Culture

The Next Temple

Gautam Chikermane

Aug 05, 2020, 05:11 PM | Updated 05:11 PM IST


The Tirumala Ram idol flanked by idols of Devi Sita and Lakshman. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Tirumala Ram idol flanked by idols of Devi Sita and Lakshman. (Wikimedia Commons)
  • Here is a poetic tribute to Lord Ram as the temple in Ayodhya takes shape.
  • 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

    Ram sits in countless temples
    In sanctuaries of life and breath
    Beyond the processes of bells and death
    Living, breathing, evolving

    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.

    Gautam Chikermane is an author and Vice President at Observer Research Foundation.


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