jeest ka aasa'n hona... जीस्त का आसान होना

in memory of happier times....

perhaps this will cheer me up today...and you, all those who read...

tum aur main

एक पल में  सदियों के इंतज़ार का मुक्कम्मल होना ,

गुलों का सुर्ख, दिल का शादाब होना,

अब हर लम्हा खुश, हर सांस बहकी ,

रूह को मसर्रत , दिलों को आराम होना .

देख तुम्हे रूबरू दिल का बेईमान होना,

हज़ारों  ख्वाइशों का फिर फिर जवान होना,

अब कैसा सब्र, किस बात  की फिक्र,

होने भी दो वो ,जिस का है लाज़िम होना .

आसान है इश्क़ में हस्ती का बेमानी होना ,

जैसे समुन्दर में किसी दरिया का गर्क होना,

 अब कहाँ तक तुम हो और कहाँ तक मैं ,

कोई तुमको पुकारे तो मेरा मुखातिब होना .

आखिर कुदरती है हर गुल का बदरंग होना,

हर बहार का खिज्र से मुक़ाबिल होना, 

अब रंज कैसा, किस बात का गम,

ज़ाहिर हैख़ाक से फिर कायनात का कायम होना .

लाज़िम है फिर हर मुश्किल का आसान होना,

 गर आता हो तुझे इश्क़ में फ़ना होना ,

अब किस बात का खौफ, किस बात की दहशत,

मौत भी आये तो है जीस्त का आसान होना .

~ विन्नी १७/५/१४ 

Tum aur main

ek pal  main sadiyon ke intezzar ka mukammal hona
Gulon ka surkh, dil ka shadaaab hona,
Ab har lamha khush, har saans behki,
Rooh ko massarat, Dillon ko aaraaam hona...

Dekh tumhe rubaru, dil ka beimaan hona
Hazaron khwaish on ka phir phir jawan hona
Ab kaisa sabr kis baat ki fiqr,
Hone Bhi do wo , jis ka hai lazim hona

Aasa'n hai Ishq main hasti ka bemani hona
Jaise samunder main kisi dariya ka gark hona
Ab kahan tak tum ho aur kahan tak main,
Koi tum ko pukare to mera mukhatib hona...

Aakhir kudrati hai har Gul ka badrang hona
Har bahaar ka khijr se muqabil hona
Ab ranj kaisa , kis baat ka gum
Zahir hai khak se phir kayanat ka kayam hona....

Lazim hai phir har mushkil ka aasa'n hona
Gar aata ho  tujhe ishq main fana hona
Ab kis baat ka khauf, kis sheh ki dehshat
Maut Bhi aaye to hai jeest ka aasa'n hona ...
~vinny

(c)

17/5/14

The Buddha and I

I was not initiated into the Sanatana Dharma , was born to a Jain father and a Sikh mother, both non practicing. They gave me a good education and an understanding that a morally edifying act leads to greater happiness than one which is of a negative connotation, to others or the self. That is all the ‘religion’ I have, and it has served me well. they gave me curiosity and taught me to question, to reject dogma, if it did not stand upto logic, and they gave me a voice and taught me words…

Needless to say, living in a country that is overtly religious, I have been exposed to many established institutionalized religious systems, and my curiosity has sought an understanding of them.

The Buddha’s religion has been of special interest. I feel an affinity and an empathy with him, am enamored of his wise words, he was indeed an enlightened soul.

Why do I say so? Three things I’ll delineate today….

1. He was explicit in this injunction that he had for all those who wished to follow in his path, “believe in something, only if it stands the test of your experience, not merely because I am telling you to do so. Indeed I say what I say, because I have experienced it, you do the same”

That has been my belief system!!! It is the rational way, and eliminates superstition as well as false consciousness, emphasizes understanding rather than meaningless practice.

“Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’ — then you should enter & remain in them.”

~the Kalama Sutta

2.“We all are what we think, all that we are arises from our thoughts.

 with our thoughts we make this world.”

That thought is premised on the importance of human agency, it is possible to create, alter, change, amend the way our lives are, if we as individuals can learn to perceive the cause of our unhappiness and take right action toward making amends. We, in other words, are the creators of our own destiny. That’s cause and consequence. Not predetermined karma, beyond the power of human agency!!! There is hope yet, “I am the master of my fate”!!!

3. “Have compassion for all, rich and poor alike. Some suffer too much, others too little.” We all suffer, and love, empathy compassion, in my perception is a basic human need. We all deserve these, no matter what the circumstances of our lives. He is known to have accepted all into the Sangha, rich and poor, pious and those not so pious, man and woman…ah now that last is a point to ponder.

It took considerable persuasion by Ananda and others for him to accede to the request of his step mother to join the Sangha and become a bikhuni. Eventually he created a separate Sangha for women and made special rules for them. (8 rules, not applicable to the Sangha for men).  That was a big step forward toward equity for women, recognition that they were spiritual beings too, and could attain salvation. However he never could quite overlook the physical differences between men and women. What were his views on women outside the Sangha, Sakyan and those not of the  Sakyan people? Patriarchy is insidious and it certainly had a role to play here, in the manner in which he thought and designed his Sanghas.

All religions, are patriarchal and the women’s question is often one not even acknowledged, let alone addressed. Buddhism was(is) more egalitarian than most religions , but it still had a long way to travel before it accepted absolute parity between men and women…

On the 14^th of April, this year, I was at a seminar that was organized to discuss Ambedhkar’s notion of Dhamma, that comes from Ambedhkar’s Buddist leanings of course. It was big international seminar, and present there were scholars from all over the world, of Buddhism, of Pali, of History, of Political Science. I voiced my questions and my concerns, not expecting anything other than a simple acknowledgement.

However, after I had finished speaking, a venerable person, garbed in the attire of a Buddhist Bihku, walked up to me and bowed his head, his hands folded in a Namaste.

He said he was an official of the Buddhist Sangha in Sri Lanka, that the questions I had asked had forced him to ponder and that he would use his authority within the Sangha to, raise a debate…that the question needed investigation and rethinking!!!

 I was spell bound by his gravitas and his humility, moved by the thought that I had perhaps at last found a kindred soul, who was in a situation to take the question further…

If the spirit of inquiry remains within the Sangha 2600 years after the Buddha’s passing ,  and allows a dialectical reasoning to function within and thence without, then, despite everything that may be wrong with the way the world is, there may indeed be something that is right….!

Vinny Jain

18/5/14

of Benaras and the Election

ibn e mariyam hua kare koi
mere dukh ki dawa kare koi...
that she'er written by the unparalleled Ghalib, describes my agony best these days.
i watched the election cavalcade march on, and today, as i write this we wait for the last round of polling tomorrow.
votes will be cast in Benaras too tomorrow, which for me in many ways symbolizes the issues at stake in this election, as well as the quantum shift witnessed in the style and content of electioneering.
benaras is the quintessence of Indian civilization, and by that i mean,not just its Hindu antecedents , but also the eons of multicultural harmony that has been its wont.
kashi is said to be founded on the Trishul of Shiva,on the banks of the mokshadayni Ganga, and is one of the holiest places for Hindus as death here grants vaikunth, access to the abode of the Gods and release from mortal sins. it has been large hearted enough to absorb the Buddhists and the Jains and the followers of Islam and evolved a syncretic ambien where diversity was food for thought. it became the centre of learning, nay indeed wisdom.
the Nawab Aziz ul Mulk, built a naubatkhana, opposite the kashi visvanath mandir, the shehnai used to play there during morning and evening aarti in the mandir. the Gyan vayapi Mosque is situated right next to that mandir, never has there been an issue between the temple and the mosque,the mullahs and the priests.
all that in the past. my fear is that this harmony may well be lost, that peace exiled and that animosity may become a welcome resident of the city.
 this city, able at best to support a populace of 4 lakhs, has 35 lakh residents, resulting in squalor and a crush that has to be seen to be believed.
there is on the river such pressure of human sins that its ability to regenerate is all but lost, no one seems to care.
the meaningless rituals of yester years go on regardless, with nary a thought for the city or the river that was once its life line.
the same seems to be true of politics in India. the politicians carry on regardless, with nary a thought for the land or its inhabitants.
regardless of who wins or who loses,what was at stake here in this microcosm, and in the macrocosm of this election was the idea of India. an India that is inclusive and diverse, or one that is exclusive and shut in, that consciously defines itself in narrow terms. growth becomes an exclusively economic entity, growth for whom and how are questions no longer of any relevance in the mainstream.
the fever and pitch of the campaign were such that they defiled my sensibilities, the rough and tumble not quite my cup of tea
i fear that i may be in a minority here...and that though times are about to descend on people like me...and much like the once glorious benaras, i will be consigned to history, as a relic of the past...
ending with a prayer that Ghalib had for Benaras...
तआलिल्ला बनारस चश्मे बद्दूर,
बहिश्ते ख़ुर्रमो फ़िरदौस मामूर...

