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