My Guru is no more

My Guru is no more

 

Shocks two

within days, a few

when I had to bid adieu

to my well-wishers true,

shook me to mentally rebel

with its cruel traumatic spell

Lost I my loving mother

mymost precious treasure

and then my mentor

my guru and my master.

With agonies weighing a mountain

failed, I also in my duty bounden.

as with pandemic at height high

own safety made me to only sigh

not being able to flame the pyres

with my gratitude and prayers.

Thus duty and desire left undone

me, in life will never pardon.

 

To three Gurus in life, I owe

indebtedness to make me grow

gratitude to endure and sustain

and human ethics I could retain.

Two as my father and mother

bow them I at my heart's altar

All they had, they strained

to go beyond what was ordained

to equip their eldest offspring

to fly, the strength in the wing.

 

Maybe, for deeds pious

done in my life previous

blessed me the Lord

a boon as a reward

a guru and the mentor

of Surendra sir’s stature

who holding my finger

taught me the first letter

and roused in me an urge

all dirt within me to purge

and the points awesome

to inch onward in the realm

of the boundless wisdom.

His grace on our first meet

kept all students glued to the seat

in the disturbing period, pre-lunch

by his thrilling rhetoric to munch.

and captivated one and all

a real guru’s awakening call.

tussled we students one another

to get his special benign favor.

Stood I out with a few in the race

continued life long to avail his grace.

What little in life I could contribute

to adorable Surendra sir I attribute.

Sir! with me your presence virtual

stops me from doing deeds immoral.

 

In childhood his struggle

on hot sand barefoot travel

practicing math on sand

among top ten he could stand

a rare distinction all bests covet.

to a fat salaried rosy life the ticket.

but fighting hard to study higher

he finally chose to be a teacher

the god-gifted profession for him

his deeds in profession, was his hymn.

At very early age lost he his father

and within years lost his brother

with mother and sister

without a bread earner

the burden of his education

could not waver his devotion

to toil to learn and excel

a practical example to dwell.

As a teacher

he is seen never

to raise his cane in any form

for erring students to perform.

Suave, sweet and stirring

his words continue to sing

to unethical deeds never to succumb

and to ever illumine the way to wisdom.

 

Sir in mortal frame you are no more

but your students ten thousand over

at their heart for you as Guru, they mourn

with love to you no less than their dad and mom

and pray they the supreme lord

peace to their mentor adored

who justly lived and showed them light

to tread on the path just and right.

 

Sir for me

as scriptures see

you are Brahma, the creator,

you are Vishnu, the sustainer,

you are Maheswar the dissolver,

to all of them you are still superior

thus my reverence to you

flow from my soul true..

But at my mortal heart as always you, I adore

you are still with me being no more.

 

 

P K Routray

in the service of Lord

 

Surendra Nath mohapatra is my teacher. He started his career as a teacher from Angul high school wef 1963 when I was a student and was a brilliant teacher being himself a brilliant student and shaped my career. I revered him throughout my life. He expired on 7 th June 2021 born in June 1933 after a long illness. It is a tribute in his honor,)