Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena is a major poet, playwright, and prose writer of modern Hindi, associated with the movement of नई कविता (New Poetry). This chapter from Kshitij Bhag 2 presents his moving essay मानवीय करुणा की दिव्य चमक (Manviy Karuna Ki Divya Chamak, "The Divine Glow of Human Compassion"). The essay takes the reader into an old-age home, where the writer meets elderly people who have been left behind by their families, and it becomes a meditation on old age, abandonment, and the love that still shines in human hearts.
Saxena's writing is known for its freshness, its honesty, and its refusal to look away from difficult truths. In this essay, he looks straight at the loneliness of the old, but he also finds in that sadness a divine glow — the glow of compassion that appears in the kindness of those who care and in the quiet dignity of those who have been forgotten. For a Class 10 student, this essay is a lesson in empathy and social responsibility, and a reminder that a society is truly civilised only when it honours its elders.
Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena was born in 1927 in Varanasi (Kashi). He was educated there and later worked in broadcasting and journalism, becoming a respected figure in Hindi letters. He was a central voice of the New Poetry movement, which broke away from old themes and metres to express modern life directly and honestly. As a playwright he wrote sharp, imaginative dramas, and as a prose writer he produced essays of great feeling and social concern. He passed away in 1983, leaving a body of work admired for its originality and compassion.
Among his well-known poetry collections are काठ की घंटियाँ and बाँस का पुल, and he also wrote plays and one-act plays that were performed on the Hindi stage. His verse often turns a fresh, surprising image into a door opening onto a larger truth, and his prose carries the same quality. Whether writing poetry or prose, Saxena remained close to ordinary people — the poor, the aged, the neglected — and his essay मानवीय करुणा की दिव्य चमक shows this sympathy at its most tender.
The essay opens with the writer entering an old-age home, an ashram where elderly people live after being abandoned by their children or having nowhere else to go. Walking through the rooms and grounds, the writer meets the residents one by one. Each has a story: a mother whose sons divided the property and forgot her, a father whose children found him a burden, men and women who spent their lives for their families and were left to spend their last years among strangers. The writer listens, and their loneliness settles like dust over the whole place.
Yet even in this place of abandonment, the writer discovers something beautiful — the divine glow of human compassion. He observes the small kindnesses between the residents, the care given by the staff, and the dignity with which the old people bear their fate. The essay reflects on the change in our society: the joint family that once sheltered the aged is breaking, and old age has become a problem to be managed rather than a treasure to be honoured. The writer's own feelings deepen — he thinks of his own father and of the responsibility of every child. The essay ends with the conviction that compassion is the noblest of human qualities, a divine light that can shine even in the darkest corners of neglect.
The Writer: The sensitive observer who enters the old-age home and is transformed by what he sees. His reflections guide the reader.
The Elderly Residents: The collective voice of abandoned age. Each resident's story reveals the crisis of caring in modern society.
The Caregivers: The people who look after the residents; their work embodies the compassion the essay celebrates.
Old Age and Abandonment: The central realities of the essay, set against the warmth of the love that ought to surround old age.
The central theme of मानवीय करुणा की दिव्य चमक is the crisis of the aged in modern society and the divine quality of human compassion. Saxena's message is that a society which forgets its elders loses its own soul, and that caring for the old is both a duty and a privilege. The essay teaches the young to honour their parents, to understand that old age awaits everyone, and to see that even in the gloomiest places, kindness shines with a divine light. For the reader, the essay is a call to empathy, gratitude, and social responsibility — to be the person who brings warmth to an old person's last years rather than the person who sends them away.
Saxena writes the essay in a personal, reflective style, moving easily between narrative, description, and meditation. He uses vivid description to make the old-age home and its residents visible to the reader, and the first-person voice gives the essay intimacy and sincerity. The title itself is a striking metaphor — compassion described as a divine glow, an image of light in darkness. The essay builds its effect through the accumulation of individual human stories and through the contrast between the neglect the old have suffered and the dignity with which they endure. The dominant mood is karun (pathos), but it is always lifted by the hope that compassion can heal and honour what abandonment has wounded.
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena |
| Birth / Death | 1927, Varanasi / 1983 |
| Movement | Nayi Kavita (New Poetry) |
| Roles | Poet, playwright, prose writer |
| Poetry collections | Kath Ki Ghantiyan, Bans Ka Pul |
| Essay in this book | Manviy Karuna Ki Divya Chamak |
| Chief quality | Honesty, originality, deep compassion |
| Reality | What It Shows | The Essay's Response |
|---|---|---|
| Abandonment | Children forgetting parents | Sorrow and questioning |
| Loneliness | Elders living among strangers | Empathy and reflection |
| Care | Small kindnesses among residents | Hope and comfort |
| Society's change | Joint family breaking down | A call to responsibility |
| Compassion | Care by staff and residents | The divine glow |
मानवीय करुणा की दिव्य चमक is an essay that opens the heart. Through his visit to an old-age home, Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena reveals the sorrow of elders abandoned by their families and, at the same time, the divine glow of compassion that still shines in human beings. The essay teaches us that old age is not a burden but a treasure, and that a society's true civilisation is measured by how it treats its old. For examinations, understanding the essay's emotional journey, its message of responsibility, and the beauty of its central image will let you answer with both accuracy and feeling.