Ghansi: The Grass-Cutter

Eagam Khaling

Bhar Janma Ghans Tira Man Diee Dhan Kamayo
Nam Kyai Rahosh Pachhi Bhanera Kuva Khanayo
Ghansi Daridri Gharko Tar Buddhi Kasto
Mo Bhanubhakta Dhani Bhaikana Kina Yasto.

Mera Inar Na Ta Sattal Pati Kai Chhan
Je Dhan Chijharoo Chhan Ghar Bhitranai Chhan
Tyas Ghansile Kasari Aaj Diechha Arti
Dhikkar Ho Makan Basnu Narakhi Kriti.

(Bhanubhakta Acharya)

Whenever there is a celebration of Bhanu Jayanti (the birth anniversary of the famous Nepali poet ‘Bhanubhakta Acharya), I do remember his poem Ghansi (The Grass-Cutter). When I was in junior primary school, we also had the Bhanu Jayanti celebration, where we recited some stanzas of Nepali Ramayana translated by Bhanubhakta Acharya (13/07/1814—23/04/1868) from Sanskrit and his poem Ghansi. I had that poem in my Nepali literature book. Since then, the poem often comes into my mind. The poet himself has described that he once met a poor grass-cutter who cut grasses and sold. He was accumulating money from his sales to construct a water tank (reservoir) for collecting and distributing water for his villagers, so the service given by him for the society would remain even after his death. When he met the Ghansi, he was greatly inspired and self-enlightened by the Ghansi’s farsightedness. He was self-motivated to express that in the poem Ghansi.

From his poem, one can easily understand the poet’s transformation after meeting the grass-cutter. The moment they met each other was not an ordinary moment. He had a realization of the purpose of his life and unknown energy.  The moment the poet was composing the poem was not the person that was before meeting the grass-cutter. He had a good transformation in him, and as a result of that transformation, he translated Maharishi Valmiki’s Ramayana into Nepali. He translated the great epic in simple language and meters with the objectives of spreading the Nepali language as the common language and the social and linguistic unification of the Kingdom of Nepal. At then, Nepal was disturbed by some internal problems and fear of foreign invasions. Bhanubakta’s translation of Ramayana into Nepali was able to bring some social and cultural transformation in Nepal as a whole.

We do not take months and a year to change our lives. A moment of realization is enough to transform us. A thought can change us completely. We all need such a moment of realization in our lives. Once we have it, we become enlightened and liberate ourselves to get salvation from ignorance and bondage. We become free and start seeking perfection in our lives. We also become connected to our base, and above all. It also brings purposeful living and living with the lights of knowledge. A person who has been able to experience and realize such a moment and discover his ‘self’ can make a real difference in the world and guide our generations. We should also find time to think about our lives and everything related to and connected with our world and universe. Meditation in life would bring much good to us. It will help us to live a righteous and purposeful life. It is the thoughts that make a person. The principles, experiences, understandings, and knowledge create the destination of a person.

The greatest discovery in the life of a person is the discovery of his real self. It is also a realization and discovery of our base or life’s fundamental entity that increases our potentialities and takes us to the path of enlightenment and perfection. Self-improvement and development would lead us to live a higher and purposeful life. We all are not able to have the experience of such an extraordinary moment that transforms us. But Bhanubhakta might have experienced that extraordinary moment where he had a realization and thereby transformation. At that moment, he might have known the purpose and destination of his life, and the moment he met the grass-cutter was not an ordinary moment.

The poet has expressed in the poem it was Ghansi (the grass-cutter) who inspired to open his inner eyes. The moment he had the realization of the purpose of his life, he was no more an ordinary man. He had a transformation of his soul. He was connecting himself towards his past and future and becoming more than his life. The poem also tells us that the poet had everything, family, wealth, social respect, and knowledge of scriptures, but was unable to realize the purpose of life. But at that particular moment, he experiences himself like a Buddha before the Ghansi.         

How the grass-cutter wanted to be remembered in his society, even after his death, awakened Banubhakta’s inner person. After our death, every material thing that belongs to us will not remain in society, but the only good deeds.  It also means that whatever is produced is destroyed. The soul of a person does not die because it is immortal. When a person dies, his soul immediately leaves his body.  Only the culture of good deeds will go with our soul, and our names remain in society.

When one realizes the purpose of life, the possibilities of life open themselves, his present life becomes so short that he starts to look even for another life to continue it. Thus the moment of the poet’s realization is a moment of transformation. I remember what Khalil Gibran has said somewhere else, in one of his books, and here I quote: “One day a thought will come, and I will be changed.” According to him, a realized thought is enough to change a person. This change is not a material change (or a biological change) but a change in the understanding of life.

If a realized thought is enough to change a person, then a realization of self is enough to transform a person.  It is not a transformation from higher to lower and from positive to negative, but always from lower to higher or from higher to higher and from negative to positive or positive to more positive. There is not any exact graduation or degree of transformation because it is a matter of self-realization. It always ascends and transcends. Thus the moment of the poet’s meeting the Ghansi was an extraordinary moment.

The poem ‘Ghansi’ quietly inspires us to explore cosmic energy in us. Discovering the self is the highest discovery in the life of a person. A person with his ‘discovered self’ can give his best in any field of his life.