This poem deals with the idea enshrined in the Bhagwad Gita that it is sufficient to do one's action regardless of reward. Action in itself is significant whether we know its usefulness or not, it is possible we may know it only after death when God will deliver judgement on our actions, whether right or wrong.
Addressing the dead Indian, the poet says a man's destination is his own country, village, home, family. He is sisitting at his door in the evening & watching his grsndson playing with his friend in the dust. In other words, his destination lies in enjoying the charms of life connected with his own homeland.
If his destiny leads him away from his homeland then its memories continue to haunt him & crop up when he sits in convesation with foreigners, alien to each other. All these foreigners, haunted by memories of homeland, forge strange kinship.
Wherever man's destiny may lead him, the adopted land cannot be his destination, i.e. where he yearns to be. The land where a man dies bravely, struggling with his destiny, is his homeland. This fact needs to be remembered by his village, his family.
The poet, in emphatic terms, tells the dead Indian that Africa was neither his homeland nor was it theirs(Whitemen's--The colonisers who went to Africa for a "cause"). He died & was buried in the same graveyard as others'. Those who return home should carry with them the story of his "action" which was useful, even though its usefulness was not known, and its reward would be known only on the "Judgement Day".
No comments:
Post a Comment