The play Buddha Ghalib talks about Ghalib’s poetry from the Buddhist perspective and traces Buddhist influences in a creative way. By Team Viva
Buddha ki duniya mein Ghalib se mulaqatein huin meri, sari peshkash hai unse jo batein huin meri (I had meetings with Ghalib in Buddha’s land....this is a presentation on the conversation I have had),” said Ashok lal, director of the play Buddha Ghalib. It is based on the works of the poet and the man who talked of peace and non-violence. Though separated by centuries, both have had the same insights and are relevant in contemporary times.
Giving an insight into the play, lal explained, “The play is a journey that aims to bring alive the works of the poet and the man who is a messenger of peace. A train of thoughts that began with a Buddhist precept would reach Ghalib’s poetry and vice–versa.”
lal happens to be a great fan of Ghalib. While researching, he found some similar precepts in Buddhist philosophy. So, he started pursuing Buddhist studies. “I looked at Ghalib’s poetry from the Buddhist perspective. It was a totally new way of looking at the legendary poet. Buddhism tells us about the ‘oneness of self and the other’. It holds that any effort to escape sufferings causes more suffering and true happiness lies in making others happy. Ghalib lived next to a mosque but often preferred to find peace in his daily drink. Yet he said that we could only be rescued by a faith that can be described as humanism,” he told us.
lal, who speaks Urdu the way Ghalib would have, presented a lecture on Buddha-Ghalib at Chicago in 2010. “Ever since I was a child, I had heard of Ghalib being called a great poet by my family of Urdu poets. But it was only after I started practising Buddhism at the age of 50 that I could actually relate to the flashes of enlightenment in some of Ghalib’s couplets. The entire process of discovering the Buddha in Ghalib happened in the realm of the heart. The mind sieved the realisations when put in words,” he said.
It is quite unusual in India that a paper read out at a seminar leads to a play. According to lal, “Many had analysed Ghalib’s works in comparison to his contemporaries. Many too had discussed the dread in his works. Some had spent years digging into his Persian treasure trove. Yet nobody absolutely thought it appropriate to find the Buddhist influence on Ghalib.”
With lal himself playing Ghalib, the play was a treat for Urdu lovers. “My interpretations of Ghalib might appear improbable to some moralists. However, they are irradiating and creative to the core. Mujhko lagta hai mera sara kalam Mirza Ghalib ne keh liya pehle (I feel as if all of my poetry was filtered by Mirza Ghalib),” he said.