Basant-Panchami, Saraswati Pooja, Nirala’s Birthday


India is a country of festivals. The geographical diversity and the changes in climate are also a major reason for this. One such festival is Basant Panchami. This festival shows the happiness of the arrival of spring .Nature gives information about the arrival of spring. Crops, trees, plants all cover the yellow sheet. To show respect for nature, it is custom to wear yellow clothes and special worship on Basant Panchami.

There is also a tradition of celebrating Basant Panchami as Saraswati Puja. According to the belief of Hinduism, Goddess Saraswati is considered to be the goddess of knowledge.

Since ancient times, knowledge has been considered paramount in Hinduism.

“This Self is a self of Knowledge; an inner light in the hearth is the conscious being common to all the states of being and moves in both worlds. He becomes a dream-self and passer beyond this world and its forms of death…. There are two planes of this conscious being, this and the other worlds: third state is their place of joining, the state of dream, and when he stands in this place of their joining, he sees beth planes of his existence, this world and the other world. When he sleeps, he takes the substance of this world in which al is and himself undoes and himself builds by his own illum nation, his own light; when this conscious being sleeps, he becomes luminous with his self-light…. There are no roads nor chariots, nor joys nor pleasures, nor tanks nor ponds nor rivers, but he creates them by his own light, for he is the maker. By sleep he casts off his body and unsleeping sees those that sleep: he preserves by his life-breath this lower nest and goes forth, immortal, from his nest; immortal, he goes where he wills, the golden Purusha, the solitary Swan. They say, “the country of waking only is his, for the things which he sees when awake, these only he sees when asleep”; but there he is his own self-light. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

Then existence was not nor non-existence, the mid-world was not nor is the Ether nor what beyond. What covered all? where ai was it? in whose refuge? what was that ocean dense and deep? Death was not nor immortality nor the knowledge of day and night. That One lived without breath by his self-law, there was nothing else nor aught beyond it. In the beginning Darkness was hidden by darkness, all this was an ocean of inconscience. When universal being was concealed by fragmentation, then by the greatness of its energy That One was born. That moved at first as desire within, which was the primal seed of mind. The seers of Truth discovered the building of being in non being by will in the heart and by the thought; their ray was extended horizontally; but what was there below, what was. there above? There were Casters of the seed, there were Great nesses; there was self-law below, there was Will above.  Rig Veda. for more information please visit:-

It is due to such belief that Maa Saraswati occupies the highest position. According to the concept of Hinduism since ancient times, the mother has been given the highest position in the society. for more information please visit :-



 For this reason, there is a tradition of seeing the precious life provided by nature as a mother. Today, there is also the tradition of aarti of  rivers in Hindu holy places, (Varanasi,Haridwar,Prayagraj, and many places). for more information about Varanasi please visit :- Under the Aarti, the river is thanked for its priceless contribution to the development of human life. The religious Hindu still does not forget to thank the river for its life-form after bathing in the river. Many festivals of Hindus are associated with holy bathing in rivers. for more information please visit :- In the same way, the tradition of thanking forests, earth, country etc.

Hinduism cannot be imagined without rivers.

Let there be peace in my environment! Let there be peace in the forces that act on me! for more information please visit:-



May peace flow over the whole universe.

May peace be in the Whole Universe. And may there always exist in all peace and peace alone.

Om peace, peace and peace to us and all beings!

— (Translation by Swami Abhedananda, Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, India)

 Many historians believe that in ancient times the Saraswati language, script was popular among the upper class of the society. Saraswati language, script was used in the work of administration, due to the tradition of seeing the form of mother in rivers, nature, forests, trees, country,Surprisingly, Saraswati, the goddess of education, art and music, is first mentioned in the Yajurveda.(1500-1000B.C)

In many families, children are taught alphabets for the first time on this day. Similarly, the beginning of music practice is considered auspicious from today. Various types of cultural programs are organized in schools, educational institutions.



There is hardly anyone in North India who is not familiar with the name of Nirala. Nirala’s birthday was on the day of Basant Panchami (Saraswati Puja) according to the Hindu calendar. Nirala Ji was no less than a revolutionary in Hindi poetry. Hindi literature was going through a phase of change, Nirala was one of the flag bearers of this change. Many people have called him the Walt-Whitman of Hindi literature. I find such a comparison meaningless because both came from different culture, civilization, language. It is just like comparing Kalidas and Shakespeare. Yes, an analogy can be seen in both legends, despite writing on modern problems, democracy, nature, human nature, in the literature of both legends, about the culture of the country and identity Deep attachment is seen.

अनमोल विरासत : मेरे नाना जी उन दिनों इलाहाबाद विश्वविद्यालय के छात्र थे , किसी कवि सम्मेलन में उन्होंने निराला जी के हस्ताक्षर लिए थे , निराला जी ने अपनी प्रसिद्ध कविता की कुछ पंक्तियाँ लिखने के बाद ,यहाँ पर अपने हस्ताक्षर किये हैं।

Jaago Phir Ek Baar pyaare Jagaate Hue Haare Sab Taare Tumhen, arun-pankh Tarun-kirana khaddee Kholatee Hai Dvaar-jaago Phir Ek Baar.


In the schools of North India, the school routine begins with prayer. Saraswati Vandana has got place in most of these schools as a prayer. Nirala ji was written to Saraswati Vandana. Extremely talented, and due to being born on the day of Saraswati Puja and writing Saraswati Vandana, the general public also called him by the name of Saraswatis son.(Saraswati Putra) With his original writing, you have made a tremendous contribution to Hindi literature.

SAROJ SMRITI:-Mourning song

Nirala ji started the new tradition of poetry by breaking the old, orthodox traditions. In this episode, he wrote a poem in memory of his young daughter’s death. The compilation of this poem is known as Saroj Smriti.

Ram’s Shaktipooja (राम की शक्ति पूजा)

Nirala ji spent his childhood in Bengal. . In Bengal, there is an ancient tradition of showing Goddess Durga in Shakti form to show respect for women. This tradition is deeply felt not only in the religious, social movements of Bengal but also in Bengali literature.


For what is a nation? What is our mother country? it is not a piece of earth, Nor a figure of speech, nor a fiction of the mind .it is a mighty Shakti, composed of the shaktis of all the millions of units that make up the nation, just as Bhawani Mahisha Mardini sprang into being from the Shakti of all the millions of gods assembled in one mass of force and welded into Unity. The Shakti we call India Bhawani Bharti is the living unity of three hundred million, people but she is inactively imprisoned in the magic circle of the tamas the self-indulgent inertia and ignorance of her sons to get rid of tamas we have but to wake the Brahma within. (Sri Aurobindo) The influence of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Vivekananda, Arvind Ghosh, the pioneers of the re-awakening of Bengal can be easily felt on Nirala’s literature. Ram’s Shakti Pooja poem was published in Nirala’s poetry collection Anamika


Aanand -Math

Nirala ji had translated Anand Math novel written by Bankim Chandra for more information please visit:-


Author: nitinsingh

Postgraduate in International relations. Experience writing in various journals,from BBC WORLD NEWS SERVICE to India's one of the oldest hindi daily. I like to write international relations, religion, religious conflict. Social media has bridged the distance between writing and reading. Now writing is not just the expression of one's own thought, but also knowing the expression of people on various subject.

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