Avudayal Akka
Wed at fifteen, widowed thereafter
Estranged from colour, love and laughter ,
In widow’s weeds she left home one night
Her spirit shone forth, glowing bright
In verses she extolled the Unified Theory-
The One
Energy that spins the electron and powers the mighty sun
That resides in all- Indivisible, the Advaita-
And people revered her as Avudai Akka…
GB
*Akka- loving elder sister
Inspired by Avudai Akka
I try to visualise Omnipotence
Through what I see and sense..
Elephantine strength and intelligence
The beauty of art, the musical cadence
of Vedic chants
I focus outward, forgetting that it’s the pure grace
Of the Primal One that through the prism of nature
That manifests as multi-hued rays..
I visit holy places, examine my relationships to find
The wholeness and peace that are present in my mind…
The essence of Reality.
GB
Inspired by Avudai Akka– mountain —
These rarefied heights are pure and clear
The cosmic energy of great spirits live here
No profanity can make this giddy ascent
Even Death is defeated, sent
Back to the valley below
Where only the faintest roar
Of the vedas can be heard…
GB
Inspired by Avudai Akka -the mind-
Ever restless, distracted by the senses,
The body wanders, sheathed in ego and skin,
A disguise worn by the questing mind,
That’s focussed outwards, instead of within…
Performing duties and rituals by rote,
Imagining that the world without
Is the ultimate reality.
That’s why true happiness is so often sought
In the material world, in emotions, in thought,
When, it is only to be found deep inside
In the silence of an alert, emptied mind…
GB
Inspired by Avudai Akka – taste-
The fruit of worldly success is sweet
But the happiness in one’s mind tastes sweeter.
Time spent in forest or farm, the fatigue that lingers
In constantly chasing wealth that slips through the fingers,
May be used in developing the mind, may be spent
In one’s own sphere, palace, house or hutment,
Meditating on Rama’s name as one performs one’s chores;
To lift the soul above the sea of illusion
To reach the far shores
Of enlightenment….
GB
Inspired by Avudai Akka- Folk dance
Clap your hands and tap your feet
Swirl around to the rhythmic beat
This is your role, and it’s what you do
Everyday in the life that’s been allotted to you.
But never forget that your soul’s inner light
Is as the lamp in a shrine, coruscating bright
Illuminating the whole temple, reflecting the grace
Of the Energy embodied in the Icon, whose blaze
Powers the universe….
GB
Inspired by Avudai Akka’s- parrot song
Parrot on my shoulder, here you perch
For a moment, then fly off in search
Of sweet fruit.
I,too, chasing something better on this earth,
Am caught in the revolving door of reincarnation, rebirth,
I yearn for the sweet taste of liberation–
Freed from this fate
Evolving to a higher state
of consciousness…
GB
Inspired by Avudai Akka’s- moonrise-
In the darkness of night, filled with rage and greed
The light of the rising moon has freed
What was for long years, earth-bound.
The differences in men, in scriptures, in words
In all that I have seen and heard,
As the insurmountable, only truth
Has become insignificant, smoothed
Flat, in the light of the Cosmos
Without beginning or end ..
As my spirit now soars in flight
I see, with my newly cleansed sight,
Inside me, the spirit that’s alight
With the silver glow of the divine…
GB
Inspired by Avudai Akka’s- Initiation-
Who came to my threshold radiant in rags
Claiming that he was Bhrahma?
Laying his palm upon my head, proclaiming, “That thou art!”
Striding away to the old banyan tree…
Just a glance from those fathomless eyes
And I was drawn along in the wake of that Power …..
In a second, that searing glance had stripped away
All cloying emotions and the material world
Vapourised all grief and sorrow,
Was the contemplation of the Absolute
In the clear dawn of a new morrow….
GB
Inspired by Avudai Akka’s–echchal–
You grimace with disgust at death and birth
At what you consider impure on this earth..
The blood of the womb, the pyre, the tomb
You think the silks you wear are grand you think honey’s pure and sweet,
When one is from cast-off cocoons and the other pollen from the feet
Of the bee mixed with regurgitated nectar
Wouldn’t it be better to accept the circle of life
With equanimity?
GB
gitabharath 