Bhagwan
Sawai
Tathagata
: Two Poems
One
Then the primordial man within me exclaimed:
I will lay a stone on my chest
And carve on it
Images of my sorrow
Songs of pain
That bear witness to my wounds
And welcome tomorrow’s sun.
Tathagata
I’ve come to you
My sorrows interred in my bones
Bringing my darkness within the radius of your
light
Take me within your fold, away from this
darkness
Out there, I’ve worn myself out, slogging in
their carnival
Losing my self-identity.
Tathagata
Ask no questions, questions are alien to me,
I do not
know myself
Out there, there was nothing but darkness and
rocky muteness
So transmigrate into me from that picture
in flesh and blood, into my effusive being.
Two
Then the primordial man within me wept bitterly
Seeing the tattered sails of his own floating
ship
In the eyes of Tathagata
Then
The storm within him surged
From the sea’s being, peaks of blood standing
high
Tathagata
Do not leave me shoreless
Do not leave me on the shores
Because
This ocean is dear to me
My lifeblood mingled in every wave
Tathagata
I do not want you in your yogic postures as in
the pictures
Before whom I could place my offerings of flowers
and prayers
Pardon the slaves of fetishism
Who created idols in your name and festivals.
Tathagata: Two poems One by Bhagwan Sawai Translated by Radha Iyer Tathagata is not to be considered as "Lord Buddha' He is an enlightened human being who has the knowledge of suffering & misery and the Primordial man seeks the aid of Tathagata in order to transcend his sufferings like the Guru through his experience of pain & sufferings will help once to get out of it. The poem starts with an urge on the part of the narrator. There is a long history of oppression with the dalits but interestingly Dalit evoke the Tathagata. He wants to transmigrate himself enlightnment one with the aid of Tathagata who himself is an enemy human.Tatagatha is not a god. Tathagata is an enlightned human being who can allow another human being to get out of hia pain, sorrow and suffering.That was the promise Buddhism gave. Buddhism never gave the promise of other world,it never gave the promise of reach ends it gave the promise of getting out 0f pain, sorrow, suffer. He is asking conventional aid not from the god but from an enlightened human being.If the sail is in right soul the sailing become easier but if the sail is tattered and torn obviously the journey will become difficult. So the journey from Darkness to lightness is not an easy journey. This journey from suffeing and misery to a state from suffering ajd misery is not easy. So if the suffering is there in the life of the man(Dalit)is found in the eyes of the Buddha .Buddhism always focus on empathy not sympathy.In empathy all sorrow are same. So the dalit man is seeing hia sorrow in the eyes of Tathagata.That sorrow is seen in the eyes of Tathagata. Inspite of all these things the primordial man does not want to denounce life he wants to accept life as it is. Here is the Heroism. Though the life is very difficult it is full of suffering and misery still he does not want to reject or denounce that life. I love this sea t, it is my life, i love the sea but i want to come out from the pain and suffering from my life. He wants to transcend life not by renouncing life. Statue of Buddha has many postures which have different meaning , one posture is yogic posture. Dhyani Buddha. It seems to be an eskism which is denounce by the primordial man." I don't want to pray you, do not offer flowers to you,do not want you to see in yogic postures either like orthodox Buddhism. Explaination by Wasim Elahi,MA English, Kazi Nazrul University, Asansol
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