Death
Mother Earth searched for those primed to learn
Until she spotted Ruru and Priyumvada.
In his great trial to rescue Priyumvada from death,
Ruru showed Mother Earth that he had not yet accepted
the impermanence within life's continuity.
So when Ruru and Priyumvada had a child,
Mother Earth incarnated as that child.
Sun was her name.
In a town, they raised her.
Her kind smile and beaming soul
Drew in everyone, including her parents.
They fell in love with this child of the earth.
Their love is beautiful and deep, but they are attached.
A broken smile cracked Ruru's face each time
He looked upon his perfect child.
She brought lilies to her father's lips
and softened her mother's eyes.
But am I free?
So Sun grew into a woman.
Stars flew from her heels as she walked
And the townspeople stooped to catch them,
Hungry for her light.
Suitors sought her company and her approval.
Steely men would crumble in her hands.
Sun's golden song echoed through the hearts
of the townspeople when they gathered,
So Mother Earth wrote a song for Sun to sing
"Death gives birth to transformation
and broken hearts
Mend in the tenderness of
The present moment."
Her rejuvenating notes brushed away the town's worries
and harmonized with their joy.
Her deep, blue eyes enveloped their audience,
who swam with all their might to explore her depths and
understand this beautiful creature before them.
They try to hold onto my oceans but the water
slips through their fingers.
So Mother Earth threw Sun's body from a cliff.
And for a moment the whole world stood still,
Waves turned to glass and silence crushed
Mountains into pebbles, which fell at the feet of the
Townspeople.
Their girl had abandoned them
On the stage they had made for her.
Ruru and Priyumvada lifted the dead weight of their sorrow,
breaking under its crushing waves.
Their tears give me hope, for their empathy will be their savior.
Over time, Priyumvada's deep red pain softened into
gratitude for cold evenings spent under Sun's warm glow;
Priyumvada's gaze sought out Ruru, imploring him to heal with her.
Priyumvada recognized sun all around and saw
the same stars falling from Ruru's heels that kicked up in
Sun's wake.
Ruru could not save another from the afterlife
only to keep losing loved ones,
so he stood with toes clutching to the edge of the cliff
Threatening to break under their own tension
And release him into the canyon below
To bring him closer to the Sun, to death.
Then, he heard her.
Sun's golden voice echoed through his soul, deep into his chest
And brought back lilies to his lips.
"She's alive," said the lilies.
Soft fingers caught at his feebleness,
Gripping and begging.
Before him stood both
Wife and daughter, young and old, pale and warm
But it was only Priyumvada who stood before him and reassured,
"Death gives birth to transformation
and broken hearts
Mend in the tenderness of
The present moment."
From Ruru's own mouth came Sun's voice
So he edged away from the cliff to keep her safe.
With the whisper of a broken smile,
Ruru understood that Sun's rays continued to shine
From every person she had touched
Even in her absence,
so the town chose to memory their way to freedom
and sang,
"Death gives birth to transformation
and broken hearts
Mend in the tenderness of
The present moment."
Her song broke death into a million pieces of joy
Because in death, Sun lived on.
"Brought lilies to her father's lips" by Jessica Shepard
"Tenderness of the Present Moment" by Jessica Shepard
"Memory his way to Freedom" by Jessica Shepard
Author's Note: This writing is based on Love and Death by Sri Aurobindo. In his poem, Ruru's true love, Priyumvada, dies due to a snake bite. He bargains with death to bring her back from the afterlife in exchange for half his life. Aurobindo's language was so heartbreaking that I decided to make my first story about dealing with loss. Ruru was so attached to Priyumvada he could not let her go, so I carried that same theme throughout this story and had Mother Earth (represented by the italics) address the issue of attachment. I was also very inspired by Aurobindo's poetic language. Ruru had such a deep love for Priyumvada in Aurobindo's poem, so I tried to recreate that in his relationship with his daughter, Earth. Instead of his love being so strong he would sacrifice every thing, the strength of his love allowed him to see the essence of his daughter living on after she died. Mother Earth's mission was to decrease suffering but there is no understanding without suffering. When teaching a man to fish, he must struggle before he has a lifetime of suppers.
Second Story: Birth
Bibliography:
Aurobindo, Sri. “Love and Death.” at sacred-texts.com