kaali: where is the vessel

where is the vessel

where is the drop

why is it empty

why is it cracked

what happned to all the smiles

you harvested from the faces of children

you met on the way

what happened to the designs you appreciated
on the cowdung cake  heaps

why are you so desolate

why,

mahakali: swift, straight and frank

“not wideness but height, not wisdom but force and strength are her peculiar power. …all her divinity leaps out in a splendour of tempestuous action; she is there for swiftness, for the immediately effective process, the rapid and direct stroke, the frontal assault that carries everything before it……Intolerant of imperfection, she deals roughly with all in man that is unwilling, and she is severe to all that is obstinately ignorant and obscure, her wrath is immediate and dire against treacherey and falsehood, and malignity ill will is smitten at once by her scourge……..The impulses trhat are swift, straight and frank, the movements that are unreserved and absolute, the aspirations that mounts in flame are the motion of Mahakali ( Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, 1928, 2004: 42-43)

before i start my journey

before i start my journey

will u not offer me some sweet

i remember, when i was a child

you always did that

have i grown up

or Mother, you have become reassured

of my well being

795 how do i sustain the hope

how do i sustain the hope
of a cloud to rain in a parched field
when there is a river here
and a lake there
waiting to be replenished
why will
cloud be carried away
by the careless wind
far too busy with her own dreams
of storming the spirit of thirsty streams
to the dried beds
of what was a pond
the birds have deserted
and now ants are also going away
how do i sustain the hope
then’

794 why was i sleepy

how do i clarify
why was i sleepy
when you were telling the story
abhimanyu
was listening
in my womb
not knowing that my sleep
delayed for so long, so often
because you know why
will not let him live for long
what could have i done,
i carry the guilt for so many centuries
and every time
i feel sleepy
the face of abhimanyu asks me
to clarify
how do i tell him
i did not know
i still do not know
how do i defy
you
O lord

soak the time, tame the tide

soak the time, tame the tide

said the happy squirrrel,

without any reservation or pride

i did not know

how do i soak the moments

which are laced with the smiles

of the time that i wish

i had by myself all the while

but alas, i am

not allowed

to seek

the solace that sustains

my quest for peace

i have to run, and run again

so that tide does not carry

the boat anchored in the sea

i am quiet, u too remain quiet

who knows in the silence

will speak

the spirits in balance

you are a big river

you are a big river

wanting to meet only the sea

but have no reservations

on assimilating the small streams

i am a rivulet

just flowing in this season

may dry up tomorrow or next day after

will you let me

be part of you

so that all the vapours in the sky

soak the time

tame the tide

and leave a trail

for some one to follow

who has no faith in future

or past

but has a desire to cast

a shadow of his love

on every step

of this stair

where sages have walked

but afraid of despair