Abhisara - the Tryst by Rabindranath Tagore (ISC)

[00:00:01]So hello everyone I'm here again with an explanation of a poem from the book Rapsidy of class 11th the first lesson Abhisara the trrist this poem is composed by the nobel laurate raindraat teor and he has beautifully written this poem in pros poem style this poem has two main characters And upgra is the Buddhist monk who is symbolizing austerity, righteousness and uh you know the spiritual world.

[00:00:43]While Waspata the young female dancer who's very beautiful and she is like she is intoxicated by her own beauty. She embodies or she is symbolic to the material world.

[00:00:59]This poem is set up in the town of Matura and it is the it is actually describing two meetings between the two Opagupta and Baswad.

[00:01:13]The two meetings take place in the month of August and April. August is supposed to be the rainy season in India. And it is describing the opening paragraph. It describes a night in which Upaga the aesthetic and he is obviously the he is disciple of Lord Buddha. He laid on the ground. He was asleep on the hard rocky ground the earth and this the that time the sky was it was like uh covered with clouds and it was like it was rainy season as I told you. So it was thunder and lightning also and all doors were shut. The sky was completely dark and this basa was carrying a lamp with her. She was just roaming around. She was just moving or passing by up Gupta.

[00:02:04]She was carrying a lamp in her hand. She was jeweled like she she was wearing beautiful clothes and she was jeweled.

[00:02:14]So she had all the material comforts like she was rich and beautiful. So she happened to you know though she was carrying a lamp but what happened? She just stepped on or she just touched Opa Gupta's chest with her foot the ankle foot which was tinkling you know excuse me as soon as Gupta felt that you know some foot was on its chest he was shocked he was startled and he got up and when he got up for Duta she was highly impressed by the beauty the charm and the the the the calm face of Opa Gupta. So she said and invited him to her house saying that this ground this bed is quite hard quite rocky this hard rocky bed is not meant for you. You please do come to my house and you can pass your night in comfort. She but this up Gupta he politely refused and he said that you can you know he said that you please go on your own on your own way and I'm going to come someday when the time is right. Okay. So the young dancing girl she moves ahead and few months pass by and the month of April comes that that is uh the month which celebrates spring.

[00:03:42]So the entire town was celebrating this festival. Even the nature seems to celebrate this spring season because the fruits were laden on the trees and uh the coil birds were singing and this this particular spring season is the season of love. Everyone in the town they have gone to the jungle to celebrate this spring festival. And Upagupta was traveling like sorry he was walking by he was passing through the town and he went outside the he passed through the gates of the town and he went out and as soon as he reached out what he saw was a woman was lying in the shadow of the wall of the city. Now when he went close to that woman because she seemed to be in quite distress he saw and he noticed that this girl was Vaspata the the same dancing girl who has once invited him to her place.

[00:04:43]Now what he sees was that this woman Vasu Data was in pain. She w she has developed some uh uh a spo a small pox which is a contagious disease and she was abandoned forsaken by the uh people and she was forced to go out leave the town since the disease was contagious and she could spread that deadly disease through her touch. So she was forsaken excuse me by the people and she was in intense pain. Opa Gupta did not hesitate at all to help this woman in distress.

[00:05:19]So he went close to her and offered her water and he sat beside her. He rested this Vasa Dutta's head on his knees and even smeared that bomb that healing balm on the wounds of Vasu Data the woman whom whom everyone has abandoned and was you know she was kind of uh seen with disgust at that time. She was being you know she was discarded it completely because of that disease which she has developed. But up Gupta did not hesitate to offer help to her even so much so that he even applied that bomb to that contagious diseased woman.

[00:06:09]So you can see and then uh this Vasa Duta was completely shocked that who is this person who's helping me in this at this time when no one come uh is ready to come close to me or even offer water to me or any sort of help. Then Opa Gupta tells her that I am the the same Buddhist monk whom you have in once invited to your house and I told you that I'll be coming to you when the time is right. So see I have kept my promise and the time has had come that I should come and see you since you are in this hour of distress when nobody is with you I am there. So this poem we'll be doing it in detail. I have given you a short summary and this is actually a meaningful poem. It is it tells us that you know the worldly pleasures the materialistic desire the materialistic world is not the only thing which we should cherish. It is the values because you never know what time what time we see or what turn the time takes for us and we should always you know keep that spiritual side uh it should not be empty we should not be uh just rushing towards that materialistic desire so okay we'll be going uh in detail discussion of the poem I've given just a summary So let's go ahead and do the poem in detail.