The Renunciation Of Yashodhara Poem by O Sudhir Janardhanan

The cool early hour before dawn
The world not awake, sleep not gone
The restless, soul, a prince seeking calm
Walked stealthily away, for his mind’s balm
He left behind, in his palace bed, for life
A baby child and a woman he called, wife
She lay awake with closed eyes
Seeking answers of his choice
Not even with a whimper she let him know
He was leaving her and son, this she knew

Yashodhara, the beautiful princess
Was renounced by her soul-mate
She accepted her abandonment
Without any loss of grace
Whenever she got a glimpse of her beautiful visage
Left behind, rejected without a moment’s pause
Her eyes could not hold forever
The image that the mirror showed her
Hair shorn to disfigure the beauty
She lived her life, for her child, as a duty
In her steady mind, a question always
Would she have left relations behind this way?

To seek a passion, she only knew
In finding life’s salvation, many and few
She who possessed, whatever desired
Abandoned by love, she adored, admired
Her ardour could not stop
Her love, seeking his destiny hop
And... she knew,
Why it’s the woman who carries for months nine
It is she who bears the child, which man calls mine
For, without a pause if he had a cause
Man would walk away
To seek answers, say, find enlightenment's way

Siddhartha in his search
Became the enlightened one
He abandoned his wife, Yashodhara
To whom he never did preach
But in the path to nirvana
Many a lesson, she could teach
To Siddhartha, his truths revealed
After many a long penance and seek
Yashodhara lived the reality, from when love forsake
Existing; without desire, with passion life’s march she take