XAT 2018 — VARC Question 23
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow:
A spirit that lives in this world and does not wear the shirt of love, such an existence in a deep disgrace.
Be foolish in love, because love is all there is.
There is no way into presence except through love exchange.
If someone asks, But what is love? Answer, dissolving the will.
True freedom comes to those who have escaped the question of freewill and fate.
Love is an emperor. The two worlds play across him. He barely notices their tumbling game.
Love and lover live in eternity. Other desires are substitute for that way of being.
How long do you lay embracing a corpse? Love rather the soul, which cannot be held.
Anything born in spring dies in the fall, but love is not seasonal.
With wine pressed from grapes, expect a hangover.
But this love path has no expectations. You are uneasy riding the body?
Dismount, travel lighter. Wings will be given.
Be clear like mirror holding nothing.
Be clean of pictures and the worry that comes with images.
Gaze into what is not ashamed or afraid of any truth.
Contain all human faces in your own without any judgment of them.
Be pure emptiness. What is inside of that? You ask. Silence is all I can say.
Lovers have some secrets they keep.
Read the following paragraph carefully and answer the question that follows:
Indian religious and ethical space is different from that of the western countries. The Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata etc. enrich Indian religious
and social space. Details of the treatment of human values and Dharmas have a long tradition. They are often compared, contrasted and debated by the characters in the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata. In the process, it has given birth to a tradition of dharma, which has been transferred from generation to generation. Ethical discourse was not a one-time affair. From time to time, religious leaders from various regions of India nourished and strengthened the Indian ethical arena. Tiruvalluvar (second century B.C.), Kabir from Uttar Pradesh (fifteenth century A.D.), Nanak from Punjab (fifteenth century A.D), Alvars and Nayanmars of Tamil Nadu (eighth century A.D.), Basaveswara of Karnataka (Twelfth century A.D.), Sri Chaitanya (Sixteenth century) were prominent.
Which of the following assumptions will make the above paragraph redundant?
Answer & solution
- A
All religious leaders, mentioned in the paragraph, preach the same message and it is transferred from one generation to the next.
- B
Western religious spaces do not have details of treatment of principle of Dharma.
- C
Ramayana and Mahabharata have made it possible for religious leaders to build the tradition.
- D
Western civilizations have been traversed by a different kind of religious leaders.
Western ethical and religious space has a long tradition of treatment of human values and Dharma.
The passage focuses on the tradition of Dharma. It states that the treatment of human values and Dharmas go hand-in-hand in the Indian context and that, “Indian religious and ethical space is different from that of the western countries”. Any statement that negates this conclusion will make the passage redundant. [5] states that western ethical and religious space has also had a long tradition of treatment of human values and Dharma. This goes against the argument made in the passage.
Hence, the correct answer is option 5.