Music always gives us better feeling and when you heard a melodious song written by sufi poet Rajab Hamid and sung by one of the best singers of Kashmir, the legendary Ghulam Rasool Sofi. Yes your guess is right, I am talking about “Afsoos Duniya…….” this beautiful song is heard and loved by most of us. While listening to the song, it took me to my own learning in the field of psychology, where we had been taught the “Psychosexual Stages of Development” by Sigmund Freud. Though, I was initially critical about this theory during my graduation era and was inclined to negate the overemphasis on the sexual part of contribution to the different stages of development by Freudian method, nonetheless this theory forms one of the cornerstone and fountainhead of modern understanding of psychoanalytical basis of personality and behavior. Let me first summarize briefly the theory of “Psychosexual Stages of Development”. The first stage, also called the Oral stage (from birth to first one year) is recognized as the stage of psychosexual development during which pleasure is centered in the region of the mouth. The second stage, also called the Anal stage (Age 1-3) in Freud theory, is the psychological stages of development in which pleasure is focused primarily on anal zone. The third stage, called as the Phallic stage (age 3-5) is an early stage of psychosexual development during which pleasure is centered in the genital region. The Latency stage (age 6 through puberty), which is regarded as the most important stage in Freud’s theory for the development of personality, is the stage of development that follows resolution of the Oedipus complex. During this stage, sexual desires are relatively weak. Genital stage (adolescence and beyond) is the final stage of psychosexual development, the one in which individual acquire the adult capacity to combine lust with affection.
Herein, in this article, I wanted to express my surprise and appreciation for the genius of our poet Rajab Hamid for his poetic way of analyzing and defining human personality and stages of existence. Like Sigmund Freud, he has marvelously described the stages of human life and those stages are more important, in a spiritual sense, than Sigmund Freud, though there is no direct comparison between the two world views. Rajab sahib wrote a song that crossed all barriers of time and space. Apart from being echoed in every corner of the Valley, this song has also touched Kashmiris in UK, USA, SAUDI ARBIA, MIDDLE EAST and the plains of INDIA.
Afsoos Duniya, Kainsi Naa Loug Samsaar Seeteey
Patau Laakun Vuchh Taa Kumm Kumm Mazaar Vaeteey
(Alas! This world is never there to last,
Behold! How all the Great Men finally landed at the Graveyard)
He has beautifully analyzed the color and contours of different stages of human existence and finally the culmination of everything into “nothingness”. The birth of existence as weak and vulnerable infant in the lap of mother, in the care and concern of parents and family, the freshness of adulthood, the energy, beauty and charm of adolescence, the power and potential of youthfulness and the maturity and wisdom of middle age have been portrayed with a mystical symbolism and detail. This evolving and blooming sequence of biological stages of development has been narrated along with the associated socio-cultural evaluation and spiritual cum-behavioural patterns of human life and mental states of the individual. Then, the poet describes the downward or falling stages of existence, wherein the childhood dependence, weakness of nerves and muscles, meekness of ego and pride, fading of beauty and vanishing of charms sets in. And ultimately the final and fatal stage, which no one has been able to escape from, takes everything from existence that is material. Not only one stops to breath and talk, or is deprived of food and clothing, but all attachments, associate-ship, kinship, love and affection vanishes in thin air. This is the time, when friendship refuses to persist, sons and daughters refuse to remember, fathers and mothers refuse to nurse and love ceases to be.
Tsatji Waris Churi Tsay Pan-nas Karas Wati
Chi Khas Awlad Daklayan, Yat Kaow Wati
Umrah Rawai, Gowok Gumrah Shurinai Sati
Nai Din Dunya, Nai Chi Logyow Iman Sati
In this song, the reality of life has been projected in the most apt style form a philosophic-spiritual perspective and this reality cannot be denied or forgotten. The way the poet has written it, one thought comeS to mind: has he ever meet Shakespeare or Freud? No, he has written it in his own unique style. If we concentrate on each of its lyric, it brings sum total of existence in focus and a massage to all of us. So to me this song can be explained to young generation by explaining its meaning, which may help them to understand meaning of life.
The author is Lecturer and clinical Psychologist in Government Medical Collage, Srinagar and these views expressed are purely personal.