B R A H M A

 

B R A H M A

If the red slayer think he slays,

Or if  the slain  think he is slain,

They know not well the subtle ways

I keep, and pass, and turn again.

 

Far or forgot to me is near;

Shadow and sunlight are the same;

The vanished gods to me appear;

And one to me are shame and fame.

 

They reckon ill who leave me out;

When me they fly, I am the wings;

I am  the doubter and the doubt,

And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.

 

The strong gods pine for my abode,

And pine in vain the sacred Seven;

But thou, meek lover of the good!

Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.

 

            In this short poem by the American poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1802-1882),  the supreme Hindu God Brahma tells us that we live in a world of illusions. Reality being subtle is spiritual. It is not physical. Therefore. Its  appearance can be deceptive.  

           

 Brahma , in this poem, describes himself as all-powerful and all-inclusive. For him shadow and sunlight, fame and shame are similar. The seven sacred gods have no independent existence of their own. They are all his components.  He alone is everything and every action . The wings of the flier are  his, and so is  the reality  the  hymn which a Brahmin sings.

 

The very first stanza of the poem Is the most significant. It assures the reader that death is an illusion.  Both  the slayer and  the slain  are ignorant . Their claims of slaying and being slain  are unrealistic because  the indwelling soul in the human body is immortal.  

 

This idea is also explained in the Gita where Lord Krishna refutes the idea of death. He says that people don’t die; they simple drop their existing garbs and adopt new ones according to the law of Karma.

 

17^th June 2022                                                            G.R.Kanwal