Skip to main content

Running From This World? Pause and Reflect - Geeta in Bollywood

October 26, 2012

The song "Sansaar se Bhaage Phirte Ho" from the movie Chitralekha (1964) has many overtones of Arjuna's predicament at the start of the Bhagavad Geeta. I say this even though it is clear that this song is sung by a courtesan, Meena Kumar. She addresses this to a Yogi (Ashok Kumar) who, even while he desires Meena Kumari, struggles to reject her. Sahir Ludhianvi's lyrics are soulful and on reflection reveal very subtle layers of meaning.


For the lyrics, click here.

Some of the standout lines are:
इस लोग को भी अपना ना सके
उस लोक में भी पछताओगे
सन्सार से भागे फिरते हो...
is log ko bhii apanaa naa sake
us lok me.n bhii pachhataa_oge
sansaar se bhaage phirate ho
(When) you can't accept the challenges of this world / the other will be filled only with regrets / You who run away from this world.

ये भोग भी एक तपस्या है
तुम त्याग के मारे क्या जानो
अपमान रचेता का होगा
रचना को अगर ठुकराओगे
सन्सार से भागे फिरते हो
ye bhog bhii ek tapasyaa hai
tum tyaag ke maare kyaa jaano
apamaan rachetaa kaa hogaa
rachanaa ko agar Thukaraa_oge
sansaar se bhaage phirate ho
These desires are also a test of will / Obsessed with renunciation, how will you understand? / It is an insult to the Creator / If you reject His creation. / You who run away from this world.

हम जनम बिता कर जायेंगे
तुम जनम गँवा कर जाओगे
ham janam bitaa kar jaaye.nge
tum janam ga.Nvaa kar jaa_oge
We live life and depart / You reject and go

सन्सार से भागे फिरते हो
भगवान को तुम क्या पाओगे
सन्सार से भागे फिरते हो
sansaar se bhaage phirate ho
bhagawaan ko tum kyaa paa_oge
sansaar se bhaage phirate ho
You who run away from this world / How will you gain the Lord / You who run away from this world

Geeta 3-4 is a good starting point to relate to the theme of this song.
न कर्मणामनारम्भान्नैष्कर्म्यं पुरुषोऽश्नुते |
न च संन्यसनादेव सिद्धिं समधिगच्छति ||३-४||
na karmaNaamanaarambhaannaishhkarmyaM purushho.ashnute .
na cha sa.nnyasanaadeva siddhi.n samadhigachchhati .. 3-4..
Not by non-performance of actions does man reach 'actionlessness' ; nor by mere renunciation does he attain Perfection.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa can never be accused of rejecting life for the "other world". His own life as narrated in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is evidence of this. Śrī Kṛṣṇa repeatedly tells Arjuna that mere giving up of action cannot lead to saṁnyāsa.

In this song the courtesan challenges the Yogi and questions "How will you attain the Lord?" See Geeta 5-6.
संन्यासस्तु महाबाहो दुःखमाप्तुमयोगतः ||५-६||
sa.nnyaasastu mahaabaaho duHkhamaaptumayogataH . 5-6
Renunciation, O mighty-armed, is hard to attain without YOGA

While the Hindu review linked to above calls this a song about spiritual hypocrisy, I see it as the timeless push and pull between the spiritual and the worldly. Rejecting the worldly for the spiritual for the wrong reasons and at the wrong time, is fraught with peril is Śrī Kṛṣṇa's message in the Bhagavad Geeta.

Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

PS The free translation is entirely mine. I would be glad to correct any errors if you submit these in the comments column.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Geeta in Literature - IF by Rudyard Kipling

September 12, 2011 I came across a nice YouTube video that is an animation of Rudyard Kipling reading his famous poem IF . The full text sourced from wikisource is below: If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same: If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And los...
Post a Comment
Read more

Geeta Dhyānaṁ 2 - Vyāsā's Vast Intellect

January 7, 2013 Previously on Geeta Jayanti, I had posted on the eternal debt of gratitude to Mother Geeta that is the basis of Geeta Dhyānaṁ. I love Param Pujya Gurudev 's commentary on the Geeta Dhyānaṁ. Pujya Gurudev's commentary is after the introduction to the Bhagavad Geeta in the commentary on Chapters 1 & 2 published by the the Chinmaya Mission. I personally believe it should be a book by itself. After invoking Mother Geeta, we now pay tribute to the wise Vyāsa Rishi - the Guru whose Jayanti marks Guru Pūrnima every year. Pujya Gurudev starts His tribute to Veda Vyāsā in his commentary on the 1st verse of the Dhyānaṁ. Vyāsa, the father of the Vedās, who, first collected, edited and published the Veda texts and who thereafter, gave us the dialectics of Vedānta in his Brahma Sūtra, himself a great man of realization, was indeed well fitted for the job. The ancient seer had both the mastery of the theoretical science of religion - Hinduism and also the practical expe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Philip Glass and "Satyagraha", the Opera

May 27, 2012 The famous music composer Philip Glass composed an Opera called Satyagraha on Mahatma Gandhi's movement against the South African apartheid laws (strictly speaking the system wasn't officially called apartheid until ater the Second World War). I was intrigued by this because the Wikipedia entry for this opera says that the opera is sung in Sanskrit. Yet the link to the libretto (the latin name for the lyrics of an opera) on the Metropolitan's website, shows the text in English. Act 1 of opera is titled "The Kuru Field of Justice" begins with Gandhiji narrating, "I see them here assembled, ready to fight, seeking to please the King’s sinful son by waging war.” And thus addressed by Arjuna, Krishna brought that splendid chariot to a halt between the two armies. In front of Bhisma and Drona and all the rulers of the world, he said, “Behold Arjuna, these kinsmen assembled here.” And the Prince marked on each hand relatives and friends in both a...
2 comments
Read more