B S Tyagi |
B. S. Tyagi
Hegel-the great German thinker, said,
‘A poet should make his life poetry.’ The remark is true of no other English
poet as of P B Shelley. At once spontaneous, passionate and impulsive Shelley
is a great genius, ever pursuing his quest for truth or intellectual beauty. His poetry is the testimony to his belief. Like a metaphysical thinker he looks
upon the worldly impressions on man as imperfect shadows of a higher world. He
conceives of a Supreme Power prevailing through nature as well
as human life. In Adonais he says:
That Light whose smile kindles
the universe,
That beauty in which all things
work and move, (Stanza
54)
The more Shelley thinks over life,
the more he grapples with the questions related to it. He sets about finding
their possible solutions like other thinkers. And it makes him a persistent
seeker of truth. His serious speculation over life and its purpose sets him
apart from other romantic poets.
Interestingly enough like a student of the Vedanta philosophy Shelley
ponders over the serious questions- where do we come from? Why do we come in
the world? What is this world where we play our destined roles? Is there any
worth seeking in life?
Where are we, and why are we? Of
what scene
The actors or spectators? Great
and mean
Meet massed in death. Who lends
what life must borrow.
(Stanza 21)
Further Shelley thinks about soul and
its nature. Does the soul perish with the body? Do our dreams end with death?
Is it all illusion-maya in life?
These perplexing questions leave all thinking humans upset. Arjuna is also
greatly perturbed at the mind-boggling questions. Then Lord Krishna comes to
his rescue and tells him:
Avinasi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam
idam tatam
Vinasam avyayasya na kascit
kartum arhati (2.
17)
That which pervades the entire
body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy that
imperishable soul.
Again:
Antavanta ime deha nityasyoktah
saririnah
Anasino prameyasya tasmad
yudhyasva bharata (2.
18)
That material body of the indestructible,
immeasurable and eternal living entity is sure to come to end; therefore,
fight, O descendant of Bharat.
Lord Krishna further explains that
soul does not perish even when the body perishes. Man must understand the real
nature of soul to attain peace. It cannot be destroyed by any material weapon.
What is destroyed or supposed to be destroyed is the body only.
Ya enam vetti hantaram yas caiman manyate
hatam
Ubhau tau na vijanito nayam
hanti na hanyate (2.19)
Neither he who thinks the living
entity the slayer nor he who thinks it slain is in knowledge, for the self
slays not nor is slain.
Shelley says:
Like incarnations of the stars, when splendor
Is changed to fragrance, they
illumine death
And mock the merry worm that
wakes beneath
Nought we know dies: shall that
alone which knows
Be as a sword consumed before
the sheath
By sightless lightning? The
intense atom glows
A moment, then is quenched in a
most cold repose.
(Stanza 20)
Thus Shelley believes in the immortality of soul. It hardly matters if
body is destroyed. God is the creator of this universe; and all things after
death go back to Him for eternal rest. Noble souls shine through various
objects of nature. Their pure radiance can be felt. Their sacredness is all
palpable.
God dawned on chaos. In its stream immersed.
The lamps of heaven flash with
a softer light;
All baser things pant with
life’s sacred thirst.
Diffuse themselves, and spend
in love’s delight. (Stanza
19)
Lord Krishna tells Arjuna:
Anta kale ca mam eva smaran
muktva kalevaram
Yah prayati sa mad-bhavam
yati nasty atra samsayah (8. 5)
And whoever, at the end of his life, quits
his body remembering Me alone at once attains My nature. Of this there is no
doubt.
Again:
Yam yam vapi smaran bhavam
tyajaty ante kalevaram
Tam tam evaiti kaunteya sada
tad-bhava-bhavitah (8.6)
Whatever state of being one remembers when he
quits his body, O son of Kunti, that state he will attain without fail.
