Karuna

अकाल-घन

Akaal-Ghan

Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan 'Agyeya'

2 min read 5 versesअकालunseasonalस्मृति

5 verses · ~2 min

घन अकाल में आये, आ कर रो गये। अगिन निराशाओं का जिस पर पड़ा हुआ था धूसर अम्बर, उस तेरी स्मृति के आसन को अमृत-नीर से धो गये। घन अकाल में आये, आ कर रो गये।

जीवन की उलझन का जिस को मैं ने माना था अन्तिम हल वह भी विधि ने छीना मुझ से मुझे मृत्यु भी हुई हलाहल! विस्मृति के अँधियारे में भी स्मृति के दीप सँजो गये- घन अकाल में आये, आ कर रो गये।

जीवन-पट के पार कहीं पर काँपीं क्या तेरी भी पलकें? तेरे गत का भाल चूमने आयीं बढ़ पीड़ा की अलकें! मैं ही डूबा, या हम दोनों घन-सम घुल-घुल खो गये? घन अकाल में आये, आ कर रो गये।

यहाँ निदाघ जला करता है-भौतिक दूरी अभी बनी है; किन्तु ग्रीष्म में उमस सरीखी हाय निकटता भी कितनी है! उठे बवंडर, हहराये, फिर थकी साँस-से सो गये! घन अकाल में आये, आ कर रो गये।

कसक रही है स्मृति कि अलग तू पर प्राणों की सूनी तारें, आग्रह से कम्पित हो कर भी बेबस कैसे तुझे पुकारें? 'तू है दूर', यहीं तक आ कर वे हत-चेतन हो गये? घन अकाल में आये, आ कर रो गये!

इति

Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan 'Agyeya'

The Poet

अज्ञेय

Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan 'Agyeya'

1911 · 1987

Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan, universally known by his pen name Agyeya, completely rewired the circuitry of modern Hindi literature. Born in 1911 in a British archaeological camp in Uttar Pradesh, his life was as fiercely untraditional as his prose. Before he became the architect of the Prayogavaad (Experimentalism) movement, he was an active revolutionary who spent four years in British colonial prisons for attempting to help Bhagat Singh escape. In those prison cells, he began drafting Shekhar: Ek Jivani, a psychological novel that shocked the literary establishment with its unapologetic exploration of the individual ego. He rejected the prevailing romanticism of the era and instead assembled the Tar Saptak series, bringing together a new generation of poets who wrote in free verse about alienation, intellect, and the fractured modern psyche. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964 and the Jnanpith Award in 1978. Agyeya was a novelist, a combatant officer in World War II, a journalist, and a profound existential thinker. He gave Hindi literature the vocabulary to interrogate the inner self without the comfort of traditional morality.

Paired Painting

Sita Bhumipravesh

This profound canvas captures one of the most heartbreaking and poignant moments in the epic Ramayana, when the noble Queen Sita, weary of constant trials and unjust doubts cast upon her purity, appeals to her divine mother, Bhumi, the Earth goddess. Raja Ravi Varma masterfully orchestrates the scene with deep theatrical grace and psychological tension. On the right, King Rama sits upon his royal throne, his posture a mixture of shock, sorrow, and helpless realization as the earth begins to open up beneath his beloved wife. In the center, devoted attendants and sages watch in stunned silence and despair, their faces etched with grief. On the left, Sita gently surrenders to the embrace of the earth, her expression radiating serene detachment and divine dignity as she departs a world that continually tested her unwavering virtue. Through rich chiaroscuro and masterful emotional expression, the artist transforms a legendary mythological tragedy into an intimately human experience of profound loss and ultimate spiritual liberation.

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