Mount Kailash, The Abode Of Shiva (Under The Shadow Of The Mountains) Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

Mount Kailash, The Abode of Shiva (Under the Shadow of The Mountains)

Under The Lurking Shadow of The Mountains, Snow-capped Mount Kailash and Glaciers Flowing
Under the shadow of the mountains,
The white Kailash,
Under the shadow of the mountains
And the peaks,
How to take to the cliffs
Hanging onto?

How scenic is it,
Panoramic,
Landscapic is it the Abode,
The Abode of Shiva, Shiva
The Maheshwara,
The Yogi,
The Sadhaka!

From Mansarovar,
How to trek it,
How to ascend to reach
The Abode,
The Celestial Abode of Shiva, Shiva,
Shiva-Shankara?




Preface
Mount Kailash as a poem has borne out of love and anguish, love for natural phenomenon as I have tried to capture the Shiva images and anguish for poetic aberration which I underwent while taking to and passing through the process. Sometimes retards it our fancy and imagination. We lose the lustre by way of reckoning. Sometimes despair and pessimism takes it over. It is a visionary poem of mine in which I have brooded over and have opined in different moods of reflection. What is Shiva? Where is Shiva? How to find Him? Where to see Him? I just began the poem casually seeking His love and benediction, blessing and kind mercy. Under the lurking shadow of the snow-capped imagery, picturesque surrounding of Kailash, I began the poem to capture the moments of poetic writing like a photographer, a pilgrim, a mountaineer, a sadhu.
Mount Kailash the word casts a spell over us. There is magic in it. All the three things are in it, the mystery, the miracle and the morality. If you see, you will keep seeing it. If from the miracle point of view, the thing is before you to perceive and feel it. The morality lies it in feeling Shiva in you, beauty, truth and goodness.
The heart is the Abode of Shiva, the Abode of Shiva, Mount Kailash is within you, within you, you need not, need not go anywhere if you can see Him, see Him in your heart. This is also but the other side of discussion.
When I began the poem, I had no idea as for how to begin it, but the things got lengthened and I kept on scribbling the trail of ideas and imagery coming as a series of poetic images, thoughts and ideas leading me to Kailash and Mansarovar, all that felt during ascension and descending from the tracks and treks.
Where is Shiva, Where is Shiva? This is actually a search for Shiva, a search for Shiva. Shiva, Shiva, where is Shiva, Shiva? Where, whereto in search, search of Shiva, Shiva?
The poem has been written in the aftermath of my Shiva poems, as such Shiva Tandava, The Lingam-Yoni Motif, Nagamani and other poems.
How to arrange, re-arrange the lines? The lines are in there in continuity and letting me not write, scribble and jot down so how, how to pen and capture the flow and rhythm losing track of and I feeling lost, mesmerizing in between the lines trying to put serially and failing too in alignment and patterning systematically. After noting the titbits, I shall arrange them to be put into a whole.
It is no doubt a Shiva poem as it contains in meditations on Shiva. Shiva imagery and Kailash imagery have been intermixed. Before it I had worked on the Shiva poems of Kathleen Raine, Aurobindo and another different one written by O.P.Bhatnagar commemorating the loss of American mountaineer Nanda Devi into the mountain of her name. Eliot's clouds gathering over Himavant, all these come to bail me out when to conclude it with thinking it for as how to end it. Lawrence Bantleman's Kanchenjunga, a small work too I had had in the past. These are just by the way just as a recollection of all that. Yeats' Meru too is a very fine to be presented in this context as for its mythical base, spectrum and dimension opening new vistas of thought and idea.
My purpose was to put the scenic, landscapic beauty of Kailash, Mount Kailash, so called Mythical Abode, Abode of Shiva, Lord Shiva. Side by side it is a poem of some geographical and geological charm, of the lands visited, unvisited, seen and unseen from far. How their cultures, how their speeches and minds? How the territories lying beyond? How the mountainous regions? How the routes and treks into the mountains? How the climate and conditions? The Himalayan mountains and mountain ranges have always lured the climbers and mountaineers for an expedition, a climb and an exploration.
I cannot who climbed it Kailash, who visited it Mansarovar for the first time. Whose name was registered and whose not? Who claimed it and who not?
Just bow your head before, bow your head before, the Mount you are seeing, you are seeing, Mount Kailash reflecting into the waters of Mansarovar and go away with, ‘Om namah shivay, om namah shivay, om nama shivay', ‘Shivoaham shivoaham shivoaham' and ‘Shivaste shantu panthanam', take you the rosary, rudraksha rosary and go away. Let Shiva be with you, with you in your return journey.
Where the lamp of knowledge is burning? The knowledge of the Self, how to elucidate it? It is to be felt internally. Feel it within, feel it outside. Get light and give light to others.
The poem has been written under the shadow of Mount Kailash, its natural scenery and landscape reflecting into the waters of Mansarovar.
Background

