Like Shakespeare and Goethe, Agha Hashr Kashmiri presented the concept of "Rethinking of Divine Thought" in his play Balwamangal . The first two scenes are inspired from the "Prologue in Heaven" in Goethe's Faust but the conflict is altered.
Following is the dialog between Krishna and Shankar, which reflects the concept of this Rethinking.
Shankar: Why is it that sin and misery are to be found in the world?
Krishna: How the spider entraps itself inside its own web and cannot be freed until and unless the web around it is broken first, likewise unless this world breaks the relationships with greed, lust and hatred, and struggles for being pious, will meet pain."
Shankar: Seeing this condition of the world, a wave surges inside me as if wanting me to take a round from one corner of the universe to the other, so that I may tell the right path to souls who have forgotten their way."
Krishna: This world is like a field where a person reaps whatever he has sown in the previous life and then sows the seed for the next. Every action has a mystery. Can it be possible that only by your saying "Light", a lamp should lit up without cotton, oil and fire coming into a combination? Unless earth, seed and water combine, can a tree be born from your words "out and grow"? And can it give flowers and fruits? It does not matter whether you pass one or million trials for making right of wrong. Until and unless all stuff for reformation and remaking comes together, it is hard for anyone to come from wrong to the very right path.
Because everything depends on Fate, One says Oh! The other says Wow! One laughs, the other cries.
Whatever is decreed by Fate shall be met, whatever the Fate does will happen."
Eventually, when Shankar insists that he could change the decision of sinners, Krishna agrees to check his abilities and says," If this is your wish then come, a Brahman named Balwa Mangal is destroying his faith as well as life being blinded by his lust for a woman of sin, Chinta Muni. Let me take you to him so that you may test your powers."
Agha Hashr was so well versed in Hindi Language also that the Hindi language scholars were also in awe at his mastery of the language. The plots that he wrote and the dialogue that fitted those plots were like beautiful choreography. Goodness and evil are the eternal subjects for a drama and Hashr’s plays have that is abundance. Urooj is making a very good contribution in presenting this forgotten master.
ReplyDeleteUrooj, you always amaze me by the breadth of your interests and your solid central place in all. I confess no time to thoroughly read your post yet and only skimmed but I know I want to come back soon. Reading Dar Sahib's comment also intrigues me to want to return...
ReplyDeleteSir Akhtar, thank you so much for your appreciation.
ReplyDeleteConnie, thank you and i will wait for you, to read it and discuss if there is something you want to.
hmmm...Dear Urooj...I must thank you again for the Hashr Sahib book...
ReplyDeleteWhile you were busy taking out notes about the divine thoughts and its reconstruction....
I was thinking comparing the processes and results of refomration of ChintaMani and Balwa Mangal...
hmm...though both were deeply involved in their worldly lusts...they have that hope or possibilities to change the way they were....
I was touched by the writers collecting the three indications to show how BalwaMangal was blind to see the reality and how his blindness towards reality open up ChintaMani eyes...
This is basicaly what had happened to us...or may be to some extend to Muslims too...
We became bliind...we cant see the reality and we are using the things or customs or rules which are not basically what they ought to be...but they are something very drastic in nature and using them without further noticing or investigation...shows how blind we have become...
But other countries or religions followers can see...they are watching and taking lessons from our blindness...our blindness serving as a lesson to others....hmmm....
I was touched by the ChintaMani's faith on her god and BalwaMangal's forgeting the true path again and again...
Only....I am happy...that our MAKER...ALLAH...don't require such compromise or sacrifice from us...HE is so learned and knowledgable that HE dot require any tests....
All the tests HE imposed on us are just for our own growth and wisdom....
To Allah be all glory....hmmm....
Thinking
ReplyDeleteI am quite interested in your conclusion in your comment...can you say more?
Thinking thank you so much for discussing your views.
ReplyDeleteI want to discuss some points from your comment.
Only....I am happy...that our MAKER...ALLAH...don't require such compromise or sacrifice from us...HE is so learned and knowledgable that HE dot require any tests....
I like these words, but somehow, I personally think that Allah brings us in difficulties, pains, Sacrifices for our beloved ones and many such things that could be more hard at times for us, than it was for Chinta Muni.
The Scene in which Agha Hashr described about this sacrifice from Chinta Muni, It just hits me from inside every time i read that Scene.
I think that it is like a metaphor which he has used in his play. Krishna asked for a living and fresh heart of a human being for his so-called abdominal pain to Shankar, when all Bhagats refused to sacrifice their lives and to donate their heart for Krishna, Shankar went to Chinta Muni and to his surprise, she happily agreed to give her fresh heart for Krishna.
If we look and think deeply, its not the heart physiologically associated to our body, but also spiritually associated to our soul. So Krishna, in my view, is asking for your heart and everything in it. He simply wants your Love. Love can not exist if there is no heart.
What do you say?
Urooj has given a very insightful interpretation (in her comment just above) which did not occur to me. Thank you :)
ReplyDeletehmmm...thank you Urooj...
