10 verses · ~2 min
शिखर शिखारियों मे मत रोको, उसको दौड़ लखो मत टोको, लौटे? यह न सधेगा रुकना दौड़, प्रगट होना, फ़िर छुपना,
अगम नगाधिराज, जाने दो, बिटिया अब ससुराल चली |
तुम ऊंचे उठते हो रह रह यह नीचे को दौड़ जाती, तुम देवो से बतियाते यह,
भू से मिलने को अकुलाती, रजत मुकुट तुम मुकुट धारण करते, इसकी धारा, सब कुछ बहता, तुम हो मौन विराट, क्षिप्र यह, इसका बाद रवानी कहता,
तुमसे लिपट, लाज से सिमटी, लज्जा विनत निहाल चली, अगम नगाधिराज, जाने दो, बिटिया अब ससुराल चली |
डेढ सहस मील मे इसने प्रिय की मृदु मनुहारें सुन लीँ, तरल तारिणी तरला ने सागर की प्रणय पुकारें सुन लीँ, श्रृद्धा से दो बातें करती, साहस पे न्यौछावर होती, धारा धन्य की ललच उठी है, मैं पंथिनी अपने घर होती,
हरे-हरे अपने आँचल कर, पट पर वैभव डाल चली, अगम नगाधिराज, जाने दो, बिटिया अब ससुराल चली |
यह हिमगिरि की जटाशंकरी, यह खेतीहर की महारानी, यह भक्तों की अभय देवता, यह तो जन जीवन का पानी! इसकी लहरों से गर्वित 'भू' ओढे नई चुनरिया धानी, देख रही अनगिनत आज यह, नौकाओ की आनी-जानी,
इसका तट-धन लिए तरानियाँ, गिरा उठाये पाल चली, अगम नगाधिराज, जाने दो, बिटिया अब ससुराल चली |
शिर से पद तक ऋषि गण प्यारे, लिए हुए छविमान हिमालय, मन्त्र-मन्त्र गुंजित करते हो, भारत को वरदान हिमालय, उच्च, सुनो सागर की गुरुता, कर दो कन्यादान हिमालय | पाल मार्ग से सब प्रदेश, यह तो अपने बंगाल चली, अगम नगाधिराज, जाने दो, बिटिया अब ससुराल चली |
इति
The Poet
माखनलाल चतुर्वेदी
Makhanlal Chaturvedi
1889 · 1968
There is a poem that lives at the absolute center of the Indian literary imagination of sacrifice a poem in which a flower, offered for worship, instead asks to be pressed into the wreath of a martyr, to fall upon a brave man's chest as he marches into the cannon's mouth. That poem is Pushp Ki Abhilasha The Flower's Longing and its author, Makhanlal Chaturvedi, composed it with the hand of a man who had already offered himself in exactly the same spirit. He was imprisoned multiple times by British colonial authorities for his journalism and his poetry. He was the editor of Prabha, one of the luminous literary political journals of the independence era. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi's very first prize in 1955, and the Padma Bhushan followed. But what no institutional recognition can fully capture is the texture of his moral life the extraordinary combination of burning patriotic fire and absolute personal humility, a man who wrote about martyrdom while quietly being available for it himself. Born in Babai in 1889, he lived to see the independence he had helped dream into existence, and then he wrote on for two decades more, finding in a free India new obligations for the literary conscience. He is the poet of pure sacrifice not sacrifice celebrated from a distance, but sacrifice inhabited, practiced, and offered without expectation of return.
Paired Painting
Ganga and Bhishma
This poignant masterpiece captures a heartbreaking moment from the Mahabharata, where the celestial river goddess Ganga prepares to release her newborn son Devavrata, later known as Bhishma, into the sacred waters. Bound by a divine curse and her vow to free the Vasus from mortal suffering, Ganga carries out her tragic duty with a visage of profound sorrow and serene resolve. Raja Ravi Varma brilliantly bridges classical Indian epic storytelling with Western academic realism, immortalizing the sorrow of a mother both divine and mortal. The billowing drapery of her vibrant orange sari reflects the rushing winds and currents of her celestial domain, while her tender yet resolute grip on the infant speaks volumes of the eternal sacrifice woven into the tapestry of the cosmos.
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