Dashavatara
(the ten avataras)
In me, resides the power to create
To sustain and destroy the world as I perceive.
Therefore,
I am the creator, sustainer and the destroyer.
I am a fish
in a bowl, defined by forces
I do not understand.
That becomes my world
Of pleasure and pain.
I am the Kachhapa, the turtle,
With a heavy exterior,
To bear all the ambiguities of life.
In the face of trouble,
I retreat and stay in my microcosm.
I am the Varah,the wild boar
Under the control of my animal instincts.
I feel as if I am the rescuer of the world
Which I can change
By my arrogance and brute force.
I am the narasingha,
The blend of man,
the conscious
And the lion, the king of animals
I can be swayed by my emotion,
Hurt people emotionally or physically
Before my conscience takes hold of the rein
I am the vamana
Dwarfed with the burden of shear living
I am walking from door to door,
Begging for the alms of happiness and fulfillment
I am the Parshurama
The saint, the priest,
Who thinks he knows all but
Impatient to other notions and ways
And wants to have his world by destroying the world
As it exists according to others.
I am the Rama
Confused,
Bound by principles
That I do not understand
Wondering from path to path
And running after the golden deer
Of worldly happiness and recognition.
I am the Valarama
The mighty lord with the power
to explore,
To enrich myself by cultures of mankind
And to produce the food for thought for me
And others.
I am the Buddha
I look at my ageing parents
I miss my beloved deceased grandmother
I worry about my sick children
And question my existence.
In a quiet solitude,
I brood over my gone past
The fleeting presence
And ever encroaching future
I see me through my mistakes,
Grasping barely the way out to my future
For my own salvation.
Finally,
I am the kalki, the destroyer
In my rage, I see nothing,
I feel nothing,
I want to destroy everything including my own identity
The serenity of my life becomes the existence of void.
Above all, I am the Krishna,
The embodiment of attraction,
I am the ecstasy
I merge with myself as Radha as the final bliss.
There is no end or beginning
There is no male or female
but the union,
Celebrated by the sound of the flute.
((*.*))
January 12, 1992 |