Dolyamadhle aasu pusati

 डोळ्यां मधले आसू पुसती ओठांवरले गाणे

This is another beautiful gem from the poet Mangesh Padgaonkar, rendered with full emotional congruence by Mr. Sudhir Phadke.

कधी बहर कधी शिशिर

परंतु दोन्ही एक बहाणे

डोळ्यां मधले आसू पुसती

ओठांवरले गाणे

बहर धुंद वेलींवर यावा

हळूच लाजरा पक्षी गावा 

आणि अचानक हळुवार पडावी 

विखरून सगळी पाने

भान विसरूनी मिठी जुळावी

पहाट कधी झाली न कळावी

भिन्न दिशांना झुरत फिरावे 

नंतर दोन दिवाणे

हळुच फुलाच्या बिलगुनि गाली 

नाजुक गाणी कुणी गायिली

आता उरली आर्त विराणी

सूरच केविलवाणे 

जुळली ह्रदये, सूरहि जुळले 

तुझे नि माझे गीत तरळले 

व्याकुळ डोळे कातरवेळ

स्मरून आता जाणे

डोळ्यां मधले आसू पुसती

ओठांवरले गाणे

Here the poet is drawing attention to the simple fact that life encompasses both, joys and sorrows. One follows another.Degeneration follows growth. Death follows birth. Bad times follow good times. Winter follows spring. Twilight follows dawn. Separation follows togetherness. Heartbreak follows a heart full of love.

Preparedness of mind for both is a sign of maturity and wisdom. 

It is a natural tendency of mind to want favorable experiences forever. The reality however does not allow for permanence of desired experiences. This leads the mind on a collision course with life’s truths. The inability to sustain joyful circumstances becomes cause for suffering. 

It is important to note here that it is not the actual circumstances that are largely responsible for suffering, but the mind’s refusal to accept every situation that plays the role to accentuate the suffering. 

Surrender of the mind is nothing but lifting the resistance to whatever life throws at you. Trying to do the best in every situation. Without comparing past with the present. 

The poet has simply painted the picture of the inevitable contrast using various metaphors. The changing contours of the landscape evoke feelings of longing and nostalgia. Ordinarily listening to the song and paying attention to the lyrics would bring a sense of melancholy. The inevitability of a twilight can cause unease and feeling of emptiness. 

But when an attempt is made to transcend the picture and take a bird’s eye view, it is possible to read between the lines and comprehend the bigger picture. The pitfalls in the journey where mind can get entangled can be easily recognized, and this identification allows to overcome the obstacles.

The opening lines of the poem, if given attention, reveal the secret message underlying rest of the poem. 

कधी बहर कधी शिशिर

परंतु दोन्ही एक बहाणे

Sometimes the blossoms of springtime 

Sometimes the barren landscape of winter 

Yet both are simply ploys! Pretexts! Excuses!

Ploys for what? We will try to find the answer to this question at the end. Let us see rest of the lyrics before that.

The changing scenes of spring and winter are mere excuses.

डोळ्यां मधले आसू पुसती ओठांवरले गाणे

The tears welling in the eyes 

Wipe out

The song on the lips!

The heart knows joy. From time to time the joy is brought forth when you meet someone who is dear to you, or when you achieve something you worked very hard for, or by a kind gesture from a stranger. But not too long after that joy is felt within, and before you even get a chance to dwell on it, the scenario changes. A dear one passes away. Or despite all your efforts a project fails. Or out of the blue someone treats you badly or deceives you. Metaphorically speaking, the song on your lips brought by a joyful event gets wiped out by the hurt you feel which manifests itself in tears from your eyes. 

Thus, within moments, sadness replaces happiness. 

The sensitivity of the poet is depicted in the subsequent stanzas where he delicately paints vivid scenarios with masterful precision of his language.

बहर धुंद वेलींवर यावा

हळूच लाजरा पक्षी गावा 

Consider this scenario, he says, where a flowering creeper (vine) becomes profusely laden with mesmerizing blossoms.

Smitten by these blossoms, a shy bird is inspired to softly start singing a song.

आणि अचानक हळुवार पडावी 

विखरून सगळी पाने

Just when the song is picking up, the leaves of the creeper begin to shed, one by one on the ground, until the creeper stands barren, devoid of all foliage.