(Under the Abode of Shiva,
Shiva-Shankara,
The shadow of the mountains,
Mountain peaks,
The snowy white peaks,
White-white,
The blue mountains,
Blue mountains.

Om namah Shivay,
Om namh Shivay,
Om namah Shivay,
Renting the skies,
Renting it around
And the echoes coming,
Coming down to.

Shiva, Shiva,
Shiva, Shiva,
Satyam shivam sundaram,
Shivam satyam sundaram,
Sundaram shivam satyam,
What it sundaram, what it satyam, what it shivam?

Om namah shivay,
Om namah shivay,
Om namah shivay,
Shivay, shviay, shivay,
Salutation to Shiva, salutation to Shiva,
Shiva, Shiva,
Where the voice coming, coming from?
People looking upwards, upwards
But nobody can where the voice is coming from,
Coming from.

Where is the prayer coming go,
Where is the prayer,
Who is it,
Who is it praying,
Praying to Shiva,
Shiva,
Shiva, Shiva,
Where Shiva,
Shiva, Shiva,
Shiva-Shankara?

Om shantih shantih shantih,
Om shantih shantih shantih,
Om shantih shantih shantih.)

I

Mount Kailash,
Kailash,
Bhole Shankar,
Har Har Mahadev,
Mount Kailash,
The Abode of Shiva,
Shiva-Shankara,
Har Har Mahadev!

Shiva,
Shiva,
Shiva-Shankara,
Har Har Mahadev,
Bhole Shankar,
Shiva-Shankara,
Sambhu, Shiva-Shambhu!

How many names of Shiva,
How many connotations of names,
How their meanings,
How the visions and images,
How the pictures!

Shiva, Shiva,
Shiva, Shiva,
Where Shiva,
Shiva, Shiva,
Shiva, Shiva,
Where is Shiva,
Where, where is?

O passer-by, passing through the way,
Passing through,
O wayfarer, can you,
Can you where the path goes to,
Goes to,
Where, where the Abode, the Abode of Shiva,
Where Kailash, Kailash?

Can you,
Can you
Where the way leads to,
Leads to,
Where,
Where the Abode of Shiva, Shiva,
Shiva-Shankara,
Har Har Mahadev?


II

The Trimurti,
The Holy Trinity, Brahma Vishnu Maheshwara,
Where Brahma,
Where Vishnu,
Where Mahesh,
Bhola Maheshwar,
Vyom Bhole Shankar?

What Brahma,
What Vishnu,
What Mahesh,
Which is in what,
How the concept,
What it is Brahma Vishnu Maheshwara!

The same as Brahma,
The same as Vishnu,
The same as Mahesh,
Brahma Vishnu Maheshwara,
Brahma Vishnu Mahesh.

III

I am going to,
I am going to Kailash,
Kailash,
The Abode of Shiva,
The abode of Shiva

In search of Shiva,
In search of Shiva,
Shivoaham shivoaham shivoaham,
I am Shiva, I am Shiva, I am Shiva,
Shiva is I, Shiva is I, Shiva is I,
Shiva in me, Shiva in me, Shiva in me,
I in Shiva, I in Shiva, I in Shiva.

I taking to the ways,
To the ways
And going,
Going,
In search of,
In search of Shiva,
Shiva,
Shiva, Shiva,
Shivoaham shivoaham shivoaham.

IV

Where Shiva lying
As a sadhu,
A yogi,
A fakira
And meditating
With his trishula,
Kamandala and mat.

Into which cave
Or on what snowy peak or slope or steppe
The trishula pierced into snow
And the kamandala kept before
And he on the mat
Meditating.

The three ash-lines
On the forehead of his,
The hair is matted
And his body ash-laden
And the crescent on his forehead sideways
And he in the rudraksha bracelets
Lost in his sadhna,
Meditation.

V

O where is Shiva,
Shiva,
Bhole Shankara,
How is he,
Is he,
Where,
Where is he meditating?

