Birth Of Death -I Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

Let me narrate how Death was born on Earth,
Said sage Vyasa to Yudhishthir, shattered
By Abhimanyu's death, ‘vain, vain my worth,
O if a young dream dies, lies so scattered'.

A story it is from a Golden Age,
A king called Akampan had lost his all
And his dear son in battles that had raged,
A brave young man lost in a duty's call.

Robbed of all hope, in grief he roamed alone,
In search of peace— with a mind sunk in war,
And he finds sage Narad there standing prone—
To him nigh like locating a Poll Star!

My son was brave enough to take on gods,
Enemies came and conspired, him to kill,
Do tell me what death is, what dying means,
Life I know, but what's Death's destiny still?

To his query the sage told this story—
Of Birth of Death, of old age and disease:
When Brahma had created all this here,
Death found no place still in the scheme of His.

And life lived and lived for endless long years,
No one died, and still new life came to be,
Poor earth bare if a burden more could bear,
Ant-like life swarmed, as if a shore-less sea.

An ocean of life in a waxing tide
O taxing the Mother Earth's means sans pause,
Causing chaotic turmoil, unknown ill,
Grass-eaters ate flesh to fill hungry maws.

When hard it was to breathe, the Creator
Felt concerned— how to turn this giant tide,
How to lighten the burden borne by Earth,
Ere it collapsed under own weight and died.

Brahma thought for long hours, for days on end,
‘Poor of me, how I never thought of this? '
A way out still was far from the Lord's hand,
His visage showed worry where once was bliss.

In rage, his eyes seemed like luminous arc,
Flames of fire flared all the worlds to consume,
And pierced heavens heating up all Earth,
A making O of cosmic night's dour doom!
_______________________________________
This poem is a poetic rendition of an episode in Mahabharata. When at the time of Creation life was conceived, the creator Brahma forgot to incorporate death. And life multiplied threatening its very existence. And he had to remedy the situation by creating death along with life. This is the first of the four parts.
_____________________________________________
Epics | 01.06.12 |
Topic: death, creation