Kalidasa – the country’s ageless poet- laureate

Kalidasa is the all time national poet of India, and the country’s ageless poet- laureate. He is looked upon as Kavikulaguru, the Poet of Poets. He has written two long poems, the Ritusamhara and Meghaduta, two epics, the Kumarasambhava and the Raghuvamsa and three plays the Malvikagnimitra, Vikramorvasiya and the Saakuntalam.

         Ritusamhara (Collection of Seasons) and Meghaduta (The Cloud Messenger) are called Kalidasa’s lyric-poems expressing the poet’s own thoughts. Both are basically love poems and in the form of a lover addressing his beloved. In the ‘Seasons’, the poet himself assumes the role of a lover and in the first person, speaks to women he is in love with. He describes the six seasons into which the year is divided in India, in their proper sequence, and invites her to share with him the delights of each season. The seasons are greeshma (summer), varsha (rainy season), sharad (autumn), hemanta (the season of dew or early winter), sisira (mid-winter) and vasantha (spring). The poem is a celebration of life. In fact Kalidasa, more than any other world poet, celebrated life through all his works.

         ‘The Cloud Messenger’ is about the pain of separation a husband feels on being separated from his wife. The hero is a Yaksha, a semi-celestial being who has his home in Alaka, a city of unequalled beauty in the upper Himalayas. He is the service of his king, the king of Yakshas.

         The Yaksha is now living in exile, having been banished by his king for some lapse in the performance of his duty. He is exiled by the king for one year to Ramagiri, a distant place somewhere in central India. Fortunately for him it is a place of serene beauty with ‘abodes of sages among shady trees and sacred streams’.

         A few months of the exile are already over and now the rainy season is quite near. The thought of his wife has never for a moment left him with its attendant pain of separation. He sees a rain cloud high up in the sky. Monsoon clouds in India generally go northward in the direction of the Himalayas, where Alaka is situated. So he beseeches the cloud to carry his message of love and solace to his distraught wife. Kalidasa uses his Cloud Messenger to present a fleeting view of the India of his times. Its mythology, rivers and mountains, countryside and cities, people in their various moods like wives anxious for the return of their husbands from distant lands, maidens gathering flowers, courtesans, men given to drinking, evening worship in temples, are all focused momentarily.

         The epics Kumarasambhava (The birth of Kumara) and Raghuvamsa (The dynasty of Raghu) have their themes taken from Indian mythology. So also is the theme of the play Saakuntalam, which is the poet’s most celebrated work. All the three plays are centered in love like ‘Romeo and Juliet’, but unlike Shakespeare’s great tragedy, Kalidasa plays have happy endings.

         Kalidasa is the supreme nature poet. “Rarely has a man walked our earth who observed the phenomena of living nature as accurately as he, though his accuracy was of course that of the poet, not of the scientist,” says the great critic A.W. Ryder. “Much is lost to us who grow among other plants and animals; yet we can appreciate his ‘bee-black hair’, his ahoka tree ‘that sheds its blossoms in a rain of tears’, his river ‘wearing somber veil of mist’.”

         Though he is India’s icon of poetry, even his date and place of birth are still subjects of scholarly debate and research. The dates proposed vary from the second century BC to the third century AD. Claims for his place of birth also vary widely from Kashmir and Bengal to Kerala. His works suggest he has travelled widely and has a firsthand knowledge of the India of his time.

         His parentage is also shrouded in mystery. According to the most popular legend he was born a goatherd in the Malwa country. He was an unlettered boy tending goats, when he providentially received the gift of learning from Goddess Kali, fierce as well as compassionate. Judging by the knowledge of scriptures he displays in his works, some scholars hold the view that he was born of Brahmin parents. There is yet another school, who consider him of Greek origin. They base their argument from the bold freedom of his poetry in Ritusamhara.

         Kalidasa was, by all accounts, a legend in his own lifetime. He was one of the nine gems – navaratnas – in the court of an equally legendary ruler, King Vikramaditya of Ujjain. The many legends about him popular across India depict him a happy-go-lucky type of man, but a great scholar, living the luxurious life of a court-poet, respected and cherished by the king himself.

The Caste System

        

     When the Aryans first came to India, they were homogeneous people without class distinctions. They were then comrades-in-arms and there was perfect equality among all members of the Aryan society. But when they settled down as rulers of the land, the fear gradually dawned on them that their smaller numbers may be absorbed by the more numerous natives, whom they had conquered and enslaved. To preserve their racial purity, therefore, the fair- skinned Aryans began to distinguish themselves from the dark skinned natives. These natives were later called ‘’Shudras’’.

