Suffering as the Spiritual Vision in A.K. Choudhary’s Poems

 

Arbind kumar Choudhary,an editor of the I.A.P.E.N, India sponsored international literary journal Kohinoor, appeared as a literary comet amidst the creative milieu of Indian literary horizon whose trio collection of poems entitled Eternal Voices(2007), Universal Voices (2008)and My Songs (2008)not only tickle the heart but also fire the poetic imagination of the readers in general and the muse lovers in particular.

The epigram, ideogram, and idolum shape poetic spirits of many a peeping poets. The themes of the poems are based on nature, love, life, sorrow or injustice. They show us the different facts of life. The poems are a lot of cup of poetic wine. The racy style of his poems shows as if the muse lovers were drinking a draught of his poetic wine from this odeum. His performance as a metrical artist is a tour de force. His pitta-poetic passage is beyond measure. This poetic philander pampers those who suffer more. His poetry has carved for him a permanent niche in the temple of fame. It is poetry that has made him divine. Mahashweta Chaturvedi opines, “A.K.Choudhary is an apostle of art. Indeed aesthetic activity is the activity of the spirit. Indeed, the poet’s brain child is joyous and fruitful to those who really want to drink poetic nectar.

The poet A.K.Choudhary’s another collection of poems “My Songs” (34) contains many cultured poems like nature, festivals, country, leaders, birds, friends, foes, and so on. As a matter of fact, poetry is born of the life of imagination and passion. It deals with various phases of life and deals with universal and eternal passion of hope and feast, love and hatred as the language of human heart in its divine communion with nature. A.K.Choudhary has successfully described such experiences of life and created for us a world of enchanting beauty. The poet is par excellence. In these two collections of poetry, the poet appears modest and human. This poetry is highly enjoyable, appealing and exhibiting the mature vision of the poet. May the future of his poetry march along the path way of success and glory?”

Manoranjan Das, an editor of Kolkata based literary journal “The Future”, frankly opines his views about the poet A.K.Choudhary in such a way:

“you are the ample sunshine of sweet love

where literature

Is roamed realistically that you have.

&

Following delightful goodness of life’s wills

You are the path

Of correct meditation for poetry –reels.

&

Ah! your thoughts are wisdom for advancement

That is your works

And activities for human development”.2

In the preface of “My Songs” the poet makes it clear that ‘ to lead a poetic life is to embrace a crown of thorns as a bed of roses’. Suffering is the dominating theme of his poems. Struggle is the law of progress. Suffering is the badge of humanity. Suffering is the spiritual vision of life. The more one suffers, the more one gathers. Suffering makes us more mature in life. This held that sorrow makes us wise. Sorrow is tranquility remembered in emotion. It is suffering that has made him divine. To enjoy eternal bliss suffering in life is necessary.

In the words of Mahashweta Chaturvedi,

“One becomes conscious

About the power of observation,

Thinking of the poet Arbind

Like lotus smiles in the

Muddy obstacles”3

In his poem “The Poor” the poet sings that “The palmy days of life /is the felicity of strife”4.It is said that the poor are the worst sufferers and are forced to lead a hellish life. But the poet possesses a positive approach for such a pathetic person:

“Paupers are not the time’s fool

But time’s best jewel”5

In the opinion of the poet the pauper as the aster is better than ever. The riches are the insensate things spell bound in fatal feelings. To poet wealth is a wild goose chase. In another poem ‘Life’ the poet strongly advocates this philosophy that the strife of life is better than ever. Life is ever at strife. The poet sings that happy and misery lead to Tom, Dick and Harry.

The poet ridicules the earthly life and

sings in ‘The Ganga’:

” The vital feelings of her delight

Ridicules fatal feelings of delight”6

He advises Uncle Sam to look into sufferer’s sufferings. It is said that poverty and improbity travesty the juvenility. Poverty is not a crime. The Poor are those who play false .Cat and dog life of the sufferer is as dull as ditch water. The poor are those who lack wisdom because lack of wisdom enriches earthly kingdom. The poet sings that a lovelier flower blooms in sun and shower. Like Horace he reiterates that wealth is not the source of happiness. The lust for wealth eats into the very vitals, and offers no rest to man. Wisdom is infinitely better than wealth. The only thing he longs for is the spiritual bliss. The unbriddled ambition doomed the Marlowian heroes at last.