( प्रभु! बनारस को बुरी नज़र से बचाना,
यह नन्दित स्वर्ग है, यह भरा-पूरा स्वर्ग है...)

इबादतख़ानए नाक़ूसियाँ अस्त,
हमाना काबए हिन्दोस्ताँ अस्त...

(यह शंखवादकों का उपासना स्थल है,
निश्चय ही यह हिन्दुस्तान का काबा है...)

-मिर्ज़ा गालिब

(dear Lord, save Benaras from the evil eye,
this is the garden of heaven, the fullness of paradise
it is the worship place of the conch sounders
the Kaaba of Hindoostan...)
vinny jain 
11/5/14

You and I ( as much a poem as a social comment)

we live in world divided into classes, often hierarchical, never equal. equality is a value that the human soul strives to achieve...acceptance and love flow from equity. that ideal however is seldom visible in human interactions, not in the social macrocosm, nor in the interpersonal microcosm.
the man woman relationship too, suffers from this...with one partner often the dominant one, to the detriment of the other...
this poem is a reflection of my personal agony, but it resonates with all that happens all around me as well...
You and I 


I sit hunched over my plea all day
Clutching my furiously beating heart in one hand,
Hoping to quell the beat
Framing my draft with the other
I agonise over The words
They must not displease or antagonise,
Nay they ought to be suitably subservient ,
Appealing to your sense of justice,
But must be without accusation or complaint,
I wrap my words in floral adjectives, dress them in hand pressed paper
And while I wait, for you to respond
I remind myself ad nauseam
Of times free and happy
Of sugar and spice and all things nice
Using every device at my disposal to keep my hopes up, my heart happy...
Vulnerable , like a dandelion caught in the wind...
You
Sitting in your big chair, behind the enormous polished wooden desk,
Must examine many such papers all day
Therefore must have considerable practice at dismissal
For you have devised ingenious methods of denial
Somehow, I am always the one proven undeserving ,
It's always my limitations ....
After all how many heartbeats can you make happy?
There is only that much to give
And it is already taken...
You see we come from different lineages , you and I
I plead and you grant,
I am the dispossessed , you hold everything that is of value in the palm of your hand
I have inherited the proletariat ,
You, the bourgeois
Don't you see,my love
I have learnt to plead and ameliorate,
Involuntarily, I certainly didn't want it so,
As you have learnt the mechanisms of power
Bound in an eternal dance, you and I
If we can perceive, can we also break free..?
~Vinny Jain
7/5/14
copyright mine

there is in any given time frame, a visible duality in cultural location, in ideological frameworks, in philosophies that one lives one's life by and in lifestyles. the civilizational sophisticate represents a structured text legitimized way of life "High Culture", and a simpler, commonsensical somewhat rustic, "Low Culture", of the common folks...the masses. in the Indian context this duality can also be perceived as the divide between the shastric brahmanical tradition and the simpler philosophy of the later Bhakti Saints, protesting against the regimented , hierarchical prescriptions, preaching a philosophy simply based on love and submission...
I've found my empathy with the latter, and have had to deal with the former, practiced by loved ones, living as i do in India
ironically, structures, limit, as much as they define, it pains me to see people live with self imposed limitations.
i'd rather let love embrace all....
this poem , reproduced below is mine....

many many moons ago, i read a poem, by Gulzar Sahib...".tere shehar pahunch to jaata, raste main dariya bahut the, pul tune sab jala diye the..."( not verbatim )...the last line has stayed with me...
i've used it here though this is an entirely different piece...

