Mahabali

Poem - Part 1

Mahabali and Vishnu

Long ago in an age that history forgot,
One, a king, means of perfect knowledge sought,
Not content with pedantic stumbling mind
By ambition a means to higher knowledge devised.
He marshalled his scattered rays of thought
Into a single limpid whole without a knot.
All his actions were bound by a Yajña’s rule,
A rhythmic patterned breath turned his tool,
A purity of action without taint of desire,
His vital shone brimming as a pristine fire.
Intent still to exceed his human bounds
He fashioned a new sacrifice on sacred grounds.
The sages and seers he summoned as witness,
His moment of self-exceeding upon them to impress.
Great were the fires upon the altars many,
Hundred voiced hymns sang sacred litany.
Upon an appointed seat he sat a solemn will
Within his wide being lay utterly still.
At the destined moment when all converged
A force erupted within and his being submerged.
All was light and his mind no more bound,
By mere will he could ordain things he found.
A god-like power was his and causeless joy,
The world was his fiefdom or even a toy
That he moved at will or for his whim’s use;
His will was such even gods could not refuse.
Emerging from sacrifice like a god he smiled
All was his dominion wherever his will did lead.
This highest sacrifice done under the Sun,
Mahabali, Great Sacrificer, as high title he won.

Upon the scene of revelry arrived a curious dwarf
With a strange umbrella, ritual pot and ritual staff.
A hush was upon that assemblage grand
Mahabali felt a portend that had to be assuaged.
He spoke, “O stranger, whereof art thou, seeming twice-born,
Arrivest at auspicious hour of our sacrifice’s turn?
What purpose leads thee here in this moment
When am on verge of strong ideals to implement?”

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Mahabali