in the depths of my being, She dances me to her call:
“come to me. I want all of you, my child. no part of you is too dark, too gritty, too cruel for me. I claim all of you.”
Māiyā! your waves carry your call and roll it against my chest. i seek you with my breath, eyes, hands, and knees. my lungs seek you like they seek air.
Ya Devī! soothing her tears,
Kṛṣṇa told Pāñcālī
that just as you, Śrī Gaṅgā, hold and wash all pollutions yet are ever-pristine,
so does the fallen empress remain untainted by her shame.
aches bathed in your luster,
i plead:
take all of me, Devī.
leave nothing of me behind.
establish me in knowing
that despite my wrongs, fears and corruptions, i, too,
your fragment in the microcosm,
remain unmarred.
may the holy flow of your untamed waters
sweeten the harshness i bear towards myself and the world
soften the rigid corners straining my being
loosen the knots hindering you from coursing within me.
Śrī Mātre Namaḥ. 🙏

photos: before & after bathing in the waters of Śrī Gaṅgā in the auspicious Gangotri. Śabda Yātra. 🙏 the blessing of blessings. 💙