O where is Shiva,
Where is Shiva,
O where is,
Where is Shiva,
Shiva, Shiva,
Shiva going,
Going,
Passing, passing through?

Inner Voice resounding,
Resounding,
Carrying, carrying the voice,
The voice mystical,
Shiva, Shiva is in you,
In you,
Shiva, Shiva in you,
Where, where do you keep,
Keep searching Him?

VI

It is a mystery to see Kailash,
It is a miracle to see Kailash,
It is a morality to sere Kailash,
When to see it,
How to see it,
The Abode, the Abode of Shiva?

Under the canopy of the mountains,
Under the canopy of
Kailash, Kailash,
Mount Kailash,
How to see,
See the Abode,
The Abode of Shiva?

VII

To the Abode, the Abode of Shiva,
The Abode of Shiva, Shiva,
The Abode of Shiva,
Shiva-Shankara,
Shiva-Shankara.

The blue-blue skies,
The blue-blue mountains,
The white-white Kailash,
Kailash,
The waters receding,
Receding,
Pearly blue waters,
Pearly blue waters.

The waters,
Waters from the Mount,
Mount Kailash,
The glaciers,
Glaciers waters,
Waters flowing,
Flowing down

VIII

Shiva in Kailash,
Kailash in Shiva,
Shiva in Kailash, Kailash,
Kailsh, Kailash,
Kailash in me, Kailash in me,
Kailash in me, Kailash in me.

It was a mystery to see Kailash,
It is a miracle to see Kailash,
It is a morality to sere Kailash,
When to see it,
How to see it,
The Abode, the Abode of Shiva?

Under the canopy of the mountains,
Under the canopy of
Kailash, Kailash,
Mount Kailash,
How to see,
See the Abode,
The Abode of Shiva?

It is a mystery to see Kailash,
It is a miracle to see Kailash,
It is a morality to sere Kailash,
When to see it,
How to see it,
The Abode, the Abode of Shiva?

Under the canopy of the mountains,
Under the canopy of
Kailash, Kailash,
Mount Kailash,
How to see,
See the Abode,
The Abode of Shiva?


Papohang paap karmahang paap sambhavah,
Trahi maang parvatinath sarva paapharo hara.

Har Har Mahadev, Har har Mahadev,
Har har Mahadev, Har Har Mahdev.

Epilogue

How to conclude the text, the mythical text, the spiritual journey of Mount Kailash? How the matter relating to the expedition and mountaineering? How the tales told by visitors, travellers and tourists? How do the people of Bhutan, China and Tibet take to? How do the Jains, the Buddhists and the Jains? The poem under our perusal is in continuation of In Search of Siva, Shivoaham Shivoaham Shivoaham and Nilkantha Mahadeva. Which route to take and how to reach the place is actually a matter of the sadhus and sadhakas moving far from the times immemorial to have a recourse to that and this is but mystic Himalayan knowledge and wisdom which burns it in the caves of meditation. Before I started, I begged for His pardon and before I close, I beg pardon for any mistakes committed whatsoever in penning the poem, the mythical text of it, dealing with the sacred mountain and the myths connected with its trekking, the journey beyond of which I do not know, I cannot say it as for the mystery the miracle, the morality inculcated in, the terrains lying far flung and land blocked with rocks, stones and crags. The mystic vision you may take as the source of the poem which I have been trying to endow with and this is what I count upon as for choosing it as my poetic theme of poetic deliberation and giving finishing touches to this imaginary poem of mystical leaning, geographical exploration and meditative delving which I have accomplished. God knows, what is it in it?


Poet-script

After having completed the text almost, I kept it at bay as for different engagements and assignments and so the case with writing Nilamahadeva. The concept grew up in me but it could not materialize. I do not what I remember and what I have forgotten as for completing it. How the rudiments of idea? How fancy and imagination implied in? I conceived it during the Shaivite moments of meditation and brooding. But the poem could not be released earlier instead of being written earlier. Actually I had the intention of taking it along the geographical line, but could not support it as for unfamiliar tracts and trajectories. Had I known relating to Bhutanese, Chinese, Tibetan, Sikkimese faiths, belief-systems, customs, myths and heresies I would have definitely opined in that way, incorporating in new ideas and thoughts, but could not do so for my limited knowledge. The myth of Shiva, the mystery of Shiva, the miracle of Shiva, how to penetrate it?