LET US LAUGH A BIT!

A WIDE CANVAS

LET US LAUGH A BIT!

I realise we have been considering serious subjects so far. It couldn't be helped since we are indeed facing many problems, the seriousness and true significance of which most of us have not yet realised. Even so, we should take time off to consider lighter subjects.

Poets in our languages have been the connecting link between the classic literature and the common man, between philosophy and practical life, between the past and the present. They remind us through simple words of profound thoughts, of eternal wisdom. It is as though they administer needed medicine, but make us enjoy it as some sweet or snack!

With the rise of commercial/consumerist culture, and the phenomenal rise of mass entertainment backed by vulgar and brutal money power,as seen through the cinema and T.V, people are slowly losing their taste and sensitivity for the sober forms of art such as deep music or fine poetry.Even so, we find that up to at least the mid-sixties, even our mainline Hindi cinema could boast of nice stories, fine music and high poetry. The leading lyricists employed lofty Urdu or simple Hindi to convey great thoughts, which were set to wonderful music. While a film song is supposed to be situational, relating to the story, many of them wrote lyrics which can be enjoyed as pure poetry, apart from the story.This quality I have not observed to the same extent in Tamil film songs, then or now.

Shailendra was one of our leading Hindi lyricists. But he was also a real poet. He employed simple words, mostly from the common stock. One trait with him was to use some old proverbs or wise sayings in his songs. We shall see some instances.

We all have some innate feeling of holiness and consequent reverence for places of worship. We would be shocked if someone  smoked or drank in a temple, mosque or church. Some Urdu poets sang about this.

Mirza Ghalib.

Zaahid sharab peene de masjid me baith kar
Ya woh jagah bata de jahan par Khuda na ho.

O wise man, let me have my drink sitting in the Masjid. Else show me a place where God is absent!

Iqbal.

Masjid khuda ka ghar hai, 
Peenae ka jagah nahi;
Kafir ke dil me ja
Wahan  Khuda nahi.

Masjid is the residence of God, not a place to drink.
Go to the heart of the infidels, there God is absent.

Faraz.

Kafir ke dil se ayahoon ye dekh kar Faraz,
Khuda mojood hai wahan, per use pata nahi.

 I,Faraz has returned from the heart of the infidels, and I have seen this that God is present there too, but he is not recognised.

Wasi.

Khuda to mojood duniya mein har jagah hai,
Tu jannat mein ja, wahan peene se mana nahi.

God is of course present everywhere in the world.
You go to heaven, drinking is not prohibited there!

So we have this enjoyable sally from some Urdu poets, though some talk of infidels.But through all this shines one fact: that God is present everywhere. If it wrong to drink in the masjid, it is wrong to drink anywhere! Shailendra employed the first two lines of Ghalib in the beginning of one of his songs: Mujhko yaro maaf karna, main nashe mein hoon! He thus reminded us of this whole chain of thoughts! (In the Sufi tradition, when they talk of sharab or nasha-intoxication- they do not mean the literal thing.)

We have another fine incident about the immanence of God. Once in an assembly of devotees, Gora Khumbar, the potter-saint of Maratha land was, in fun, lightly hitting on the head of everyone with his stick, to test whether they were properly baked! ( as if to see the extent of their devotion!) Namdev, great devotee of Vittal, was present there; he resented this test and Gora announced that he was unbaked! Namdev felt sad and slighted and he went to Vittal to complain. Vittal heard him patiently and asked him to go to  a saint in the forest nearby to understand real devotion. Namdev went there and found a dilapidated temple and someone inside. He was shocked to see there an old fellow lying down, with his feet on the Shiva linga! He felt outraged and also annoyed that Vittal had played a prank on him. He scolded the old man for the sacrilege. The old man simply said that because of his age, he could not see what was the ground and what was Shiva linga; he requested Namdev to remove his feet from the linga and keep them where there was no Shiva linga. Namdev took his feet in hand and wherever he placed them, he found a Shivlinga there! Namdev then understood that God pervades the whole universe. 

Namdev Maharaj.

In philosophy, we say:

Drishtim jnanamayim kritva
Pasyet Brahmamayam jagat.

If we develop divine sight or wisdom, we perceive the whole  universe to be filled with Brahman!

Jnanis always tell us that this world is like dream- things seem real, but somehow lack absolute reality. They keep changing. And this world always confuses reality and unreality. Sant Kabir sang about it in a doha.

