Above my shoulders a vast and luminous sky,

Behind my heart a depth of ocean-bliss,

In my limbs a calm plenitude of sun-force,—

My body is a flame and a rapture of God.

 

This Himalaya is the footstool of my will

And the Milky Way a course for my nectar’s rush;

I am robed in a silence woven of measureless light

And the tide of dream and the tempest of love are my songs.

 

I move through the heavens with infinity’s pace,

Crawl in the little snail and bear visions of Man;

I am the fire of Night that burns in the stars

And the rod of lightning plunged in seven breasts.

 

Lotus of the cosmic vision’s Splendour-Truth,

I put on the Eternal’s form in endless Time.

 

 

RY Deshpande

23 May 1977