VIKRAM AND VETAL

When Vik- Ram

Went for the vetal*

He always knew that what he had killed

Cannot be kept

And what was lost in him with it

Could not be replenished

Because he had killed a prophet

And wanted to somehow

Recapture the holy spirit

Which he had lost in that act

When his body was emptied out

And became soulless.

But the people he had killed

Did not yield good results

Though he tried to have sex with them

After killing them,

And sometimes ate the bodies

As Aghori’s do

Or as the lion had done when

Pharaoh threw the prophet Ra

Into its cage

But the prophets soul had entered the lion

And asked him

Et tu Sphynx?

And Narasimha seem to have no knowledge of it

And still wanted to try it

With the two Hiren’s

And wherever he could do

Though the spirit still evaded him.

But the betal (vettilai) leaf that one chew

Did not yield to his need

And the chuna (courage) could not outdo

The valour of penniless souls

Set so deeply in God and not in gold!.

* betal or vettilai in malayalam can variously be interpreted as vetri illai- No fighting/ will obey henceforth; beat all - to be in conlict with all around you; to be from the vetal or the soulless body. Could mean that the Gurudakshina was a ritual to institute these troubles in somebody.