4 verses · ~2 min
चलते-चलते थक गए पैर फिर भी चलता जाता हूँ! पीते-पीते मुँद गए नयन फिर भी पीता जाता हूँ! झुलसाया जग ने यह जीवन इतना कि राख भी जलती है, रह गई साँस है एक सिर्फ वह भी तो आज मचलती है, क्या ऐसा भी जलना देखा-
जलना न चाहता हूँ लेकिन फिर भी जलता जाता हूँ! चलते-चलते थक गए पैर फिर भी चलता जाता हूँ! बसने से पहले लुटता है दीवानों का संसार सुघर, खुद की समाधि पर दीपक बन जलता प्राणों का प्यार मधुर, कैसे संसार बसे मेरा-
हूँ कर से बना रहा लेकिन पग से ढाता जात हूँ! चलते-चलते थक गए पैर फिर भी चलता जाता हूँ! मानव का गायन वही अमर नभ से जाकर टकाराए जो, मानव का स्वर है वही आह में भी तूफ़ान उठाए जो, पर मेरा स्वर, गायन भी क्या-
जल रहा हृदय, रो रहे प्राण फिर भी गाता जाता हूँ! चलते-चलते थक गए पैर फिर भी चलता जाता हूँ! हम जीवन में परवश कितने अपनी कितनी लाचारी है, हम जीत जिसे सब कहते हैं वह जीत हार की बारी है, मेरी भी हार ज़रा देखो- आँखों में आँसू भरे किन्तु अधरों में मुसकाता हूँ! चलते-चलते थक गए पैर फिर भी चलता जाता हूँ!
इति
The Poet
गोपालदास "नीरज
Gopaldas 'Neeraj'
1925 · 2018
If Hindi poetry possessed a single voice that could dissolve the boundary between the written word and the sung breath, that voice belonged to Gopaldas Neeraj. He moved with rare and uncanny fluency between the high courts of literary poetry and the golden studios of Hindi cinema. Writing film lyrics in the 1960s and 1970s, he achieved something almost impossible by ensuring his songs carried genuine philosophical weight while remaining luminous with melody. His songs for films like Mera Naam Joker and Nai Umar Ki Nai Fasal did not condescend to their popular medium, but rather elevated it entirely. Neeraj understood with the instinct of a true artist that the deepest questions of human existence, the nature of time, the certainty of loss, and the strange beauty of impermanence are not the exclusive property of the academy. They belong to the weeping widow, the dreaming young man, and the farmer watching rain fall on dry earth. Born in Puravali in 1925, he lived until 2018. Through nine full decades, he carried the gift of making the philosophical feel personal and the personal feel universal. He was that rarest of things, a poet whom both the scholar and the ordinary listener claimed as their own.
Paired Painting
Shiva Carrying the Body of Sati
This poignant mural captures a sorrowful chapter of Hindu mythology: the moment Lord Shiva wanders the cosmos in a state of profound grief, cradling the mortal remains of his beloved Sati. His expression, painted with a heavy, melancholic stillness, reflects the deep cosmic detachment and pain that precedes the dance of destruction and the subsequent rebirth of the universe. The artist portrays Shiva not merely as a destroyer, but as a husband consumed by an inconsolable loss. Rendered with humble grace on the temple walls, the work reminds all devotees of the intense devotion and sacrifice that define the sacred bond between the divine couple.
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