ReplyDeleteYes ! Allah do test us but this is for our own good and HIS test serve to increase our wisdom...
Which can be termed as blessings in disguise though I really dont like to refer sufferings as blessings but in one way or other they always increased our level of understanding and bring us close to our MAKER...
hmmm...for that scene....
What I think about it was....
Abdomine..of any human is a metaphore of NAFS..worldly desires...and HEART is usualy taken as EGO...SELF...FAITH...LOVE of DIVINE..
Where BalwaMangal did the same with NagrSaith and asked him to withdraw his nafs for the sake of his faith...to withdraw from his wife...for which he happily did and again it opened BalwaMangal's eyes that our worldy desires are nothing against our faith or self or ego....
And...same happened with ChintaMani...but god - Karishna did it other way around...
Karishna asked ChintaMani to withdraw from her SELF EGO for the sake of god's worldly desires....which she attain after detaining every disgusting activities she were invloved in her past....
Like...god asked her to go back to the pond of dirt if she loves her god...after she withdraw and get cleaned from all the dirt...
Thats why all the pujari neglect the request...
Only...if we can see the characters in live...we would had seen ChintaMani facial expressions on how she managed such a strange request....
For a woman...and the woman of good character the most important thing is her character...she respect it alot and keep it on high levels and want everyone to respect it...
In both the cases...character of a woman was on sake...on both the moment the withdrawal of woman from her charater for the sake of her husband and her god...strengtened the faith of not only the people asking for such sacrifices but also the people who were the viewers...
In this way Hashr Sahib portrated that woman from her faith and character building can change the whole secenario....she can build the character of people not only her closed ones but also the one watching her...hmm...
Which was quite intresting...
hmm...I hope I made sense here...we can discuss it in SOIS session in TEA BREAK...if you want to???
hmm...Dear Connie...
ReplyDeleteIn the drama...the god - Karishna asked his followers to open up their chest and give him their hearts...all the pujari or followers ignored it but one woman who was freshly attained the faith on her god...give the sacrifice happily...
Although it touched me but I smiled that my MAKER is such knowledgeable and understadable and learned that after giving only one same test to Hazrat Abraham (PBUH) where HE asked him to sacrifice his son...and later replaced it with a lamb and thus preventing a father from the loss of his dear son...I think HE never asked for such sacrifices from HIS followers...MUSLIMS again...
HE clearly mentioned in QURAN SHARIF that...now what ever hardships we suffered are all our own doings.
So if we are facing any difficulties or sacrifices it means that we must search our past for where and what had we done wrong and though we cant bring back the past but can try to made it up by our good deeds and asking for HIS forgivness....
May Allah forgive all of us...Amin.
hmmm....To Allah be all glory.
hmm...Shafique Sahib...truely...Urooj is really good in taking out the moral of any writings or passages....
ReplyDeleteI like the way she is working on bringing back this lost pearl...hmmm...
Thumbs up Urooj!
Sir Khurram, thank you so much. Your appreciation is such an honor for me, but this is just due to the sense of learning i have got from your side.
ReplyDeleteThinking, again thank you for your informative comments on my post, thanks for giving your time.
ReplyDeleteYou have given a very good description of abdomen and Heart, I was also thinking about this.
In the case of Balwamangal and Nagar saith i will quote something from Iqbal and then can explain:
"Blind is the eye that sees sins and error for the Sun does not find darkness wherever it looks"
Balwa mangal having eyes but still blind because he saw sin and error and Nagar saith was a real eye-keeper who, on Balwa mangal's strange and awful desire, considered it as his examination from God and convinced his wife for accomplishment of Balwa's desire. This act of Nagar saith opened the Balwa's inner blind eye, so he decided to give himself punishment, and became a real eye-keeper too.
You also explained about Chinta Muni very well, and the importance of women in civilizations.
Chinta Muni and Balwa Mangal both were with pure soul and Krishna knew that. When Shankar asked to him, that why He is giving so much importance to both of them, and there are other Bhagats also who worship Him more than them, then Krishna decided to show the Love of Chinta and Balwa to him.
When Chinta cut off her chest and gives her Heart to Shankar, Shankar brings it to Krishna. Then Krishna comes to Chinta and says,
" O! Pious soul rise, rise and see the peace of Heavens in the world", and Chinta rises. Agha Hashr did not mention that either Krishna gave back Chinta's heart or not. This is a deep question. Krishna having Chinta’s heart and still she is alive. By looking at the dialog given above, we can see that He is giving the eternal life to Chinta after having her heart, as "Peace of Heavens in the world" contains a meaningful sense.
I think now I have cleared that this asking for sacrifice from Krishna was also a kind of Love he had for Chinta, not very painful as it looks, giving heart to someone is more difficult than even giving life. Chinta already gave her heart to Krishna, her Love to Him, so giving her life was not a big deal for her as she got eternal life in the return as a reward.