I have ceased to be the potter, and learnt to be the clay

This man is a now almost forgotten person. He was hugely talented. He did everything from being a singer to being an actor to even being a politician in India's first Lok Sabha (among many other things). I got to know him through his 'rail gaaDii', 'naani kee naao' and 'My heart is beating' songs. But then I heard Ashok Kumar reciting one of his curd seller quatrains - also known in Hindi as 'zara chakh ke dekho'. But this poem really touched me. I am sure you will like it too. If you do not have the time to read the full poem, just read the first few lines (till the line in the title).

SHAPER SHAPED

In days gone by I used to be

A potter who would feel

His fingers mould the yielding clay

To patterns on his wheel;

But now, through wisdom lately-won,

That pride has died away:

I have ceased to be the potter

And have learned to be the clay.

In bygone times I used to be

A poet through whose pen

Innumerable songs would come

To win the hearts of men;

But now, through new-got knowledge

Which I hadn’t had so long,

I have ceased to be the poet

And have learned to be the song.

I was a fashioner of swords,

In days that now are gone,

Which on a hundred battlefields

Glittered and gleamed and shone;

And now that I am brimming with

The silence of the lord,

I have ceased to be sword-maker

And have learned to be the sword.

In other days I used to be

A dreamer who would hurl

On every side an insolence

Of emerald and pearl;

But now that I am kneeling

At the feet of the supreme,

I have ceased to be the dreamer

And learned to be the dream.

Harindranath Chattopadhyay