Pious Prayers

Pious Prayers

Aren’t these pious prayers?

Aren’t they earnest enough?

The little sparrow

Had to crawl underneath the car

For a lick of freshly made cool water

Below the a/c compressor or evaporator

Yesterday early morning

The thirsty crow was

Tapping the skylight convex domes

For cool condensed mist drops

In desperation the neighborhood crows

Are nibbling the Staghorn sumac cone

Fruit drupes even in the summer -

Normally reserved for the hard winters

Months ahead

The stream, near the cataract too has dried up

Hardly there is a trickle

You see flow only after persistent drizzle

Now you see no current

I miss the music of our

Backyard falls, its meditative murmurings

A soothing conversation in the night

My great grand father would

Have performed yagnas – on command he could 

Call the benevolent Indra – prajnanya

My maternal grand father too 

Was a simple, self effacing reader of the

Vedas – that perennial fountain of dharma

No, not the misinterpreted phrase “dhamma/damma”

Found in modern dictionaries or eastern religious treatises 

Outlined in a foreign European tongue - English

Dharma as instructed in the three Vedas

The original mode of human conduct

- It is meant to uplift one and all souls

And gently guide them towards

Real enlightenment and happiness

Now, with a few Sanskrit phrases

I can utter, say a bit haltingly

Prayers to the thirty three crores gods

For a simple cool summer shower

I need them for my garden flowers, lawn, sacred Tulasi,

And the okras

The local farmers too need them

For the sweet corn and vegetables

The deer, birds, and playful squirrels

And rabbits too need them

A respite from the hot dry wind

Won’t you bless us with

A silky carpet of jasmines and dianthus

Govinda?

Your name itself is – Narayana

You seem to float on

A veritable ocean of fresh water (Copyright 2021 by the author)