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Another Day
Seeking
The Sage's Song
Dangling Ascetic
World in a Rock
Nanny's Tale
Punya & Pavana
Darkness Flees
Kali is Dancing
Brahman Blues
Rest Here
Rama's Song
All is Brahman
Glossary
Translations

Kali is Dancing

It was the end of all, I supposed

From all directions ten suns arose

Another sun came from the bowels of the earth

A twelfth sun made the earth its hearth

 

I looked around in a daze

The firmament was ablaze

Living beings were quickly torched

Even aquatic creatures were scorched

 

Chorus:

Kali is dancing

She is huge and dark and thin

She wears the heads of gods and demons

Her arms fill the directions

Kali is dancing

She wears a necklace of stars strung on air

Her breasts are filled with the milk of the Vedas

And on her body the universe is mirrored

 

The eyes of Rudra were searing fire

The sound bhum bhum bhum was everywhere

Mountains fell on the cities burning

With the dance of Kali all was turning

 

Throwing streams of fire at one another

Demonnesses played at the cosmic pyre

With colossal destruction they toyed

Only space could not be destroyed

 

Chorus

  

By fire earth and heaven were linked

The Himalayas melted and Sumeru sank

Water met the still burning fire

Neither one could conquer the other

 

An enormous cloud then arose

Like an irate demon making a terrible noise

Raindrops  fell with such incredible force

They destroyed the last of the universe

 

Chorus

 

There was utter darkness everywhere

Disintegrating objects wafted here and there

Then there was no space, no direction

All was but one limitless ocean

 

All that remained with the veil of creation gone

Was the fullness that was there all along

All that had appeared to exist was dissolved

All that remained was the formless eternal

 

Chorus 

 

Copyright © Mary Scott 2005-2008

Desert Light Studio, Arivaca, Arizona