DRAUPADI -61

 

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty's 

DRAUPADI - 61 

 

Is this the same river that flowed

yesterday, the day before and before?

The foamy bubbles are new and old

one cannot count how many are born

how many die before the eye blinks.

The leaves have changed colour

green to yellow, black and green again:

I too have changed, my pain is mellowed

the wound unhealed smarts inside

tears ooze in the mind flooding the thoughts

passion rises propping logic to revolt.

But shadows linger the wanton downs

the humours - You cannot do things alone!

Is she alone? No, she is lonely not alone,

wife to the Pandava five Draupadi is owned

but she is free in her own womanliness.

Free to create her own vastness

where the husbands are poles of pride

the arches, the panoramic pastiche

of sounds sights and rhythms

are all hers without the canker of hate:

She is love sweetness purity beauty

all in her world of uncompromising majesty.

 

Draupadi heard advancing sounds

of chants prayers coming from

the heart of the Dwaita forest.

A group of sanyasis came to sight

loinclothed bodies harbouring learned minds

singing the praise of God, Nature

and the glories of the other world

in joyful surrender of worldly life.

Draupadi stood and watched the scene

maybe they were going for ceremonial

bath in the Ganga the purifier of all

dirt of the body and mind - Draupadi

suddenly lost her bearing, her identity

she forgot for the moment, her past

present and future, she was merely

a living soul, a lonely woman pitted

against hunger, insecurity, fear, dreams.

She wondered whether these sages have

transcended what she is confronting in life?

Are they happy if not at least contented

or this life too is a routine of prayers,

studies, chants of saint poets' compositions?

Are they desireless? What drives them

to this ascetic life away from society!

The human world of family clan, desires

to own, build, create, destroy, love,

procreate, write, sing and leave behind

their stories, their having come to this world?

Is life an abstraction and an escape

to an unknown realm of Bliss which

none have experienced in the other world?

Draupadi shook her head pinched her hand

walked a few steps - No she is real

her five husbands will come back hungry

bringing with them the wages of sweat -

Food and stories of a long day's encounter

with life's real friends and enemies:

Draupadi calmly walked into her palace.