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Two Poems on Durga By Debashish Banerji

Originally posted on sciy.org by Debashish Banerji on Tue 10 Oct 2006 01:26 AM PDT  

Two Poems on Durga

Durga is the Divine Mother's aspect of luminous Power. She is known for the slaying of the Buffallo Demon, Mahisasura. She (and her companion aspects of the Divine Mother) are particularly active at this time of the year. In these two poems, I contemplate Durga as she has been realized in stone at two ancient Goddess worship sites of India - Mamallapuram, near Pondicherry in South India and Ellora, in the hills of the western Deccan.

 

Mahishasuramardini, Mamallapuram

Behold the princess on her lion-mount
Slender like a lotus-stalk her arching torso,
Like its bud her jewelled head. In the hurtling rush
And tangled confusion of battling bodies, clear
She stands, still in swiftest motion, her arms
Taking deadly aim: Partnering her
Expertly in the dizzying moves of the dance
The buffallo-masked club-bearing self-made man,
Libido scaling Goddess heights: She will
Impale intent with arrow between the eyes,
Decapitate with sword and plunge her trident
Deep in the triple folds of writhing darkness,
Lion claws tear out the demon heart.
Thus undisguised, undone, dismembered, dying
He will glimpse the flashing worlds like beads for her neck,
Bear the unthinkable grace of her extreme attraction.

 


Durga at the Rameshwara Cave, Ellora

It is the hour preceeding Victory, she is poised
Her world-shaking force restrained, her lion dismissed,
Her blur of multiple hands reduced to four,
Her calm beatific face identified
With her blissful trance-drunk Lord, the buffallo readied,
One foot forcing it down, a hand drawing back
Firmly the agonized neck, the sword hand lifted.
This moment of perfect dominance she savors
For eternity. Then in a flash like lightning
The neck will snap, there will be dying spasms,
A fountain of poison blood from severed head
And thunder drums of Victory and showering of flowers
And drenching rain of Grace: Gods, sages, humans
Will prostrate themselves and feel Her live in them.

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