Surya Streaks Across the Azure Sky

Surya sailing in an azure sky,

Indra’s net a glistening canopy,

Saraswati rides under Indra’s bow

Seven colours swathe the goddess

In their heavenly glow

The ancient river gone from view

Her course now mapped by satellite

Proving that the ancient lore was true

Born of the Himalaya, the abode of snow

She sacrificed herself to the Yamuna’s might

Lord of the Sun stalks in Tiger’s form

Soft footfalls pad past the innocent

In his amber eyes frozen for all Time

That which is caught in his gaze

Light and shade formed by Surya’s rays

Strength and stripes a golden glow

Indra now in giant cat’s disguise

Transforms the landscape

Before our very eyes

The world each day in his power lies

Ravi calls at dawn to Mother Ganga

City of light his eternal treasure

Indra’s bow shoots the golden orb

Across the awestruck indigo sky

Holiest of cities Varanasi sees his flight

Protector and life giver is Surya

As he drowns each night in the Ganges

Do Tigers walk on water, do they ever lie

Their penetrating gaze distilled sunlight

Legend frozen now forever in Indra’s eye

Thus it is that Mother India’s image

Make a collage of the patterned Earth

Jewels garnered from the net of Indra

A pantheon more diverse one cannot envisage

Surya gives each riches of unimagined worth

Few I know can hold the river, quickly stem her flow

Had Saraswati been caught in the Tiger’s eye

Her pure waters would have seemed to crystalize

And the goddess more solid than the rainbow

Surya would have gifted this to those of us on Gaia.