SAINT ARAKSHITA DAS

Today the Om shaped old Olasuni hill 
vibrates with chant of your holy name 
and river Gobari is in her annual thrill
despite January’s usual morning chill ;

this memorial day of your salvation
does this holy shrine with joy illumine
with devotees galore enjoying rice cakes 
and dry fishes for which they dearly pine ;

a few remember your love of truth divine
that turned you from a prince 
to a mendicant in the shades of wild vine
in search of perpetual bliss

that led you from royal comforts to crises,
a disguised life of meditation in caves
where the human soul only for God’s love craves .

We are but now a generation of religious tourists
with little understanding 
of lines from your ‘Mahimandal Geeta’
we’re rather lovers of a new living
as prescribed by a consumerism ‘Geeta’.

@ copy right : saroj k. padhi 20/01/15