A Complete Man – ‘Karunasri’ Jandhyala Papayya Sastry

       

Emerging  from the  kind heart of

           Jeemutavahanu, the tender hearted

Decorating the hermitage of  Sage

            Dadhichi, the   man of   sacrifice supreme

 Growing   leaves tender in the tears of

              The Buddha,the Gangetic stream of compassion

Spreading far and wide under the aegis of  

    Ashoka, ‘ Dharmaraksha Priyadarshini’  

Ahimsa, the mother creeper flowered

 In the dear  care of Mahatma;

Garlanding the neck of Mother India

 Arrived at the heaven today.        

Lumumba- Karunasri

Lumumba  - 'Karunasri' Jandhyala Papayya Sastry

  

A revolutionary fire that burns  bright

          A power of awakening that  overwhelms

A lion  of Congo that leaps at once

           A black cobra that gulps the white frogs

A volcano that erupts and engulfs

          A  stream of consciousness  dazzling

A torch  of fire  burning in the heart whole

          The aspiration  for freedom

A new  comet that  illumines

The darkest street of Africa

 An altruist and  the herald of Nation

  Lumumba,  our  minister  Prime

Karunasri on Tagore

We are disciples of  Mahatma Gandhi

We are brothers of Subhash Bose

The immense Viswabharathi

Vidhatalam Vidhatalam

                                               ------From ‘Arunakiranalu’

 ***

  The shining Indra  of  Viswabharathi

 King of Poets ! Salutes galore!!

***

Srichetasa Krishna Dwaipayana

Bhasa kalidasa Bharavi

Tulasi Nannaiah Pampa  Kamba Ravi

Tukaram, the man of poetic art   

Scavenger girl – ‘Karunasri’ Jandhyala Papayya Sastry

Scavenger girl – ‘Karunasri’ Jandhyala Papayya Sastry

 You gave up  your pleasure and life

 for your brethren 

This greedy world is ignorant

 Of your  love  innocent.

Your pure nature showed the pathway

Even to the Mahatmas  for helping  the country

Yours is  the first golden kiss of

Mother India!

 With broom on one hand and a basket  on the other

You sweep the piles of sin, girl!

Don’t you feel any aversion?

The Lord  sheds warm tears at your patience vast !!   

Till Kalpanta  your  routine  pure

A commentary for the  great dawn of cosmic love

This world blames  you as a scavenger girl

    Indebted to you  forever, Mother of creation !                  

Ignorant of rot in him

In a rickshaw pulled by the  skeleton-like man

The red-faced  monkey chides you  in pride for not giving way

As if  his house were swept away !              

Inept to grasp your sacrifice age-old

Makes a fuss over a few pennies  by this world

As if you were created by god

To serve the world  sans disgust !

Sister! Why does this demoniac world

Rains poison on seeing your visage?

It’s a cattle market to insult humanity

Kindness alone is casualty!  

The beauty of the our towns visible

Exposed the lives of Sahibs

If you refused to sweep  any day.

For your holy service

For your life of sacrifice

Not shed a tear of compassion!

 Or   heaved a sigh heavy!!

Enough sympathy for this apathetic  social order

Crushing you under  iron heels

Ways are many for filling your belly

Out of this life miserable!      

     

The self-serving despise you as a scavenger girl!

Lost introspection in a short span these  awful fools !

Wasn’t our mother a scavenger

When we were babies! 

Your form is that of   mother

Your consciousness a street pious for goddess of love

Your work selfless

Your  nature  glorious, Salutes !

         

Lethal Moment ---‘ KARUNASRI’ Jandhyala Papayya Sastry

Why has the baby rocking in the cradle

                             woke up crying aloud?

Why has the cow giving milk to calf in the hut

                                    cried  loudly ‘amba’

Why has the river jamuna  flowing freely

                        halted and shed tears many

Why has the  farmer’s plough  tilling the farm fast

                              stopped  its movement?

 Why have the bellman’s hands

 Ready to strike six  are shaking wildly ?

 Which  Mahatma’s heart was trodden upon

  By the chariot wheels of Time !! 

TAGORE MARG FOR MODERN INTELLECTUAL

               TAGORE  MARG  FOR  MODERN INTELLECTUAL

Tagore was born to Devendranth and Sarada Devi  as fourteenth child in the family on 7^th May, 1861. The family was well-known for wealth, generosity, art ,knowledge, social reform  etc. Tagore wrote his first work when he was seven years old and continued till his last breath. He studied Sanskrit and English literature deeply and even translated Shakespeare’s’ Macbeth’  into Bengali.

On one fine day the morning star of the world expelled the gloom in his heart and filled his heart with nectar of happiness.

His work ‘Nirgharer Swapnabhangh’   tells that man has to awaken to love, mingle with nature and other forms of  life, selflessness  and recognition that the universe was the abode of god.

‘Chokher bali’ gave importance to psychological portrayal. He wrote ‘Crescent Moon’  for his son Samindranath  and gave literary status to Children’s literature.

 He realized the futility of the  violent change after observing the revolutionary movement in those days in Bengal.

He triumphed over  his personal  tragedy in the deaths of his wife, two of his children –Renu, Samindranath , his father Devendranath earlier and brothers  and sister- in -law Kadambari devi who  gave him motherly love.        

