VM by Anshula Creations
Jyoti kalash chhalke (Bhabhi Ki Chudiyan, 1961) Pt. Narendra Sharma / Sudhir Phadke / Lata Mangeshkar (Clips courtesy: Radhakrishn and Star Plus Mahabharat)
ज्योति कलश छलके
हुये गुलाबी, लाल सुनहरे,
रंगदल बादल के
………………………….
उषा ने आँचल फैलाया
फैली सुख की शीतल छाया
नीचे आँचल के
ज्योति कलश छलके
घर आँगन वन उपवन उपवन
करती ज्योति अमृत के सिंचन
मंगल घट ढलके,
ज्योति कलश छलके
Jyoti kalash chhalke eminently qualifies as a chhayavadi poem – it has romanticism, spiritualism, universalism and humanism in near perfect balance. Pandit Narendra Sharma’s creative expressions remind me of that literary giant Jai Shanker Prasad – a language so well decorated and a conscious shying away from the words of Persian / Arabic origins.
ज्योति कलश छलके — the sheer beauty of its language puts it in the class of Prasad’s हिमाद्रि तुंग श्रृंग से प्रबुद्ध शुद्ध भारती / स्वयंप्रभा समुज्वला स्वतंत्रता पुकारती and Bankim’s poem, written in Bengali-Sanskrit, वन्दे मातरम् सुजलां सुफलां मलयजशीतलाम् शस्यशामलां मातरम्… In fact, ज्योती कलश छलके will, in its tenor, appear in a kindred relationship with Bankim’s poem.
And if Pandit Narendra Sharma were to take his poem forward as to its spiritual intent, he might have written no different from what was penned by Nida Fazli:
किरण किरण अलसाता सूरज
पलक पलक खुलती नींद
धीमे धीमे बिखर रहा है
जर्रा जर्रा जाने कौन !
The unfolding Sun, the awakening of the slumbering sentience; but who sources this grand diffusion that permeates the tiniest speck!
Jyoti Kalash creates visuals of a nature pulsating to an effulgent break of the day. But just beneath that has a strong religio-spiritual layer. In fact, each stanza of this poem can be trans-figured into a painting, bringing out, holistically, its nature-related and spiritual trappings.
The last stanza in particular is very deep.
ज्योति यशोदा धरती गैया
नील गगन गोपाल कन्हैया
श्यामल छवि झलके
ज्योति कलश छलके
Jyoti is a light or a flame and, in the context, one that gives warmth, that sustains life.
Yashoda is the one who is the giver of glory and fame. However, Yashoda popularly has only one meaning: the foster mother of Kanhaiya (Sri Krishna). Jyoti being equated with Yashoda is essentially to emphasize the ‘impersonal’ character of sustenance provided. This is my understanding.
Dharti is earth and gaiya is cow. Both nurture without a preference or a choice. Hence the equation.
Neel is blue or azure. Gagan is sky. Neel gagan has been likened to Kanhaiya. And that azure gives the glimpse of Shyam (another name for Krishna). Please note that azure was the complexion of Krishna.
There is yet another explanation. Shyam is actually no colour. It is the perception of a colour. For instance, if you go to a dense forest, you feel some sort of a darkness although it is no colour. Krishna’s persona had so much of gravity, so much of density that he gave the visual impact of being dark.
Immortal poetry without a doubt.
ज्योति कलश छलके
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