The Lord At Seevaram

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The Lord At Seevaram is continued

dasan,T.Raguveeradayal

 

THE LORD AT SEEVARAM

AT THE FOOT OF THE HILL

 

This was the beginning of the second portion of the festival which, I was to find out , afforded opportunities of a Dharsan which surpassed all others I had ever beheld even of this very Lord on other occasions. From this village the procession wended its way round the principal Hill till it came to foot of it. Here had gathered another immense crowd come to worship this living God of Kaliyuga. Just opposite to the first step in the ascent of the Hill there was a pause, and in the trice of the Dandigai was thickly crowded round by a huge concourse of worshippers. Though almost crowded out from the spot nearest the Dandigai we still managed to peer now over the heads of others, and now through the chinks of the crowd. and what met my eye there baffles description. The the Divine form was revealing itself --- the mystery was being unravelled. Folds after folds of shawl and silk were being removed ; they were varied and picturesque hues and colours, and at each stage the particular shawl or silk which fell to be removed next – as it surrounded that sweet and slender form – looked so elegant and exquisite that in itself it appeared a perfectly fitting costume for that divine Image. after --- I cannot say how many -- some such were removed, there suddenly appeared a stage when all at once a thousand stars threw out their scintillating lustre from that divine form through an enveloping thin veil of dark blue colour. It took the eye a minute to realise that it was the last silk --- a dark blue one -- which was so transparent as to let out the shooting rays of the emeralds and sapphires of the ornaments which bedecked that Beauteous Form which was fit to adorn all the ornaments in the world. Next second that silk too was lightly set aside and immediately a thousand the eyes was something which no human eye could behold unless it was blessed with the Divya Sakthi (supernatural power) such as the one conferred on Arjna by Krishna, or unless He that Beauteous Lord of wondrous Form had chosen to greet it of His own Free will and sankalpa with this immensely attractive Incarnation of Beauty. This was the very vision which the Gopis had hugged to their eager hearts, the very vision which stood revealed in all its glory to the child Dhruva -- a vision indeed calculated to strike dumb a thousand Manmathas . This was the beauty of which the Srutis say in unmistakable terms " It is far beyond the reach of thought or speech" . This is the figure that day and night without a moment's cessation gladdens the eyes of Sri Lakshmi, the Divine Consort who in this Face and Form finds perennial and ever new Rasa. It was in short the Divya Abhirupyam which unsexed the severe sexless sages of yore and made one sage of recent times even to reject the Bliss of Paramapada as secondary when compared to this.

A Valmiki, a Vyasa, a Suka, or a Parakala or Parankusa would perhaps have attempted to speak of this sweet and sublime Vision of Beauty in language appropriate to it. It is sheer madness for one of my type to attempt it. My language has nothing in it of truth or goodness. Trained as it is in sin and slang, it must be the last to attempt a description of this pure and ethereal beauty. I shall be paying the best homage to it by passing on without pausing on it any more