Further Shelley looks upon nature as
possible origin of man’s life and vital significance of death which is not
terrible or frightening at all. It ends all worldly evils which eat our body
away day and night and weaken it. Nothing can destroy soul. It is ever
unaffected. It is eternal and a perennial source of bliss. The Geeta says:
Nainam chindanti sastrani nainam dahati
pavakah
Na cainam kledayanty apo na
sasayati marutah (2.23)
The soul can never be cut to pieces
by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the
wind.
Again:
Acchedyo ’yam adahyo ’yam akledyo
’sosya eva ca
Nityah sarva-gatah sthanur
acalo ’yam sanatanah
(2.24)
This individual soul is unbreakable and
insoluble and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting; present
everywhere, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same.
Shelley is wholly aware of the fact that soul being the part of the
Eternal is awakened, clean and eternal source of bliss and on the way to mingle
with Him. Therefore, there is no reason to mourn the death of Keats who has
become one with the Eternal. Nothing can tease or tire him. Death can do no
harm to him.
Peace, peace! He is not dead, he doth not
sleep!
He hath awakened from the dream
of life.
‘Tis we who, lost in stormy
visions, keep
With phantoms an unprofitable
strife, (Stanza 39)
Again:
He lives, he wakes-’tis Death is dead, not he;
Mourn not for Adonais-Thou
young Dawn,
Turn all thy dew to splendor,
for from thee
The spirit thou lamentest is
not gone! (Stanza 41)
The Geeta says:
Na jayate mriyate va kadacin nayam, bhutva
bhavita va na bhuyah
Ajo nityah sasvato ’yam
purano, na hanyate hanyamane sarire (2. 20)
For the soul there is neither birth nor
death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and
will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He
is not slain when the body is slain.
Lord Krishna forbids Arjuna to mourn
the death of his kith and kin because it is body (and never the soul) that
dies. He must understand this fact of life and try hard to come out of this
great illusion that keeps man ever so low. Due to this illusion he mistakes
body for the divine spark.
Avyakto ’yam acintyo ’yam avikaryo ’yam ucyate
Tasmad evam viditvainam
nanusocitum arhasi (2.
25)
It is said that the soul is
invisible, inconceivable and immutable. Knowing this, you should not grieve for
the body.
Again:
Atha cainam nitya-jatam nityam va
manyase mrtam
Tathapi tvam maha-baho nainam
socitum arhasi (2.
26)
If, however, you think that the soul (or the
symptoms of life) will always be born and die forever, you will have no reason
to lament, O mighty-armed.
Shelley says:
He is made one with nature. There
is heard
His voice in all her music. (Stanza 42)
The Geeta says:
Avyaktadini bhutani vyakta-madhyani bharata
Avyakta-nidhanany eva tatra
ka paridevana (2.28)
All created beings are unmanifest in their
beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when
annihilated. So what need is there for lamentation?
Shelley firmly believes:
The One remains, the many change
and pass;
Heaven’s light for ever shines,
earth’s shadows fly;
Life, like a dome of many
colored glass,
Stains the white radiance of
eternity,
Until Death tramples it to
fragments-Die, (Stanza
52)
Shelley holds that body is only a
means to reach the goal. It is dust and to the dust it returns; so nothing to
be proud of. Only the soul remains and it goes back to its eternal source.
Dust to the dust; but the pure spirit shall
flow
Back to the burning fountain
whence it came,
A portion of the Eternal, which
must glow
Through time and change,
unquenchably the same, (Stanza 38)
In the Geeta Arjuna says:
Yatha nadinam bahavo ’mbu-vegah,
samudram evabhimukhkha dravanti
Tatha tavami nara-loka-vira ,
visanti vaktrany abhivijalanti (11. 28)
As the many waves of the rivers
flow into the ocean, so do all these great warriors enter blazing into Your
mouth.
Again:
Yatha pradiptam jvalanam patanga
Visanti nasaya samrdha-vegah
Tathaiva nasaya visanti lokas
Tavapi vaktrani samrdha-vegah
(11. 29)
I see all people rushing full speed into Your
mouths, as moths dash to destruction in a blazing fire.
