Hey Ram | Sukumaran C.V.

When He was summoned to live in the new abode,

Lord Ram felt being out of place;

He felt He is an odd one out among gods.

The gods in India have age-old homes,

Which provide antique ambience

In which they dwell comfortably.

The new temple into which the Lord

Was summoned to dwell makes Him

Giddy as He is made anachronic.

 

He feels loneliness in the modern abode,

And talks Himself as follows:

"There was a man who used to chant

Hey Ram; he chanted Hey Ram

Even when he was shot to death.

He was a great devotee of me; yet

To attain his goals he invoked me not.

And he never tried to shrink me

Into idols and temples; hence

I liked him very much.

I am bored to live alone jailed in

This place which was built

Spending crores and crores,

While millions and millions of

People are living in abject poverty.

The fakir who loved me tried to

Eradicate poverty, hatred & conflict.

He neither made me the means

To the echelons of power nor

The half-naked man did seek power.

That is real devotion, I presume.

Often, I feel to run away from this

Expensive abode to the forests,

Where I roamed while in vanvas.

But the forests I roamed

Around in the years of vanvas

With Lakshman my brother,

And Sita my wife are nowhere

To be seen today!

I wonder why not my devotees who

Summoned me to live here take care

To preserve the forests in order not

To make me feel out of place.

Don’t they know that I come from

The pristine environment of

Tretayuga, where nobody used to Destroy forests, rivers & wetlands?

Did they summon me here

To feel painfully nostalgic?

Oh! my ardent devotees, why did

You drag me from Tretayuga,

Where I was comfortable, to

Kaliyuga, where I don’t belong to?

Will you please let me go to

The past where I belong to?

Will you please leave me alone?

Even in Tretayuga, I was not a

Good ruler, as those who created

Me as the protagonist of Ramayana

Compelled me to kill Shambuka

For no crime other than he

Belonged to the lower-caste.

Then how can I be a role-model

In the democratic age where

No caste privilege does exist?

I beg you not to insult democracy

By dragging me from Tretayuga.

I, who killed innocent Shambuka

To please the privileged caste,

Deserve not to be venerated

In a democracy; and hence

Oh, my devotees, I urge you

To be true democrats and

Not to make India a Ram Rajya."

 

Tears started rolling down the

Cheeks of the Lord, but his ardent

Devotees don’t have the eyes

To see the tears; they only see

His bow and arrow;

They only think about his

War against the demon king;

(Who was actually not a demon).

They chant Hey Ram as if it is

Their war cry; but Lord Ram

Wants to hear no more war cries;

He longs to hear Hey Ram,

As chanted by the Mahatma.

—Sukumaran C.V.