Theme by Kota Neelima

First Cause

By Kota Neelima
Tree

kim nv asti sarvasya jagad bhedasyaika, karanam yad ekasmin vijnate sarvam, vijnatam bhavati

– Adi Shankaracharya, July 2012, New Delhi

(Is there one cause of all the varieties in the world, which cause being known, all will be well known? )


It stayed back as effect In canopies of hope Over a world of chance, The first cause till the last.

What will change if that cause is known? What will we become then? Will the cause remain uncaused? Will the world remain its effect?

It must have rained before it rained here, It must have burnt before these ashes, It must have bled before it flowed here, The cause of all causes.

It is part of the reborn, One part sadness, one part joy, One part good, one part evil, Briefly together till all parts die.

The cause equalizes all, One part belief, one part lie, One part god, one part man, Briefly together till all parts die.

Substance of this cause is known, It is the substance of its effects, Their success, their suffering, Their perfection, their defects.

That which moved the unmoved That which caused the first cause, Only to make forms, give names? Only to break and form again?

Maybe this is the first karma, Of the Absolute, the Light, First fate, first cut, first part Of the last light, the Night.