Dance Of Shiva Poem by Dr Tapan Kumar Pradhan

Dance of Shiva

Before the cosmic dance, there was the cosmic song
Before the cosmic song, there was the Silence
And before the Silence, there was the One.

Then the One thought: Who am I?
and from the "I" emerged the "You"
from the you emerged he, she and they -
distances were created, otherness was created
attraction and repulsion, weak force, strong force
virtue and vice, good and evil
leptons, muons… the building blocks
electrons, atoms, cells and the universe.

And He was in it all, supervising all
waltzing across galaxies, gliding between nebulae
making them dance to the myriad taalas
he created from his celestial damru,
spinning them into orbits, circular, elliptical
with a nudging of his swaying trident, the glistening Trishula.

And after having created the entire universe
He came out of it
threw away his damru
disinterested, tired, ascetic
He went to the top of the Himalayas
clad in a tiger skin, smeared in ash
and meditated for eons.

Until
the glaciers melted away under the greenhouse gases
bulldozers rumbled through the Himalayan heights
fighter jets zoomed past His secret abode
people came to see Him in hordes, in busloads
no, it was not possible now to simply mediate anymore.

The Third Eye opened. It was time for that dance again
But the taala was missing, where was the damru?
The dim-dim-dim of the damru was drowned
in the cacophony of the rock and roll.
But He must dance. He must create

So tsunamis were created, typhoons were created
tornadoes, blizzards, earthquakes were created
His footsteps were heard
In Hiroshima, Chernobyl, Auschwitz, New York
and he danced and waltzed and twirled and careened
till His legs were tired and feet were bruised
tiger skin torn, hair locks shorn
until he could dance no more…

And then rose the mighty Trishula
bursting through the blushing pink snows of Himalayas
like a hungry black phallus ripping apart
a five year old school girl's tender pink vulva
inside a shamelessly erect New Delhi skyscraper.

*****


(The poem was short-listed for the AIPC-2013 National Poetry Competition)