King Trishanku Poem by Vidya Pandarinath

His voice raised, with the right hand
And a proud, angry face to the sky,
The sage chanted mastered hymns aloud;
His strange mission was to send
King Satyavrata into the abode high;
The latter was under a cloud of sigh,
That his soul 's sole desire was to reach
The Heaven with his body sans breach


Ample ill-will and contempt hard,
Was flung at the King's desire, dear,
By Vasishtha his lineage preceptor - seer
Who did loudly disregard and discard
The feat as unruly, unholy and barred;
Since the sordid evil- soaked, sinful corpse
Was condign, and intrusion a profane fuss;
The king was advised - until he aged, to retard.


His coaxing appeal met with vile disdain;
When the Seer's sons, besides turning down
The plea, uttered curses with a frown:
That he, the metamorphosed age attain,
Go dethroned - void of the royal land;
Be crippled, senile and ugly beforehand;
And that all his life may end up in vain!

So it befell, and destitute became the king,
With reinforced passion and retained zeal;
Before the seer Vishwamitra he did kneel,
Pouring out his misfortune and sad feeling;
The sage, an achiever and a master great,
Being a rebel -ascetic strong, on the whole
Promised him Heaven- with body and the soul;
With incantations and offers sent him up straight

The Deities felt their abode shake
With his entry; and the Ruler of Heaven
Wrathful, threw out the intruder even;
The indignant sage put them at stake:
He stopped the king from falling down;
Instantly he created a new heaven, dual
In the skies, superseding - Limbo or Sheol
Stars, twinklers alike and a new crown

The sage was now appealed to stop;
Yet he insisted on retaining the domain,
Glamorous and new, with the fallen king lain
Upside down beneath the heaven atop;
Truly the ascetic sage proved his mettle
And kept his promise; yet is the quest
Futile, absurd, and instance the best,
Of crazy pursuits and dogmata turn brittle


The soul empowered with ascetic penance
May defy even the cosmic structure and form
But breach of the set Code or norm
Created a topsy- turvy realm of decadence;
If not backed with reason and rationale
A trifle crazy task needs no big power,
Nothing inane ever gains the infinite cover;
Even a void paragon is deemed to fail

All inordinate acts of pride and vanity,
Despite being backed by prowess and might,
Reach though the summit, of great height,
Precipitate worthlessly with sunken sanity.