Culture
The Next Temple
- Here is a poetic tribute to Lord Ram as the temple in Ayodhya takes shape.
The Tirumala Ram idol flanked by idols of Devi Sita and Lakshman. (Wikimedia Commons)
Bhakti doesn’t need a face
Yet, faces capture bhakti
It doesn’t need a premise, a chant
Yet, they invoke and express it
Bhakti doesn’t need a religion
Nor followers, nor books
An ethereal bond in a material world
Bhakti is Bharat, the land
Bhakti is Bharatiya, the people
Bhakti is an aspiration sublime
Bhakti builds the temple
Bhakti is the temple
Rising from the depths of a billion souls
Linked to time eternal
Situated in space infinite
The material and the mental bound
Descends in this a consciousness tangible
Recreates an idea incorporeal
Bound into a form, physical and mental
Enclosed in a body spiritual
A oneness of a boundless faith
A platform of constant movement
A convergence of the nation
The temple its premises
The sacrificial pyre its expression
Bhakti enters this pyre
Body, mind and soul
An alchemy of the worlds beyond
Turns it into a billion pillars
On these pillars stands the temple
From the temple shower blessings unique
— to the politically astute, a unity
— to thinking minds, a questioning
— to the devotionally wounded, a healing
— to the nation, a unifying spirit
— to the civilisation, a resurgence
The temple stands on bhakti
The temple supports bhakti
The temple reverberates
To the sound of an ideal ancient
The ideal of the sattwic man — Ram
Not in the 2.77 acres of Ayodhya
Not in the centuries of struggle
Not in the perseverance of faith
Rivers of blood, sweat and tears
All offerings to the hawan
Ayodhya temple, it rises again
It will stand in the glory of devotion
Give shade to the parched
And yet, after the pralaya and the new creation
This is a beginning, the first step
Towards a deeper foundation
Of the next destination, the temple within
We need the courage to build it
The strength to seek it
The humility to surrender to it
This new temple houses a sattwic ideal
This ideal will build the temple
A nation of seekers
Of all shapes and expressions
Across all layers of evolution
United at a single point — Ram
— Ram the man perfect
— Ram the avatar
— Ram the idea
— Ram the ideal
The temple has spaces for all
Those who see Ram and those who don’t
Those who build and those who block
We bow to this temple
This symbol of aspiration
Then, lay the foundations of the symbol
In the temples that thrive in our souls
These temples we must now build
Establish a new sattwa
Manifest the ideal of Ram
And from the burning flame
The rise of a new aspiration
Jai Shri Ram, Jai Shri Ram, Jai Shri Ram.
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