Mukh se tu avirat kehtaa jaa
madhu, madira, maadak haalaa,
hathon me anubhav kartaa jaa
ek lalit kalpit pyala,
dhyaan kiye jaa man me sumadhur,
sukhakar, sundar saaki kaa;
aur badha chal, pathik, na tujhko
door lagegi madhushaalaa
Bachchan says, "Keep your words wine related; your imagination fired up around a beautiful wine-cup; contemplate the happiness the bar-girl brings, and no longer will the tavern seem far away".
This is an optimistic verse, coming immediately after the previous one, where Bachchan shows how the purveyors of different "paths" leave the seeker disillusioned.
All that is required, says Bachchan, are two things. One, as he has already pointed out, is that we must LIVE life; the path or road is not relevant. In this stanza, Bachchan says that we must have an inner flame of curiosity, of an insatiable need to know the truth. I hesitate to use the word "focus"...which implies a sort of forced concentration, that seems alien to the feeling of the whole poem; but this may in fact have been what Bachchan meant.
I prefer the phrase "inner flame of curiosity", or better still, "an appetite for life". When you have an appetite for life, the metaphysical questions of life's meaning seem redundant. The truth does not seem far away when you live life to the full.
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