भान विसरूनी मिठी जुळावी

पहाट कधी झाली न कळावी

Then the poet muses about becoming enraptured and entering into an embrace with his beloved, in such a passionate manner that both lose the sense of time and fail to realize when the night passes and dawn arrives 

भिन्न दिशांना झुरत फिरावे 

नंतर दोन दिवाणे

Instead of their story stating “and they lived together happily ever after “ , the crazy lovers turn into lost souls, as they go, each in a different direction from the other.

हळुच फुलाच्या बिलगुनि गाली 

नाजुक गाणी कुणी गायिली

He remembers the tender moments from the past when there was peace and quiet in the heart to lean gently against a flower and sing softly to it.

आता उरली आर्त विराणी

सूरच केविलवाणे 

Then realizes the striking contrast of the present times where the heart holds deeply sad songs and equally painful notes that can express them.

जुळली ह्रदये, सूरहि जुळले 

तुझे नि माझे गीत तरळले 

He reminisces his love story. Two hearts came together, their voices blending seamlessly, singing in perfect sync with each other to render a beautiful melody.

व्याकुळ डोळे कातरवेळ

स्मरून आता जाणे

Alas! By twilight, what remained was the despair in their eyes. That’s what became the last memory of their story.

डोळ्यां मधले आसू पुसती ओठांवरले गाणे

No sooner than one remembers the good times and gets a smile on the lips, the sad memories bring tears to the eyes and the smile fades away. 

It all levels out.

Now the million dollar question!

What’s the purpose of all this? Why does sadness have to follow happy memories always? Why can’t happy moments last forever?

कधी बहर कधी शिशिर

परंतु दोन्ही एक बहाणे

Spring and winter! Neither of them lasts forever.

Both of them are ruses.

Ruses for what?

Ruses to take a step away from the scene and think about the impermanence of the landscape of life. 

A chance to examine our own mind. 

To observe where it gets trapped in the scenery. 

And what those trappings lead to.

The purpose of life is not to make us suffer. The purpose of suffering is to awaken us. To make us think. To find out what is real and what is not. Suffering comes from mind getting embroiled in the unreal. Recognizing this fact and freeing the mind from the erroneous preoccupation restores peace and joy. When this purpose is understood, the twilight of life will not be experienced as an emptiness. It will be enriched by that elusive wealth of lasting contentment. 

There are many individuals I come across who are opposed to the idea of looking at life from a transcendental dimension. They argue that they are willing to accept the uncertainties of mortal existence, all the ups and downs that come with it. They wouldn’t mind if such a bumpy road continues into the afterlife. 

That makes me look at the issue of the human free will and the human faculty of reasoning, and pushing thought to its limits. Obviously each person takes advantage of their own freedom of choice. The people who insist on believing in just the world that is perceptible through the sense organs and intellect are exercising their free will in this manner. 

But what about pushing reason to find an answer to the question: what’s the purpose behind all this impermanence? 

Is their intellect happy to remain languid and keep moving with the flow of their existence insipidly? 

Does this tendency make them feel like intelligent beings? 

Does curiosity not stoke them even once to find the answer for the most basic of life’s experience which is the fleeting joys and sorrows? 

That is what the awakened ones refer to as sleep walking. I wonder what is it that makes the few to wake up from this long slumber and question it. Ask, why this is so? Not cynically or with despair, but with true curiosity. 

Keep asking till the answer satisfies the mind completely. Keep asking until questions don’t end and finding answers becomes a way of life for the mind instead of it getting entangled in its physical surroundings. 

कधी बहर कधी शिशिर

परंतु दोन्ही एक बहाणे

In every moment of wakefulness as the mind rides the roller coaster of emotions, these are the words to remember. 

They hold the secret to remind the self of its own identity. 

The misconception people have about enlightenment is that it renders the person insensitive to joys and sorrows. That is not the case. What enlightenment confers is the incomparable and unimaginable subtlety to recognize and experience the finest of all emotions, both sadness and happiness, while simultaneously knowing that it exists within a domain of illusion. The enlightened mind appreciates the beauty of the emotions much more than the mind which is consumed by those emotions. Because it picks the essence from the emotions, and discards the coarse elements of the experience. Thus, awakening to the illusion of creation does not deprive one of the experience of living fully. It just enhances it in a way that cannot be described in words. 

 डोळ्यां मधले आसू पुसती ओठांवरले गाणे

Smile and tears are both accepted with equal grace and balance by such a mind that has learned to swim back and forth from the river of illusion to the ocean of reality and feels at home in both domains.