Three Poems By Pratap Kumar Dash: The Princess And The Cowherd Boy, The Princess And The Visitor, Yashodhara Poem by Pratap Kumar Dash

1. The Princess and the Cowherd Boy
Darling of life as she reserves and deserves
The best love for her in the bosom of the queen and the king.
The princess, tender like the velvety blossom in the dewy morning;
Dreaming of a gorgeous world in the monumental palace.
Alas, a turn! She needs solace!
She then chanced to visit out to the green countryside;
Heard the sweet wave of music of the cowherd boy's flute;
Reverberating wider than wide.
The music flew away to touch the ears of her, soothing afar.
The lad controlling his cowherd in playing the flute so far;
Cooling as the bay breeze in the land of elf.
That made her got greatly impressed; mesmerized; lost control over herself.
At once gifted all her jewelries to him anon;
Then poured on him all jewelries of her companion;
And the princess then warned him no more flute to play;
But strange that her words went astray.
If he had played for the third time
Without caring for the princess's words with rhyme,
Then she would have offered herself to him;
And that would have led the cowherd boy to win the crown of the king!

2. The Princess and the Visitor
The person who happens to visit the palace;
Hears of her glory and story; gets tempted
To see the beauty and virtuosity of the most beautiful princess;
As she's famed to have possessed paragon's description of the royal gesture.
Very much desirous of spending some time with her;
To have the proximity of her as his last and the best wish
And to get relished in heart and mind if not sensually blind.
The princess like a bewitching crafty clamour
Put a condition very simply at a cursor.
That one has to follow the rigorous measure if wants at all to meet her.
The man has to go away from his community
To the place with desolation savour for a month or more;
Sit under a tree meditating; follow the spiritual path; meditate all the way;
Disseminate moral fervor to the needy and the trodder.
And he followed suit religiously word by word.
As he is in the mental fray and resolved to work hard.
But alas! What a change? The tempted turned to become a quester!
A preacher; and an angel to overcome any sinister.
The king visited him and visited him the minister.
All with folded hands heard him spreading the message of the Creator.
At last visited the princess with all intelligent curiosity.
To see if the man any more desirous to see with satiety.
‘No, my dear lady, I'm no more the man I was once upon a time.'
‘I've realized that I've seen in me more of intuitive beauty in chime.'
The princess couldn't believe the change in him that came in a rhyme.

3. Yasodhara
An embodiment of the glowing attributes of humanity;
A laurel of propitious incarnation of the fair race-
The greatest detrimental young queen of the incredible empire
Sacrificed all her emotions, passions and aspirations
Like an ocean or the sky- all blue and vast and vociferous,

The invisible architect of the bejeweled incarnation of Lord Buddha,
Finally performed stunning act of charity!
As Siddharth Gautam left her abruptly at midnight with a baby in her lap,
Alas! She never minded for that-
She was never shattered; never perturbed.
She only reared the bud to become a sapling- the soft-hearted young Rahul,
Shining fresh and fine like a kid or cub.
Goutam came as a Bouddha Bhiksyu—begged Yasodhara ‘something'
As the last act of begging from the dearest one—
Bhikhyam dehi, bhikhyam dehi.
And….. she at once gave her tenderly grown young Rahul,
Supposed to be the future king of the Shakhya dynasty
To the stretched hands of the Buddha!
And stood stupefied at the royal gate gazing and gazing at the moving shadows
Along the road that stretched ahead of all calculations;
Against the sun set, and still the words echoing;
Still reverberating all along the heart of eternity:
Budhham saranam gacchami,
Sangham saranam gacchami.
Dhammam saranam gachhami.