काव्ये विश्वासटिप्पन्यः

[[Mohan K.V 2012-12-11, 18:46:25 Source]]

सदास्वाद

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हिक्काकुलः शिशुरसौ स्मरणे ममास्तु

(hikkākulaḥ śiśur asau smaraṇe mamāstu)

Meaning

Literally, “Let this hiccuping infant stay in my thoughts” – there’s something of a self-perpetuating loop here, because a poetic myth prevalent virtually everywhere in India says that you gets hiccups whenever someone thinks of you!

Context

In today’s tombolo edition, where we move on from our Krishna-kavya run while hoping to retain it in our minds, we feature a verse from Dr. Shridhar Bhaskar Warnekar’s short workVātsalya-rasāyanam (“The elixir of parental love”). The work is a Śataka on Krishna’s childhood, where the idea of an all-knowing supreme being in the form of a child is explored. Dr.Warnekarwas a modern Sanskrit poet, born in the village of Warne in Satara, Maharashtra in 1918. In a rebellion against the British education system of the time, his father sent him to a traditional Sanskrit teacher whomouldedthe young Shridhar’s poetic instincts. One of his important works is the much acclaimedŚrī-śiva-rājyodayam, a mahakavya on Shivaji. More details are available on a website maintained by his grandchildren here.
In today’s verse, the poet paints a picture, and devises a clever ploy to keep the picture evergreen both in the poet’s world and ours:
राधादिगोपवनिताभिरसंख्यवारम्
स्वप्नेशु जागरसुषुप्तिषु चिन्त्यमानः ।
वात्सल्यतः प्रणयतो दृढभक्तितश्च
हिक्काकुलः शिशुरसौ स्मरणे ममास्तु ॥
rādhādi-gopa-vanitābhir asaṃkhya-vāram
svapneśu jāgara-suṣuptiṣu cintyamānaḥ |
vātsalyataḥ praṇayato dṛḍha-bhaktitaśca
hikkākulaḥ śiśurasau smaraṇe mamāstu ||
(Vasantatilaka metre, 14 syllables per line)
“Whom Radha and other gopis, over and over again
remember in their dreams, active thoughts, and even in their deepest slumbers,
with affection, love or devotion:
May that hiccuping infant stay in my thoughts”
The poor infant is hiccuping presumably because he’s so constantly being remembered. The poet joins in, and sets up a perpetual loop :-)The last line is completely unexpected – if the thing to remember there was ‘That Lord’ or ‘That Krishna’, or even ‘That infant’, it’d have been a dull stava, getting all of its (meagre) strength from a reference to the Vedantic triad of ‘jāgrat-svapna-suṣupti’ states. But ’that hiccuping infant’ supersedes all Vedantic ideas in the poem, just as he is reputed to do so elsewhere :-)

Thought for today

मा याहीत्यपमङ्गलं व्रज किल स्नेहेन शून्यं वचः
तिष्ठेति प्रभुता यथा रुचिकुरुष्वात्राप्युदासीनता ।
नो जीवामि विना त्वयेति वचनं संभाव्यते वा न वा
तन्मां शिक्षय भद्र यत्समुचितं वाक्यं त्वयि प्रस्थिते ॥
“mā yāhī”-ty-apamaṅgalaṃ “vraja” kila snehena śūnyaṃ vacaḥ
“tiṣṭh”-eti prabhutā “yathā ruci kuruṣvā”-trāpy-udāsīnatā |
“no jīvāmi vinā tvay”-eti vacanaṃ saṃbhāvyate vā na vā
tanmāṃ śikṣaya bhadra yatsamucitaṃ vākyaṃ tvayi prasthite ||
Whether to dear people or dear topics, goodbyes are murky. A gopi talks about just this as she tries to bid goodbye to Krishna who is setting out for a long mission:
‘To say “Don’t go” is inauspicious. “Go” is devoid of love. “Stay” presumes to command you. “Do whatever you want” shows indifference. “I won’t live without you” is a maudlin cliche which may or may not come true. So teach me yourself, dear one, what should I tell you now?’