In his sonnet ‘D.C. Chambial ‘ the poet tunes the tone of the sufferers:

“Sorrow and bellow

Hallow his poetic meadow”7

In his another sonnet the poet unfolds the positive aspects of the poverty:

“Poverty and morality

Wage war for prosperity”8

To poet suffering and tribulation are the spiritual life of the human being. Even God has sympathy for those who suffer more:

“God is a saving grace

For those who burning in furnace”9

One can find on him a great impact of Keats while he justifies the joys of suffering to man. In the’ Fall of Hyperion’ the height of Keats’ poetic insight is highlighted through the mouth of Moneta while she sings:

“None can usurp this height ‘, return’d that shade,

But those to whom the miseries of the world

Are misery and will not let them rest.”10

But these striking lines of Keats perhaps touch the core of his heart:

“How beautiful if sorrow had not made

Sorrow more beautiful than Beauty’s self “.11

Like Keats he justifies the sufferings of the human community as a whole. The suffering leads the way to prosperity. Suffering is the source of treasure -trove. Suffering is sour, but its result is like the treasure trove of the nectar. The acid test of the human being is the suffering only through which they get perfection, pure notion, proper meditation and spiritual satisfaction. The way of the prosperity leads the door of the corruption, immorality, and immaturity. The purity of life lies in sufferings. Suffering is ever divine for those willing to sip a cup of spiritual wine. Misery is a curse for those living in fool’s paradise for sake of earthly pleasure. Wealth can quench our physical thrust and needs. It is a source of all evils. The wisdom is the spiritual wealth of the wise people. Wealth is earthly things of the ignorant people. To them ignorance is bliss. But to the wise man wisdom is bliss and ignorance is curse. The fool’s paradise can provide pleasure for the time being for want of spiritual perfection. To take the taste of the strife is ever pleasurable for those willing to have a life laden with spiritual feelings.

Tribulations and frustrations haunt the egalitarians. Calamity and poverty are bliss of society. Sorrow is sparrow harrowed with bellow. The poet opines to metrify those rhymes sung only for the paupers. The surge of the dirge is the presage of the sage. Carnage and pillage sabotage the personage. In his poem ‘Thomas Hardy’ the poet opines that tears is the fragrance of life that is spread here and there:

“A Koel of 88 years

Spreads fragrance of life’s tears.”12

He gives an example of John Keats who smiles even in the rain of tears. The unfathomed grief of the poet is revealed while he justifies the joys of pain and suffering. He addresses Shelley as the singer of the unfathomed grief of the sufferers. Thomas Gray in ‘Elegy’ sings for the short and simple annals of the poor.

Like Shelley he believes to glorify the musicology bloomed with epistemology. Calligraphy is the choreography rooted in ethnography. He further adds that to auger well for the humanity serves the motive of majority and jewel of the earth is that gentry who peeps into people’s misery.

Even Cloud is the messenger of the unbearable grief of the beloved. He talks about Elpomene, one of the nine muses of literature and art. Melpomene is the muse of tragedy. Ulysses and Vaskodigama have explored the hidden world after shedding their bloods for many years. In sonnet’C.L.Khatri’ he murmurs:

“Wealth is a wild goose chase

For Vaskodigama like bird of passage”13

Like Emily Dickinson he asks us to look at delight and happiness through suffering and pain. Delight becomes pictorial when viewed through pain. The external things of life of the soul is rich and immense so as to include within itself all the external glories of life. His sorrow is not sorrow but delight.

In the words of the Nobel Prize nominated Austrian poet Kurt. F. Svatek, “My Songs is the third book of a trilogy ,entitled Eternal Voices(2007) ,Universal Voices(2008)and even My Songs(2008).They all are written under the influence of the Classical, the Romantic and the Elizabethan Writers and are compact poems in rhyme and meter. And that is not so usual and remarkable in our days…………Choudhary considers his poems as brain children. But it seems to him earthly life must injure, a bed of roses is also a bed of thorns. Sometimes the earth is the limbo. So ,his way of writing is clear and powerful written in a high linguistic level”.14

Again Mahashweta Chaturvedi, an editor of Mandakini, tunes her tone in favour of this poet in such lines:

“His trio collections of poems

Eternal Voices, Universal Voices

And My Songs illustrate

His poetic outlook,

Make him the burning star

In the firmament

Of Indian English Poetry”.15

References:

1. Ayush, Jan009,No 1, Vol. 1, P. 69

2. Kohinoor, Jan008, No1,Vol .3, P. 46

3. Ayush, Jan009, No1, Vol1, P. 41

4. Choudhary A.K, My Songs(2008),I.A.P.E.N,

Bihar ,P. 26

5. Ibid, P. 26

6.Ibid,P.26

7. Choudhary A.K ,Universal Voices(2008),I.A.P.E.N, Bihar, P. 10

8. Ibid, P. 18

9. Ibid , P. 25

10.The Works of J. Keats,The W.W.Poetry Library, P. 447

11. Ibid ,P. 250

12. Choudhary ,A.K,. Eternal Voices(2007) P.B.D,U.P, P .25

13. Universal Voices,P. 6

14. Ayush, P.63-64

15. Ayush, P . 41

By

Dr. Sanjay Kr Choudhary,

Deptt of English,

Mendipathar College,

Meghalaya