1 verses · ~1 min
चाह नहीं मैं सुरबाला के गहनों में गूँथा जाऊँ, चाह नहीं प्रेमी-माला में बिंध प्यारी को ललचाऊँ, चाह नहीं, सम्राटों के शव पर, हे हरि, डाला जाऊँ चाह नहीं, देवों के सिर पर, चढ़ूँ भाग्य पर इठलाऊँ! मुझे तोड़ लेना वनमाली! उस पथ पर देना तुम फेंक, मातृभूमि पर शीश चढ़ाने जिस पथ जावें वीर अनेक।
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
Maharana Pratap Praying to Goddess at Haldighati
This profound painting captures a deeply spiritual moment from the legendary Battle of Haldighati fought in 1576. Maharana Pratap, the noble ruler of Mewar, pauses amidst the swirling chaos of war to offer his absolute devotion to the Divine Mother, depicted in the celestial clouds manifesting with multiple arms bearing sacred weapons. Mounted on his loyal horse Chetak, the warrior king lowers his sword and bows his head in complete surrender to the divine will, reminding us that true strength is born from humility and faith. Around him, devoted soldiers tend to the wounded and ready themselves for the righteous struggle, their armor gleaming under a turbulent sky, while the royal standard flutters bravely in the distance. The artwork serves as an eternal testament to the unyielding spirit of Mewar, where duty to the motherland and spiritual grace were inextricably intertwined.
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