Monday, 12 August 2013
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Deputy Tahasildar addressing KIPS Civil Service Club Members at Taluk office, Kottarakka
KIPS Civil Service Club members at the Police Station Kottarakka
KIPS Civil Service Club members at KTR Railway Station
Civil Service Club members in front of the Court Complex, Kottarakka
KIPS Civil Service Club Members visiting Taluk office, Kottarakka
Love Poems No. 3 : CALL ME NACHIKETAS
CALL ME NACHIKETAS
(A poem based on the Katopanishad)
Call me Nachiketas, a blazing volcano
My father could not contain the swelling fire
in me.
It all started with a viswajith yaga
That Uddalaka my sire, performed for power.
As Cain in Eden, he too, failed indeed
To offer the best of lot, inviting heavenly wrath.
How can a son adoring his data
Ever be silent seeing him dragged to hell?
What prompted him to offer the lame cattle,
Bidding Ananyas’ fate that Zaphira also
shared?
Befool the world you can, till the final
doom,
But who can escape the eyes in celestial
abodes above?
Walking to the woods for the great sacrifice.
“To whom dost thou offer me, your only son?”
Knowing well my worth, I asked my pita so;
“To Death I’ll convey, Thou art meet for it”
Glowing in fury, spitting fire he proclaimed.
The Himalayas did tremble, so did the sky,
But no Uma came, none to deliver me;
Arion on the sea was rescued by dolphins,
But powers of the air, all fled in fear.
Like an arrow then shot by Arjuna,
Straight to Yamapuri, I conducted myself.
Yaman, the God of death, was nowhere to be seen
And I vowed not to touch food nor water
there.
Three days passed by before Yaman returned
Whom his wife addressed, sunken in fear:
“It is Agni in disguise as a Brahmin boy
here,
Radiant as the sun and resolute as Siva”.
A godly guest at home, fasting for three
days!
Yaman could realize the danger inherent;
The host approached the boy, praying for
pardon
And bade him take anon any three blessings.
Three great boons for three hungry days!
“ The hungry shall be fed”.it echoed in
Galilee.
“HeyYamdharamaraja! If e’er by your grace
The Earth I espie again, though a rarity,
Make my Janaka” receve me in serenity;
Let him not harbor, no rancour more
Towards this progeny, who dared challenge his
might,
Can I purpose this as the first of my boons?”
“Free from the spasm of death and upon the
earth again,
Thy sire shall be glad, full of love to thee;
Dried of that krodha and resultant short
frenzy,
He shall sleep in peace till eternity”.
Ecstasy unalloyed, and I was emboldened
Now to put on card my soul’s supplication:
“He Yamadharamaraja! Thou holdst the cryptic
key
Of Agni the divine, that door to paradise;
Quell my curious mind and impart such
knowledge
As to how those above, attain immorality”.
Sensing the quantum of angst simmering within
me,
He thus pronounced to wreck my ignorant
block:
“Yea, I share such mystery, enshrouded in the
cave
Of human intellect, a terrain incognito;
Tapa, daana, yanjam with the wisdom of Vedas
Performed in purity, shall bring forth
perrnnial peace”.
One more boon remained, but still I had such
drouth
To engorge an ocean full, within my darken’d
soul;
Hearing my heart’s beat, resounding, a
thunder,
He consoled me and pressed to purpose the
last.
The question of all questions, a confounding
riddle from yore,
To his dismay I’am sure, brought forth my
hankering heart.
“What is death and whither sojourns the soul
After the play on earth ensconced in Maya?”
The silent sky thundered, with a crack on
Himalayas,
A fountain gushing forth, a new Ganges was
born.
Yaman closed his eyes, stood pensive for a
while
Struggling to contain the heat generated
within.
“Hey Nachiketas!”, ending the tapas, He
began,
“Evan Devas have expressed variant minds on
this;
Mystery well beguiled and beyond the human
grasp,
Ask any other deal and it shall be granted.”
“Devas may have doubts, no one dare
challenge,
But such an Arcanum is never beyond Thy
reach;
This is my prayer and the last one to Thee,
My tongue shall not move, never to take it
back”.
“Ask hundred years hence, with ample progeny,
And elephant, horse, and gold, with as much
land you please;
Immeasurable joy, and untold sensual bliss
Shall be ever yours, think of such glory.
Females Thou shalt have, not the earthly
class,
Drink from their cups, celestial wine always;
Don’t ask of Death and what there after,
Think of your age, put forth other demands.”
“Thou talkst as a child, Hey Yamaraja,
All pleasures perish, sure as rose petals;
Would you consign me to such perilous fate
Of that dreamy moth within the flower confined?
Cardinal carnal sins can consume my concealed
parts,
What use is then the prolonged life Thou
givest?
Hence I bestow back, the music and the dance,
With all the attendant charms that Thou
proposed.
Na vittena tarpaneyoo manusyo,
[No man can e’er be satisfied with wealth.]
We shall live only as long as Thou rul’st,
Wisdom of my soul, that’s all I need.”
The new born Ganges then rose up in the sky
Washing the Himalayas that glittered as a
bride;
The womb of the Earth craving for fresh life,
Sucked the water in to spoil aridity.
“Hey Nechiketas! Gem of the mundane realm,
How can I still wied the veil of ignorance?
Son of Man Thou art, Thou hast understood
Seryas is precious compared to Preyas;
Thou hast hence renounced pleasures of the
flesh,
Breaking for ever, Maya’s fatal knot.
When thousands are confined to the pit of
deadly sins,
Thou hast shown courage to cut the satanic
bonds.
When blind leads the blind under reign of
carnal kings,
Enlighten’d Thou art to cross the ocean of
Death.
It’s I who keep them slaves to eternal yoke
of death!,
All those wretched who condemn the other
world.
To seek eternal bliss, a rarity bestowed
Only to the brave who dares to cross the
mire;
To such an adventure where the cosmos merge,
Thou hast reached at last, That Thou Art.
“Abide in Me and I in You”,
There is no knowledge, beyond the Ultimate”.
Dr. Karickam
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