तुम और मैं

आचार, विचार, अध्यन, अभ्यास, ध्यान,
कितनी सुसंस्कृत है तुम्हारी दुनिया,
मर्यादा, संतुलन , शास्त्र पदत पाण्डित्य,
स्वालम्भन, अनासक्ती
अवश्य मोक्ष कि प्राप्ति होगी तुम्हे…
मैं ,
अनगढ़ माटी कि पुतली,
केवल प्रेम कि एक पोथी ही पढी है मैंने,
सरल समर्पण से उपजी आसक्ती,
सहज स्वीकार है मुझे,
तुम,
आकार निराकार, भाव पदार्थ के भेद में,
ईश्वर को खोजते हो,
मैं,
प्रेम के मोह में बन्धी ,
अपना अस्तीत्व त्याग चुकी हूँ,
कोई,मर्यादा, कोई सीमा व्याखित नहीँ करती मुझे,…
लो,
हम फिर अपने अपने पाले में हैं ,
पुल सब जला दिये हैं तुमने …
~ विन्नी
4/5/14

Tum aur Main

Aachar vichar adyan abhyas dhyan
Kitni susanskrit hai tumhari duniya
Maryada santulan shastra padat paditaya
Swalambhan, anasakti....
Awashya mokshya ki prapti hogi tumhe
Main, ungadh mati ki putli
Kewal prem ki ek pothi hee padhi hai Maine,
Saral samarpan se upjee aasakti sehaj sweekar hai mujhe
Tum
Aakaar niraakar bhaav padharth ke bhed main
Ishwar ko khojte ho
Main
prem ke moh main bandhee
Apna astitiv tyaag chuki hoon
Koi maryada, koi seema vyakhit nahin karti mujhe...
Lo , hum phir apne apne pale main hain
Pul Sab jala diyen hain tumne...
~Vinny
4/5/14

copyright mine

men and women and socialisation ...Lily Myers - "Shrinking Women" (CUPSI 2013)

spend 3 and a half minutes and watch this today, watch it and do me a favour...

we all are creatures of socialisation, inheritance of attitudes and values is accidental,  almost imperceptible...

we learn from those around us and what is around us?

sexism and patriarchy...triumphant and all pervasive

i watched my grandmother stand at the foot of my  grandfathers bed, who was ill often...a cup or a plate in her hand, for long periods of time, waiting for him to merely look her way, pandering to his every need...

my other grandmother never, never, ate before she fed her family of seven children and a husband...there would often be nothing left in the pot for her..

my mother is strong, feisty even, and will hold her own. she will stand up for rights and admonish wrong. however she will do so only when she can perceive...and our social constructs often determine what we perceive and how...

i shudder at the thought of unconsciously contributing to such inequity...perhaps i do, i am human. however i  am determined to learn, to perceive to correct and help myself grow out of this habit..

we are all human, men and women..

please let us be...

tum aur main तुम और मैं

women...we learn to live within defined boundaries in this world, a man's world
punished we nevertheless are , for acts of omission and commission defined by those boundaries...boundaries over which we as women have little control...just as little as Sita did

Tum aur main

Tum
Geeli mitti main unglee se ,
Kheench dete ho rekhayeen,
Waqt ke sath sookhi sakht ho jaatin hain,
Sabhi seemayen tumhi to tay karte ho...

Main
Samet leti hoon apni hasti apne hee bheetar ,
Par har sau saalon main,
Prthvi apni dhoori par karvat leti hai,
mati ki anboojh Rekha ke par,
Dikhayee de jaata hai mera koi naqsh,
Bas,
dukh ka koi naya ravaan har leta hai mujhe...
Har sau saalon main , ek bar...
~Vinny
1/5/14

तुम

गीली माटी  मेँ ,
उंगली से खींच देते हो रेखाएं ,
वक़्त के साथ सूखी, सख्त हो जाती हैँ,
सभी सीमायें तुम्ही तो तय करते  हो,

मैं,
समेट लेती हूँ अपनी हस्ती ,
अपने ही भीतर,
पर हर सौ सालों मेँ
पृथ्वी अपनी धुरी पर ,
करवट लेती है ,

माटी कि अनबूझ रेखा के पार,
दिखाई दे जाता है मेरा कोई  नक़्श ,
बस,
दुःख का कोइ नया रावण , हर लेतां  है मुझे,
हर सौ सालोँ  मेँ , एक बार…

~ विन्नी
1/5/14