His relentless effort over  half a century  awakened the Bengal literature into a new dawn of consciousness.  He wrote ‘janaganamana’ at the behest of his friend Asutosh Chaudhuri on the eve of Twenty-fifth of meeting of the Congress.

He believed in the ‘perspective of reconciliation’ as the greatest gift of India to the World. HE SPOKE TRUTH  IN THE FRANK AND FREE  MANNER IN HIS LIFE AND A CHAMPION OF REGIONAL LANGUAGES. He gave his convocation speech in Bengali In Kolkata U and impressed one and all.

Throughout his life he met the most famous people in the world , received their honour and  interacted with them. In 1912, he met poets Robert Bridges, Ezra Pound and Intellectuals like Russell and H G Wells.

He won the Nobel Prize for literature on 13 November, 1913.

He stood for unity among China , Japan and India and  opposed     mechanical civilization and narrow nationalism .

Time and again  he was prepared to stand alone or even   die for the sake of  truth. He clothed truth in the attire of beauty and remains a  conqueror of the world through peace and love.

Viswabharathi  University came to be established on 22 December,1921.

The friendship of Gandhi and Tagore is a rarest one like that of Marx and Engels.

Rabindra’s literature and philosophy

He had seen the divine in every atom of the Universe and every flower was the silent letter of love sent by the Lord. He was not  for the dry philosophy which shuns the world but for the broadmindedness to accept the diversity in human life. His heart  always craved for the new peaks unclimbed and burned bright for the new shores of beauty on the other side. His songs used to be sung by the rural  folks and boatmen. He took the metre known as ‘Swaravritta ‘ form folk literature and added his depth of thought    and  gave it the status of literature. He called himself as  ‘dasama ratna’   born not in the age of kalidasa but in this age of machines. He  was  the  Leonardo Davinci , the symbol of renaissance of India.

He was an eternal optimist, believer in humanity and combined emotion and thought, past and present and the tradition of the East and the West.

 His stories show   the abrupt ending of O Henry, the psychological portrayal of characters like Chekhov and creation of surprising incidents like Maupassant. His stories have the capacity to rain tears  to wash away  the pollution of the heart.

In his ‘chokher bali’ he portrayed the psychological turmoil in the hear t of  a  widow. His ‘Gora’ , ‘an epic in prose’ tells  the futility of blind belief in the past and his characters Gora, Sucharita, Lalita and vinay babu  remain in our mind for a long time.

His plays such as ‘Muktha  Dhara’, ‘Sacrifice’ and ‘Dockghar’ reflect the anguish of the human soul under the weight of the age of machines.   His playlet ‘Chitra’ shows the superiority of Inner beauty to external beauty.  He also introduced  ‘kanika’ which means small sentences like translated into English as ‘Fire Flies’, ‘Stray birds’  treasure was multi-faceted diamond like Kohinoor.

His poetry was a comprehensive statement, continuous practice and holy worship. He was for universalism , infinite diversity of reaching the other shore through one’ s heart as the tributary reaches the sea breaking through the stones.  He was a ‘Mystic’ poet in close touch with the almighty , described  him as nataraja, monarch of Singers and poet of the poets. For him  India was more a dharma or an idea  rather than geography. He was also a great painter and his poetry is ‘a music of universal human soul.’                            

       ( This article is heavily  Indebted to  ‘Amarendra’ C.N.Sastry’s  work   Viswakavi   in Telugu  )                      

“Mahaprasthanam” (Grand Journey ) ----'Karunasri' Jandhyala Papaya Sastry

Which Mahatma’s heart of love flowed

The ocean of compassion  overflowed!!

Flooding from Birla’s house

The stream of people towards jamuna !!

Not only the royal  swan from the  Himalayas

But also the bird in the tree

Is   shedding tears warm  sorrowfully

On seeing the body of Bapu!   

Bearing weapons of  peace and nonviolence 

Wearing the armour of truth

Dandi    satyagrahi who led the mass

 Moves in to the abode of peace!!

No anger- except satyagraha

No house-except prisonhouse

He’s a message of truth for nation

He’s world anew for the world-

No more can we see karamchand

Who  grew  the  jasmine  creeper of nonviolence

 Flowers blooming   and honey flowing

 To  prop up    truth !

Slept and smiled the baby 

Beside the mother on the bed yesterday

Sleeps forever and  ever

Beside the mother Yamuana today!! 

   

 Bapu- Dear Bapu-  liberator   of Mother  India

 Sacrifices  his body  corporeal

 On the ground burial 

 In the fire lit by his sons!!      

Spilt blood with his naked sword

Torn  asunder motherland by  ‘Khaid-e-Azam’

Burns  the heart of Bapu

On the pyre of sandalwood !! 

Leaving his staff and  chappals

Departed  Gandhi for the land

Sans  scorpions and thorns

inequity or unevenness !

Emerging  out of  the golden womb of  the dame East

Awakening younger brothers with enlightenment

Purging    darkness, giving lights of freedom,              

Sunk in the Western Sea  ‘Bhuvanabandhu’   

Many  turn  great after their demise

Unable to be famous when alive

You are Mahatma in ages three

Alive or dead on this earth!