Satyakāma

Poem- Part III

At those words a rush of worlds jostled in
With their misshapen years and old dead pain,
When dark fates had grabbed her tresses
And dragged her helpless frame for vile uses.
Her womanhood retained then deep within
Leaving her body as a shell that was foreign.
The long nights of those years she had crossed
Clutching in her swelling womb the prize cherished.
A pristine life untarnished by the grime of time,
One she would nourish and rear to pristine shine.
In a flash she relived the burden of those years,
Felt the anguish in her breast and old tears.
Now here stood her brooding joy with a query.
Amba spoke, serene and collected, ‘O happy ray,
Not always shored by sturdy banks my years,
Born as on pristine mountain tops gushing rivers
With bright childhood but compelled by fates to fall
My youth plunged into treacherous ill spell,
Years I spent caught in a storm of hands
Of base minds and baser men in these lands.
As a river I gathered all the soils of men,
Bore on me their heavy vice’s burden.
My heart was sealed, eyes shut to woe,
I know not who of many the seed did sow.
As seeds that travel on air-cars to far earth
Nourished by stranger clouds since birth,
Not often known are origins of seed and river
But surge to destiny by father-sun and earth-mother.
Yet thou hast asked as will the world you meet
And I will make answer, ‘By gods that seest
Known truth I speak of dark fate’s fortune,
In pleasure house I served in damnation
Pledging my body’s virtue for day’s survival
Under shadows of men who were mere animal.
My womb thy first truth fostered thee,
Therein is all the needed virtue of ancestry.
Satyakāma is thy name, Jabala is my own,
Hence as Satyakāma Jabala thou must be known.’”
Satyakāma grew sage-like in inner resolve
Bowed to Amba and to his quest did move.
After long to a hermitage he reached of a seer
Gautama by name, dweller in truth without peer.
He waited by the studious assemblage till dusk
Collected and patient for that knowledge to seek.
As the sun dimmed and all the animals retreated
The Gautama, the seer, the stranger now beckoned,
‘What brings thee lad to my distant hermitage
That lacks all means and wealth and privilege?’
Satyakāma replied, ‘All things seen bound by one
Subtle-cord as all things are on earth to the sun.
Of this knowledge I seek the height and depth
From thee O seer stationed above our little death.’
Gautama thought, ‘A little he has seen as in a dream
Of that wide yonder lurking behind life’s screen.
I see a feeble flame burning steadily in his breast
But I know not wither or wherefore of his quest.’
So he asked, ‘Thou seekest a thing most subtle,
A venture too high and demanding for any mortal.
What art thou made of, what vigour is in thy blood,
What is thy ancestry, what line thine of sage or god?’
Satyakāma, the seeker, replied, “This query I asked
To Amba who answered, ‘By gods that seest
Known truth I speak of dark fate’s fortune,
In pleasure house I served in damnation
Pledging my body’s virtue for day’s survival
Under shadows of men who were mere animal.
My womb thy first truth fostered thee,
Therein is all the needed virtue of ancestry.
Satyakāma is thy name, Jabala is my own,
Hence as Satyakāma Jabala thou must be known.’
By such Amba is ancestry of Satyakāma O seer.”
Gautama, the imperturbable, felt within a shudder,
And replied, ‘Bitter are the days and years of men
Bearing unequal fates under an indifferent sun.
Too bitter the poison apportioned to thee,
Singeing truth thou bearest unflinching I see.
By this virtue I anoint thee a brāhmana bonafide
And hence of the Brahman to thee I shall confide.’
Such is the lore of the seeker Satyakāma
And Amba and the peerless seer Gautama.

Satyakāma- Part I

Satyakāma- Part II

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Satyakāma