karam : 'Generosity, liberality; nobleness, excellence; goodness, kindness, benignity; beneficence; bounty; grace, favour, clemency, courtesy, graciousness.
naa-kas : 'Unworthy, worthless, unmanly; base, ignoble; — a man of light character, or of no consequence; a nobody. naa-kasii : Worthlessness; meanness; insignificance; infamy'. (Platts p.1111)
sar bah zaanuu honaa has the meaning of being preoccupied and of falling into thought. But here Mirza has called it an occasion of leaning/reclining on the mercy/generosity of others, and this usage is out of place. naa-kasii = unworthiness.
The point is that because of unworthiness, he is obliged to lean/recline on the mercy/generosity of others, and 'to lean/recline' [takiyah karnaa] is to take one's ease. But this ease is not ease, it is heedlessness. 'It is not inappropriate' is by way of reproach/taunt. That is, those idlers who wouldn't want to bestir themselves-- what lack of ease do they have? Trouble comes to those who would want to make something of their lives.
The unworthy person leans/reclines [takiyah rakhnaa] on the mercy/generosity of others. Thus, Asad, if in heedlessness you have taken your ease, then you did no wrong. The searchers who are doubly generous will keep you in mind.
SETS
INDEPENDENCE: {9,1}
SHAME/HONOR: {3,5}
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
What exactly is meant by sar bah zaanuu rakhnaa ? In the present verse it's not clear whose knee it is that the head is placed on. Asi maintains that it's the knee of a semi-personified karam , so that the speaker would be kneeling as a supplicant and trustingly, childishly, placing his head on the knee of 'mercy/generosity' itself. But there's also ample Ghalibian precedent for taking it to be the speaker's own knee; possible positions of this kind are discussed in {32,2}.
In either case, the speaker is shamed and humiliated by his own 'worthlessness'-- his 'baseness', 'meanness', and all-round vileness (see the definition above). On the commentators' reading, it is because of this shame that he humbles himself before Generosity, apparently begging for mercy and succor. This reading is quite satisfactory. But I prefer to think of it the other way around: it is because he humbles himself before Generosity that he feels shame at his own 'worthlessness'.
In the second line, the speaker tells himself that his 'heedlessness-ease' is, literally, 'not out of place'. The 'ease' or 'rest' surely consists of his relaxed position with his head on a knee (either Generosity's or his own). And the 'heedlessness' surely refers to his accepting, or even actively creating, his own 'worthlessness'. The effect is that of scorn: his unworthy behavior is all too appropriate to his condition of heedlessness and worthlessness
Since such self-abasement and supplication before Generosity is presented as a source of shame, this verse clearly belongs to the group in which Ghalib affirms the value of independence, of refusing to be indebted to anyone else; for discussion of these verses, see {9,1}.
If you want to see some further Ghalibian contortions and paradoxes about shame, consider {24,1} and {92,6}.
Note for grammar fans: ;Gaflat-aaraamii seems to be a noun compound or 'reversed i.zaafat '; on these see {129,6x}.
Asi:
Oh Asad, your ease through heedlessness, and your remaining intoxicated with ease, are not at all inappropriate. Through shame at your worthlessness you have placed your head on the knees of mercy/generosity, and in truth this is of service to you.
== Asi, p. 279