Whims of the Gods

SURESH CHANDRA CHAKRAVARTY

(Translated by the writer from his original Bengali)

All on a sudden the door, hiding the mystery, was flung open before my eyes,

And I saw–

Saw–we, multitudinous gods, have come down to this mortal earth,

Leaving the Nandan’s bower

We have brought and placed our thrones in the hearts of

millions of colourful transitory moments,

Casting aside the nectar of Immortality

On this play-ground of Death

We have drunk deep of the wine of pleasure and pain, laughter and tears in brimful brittle earthen pitcher,–

We, multitudinous gods, have come down in a playful mood to this mortals’ home!

Children play in their play-house in their own whims with their own laws,

Mud is no mud to them, sand no despicable sand,

They know sand as sugar, mud a delicious sweet,

How easily the jack-fruit leaves take the guise of savoury cakes,

In a trice the young banana tree takes the shape of a youthful goat;

By the invocation of the child’s soul-desire

Truth’s lamp is kindled in the realm of Untruth,

Dead becomes living reflected in the light of his two eyes–

Children play in their play-house in their own whims with their own laws,

In their soul-desire Truth is born in the heart of a world of lies.

Multitudinous gods, we have come down as human children to this mortals’ home,

Our soul-desire–the gods’ own soul-desire–

Becomes manifest in every direction in its bright effulgence on this mortal earth–

Illusions and imaginations take shape in shadows,

Shadows take form in hardened material frames;

Our soul-desire–the gods’ own soul-desire–

Fills with courage of Truth every particle of dust,

And every moment with creative song;

Our soul-desire–the gods’ own soul-desire–

In all directions takes shape in millions of forms;

Plants and trees, ferns and foliage,

Fruits and flowers,

Rivers, mountains, oceans, stars and planets

It fills with its own delight and with its own enchantment,

The mortal sweet-heart’s-body

Filled with the desire of the gods

For a moment becomes as divine Urvashi’s enchanted frame,

For a moment

The touch of her lips gives the taste of the wine drunk in Heaven’s revelry.

Yea–multitudinous gods, we have come down to this mortal earth

So we are fetterless:–unblemished and ever in light,

Not bound by thirst and hunger, greed and sorrow,

Unafraid we unhesitatingly embrace pleasure and pain, laughter and tears, name and fame in a playful mood from birth to birth,

We, like children, play in this mortals’ home arranging and rearranging, shaping and reshaping the countless mortal moments filled with transient joys–

The light of our eyes like the evening-star ever burning in the infinite of the sky!

All on a sudden the door–hiding the mystery–was flung open before my eyes,

And I saw–

Saw–we, multitudinous gods, have come down to this mortal earth,

Fetterless–we play being bound in fetters,

Boundlessly free–we join in the revelry of transitory joys.

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