gulab khandelwal selected poems

ETERNAL PARTING

We have left him on the bank of the river,
Where the red ball of the sun rises
Tearing the curtain of darkness.
We bathed him in milk,
Put a saffron mark on his fair forehead
And then slowly laid him
In the lap of the earth.
He appeared to smile.
His lips quivered, _
As if to say something.
But he did not speak.
Having closed,
He never opened his eyes again.
We bid him good-bye,
Collected in our memory
Whatever was said or not said
And quietly returned, turning our head,
We have left him on the bank of the river
From where no one ever returns.

Time has stopped for him.
The air has become too thick for his breathing.
His heart now beats in my heart,
Only the distance between us is a little bit less.
He is nowhere now.
Or we can say,
He is everywhere now.

It is his consciousness
That is shining in the air, water and the earth.
His brightness is visible in the fire,
His voice is ringing in the sky.
His grace has spread everywhere unknowingly.
His love surrounds me on all sides.
The body was like a prison
Which had circumvented his personality,
As soon as it disappeared,
He became limitless,
Emerged as a prince of infinite glory.

Farewell !
O companion of my soul !
Co-traveller of my life !
Comrade of my heart !
We will never meet again.
The knot
That we had jointly tied
In the endless rope of time,
Has been untied.
Now our hearts will not beat together.
Rainy season, winter, summer,
All will come,
But I will feel them alone.
I will live and die alone now.
We will never meet again.
O eternal friend!
Farewell.
Surrounded by unfamiliar and unknown crowds,
Standing on the shores of the ocean of the world,
I am offering my oblations to you.
O traveller of infinity!
Farewell!