Poem on The Buddha – The truth of death
Photo credit: mantasmagorical from morguefile.com
The night of doom emblazoned with rain,
thunder shattered the dark monster clouds,
and the child started moaning with the pain.
The mother cried, ‘Help, oh help!!,
my child will die, the dark night dons dark death!!
Save oh save, God I beg!!!’
The noisy night filled with the screams,
the dulcet voice of pour turned stringent,
with swarms of people converging with the beams.
The mother yelled, ‘my child needs help,
Constrain flow of venom in his blood.
Or else, I’ll immolate myself.’
The bunch advanced towards the bed,
to scrutinize the chilling victim,
dizziness, weakness and damping of breath.
The irregular pulse begins to fade,
trembling trunk soon turns dormant,
the soul abandoned the body unlike its shade.
The mother lamented over the death,
‘Evil, thou rest in heaven, but deserves the hell.
For what account thou snatched my son’s breath?
My child was innocent, free from evil.
What wrong it did to you??
I malign thou for the upheaval.
Oh omnipotent!!, countermand thy decree,
restore the life back to corpse,
a widow mother can only plea.’
The soot out of torches formed deathly clouds,
the chocking sobbing mother’s hope dimmed,
until the old wise man shouted aloud.
‘Oh lady!! Don’t lose thy hope, prepare for fight.
There exists a sage, perhaps, the God in disguise,
may help to extricate you from the woeful plight!!!
You’ll find him on cliff’s top, meditating in peace,
with radiance shattering dark aura of ignorance,
blessed with divine beauty, he is a noble piece.
Willing to help everyone who comes to him,
with his unearthly sagacity, renowned as ‘Buddha’.
has a lion-like-torso, and a blazing golden skin.’
The new life was breathed in the partly dead.
Raised the child in the arms,
despite the stubborn rain, she fled.
She reached the brow before the daybreak.
And breaking the silence of the place,
she exclaimed ‘for you, it is a piece of cake!!’.
The gracious sage opened his eye.
The divine breeze flew up the hill,
speculating the death, he said, ‘Don’t cry!! .
I can just show the way!! Go to base.
Get me the earth from the house,
where no death has ever taken place.’
Mother sighed, ‘Oh Lord!! I’ll get the soil,
your words aid the drowning ferry in rain,
no matter the task involves the toil.’
Left the lad, she ran down the hill,
poked in the village, in every house.
Sans relief, but didn’t leave her will.
Months passed but all in vain,
the wiser heart left the hope.
Reached back to cliff with lesser pain.
‘Oh lady!! I gauge the efforts were futile’,
still in apparent slumber, opened his eyes.
‘You must have realized after traveling the miles.
Death is inescapable, an inevitable truth.
Despite the unflagging efforts,
you couldn’t get the fruit.’
The lady cried, ‘I am ashamed of being an oaf.
The love for my child turned me blind,
but why did you not teach me before???’
Buddha replied, ‘you would have not believed me,
you would have turned to other sage.
Since you’ve now been pacified, so you accept the God’s decree.’
The soul purified like a drop of water,
the mist of ignorance was removed,
and the woman lived in solitude thereafter.
__END__
