudes of the French realists and naturalists of the second half of the nineteenth century (Emile Zola, Jules and Edmond Goncourt, Guy de Maupassant and others). Like the French writers, Korolenko explored the impact of external circumstances on the spiritual development of man. Whereas for them it was primarily material hardship, with Korolenko it was a physical suffering, a blindness, with which the protagonist had to wrestle.
Peter Popelsky’s difficult path to discovering the spiritual world, forms the theme of the work. The story is not only about the physical experiences of the main character, but above all, about the spiritual trials of a person who seeks to find himself, and the meaning of his existence. After all, the Bible teaches us that we are all spiritually blind when we see, and spiritually deaf when we hear. Korolenko’s message was that as long as a person does not remain fixated on himself, his grief or his personal experiences, but rather recognizes the spiritual meaning behind his existence, he can find fulfilment. Peter found that his calling in music, among other things, was not only meaningful to himself, but also to the people around him. His marriage to Evelina and the birth of their son, who was not born blind, was the great reward for his difficult search. The inner light now accompanied him, and illuminated his life in a new way.
The work ends with Peter’s piano concerto in front of a large audience. Uncle Maxim listens to his nephew playing wonderful melodies – pure and sincere. Melodies that contained not only the joy of life, but also the pain and suffering that Peter had experienced together with other people. And Uncle Maxim realized that Peter had dramatically changed; he had become spiritually sighted:
Yes, he had a revelation …. instead of a blind and unquenchable selfishness, he carries in his soul a sense of purpose; he feels both human sorrow and joy; he has had a revelation and will be able to remind the unhappy of that life of joy …’. And the old soldier bowed his head lower and lower. Here he had done his work, and he had not lived in the world in vain, the full force of the imperious tones that echoed in the hall and dominated the crowd, told him just that … [3]
In his own way, Peter Popelsky followed the path of suffering, the path of Christ, and arrived at a new awareness, a light-heartedness of mind. A more comprehensive dimension of life had opened up for him, a life for the benefit of humanity. Art and creativity can be witnesses of light and of powerful sources. Having found the light within himself, Peter began to spread it to other people who were physically sighted, but spiritually blind. Thus, Korolenko reinforces the idea that there will be more light and truth in the world if people awaken their hearts and through their mode of living, call others to the truth and light.
“Every artist knows that he only achieves his best when his spirit is completely devoted to, and consumed by, the inspiration of the moment. He is then enabled to give all of his energy and, what is more, he thus draws higher power to himself, for power thus received, remains forever.” [4]
There are unspeakable treasures stored in every human being, which he can release and work with creatively and spiritually, because that is the true potential of our being.
This miracle can happen in everyone, the new person can awaken in the heart. It is no longer the blind connection of the spirit, but the conscious, aware being in the spirit that awaits man. He will be able to SEE. Jakob Böhme puts it this way:
Heaven is everywhere, through the whole world and apart from the world, without separation, place or location, and it works through divine revelation only in itself; and in that which comes into it, or in that in which it is revealed, God is revealed. For heaven is nothing else but a revelation of the eternal ONE, since everything works and wills in silent love.”[5]
It is time for a new image of man. It is time for a new realism.[6]
[1] Jan van Rijckenborgh and Catharose de Petri, The Universal Gnosis, Haarlem (NL) 1994
[2] Vladimir G. Korolenko, Episoden und Erzählungen (Episodes and Tales), 1953
[3] Ibid [2]
[4] Prentice Mulford; Ausgewählte Texte (Selected Texts), 1986
[5] Jakob Böhme, Glaube und Tat (Faith and Action), Berlin 1976
[6] Rutger Bregman, Humankind: A Hopeful History, 2023
