THE MOON AND
THE BUDDHA
A. SATHYAVATHY
Though man has known you
as the conquered world,
a dusty land of crystal rocks
to me you are the same
distant disc of mysterious movements.
working on men’s minds and lives
And I, watching your bloom
ever contemplate
how wisdom bloomed in my land
ages ago,
in the eyes of the Great Seren,
under the “peepal” tree.
which now eternal stands.
What mysterious chords bind these,
the month of May*.
the full moon
and the birth and flash of wisdom,
and then the peaceful and
wrought in the life of him,
the great compassionate
* (Buddha was born, attained enlightenment and reached Nirvana on the same day-Vaisakh Poornima, which usually falls in the month of May.)