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SRNGARE VIPRALAMBHAKHYE
R. S. Betai
संवेदनायैव गमे चैतन्यमाहित्म् ।
Bhavabhūti1
Poetry is the outcome of the desire to see with the mind what the ye sces and with the eye what the mind imagines
55
Rabindranath.?
Kalidasa commences his depiction of 'Ajavilapa' in the Raghuvamsa with this very impressive stanza
विललाप स बागद्गदं सहजामप्यपहाय धीरताम् | अभितोऽपि मार्दव भजते केव कथा शरीरिपु || ( रघु 840)
"Setting aside his natural steadiness, he lamented deeply with uncontrolled tears (in the eyes). Even hard and stuffy) iron gets softened (and melts) when heated. What then to talk of the hearts of the humans?"
Young Aja experiences all of a sudden the deep shock of being deprived of the nectar of love, and his heart melts into sorrow that gives to us a life-like picture of love in separation that leads to pathos. The deep suffering of pathos, that is not likely to find full expression, even in the best words in best order, of a poet of Kalidasa's stature, is hinted at by the very fine example of hard and stuffy substancelike iron melting down when heated. Human relations, based as they are mainly on emotional attachments, that stir up the very vitals of the heart, are the very basis of human life and hence of poetry. If there is no love in life, it is not life, much less human life. The heart of sage Kasyapa, a celibate by birth, meltes into deep sorrow that he struggles to control, when he has to send his foster-daughter S'akuntala to the house of her husband. His first ever exprience of love in separation, due to his Vatsalya in his case, surprises him and his heart in all sympathy concedes the very depth and intensity of the feelings of men and women of the world when they are separated from their kith and kin. Without uttering a word, by just one stroke of his pen, the poet speaks out volumes about human life in this famous stanza-
