Our Identity Poem by Dr. Bishnupada Sethi

Our Identity

I'm proud
My ancestors resisted
Attacks on the soul
Of our identity,
Not once or twice
But no less than eighteen times.

Much before
This magnificent temple came into being
Raktavahu invaded through the sea.
Our king had to flee
Carrying the sacred deities
While the grand road
Witnessed the crowd
Of countless dead bodies.

For about a century and half
The deities remained buried
Though the locals worshipped
In the dense forest of Trikut hills
Till another of our proud kings
Restored the old glory.

While the people sang
The God's glory,
The murky stories
Of plunders got repeated
As seen from the annals of history.

A lesser mortal
I would fail to know-
Each time an invader arrived
To plunder the treasure
To desecrate the deities
To deface the statues
To demolish the temple
To wreak havoc around
Why no miracles worked!

Yet my head bows down
Looking at the sacrifices made-
Thousands of my forefathers
Bared their chests.
The kings surrendered.
The temple was saved.
The priests and servitors
Laid down their precious lives.
The people of holy town bore the brunt
Facing the enemies boldly
To safeguard the deities they worshipped
In several unique ways.

Over more than the millennia
All the efforts
To destroy or drown
To burn or ruin the trinity
Went in vain.

Looking at the splendour of flag
Atop the glorious temple today
Reminiscing the forward marching
Of the wheel of His chariot
I wonder at the beautiful design
The God was working out
A firm identity for His believers
By rallying around Him.

We live in a kingdom
The God Himself rules over
There will be no one to sing
The exploits of marauders.

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