I completed a Circle round...

[anveshan]

When as a tiny three year old

In sandhyas sitting before the golden lamp

I recited with folded hands and innocent heart

“Balam mukundam manasa smarami”

 

When as a child I stood before the Lord of Sri Guruvayoor

Recited Narayaneeyam with concentration great

And prostrated before the son of Yasoda and Devaki both

I didn’t know he was an avatara great.

 

When along with mother, I visited the Sarpa Kshetras great

And paid obeisance to Sarpa Raj, offered him milk and fruits

When I bowed to the old banyan tree and the tiny tulsi plant

I didn’t know I belong to a pantheist lot.

 

When I stood before the presiding Lord of Shri Ananthapuri

Recited “santhaakaaram bhujanga sayanam..” with piety great

And placed patram, pushpam and phalam at his lotus feet

I did not know whether I was a Shaiva or Vaishnava boy .

 

As a boy on a forty-one day vrata and in ascetic dress

I climbed up the Nilgiri and Sabari hills so hard to climb

And reached the Lord, the son of Hari and Hara both

I did not know whether I was a Shaiva or Vaishnava boy .

 

As a young man, hand in hand with my ardhangini

I visited Viswanath in the ‘ Shaivist’ South and ‘Vaishnava’ North

And together we recited ‘varanaseepurapate`m bhaja viswanatham’

On the banks of the Ganga in Varanasi great

 

Together we visited Kali, Kamakhya and Kamakshi

Chandi, Chamundeswari , Kumari and Meenakshi

In the farthest South and far flung North-East

We never knew we belong to the Shakti sect.

 

Later I visited Adinath and Parshvanath temples of yore

The Bodhisatva and Nanak Dev taught me a lot

Great insight I got from Zarathushtra and Lao Tse

I felt relieved, for I completed the Circle great.

 

Now in this vaardhakya, while preparing to leave

Looking back, I understood it all

I was seeking the Formless Brahman, the Primal Cause

Through forms that suited my ignorant mind best.

 

 

 

[Kishalaya]

"I was seeking the Formless Brahman, the Primal Cause

Through forms that suited my ignorant mind best. "

 

Poems do not change the truth or, for that matter, make the

ignorant, knowledgeable!

[anveshan]

Kishalaya, you are absolutely correct.