   

         The second stage in the evolution of the caste system was not reached until the later Vedic period. The Vedic language, in course of time, had obscure and could not be understood by masses. Sacrifices and ceremonies, too, had become very elaborate and complicate. There came into existence a professional class of priests. They were called ‘’Brahmins’’. Similarly, the pressure of constant wars with the natives, who resisted stubbornly the further expansion of the Aryans, necessitated class of professional soldiers skilled in the arts of war. This class came to be known as ‘’Kshatriyas’’. The rest of the Aryan population, which was devoted to peaceful persuits like agriculture, trade, commerce, etc., was referred to as ‘’Vaishas’’. The ‘’Shudras’’, who performed menial jobs for the Aryan society, were already there.

         Thus the caste system began as a distinction between the Aryans and the non-Aryans but gradually assumed the form of division of labour among the members of the Aryan society. At this stage, it was more a class-system than a caste-system. The class or the caste of the individuals was determined by one test i.e. the occupation of individuals.

         For quite some time the caste system continued to be extremely elastic in character. The choice of an occupation was purely voluntary and migration from one cast another automatic in consequence. Indeed, even a Shudra could become a Brahmin, if his character and occupation merited that rank. The great sage Vyasa, for example, was the son of a fisherwoman while Vasistha was born of a prostitute. As time passed, the caste system began to assume a rigid form. Occupation tended to became hereditary and migration from one caste to another became difficult. The result was that the caste system, which was originally occupational in character, became hereditary in course of time. The caste was now determined not by occupation, but by birth. It was no longer an elastic system, it became very rigid.

Longest Solar Eclipse

Longest Solar Eclipse of 21st  Century swept across half the globe on July 22nd. Millions in Asia watched the Celestial event as moon darkened the Sun.

The longest solar eclipse of 21st century cut through the World's most populous nations, India and China, as it travelled  half the globe. It was visible along a roughly 250 km-wide corridor, according to the U.S. space agency NASA. In India holy places like Varanasi witnessed huge influx of people who took a holy dip in the Ganges. However, in Taregna, touted as the best place to watch the eclipse, thousand of astro -enthusiasts 

were disappointed as the skies remained cloudy. The eclipse next swept through Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and over the crowded cities along China's Yangtze River, before heading to the Pacific. It lasted up to a maximum of 6 minutes, 39 seconds over the Pacific Ocean, according to NASA. 

ए पी जे अब्दुल कलाम के सफलता के पांच मंत्र

आइये जानते हैं ऐ पी जे अब्दुल कलाम  के सफलता के पाँच मंत्र खुद उनकी जुबानी :

-जीवन में एक लक्ष्य बनाइये 

 आप अपने जीवन में एक लक्ष्य बनाएं और उस लक्ष्य के मुताबिक ज्ञान  अर्जित करेंI ज्ञान अर्जित करने के लिए किताबें पढ़िए, नामचीन लोगों से  मुलाकात कर उनके अनुभव जानिएI मशहूर वैज्ञानिक , दार्शनिक,  इतिहासकार, तकनिकी विशेषज्ञों की जीवनी पढ़िएI

-समस्याएं हावी मत होने दीजिये 

 आप अपने ऊपर समस्या को हावी मत होने दीजिये, बल्कि आप समस्या के  कप्तान बनिएI  समस्या आप पर हावी होगी तो आप सफल नहीं हो पाएंगेI  आप सफल केवल तब हो सकते हैं, जब आप समस्या पर हावी होI इसलिए  मेहनत कीजिये और पुरे साहस के साथ हर समस्या का सामना कीजियेI

-एक दिन में कोई बेस्ट नहीं बनता

 श्रेष्ठता एक प्रक्रिया है, जो कई पडाओं से गुज़र कर हासिल होती हैI  सबसे  पहला पड़ाव है अपना आदर्श तय करना, फिर उसके मुताबिक  लक्ष्य तय करना, उन लक्ष्यों पर अडिग रहना, उन्हें पूरा करने के लिए  हर जोखिम उठानाI  जो इन सरे पडाओं को पर करता है, वहीँ बेस्ट  का तमगा हासिल कर पता हI

-इच्छा, सोच और कड़ी मेहनत 

 ये तिन गुण अगर आप में हैं तो आप आसानी से सफल हो सकते हैंI  जानने  की इच्छा, सोचने की क्षमता, ज्ञान हासिल करने के लिए कड़ी मेहनत  करने की चाहत , ये तिन ऐसे सूत्र हैं, जिन्होंने मुझे राष्ट्रपति भवन  की राह  दिखाईI  ये आपको भी आपकी मंजिल तक पहुंचा सकते हैंI

-चिंतन 

 इश्वर ने इंसान को जो दिमाग दिया है, वो सर्वोत्तम उपहार हैI  इसका उपयोग कीजियेI  याद रखिये सोचना विकाश की निशानी है, न  सोचना विनाश की निशानी हैI