Devdoot the Angel
(Excerpt from Canto 2)
Mother earth now looks
prematurely aged
struggling to nurse and nurture
her own family household
At the end of a certain epoch,
Sage Narad accosted
Our mother earth
Who was holding the moon in her hands
over the raging flames
of the solar furnace
“Mother what are you doing?”
She answered,
“Child I am testing
this piece of my heart
by exposing it to some heat..
which will tell me as to
what stuff it is made up of..
A season hard one or a raw soft one!”
“Mother, but how the world will react to this?”
“Thank god, that you people do not have
stars and planets in your hands
Cannot really imagine what you would have done to them otherwise!
When the butcher threw a feast,
I found flesh of my own cow in
my own plate
And still, you have the temerity to ask
“Mother, please serve us a hay stack?”
“Mother why are you upset with your children, like this?”
“When breasts of a mother are brimming with milk
and the baby is gasping for the love its mother,
But do you people display any compassion
towards both mother and her child
even after the calf was turned into a
fully grown bull?”
“But mother, what if the moon is perished
as you are heating her up?”
“Son, if a man loses his life
while impregnating a woman, then…
It is pleasurable to be pregnant!
but the conception is torturous !!”
“Mother, yesterday I witnessed
God was held by His collar by the crowd
in a broad daylight in the public square
asking him to pay them,
their price for their devotion
Some were asking to ‘let go of him’
while others were screaming,
‘thrash him ruthlessly’
on that very moment
out of nowhere
Sin made a rushing appearance
and rescued the God
Mother, how many days have spent
in the garb of a cow
along-side the holy bull, ‘Nandi Deo’?”
“A spoken word has its own value,
Speak a word only if it
does not defile your honor
The essence of your speech
should never lose its balance,
even if you choose to color the same
with a profound depth of sarcasm”
“Mother all so-called virtues
In this world are
thoroughly rotten”
“Then ferment them into
a liquor
Do pursue a sinful calling,
rather than a virtuous life
Let your sin make you rich
as you daily worship your God”
Overhearing the mother’s
conversation,
The Grand Devil
suddenly appeared saying,
“Mother then can I reap
the harvest of sin”
“Go ahead son”
“Can I take you to the butcher?”
“Gladly!”
— Sudhakar Gaidhani
( Translated by Vishwas Vaidya from original Marathi Devdoot )