Upagupta

The serpent night slithered its dark demons,
and trees swayed laden heavy with its vices,
the wind howled,guilty,in demonic guises
Windows shut,conscience killed,
lights gone, not a soul reeled.
This was the night of Mathura,
of an age gone long away,

Down those dreary lanes, walked an ascetic
hungry and tired,
cant shed his mortal coil,
shaken,resolute but were his steps
fell on the dark Mathura’s soil.
With none to grant him,in this earthly toil
slept the rustic hermit,
this night, on its brown foil.
He was called ,Upagupta,by them
the great disciple of the enlightened,
Some heard about him, some knew
Mathura knew not, nor were its wise and few

He lied down, but the wind blew hard
He tried hard to sleep,
but just saw the earthly dreams,
“Who is it, whose tinkling this wind sweeps?”
“Who is it, brings the lamp whose
glow seems to seep?”
Graced in beauty, decked in jewellery,
“I am Vaasav, the golden muse,
dancer in this city of pleasure hues.
Decked I maybe for their sensuous pleasures,
but I have a heart
which bleeds for divine treasures.
Grace,my hut,O!divine hermit,grace my hut
for the night is long,
and the doors are tightly shut “

Upagupta, he was,
the disciple of the enlightened
Undenting he was,in his divine quest
Wary,careful was he ever,
the sensuous demons strike lest
Sought he not the trust on his weakness,
yet to banish the last of his desiring rest.
“Walk away,O! lady,walk away
for a day shall come, when I visit you
the time apt, till then walk away”

Aeons pass away, and passes way a bit too soon
Mathura lives along, busy in its lust-cocoon
Upagupta, walks along, tired,dreary in his step
the black,hard city wall on his flanked-left
Lies on its dusty bowls,leper licking her fingers
marred, thrown out of the city into the dark oblivion
Taking the leper face ,tends to her like a tender scion
“Who are you, O divine one, art thou my dark Krishna?”
“Its the day I visit you Vaasav, for I am Upagupta.”

[This poem was inspired by the poem of the same name written by Tagore. The writer sees this incident as one of the supreme tests of human celibacy]

One more piece coming out from me, thanks to the inspiration of Tagore

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