किसको शीश झुकाऊं मै?

किसको शीश झुकाऊं मै?

घर से चौराहे तक सड़क मिले न मिले;

चौराहे पर बहनजी कि प्रतिमा जरुर पाऊं मै;

किसको शीश झुकाऊं मै?

जब से होश सम्हाला सुनता आया चारा और हवाला;

पहले लाखों का पता नहीं चलता था अब मेरे देश के अरबों के खो जाने की अर्जी किससे फिर लगाऊं  मै ;

किसको शीश झुकाऊं मै?

गाँधी को कभी टोपी क्या तन पर पूरा कपडा पहने नहीं देखा; 

पर उनके बेहरूपी नाम और टोपी वालों को कैसे कर दूँ अनदेखा ;

जो कर दे बेध इन दोनों में वो सीबीआई कहाँ से लाऊं मै; 

किसको शीश झुकाऊं मै?

शुक्र है साठ वर्ष में गाँव न सही बिजली के खम्भे कम से कम शहरों में पहुँच गए;

पर उनमे बिजली लाने कि आस किससे लगाऊं मै;

किसको शीश झुकाऊं मै?

कोई जाती के नाम पर लडवाता है और कोई धर्म के नाम पर ;

अंग्रेजों की बोई इस जेहरीली खेती को किससे  मिट्वाउन  मै;

किसको शीश झुकाऊं मै?

अखबार तो एडवरटाईज़मेन्ट से भरे पड़ें हैं;

अपनी शिकायत फिर कहाँ छपवाऊं मै; 

किसको शीश झुकाऊं मै?

आस तो थोड़ी सी थी इस देश के पढ़े लिखे नव-जवानों से ;

पर अच्छी डिग्री पाकर पैसे की दौड़ छोड़ देश के लिए कुछ करने की विनती किसे सुनाऊं मै 

किसको शीश झुकाऊं मै? 

 

कैसे

सपनो की डगर छोड़ पैसों की दौड़ लगाऊं कैसे;

रेगिस्तान में फिर भी चल दूँ पर किनारों में कश्ती तैराऊं कैसे;

आसमान में उंचा उड़ने का ठाना है तो धरती पर घर बनाऊं कैसे ;

गिरने से नहीं लगता है डर फिर स्थिरता की बैसाखी पर चल जाऊं कैसे ;

कुछ कर गुजरने का खुद  को खुद  से किया वादा है उस वादे  से मुकर  जाऊं  कैसे  ;

आज फिर वही सवाल आ खड़ा हुआ है;

गैरों का  सवाल हों तो जवाब भी दूँ अपनों के सवालों को दौहराउन कैसे ;

सपनो की डगर छोड़ पैसों की दौड़ लगाऊं कैसे.


came back from home today, plausibly the lines above reflect the current state of mind due to discussions which happened last week

The Common Man

Was bit free today and was thinking about what next in Disha. While looking into some stuff on similar past experiments, opened up my hard drive and found a documentary movie on the common man's life and watched it 7th time.  Every time I watch this movie on his life or read an article on him, a shivering  appears from within. Don't know why is it but this 'common man' had always been an underlying inspiration for me in whatever I do or I plan to do.

Whenever the journey appears tiring,  I read about the relentless struggle of almost 3 decades for what he stood for. The struggle which many of us think we know, but its certainly much beyond that what we know. We possibly weave our thoughts on one dimension of what we see but he weaved all possible dimensions in what we fondly recall as struggle for freedom of the country. Without any 'adarsh' reverence or citing him as the reason for freedom of the country, I see him more as a human-being and fall in love with the amazing creation of Almighty.

Whenever thoughts appear to encroach my steps and question my ability to take up those steps or the selfish pursuits try to drag my steps back from the journey, his words time and again come for rescue. NCERT text books often quoted these wonderful words as his "talisman" which I have tried to use in judging all my steps whenever in dilemma.

Whenever I start feeling lonely and the path appears dingy, his writings and unending faith on not fearing anything except 'doing wrong to someone' give the courage from within. Other day after returning back from Siriapala village, one of the field staff person "Divakarji" was asking me how I got into this stuff of 'apparent' rural development. I couldn't reply ( or may be I am tired of replying same question), but perhaps he already knew from Bibek about my past in the automobile industry and was therefore keen to know why the change happened? Did parents not oppose, Did I not fear? I told him, I feel good in what I am doing and till the time I am not doing wrong I don't fear anything. And then I realized, what impact this common man actually casted on subconscious thinking 

This man of weak physique, without a charisma on his face, with no royal/political backdrop, a below average student and an unsuccessful lawyer possibly will continue to amaze me with an example what a 'common man' can do. No hats off, no wonderful remarks just amazed.


PS: For those who don;t know this common man, world calls him by the name of Mahatma Gandhi

Don't Just

Don't just follow what everyone says

No one knows you better for things at which your heart weighs

Don't just speak for yourself

Speak for someone whom you find below the shelf

Don't  just work for money

It's important but certainly not absolute happiness gunny

Don't just live the life till your heart beat is alive

Touch some lives so that you remain alive in the heart beat of those lives

Don't just read this and feel contented

What I wrote is nothing new you must have read it many times though unintended

The dot became a line only when it began the journey called walk

Let a new line begin with the dot of our life stopping the talk and taking the walk. 

When problems try to turn us down

When problems try to turn us down;

Some of us put up our nose and frown;

Frown over what situation we are in;

As if  we are the only one's with bad luck linked in;

But there were people in history who didn't put up their nose;

Instead they put up their sleeves and gave a pose;

The pose that they are tougher than the toughest situations;

Irrespective of the existing resource and capability permutations;

It's nothing but a matter of choice;

And so don't put up nose but put up the sleeves and feel the rejoice;

Rejoice will prevail even if you don't come out with victory;

Because it's not the victory which always creates history!

Fear

When the journey towards one's dreams- one's aspiration begins, it doesn't begin with thunder. It's always a slow movement of air which keeps on accumulating in a small space called 'heart' keeps churning within thin long domains called 'veins' echoing the ear drums from within, putting the sight off and vision on. This journey is unique because it trespasses the fear of fear, there is nothing in the world which can penetrate into that small space of heart and break open the thin long veins where dream flows across. Joy and Struggle which accompany the traveler move him forward away from the past and move him backward away from the future. The traveler starts living in "now". Fear needs a time dimension to exist. It exists before a fighter begins his fight, it might exist after fighter stops his fight, but it can never exist while fighter is on the fight. Travelers who travel in the direction of their dreams are constant fighters, they don;t have a past where they didn't fight and they don't have a future where the fight will stop, they move in constant state of fight. Vanishing of this time dimension creates revolutionaries, freedom fighters, poets, writers, nation builders and every uncommon common being who is unique in his own field. Time keeps moving from past to future, but the traveler doesn't feel this passage. The dreamer lives only in one dimension and that is now, the dreamer sees only  one thing and that is his dream, every nerve,every neuron and every heartbeat just says one thing and that's the sound of dream. No matter what circumstances are, no matter how strong is the fear of failure, no matter how unrealistic and irrational each step appears, the traveler doesn't stop. External circumstances can push the physical person out but it cannot put off the spirit, the will to move on. Fear of failure, fear of criticism, fear of being left lonely vanishes when one starts this journey. If at all there is fear, the fear is of most of us not leaving the shore of fear and starting this journey.


Have we left the shore of fear?