12th Kanupriya poem appreciation
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The core element of Kanupriya is emotive intensity, a marked feature of viyoga bhakti. All action and reaction is complimentary to this emotive intensity. A viyogi or a virahini is the compilation of emotive intensity as well as an effortless awareness which is indicated in the text. The text is composed of five sections representing different stages of self awareness and discovery at the level of consciousness seen with reference to the Finite world and the Infinite force.
Purvraag’ is the first section that delineates the exterior landscape in harmony with the inner landscape of Kanupriya to intensify the “waiting”. The five songs in this section take up independently different images to exhibit the longings which are not seen as suffering but celebrated for the presence in the absence-a significant trait of the virah Bhakti. It is only in the last subsection of the first part that we come to know of the separation. The implication of waiting of the seeker as well as sought is the subject of the opening scene. The image of Ashoka tree and sand are employed by the poet to express the emotive intensity building a statement based on the sadless state of a devotee. Ashoka tree is a mythical symbol of the sadless state. Kanupriya addresses Ashoka tree to lay stress on the fact that this separation and longing is a matter of pure joy to her as it connects her to the Infinite with a bond like the seed with a tree.
The inevitable bond between the tree and the earth denotes the Indian traditional concept of the purush and pakriti, united in the process of creation. Here the longing is indicative of Kanupriya’s unlimited, vast and Free State, which stems from the experience of self- knowledge and the ultimate fruit is self- enlightenment. The image of Ashoka tree makes Nature visible as a gross aspect of Infinite. There is no such point in the cosmos where Nature ends and Divine begins. Nature through a subtle process of dissolution turns into divine, and it is divine itself which, through a subtle process of manifestation, turns into Nature. This is the principle of Oneness- adwait. The cyclic process of birth and rebirth is echoed in the image of merging in sand whereas the paradoxical situation dilutes with the recognition of the presence in the absence that culminates into ecstasy: