10 verses · ~2 min
क्या कहते हो? किसी तरह भी भूलूँ और भुलाने दूँ? गत जीवन को तरल मेघ-सा स्मृति-नभ में मिट जाने दूँ?
शान्ति और सुख से ये जीवन के दिन शेष बिताने दूँ? कोई निश्चित मार्ग बनाकर चलूँ तुम्हें भी जाने दूँ? कैसा निश्चित मार्ग? ह्रदय-धन समझ नहीं पाती हूँ मैं वही समझने एक बार फिर क्षमा करो आती हूँ मैं।
जहाँ तुम्हारे चरण, वहीँ पर पद-रज बनी पड़ी हूँ मैं मेरा निश्चित मार्ग यही है ध्रुव-सी अटल अड़ी हूँ मैं।
भूलो तो सर्वस्व! भला वे दर्शन की प्यासी घड़ियाँ भूलो मधुर मिलन को, भूलो बातों की उलझी लड़ियाँ।
भूलो प्रीति प्रतिज्ञाओं को आशाओं विश्वासों को भूलो अगर भूल सकते हो आंसू और उसासों को।
मुझे छोड़ कर तुम्हें प्राणधन सुख या शांति नहीं होगी यही बात तुम भी कहते थे सोचो, भ्रान्ति नहीं होगी।
सुख को मधुर बनाने वाले दुःख को भूल नहीं सकते सुख में कसक उठूँगी मैं प्रिय मुझको भूल नहीं सकते।
मुझको कैसे भूल सकोगे जीवन-पथ-दर्शक मैं थी प्राणों की थी प्राण ह्रदय की सोचो तो, हर्षक मैं थी।
मैं थी उज्ज्वल स्फूर्ति, पूर्ति थी प्यारी अभिलाषाओं की मैं ही तो थी मूर्ति तुम्हारी बड़ी-बड़ी आशाओं की।
आओ चलो, कहाँ जाओगे मुझे अकेली छोड़, सखे! बंधे हुए हो ह्रदय-पाश में नहीं सकोगे तोड़, सखे!
इति
The Poet
सुभद्राकुमारी चौहान
Subhadra Kumari Chauhan
1904 · 1948
There is a moment in every liberation movement when the struggle finds the poem that becomes its most essential utterance, not because the poem is merely rhetorical, but because it crystallizes an emotion so precisely that an entire people recognize themselves inside it. Subhadra Kumari Chauhan provided such a moment with Jhansi Ki Rani, her electric account of the warrior queen of Jhansi. This poem was so concentrated in its energy and so clear in its moral architecture that generations of Indian schoolchildren have carried it inside them as something closer to memory than memorization. But to reduce Chauhan to a single poem would be a severe literary injustice. She was an active participant in the independence movement who walked the path of satyagraha herself, becoming one of the first women to be imprisoned for civil disobedience. She was a poet of domestic tenderness, exploring childhood and the complex inner life of Indian women that formal literature had largely chosen to ignore. Born in 1904, she died in a road accident in 1948 too soon and too abruptly. Her voice remained fully alive and deeply necessary. She gave the warrior women of Indian mythology a voice, and in doing so, she became one herself.
Paired Painting
Savitri, emblematic of ideal womanhood
This profound chromolithograph captures one of the most poignant tales of love, devotion, and triumph over mortality from the Mahabharata. Princess Savitri sits in deep anguish upon the forest floor, cradling the lifeless body of her beloved husband Satyavan. Standing before her with towering dignity is Yama, the lord of justice and death, draped in radiant crimson and crowned with celestial majesty, holding his formidable mace. His attendants peer from the shadowy thicket behind him, witnessing an extraordinary confrontation where mortal fidelity challenges the absolute laws of destiny. Savitri refuses to yield to despair, and through her unwavering wisdom, eloquence, and absolute devotion, she ultimately compels Yama to restore her husband to life. Created in association with the pioneering Calcutta Art Studio, this work represents a pivotal moment in Indian visual culture, where sacred mythology was made accessible to the public through advanced printmaking, fostering a deeply resonant sense of national heritage and spiritual endurance.
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