Bhai Vir Singh.pdf - Vidhia.com

Pother of Modem Punjabi Literature / 73
The poet, 0:[ course, never lost his patience or composure.
Besides self-surrender, he had also learnt the lesson of
resignation. He cheerfully accepted whatever his Master had
proposed for him. This spirit of submission and equanimity
distinguished him from the sufi poets more impatient and
restless in their quest.
A warm-hearted optimism ran through aU of Bhai Vir
Singh's poetry. He was sure that he would realize his object
one day. Time did not matter. The real thrill lay in the thought
of Him and in the act of seeking for Him.
BhaiVir Singhthoroughlyenjoyedhis contactwithNature.
This was for him another means of achieving transport of
feeling. He felt the divine influence in natural objects and
surrendered himself completely to it with· a view to getting
closer to the Creator.
His descriptions of natural scenes, especiallyof thevalley
of Kashmir with which he had been greatly in love, have a
ravishing charm and they evoke a strangely pnlrneval feeling
in the heart of the reader. Kashmir's springs, mountains and
flowers--Guldaudi, in particular--were very familiar to him
andtheyhadso grippedhisimaginationthatheturnedto them
again and again. He could recollect the joy he derived from
them long after he had seen them, for he said:
The heart sorrows when parting from loved ones,
But parting from you, Kashmir, Isorrow not. 1
In his last collection, Bhai Vir Singh turnedl from the
sensuousnessoftheKashmir sceneryto describingthe autumn
in Mashobra:
Tell me, brother Mashobra,
Ifyou are the same once ladenwith flower.,
Whose gardens were full of fragrance,
And whose grasses were greenly luscious.
Palely that grass looks now,
And sadly.
1. "Kashmir ton Vidaigi" in LahirHulare, p. 59.
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