Adarsh Ajitul
Name of the book : Aatma Ki Nigraani Mein
Poet : Maharaj Krishen Santoshi
Publisher : Maanas Publications Allahabad
Pages : 112
Price : Rs 350
Book of poetry Aatma Ki Nigraani Mein evinces clearly that Santoshi is a poet of love and life. He has crafted a raft of love woven with a universal feel. The poet artfully weaves the poetic imaginations through trees, landscapes, sceneries, birds, running waters, stars, moon, flowers in an ocean of love creating a lighthouse in the densely dark. Away from the web of duplicity, hypocrisy and treachery, which is unfortunately existent in every mode of modern age, the poet displays the chambers of human heart with the warmth of love to make the world a thing of beauty. Interestingly he sometimes finds the concept of love in a cup of tea. On witnessing the loving humans amongst the armed bunkers, invisible behind the sandbags, he believes that the wrecked city has still the chances of survival.
Pul is a multi-dimensional poem which stretches from empirical plane to struggle. It is coupled with the ecstatic theology but finally the poet leaves everything in the hands of destiny. Examining the slab of wealth, mantles of relations, capital of friendship, outcome of the newspapers, television, mantras, ringing bells, azans, he culminates the poem also into the coffers of love which a straw of grass teaches him sensibly:
aaj aisa laga/duniya ka sabse badda ameer/vahi ho sakta hai/jo sari prathvi se kar paaye pyar/aur yeh baat/mujhe kisie kitaab nay nahein/hari ghaas ki ek pati nay samjhayi
The poet scathingly attacks the enemies of love. He blames adversaries of love for all the murders. For him the haters of love kill people, on one pretext or the other. He finds ‘love’ the cause of frustrations in all the assassins. Santoshi’s couplets have a widespread reasoning especially when a man kills another man due to hatred and religious fanaticism. This etymology can also be referred to the killings and the exodus of those who are known symbols of love and peace:
kya isliye vah maara to nahein gaya/ki vah pyar ke siva/kuch jaanta hi na tha
Some of the poems are moulded in a same base, form and style. Each quantum starts with the same line but with different content like Santsohi’s beloved who changes the flights of materialistic domain. The poet buys a cycle, but she is seen with a motorcyclist; he buys a motorcycle but she rides a car. Now acquiring her is a distant dream. He fears if he buys a car she will elope with anybody by air.
The poet has dismantled the barriers of religion. He is free from the prayers. He does not recall God. He is not shackled in the chains. Boundaries don’t divide his being. Though in the mist of mundane he had forgotten love but now he sees it spreading on the earth:
mujay dikhayi de rahi hai/samast prithvi ek saath/jahaan mein pyar karna bhool gaya tha
The poet walks along the embankment of a river which has watched the fury and fume of historical anecdotes. The flowing water is also witness to love and life of a civilisation hammered throughout. Yet the murmuring water has always prompted and encouraged to live full life whatever the circumstances. The inner feelings of the poet run at par with the physical flow of the water.
kehta hai/samay ho chahay jaise bhi/jeevan jeenay ke liye/sabse adhik bharosa rakhna/hawa/roshni/khushboo par
In the first poem taambay ki naak the poet parodies the shining things that are showy only but are incapable of feeling the inner splendour, the depths and the aroma of life. The poem amas connects the present to the historical past. Taimur is named boldly but some person as responsible for the death and destruction are left for the readers to explore. The horse riders are a referential slur adding salt to the wounds. The poet digs out seven hundred years old buried occurrence and painfully connects it with the latest exodus of Pandits. With obvious reference to Kashmir, he mocks the heaven with picturesque beauty but concentrated with wrong ideologies. The real paradise must be man-centric, he believes.
saavdhan!/yeh prathvi ka swarg hai/yahaan darvazay kaanptay hain dastakun se/aur khidkiyan hawa se
The poet sometimes aspires to be a pin to fight untruth. He uses the word ‘chhal’ with twin connotation. For him trickery is the authentic conviction. And he tries to make the same deception a ladder to reach the Almighty. Strangely, he has put faith in deception rather than in God. It also unfolds the strength of faith in whatever form, negative or false, constructive or destructive. Santoshi’s usage of some words is satirical. He uses pun in attacking those who believe that their treachery is more pious than the love of God:
ishwar se zyada vishwas hai/ mujhe apne chhal par.
Referring to the signs and symbols of novelty, that has been marred with the changing labels, artificiality and deficient conviction, Santoshi believes that even in the attire of wise men like Budha, Kabir, Tulsidas, man sounds lifeless, if he has no identity of his own. He questions the readers whether to be a big name without individuality or keep going with originality of being a small poet.
M K Satoshi glorifies small things and gives them significance. He often compares the things to evolve life-size ideas. Tiger’s sadness is contrasted with the flying butterfly. He makes darkness to compromise with the light. He has many roadmaps which don’t allow him to die. Comparisons are made between flowers and stars. He prefers not to be a star or moon which owes light to sun. He elates dust to the sky. He doubts that heaven which has no dust. The poet immortalises the existence of the dust:
kya swarg main bhi hai dhool/yadi nahi/to mujhe sandhay hai/tumhare is swarg par
The poet places humour after love and life. When the whole surrounding is enveloped by the fog of stress, stress, materialism, lack of trust, killings, treachery and degradation, he prescribes humour as the panacea. And there can be no better way than to end this review with a line of Santoshi:
jo nahein hanstay vay kaafir hein/vay kaaba kaashi jaakar bi/chaien kahaan payaingay.
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