Aye malik tere bande ham….
From the first of June, 2018, I started writing Good Morning messages in the form of poems (Please read: ‘Good Morning Message #1‘).
The last such message was:’Good Morning Message #211‘.
Good Morning Friends,
From 4th Jan 19, I started doing something different. In addition to my own inspirational poems everyday, I started giving you, on every Friday, a song or poem that has inspired me. Today is the fourth one and it is a hymn in Hindi called ‘Aye malik tere bande ham‘.
This bhajan or hymn made lasting impact on me. I saw the 1957 V Shantaram movie ‘Do Aankhen Barah Haath’ (A pair of eyes and twelve hands) when I was barely six years old. It was screened in our colony in the Himachal town of Mandi on a portable screen and projector. This movie is a classic in human psychology about good begetting good even in hardcore prisoners. Indeed, as far as I know, the movie depicted the jail-warden Adinath’s resolve to have an open prison based on trust and thereby reforming even hardened prisoners.
This bhajam penned by Bharat Vyas, composed by Vasant Desai and sung by Lata Mangeshkar is not just the most popular bhajan in Hindi movies but depicts the advantages of having God on your side, the righteous side.
It takes great courage to stand against cruelty, evil and chicanery. Many a times we find ourselves alone and feeble to stand against these. We wish we would get miraculous powers and strength to take on everything we are pitted against.
The fact is that such miraculous powers are within our reach. India’s most celebrated mounyaineer, the Indian Navy Captain MS Kohli wrote a book called ‘The Miracles Of Ardaas (Prayer)’ and has shared actual incidents wherein when everything was lost for him, God actually provided him with the miraculous power to come out of it unscathed.
Captain Kohli, a living legend, is the recipient of Padma Bhushan and Arjuna Award besides a host of other awards and honours.
Here is my own introductory poem before we take on the hymn that has provided me with enormous solace and abundant courage all these years. My dad was killed in a jeep accident when I was thirty years old. I had to fight endemic corruption, administrative and judicial inefficiency, and poverty to make secure life for my widowed mother and my family. I had and have Ardaas and Waheguru:
The sensible way to fight evil is with goodness,
And not to pay back evil in the same coin.
You can’t pit rudeness against rudeness,
And then in humility your hands to join.
God and you is the strongest combine,
To take on the fiercest oppressors.
God’s Power can make you outshine,
All the cruelties unleashed by your aggressors.
Have trust in Him to lead you out,
From the pit of darkness you appear to be in;
Don’t let yourself be assailed by doubt,
God on your side shall always make you win.
And now the hymn:
ऐ मालिक तेरे बंदे हम
ऐसे हो हमारे करम
नेकी पर चलें
और बदी से टलें
ताकि हंसते हुये निकले दम
जब ज़ुल्मों का हो सामना
तब तू ही हमें थामना
वो बुराई करें
हम भलाई भरें
नहीं बदले की हो कामना
बढ़ उठे प्यार का हर कदम
और मिटे बैर का ये भरम
नेकी पर चलें …
ये अंधेरा घना छा रहा
तेरा इनसान घबरा रहा
हो रहा बेखबर
कुछ न आता नज़र
सुख का सूरज छिपा जा रहा
है तेरी रोशनी में वो दम
जो अमावस को कर दे पूनम
नेकी पर चलें …
बड़ा कमज़ोर है आदमी
अभी लाखों हैं इसमें कमीं
पर तू जो खड़ा
है दयालू बड़ा
तेरी कृपा से धरती थमी
दिया तूने जो हमको जनम
तू ही झेलेगा हम सबके ग़म
नेकी पर चलें …
And my translation….
O Owner, we are your children,
Our deeds should be such,
We walk on goodness’s path,
And shun the evil,
So that we depart from the world happy.
When we have to face cruelties,
You should be there to hold us,
They indulge in evil,
We should continue with kindness,
And we should not be filled with vengeful feelings.
Every step we take should be in love,
There shouldn’t be a whisper of animosity.
Deep darkness descends,
Your people are afraid,
They appear lost,
They can’t see anything,
The sun of happiness appears to be setting.
Your light has such power,
As to convert moonless night into full moon light.
Man is very frail,
Still he has lots of deficiencies,
But You stand there,
Like huge (pillar of) Kindness,
The Earth rests on your blessings.
Since you created us,
You would bear all our sorrows.
….take’ hanste huye nikle dam…*
*(So that we leave the world happily). I used to have my doubt about this: to lead the whole life righteously so that one can die smilingly; what a waste, I thought. But then, on the 9th Aug 2017 when my mother was dying in my arms and she had that divine smile on her face, I understood the full meaning of it that had eluded me all these years.