The soul gives up the body and
mingles itself with its fountain-head. Shelley is further led to propound that
the soul after liberation from the body becomes one with nature. In fact, here
Shelley’s theism has come out spontaneously; otherwise he is believed to be an
atheist. His theism, however, is closely akin to the Greek pantheism (i.e.-the
belief that God is everything and everything is God)
He is a presence to be felt and
known
In darkness and in light, from
herb and stone,-
Spreading itself where’er that
Power may move
Which has withdrawn his being
to its own, (Stanza 42)
Again:
He is a portion of the loveliness
Which once he made more lovely.
He doth bear
His part, while the One
Spirit’s plastic stress
Sweeps through the dull dense
world; compelling there (Stanza 43)
Shelley believes in God’s omnipresence. It is He who is reflected in
every soul. Without His presence no life can be imagined in the universe.
Arjuna is overwhelmed to see Him in every object of Nature. He fell prostrate
in utter blissfulness.
Tvam adi-devah purusah puranas
Tvam asya visvasya param
nidhanam
Vettasi vedyam ca param ca
dhama
Tvaya tatam visvam
ananta-rupa (11. 38)
You are the original Personality
of Godhead, the oldest, the ultimate sanctuary of this manifested cosmic world.
You are the knower of everything, and You are all that is knowable. You are the
supreme refuge, above the material modes. O limitless form! This whole cosmic
manifestation is pervaded by You!
Neither life nor death has power to blot the brightness of Nature; it
may veil it for a while. All human beings are the living entities of that great
heavenly beauty in which all beings work and move.
…as each are mirrors of
The fire for which all thirst, now beams on me
Consuming the last clouds of cold mortality. (Stanza 54)
The mortal attraction of flesh hampers man’s spiritual growth and inner
journey toward consciousness. And we are eaten constantly by fears, desires,
aspirations, attachments, avarice, hopes, lust, joys, sorrows et al like worms.
…We decay
Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief
Convulse us and consume us day by day,
And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay. (Stanza 39)
Actually man awakes after
enlightenment; he realizes his true nature and meaning of life.
He hath awakened from the dream of
life.
‘tis we who, lost in stormy
visions, keep
With phantoms an unprofitable
strife,
And in mad trance strike with
our spirit’s knife
Invulnerable nothings. (Stanza 39)
Man’s whole life is spent in petty
and worthless pursuits. It is death that frees us from all worldly bondages,
weaknesses and vices which bind us to the illusionary world and its mortal
things which look joyful outwardly. But in fact, this world is a constant
source of sorrow and shackles.
He has outsoared the shadow of our night;
Envy and calumny and hate and
pain,
And that unrest which men
miscall delight,
Can touch him not and torture
not again; (Stanza 40)
The Geeta says:
Vihaya Kaman yah sarvan pumams carati
nihsprhah
Nirmamo nirahankarah sa
santim adhigacchati
(2. 71)
A person who has given up all desires for
sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of
proprietorship and is devoid of false ego-he alone can attain real peace.
Death is not a disgusting thing; nor horrible as perceived in general.
It is an inevitable phase of life. It is a gentle touch of divinity that makes
us unite with the Great Spirit of the universe, annihilates the
work of time, only to clothe it with Eternity. Lord Krishna advises Arjuna not
to lament for the bodily change.
Vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya
Navani grhnati naro ’parani
Tatha sarirani vihaya jirnany
Anyani samyati navani dehi (2.22)
As a person puts on new garments, giving up
old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and
useless ones.
It is crystal-clear that Shelley was much more than Arnold’s ineffectual angel. He did speculate on
the most philosophical problems of life and made them the plank of some of his
most ambitious work such as Adonais. And he has discussed them threadbare in
the light of his awakening. To quote Edmund, ‘No man ever preached the triumph
of the spiritual over the material more eloquently than he. It is the undertone
of all his poetry and in Adonais it bursts forth into a mighty symphony which
voices all the warrants of our immortality in everlasting music.’
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