The Winds of Wonder

At  Rāma’s House

Not to Rāma’s temple but to his village house

I will go and with him feast brown rice and curry,

Vibrant salad too, fresh from the home-garden,

Tended in trueness of the verdant breeziness

That thrives in excellence of sparkling rapture.

All our friendship then shall burst into songs

And get mingled with the chirping of the birds

Enthused by minstrels of the melodiousest sky.

Drifting like autumn moon in the silver night

Shall float in tranquillity the joy of my hope.

I shall hear silent tread of mystic expectations,

Afar beyond sight shall I see unseen stars.

I would miss all this in the high soaring shrine,

Feel forsaken, inanely disappointed,

Heavy sounding bells cast from ancient metal

Dinning into my tired ears stories of the past.

No more hence up there, over there, elsewhere, beyond,

That god’s in heaven and all’s right with the world;

Not that now when the tilled farm waits for rains.

Absolutely he is here, the sovereign,

With the glimpses that rule and the resolves that shape.

Not in solitary heavens of still trance,

Not like painted wings on a painting canvas;

There is the kindled flame ceaselessly claiming          

In passions and movements of speeding spheres

Fiery intensities for the soul of the mortal,

Inspiration and urges to discover, to create

In the enthusing spirit’s felicities.

A dismayed power sits on Death and makes life

Food for life, ghost fattened by hungry ghost,

In the grave womb of ignorance, ignorance,

Darkness sustained by absolute darkness;

Given to godlessness utter godlessness,

Terrible bull wearing a long cheerless gown;

Yet there is the love that knows no sorrow,

And the defeated being shall be real again;

I will go by the thudding beats that win all.

Eyes see distances across far infinities,

And the will brings them to our courtyards,

Ablaze in house and house the solar fires.

In smiling heart of the rose for beauty to dwell,

In drifting time is active the eternal,

The enduring in the greatness of the Great,

The phenomenon for the sweetness’ laughter,

A tranquil voice that gives birth to things divine.

In the vastness of the creation I meet

Numberless Ramas with multiplying names,

Suns of knowledge in the rock and tree and man,

Each small and big god only his form of glory,

A conscious newly-born presence in full blaze.

31 January 2026

Kālārama Temple at Nashik

Ayodhyā Ram Mandir

Beautiful Wonder

Rama Shila Mandir Almora

What a temple!

Temple in OM shape