Enlightenment Poem by Sasanka Sekhar Panda

And Buddha felt the presence of eternity
in the golden valley of the rising sun
when the Eastern horizon
was turning pink bright
along-with the water of Niranjanaa, *
when flocks of birds were fluttering
in the sky.

And just at the very moment
he realised that
Love is nothing but
the broadest sensibility of the
scattered cells of the heart,
Paradise is nothing but
the deep feeling of the
all pervading joy,
Hatred is nothing but
the nasty expression of a coward,
Hell is nothing but
the Devil reincarnated
in a sadist's thought.

* Niranjanaa: On the bank of river Niranjanaa, Prince Siddhartha attained Enlightenment and became Lord Gautama Buddha in the sixth century B.C.