Rangee ko narangi kahe, bane dudh ko khoya,
Chalti ko ghari kahe, dekh Kabira roya.

What is colourful, the world calls colourless; milk converted into khoa is called lost; what is moving is called stationary; seeing all this Kabir feels like weeping.

Here, Kabirdas is freely punning on the words used in common speech. Orange is called Narangi in Hindi. Na- rangi means colourless. But orange has colour! Koya or khoa is condensed milk; but khoya means lost also! Chalti means that which moves; but it is called  gaari or gaadi, which means both vehicle and unmoving!.So, Kabir points out how things are topsy-turvy in the world. 

Another view of Kabir with disciple.

Our poet Shailendra uses these lines in the beginning of one of his immortal poems:

Zindagi kwab hai
Kwab mein jhoot kya, aur bhala sach hai kya.

Dilne hamse jo kaha, hamne waisa hi kiya
Phir kabhi pursat se sochenge
Bura ta ya bhala.

Ek katra mai ka jab
Pattar ke hoton par padha
Us ke seene mein bhi dil dahadka
Ye usne bhi kaha......Zindagi kwab hai.

Ek pyali bhar ke maine
Gham ke mare dil ko di
Zahar ne mara zahar ko
Murde me phir jaan aagayi....Zindagi kwab hai.

Life is like a dream. In this, what is true and what is untrue- who can say?

We acted according to the dictates of the heart. Let us think at leisure whether it was bad or good came out of it.

If a drop of liquor falls on stone lips, even its heart will start beating and will say life is a dream, who can say what is true or untrue.

I filled a glass (and drank) and gave an antidote to the heart's grief. One poison killed the other poison and the fellow got back his life!

We all  go through life like sleep walkers, and act according to our impulse. Later, we are filled with remorse- for wrong decisions, missed chances, etc. But  how can we be certain of anything? As Louise Hay says, we always take our 'best' decisions and find ourselves in difficulties! Many people seek solace in the bottle, but they only forget themselves for a time, they return to where they were before- with a lighter purse! Shailendra is combining frivolity and seriousness here! But let us remember, Sri Ramakrishna used to go into Samadhi whenever he saw people drunk!  It is perhaps not for nothing that liquor is called 'spirit'! We speak of divine intoxication!

(A sad note: Liquor combined with grief  and diappointment proved fatal for Shailendra.)

In Urdu, there is a saying: Begani shadi mein, Abdullah diwana! It literally means our Abdullah gets excited at some unknown person's marriage! Usually, it is said of people who attend weddings uninvited, along with the crowd, to enjoy the festive food! We have all seen such people. But we can also think a bit more deeply. Can we not be happy if our neighbours, or any one else for that matter is happy? Can we not sing with the birds, and smile with the flowers? Can we not feel like Poet Bharati one with the crow and the sparrow, mountain and sea? 

Shailendra uses this line in one of his songs. While two stanzas of this song are related to the context of the story, the third stanza reveals the philospher in the poet.

Begani shadi mein Abdullah diwana
Aise manmauji ko mushkil hai samjhana.

Apna begana kaun, jana anjana kaun
Apne dil se pucho dil ko pehchana kaun
Pal mein lut jata hai, yu hih beh jata hai
Shadi kisi ki ho apna dil gata hai.

This Abdullah gets extremely happy at some unknown person's wedding! How to make such a mad cap understand things?
 ( He replies) Who is 'our' person? Who is a stranger?
Who is a known person, who is unknown? Ask your heart, who can understand another heart! I just turn happy in a second, I lose my heart ! Whoever it is that gets married, my heart sings!

So, this certainly is not a person just waiting for a free meal at a marriage feast! He is so universal in his feelings that any one else's happiness makes him happy.This is his spontaneous reaction, not a studied response (yuhi beh jata hai).That is the man's nature. Shailendra it is who sings of this in another gem of a song.

Kisi ki muskurahaton pe ho nissar,
Kisi ka dard mil sake to le udaar,
Kisi ke vaste  ho tere dil mein pyar,
Jina isi ka naam hai!

If you can become happy at another  person's happiness, 
If you can borrow (ie take away) the pain from another person,
If in your heart you can feel love for another person,
- This is called living!

Vivekananda said that they alone live who live for others; the rest are more dead than alive! We see in what strange places this philosophy is taught! Our celluloid poets are great,too!