Durga Bhandari and his Poem 'Aryaghat'

Durga Prasad Bhandari, in his poem Aryaghat, talks about death. A highly matured sense of the external and internal fire has been demonstrated in the poem. Desire is more terrible fire than the actual fire that burns dead body. Poet Bhandari mediates upon the fire and desire. The death of human body is the death of desire. Those dying (still alive) have been suffering from the desire. The dead bodies have to die no more, as they have already dead, and they are burnt with fire. Along with the burning of human body, their desires too turn into ashes. They transform into the death-free and desire-free creatures. However, the living human beings have to suffer, as their desire has not been burnt. Hence, Bhandari stressed that dying – the process to die – is more tortuous than to be dead at all.

Upon the theatre of Aryaghat
Dead bodies have gone beyond death and desire
Dying bodies are here to suffer the fire of desire
And desire is a more terrible fire
Than the fire of the burning ghat.
(Aryaghat)