Parabels of Mahavir

Author(s): Harindranath Chattopadhyaya
Publisher: Shri Kiran Publishers

Page 77

[ 64 ]
An inward staircase to the zenith-point, A challenge to all sense of space and time.... I feel myself all ancestors conjoint In one last fire-embrace; I burn, I glow !Forgive me, noble brother ! Let me go. (the curtain rises revealing Nandi Vardhan and Mahavir)
NANDI VARDHAN Nay, do not go ! these eyes of ours are wet With tears as fresh as rain but lately poured From clouds of grief; the wounds are bleeding
yet, Wide-open, all unstemmed, as though a
sword Had gashed our hearts that hardly can
forget The absence of dear parents we adored, Worshipped and loved a lifetime. Do not go, Nay, do not go until another year Goes by-and, may that year be very slow In going. Do your hear ?
MAHAVIR
Indeed! I hear And promise to fulfil your wish. I'll stay Until another year has ebbed away!
( the stage grows dark- the Voice of the commentator is heard )
COMMENTATOR 'The seasons follow fast; the spring arrives With birds and bowers and flowers, with bees
and hives;
bal